Preparing a social media analysis in 6 steps
Planning your overall approach to using social media can be critical to your success.
In this series of posts, SMC Webinar facilitator, Deltina Hay, will focus on social media planning, broken down into the following phases:
- Social Media Analysis
- Social Media Strategy
- Social Media Plan
A Social Media Analysis should define an organization’s online goals and target market, as well as the existing resources it has to apply to social media efforts.
A Social Media Strategy should include how an organization can improve social media optimization for its existing Website, as well as recommendations of other social media tools and how an organization can leverage them.
For each tool recommended in the social media strategy, the Social Media Plan should include an overall strategy for applying the tool specifically to an organization’s needs, and tactics for managing and optimizing the tool. The resulting plan should reflect the needs and resources outlined in the social media analysis and strategy.
Six Steps for Completing a Social Media Analysis:
1. Perform a SWOT analysis in addition to the items below. SEO Wizardry has a nice social media SWOT analysis example.
2. Define the organization’s target market:
- Here is a good article by Inc. Magazine on how to do define your target market. (they have some other good resources here, too):
- And another by Blog Case about marketing to your target audience
3. Define the organization’s online goals. What, specifically, does the organization want to accomplish with social media:
- Get the word out about their brand?
- Offer a platform for getting a specific message out?
- Target new customers?
- Sell more products?
4. Assess the resources available to the organization:
- Outline the resources the organization has on hand to facilitate social media efforts
- Estimate how many hours a day the organization can afford to expend on social media efforts based on this outline.
5. Analyze the organization’s existing Website:
- Is the organization’s existing Website social media optimized?
- Does it offer ways for visitors to interact, share, or collaborate?
6. Analyze the organization’s existing social media efforts:
- If the organization already has some social media accounts in place, are they optimized?
- Does it seem they are offering content relevant to their target market and goals?
Stay tuned for the next post in the series when we discuss how to prepare a Social Media Strategy.
If you find this post useful, and would like to further your knowledge of social media tools while enhancing your resume, consider taking the online version of Drury University’s graduate level social media certificate course, taught by Social Media Power founder Deltina Hay.
Video: YouTube Custom Player Workaround
Many of us have come to rely on YouTube’s custom player to place video galleries on our Websites.
Unfortunately, YouTube has discontinued its custom player.
SMC Webinar facilitator Deltina Hay demonstrates a simple workaround for this loss:
Use “Freemiums” to Engage Audience – Ed Peaco
The Drury University Graduate Certificate in Social Media Program is excited to feature content created by our past participants. We appreciate their contributions and will share more of their work in the coming weeks.
Ed Peaco, a June graduate of our program, has been busy posting to his blog as he embarks on a new career as a freelance writer and editor.
Ed worked as a professional journalist and educator for more than 30 years before delving into the world of social media. Last week, Ed and other members of the Drury Social Media Grads Group on LinkedIn tackled a post by Forbes contributor Adrienne Graham titled “No, You Can’t Pick My Brain. It Costs Too Much.” After that discussion, he agreed to creating a post for us about “freemiums.”
Please click the graphic below to visit Ed’s blog, read the post, and share your thoughts. We hope to feature more of Ed’s writing along with the work of other Drury Social Media Certificate graduates in the future.
@mentions and cc: Other ways to engage on Twitter
Think of @mentions and cc as ways of snagging attention on Twitter.
They serve the same purpose as a “carbon copy” on e-mails: You are want to make sure certain people are aware of the information/thought in the tweet, even if the message is not directly intended for them.
In some cases, the “cc” is redundant. For most users, @mentions — replies that appear anywhere else but the beginning of the tweet — already seize their attention. I’ve used them to connect with people while live-tweeting events.
It is a form of engagement, as most people usually want to figure out why someone has mentioned them directly in a tweet. And Twitter makes them easy to find, grouping @mentions with @replies under the @mentions tab in the Home view.
But “cc” has its uses.
Though it’s not needed here — the @mention would be enough to solicit a glance — the “Cc:” adds an air of formality, which can be important when including someone who doesn’t know you, especially if he or she is a celebrity.
I’ve also seen tweeters use this as a way to showcase connections between individuals and their organizational affiliations.
In this case, @christophhess manages social media for the Biovision Foundation (@FutureForAll), a Swiss group dedicated to promoting sustainability in Africa. This cc: draws group members’ attention to the link.
The most effective use of the “cc” abbreviation creates layered connections within a tweet.
Recently, Esquire Style (@ESQStyle) posted a comment about a Wall Street Journal article regarding velvet slippers.
The link actually goes to a post on Esquire‘s “The Style Blog,” which urges readers to shun the velvet-slipper trend. The “cc:” here is used as a way to layer in sources from the Wall Street Journal‘s original article (@rayalexsmith is a WSJ style writer, while @bordonez is a velvet-slipper aficionado profiled in the piece). The notation may draw the attention of @rayalexsmith and @bordonez, but it also points to them as deeper references for tweet readers.
As with any Twitter convention, these uses are mere guidelines. The Twitterverse has a way of spontaneously spawning new applications of conventions that go well beyond what their creators intended.
