Social Media Best Practices

Transcription

1 Social Media Best Practices

2 The OVA and Social Media It s no longer a secret that social media is a meaningful, necessary business tool. In terms of marketing and stakeholder engagement, there is arguably no more efficient, cost-effective platform available to the OVA. In fact, our target audience uses social media to communicate with friends, family and trusted organizations more than any other medium. The opportunity for engaging our audience and building a relationship based on trust and mutual interests makes social media undeniable. Though it may be the most important marketing and communications tool available to us, it is crucial to be aware of the potential hazards of misusing social media. At the same time, it is necessary to use these tools effectively and consistently as an organization. The following is a guide that every OVA staff member can rely on when navigating the exciting and ever-changing world of social media. Using Your Personal Accounts Please observe the following guidelines when using your own personal social media accounts: Confidentiality & Disclosure In any and all social media interactions make sure that you don t share confidential or private information about the OVA s business operations, products, services, or customers and never say that you speak on behalf of the OVA. If you are involved in any online discussions regarding the OVA, its products or services using your personal account, disclose that you are an OVA employee. Make a point of noting that your views and opinions do not represent those of the OVA. Customer Service We have dedicated staff responsible for engaging customers through our official social media feeds. To avoid confusion, we ask that you not attempt to respond to customer inquiries or comments directed to the OVA through your own accounts. Employee Relations While we encourage employees to use social media and participate in conversations with our customers and other users, do not post any any complaints or concerns about your job or working environment on social media. Always direct such concerns to your OVA supervisor. Oops, double no-no! An unhappy StubHub employee accidently tweeted from the wrong acount!

3 Please Do: Be Personal Social media gives us an opportunity to connect with stakeholders on a different emotional level so let s show off the OVA s personality and culture. Post pictures of lunch parties, March Madness brackets, etc. Be funny and interact informally. Any chance that we can make the OVA appear more (pleasantly) human via social media, take it. Post Regularly Posting regularly will keep us in the mind s of followers and help build our credibility as a good source of information in our industry (assuming we re posting great content). A few times per day on Twitter and Facebook, and once a day on Instagram should cover it. Make it a Habit The OVAs social media manager should be checking feeds almost as often as . Applications like HootSuite Do s & Dont s of Using OVA Accounts offer notifications to help with efficiency. Stay Classy Whenever there is negative conversation on a particular topic or around the OVA brand, we MUST take the high road and stay positive. Don t belittle others or the competition. Evaluate Success It is important to regularly evaluate our social media efforts and tie goals to our strategic plan. Measure, record and analyze number of fans, retweets, and engagement levels. Adapt the approach regularly to try to improve these numbers. Please Don t: Ignore the Chatter Believe it or not, people are talking about the OVA on social media. When people tweet at us or write/comment on our Facebook wall, the worst thing we can do is ignore them. Like and retweet positive comments, posts and photos. Our followers love this. Stray Off Topic We have no business commenting on topics outside of our brand (politics, religion, other business). Know our audience and stay within our niche and what we know best. Be Lazy The OVAs social media pages are like secondary websites. We wouldn t leave ontariovolleyball.org under construction or incomplete and we shouldn t accept any less from our social media platforms. More often than not, consumers will see our social media pages long before they ever visit the website, so we don t want to give them a bad first impression. Be a Dinosaur We can t be afraid to try new applications and strategies. Social media is is one of the fastest growing, most fluid technologies that exist. Trends change, fads pass and our audience is contsantly looking for the next great app. We should be on it. Be a Junkie It s a fine line. While we want to be involved in the latest trends, we must be careful not to spread ourselves too thin. Social media is a marketing tool. Don t let the whole marketing department suffer or one account fail because we re overdoing it.

