Director of Public Relations, Alicia Quinn and I explained our Social Media Campaign and how members can make the most of our sites. We received a great deal of feedback from numerous properties, so I figured I'd discuss with you some of the most frequent issues:
Make sure you have a fan page. As an organization, you need to register a fan page and not a friend profile or Facebook will shut down the page and you will lose all of your followers and work.
Save time by linking to your Flickr and YouTube pages. These tabs will display your images and videos, so you don't have to repost the same content in two places.
However, do not link your status to your Twitter account because due to the character limit, you will not be able to see the full status and you will discourage people from following you on both sites.
Use a free URL shortening site with tracking. Although there are many sites out there for condensing URLs, many of them will not trace the number of clicks and where they originated from. Our organization uses bit.ly.
Tweet popular hash tags, such as #traveltuesday as long as they are relevant and not overused. In doing so, all individuals searching these popular tags will see your tweet.
The sincerest form of flattery on Twitter lies in the retweet, so retweet the information you like and is of interest to your followers. However, do not retweet so much that you are no longer twittering your own information.
General
Take the time and formulate a strategy before going live. Even the smallest things, such a responding to a negative comment or how many posts you will make a day are crucial to your success. Also, be sure to create benchmarks and goals to keep your account growing.
Reserve a name as soon as possible. Chances are the one you want is already taken, so even if you aren't going live just yet, create your profile. It also helps if all of your social sites can be found at the same name.
Have fun! Social media is a great, enjoyable and FREE way to get your organization's voice heard.
If you have any questions regarding social media that I have not addressed, send me a comment and I will be sure to get back to you. You can also view the entire PowerPoint in next week's member newsletter at www.800poconos.com/newsletter and look for Social Media 101 and 201 workshops in early 2010. Have a great weekend!
