Introduction to social media Erin Turner CLC NSW

+ Introduction to social media Erin Turner CLC NSW Quarterlies

+ Presentation overview • Introductions. • Formalities: what you need before you tweet. • Tools: finding the right medium for your message. • Message: communicate well.

+ Who does social well?

+ The Formalities What do you need before you tweet?

+ Planning: without it, you’re tweeting into a void n Communicate to a specific audience n Communicate for a specific reason n Have a plan and have systems n Be interesting

+ Have systems, write them down n Who drafts your content (email, post, tweet)? n Who approves the content? How quickly does this need to be approved? n How do you write? Have a (brief) style guide, write it down n What should your content look like? Have a (brief) style guide, write it down n How do you source images and content? Make sure you get permission

+ Have a plan to deal with criticism and abuse. n Define criticism and abuse n Tell the public and your staff about your policy For example, Lawstuff facebook policy: www. facebook. com/lawstuff. australia Please be respectful of our community, and please comply with Facebook’s conditions of use. Some basic rules: - We are a children’s and young persons’ organisation so please keep language clean - Be respectful to others, even if you disagree with them - Please don’t make personal attacks against others - Please don’t post spam or links to other websites - By all means ask a general legal question. But don’t ask for personal legal advice that’s what Lawmail is for: http: //www. lawstuff. org. au/lawmail The Lawstuff team will remove any comments which don’t play by these rules. . . All images displayed on this page are obtained with permission from publicly available sources or subject to creative commons license.

+ Activity in pairs Discuss n Does your organisation use social media? Why? n Who is your audience? What do you want to say to them? n What works well on your social media accounts? (or, if your organisation isn’t on social media, what do you personally like, share or engage with online? )

+ The medium Pick the right tool to reach the right audience

+ Choose the right tool to communicate with n Pick a social media platform after you know who you are talking to (audience) and why n You do not need to use every online tool n Use existing groups and networks to get your message across

+ Australians Online Who? What? Which is? For? 93% Facebook Personal networking Everyone 28% Linked. In Professional networking Jobseekers 26% Instagram Visual image sharing Subcultures: yoga, foodies, cats! 23% Google+ Public networking Anyone with a gmail account 17% Twitter Micro-blogging Wonks and public figures 17% Pintrest Visual image sharing Subcultures: brides and nerds. 15% Snapchat Photo/video messaging The youth 5% Tumblr Micro-blogging and discussion Gif fans 3% Vine Video Twitter and Facebook users

+ Facebook What’s great? Challenges n Australians love facebook n n Monitoring and evaluation tools are built in This is a static medium: your posts remain forever n Beware of blurring personal and work activities n Facebook is out to make money – it will cost you more to promote your service n n Designed for organisations (make sure you use a page, not personal account) Strong potential for sharing content See www. facebook. com/business

+ Twitter: a “micro-blogging” site What’s great? n Instant communications n Politicians and decision makers personally use twitter n n Use to connect with other organisations – like attracts like on twitter Great to participate in discussions and debates: #qanda #auspol #debate Challenges n Instant communications. If people don’t see your content quickly, they probably won’t see it at all. n It’s not as popular as you think it is. n People expect quick responses, requires small constant bursts of effort New to twitter? http: //australianprogress. org. au/net work/guide-twitter-101/

+ Youtube: video sharing community What’s great? Challenges n Great place to store content and share through other tools n Producing quality content takes time and skill n Powerful if used well n Not accessible… unless you make it so! n 11 million unique Australian viewers each year n Autoplay means you need to caption content See Sociability: social media for people with a disability http: //www. mediaaccess. org. au/onli ne-media/social-media

+ Think about when as well as where n 45% of Australians check social media first thing in the morning n 41% check last thing before bed n 40% check after work or in the evening n 32% check during work n 23% check at lunchtime

+ Group discussion The situation 1. 2. Discuss A CLC represented in your group who wants to communicate more with X audience, for X reason. n Which social media platform (or platforms) will you use? n Why? You want to promote a free legal service for young people. You also want to let politicians and the media know about your service and your successes. n What’s one specific message you want to send? n When will you send it?

+ Message Communicate well

+ Send signals, not noise n Signals are relevant, speak to people, reference specific things, call for action n Noise is pointless

+ Write briefly and write well n Have a strong call to action. n Short sentences, no jargon. n Be creative. n Ask questions and encourage conversation.

+ Social media is visual: tell stories with images

+ Create images for the right platform

+ Use images with the rights n If you took the photo, are the people in the photo happy for you to use the image? n Give credit: attribute! “Image source: LINK” Find photos you can use, share and edit (even for commercial purposes!) using: n Creative Commons Search n Google Advanced Image Search n Flickr Creative Commons Search For more information see http: //creativecommons. org/licenses/

+ Five steps to a social image 1. Go to Canva. Pick the Facebook template.

+ 2. Pick a free layout

+ 3. Upload a photo

+ 4. Edit text and image

+ 5. Filter!

+ Voila!

+ Excellent for quick, simple images

+ Group discussion The situation 1. 2. Breaking news: The government just announced that is increasing funding for the CLC sector. You want to celebrate the decision, thank your supporters and remind people of the value of your services. There’s major flooding in NSW. The media is reporting cases of people struggling to get emergency help from their insurer. You want to let the public know that the Insurance Law Service can help. Discuss n What image will you use? n What will you say? Think of the text on the image and around the image.

+ Monitor, evaluate, improve n Look at what works and ask your audience what they like n Measure what works: Klout and in-built tools n Report and improve n Be clear about whether you’re measuring outputs (number of likes, retweets) or outcomes (campaign success, amount of funds raised)

+ Speak the language of the internet Have fun. Use cat pictures.