april 2, 2009 - university libraryfichter/temp/2009cil/socialmedia/social... · april 2, 2009...

April 2, 2009

Social Media Optimization & Metrics: How Social Is

Your Website? – Jeff Wisniewski and Darlene Fichter 1

+

How Social is Your Web Site?

Getting Started with Social Media

Optimization and Metrics

+Darlene Fichter

University of Saskatchewan

[email protected]

www.twitter.com/fichter

www.facebook.com/people/Darlene-Fichter/122200386

Jeff Wisniewski

University of Pittsburgh

http://profile.to/jeffwisniewski/

[email protected]

+Game Plan

�Why be social?

�Social Media Optimization (SMO)

�Developing your Social Media Plan

�Measuring success

Photo by computerjoe

April 2, 2009



+Why Be Social?

� ‘cause everyone else is doing it and talking about it

at conferences and stuff…

� ‘cause kids think it’s cool

� ‘cause my boss told me to

� ‘cause my boss told me NOT to

+Why Be Social?

�Social media provides innovative ways for libraries

to connect with users we may never see face to face

�To encourage, promote, innovate, learn, adapt

�To discover and deliver what users want

�To improve customer service

�To “market” without marketing

Photo by Riot Jane

+Why Be Social?

�Your Google page rank is influenced by it

�People are anxious to interact with you online

85% of Americans using social media think companies

should have an active presence in the social media

environment. What's even more interesting is that those

users actually want the companies to interact with them

while there. http://www.coneinc.com/content1182

April 2, 2009



+

Over a third of respondents also said they used

Facebook to discuss academic work with other

students on a weekly basis, and more than half

responded positively to the idea of using

Facebook for more formal teaching and learning

– although only 7% had actually done so.

“Facebook is 'social glue' for university freshers”

http://www.physorg.com/news143200776.html

+Primary Obstacles

�Staffing constraints

�Fear of loss of control

�Inadequate metrics

�Organizational culture (membership)

Photo by pigpogm

+Social Media Optimization (SMO)

SMO is the process of implementing changes to

optimize a site so that it is more easily linked to,

more highly visible in social media searches on

custom search engines (such as Technorati), and

more frequently included in relevant posts on

blogs, podcasts and vlogs.

-Rohit Bhargava, Influential Marketing Blog

April 2, 2009



+Increase Your Linkability

�Write great content online which will force others, in

one way or another, to take notice and link back to

you.

� Blog posts

� Original content

� Doing things remarkably

�Give to get: link to great outside content

� Pay it forward

+Make Tagging and Bookmarking

Easy

http://addthis.com

+Make Your Content Movable and

Mixable

�Create concise, well written, fresh content

�Use portable formats:

PDF, video files, audio files

�Add social bookmark links

�Tag your own pages on delicious and other social

bookmark sites

April 2, 2009



+Examples

�Specialized book lists

�Subject resources guides

�Topical guides (copyright, foreclosure law,

genealogy research)

�Staff reviews of books, videos

� Information literacy tutorials

�Story hour videos

+Encourage User-Generated Content

�Denver Public Library has a YouTube contest

�Gail Borden Public Library's Storypalooza

�Next gen OPACs that allow for tagging rating,

reviewing, sharing

+Exercise

Does your site have any original, “link worthy”content?

If so, how visible, movable, or re-mixable is it?

April 2, 2009



+Encourage the Mashup

�Open up your web content: catalog, repositories,

digital archives

�RSSify your content

� http://profy.com/2007/09/30/7-tools-to-make-an-rss-feed-of-any-

website/

+Participate: Join the Conversation

Wherever Your Users Are

Social media should be a two-way

conversation:

� Blog and enable comments

� Create Facebook/Myspace pages

and encourage feedback

� Upload photos to Flickr and allow

comments

� Mention active community members

+Be Honest, Be Real and Be Friendly

Social media requires:

�Authenticity

�Openness

� Transparency

�Giving up control to a certain

extent

�Putting out the welcome mat

Be these things online AND offlineBe these things online AND offline

April 2, 2009



+Developing a Social Media Plan

1. SMART Objective(s)

2. Target Audience

3. Integration

4. Culture Change

5. Capacity

6. Tools and Tactics

7. Measurement

+SMART Objectives

What do you want to accomplish with social media?

�Restate this objective so it is “SMART” – Specific,

Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-based

�Describe how your social media objective supports

or links to one or more of your organization’s goals

+Increase Traffic

Why?

Are you trying to create awareness of your

products and services?

