Social Media Strategy

Facebook is the new phone-in…

January 13, 2012 | Comments (0)

Forget all the controversy over paying for votes (that don’t count!) in television competitions. That’s old news. We’re talking about the “classic” phone-in – the public’s opportunity to have their few minutes of fame and give their opinions to the masses.

What do you most hate about roadworks?
Have you ever had a cowboy builder?
Should celebrities diet?

It’s always interesting to hear other peoples views – and even more so when we disagree with them! It’s always been the charm of these shows (This Morning, The Wright Stuff) and here at Net Natives we think we can draw some inspiration here for how to use our Facebook wall or Twitter.

Get that “phone” to RING!

We know how important engagement is… it’s pretty much THE benchmark to look at to see how well you are doing on social media. The more engaged your users are, the more connected they are to your brand. Plus, like breeds like – high engagement means more people will get to see your content, as it will gain higher newsfeed priority, more shares/retweets and so on.

Here’s the big secret…. (drum roll)

The way to get your engagement up is to post content that will entice people to comment!

Yes that sounds simple, and to be honest, it is.

Questions, wacky statements, images/video, competitions, polls, you name it.

Imagine your Facebook wall is a phone, and you want it to RING. And you want it to ring ALL DAY, with interested, engaged users commenting/liking/tweeting away on the other end! Imagine that phone EVERY time you post on Facebook or Twitter, and do your absolute best to get it going.

PEOPLE LIKE TO BE HEARD – SO GIVE THEM A VOICE!

Of course, there are limits

Just be sensible. We’re not suggesting you turn your wall into a one-man jokeathon or spend all day asking for opinions on things that are nothing to do with your business, or even worse, completely put your foot in it and mention a topic that you really don’t want to associate with yourselves.

But there is a lot of scope for you to have a bit of fun. Films/Tv/Music/games/food. Find ways you can link to these topics that are at least tenuously relevant. Here’s an example, the type of thing I’d put, to crowbar a famous celebrity into a status:

“So, you’re on a desert island. On your own. You’re allowed to have access to either Facebook or Twitter… which would you take? Which can’t you do without and why?”

You get the idea. It’s all just about having fun and starting a chat. And then, keep it going!

Just keep that “phone” ringing, and you’ll never look back…

“This Morning” would be proud

NET NATIVES are experts in “on the wall” social media content strategy and can help YOU get the best results with your Facebook engagement. EMAIL US or give us a ring on 01273 783 847 to find out more about what we can do for you!

Using Images as Part of Your “On-the-Wall” Facebook Strategy

January 3, 2012 | Comments (0)

Images are all over printed media, and they’re all over the web too. Yet not everyone uses images to the best effect on their Facebook pages! We’re not talking about apps, nor profile pictures here. We mean actually using images as PART of your wall posts. Trust me, images can REALLY help you with getting your content out there… just read the rest of this article to find out how.

Why you should use images in your Facebook wall posts

Images make your posts stand out
http://mashable.com/2011/12/14/eyetracking-facebook-brand-pages/ Peoples eyes are drawn to images on the page so you might as well take advantage of this and get people’s attention!
Use the images to help tell your story
If you are writing a post about online CVs – use a pic of someone searching jobs online (screenshot of your website being browsed!) – if it’s about paper CVs, have a pic of a paper CV on a desk, for example. Make it easy for the user to see what the post is about.
Images make your page wall generally “look better”
Nothing technical here but a wall with lots of colourful attractive images simply looks better than a bland one covered in text! Images also help to break up your posts and separate them better on the page.
Facebook shows more posts that feature images
The Edgerank formula prioritises “rich” content – you are more likely to reach your fans if you post images in your updates
Posting a link (which shows a preview thumbnail image) is not the same as posting an image deliberately
Thumbnail link images will usually be small – and Facebook treats it as a link rather than specific image content – so you may not get as many views!
More likes/comments = even MORE likes/comments
And again this is another factor that Facebook uses to decide what to show in News Feed. People who have commented/liked in the past will be more likely to be shown your future content – you can build on your own success this way.

