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The document is divided into 7 8 logical steps which imitate the natural top-to-bottom deployment of an NREN Social Media presence (some steps of deployment are covered in further detail on the TERENA wiki space):
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For details and live examples check the NREN Social Media presence'use cases' wiki page, where you can explore how NRENs have set their Social Media presence. It's best if you start with one Social Media application and once adopted move to others.
If you can't decide on which Social Media to adopt, additional hints can be found at:
- Market analysis of social network platforms and their developments: the list hasn't been updated for a while but it still serves as a reference or pointer to more up-to-date information
- Social networking sites and our lives: which Social Media we usePew Research Center's study on how people's trust, personal relationships, and civic and political involvement are connected to their use of social networking sites and other technologies.
- Social Media Examiner: use cases of various Social Media application uses
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- Deployment takes time. It can take from a single day to even a month or more if you want to exploit the full potential of applications (e.g. Facebook games, apps ...)
- Social Media constantly evolves so you will likely have to invest some more time as new features are available
- Content publishing on Social Media is trivial but you will have to "fine tune" your content to get better results. Avoid the use of RSS re-feeds on Social Media at all costs (WHY??).
- You'll have to take time to monitor what's going on and potentially answer additional questions from users, though tools that make that easier for you are freely available on the Internet (e.g. netvibes)
- Eventually you'll probably have to face "difficult users". Such appearances are rare but can take a lot of time and effort to solve.
- If possible have a person responsible for looking after Social Media in your team ...
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With Social Media in place at some stage you will definitely need management support, so now is the best time to get their consent for the project. Try to incorporate Social Media into company culture. Since the management is on your side now it's an excellent opportunity to push forward a Company Social Media policy.
Though some NGOs are often keen Check out for ideas or adapt exemplary TERENA coordinate NREN Social Media Guidelines-link (Laura). Though some NGOs are often keen on creating very long polices, we suggest you take the UK Govermnment Social Media guidance for civil servants as an example:
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But if you need a more elaborate Social Media policy, the Social Media policy examples Wiki page offers you a few NREN and a lot of corporate extensive examples, or check out Forresters "The CIO's Guide To Establishing A Social Media Policy". Guidelines on the Ethical Use of Social Media are also a good start for creating your own policy.
5. Start deploying your Social Media
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- Learn from others. Be active and see for yourself what's working and what's not. Check the NREN Social Media presence Wiki page for ideas.
- You won't be able to monitor the entire Social Media space. Plan deploying various tools such as netvibes to save you time once your applications are in production.
- Technology and applications are changing all the time. Instead of training employees for specific applications, think in more general terms and give them "How to communicate on Social Media" training that will still be of value even when you are migrating from e.g. Facebook to Pinterest.
- If you have very limited resources, you won't likely have a chance to be innovative with your Social Media usage. Learn from others if the knowledge is available - e.g. Do's and Don'ts of Social Media.
- Don't forget to include your NREN Security policy issues while deploying your Social Media. Check out a list of hints. and 5 Social Media security hints video.
Facebook has the highest number of users so it's probably the best "usual suspect" to start with.
- Create your company page profile (don’t use groups since they will be depreciated and don’t create a personal profile for your company since it’s against the FB rules).
- Add company data, try to “talk to people” don’t just use facts.
- Use the new layout mode with a cover photo. We are visual beings and also Social Media is a very visual medium. Check article on Visual elements of FB page, FB sizes and dimensions cheat sheet and offical FB dimensions guide to achieve perfect visualization of your profile.
- Publish as many Publish as many photos as you can - people will most likely check them out and engage through them.
- Use the new Timeline feature and create your NREN history.
- Notify your colleagues about the new page and hopefully they will like it (and others will follow them).
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- Once you create your corporate profile do take time to customise it. It will make all the difference if someone lands on your profile.
- Make sure you state who stands behind the company Twitter profile - name the person(s), so users know who they are talking to.