Do you want to enhance your library's brand

online?

Do you want to foster and develop stronger

ties with the community as a whole or a

sector of your community, leading to

increased participation?

April 2, 2009



+Examples

�Listen and Learn: You're monitoring what stakeholders

are saying about your organization, services or programs

�Build Relationships: You’re interacting with key audiences on the social media channel in order to foster and

develop stronger ties with the community as a whole or a

sector of your community.

�Improve Reputation: You want to improve how others

think about your organization or issue and are responding

directly to feedback through social media channels.

�Increase Traffic and Page Rankings: You're using social media tactics to drive traffic to your organization's

site or improving search engine results or using social media

channels to spread your content.

+Exercise

Answer the following:

What do you want to accomplish with social media?

Make sure your objective is “SMART” – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-based

+Target Audience

�Who must you reach with your social media

efforts to meet your objective? Why this target

group?

�What social media tools are they currently

using?

�Determine type of relationship you want based

on what they’re ready for and where they are

April 2, 2009



+

http://business.rapleaf.com/company_press_2008_07_29.html

+

http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/275/report_display.asp

+Social Technographics

� http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/profile_tool.html

April 2, 2009



+

+Blogging

� 73% of people read blogs worldwide

� 184 million people blog worldwide

� 34% post opinions about brands

� 36% think more positively about companies that

have blogs

+TIP: Common Blogging Mistakes

�Writing for PhDs (ie. Using big words)

�Making the post too long (over 800 words)

�Hard selling

�Repackaging info

�Not including facts

�Using full paragraph format

�Not using or numbering lists

Photo by net_efekt

April 2, 2009



+Podcasts

� 2009 audience: 38 million

�By 2012 projected audience: 65 million

�Age

18-29 = 27%

30-49 = 20%

50-64 = 15%

65+ = 8%

Source: eMarketer

+YouTube

� 100 million streamed videos viewed each day

� 65,000 new clips uploaded per day

� 13 million unique visitors per month

�Average user spends 30 minutes

� 58% of videos are watched on YouTube

� Largest demographic is 18- 35 year olds

Source: Startup Review

+Flickr

�Over 2 billion images as of Nov. 2008

� 3 – 5 million photos are uploaded daily

�Visitors, no college education: 44%

�Households with children aged 6-17: 66%

�Average Age:18-24: 18%

25-34: 23%

35-44: 21%

45-54: 19%

55-64: 13%

65+: 7%

April 2, 2009



+Exercise

Who are you trying to reach with social media? Which tools do you think would be most successful in reaching this audience?

+Integration

�What is the relationship between your social media

efforts and the offline activity of your organization?

� Is what’s happening offline supporting or

undermining your social media efforts?

+Exercise

Identify one offline activity that is supportive of your social media objectives, and one that is not supportive of them.

1. Decide how to tie the supportive activity to your social media endeavors.

2. Decide how you might address the obstacle.

April 2, 2009



+Culture Change

�Once you have an initial strategy, how do you get

your organization to own it?

�How will you address any fears or concerns?

�How quickly can your organization

change and adapt?

Photo by kevindooley

+Culture Change: Common

Concerns

� Loss of control over your organization's branding

and marketing messages

� Dealing with negative comments

� Addressing personality versus organizational voice

� Not being successful, fear of failure

� Perception of wasted time and resources

+SM Requirements

�Authenticity

�Openness

� Transparency

�Giving up control to a certain extent

�Sense of humor (optional but highly

desirable)

Photo by Phong Nyugen

April 2, 2009



+Tips for Selling SM

�Show examples of successful SM in other libraries

�Be honest about the positives and negatives

�Have a plan

�Manage expectations

�Mention that’s it’s free☺

�Establish policies

+Exercise

Do you think your organization is culturally ready for social media? Why or why not?

Which concerns about social media are most likely to resonate? How might you address them?

+Capacity

�Who will implement your organization’s social media

strategy?

�Will your content updates depend on any other

resource or person?

�Do you need additional tools, expertise or software

to get started?

April 2, 2009



+Your Social Media Person/People

Should Be:

�Comfortable using the tools

� Informed and passionate about your organization's

programs

�Should enjoy interacting with other people

+Exercise

1. Do you need any additional tools, expertise, personnel to implement your social media strategy? If so, identify source(s) for these.

2. Identify a person/people who would be ideal candidates for your social media team

+Tools and Tactics

�What tactics and tools best support your objectives

and match your targeted audience?

�What tactics and tools do you have the capacity to

implement?

