Harnessing Social Media November 18, 2011

1. Harnessing Social Media November 18, 2011

2. Agenda • Why Social Media? • Using Social Media • Twitter • Facebook • LinkedIn • Using Social Media for Advocacy

3. Why social media?

4. What Can Social Media Do For You? • Build influence. Social media channels provide vehicles for sharing thoughts, opinions and unique points of view while establishing authority over particular topics or issues. • Facilitate connection. Create direct access and engagement with your constituents, partners and legislative targets. If they know you, feel a connection with you, and view you as a trusted resource, they will be inclined to work with or vote for you. • Shape opinion. Be the one to drive conversation on important issues. Social media conversations inform, educate and serve as tools from which people form their perspective on particular topics, so ensure your position is represented. • Broaden presence. Social media is often a first resource people turn to for information. Be where your constituents are looking. Social media allows you to be tied to industry keywords and found as a result of organic search.

5. Congress is doing it 3%Of emails to Congressionalstaffersare opened 60% Of staffers prefer to use online resources when preparing a member to vote 90%Of Congressional staffers areactive online 65% Access social networking sites • 74% • Feel Facebook is somewhat or very important in disseminating their members’ views to constituents • 64% • Consider Facebook to be a somewhat or • very important tool for understanding constituents’ • views and opinions • 72% • Of congressional staffers believe social media is directly responsible for helping their bosses reach constituents they had never communicated with before 5

6. Your Constituents Are Doing ItAnd, they’re getting their news there, too

7. Using Social Media

8. It’s where the conversations are happening in real time.Join the discussion.

9. Twitter Engagement Should Be Compelling Share yourself. Inject humanity and personalityinto your tweets. Take a position. Use the news. Provide commentary, thoughts and insight. Include links to articles. Bring something new. Share a unique perspective or start a conversation. Ask questions. Invite people totell you what they think. Start a good-natured argument. Challenge popular opinion or individual tweeters.

10. Tune into Twitter for news as it breaks Some Twitter Tips And Tricks • Tweet at reporters to build source relationships Add punctuation before @handle if beginning the tweet with a handle Tweet links to articles; include your thoughts and commentary • Going to an event or conference? Check for a hashtag before you go • Keep tweets shorter than the 140 characters to promote retweets

11. Find other influencers involved in the conversation to follow or engage with Get Involved in the Conversations • A hashtag allows all tweets around the particular topic to be grouped together • Follow a hashtag to see what’s being said by anyone talking about the issue. Create a hashtag for important conversations. • Use the hashtag in your own tweets to be a part of the discussion

12. 10 Things to Know About the Hashtag

13. Generating Followers Reply. Go public in a way that develops a dialogue and attracts other people’s attention. Take advantage of conversation chains. Use hashtags to join topic threads. Cite. Be sure to use shortlinks and include a reporter or blogger’s Twitter handle. Retweet. Add your own insight or reaction to Tweets from those you admire, agree with or oppose. Provide reciprocity. Follow people.

14. Systematically Building Your Twitter Following We recommend gradually building the list of individuals that you follow in order to avoid over-promotion and uncontrolled growth Phase I Phase II Phase III Phase IV Industry Influencers Reputable Sources of Industry Information Tier II & III Industry Advocates Personal Connections and Established Relationships

15. Finding People To Follow Third party applications like Follower Wonk and WeFollow exceed Twitter’s current capabilities and enable you to search through the bios of individuals for suitable people to follow. http://wefollow.com/ http://followerwonk.com/

16. The newest members of the list. Peers or other influencers to follow and with whom to engage • Following a list allows you to automatically follow all members of the list Lists • An aggregation of what members of the list are saying • Other lists curated by this list’s curator. Likely also relevant to follow

17. Getting Listed • Get on the list: • Follow the list for reciprocity • Find a list: • Who curates the list? • Search for someone with similar characteristics • See where he/she is listed • Tweet @ the curator • Mention the list in the tweet to promote goodwill, as it will raise exposure for the list with your followers

18. Managing Tweets With Twitter Clients

19. Try This: Tweetdeck A desktop application for Mac and Windows that makes sorting Twitter content easy. • Dashboard of @replies, direct messages, searches for keywords or hashtags, and users • View multiple accounts • Schedule tweets • Post content directly to Twitter and Facebook • Access built-in URL shortener • Upload photos http://www.tweetdeck.com/

20. Measuring Your Effectiveness on Twitter Measure reach, influence and engagement of your tweets: Measure influence by topic: http://www.peerindex.com/ http://tweetreach.com/ • Shorten links and measure click-throughs Measure influence by topic: http://klout.com/home https://bitly.com/

21. It’s where people are gathering.Meet them there.

22. What To Do With A Facebook Page • Demonstrate influence by • highlighting a top photo op Point eyes to media placements Promote partnerships and memberships Post updates that will appear in followers’ news feeds

23. Engage In Spirited ConversationListen to constituents, generate important discussions Post a question on your wall to allow constituents to provide feedback Ask a question with the “Questions” button to create instant polls

24. Promote EventsDrive attendance at campaign happenings, town halls, fundraisers, etc.

25. It’s where people are networking.Mingle with them to promote yourself and your opinions.

26. LinkedIn: Some Key Facts • More than 120 million members • A new member joins approximately every second • Members cover key demographics • Fortune 500 executives • Local activists • Legislative staffers • Professional networkers who rank high in social network influence • Impact search results • LinkedIn profiles are often the first or among the first search engine result returned for people

27. Dissecting A LinkedIn Page

28. Dissecting A LinkedIn PageThe bottom half Connections Similar people

29. Using Your LinkedIn Page Post updates similar to Twitter posts. Include links to articles and websites with commentary. If linked with Twitter, choose to share there. Find other people you may know Keep up with what your network is doing

30. LinkedIn Groups • Close to 90,000 topical discussion groups • Members post questions, topics for group reaction • All members can post and engage with other members • Membership often moderated by group leaders • “Private” discussions within the group Find a group: Click here for more options Select “Groups” and start typing topic; dropdown will pull up some quick options

31. A LinkedIn Group Posts can reach 2700+ members

32. What LinkedIn Can Do For You Listen to what people are saying about issues that are important to them Get found in searches Research targets, including the connections you have to them Follow what key staffers are up to

33. Using Social Media for Advocacy

34. Communicating to Decision Makers Surround and engage directly to become a source of their information Legislators, Regulators, and other Washington Elite Your Advocate Toolkit Identify and understand targets’ social media footprints and engage them where they are. Create interesting dialogue, espouse positions, attract and engage legislative and regulatory staffers and other thought leaders in organic discussion on targets’ own turf.

35. Identify Targets Tools like TweetCongress can help identify federal legislative targets online http://tweetcongress.org/

36. Engage Decision-Makers Directly

37. Raise Awareness For An IssueGenerate support, combat misperceptions and opposition Tweet links to supportive statements made by third parties Comment on articles to engage directly with reporters and address claims made in the article Use Facebook polls to demonstrate support for your positions Respond to opposition statements

38. Questions? Kristin Brown Racepoint Group (202) 912-4906 kbrown@racepointgroup.com wwww.racepointgroup.com

39. Harnessing Social Media November 18, 2011