SOCIAL MEDIA. Best Practices & Resources

Transcription

1 SOCIAL MEDIA Best Practices & Resources

2 6 Month Social Media Checklist: Month 1-2: Search your name in Google, take note of your position in the rankings, who is ahead of you, etc. Chose your platforms Create accounts on your chosen platforms using the same username Create an about.me site or personal website Set-up HootSuite or another CMS manager tool Begin posting content If necessary, create a content calendar and schedule posts in advance Engage with others! Like them, retweet them, share them, say hello Month 5: Get recommendations on LinkedIn, write some for others Write your resume Look up jobs and volunteer positions to see what exists Start cleaning up Facebook/Twitter for anything you don t want an employer to see. Learn how to use Facebook groups. Month 6: Be public and searchable Check your Google ranking. Did you increase? You should have by now. If not, why not? Apply to jobs before you return home Month 4: Check your name in Google. Has anything changed? Check your Klout/Kred what posts were the most popular and what can you learn from that?

3 Twitter: Best Practices You only have 140 characters to state your mind on Twitter,: Be concise and straight to the point and choose a short username for retweets. Twitter allows you to join the global conversation through hashtags: use #hashtags if you want to be heard, but use them sparingly Twitter is about what is happening RIGHT NOW: timing is everything. Be sure to tweet when your audience will see it. In general, the best time to tweet is 1:00-3:00pm EST on weekdays Twitter is not Facebook: find and follow people and communities you re interested in, not friends. Twitter is all about subject matter experts: try and a find a niche whether it s news commentary, cooking, Japanese language, anime, games, etc. Fun Fact: The half-life* of a Tweet is 5 minutes for the majority of users * The original tweet plus subsequent retweets

4 Facebook: Best Practices Facebook is very personal: make sure your statuses and photos have the appropriate privacy settings. Facebook isn t Twitter: either start a Facebook Page for your website/blog/web series/whatever or make a number of public posts so your content can go viral easier. Facebook feeds are determined by an algorithm called Edgerank: experiment with types of messages and posts to see which kind gets the most likes/comments/shares. The algorithm that determines whether or not you see your Aunt Jan s political posts or Red Lobster s shrimp specials.

5 Google+: Best Practices Google+ is owned by Google: it is extremely important for SEO. You should make a profile and try to keep it active. Google+ is like Facebook & Twitter: don t think of it like one or the other. Like Facebook it s great for long discussions and engagement. Like Twitter it s great for following your interests, regardless of whether you know people. Google+ is a smaller community, but very engaged: check out Google+ Hangouts or Communities and join something that interests you.

6 Job Descriptions What sort of job would you do at a REAL company RIGHT now? Social Media Marketing Manager & Analyst, Ad Agency Social Media Copywriter, PR Agency Community Manager, Tech Start Up

7 Resources Job Hunting LinkedIn ( *THE* job-hunting and recruitment site for people interested in social media jobs. Mashable ( Great blog on social media and tech. Has very good section on social media jobs. Onward Search ( Job site for digital marketing and creative. Great industry research on salaries and titles. TechCrunch ( Great blog for the tech industry, their affiliated site CrunchBase ( is good for doing industry research on companies. MediaBistro ( Great site for jobs in media (not just social media jobs in media). AdAge ( Top news for the advertising and marketing industry, as well as trends and jobs listings. Idealist ( Great site for finding social media jobs and volunteer opportunities in the non-profit sector.

8 Resources Content Management & Scheduling: HootSuite ( One of the most commonly used social media management tools. Individuals can use the free version to help manage accounts, schedule posts, etc. TweetDeck ( Like HootSuite, but built for individual use. Wordpress ( The most common CMS in the world. Learn how to use it with their documentation. Don t like Hootsuite? Here s some alternatives:

9 Resources Measurement: Google Analytics ( Vitally important for anyone interested in SEO, SEM, or website. Practice on your website, blog, tumblr, etc. Klout ( or Kred ( Not perfect, but an easy way to judge if your social media efforts are working. Facebook Insights ( Only works for Pages (not personal accounts), but mandatory for aspiring Social Media Managers. Other: Hashtags.org ( For aspiring Twitterati research on hashtags is mandatory. Bottlenose ( Helps with the Twitter stream. Creates a front page of major news links and shows how hashtags and terms are related to each other. Excellent for anyone interested in Twitter and journalism. About.me ( Extremely simple way to make a website that pulls from your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and blog feeds.

10 Resources Online Learning: SEOmoz ( Check the excellent Resources section for in-depth guides at SEO for beginners to experts. Coursera ( Fantastic free online learning partnered with some of the best universities in the world (Stanford, CalTech, Princeton, to name a few). Many courses on data analysis, introductory programming, and more. Khan Academy ( Similar to coursera.org, a lot of focus on learning to program.