Transcript Social Networking Basics - National AgrAbility Project

Social Networking Basics
AgrAbility Workshop
Indianapolis, 2011
The INDATA Project
at Easter Seals Crossroads
M. Wade Wingler, ATP
Director of Assistive Technology
If you only take away three things
today…
• Start small and work into it or you’ll get
overwhelmed
• Have a plan with realistic goals broken into
small steps
• It changes fast--You’re going to have to want
to be nimble with social media
What are these things like?
(examples of each)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Blog: Newspaper or magazine
Facebook: Cup of coffee with friends
Twitter: Passing notes in class
YouTube: TV
LinkedIn: Job fair
Podcasts: Talk radio
The reason to consider Social Media
• Your audience uses these tools
– Facebook: 800 Million active users
– Twitter: 100 Million active users
– LinkedIn: 100 Million users
– YouTube: 490 Million users (per month)
– At least some of those include your folks
SEO
• Search Engine Optimization
– Not everyone will find your web page
– You can’t include enough keywords, in a timely
enough manner to make your web page stand out
without looking contrived
– Linking your blog to your web site drives traffic to
you
– Linking your Tweets, videos, Facebook status to
your site drives traffic to you
The equipment required
• Basic:
– A computer with an internet connection
• Extras:
– Digital camera: Less than $100
– Videos: Flip cam and editing software (Free on
Mac)
– Podcasts: Microphone and editing software (Free
on Mac)
The cost
• Most services are free
• Most software is free
• The rest is usually low cost unless you
outsource all of it
• Most things that cost, increase with your
use/success
– We pay an intern for 20 hours a week to generate
blog content and shoot/edit/caption our videos
The time required
• Making it part of your day takes practice
• My example
– ½ day to record/produce podcast
– 10 mins each day for tweets and facebook
– The rest is part of what I do anyway
• Using interns has worked well for us
The tools and how they work
•
•
•
•
•
•
(In order of our current priority)
Blog (Wordpress – Free software & $4/month)
Twitter (Tweetdeck - Free)
Youtube (Free)
Podcast (Garageband-Free, Libsyn-$5/month)
Facebook (Free)
LinkedIn (Free)
How we’re using these tools
• Increasing SEO
• Developing an interactive relationship with
our audience/clientele
• Establishing ourselves as the experts
• Developing partnerships with others who use
social media
• Vetting content for larger exposure
• R&D for our technical work
Our media schedule
• Monday: YouTube video
• Tues, Wed, Thurs: Blog posts
• Fri: Podcast episodes
First steps
• We do A LOT.
• We’ve been aggressively building our efforts
for 3 years.
• Suggested first step: Pick one or two and start
with them and see what kind of natural
growth occurs.
Connect with us
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Twitter: @INDATAProject
Facebook: facebook.com/INDATA
YouTube: YouTube.com/INDATAProjectESC
Blog: blog.eastersealstech.com
Web: www.EasterSealsTech.com
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 888-466-1314