Social Media
Communications for the 21st Century
Dan A. Nelson
New Audience, New Media
• Traditional Media losing
followers
– U.S. Newspaper readership
down as much as 10%
• Internationally, newspaper
circ. Grows 3% annually
– More people cite internet
than newspapers as
primary source of news
*Source: The Pew Research Center for the
People & the Press
The New World Order
• Web 2.0
– New approach to web site design and
development, focused on user interactions,
rather than static content.
• PR 2.0 & Social Media
– New approach to public
relations/communications, focused on
direct communication with individuals and
groups through digital channels.
(see http://www.briansolis.com )
Social Marketing
• Direct communications to individuals
• One-on-one, in vast numbers, all at once
• Blog posts
• Email alerts
• Facebook updates
• Twitter feeds (tweets)
The Basics:
• Online services and tools
– Social Networking:
• Facebook
• MySpace
• LinkedIn
• Plaxo
• Classmates
• Reunion
Social Networking
• New Media/Social Media
– New Tools for old trades
– Easy one-on-one communications, on
a mass scale.
– Fastest growing form of public
relations and marketing
– Obama was No. 1 Twitter user for
months leading up to election, base
on number of followers.
The face of Facebook
• 175 million users, with
another 5 five million
new users a week.
• 18- to 24-yo < 25%
users.
• Fastest growth rate =
40-55 yo
Facebook - components
• Pages, Groups, Events
– Pages: Individual profiles and updates
– Groups: “Pages” for agencies, groups,
associations, etc.
– Events: “Pages” for specific happening,
events.
Facebook - content
• What to Post
– Photos: Posters, air quality images, signs,
etc.
– Videos: Anything from your 30-second PSAs
to self-produced digicam vids of smoking
burn barrels
– News updates, or “tweets”*
* More on tweets later!
Facebook - Page
Facebook - Group
Other SM Sites
• MySpace.com
– Plateaued at 130 million members
• Used mostly by younger audience (teen
and college aged)
• Heavily favored as playground for music
lovers
• LinkedIn
– Professional connections, especially
for employment/biz networking
Blog Posts
• Consider regular updates to your website
using new blogging tools.
– CMS: Content Management Systems
• Wordpress
• Joomla
– Automatic feeds to FB, Twitter, SMS (short
message service), etc.
• Blogging provides the dynamic content
needed keep visitors coming back!
Email Alerts
• Automatic digital message delivery to those
who register.
• Services available that can be integrated into
any website with LITTLE website/formatting
skills needed
• www.mailermailer.com - free service for
limited messaging.
Twitter
• Micro-blogging service
• Maximum post = 140 characters
• Twitter posts are known as Tweets
– Twitter’s logo is a small bird
Twitter
• Registered twitter users can follow any other
user, and be followed by any registered user.
• Used extensively as a social ‘friends’ tool
initially
• Growing business use
• Obama used Twitter to send headlines to
millions of voters every day before the
election.
Twitter
• Registered twitter users can follow any other
user, and be followed by any registered user.
• Used extensively as a social ‘friends’ tool
initially
• Growing business use
• Obama used Twitter to send headlines to
millions of voters every day before the
election.
• What Tweets looks like:
– Lancearmstrong: Another tough day at the ToC. Had a spill half
way. Moto with a photog crashed in front of me and I t-boned
them. Body's ok tho.
• Lance Armstrong about 24h ago via TwitterBerry
– ORCAA_Dan EPA to improve kids's health, monitor air toxics
around schools. http://bit.ly/oRSD9
• 19 minutes ago from web
• Who uses it?
– 2.5 million people visit Twitter.com each
month, growing at about 300,000-
500,000 users per month and up over
440% since this time last year.
(Source PR2.0 blog at www.briansolis.com )
Twitter - What to Post?
• ORCAA tweets one or twice daily about Burn
Bans, upcoming events, specific programs
(news about woodstove change-outs, lawn
mower exchanges, etc.)
• Tweets can be posted from computers, cell
phone text messages, iPhones/Blackberries,
etc.
• Tweets can be RECEIVED as text messages,
email alerts, etc.
Twitter – Other Uses
• Skills building/technology updates
– Use of Hashtags (#) to categorize tweets
• Weekly twitter ‘Conference’ between PR
professionals and journalists
– Enter search page of twitter.com or
tweetchat.com and enter:
• #journchat
– Moderated discussion about use of Social Media
tools in new communications world.
Other Web 2.0 Tools
• YouTube
– Create account and post your
agency PSAs, education videos, etc.
• RSS feeds
– Enable RSS on your website/Blog
• RSS = Really Simple Syndication
• Provides “news feed” to anyone who
subscribes to your RSS
• Digg, Stumble, FriendFeed, deddit,
etc.
THANK YOU!
Dan A. Nelson
Public Information Officer
Olympic Region Clean Air Agency
www.orcaa.org
Dan.nelson@orcaa.org
Twitter: ORCAA_Dan
Facebook Group:
Olympic Region Clean Air Agency