Social Media Savvy: Facebook and Twitter Jennifer Li AFSCME Digital Communications
Profile vs. Page vs. Group Profiles should only be used for personal use Pages more professional; allows for promoted posts, targeted posts, and insights, provides higher visibility; can have more than 5,000 friends/ followers Closed Groups allows for privacy, but someone needs to moderate Open Groups no reason to go this route, you may as well make a page Secret Groups these are unsearchable and by invite only
Closed Groups No reason to do an open group Closed groups can allow for some privacy A moderator approves new members Notifications when people post in the group
Pages Advertising + Promoted Posts Search results Show up in News Feeds You can like other pages connectivity Timeline feature browse old posts
Converting profiles to pages Many people begin their organization's Facebook page as a personal profile, but then realize they would like to have a organization page. Why switch? Keeping a personal page may be violating Facebook s rules Stats and Insights: You can t track the effectiveness of a profile You can only have up to 5,000 friends
Converting: What gets carried over? What gets carried over: Your profile picture Your friends and followers will convert to people who like your page
Simple ways to grow the union now! Search for AFSCME Click the Like button to the right of the page title Hover over the LIKE button afterwards and choose Get Notifications Look for other Facebook pages relevant to your area Find your council s Facebook page and Like it
What do I post? Pictures with good captions do well! Don t post a press release; this is social media. Informal voice is OK. Make it short, sweet, and interesting!
What do I post? Share stuff! You don t have to constantly create original content. Share stuff from your Council and AFSCME s page. See an interesting article online? Share it! Try to make sure your description is 5 sentences or less.
So many posts! So little time! You can schedule your posts! 1. 2.
Engage your members! Use your comments section in posts! Your members will engage with your content in the comments section Ask them for their thoughts Tell them to submit their photos in the comments section!
#UnionDad
What about trolls?
What about trolls? First rule: Don t feed the trolls It looks bad and makes you seem out of touch Your followers/members will defend you If it gets out of hand, you can hide comments The person who posted the offending comment and their friends will still see their comment, but it will be hidden from your page
What about trolls? If it s really bad, you can report them or ban them from the page, but use that as the last option.
Help Me Help You Send me any blog posts, news articles, etc. or give me a heads up on any Facebook posts that you want me to share
Why Twitter? Use it to build relationships with reporters Stay up to date on current news Follow and participate in conversations
Join Twitter! Easy to sign up go to www.twitter.com and create a username (handle) and password Twitter a communications tool using 140-character messages, but many use it just to push out information or follow breaking news Follow AFSCME by visiting www.twitter.com/afscme and clicking Follow
Hashtags are Powerful The hashtag is a favorite tool of conferences and event organizers and it s also a way for Twitter users to organize among themselves Use it to track conversations and see what people are saying
Most Twitter Followers
Most Retweeted Tweet
Twitter Tips Read up: http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/ Retweeting is an integral part of the Twitter experience. Help us out retweet (use the symbol RT or just click Retweet ) the International Union s tweets to get the word out about our latest breaking news
Twitter Tips Follow your region s council and/or other local progressive organizations on Twitter Follow local news outlets and newspapers and blogs in order to get breaking news Use the state specific hash tags for your state for example: #WIunion, #OHunion, #SaveMI, etc
Affiliates on Twitter
Contact Me Jennifer Li New Media Outreach Specialist Digital Communications jli@afscme.org https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.afscme Links: www.afscme.org facebook.com/afscme Twitter: @AFSCME afscme.tumblr.com Instagram.com/afscme