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Fully Connected: Maximizing Your Use of the Latest Online Social Media Technology. Carla Pendergraft Associates Web Design www.carlapendergraft.com. What We’ll Cover. Characteristics of Social Media… statistics How to Listen – setting up alerts Intro to Facebook
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Fully Connected: Maximizing Your Use of the Latest Online Social Media Technology Carla Pendergraft Associates Web Design www.carlapendergraft.com
What We’ll Cover • Characteristics of Social Media… statistics • How to Listen – setting up alerts • Intro to Facebook • Intro to Twitter – Twelve Tips • We have a lot to cover, so I’ll move quickly.
Social Media Characteristics • It’s about conversations and communities • It requires a new way of thinking. • Push vs. Pull; Telling vs. Asking • Allows your audience to connect with you and with each other.
U.S. Social Media Communities Facebook – 200 million users, top 10 website MySpace – 110 million users LinkedIn – about 30 million users Twitter – about 7 million users YouTube – 70 million videos Flickr – hosts over 2 billion images Blogs – over 200 million And new social communities are added every day.
What do you get from it? Business measures being used are: • Greater awareness: 49% • Number of new ideas from the community: 41% • More referrals: 28% • Increased sales attributable to the community: 26%
Reasons to Use Social Media • Promote your festival or event – and the events that lead up to it • Make announcements about performers when they are signed—and other plans as they firm up • Ask for volunteers • Ask for opinions – who do they want to see perform? • Drive traffic to your main website • …And other reasons you haven’t even thought of yet, but you will—once you start using it.
You Can’t Do it All… • MySpace – bands, clubs, music, younger demographic. • Use MySpace if you are running a music festival. • Facebook – emerging as the leader. • Twitter – Microblog – up-and-coming tool. • Podcasts - rise of YouTube as host for videos • Blogging – Excellent way to update your audience • …and many, many other social media sites.
My Recommendations • Begin listening – we’ll give you good tools to do so • Start building your Facebook page • Start a Twitter feed • Don’t neglect your core website
How to Listen • Go to google.com/alerts and set up alerts to be sent to your email. Choose “Comprehensive” to monitor blogs, video, news, web, etc. (Requires gmail account) • For Twitter: Go to tweetbeep.com and set up an alert for terms such as the name of your festival or event. • Both are free services.
Facebook – Getting Started • Set up your own personal Facebook page. Facebook is based on real people. “Befriend” family, friends, business acquaintances. • Listen and learn Facebook’s communication style. • Study the Facebook pages of your competitors and others in your industry. • Then you are ready to set up your entity’s Facebook page. This is separate from your personal Facebook page.
Facebook Groups vs. Pages • “Facebook Groups” are for groups of people with some interest in common – biking, Star Trek, etc. • “Facebook Pages” are for businesses, including non-profits. • Pages are visible to everyone, even those who are not a member of Facebook • Pages allow you to view statistics on page usage (“Insights”) • Groups have members; Pages have fans. • Go to facebook.com/pages/create.php to get started.
Creating a Facebook Page • Go to facebook.com/pages/create.php • Some festivals choose Local – Other Business. • Others choose Brand, Product or Organization - Non-profit. This is my recommendation. • Just don’t put it under groups!
Florida Strawberry Festival • Over 1,400 “Fans” who receive the festival’s updates • Hours of the festival • Parking information – Costs – etc. • Links to Website, Twitter feed • Performers – stories • Parade winners • Contest winners with pictures and link to news article • 10 photo albums • YouTube videos – previews of the festival
Edinburgh Int'l Film Festival • Over 2,100 fans • “Thank yous” to supporters • Photos of parties, celebrities, awards banquet • Info on booking a hotel room • Film stills of films up for an award • Photos uploaded by fans who were present • Discussion board • Video • And so on…
Facebook's Main Tabs • Wall – mini press releases, announcements • Info – static information about your event. Overview, mission, etc. • Photos – multiple photo albums • Many other possible tabs; start with these 3 and build.
Oklahoma Mozart Music Festival Following 1,983 1,462 followers 106 updates
Twitter • search.twitter.com • listen to the conversations about your world • “Follow” other festivals to learn the lingo and style • Set up a twitter account for your festival or event • Choose an easy username related to the festival • Oklahoma Mozart Music Festival: okmozart
Twelve Twitter Tips • Decide what your voice and theme will be before you start. • Dialog with other Twitterers. You address another person on Twitter by using their username and the “@” sign. Example: “@carlapen”. • Post interesting articles you find, as well as your own. • “Retweet” interesting posts from others – use RT and the other poster’s Twitter ID. Example: • RT @carlapen: [original post goes here]
Twelve Twitter Tips (Continued) • It’s not a competition to get the highest number of followers. • Don’t tweet too much! Only tweet if you have something to say. • You don’t have to follow everyone who follows you. • Unfollow people who spam you.
Twelve Twitter Tips • Hashtags (#) are used to group posts into topics (example: #festival). Go to hashtags.org or wefollow.com to see the most popular hashtags. • List yourself at the Twitter directory at wefollow.com. • Use Tinyurl.com to shorten the URLs that you post. • Download a Tweetdeck (www.tweetdeck.com) to manage Twitter.
Other Social Media Tools • YouTube – upload some videos and display them on your website and/or Facebook page. • Flickr – Create a photo gallery of pictures from the various events you conduct. Put a link to the gallery from your website or FB page. • Blogs – Create one at Wordpress.com or Blogger.com and put a link to it on your website.