April 2, 2009



+Tools and Tactics: Four Broad

Tactical Approaches

1. Listen

� Beginners start here! Use what you hear to inform decision-

making

2. Participate

� Engage in conversation via blogging, twittering

3. Share Your Story

� Blogging, podcasting, YouTube, Flickr

4. Build Community

� Online communities for knowledge or skill sharing: Ning,

Facebook, My Space

+Exercise

Which broad tactical approach do you think is best suited for your organization, and

why?

+Measurement

April 2, 2009



+Gosh, This is Hard!

Prospero's Social Media Survey asked

large corporations about their social

media return on investment (ROI), and

while 35% reported positive ROI 41%

said that ROI was “unknown”.

+What You’re Not Measuring…

� Friendship

�Happiness

�Karma

�Enlightenment

�Girl power

+Measurement

�Quantitative

�Qualitative

April 2, 2009



+Exercise

Briefly note the assessment efforts at your organization currently under way. What tools are used?

Is social media measurement any part of these efforts?

+What You Are Measuring…

The “Trinity Approach”*

�Behavior

�Outcome

�Experience

*developed by Vinash Kaushik

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2006/08/trinity-a-mindset-strategic-

approach.html

+Behavior

The “what”

�Quantitative

�Number of blog posts

�Number of Facebook friends/fans

� Views/visits

April 2, 2009



+Outcome

The “tangible benefit” of your social media

activity

�Higher satisfaction

� Fewer help desk calls

�More searches

� Increase in funding

+

+Experience

Put on your listening ears!

Listen

Engage

Converse

Take action

April 2, 2009



+The Experience Metric

Experience can be measured and evaluated:

Stars, scars, or neutral?

You LIKE You LIKE

me, you me, you

REALLY like REALLY like

me!me!

+Five Things to Get Started

Monitor general search engine results

Monitor social media search engine results

Create alerts

Analytics: Google and Clicky

Assess the nature and sentiment of activity

111

222

333

444

555

+

April 2, 2009



+Monitor Search Engine Results

�Use Google: best job of the big three search

engines in indexing and integrating social media

sources like blog posts, videos, and Flickr photo sets

111

TIP: In addition to including social media, other ways to boost

your page rank include using good descriptive page titles and

properly using HTML heading tags <h1>, <h2>, <h3>

+Google Results – Hennepin County

Public Library

++++

++++

+Monitor Social Media Search

Engine Results

Why?

�Used by high value, highly connected, highly

influential users

o Pays great dividends if they are fans of the library

�Choose the specific social media search engines

that match your media efforts

222

April 2, 2009



+Technorati

For blogs and feeds

Authority score: the number of distinct blogs linking to

you in the past six months, favorites (i.e. your fans)

and your blog's rank (Quantitative)

Qualitative: Which blogs are linking to you? Are they

blogs that your target audience reads and respects?

Are readers able to see the blogger as someone "who

is like me"?

technorati.com

+delicious

Is your content bookmark-worthy?

Use delicious built-in statistics to monitor links to your

content, tags and notes.

Go to delicious, search for your library, project, or

service, and see how many people have bookmarked

it (quantitative), when, and see what if any comments

have been posted (qualitative).

delicious.com

+

Do you show up? How often?

A search for Seattle library, for example, returns

31 tweets, many among them are "stars".

Advanced search features a local search option:

find book sale near "place name" or DVD near

"place name".

twitter.com

April 2, 2009



+ Create alerts

Check standard web logs for refers from search engines. What terms do people use?

Set up a Google Alert

�Use quotes “University of Pittsburgh” library

Pitt library

�Choose “comprehensive” to get results from news, blogs, web, video and groups

�Be notified “as it happens” or daily digest

333

+ Google Analytics and Clicky for

Social Media

�Google Analytics - Create conversion funnel to measure a social media action chain

� Look at referrers.

Are users coming to your site from social media sites where you have some sort of presence? Does this change over time?

�Clicky’s dashboard reports social media traffic by aggregating referrers from 20+ social media sites

444

www.google.com/analytics/ getclicky.com

+Clicky Chart

April 2, 2009



+ Assess the Nature and

Sentiment

�What is the strength and tone of the social media

activity?

� “deep” commenting vs. superficial

� users staying vs. bouncing quickly

� Repeat commenters vs. drive bys

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Photo by Funkyah

+Questions? Discussion?

+

THANK YOUTHANK YOU

april 2, 2009 - university libraryfichter/temp/2009cil/socialmedia/social... · april 2, 2009...

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