DAC
Medium
Message
Who?
What?
How have you made your web presence interactive? Does your website allow for RSS or subscription? Can you embed/share content?
Websites are easier than ever:
- www.weebly.com
- www.posterous.com
- www.tumblr.com
Setting up and maintaining a Facebook presence. Who are you reaching with FB? What can you expect in terms of interaction?
Great for sharing current content:
- Videos/Pictures
- Links
- Degrees of Separation
Setting up a Twitter account. Twitter is all about choice. How can I utilize my reach and my refine my feed?
Curated Newsfeed:
- Links
- Retweets
- Hashtags
- Filtering
When?
Where?
How?
Share YOUR interests, because it's not your IRL friends you're reaching out to.
Social Networking is about reaching beyond your current circle of friends.
Twitter
Video
Why Do It?
Allows for engagement and for people to put a face and a voice to people, places,
and issues within your district.
How Do I Do It?
The quickest way to share ideas, links, articles,
and get news from people and organizations.
- Equipment (Benefits/Limitations)
- Financial Investment
- Time Investment
- Decision-Making Considerations
How Do I Do It?
People are brands. Content is currency.
Practical Examples...
- Learn to be brief
- Find the interest/annoyance threshold
- Auto-Forwarding
- Learn to jump in/jump out
Website Content
Transitional Content
Resources
Practical Examples...
Everyone now has the ability to be a publisher,
a broadcaster, and an online personality.
Where people exercise these new abilities, many
don't appreciate the responsibilties and/or
consequences that may follow.
The demographic will often dictate medium.
Resources
- Updating: 3-4 times daily for a group, can be less for an individual.
- Spelling and grammar: Whatever works to get the message across.
- Sentences: Used as referrals or bite-sized updates.
- Flooding: Beware of too much posting.
- Refer: Links, photos, videos, blog updates, articles, petitions, suggestions.
- Consistent updating of content.
- Spelling and grammar: No errors.
- People read differently online.
- Don't let gimmics outshine your content.
- Photos: No more than a dozen if in a slideshow, 3-4 if in static layout.
- Video: Three minutes or less. If you can't express your thought in three minutes, you will lose viewers unless your content is REALLY engaging.
- Audio: People won't watch unless they already have an interest in you/your organization. You have a bit more leeway.
- twitter.com
- tweetdeck.com
- hootsuite.com
Social
Media
Theory
- It's all about building communities - with all stakeholders.
- It's also about building brands: personal and organizational. Who knows you outside of those already opting in?
- Our biggest strength in reaching new followers should be existing followers. The average person is communicating more with multimedia and open messaging than phonecalls and one-to-one conversations.
- There will be positives and negatives, but we will be able to spot and respond to the negatives. It will allow us to keep our finger on the pulse of public sentiment and our own dedicated followers.
Blogging
Podcasting
Why Do It?
Allows for people to inform each other and
members about current news without having
to update a website.
Gives a regular voice to leadership
within your district.
How Do I Do It?
Social Media
- Pick a platform
- Time Investment
- Auto-Forwarding
- Permanency
- Be consistent with length
- Plan/script if necessary
- Get a recording device
- Find your "voice"
Practical Examples...
- Social Networks
- Blogging
- Microblogging
- Video/Pictures
- Podcasting
- Open Content
Resources
Practical Examples...
Diagnose
Resources
- posterous.com
- tumblr.com
- wordpress.com
- blogger.com
- Audacity, Smartphone, Microphone, Platform
photo courtesy izziegraceblogbackgrounds.blogspot.com
Web pages
- content was key, interaction was the the purview of the initiated.
- connections more between information than users.
Web Interaction
- referrals are key (incl. Web2.0, commenting, suggestion, engines, aggregators, ranking engines, authority paradigms - the power of followers)
Social Networking (Facebook)
- content gets repackaged, interfaced, makes interaction ubiquitous.
Microblogging (Twitter)
- mashes up chat, blogs, status, referrals into 140 characters or less.
Adapt
Change
How easy is it to start creating?
- There are dozens of tools which will get even the most technically-challenged person off on the right foot. (Twitter/Seesmic)
- Quality of content delivery is always a concern, but most text-based SM creates ubiquity across all platforms. (Blogging/Facebook/Document Sharing/Wikis)
- Engaging in multimedia to reach members can be impactful, but require a bit more knowledge when it comes to editing - even podcast distribution has been made as easy as browsing for an mp3 file and clicking "Upload". (YouTube/Posterous/iTunes)
As with anything, consistency breeds followers. Providing interesting information and opportunities for interaction will engage large groups.
2007 map images courtesy the brilliant mind at xkcd.com