social

Small Organizations Can Create a Big Social Media Presence

Aimee Roundtree

When time, money, and help are hard to come across, it’s time for organizations to incorporate strong social media strategies. Many small brands are seeing big success with social media, whether for outreach, education, PR, or promotion. South by Southwest Interactive provided tips on how to create a strong social media presence.

If you want to do big things with social media at your small organization, you have to be creative and flexible, use what works, and know thyself to create a campaign that’s effective and works for you (and most importantly, your audience), according to Aimee Kendall Roundtree, University of Houston-Downtown Associate Professor in the Professional Writing Program. Highlights from Big Social Media Results for Small Organizations:

Social media for small organizations: Best Practices

Invite participation
Set and know your metrics and perform sentiment analysis
Know you purpose and set policies and training programs invite participation
Set smaller goals and achieve them
It’s good for small organizations to be talking about news, events, and partnerships with other organizations
Track interactive patterns, build metrics and tools as you need them.
Do what works for your organization, which may be unique to your audience and brand
Being adaptive is a best practice because money and time are the biggest barriers
Hashtags build community structure, be sure to put your mission first
When establishing strategies, small organizations should use messages for content, not memories
Small organizations can often do well by amplifying user-generated content

Make the voice of your organization heard through social media

73% of small orgs using social media. Of those not using, 81% plan to start
For small organizations, often the best social media posts don’t support the strategic plan or goal
Use social media to embody the organization. Share daily goings-on and be intimate in a brand-appropriate way
Film events, share anecdotes and other clips to help feed social content. This helps a small organization to show activity
Be aware: Despite organizations’ goals/purpose, users can change direction through contributed content

Be brave when branding your organization through social media

It’s OK for small organizations to wing it! Just use your intuition
When it comes to social media, intuition can be more effective than best practices
Don’t be afraid to say what you need to say, provide real content about what’s happening. Be concise and consistent
Consider the ant: How is it that ants accomplish so much without someone telling them what to do?

Thanks to @akroundtree, @ACDunbeck, @inthekisser, @mirandaLwilson for your insights!

Marketing for Global Social Networking Trends | OMMA Social

Social networking is a global experience. The advent of social networking and advertising allows almost instant communication across the world that gives raise to profession like blogger or youtuber as today you can buy youtube views like you buy a coffee and grow your business to the scale you could have only imagined in your dreams. The impact of social networking on people’s digital experience cannot be discounted.

This OMMA Social presentation looks at social networking around the world and delves into what impacts the social trends. Eli Goodman, evangelist at comScore looks at the trends across the globe and showing how social has influenced the digital world.

Watch the presentation

Social networking is the most popular online activity

75% of social networking time is dedicated to Facebook
82.4% of the world population is using social networking
20% of time spent online is spent on social networking
1 in 7 minutes online is spent on Facebook

Demographics

Most engaged social networkers are in Latin America
1/3 of the world social networkers are in Asia Pacific
Males and users age 55+ are the fastest growing social media segment, & LinkedIn is a big driver

5 markets where Facebook is not the leading social network

Russia
China
Poland
Japan
South Korea

Advertising stats

25% of display ads are on social, and most are interactive, but social ad spending accounts for only 15% of budget
5% of ads in the US are socially enabled (“follow us on Twitter,” “Like us on Facebook,” etc…)
15% of ad spending is within social media sites in the US

Pinterest, the social media disruptor

Pinterest is aspirational & forward-thinking
Pinterest was the first to tap into the idea of “potential memories,” with people creating boards like “my future wedding” etc.

Mobile matters

10% of online time is accessed via a mobile device
Mobile devices will drive long-term social media use
It’s been “The Year of Mobile” since 2003, but 2011 was the true year of mobile with tablets, touchscreens, etc.

As a marketer, you should know your niche market, understand your audience, and create relevant content for your demographic. But you should also globalize your efforts and be aware that social networking is a worldwide phenomena, spanning across cultures and impacting different groups. Don’t be intimidated: Be excited by the world of opportunity that social networking provides!

Follow Eli Goodman on Twitter

Thanks for Tweeting @mtuohy‏, @ansleyjo‏, @CandaceMarks, @Comscore, @cpealet