Use of Social Media CIVITAS ELAN Dr Michal

Use of Social Media - CIVITAS ELAN Dr. Michaël Opgenhaffen Lessius Antwerp / K. U. Leuven Mechelen, 27 sept 2011

1. Reflection on social media initiatives I’m not responsible for the budget, so it’s easy to speak ; -)

Good things The partners are using social media (website, Facebook, Youtube, …) and present multimedia messages Each city has a specific subsite in own language Some subsites implement social activity on their website Some great ideas (romantic story, …)

Negative things Hard to get insight into the structure of CIVITAS project and the social media initiatives 20 cities doing more or less the same + external partners (like Mobiel 21. be, gentfietst. be, …) Where can I found information about CIVITAS or mobility project with regard to for example Gent? Sometimes ‘old’ news - mobiel 21: last news article from June o - civitas Ljubljana: last blog article is from May o - general Facebook group: last wall post from August o

Lack of homogeneity

Lack of sharing features on general site and (most of) subsites

Important to measure users’ engagement to the project!

Lack of interaction with users o Few reactions, few likes, few ratings (Facebook posts with 0 likes) o Lack of feedback on reactions

Lack of twitter activity

Lack of humanization of project (who’s behind the project? )

Lack of cross-promotion of social activity - No visibility of social activities (Facebook fans, Flickr photos, Linkedin members, Foursquare check-ins, …) on the website - Only few links between the social media platforms - One good explanation: there is not enough content on the social media platforms!

2. Use of social media for engaging stakeholders (general overview)

Social media, social network sites, web 2. 0/3. 0, … o People have contact through online/digital platforms o People share content (text, photos, videos) o Relation between members based on interest (family, friends, soccer, Starbucks in Antwerp, Justin Bieber, sustainable mobility)

Past: one-way communication - Anonymous surfer

Later: two-way communication - With nicknames (sugerhoney 1983@hotmail. com) + avatar - Written words

Now: Social communication - Mostly real names (to be found!) + real profile pictures - Multimedia (text, pictures, videos)

Types of social media 1. ‘Traditional’ social media (forums, blogs)

2. Social network Sites (SNS) Netlog (young people, -24 years) Facebook (everyone, everything, 700 million (!!) users, average 38 years)

Linkedin (professional network)

Twitter (+200 million users, + 1. 5 billion (!!) searches, microblogging, personal experiences, real-time updates)

Location based social networking

Sharing platforms

+ expert platforms

Uses and gratifications of social media o To get informed (what’s happening? ) o To profile (look what I do / what I know) o To be entertained / to relax / to pass time o Interaction among users is important to reach gratifications (= user-to-user interaction) o Based on messages, photos, videos around a shared interest (= user-to-user sharing) hard to manage social media activity !

Active, sharing audience? Well …

Society = SO LO MO Is sustainable mobility a “social media thing”?

Society anno 2011 o SOCIAL (networking, friends making, doing things together online) o LOCAL (community building based on interest + based on location) o MOBILE (more smartphones than ever + ipads = time and place shifting)

Is mobility SO LO MO?

Mobility = Social !

Mobility = Local !

Mobility = mobile !

Augmented-reality ! = real-world environment is augmented by computer data

Bici. Valancia

Gasolina in Spain

To conclude: Mobility is a social media thing !! Organisations like CIVITAs should use social media to o Present information (what are we doing) o Entertain users o Interact with users – What is your problem? (researching) – How can we help you? (service) – What do you propose? (co-creation) Involvement + engagement !

3. How to increase and engage your social media ‘fanbase’?

Why do you want 1000 fans, likes? Meet Sofie … Don’t ask what you want, but what the people want

Feed the platforms o Facebook fan page o Twitter account o Linkedin group o Flickr o Youtube o Foursquare check-in o Slideshare o …

Make it visible o Uniform house style – Lay out of sites – CIVITAS_Gent / CIVITAS_Zagreb – #CIVITAS_ELAN –… o Provide ‘about’ information

o Crosspromotion – Online – online + traditional – online – Paid media: display advertising, google/Facebook adds, … – Owned media: website, magazine, news letter, blog, business card, …

– Earned media: tv show, newspapers, twitter, blogs, … Very influential! – Real life: meetings, lectures, festivals, …

Website should be base site for all (social) activities

Provide gratifications 1. Communication (think SO LO MO) o SO: Make communication possible (reactions, rating, sharing, humanization of profile, …) o LO: Organize specific communities (local – hyperlocal / business people – students) o MO: make mobile version of platforms, implementation of Foursquare/Gowalla, design mobile apps

2. Entertainment/gamification o Polls, funny videos, special features, … o Gamification = the use of game features to engage audiences (challenges, levels, rewards, …) Reward users/fans/followers with - Badges - Twibbons - Registration of performances - …

Badges and twibbons

Registration of performances

3. Information Surveillance (what’s news? ) Service (how can we help you? ) 4. Crowdsourcing / co-creating = using the knowledge/ideas from the community = “get them into the boardroam”

Boardofinnovation. com

Engage social media influencers ! Earned media!

