Transcript Social Media

Social Media
The latest and
greatest in
communication tools
Marylou Berg, Communication Manager
Shannon Loomis, Public Information Specialist
City of Rockville
What is social media?
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Blogs
YouTube
MySpace
Facebook
Twitter
Ning
LinkedIn
Wikipedia
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Digg
Flickr
Plaxo
RSS feeds
iPhone apps
GovLoop
Bebo
Many, many more
Why do organizations use
social media?
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An additional communication channel.
A popular communication channel.
Capitalizes on word of mouth.
Cost effective.
Drives traffic to established communication
channels.
Why are organizations afraid to use
social media?
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Negative comments
Time intensive
Archiving material
Access for the disabled
What is facebook?
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The most popular social networking site right
now.
Search and share information.
Three types of pages: personal profiles, groups
and public pages.
Members are known as friends and/or fans.
www.facebook.com
Rockville’s facebook page
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Updated daily and monitored consistently.
Avoid sounding too governmental.
Fans respond to pictures, links, video and
interactive content.
Use weekly reports and data to drive content.
What is Twitter?
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The fastest growing social network right now.
Search and share information in small bits (140
characters or less) through microblogging
posts.
Posts are known as tweets. Members are
known as followers.
Go through twitter.com to get an account. Use
a third party to access later (Twhirl, Tweetdeck
or smartphone app.).
Rockville’s Twitter feeds
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Maintain multiple feeds for specific users.
Link to existing content.
Keep it short, use url shorteners when
possible.
Use hashtags- identification codes that function
like keywords.
Set up searches through third-party sites.
How do I get started?
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Determine whether your organization can commit.
Write a comment policy.
Set up your page/feed.
Promote, promote, promote.
Monitor content and use the data to make strategic
decisions.
Enjoy getting to know your fans.
To learn more
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Harness the power of Google and YouTube for the
forces of good. If you have a question chances are
someone has answered it there.
Use the help sections of the sites and ask your fellow
networkers.
Visit Mashable.com, sociableblog.com, govloop.com
and rotorblog.com.
Talk to us: [email protected], on facebook as
City of Rockville or on Twitter as Rockville411.