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Tweeting: Not Just For The Birds

Tweeting: Not Just For The Birds. Social Media and Public Lands Recreation Travis Mason-Bushman, Alaska Region USDA Forest Service RLM/SCA. What is Social Media?. An emerging set of mass communications platforms distinguished by the following features: User-created content

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Tweeting: Not Just For The Birds

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  1. Tweeting:Not Just For The Birds Social Media and Public Lands Recreation Travis Mason-Bushman, Alaska Region USDA Forest Service RLM/SCA

  2. What is Social Media? • An emerging set of mass communications platforms distinguished by the following features: • User-created content • Inherently interactive • Symmetrical relationships • Simple, easy to use • Frequent content updates • Short, concise messages • Mobile-optimized

  3. Social media matters: the numbers Source: Google Analytics/Quantcast, Dec. 2010 (U.S.)

  4. Social Media Is Not Optional • 22 percent of all online time is spent on social media (Nielsen) • Facebook accounts for 25 percent of all U.S. Internet pageviews(comScore) • In today’s world, being engaged with social media is as critical as having a Web site or a phone number

  5. Help, I’m drowning in a sea of logos!

  6. So how do you choose? • Nobody uses every possible social media outlet • Pick the best platforms for specific needs • Reaching the most people with the least effort • Media-centric sites (video, photos, etc.) • Connect with diverse populations • Bottom line for us: follow the crowd • We’ll focus on three dominant platforms: • Facebook • YouTube • Twitter

  7. Getting The (Green) Pants Beat Off Us Or, how the National Park Service is drinking our milkshake when it comes to social media

  8. The NPS is leading the way • NPS has embraced multi-platform social media • Even small sites have major presences • Units authorized to use the following, and more • Facebook • YouTube • Vimeo • Resources, staff have been committed to development

  9. “We want to connect with you, and keep you connected with us.”

  10. @YosemiteNPS on Twitter – with 6,000+ followers Promoting science and research Announcing related local events Answering visitor questions Delivering safety and resource protection messages to the public

  11. Yosemite on Facebook

  12. Glacier National Park on YouTube – thousands are watching

  13. The bottom line • If the Forest Service doesn’t want to be left behind, social media policies and priorities need to start changing • Units need decentralized authority to create Facebook pages, develop and post YouTube videos, etc. • Staff should be empowered to connect on these platforms, share what they’re doing, reach out to build relationships with visitors and stakeholders

  14. Going social:Really not that scary. Honest. “If you really can’t trust your employees with social media, you have a hiring problem.” –Amber Naslund, VP Social Strategy, Radian6

  15. Social media: it ain’t rocket surgery • The most revolutionary part of social media is how really easy it is to use • Creating a Twitter account takes about 30 seconds • Updates should be regular, but need not be hyperactively-frequent. • Quality: Good enough, really is • People watching YouTube videos don’t expect technical brilliance or world-class special effects • The substance of content trumps its presentation

  16. One-way is the wrong way • Social media is just that – social • This means staff using social media must be encouraged to engage in community conversation • Invite discussion and feedback on issues • Respond to questions and comments from followers • Build a diverse, interested, active constituency • Trying to do social media without the “social” aspect is worse than useless – it breeds distrust/mockery along with slow or negative network growth

  17. OK, but is anyone listening? • Building an audience requires making people aware that you exist • Create a network by “following” related sites, agencies, organizations, local media outlets, partners, etc. • Establish links on unit Web sites • KEEP CONTENT FRESH

  18. Getting people to listen, continued • Include sharing options on Web pages to encourage social media users to spread your links around • Retweet relevant tweets from other sources • Participate in #FollowFriday • Include relevant @-links in tweets • Be patient! Like anything else, it takes time to build a following

  19. The Power of Search • We can learn about our sites by seeing who’s talking about them • Social search also helps find related people and organizations for network-building

  20. What people are saying, matters • It’s not breaking news that Mendenhall Glacier is awesome - but here we have direct visitor feedback • Everyone in @faythlevine’s network just heard about, and was linked to, a picture of the glacier

  21. A Grand Experiment

  22. The possibilities are endless • The use of social media platforms for natural resources interpretation and communication is an emerging field with few boundaries yet surveyed • Little to no detailed research has been done to determine best practices and quantify effectiveness, etc. (I hope to rectify that!) • So… don’t be afraid to try something new, because all of this is new, even for those of us who have been tweeting and Facebooking since the beginning

  23. Woodsy and Twitter: sharing an ecosystem Questions? Comments? Brickbats? Thanks to Jeff Miller and the Student Conservation Association for making it possible for me to be here.

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