#SocialMediaBootcamp

“HeyCori” shares lessons learned from years

in the social media trenches By Cori Faklaris

1. Keep up with the conversation

Use your personal Twitter and Facebook accounts. Post at least once a day.

Follow interesting accounts in your subject area or that just make you happy.

Sign up for users' or sites' email or texted digests.

Keep an eye on "trending topics." Google.com/trends, Trendsmap.com, Twitter Trends, Bing.com/News, Facebook Trending Topics

Use Tweetdeck, Hootsuite or similar software to help you filter and sort through what is being talked about.

Google.com/Trends

Trendsmap.com

Twitter Trends

Bing.com/news

Facebook Trending Topics

Tweetdeck.com

Hootsuite.com

2. Grow your follower counts.

Interact at least 1x a day. Social media is

conversation (2-way), not broadcasting (1-

way).

Look at Followers and Friends of similar

accounts. Like or follow them.

Use ManageFlitter.com to purge accounts that

aren't following you back.

Do not follow or friend more accounts than are

following or friending you.

Set realistic goals to increase follower counts

within 3-6 months.

The same advice applies to the brand accounts

you manage.

ManageFlitter.com

3. Analyze similar accounts for ideas.

What posts of similar accounts seem to be attracting

likes/favorites, or retweets/shares? Which are provoking the most conversation? Identify why you

think they are successful.

Keep in mind "quiet" posts may have generated a lot of clickthrough on web links = successful as to the

goal of that post.

See if there is a contest or sweepstakes being conducted that

you can model. I have used TwitterDraw.com for giveaways on Twitter. Facebook contests can be

more complicated due to restrictions in the Terms of Service.

Competitionagency.com/tweetdraw/

4. Use data to guide your strategy.• Google Analytics for your website will start your audience profile.• Twitter has analytics built in for some accounts, but third-party services

such as Twitterstats.com can also give you rough data. • Facebook Insights will help guide your strategy for that platform.

"Pages to Watch" feature helps you keep tabs on similar pages or "the competition.“

• Understand the relationship among followers/friends, engagement actions and impressions/reach. Identify the influencers in your network and in your topic areas. Look for opportunities to interact with them.

• Get in the habit of checking back on a regular basis to see what was successful. The feedback will help you revise your strategy.

• Sign up with Klout.com or a similar service to help independently rate your effectiveness on social media.

Facebook Insights dashboard

5. Devise a posting strategy.

Personal account: No less than once a day, but no more than every 10 minutes on Twitter and every hour on Facebook. Don't look "spammy.“

Decide what your mission is for social media for yourself. Define 3 interest areas you will post about. Suggest that you only use 1 in 3 posts.

Brand account: No less than once a week, but no more than 3 posts a day to start. As you get more traction, ramp up your frequency. Same maximum applies as for personal accounts.

While growing your account, only 1 in 5 posts should be direct sell or related to your own website

Everyone has their own theory as to

when the best time is to post. This may just be applicable for desktop users.

Experiment for best results.

5. Devise a posting strategy.

Decide your tone and stick with it. For a personal account, be more liberal in your use of social media "voice." Such

as: exclamation points!!!, #hashtagsthatarejustcomments, using

ALLCAPS for emphasis.

For brand accounts: Be conversational in tone, but use good grammar, watch

your spelling, use proper punctuation. Be fun, but don't make

fun. Always remember the entire world, in theory, can see what you

post.

Visual content (text on images, screengrabs, infographics, still photos,

memes, videos) can be very successful, but also can be time-

consuming to produce depending on the resources and skills of your staff.

See which have worked in your segment.

Get in the habit of checking back on a regular basis to see what was

successful. The feedback will help you revise your strategy.

From http://mmspark.com/what-to-say-on-social-media/

6. Set limits• Use the scheduling features in Facebook itself and in Tweetdeck,

Hootsuite and similar services to ease your burdens• Make a commitment to spend x hours a day not looking at a screen

of ANY type. Avoid screen time before sleep. • For brands or organizations: Identify an owner for each social media

account. But also, identify backups and policies for sharing control.• Decide on when the social media account "goes dark.“• Flip side: Make sure you are subscribed to alerts for mentions of

your accounts. • Never post anything potentially controversial or that will draw a lot

of engagement that needs monitoring right before the account goes dark or the owner is offline.

7. Have fun!

Because if you're not enjoying your work, your audience likely isn't enjoying it either.