1. Define user profiles

Visualize them, “place yourself within his/her/their shoes” By defining & building strategy around these profiles, you will be able to better target communication and content Find out o their goals, concerns, preferences, where they hang out online (surveys, reports, statistics, social media … or try to speak with them in real life) o what people are looking for online – Google adwords – Google insights for search

Identify social influencers o who’s writing about these topics? (use Google, Blogs, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, listorious!!) o who are these people? Who’s in their network? ” (use twitalyzer, klout)

Prefer local influencers

Begin to interact with them Follow, like, fan, retweet, share React, help (look before you leep) Involve the influencers in your medium (e. g. expert blogs, opinion article, mobility solutions, links, … = promotion for influencers) GOAL: provide goodwill, so they will write, tweet about your organization and influence their network.

Remember to make content shareable

And remember also …

4. How to monitor, follow-up and sell social media initiatives ?

Measuring social media effect Because social media should never be goal, but a tool to reach goals Start social media plan Measurement 1 online offline Measurement 2 online offline

Goals of CIVITAS ELAN OFFLINE o Increased energy efficiency o Increased speed of public transport by giving priority. o Management of space to increase its quality and its use by sustainable modes. = RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI) ONLINE o Establishment of a mobility dialogue with the citizens o 68 individual measures will be realised in the project, with a focus on citizen participation in many of them o Mobilising citizens by developing, with their support, clean mobility solutions for vital cities, ensuring health and access for all = RETURN ON ATTENTION (ROA)

Measuring social media effect

1. Exposure How many people do you reach? o Facebook: Number of fans on your page + number of fans from those who became fan (use Google insights)

o Twitter: Number of followers + number of followers of those retweeted your message (use Tweetreach) o Youtube: number of views / number of subscribers o Blog: number of visitors (use dashboard)

o Website: number of unique visitors (use metrics) o Co-creation website: number of clicks, fans. o Email/news letter: number of people receiving news letter

2. Engagement How many people did something with your message? o Facebook: number of times links were clicked, and messages got liked or received reactions + wall posts / divided by number of people (Use Facebook insights + open facebook search)

o Twitter: – number of times your links were clicked (eg. bit ly) – message was retweeted – your hashtag was used (see twitter profile) – Track @replies and direct messages (DM’s) – + how many people were responsible for these actions.

o Youtube: number of reactions on your video, numbers of times it was rated and shared, and number of new subscribers

o Website: Number of shared items, number of reactions on articles o Blogs: Number of reactions o Co-creation platform: how many proposals, reactions, likes o Email news letter: number of times news letter was opened and shared. Number of news subscriber / unsubscribers o Other earned media: blogs, forums, websites, … (google alert) + tradional media (tv, radio, print media)

3. Influence How are people talking about your organization? Did your social media influence good vibes toward the brand, or did it create bad mojo? o Important, but hard job! o Twitter: tools like Twends, Viral Heat, … (mostly not free)

4. Action Goals of the projects measured in real life (numbers of students hiring a bicycle, numbers of business man attending a symposium about sustainability, …) Make overview of changes over time and link real life outcomes with social media facts to measure the real ROI + ROA. Although these data provide just an impression, they can sell the social media plan to the decision-makers

What with feedback? Remember: o “Implementing sustainable mobility by giving voice to the people” o Be open for feedback!

What with feedback? o Real problem: Someone has got a problem with your organization or decision – Reaction: Immediate reaction! Just explain what went wrong or why you made a specific decision – “Thanks for bringing it to our attention, but here’s why we do it that way. Use data/facts to make your argument stronger’.

o Constructive feedback: someone makes a suggestion to make something better – Reaction: Even when you don’t want to implement the suggestion, it is well worth the effort to thank those consumers who took the time to provide you with a suggestion (involvement + engagement!!)

o Emotional attacks: – Reaction: remember that this emotional attack has a basis in a real problem. – Thank for the feedback and assure them that steps are being taken to manage the issue, such as offering a partial refund

o Spams, trolling: no valid reason to be angry, and do this over and over again – Reaction: no response, just delete reactions as soon as possible – Only situation where censorship is valid!

E-mail me @ Michael. Opgenhaffen@lessius. eu Follow me on www. twitter. com/Mich. Opgenhaffen