Author: Domen Božeglav, ARNES, <domen.bozeglav@arnes.si>
Review: Laura Durnford, TERENA, <durnford@terena.org>, Gitte Julin Kudsk, <gitte.kudsk@uni-c.dk>

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. It's not an overwhelming strategy but rather how to directions you can use instantly.

The structure of the document is divided into 7 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. Get the Management buy
5. Deployment
6. Start producing content and engage coworkers
7. 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

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 (e. g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube ...). If you want to maintain the focus and momentum we suggest you decide on Social Media applications you are going to adopt.

For now NRENs are present on (in the app, order of frequency):

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Youtube
• Google+
• Xing
• Blogspot
• Wikipedia
• Custom Social Media deployments and various blogs

For details an live examples check the NREN Social Media presence wiki page, where you can explore how NRENs have set their Social Media presence

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 use
• Social media Examiner: use cases of various Social Media application uses

3. Evaluate ROI and decide if it's worth the effort

If by now you still aren't sure what you'd like to achieve with Social Media channels it will be very hard to evaluate the ROI (Return on Investment). Try thinking at least in these areas:

• With publishing on Social Media channels you will reach broader audience.
• You will be able to reach people that usually don't monitor your web page for news feeds.
• News editors and some decision makers are very active on Social Media. It's much easier to reach them now (Twitter)
• You can get instant feedbacks on things you publish
• People are able to react on your publishment
• Social Media is a great place to launch less formal news
• Consistent Social Media presence can bring you higher brand awareness

Social Media requires constant involvement so don't underestimate the work you will have to invest to start Social media and keep it going. Here are a few hints from our own experience

• 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 feature are available
• Content publishing on the Social Media is trivial but you will have to "tune in" the news a bit to get better results. Avoid the use of RSS refeeds on Social Media at all costs
• You'll have to take time to monitor what's going on and potentially answer addition questions from users, though tools that make that easier for you are freely available on the Internet (e. g. netwibes)
• 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 ...

So now, do the math. Also think about hiring a professional to do it for you. There are more and more firms also aware of NGOs (Non-governmental organisations) specifics e. g. Helpful Technology that led TF-CPR Social Media workshop.

4. Make the final decision and get a management “buy in”.

With Social Media in place at some stage you will definitely need management support so now is the last time to get their consent for the project. Since the management is on your side now it's an excellent opportunity to push forward Company Social Media policy.

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:

Government expects civil servants to adhere to the Civil Service Code online as well as offline.

If you need a more elaborate Social Media policy Social media policy examples Wiki page offers you a few NREN and a lot of extensive corporate examples.

5. Start deploying your social media

When deploying various Social Media applications there are some general guidelines you can follow:

• Learn from others. Be active and see for yourself what's working and what's not. Check NREN Social Media presence Wiki page for ideas.
• You won't be able to monitor entire Social Media space. Plan deploying various tools like netwibes to save you time once your applications will be in production.
• Technology and applications are changing all the time. Instead of training employees for specific applications think it more general terms and give them "How to communicate on Social Media" like courses that will keep value even when you are migrating from e. g. Facebook to Pinterest.

Facebook

Facebook has the highest number of users so it's probably the best "usual suspect" to start with.

1. Create you NREN 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. Use new layout mode with cover photo. We are visual beings and also Social Media is a lot about visual things.
4. Create stilled welcome page.People will "like" your page half as much if they land on stilled welcome page first.
5. Publish as much photos as you can - people will most likely check them out and engage on them.
6. Use the new Timeline feature and create your NREN history a bit more fun.

Twitter

Twitter is often called Social Network for intellectuals, so it's quite likely you will be able to reach important journalists and decision makers there. You can set up your profile in minutes and in terms of customization adding a logo and a simple background picture resembling your common design should be no brainer:

1. Once you create your corporate profile do take time to customize it. It will make all the difference if someone lands on your profile.
2. Make sure you state who stands behind company Twitter profile - name the person(s), so users know who they are talking to.
3. Twitter users produce a lot of post so make sure you install the desktop or mobile tools. 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 would suggest Tweetdeck, and for Android "Tweetdeck" or "Twitter" application.
4. Don't forget to set automatic notifications for various events - for instance when somebody mentions you or reposts one of your tweets.

1. Start deploying your social media and engage
   1. General advices
      1. Breef your employs with Social Media guidelines
      2. Answer all question as soon as possible
      3. Make people feel their opinion matters
      4. If you have nothing to say, don’t say it
   2. Facebook
      1. Add as many photos as possible
      2. Like and be liked
      3. Create company events, invite people to events
      4. Photograph events and post photos from events on your profile
      5. Notify your friends about your page and hopefully they will like it (and others will follow them).
      6. Activate your work colleagues so they like and post on your profile and activate more users
      7. Don’t forget to use it for contests, events and new service launches
      8. Monitor insights and see what your public likes and activates on
      9. Advertise to friends of your followers
   3. Twitter
      1. can sonsume a lot of time,
      2. a lot of information nise
      3. Make sure everyone twitting for your company learn “twitter language”
      4. twitwall
      5. Build twitter in your every day workflow
      6. Start following journalists and people of the same interest
      7. Reply to twits of people you would like to follow
      8. Whenever possible try to twit breaking news
      9. Use twitter for the channel to VIPs

      10. 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
   10. Pinterest
2. Engage coworkers
   1. Notify of guidelines
   2. motivate
3. Measure success and 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.