4 Using OVA Facebook Facebook is losing ground to up-and-coming platforms in terms of popularity among our primary audience (athletes), however it is still a major source of information and content for our membership. Increase recognition of the sport, athletes, coaches, etc. Searchability Customer service & feedback Drive website traffic Audience 55% female, 45% male 8% of fans are years old (3% of engagement) 39.3% of fans are years old (21% of engagement) 18% of fans are years old (11% of engagement) 30% of fans are years old (44% of engagement) Our Facebook audience is comprised mainly of young adults (volleyball fans, coaches, alumni and varsity athletes), and middle-aged adults (coaches, officials, alumni, club admins and families of athletes). The majority of engagement occurs with the year old demographic. Posts are limited to 1-3 sentences Posts always contain a relevant photo or video Majority of posts are engaging, very few are salesy Action Plan Create an event for all major upcoming events and competitions Create a photo album post-event Update the header photo monthly Share a mix of relevant links, blog posts, and engaging content 1-3 posts per day Like and comment on relevant content (2x per week) Join groups and like pages that our audience follows Respond to inquiries or concerns within 24 hours Metrics Number of posts per day Likes Engagement and comments Referring traffic Shares Our target audience likes to see photos and videos, particularly of athletes. They engage most with stories about our members and real people. They rarely engage with posts about program offerings. Usage is highest from noon until 10pm. For the most part, our athletes do not follow or engage with us on Facebook. Key Messaging & Content Tone is business-casual, vocabulary is simple Always use proper grammar and punctuation Use of hashtags is limited to brand (ie: #TeamOntario, #OVAchamps, #volleyball)

5 Using OVA Twitter Twitter is an excellent channel to deliver quick updates and engage in open conversation with our audeince. Increase recognition of the sport, athletes, coaches, etc. Listen and respond to relevant conversations Customer service & feedback Demonstrate the personality of the Association Drive website traffic Audience 51% female, 49% male Interests include sports, music, movies and comedy Major age categories are and years old Online buyers Middle to high class household income Our Facebook audience is comprised mainly of teens and young adults (athletes, volleyball fans, coaches, alumni and varsity athletes). Our target audience interacts with photos, videos and links, particularly of other OVA athletes and teams, but also of celebrities and pop culture. They rarely engage with posts about program offerings or registration deadlines. Posts are limited to 140 characters Posts should usually contain a relevant photo or video Majority of posts are engaging and lightheardted, very few are salesy Action Plan Link to Facebook events and photo albums Link all Instagram posts Update the header photo monthly Share a mix of relevant links, blog posts, and engaging content 4-5 posts per day Like and comment on relevant content (daily) Use questions and memes and tag other accounts to encourage interaction Respond to inquiries or concerns within 24 hours Create a poll once per week Metrics Number of posts per day Followers and lists Likes, retweets and replies Referring traffic Hashtag usage Mentions Usage is highest in the mornings (8-10am) and evenings (6-11pm). For the most part, our Twitter followers are athletes and their parents, as well as club accounts. Key Messaging & Content Tone is casual, vocabulary is simple Proper grammar and punctuation is not necessary Slang, short form and emojis are encouraged Hashtags are effective for brand (#OVAchamps), segmentation (#volleyball), and tone or emphasis (#winning)

6 Using OVA Instagram Instagram is the social media platform of choice for our athletes. It is their go-to channel for engaging peers through photos (mostly selfies) and comments. Increase recognition of the sport and athletes Demonstrate the personality of the Association Encourage feedback Audience Mainly athletes Volleyball fans and special interest accounts Some club accounts and parents Our Instagram audience is largely made up of our own athletes. Usage is consistent throughout the day. Instagram does not currently offer comprehensive demographic information. Key Messaging & Content Tone is casual, vocabulary is simple Proper grammar and punctuation is not necessary Slang is encouraged, short form is fine but should be limited Hashtags are effective for brand (#OVAchamps), segmentation (#volleyball), and tone or emphasis (#winning) Posts should always be about a person, team or event Posts are engaging and lightheardted, never salesy Action Plan Share a mix of athletes from all disciplines Post memes and pop culture themed photos 2-4 posts per week Like and comment on relevant content (daily) Tag subjects where possible Tag other accounts to encourage interaction Metrics Number of posts per day Likes and comments Followers Tagged photos Using OVA SnapChat SnapChat is our newest platform and doesn t come with the advantage of a proven method that is effective for marketing. As such, we re starting with some fairly small, attainable objectives and will look to add/improve and develop metrics as we move forward. Increase recognition of the sport and athletes Real-time promotion of events and event coverage Implement geo-filters for Ontario Championships Excellent platform for giveaway promos Develop plan for weekly tips/drills style program with LP/Jen Develop plan for tracking metrics

7 This document was last edited October 20, As of the last revision, the OVA was operating the following social media accounts: Facebook OVA Main Beach Tour Instagram ova_updates SnapChat ova_updates Ontario Volleyball Association Scarsdale Rd Toronto, ON M3B 2R7 ontariovolleyball.org