What to do

Get GOOD images
These might be images you already own/created as a company – or you can find them on the web, or take them yourself! Make sure the pics are a decent size so they are worth looking at.
Click on “Upload Photo” and follow instructions
Put in whatever text you want in your update - THIS INCLUDES LINKS!
Put whatever other content and links in now. You need to put links in AFTER the photo, otherwise the preview will be of the link, not the picture you have chosen to share. You can see in the below picture how there is a nice big image and then the text (blue) link appears in the post, without hijacking the whole post preview!
That’s it
Sit back and wait for results. But be sure to monitor your efforts – view your page Facebook Insights to see how well different post types are performing, or just look on your wall to get a rough idea!

We hope you have enjoyed these tips and found them useful… comments welcome here and on Twitter/Facebook

On and Beyond the Facebook Wall. The CERN Case Study.

December 9, 2011 | Comments (0)

“CERN is a scientific organisation that’s trying to understand the science behind the universe – Net Natives is the company that understands the science behind Facebook. They understand the metrics, the branding, the algorithms and most importantly they understand both the customer & the target audience. Our people here love what Net Natives have achieved for us and creating engagement via Facebook has now become an integral part of our daily job in recruitment” Head of Recruitment, CERN.

The Challenge?

It seems that everyone has now heard of, and has an opinion about, CERN and their pioneering experiments. This made the management of their employer brand within Facebook and ability to focus on quality not quantity approaches almost as hard as trying to find the Higgs Boson Particle. By far their biggest exposure, but greatest opportunity, lay in the user generated communities which had been created on the Facebook platform. This engaged community numbered over 50,000; all wanting to enter the conversation with CERN. Many willing and expertly able to be involved in some way.

What did Net Natives Do?

After consultation with CERN, we established the relevance of a Facebook specific strategy. As a Facebook agency, we then worked with the platform to consolidate the various CERN identities, to create one official Facebook page, www.facebook.com/CERN. Marrying this with a relevant social media content strategy and training (an “On the Wall” Strategy) that we developed for their communications team, that was informative and engaging.

We then turned our attention to their recruitment strategy. Obviously, recruitment is not built on “Likes”, but with variety of relevant and quality applications, regardless of the channel. Net Natives call this, “Beyond the Wall”. Through our unique Social Content Management System (SCMS), we built a multi layered recruitment site. One that had the full functionality of their existing career site, but which respected and worked in the social environment. www.facebook.com/CERNjobs.

The Result?

CERN are now in control of their identity on Facebook, controlling and engaging with their connections. Their main page is now a primary resource for ongoing comment about CERN and their Facebook page doubled in connections within 2 months, with a vast increase in relevant applications through the platform and one of the principle recruitment communications channels for existing and potential employees.

Social Media in 2011 – some of the best bits

December 8, 2011 | Comments (0)

So what events have shaped the social media landscape this year? We put our pretty little heads together and here’s what we came up with…

Facebook & The Open Graph

It’s a term you may have heard but probably haven’t looked into – basically the Open Graph refers to the way Facebook integrates with the rest of the web, and it’s own content. The clever folks at Facebook HQ have now added a new idea called “gestures” – where rather than just things being “like”able, developers can use whatever words they want to describe how a person is interacting with something.

There are already apps that do this – once you’ve allowed them permission. The Guardian app will share what you have “read” on your profile and in peoples news feeds. Music app Spotify can publish what you have “listened” to. We’re in the early stages of these social apps, but expect to see a lot more of these in the coming months!

Net Natives did some quality work in the latter part of this year for the European Parliament – we produced an app where users could “vote for” and “submit” photo entries in order to have the chance to win a holiday – check it out HERE

We predict there will be a big place for these in education – for collaborative learning for example. Users will be able to share what they are working on, what they are learning/have learned, and who they are studying with.

Timeline – and will brands get it?

The Facebook profile has changed a LOT since it’s inception. What was once just a few words and a photo has evolved almost beyond comprehension, and the best is yet to come.

Facebook recently revealed “Timeline” – a complete overhaul of the profile design. The “wall” is now like a scrapbook of your whole life – you can even navigate it by year! And it has a space for a lovely big picture at the top… nice.

There is no confirmation yet – but we’re pretty hopeful that Facebook will integrate the Timeline into it’s brand pages. This will mean you can tell the story of your college’s history in a way never before possible. Showcase your awards, alumni, and events for the world to see.

We wrote an in-depth article on implications of Timeline for Colleges that you can check out HERE

Google + Launches Brand Pages

Google+, the internet giants own social network, just unveiled their dedicated brand pages, enabling your business to build a presence on their network. Whilst it has been criticised for being a bit rushed, there are a few interesting features that we really liked.

