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Dakota Valley Recycling/ City of Burnsville Social Media Outreach. Leigh Behrens Recycling Assistant Dakota Valley Recycling (City of Eagan, Apple Valley & Burnsville) www.DakotaValleyRecycling.org November 18, 2010. Overview of A Social Media Campaign.
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Dakota Valley Recycling/City of Burnsville Social Media Outreach Leigh Behrens Recycling Assistant Dakota Valley Recycling (City of Eagan, Apple Valley & Burnsville) www.DakotaValleyRecycling.org November 18, 2010
Overview of A Social Media Campaign • Questions: asking the 5 Ws to target success • Who(is the target?): the residents & businesses we serve • What(is the message?): recycling/sustainability info • Where(is our audience?): using the internet • When(are we starting?): [set kick-off date here] • Why(use social media?): to disseminate information to sections of our audience we may be missing • Answering the Ws, then asking How: • How(do we implement this campaign?):
Current Social Media Campaign Twitter • www.twitter.com/DVRecycling • started in 12/2009 (nearly 1 year!) • Use HootSuite (www.hootsuite.com) to manage Facebook • Utilize the City of Burnsville fan page due to existing “fan” base • www.facebook.com/cityofburnsville • Added as administrator 1/2010 YouTube • www.youtube.com/DakValleyRecycling • Created account & uploaded 1st video 7/2010 Currently, there is no social media policy for Burnsville staff beyond our internet usage policy. However, this may change when our Comm. Dept finalizes its draft.
Social Media 101: A Conversation • Write 140 character messages called “tweets” • People subscribe to your message feed by subscribing or “following” • People can re-post your tweets, called “re-tweet” (RT) • People can respond to your tweets by mentioning you in their tweets, using an @ symbol (@DVRecycling) • An individual has a profile page, but an organization, product or public figures has a fan page • On your fan page, you can post status messages, photos, events, links and videos • If an individual is interested, they will “like” your page • Individuals that like your page will see your updates on their newsfeed • Upload videos to your YouTube channel • You see how many people viewed your video • Viewers can subscribe to your channel, which alerts them to new videos • Viewers can comment on your video, add it to their favorites, or respond with their own video
Successes • Social media outreach is seemingly most effective at connecting with local businesses • Businesses are one of our more challenging sections to reach, so this was a very positive discovery • We have integrated our “traditional” outreach (newsletters, phone hotline, website, etc) with social media outreach, which has increased access to our services • Posted our recycling events on Facebook • Have gotten @ questions via Twitter that we reply to • We have saved money on event publicity by using web and social media promotion instead of direct mailing
Challenges and Hindsight • Maintaining Twitter posting frequency • Hootsuite.com mitigated this problem to an extent • Connecting our social media efforts to our target audience: local residents using the internet • Promoting on the Burnsville Facebook page has helped, and we expect the new YouTube page to add to this as well • Apple Valley and Eagan do not have Facebook fan pages, which makes their residents harder to reach • Would have been better to plan a launch date for a coordinated social media outreach campaign • Initially should have had more click-backs to our website as a means of promoting our services in more detail • Should have set up analytics on our website to more efficiently track success of each social media technique Challenges Hindsight
Why should you use Social Media? • Social media gives our residents & businesses access to our services in a new way • The internet is becoming more Americans’ preferred means of obtaining information • 80% of U.S. adults (18+) use the internet regularly • 70% of those adults use social media • Coinciding with this trend is the fact that less Americans prefer newspapers and other “traditional” media for obtaining information • There is a conversation about your organization going on NOW
The problem with avoiding social media • Social media users want to have conversations about the products, services, agencies, businesses, organizations and people they care about • These conversations will happen regardless of whether you are present • When you are not involved in the conversation, you lose the opportunity to engage your audience • Popular example: • Coca-Cola Co. and Facebook • Another example:
How to Start: Two Steps • Listen • Find out what’s being said about your agency • Listen for 3-4 weeks to understand the conversation, information-sharing and ground rules in your market • Create and Engage • Start an account with the application you’ve determined will be most effective • Start creating content • Use Hootsuite to manage dissemination of content • Pay attention to what your audience wants and deliver it!