1. Social media: building
community engagement
@localitynews #Locality12

2. What I’m covering today?
• What is social media?
• Why is it important?
• How will it help my organisation?
• Setting goals
• Selecting the right social media platforms
• Creating great content
• Measuring success

3. What is social media?
The use of technology
combined with social
interaction to create or co-
create value
Essentially it’s about communicating
online – a two way conversation!

4. Social media – how many!

5. Why is it important?
21 million households in
UK– 80% have internet
access in 2012
The number of households with internet access has increased by 7.1 million
(23%) since 2006, Office for National Statistics (24 August 2012)

6. Accessing the Internet
• Tablet ownership has jumped from 2% to
11% in 12 months
• Two fifths of UK adults now own a
smartphone
Ofcom, Internet use and attitudes, 2012 metrics (July 2012)

7. Social networking use
62% of adults use
social networking
sites
Ofcom, Internet use and attitudes, Metrics Bulletin, July 2012

8. A social media world
• The London 2012 Games dubbed the first
'social Olympics‘
• 9.7m tweets about the event during the
Opening Ceremony
• 125 times more than the Beijing Opening
Ceremony

9. What the public want
To be listened to, to contribute – the
internet is democratic
Build
Listen
relationships
Share content

10. Demographics
• Highest increases in take-up of broadband = 16-24 +
65-74 year olds
• Increase most noticeable in use of mobile phones to go
online eg up 8% 25-44 year olds
• Across socio economic groups mobile phone use is up
and ‘Low income with children in the home’ up the
most at 12%
• Use of social networking sites – majority 16-24 year
olds, but 25-54 years of age not far behind
• Average age of Facebook user is 38
Ofcom – metrics 2012

11. How will it help my
organisation?
• More contacts, a network
• Get people talking
• Involve customers, listen to them, get
feedback

12. Getting started - setting goals
What are your
organisational and
communications goals –
how does social media
contribute to this?

13. Goals template
Goal Target audience Outcome Landing page
Current users of Local residents, Attendance Project/booking
services engaging young families frequency x 3 in page
more frequently the year
Attract Funders Increase earned Donations page
funding/new income by 20%
income
New users of the Local residents, by 5% in the year Introduction to
services older age group the organisation
Raise awareness All including press Eg 5 more press Press release,
of the brand mentions news

14. What to use?

15. Picking the right platforms
• What are your target audience using?
– short survey
• What are they interested in? – gain
insights
• Are there alternative ways to reach
them?
• How will social media enable you to meet
your ultimate campaign goals?

16. Facebook
• The world’s largest social network, over 1
billion users
• Over 50% visit Facebook daily
• Average age of Facebook user is 38
• What’s it good for: news and events,
campaigning, polls
• Reaching more people - if ‘like’ page then will
show up in news feed for friends to see
• Inviting comments and interaction

17. Holt Park Today

18. Locality competition

19. Facebook – using photos

20. Skittles – asking for recipes

21. Twitter
• Fastest growing social media network UK
• 1 billion new tweets posted every week
• Fastest growing age group UK 18-24
• 140 characters
• Timely – announcements, link to sites
• What’s it good for?
– Influencing, having conversations
– campaigning #saveourlibraries
– Back channel

22. Getting going on Twitter
• Start by retweeting others’ tweets
• Then use # to get more clicks on a subject
of interest or event eg #Locality12
• Mention prominent figures @ who may
retweet to wider audience
• Go from being a broadcaster to a
conversationalist
• Send direct messages

23. My Community Rights

24. #righttobid – 371 tweets

25. Big Green Bookshop

26. #wewillgather

27. What else to consider –
Linked In
• The world’s largest professional network
• More than 175 million members
• Pros and cons – eg events added
individual profiles not organisations
– Business to business
– Networking businesses – partnerships, funders
– Join a group – discussion
– Encourage colleagues to post on Linked In
– Recruitment – post an ad

28. YouTube
• 4 billion video views per day
• Second most popular search engine
• Access to new audiences (tag widely to
get picked up in searches)
• Owned by Google (affect SEO rankings)
• Average view time on YouTube is 2.5
seconds

