I’m with Minnesota State Parks and Trails, a division of the MN DNR. We have an active Facebook page with a solid strategy behind it, a YouTube channel, and we tweet. What we don’t have is any kind of plan for what kind of content goes to which channel, how to use which channel and when, or who the primary audience is in each space.
Does anyone have a social media strategy they can share that helps to define these things? I’ve done a kabillion searches and found lots of strategies for individual channels (like we have for Facebook), but none that really integrate multiple channels into a single plan.
How does your agency determine when something goes on Facebook or gets tweeted, pinned, tumbld, etc.?
(Extra credit if you can also explain how you dovetail your social content with your subscription/e-newsletter services!)
Stefanie
Hi Stefanie – I have a slide deck that gets into social media strategy and might be helpful. Let me know how else I might be able to help:
https://www.govloop.com/profiles/blogs/from-town-hall-to-twitter-do-you-have-a-comprehensive-communicati
Hi Stefanie! I work with organizations all the time to develop integrated marketing strategies.
Here are a few basics:
YouTube: YouTube is the internet’s number one video sharing site, with about 3 billion views a day. Approximately 58% of all American adults are on YouTube with over 61 million users between the ages of 18-54. This is a vital tool to communicate with your current network (through subscriptions), get the word out about your agency to a broader audience (through embedded videos), increase online visibility, and educate potential brand advocates. Quality video production on YouTube captures the attention of your online audience and creates immediate connections by quickly delivering engaging content, educating the public on services they might otherwise not know about, and by visually reinforcing your agency message.
Twitter: This micro-blogging site allows users to share short messages (up to 140 characters) with those who “follow” you. It is ideal for communicating quick messages, pithy insights, discussing #hashtag topics, connecting with other people, and sharing recent company updates. Automated tweeting is frowned upon and discouraged (you should not be tweeting more than 6 times a day).
Facebook: Facebook is the number-one photo sharing site in the world, and also offers users the option to upload video, blog posts, links to other content and share the recent happenings within your agency. A recent study has uncovered that 46% of users are now men and women over 45 who have an average income of $50,000-99,000.
Once you understand who is on each platform, who you are trying to reach, and the message you want to communicate – you have done the hard part. Andrew’s slideshow contains a great schedule to help you plan out your posts (when, where and who) that you should check out!
Also…the message should be the same across platforms and the one of the benefits of social media is the ability to share the same content across multiple mediums. If you develop a YouTube video, tweet about it! Let your facebook network know you have a new video! If you post a blog, tweet about it! Share the links to your content across platforms! If your message is consistent you do not have to worry about being redundant. Remember each site has a unique audience and is connected to you because they are interested in what you have to say.
I know that was a lot of information… If you would like to have a conversation about what that means for you and your agency, just shoot me a message 🙂