Circles – user made custom lists to view and share with. You could create circles for adult learners, staff and subject groups, and use these to find or provide the right content to the right users.
Hangouts – basically casual video chat but fully integrated to the platform. This could be great for small seminars & tutorials, Q&A’s, interviews etc.
Great search integration – search a business name preceeded by a + sign on normal Google search engine and their Google+ page will come right up.

Twitter Launch Brand Pages too!

So finally Twitter have announced that they are going to be doing something a bit different for brands… they have just announced the upcoming launch of “Brand Pages”, following in the footsteps of Google+ who recently announced theirs.

In this video you can see a couple of clips of the new brand pages, and also see some of the other changes to the user experience.

Brands basically get a big header image, and the ability to promote a tweet to the top, acting sort of like a welcome message and enabling them to control the first thing their users see.

But the question on everyone’s lips is “Will I need to set up a new profile, or does Twitter let us convert the current one?”. There was a lot of disgruntled users having to start afresh when Facebook introduced pages and wanted businesses moving away from groups, for example.

Brand pages will be beta tested on a few big brands first so you can expect to start seeing them fairly soon.

LinkedIn continues to grow

LinkedIn recently went public with an IPO and this is a clear indication of the growth of the platform as an employer engagement tool. We will be releasing a white paper on LinkedIn in Jan/Feb 2012 so EMAIL US if you’d like to get hold of it when it comes out!

So Here’s to a Great Year…

What will 2012 bring for social media? Will a new platform emerge? Will Google+ continue to ruffle Facebook’s feathers? Will Twitter go crazy for advertising?

Get on our LinkedIn group Education Futurology and stay right up to date!

Have you got it covered? 4 tips to keep your social media going on your days off!

December 7, 2011 | Comments (0)

With Christmas and the much welcomed time off fast approaching – don’t let your social media efforts lose their momentum. People are online loads more over the holidays, so make sure you are getting your voice heard and don’t go silent!

Multiple Admins

It’s really important to make sure your Facebook Page / Twitter or any other platforms you are using have more than one person who can share content, and respond to messages. This is especially important in the event of public complaints on your wall, or inappropriate spam.

To add more admins to your Facebook Page, just go to it, click “Edit Page”, then “Manage Admins”. Easiest way is to put in the email address of the person who you want to add (needs to be the one they use for their Facebook profile).

Get Mobile

Most of us have smartphones such as iPhone, Blackberry or Android devices – so the days of depending on your desktop computer are over! Did you know there are FREE apps you can install on your phone that will give you a friendly nudge when someone mentions you or adds a comment to your page? These apps allow you to reply there and then too! Which one to use is very much down to personal preference.

We would recommend either Seesmic Mobile (Android, iPhone, Windows 7 mobile) or Hootsuite Mobile (Android, Blackberry, iPhone). Personally I prefer Seesmic, as it’s a bit more user friendly – but Hootsuite does have the facility to Schedule posts (see next section).

Schedule your posts to happen automatically!

If you know you’re going to be off work, or the department is closed – you don’t have to log on from home to keep your social media presence alive! Clever apps (mobile and on computer) can do this all for you, you just put in what you want and when – and at the specified time your tweet/post will be published!

We’d recommend using Hootsuite – you don’t have to install anything (it’s a website) and it has tons of features in addition to scheduling posts (such as monitoring for keywords). Plus it’s free for a basic account. Remember you can get a mobile version of it too so you can schedule posts on the go!

Best Posting Practice

Especially if you are posting when your students are off – keep it FUN! They probably won’t want to hear too much formal stuff when they are busy stuffing their faces with mince pies and going out with friends.

Maybe share some funny videos or websites (there are loads such as Elf Yourself where you can put your head on a dancing elf!). Also StumbleUpon is a great site that finds you great content in various categories.

You want to be encouraging comments and likes as much as possible on Facebook – the more of these you get, the more likely that your users are going to see your content in the future (this is determined by Facebook’s Edgerank Algorithm).

Make your posts “likeable” and interactive, use rich media such as video where possible, and post regularly – try to do one a day. Remember – you can schedule them now so no excuse not to!

Net Natives are experts on Social Media Strategy and and Advertising have worked with over 70 FE clients to date.

If you’d like to find out more about how we can help YOU – email ben@netnatives.co.uk or call 01273 783 847