Facebook Edgerank: How autoposting may be hurting your rankings
Have you ever wondered why some of your Facebook posts make it to your fans’ news feeds and others do not?
Facebook prioritizes posts using a method they call “EdgeRank.” Similar to Google Pagerank, Facebook’s EdgeRank uses an algorithm that attempts to determine what Facebook users would most like to see in their news feeds. This, in turn, determines how likely your posts will show up in a fan’s feed.
There are three main elements to EdgeRank: Affinity, Weight, and Time as shown in the “formula” provided by Facebook below:
Where Affinity is based on how popular you are with a particular user, Weight is determined mostly by the type of post (video, photos, and links are weighted higher than status updates), and Time decay is simply based on the age of the post.
The Next Web provides a more detailed explanation of the Facebook Edgerank formula.
Though am a huge proponent of streamlining and integrating one’s Social Web presence as much as possible, this formula begs the question: Does auto-posting to your Facebook page hurt your chances of getting onto your fans’ news feeds – since more weight is placed on links than on status updates?
In other words, would you get more engagement from your imported blog posts if you manually posted them as links, than using a third party service or plugin to post them automatically as status updates?
Well, I am not the only one asking this question. Here is an illuminating article by WPMU about how their Facebook traffic increased as a result of discontinuing auto-posting.
This may be something to consider when putting together your next integration plan.
This post originally appeared as a Social Media Tip of the Day on Social Media Power, the blog of SMC Webinar facilitator, Deltina Hay.
Social Media Research & Publications – Submissions Welcome
Please review our listing of Social Media related research and publications on the research tab above and feel free to use the contact form below to submit bibliographic information for academic sources you’ve found useful.
Drury’s Social Media Boot Camp Begins June 4th #DrurySMC
The first weekend of Drury’s Graduate Certificate in Social Media Program kicks off with a boot camp. The session will begin at 9:00 Saturday June 4th in Lay Hall Room 310 on Drury’s Springfield campus.
Driving directions to Drury’s campus may be accessed here. Lay Hall is #22 on the downloadable .pdf map found here.
Participants may park on Benton Street or across Benton in Lot #6.
We’re looking forward to seeing everyone this weekend.
Drury’s Dr. Groves Presents at the ICA in Boston May 29th
Drury’s Dr. Jonathan Groves will present his paper, “The Roots of Journalistic Resistance: Blogs, Comments, and the Challenge to Verification in a Newspaper Newsroom,” on May 29th, 2011 in Boston at the International Communication Association conference.
The case study, based on five months of newsroom research, examines the issues traditional news organizations face when shifting to a Web-first outlet.
If you’re planning to attend the ICA conference make sure to stop by and say hello to Dr. Groves.
Update – Drury Social Media Certificate Summer Enrollment
As of May 17th the seated delivery of the Graduate Certificate in Social Media program starting June 4th on Drury’s campus in Springfield, MO is full. However, if you wish to be added to the stand-by list please fill out and submit the form below. If a seat opens due to cancellation, etc. we will refer to the stand-by list when considering applicants for the vacant seat.
The four week webinar version of the Graduate Certificate in Social Media program beginning July 5th remains open for enrollment with a few seats left. Please visit the Webinar Access tab to sign up or use the contact form below to request more information regarding the program.
We are looking forward to a very productive Summer!
Has the Blog Post Killed the Op-ed? Part 3 New Directions
Part 3 – Suggestions for newspapers and bloggers/submitters.
This post is the last in a series of three exploring the pros & cons of blog posts in comparison to newspaper op-ed submissions. In Part 1 I established that op-ed submissions are still desirable as newspapers, especially those with an online version, may greatly expand your audience while also increasing engagement. In Part 2 I offered tips for ensuring that your op-ed submission is selected for publication. Part 3 (below) provides suggestions for improving online newspaper editorial interfaces as well as tips for those who submit to them.
Parts 1 & 2 sang the praises of publishing op-eds in local newspapers as they are very effective at reaching a wide audience. However, many newspapers do not maintain an online version or if they do, they offer very little in the way of functionality as compared to even the simplest blogging platform.
Experienced bloggers may find it quite difficult to give up links, graphics, video, sharing buttons, etc. when turning their work over to a newspaper. Additionally, local papers may notice a decrease in citizen contributions as blogging sites gain popularity.
Suggestions for newspapers:
- Publish an online version of the paper.
- Accept op-ed submissions in HTML and use the links, graphics, etc. in the online version.
- Educate editorial staff in HTML, link checking, etc. and provide appropriate feedback to submitters with regard to publication criteria and timelines.
- Publish the link to the article’s online version or blog post with the text printed in the paper allowing readers to access the online article and follow links, etc.
- Ensure that sharing buttons/widgets are present so that online readers may easily share the article with their social networks.
Suggestions for submitters:
- Submit posts to a community journalism site. This could be a great way to increase audience size while also maintaining the integrity of the post (i.e. links, graphics, and video).
- Maintain a blog and post regularly.
- Post a link to the blog in the comments of op-eds published on the newspaper’s website.
- Join a local blogger association and become active with other experienced bloggers (link to other blogs as well as online op-eds to increase reach).
Internet Marketing Standards Board
