Harnessing Social Media November 18, 2011

Agenda

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Why Social Media?

Using Social Media• Twitter• Facebook• LinkedIn

Using Social Media for Advocacy

Why social media?

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What Can Social Media Do For You?

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• Build influence. Social media channels provide vehicles for sharing thoughts, opinions and unique points of view while establishing authority over particular topics or issues.

• Facilitate connection. Create direct access and engagement with your constituents, partners and legislative targets. If they know you, feel a connection with you, and view you as a trusted resource, they will be inclined to work with or vote for you.

• Shape opinion. Be the one to drive conversation on important issues. Social media conversations inform, educate and serve as tools from which people form their perspective on particular topics, so ensure your position is represented.

• Broaden presence. Social media is often a first resource people turn to for information. Be where your constituents are looking. Social media allows you to be tied to industry keywords and found as a result of organic search.

Congress is doing it

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90%Of Congressional staffers are active online

65%Access social networking sites

60%Of staffers prefer to use online resources when

preparing a member to vote

3%Of emails to Congressional staffers are opened

64%Consider Facebook to be a somewhat or

very important tool for understanding constituents’ views and opinions

74%Feel Facebook is somewhat or very important in

disseminating their members’ views to constituents

72%Of congressional staffers believe social media is directly responsible for helping their bosses reach constituents

they had never communicated with before

Your Constituents Are Doing ItAnd, they’re getting their news there, too

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Using Social Media

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It’s where the conversations are happening in real time.Join the discussion.

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Twitter Engagement Should Be Compelling

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Bring something new. Share a unique perspective or start a conversation.

Use the news. Provide commentary, thoughts and insight. Include links to articles.

Share yourself. Inject humanity and personalityinto your tweets. Take a position.

Ask questions. Invite people to tell you what they think.

Start a good-natured argument. Challenge popular opinion or individual tweeters.

Some Twitter Tips And Tricks

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Tune into Twitter for news as it breaks

Add punctuation before @handle if beginning the tweet with a handle

Going to an event or conference? Check for a hashtag before you go Keep tweets shorter than the 140 characters

to promote retweets

Tweet at reporters to build source relationships

Tweet links to articles; include your thoughts and commentary

Get Involved in the Conversations

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Find other influencers involved in the

conversation to follow or engage with

Use the hashtag in your own tweets to be

a part of the discussion

A hashtag allows all tweets around the

particular topic to be grouped together

Follow a hashtag to see what’s being said by anyone talking

about the issue. Create a hashtag for important conversations.

10 Things to Know About the Hashtag

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Generating Followers

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Take advantage of conversation chains. Use hashtags to join topic threads.

Retweet. Add your own insight or reaction to Tweets from those you admire, agree with or oppose.

Reply. Go public in a way that develops a dialogue and attracts other people’s attention.

Cite. Be sure to use shortlinks and include a reporter or blogger’s Twitter handle.

Provide reciprocity. Follow people.

Systematically Building Your Twitter Following

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Phase I Phase II Phase III Phase IV

We recommend gradually building the list of individuals that you follow in order to avoid over-promotion and uncontrolled growth

Personal Connections and Established Relationships

Tier II & III Industry Advocates

Reputable Sources of Industry Information

Industry Influencers

Finding People To Follow

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Third party applications like Follower Wonk and WeFollow exceed Twitter’s current capabilities and enable you to search through the bios of individuals for suitable people to

follow.

http://followerwonk.com/ http://wefollow.com/

Lists

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An aggregation of what

members of the list are saying

The newest members of the list. Peers or other

influencers to follow and with whom to engage

Other lists curated by this list’s curator.

Likely also relevant to

follow

Following a list allows you to automatically follow all members

of the list

Getting Listed

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Find a list:Search for someone with similar characteristics

See where he/she is listed

Get on the list:Follow the list for reciprocity

Who curates the list?

Tweet @ the curator

Mention the list in the tweet to promote goodwill, as it will raise exposure for the list with your followers

Managing Tweets With Twitter Clients

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Try This: Tweetdeck

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A desktop application for Mac and Windows that makes sorting Twitter content easy.

http://www.tweetdeck.com/

• Dashboard of @replies, direct messages, searches for keywords or hashtags, and users

• View multiple accounts• Schedule tweets• Post content directly to

Twitter and Facebook• Access built-in URL

shortener• Upload photos

Measuring Your Effectiveness on Twitter

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Shorten links and measure click-throughs

http://tweetreach.com/ http://www.peerindex.com/

https://bitly.com/

http://klout.com/home

Measure reach, influence and engagement of your

tweets:

Measure influence by topic:

Measure influence by topic:

It’s where people are gathering.Meet them there.

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What To Do With A Facebook Page

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Demonstrate influence by

highlighting a top photo op

Promote partnerships and memberships

Point eyes to media placements

Post updates that will appear in

followers’ news feeds

Engage In Spirited ConversationListen to constituents, generate important discussions

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Ask a question with the “Questions” button to create instant polls

Post a question on your wall to allow constituents to provide feedback

Promote EventsDrive attendance at campaign happenings, town halls, fundraisers, etc.

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It’s where people are networking.Mingle with them to promote yourself and your

opinions.

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LinkedIn: Some Key Facts

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More than 120 million members A new member joins approximately every second

Members cover key demographics• Fortune 500 executives• Local activists• Legislative staffers• Professional networkers who rank high in social network

influence

Impact search resultsLinkedIn profiles are often the first or among the first search engine result returned for people

Dissecting A LinkedIn Page

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Dissecting A LinkedIn PageThe bottom half

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Connections

Similar people

Using Your LinkedIn Page

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Post updates similar to

Twitter posts. Include links to

articles and websites with

commentary. If linked with

Twitter, choose to share there.

Keep up with what your network is

doing

Find other people you may know

LinkedIn Groups

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Close to 90,000 topical discussion groupsMembers post questions, topics for group reactionAll members can post and engage with other members

Membership often moderated by group leaders“Private” discussions within the group

Find a group:

Select “Groups” and start typing topic; dropdown will pull up some

quick options

Click here for more options

A LinkedIn Group

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Posts can reach 2700+ members

What LinkedIn Can Do For You

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Get found in searches Listen to what people are saying about issues that are important to them

Follow what key staffers are up to

Research targets, including the connections you have to them

Using Social Media for Advocacy

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Communicating to Decision Makers Surround and engage directly to become a source of their information

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Legislators, Regulators, and other Washington Elite

1. Identify and understand targets’ social media footprints and engage them where they are.

2. Create interesting dialogue, espouse positions, attract and engage legislative and regulatory staffers and other thought leaders in organic discussion on targets’ own turf.

Your Advocate Toolkit

Identify Targets

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Tools like TweetCongress can help identify federal legislative targets online

http://tweetcongress.org/

Engage Decision-Makers Directly

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Raise Awareness For An IssueGenerate support, combat misperceptions and opposition

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Tweet links to supportive statements made by third parties

Respond to opposition statements

Use Facebook polls to demonstrate support for your positions

Comment on articles to

engage directly with reporters and address

claims made in the article

Questions?

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Kristin BrownRacepoint Group(202) 912-4906kbrown@racepointgroup.comwwww.racepointgroup.com

Harnessing Social Media November 18, 2011