29. Flickr
• For more serious photographers than
Facebook – 75 million users
• Good for SEO
• Photography competitions
• Share photos for comments
• Add to an existing Flickr pool eg assets
development

30. Google+
• Predicted that by end 2012 400 million
members on Google+
• Google controls search results, worth
registering for SEO
Others:
• Pinterest
• Instagram
• Four Square

31. Research and planning
• Optimum time for posts/tweets
• Ask questions, engaging
• Insights into audiences and how want to
interact eg photos, videos
• Think about where directing to eg
Justgiving 130% increase donations
through Facebook
• Get people to ‘like’/tweet who are
influential

32. Planning content
• Think about Search Engine Optimisation -
using keywords
• Can it be easily shared (facebook,
twitter, social bookmarking)?
• Use video – and send links to media for PR
• Social proof of ‘Like’s, retweets, a
recommendation

33. Blogging
• Importance of blogging – shift in how
public read news, trust public views
• Want opinion, honesty
• Blogs often on websites, linked to from
social media
• Brings PR, people share on
Facebook/Twitter
• Word press most popular

34. Blogging
• Campaigns – link to petitions
• Fundraising
• Engaging people locally around an issue
• Commenting and discussions

35. More on video
• Can film using phone, ipad, flip camera
• Editing on Youtube plus music
• Upload short films to YouTube - will
improve your ranking on search engines
• Remember people have a short attention
span online

36. Content and community
engagement
• Could content work as a series eg
regular updates
• Involve audience
– diary blog posts - taking part in a project
– create video, skills they learnt – ‘how to’
video
– encouraging sharing through own
networks
• Run competitions
• Try things out, engage and improve

37. What else?
• Apps
• Don’t forget social bookmarking – on
websites eg Stumble Upon
• Storify – bringing together activity on
different social media platforms
• Integrate platforms – if a blog on website,
also post on Facebook, Tweet, put on
Linked In

38. Implementing
• Plan ahead
Date Content Platform
Eg Project launch Photos Facebook
Blog (on web) Twitter
Video (on YouTube)

39. Measuring
• Measure stats against campaign goals
• Assess throughout the year – what’s
working what isn’t
• Look at comments and make improvements
• Storify – to monitor successes for reporting
• Stats on Facebook, google analytics traffic
social media, Tweetreach, Klout, Social
Mention

40. Measuring
Platform Metric Stat
Twitter Number of Twitter 200
followers
Influence using Klout 42
Number of mentions 30
Facebook Number of likes on 150
Facebook
Number of 15
posts/comments
Linked In Number of contacts 100

41. Troubleshooting
• Expectation to voice opinions – freedom
of internet
• 3 choices
– Reply
– Delete
– Ignore
• Delete if offensive eg swearing, racist etc

42. Have social media guidelines
• Encourage staff to engage on social
media
• Social media code of conduct should not
vary wildly from the normal standards of
behaviour you would expect
• Keep guidelines simple
• Encourage prefacing comments when
using own accounts to relate to the brand
• socialmediagovernance.com/policies

43. Summary
• Start by thinking about your audiences – which
social platforms
• What want to achieve – goals and how social
media can be part of that
• Select platforms accordingly, focus on ones
where outcomes and have resources
• Create interesting content – audiences can do
this for you
• Plan ahead and measure impact
• Encourage openness and involvement from staff

44. What’s next
• Find social media ambassadors amongst staff
• Set up accounts and follow others – learn from
the influential tweeters and bloggers
• Look for creative ideas inside and outside
community sector to engage audiences
• Get involved in conversations online reaching a
greater number of people and finding your key
stakeholders
• Make sure links to social media on website

45. Useful websites
• Podnosh - getting started
• Media Trust - Social media do’s and
don’ts
http://resources.mediatrust.org/guides/digit
• UK Online Centres – at convention
• Presentation on Slideshare

46. Contact
clare.roebuck@locality.org.uk
@localitynews – community news
@clareroe