Introduction

The goal of Social Media Jumpstart pack is to help NRENs start their own Social Media presence or improve existing one. The document aims at PR (or other) coordinators setting up the NREN Social Media whereas some parts aimed at end users producing content - e. g. technical staff.

The structure of the document is divided into 6 logical steps which imitate the natural top to bottom deployment of NREN Social Media presence (some steps of deployment are further covered in detail on TERENA wiki space):

1. Why do you need it
2. Which Social Media are you talking about
3. Evaluet ROI
4. Policy and management buy in
5. Deployment
6. Measuring

The document was created by TF-CPR but all TERENA employees are kindly invited to contribute to the subsections of the document. It's also constant work in progress so expect updates as Social Media matures.

1. Answer the question “Why do your NREN need social media

The most common reason for expanding our PR efforts to Social Media is "because others are on social media too". In our opinion this argument is wrong and if you don't exactly know, what to do with social media, better don't bother putting efforts into it.

1. Write down what  you expect form social media
2. What’s your audience
3. How do you plan to talk to your audience (in comparison to other channel)
4. What do you consider as a success?

Before going any further, try to honestly answer this two questions:

1. Are you and your organisation ready to communicate on the new channels?
2. Who are going te be communicating and are they prepared to take enough time to do that?

If you can't answer above questions, feel free to explore the subject a bit further:

• How to Introduce Social Media to Your Business: when to and when not to expand your channels to Social Media
• Develop a Social Media Strategy in 7 Steps: how not to loose focus when deploying Social Media

2. Decide on which social media you are going to adapt and make a thorough plan

The Social Media space is changing as we speak - some applications cease to exist and some new emerge all the time. Though we are aware of some serious players that won't vanish through the night.

Try thinking into investing into non application specific knowledge.

(check NREN strategies examples on wiki)

Decide on which social media you are going to adapt and make a thorough plan.

1. Decide on which social media you are going to adapt and make a thorough plan. Start building your Social media strategy (check NREN strategies examples on wiki)
2. Compere what you will get with extra work it will bring and make a final decision (evaluate ROI). Don’t forget that you will have to be active on your social media.
3. Prepare a company Social media policy and get a management “buy in”. (check NREN policy examples on wiki)
4. Start deploying your social media and engage
   1. General advices
      1. Like it and be liked
      2. Use web RSS feeds to keep your Social media profile up to date
      3. Answer all question as soon as possible
      4. Make people feel their opinion matters
      5. If you have nothing to say, don’t say it
      6. Use various tools to monitor all your social media presences in one place (e. g. on netwibes)
   2. Facebook
      1. Create 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)
      2. Add company data, try to “talk to people” don’t just use facts
      3. Add as many photos as possible
      4. Create stilled welcome page
      5. Create company events, invite people to events
      6. Photograph events and post photos from events on your profile
      7. Notify your friends about your page and hopefully they will like it (and others will follow them).
      8. Activate your work colleagues so they like and post on your profile and activate more users
      9. Don’t forget to use it for contests, events and new service launches
      10. Monitor insights and see what your public likes and activates on
      11. Advertise to friends of your followers
   3. Twitter
      1. Make sure everyone twitting for your company learn “twitter language”
      2. Create company Twitter profile and customize it. Make sure you state who stands behind company Twitter profile - name the person(s).
      3. Build twitter in your every day workflow
      4. Start following journalists and people of the same interest
      5. Reply to twits of people you would like to follow
      6. Whenever possible try to twit breaking news
      7. Use twitter for the channel to VIPs
      8. Use Twittdeck to manage multiple profiles on one place

      9. Use Twittwall on conferences to engage users in conversations with presenters

   4. LinkedIn
      1. Create corporate page for the sake of brand awareness.
      2. Promote at least a few high end services
      3. Invest more time and effort if you are a regular seeker of employees
   5. Youtube
      1. Customize your channel
      2. Create playlists
      3. Use insights to understand your users
   6. Google+
      1. Not jet so popular but at least register your brand for future use.
   7. Wiki
      1. Make sure information about your NREN is up to date.
      2. Be aware of strict editorial policy and comply to it.
   8. Blogs
   9. Flikr
5. Measure successand report back to management
   1. Number of likes and followers.
   2. News dissemination through social media (if possible monitor your CMS for different entry points to your news articles).
   3. Use tools for accessing influence (e. g. klout, peerindex)
   4. With a help of reasonable effort  the Social media will grow all by itself, so It’s a great PR resource for you.