- Twitter users produce a lot of post so make sure you install the desktop or mobile toolsuse tools like Tweetdeck: https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/. They will help you navigate through the information noise and manage multiple accounts and hash-tags. There are many solutions though for Windows and iOS desktops - we suggest Tweetdeck, and for Android "Tweetdeck" or "Twitter" application.The most important feature with Tweetdeck you should use is "Teams" feature, where you can assign editorial or administrator roles to other twitter users without disclosing your account username and password. More info: https://blog.twitter.com/2015/introducing-tweetdeck-teams?utm_campaign=OT_PU_CON_TweetDeck_US_Teams&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua Make sure the future editor is logged into Twittdeck before he clicks (confirms) his role through email.
- Don't forget to set automatic notifications for various events - for instance when somebody mentions you or re-posts one of your tweets.
- Since tweeting is so dynamic, make sure you stay connected to emerging trends on Twitter: Twitip.sure you stay connected to emerging trends on Twitter: Twitip.
- Make sure to use the new profile options for images: http://mashable.com/2014/04/08/twitters-new-profiles-what-you-need-to-know/
LinkedIn could also be called the Facebook for professionals. Especially professionals from technical fields are present and try to "connect" on LinkedIn. A vast number of NREN employees are already present on LinkedIn though the activity rarely exceeds linking with others. A company LinkedIn profile is also good for raising brand awareness.
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- Understand what you are doing. All Social Media applications have their own rules and you have to understand them to use them effectively.
- Invite your work colleagues and technicians to participate in your Social Media channels. If necessary, provide internal or external Social Media training.
- Make it clear that everyone in the company should be aware of and follow your Social Media guidelines and policy.
- Identify Social Media enthusiasts inside your NREN and actively encourage them.and actively encourage them.
- Answer questions as soon as possible to maintain you credibility.
- Think about content in advance. Execute your plan with the help of Social Media Conversation Calendar.
- Time your posting for maximum impact. Check out The best and worst time to post info-graphicAnswer questions as soon as possible to maintain you credibility.
- Always make people feel that their opinion matters.
- And most important: If you have nothing to say, don’t say it!
- Use natural language, so you reduce the distance between you and users.
- Don't try to moderate Social Media. You should rather guide the debate, check out Guidelines on how to react to Social Media posts.
- Don't forget checking the trends all the time. You could be wasting your precious time on Social Media applications that are "so last year"!
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- Show people you appreciate their time. They will reward it.
- Facebook users love photos and stories. Add as many photos as possible.
- Create NREN events on Facebook and invite people to participate. That's certainly a new channel to reach them.
- Photograph events and post photos from events on your profile. It will bring the traffic to your site all by itself.
- When you launch a new service, use Facebook to share some extras with your users or give them some previews in advance - they will appreciate it. It's also a good way for getting frank feedback.
- Create contests if you would like to activate your users or gain new ones.
- Advertise to friends of your followers. It's very inexpensive and you can target specific users with little effort. Check out some further advices on advertising.
- Monitor what your users like and repeat it multiple times.
- Don't forget to understand how Facebook works. Information on Facebook is "active" for about 5-7 hours. Use "permalink" options for content with intended longer lifetime.
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Deploying and using Social Media is often quite rewarding since it's very easy to measure the impact of your efforts. Each Social Media application usually has it's own insights tool (check out the new Facebook insights features available from September 2013) which will show you when and how users react to your posts. These insights are very useful so make sure you check them frequently and even more important, act on them accordingly.
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- Provide your user support via Social Media (some NRENs already do that). Check out, how you can use a community to even reduce your user support efforts. .
- If you work with schools, check out European Schoolnet's SMILE - Social Media in Learning and Education handbook.
- Make tighter connections with your service leaders and help them make their own Social Media promotions by themselves.
- Contribute your findings to TF-CPR so we can make this Jumpstart Pack even more usable and keep it up to date.
- If you like to stay up to date, check these Social Media portals for what's new: