The purpose of the videos is to help students sort through the mounds of data that they can collect. I want to help them determine what meaningful and actionable metrics they can track. Measurement, especially in an ever-changing environment, can be a little intimidating. I am hopeful these little tips help my students focus their attention on measuring things concepts that really get at understanding engagement – not just numbers for the sake of numbers.

I decided to do videos rather than cover tips daily in class to not only save time in class, but give students a chance to review the tips as they desire.

The videos are basic (this is an intro research methods class, after all), but if you are interested you can follow along at 1 metric, 1 minute playlist.

And so this semester I have my students monitoring real clients and producing 3 social media monitoring reports on the client throughout the semester. The purpose is not only to show them how to measure social media, but to allow them to do it over time for tracking purposes and come to a deeper understanding of what metrics really matter.

Each student will follow an assigned client all semester. The student will create a monthly report, determining the baseline in the first report then trending data for the 2nd and 3rd reports.

Here is the information I gave to my students in the handout, and the video (.mov) I made to explain the basic assignment.

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This on-going assignment will have you tracking your client throughout the semester and creating a total of three reports detailing trends in online conversation.

Resources
The following social media monitoring resources may help identify conversations about your client.

• Search all social media: Addcitomatic, IceRocket, Yahoo! Pipes, Samepoint, Social Mention
• Twitter searches and metric tools: tweetgrid, Twazzup, trendistic, twitalyzer, tweeteffect, tweetstats, twitturly, tweetvolume, trendpedia
• Blogs: blogsearch.google.com, postrank
• SEO: google.com/insights/search
• Facebook: facebook.com/lexicon/

Be sure to also consider searching Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler and any other social site you can find!

Tips

• Make the layout of the report consistent from month-to-month
• Use graphics and minimize text
• Specify what you think the goal for the client should, include target audience: focus data around that
• Avoid heavy text that will be complex to process
• Track: topics, tone, message salience, word-of-mouth, engagement, etc.
• Set up system to collect data throughout month & code as you go (content analysis)

Read blog posts seek out current resources on best practices for metrics and monitoring.

• Social networks: http://www.kayesweetser.com/archives/206
• Twitter: http://www.kayesweetser.com/archives/214
• Viral video: http://www.kayesweetser.com/archives/221
• Photosharing: http://www.kayesweetser.com/archives/223
• Todd Defren’s blog: http://www.pr-squared.com/
• KD Paine’s blog on measurement: http://kdpaine.blogs.com/

Requirements

• Each report is only limited to one page (and no, not 2-sided), margins unimportant
• Provide basic information on how each metric was measured (parameters, search terms, method, etc.)
• If reporting a statistic garnered from an online tool, cite the tool as the source
• If publishing a graphic created by an online tool, cite the tool as the source

Turning it in

• Print a copy (in color if desired), place the print out on the table at front of class
• E-mail a PDF of what you turned in to professor no later than 11:59 p.m. on the day the report was due, subject line will be client / report # (example: @NavyNews / report 1)
• Late work never accepted and the assignment is not fully turned in until professor has both the print out and the PDF

And now I can.

BlogWell, a case-study rich half-day conference sponsored by the Social Media Business Council, is coming to Atlanta on Nov. 10. At the event, you will:

Learn how the biggest organizations succeed using social media with 8 practical, how-to case studies. You’ll learn everything including how to get started, how to get past roadblocks, and how to make your social media program phenomenal.

You’ll ask questions, network with lots of smart people, and walk away with fantastic, actionable ideas for your social media programs.

And those case studies? We’re talking Coke, HomeDepot, Newell Rubbermaid, UPS, Turner Broadcasting & others.

If you’re still not sold, watch previous case study BlogWell vids (here too) & imagine what more you might have learned if you were in that room to ask questions rather than watch the video months later.

I hope I’ll see you there — register today!

****

Oh-by-the-way: In my Navy Reserve work, I’m now supporting the Navy’s Emergent Media Integration division at the Navy Office of Information; the Navy recently became a member of the SMBC. Even if I weren’t remotely in some strange way affiliated with SMBC, I’d still think BlogWell was thebomb.com .

Thanks to the fine people running things at UGA’s Grady College, I’ve been able to secure two amazing offers that will help pre-luncheon attendees fast-track their social media training.

It’s a very simple contest. The top two pre-lunch attendees who post the most tweets during the pre-lunch using the hashtag #UGAsocialmedia will win:

• Grand prize: $50 off registration for the October 24 Strategies & Opportunities in Social Media (S.O.S.) seminar led by Dr. Karen Russell and me in Atlanta

• Runner up: $25 off registration for the September 19 Connect conference in Athens

Your tweets must be public (so we can see them) & you must use the #UGAsocialmedia hashtag for a tweet to qualify. Only tweets posted during the pre-lunch qualify.

So get to twittering!

Creating Your Social Media Playbook: A Pre-Season Training Camp

Are you ready to jump into the social media game, but you don’t know all the X’s and O’s to get a win for your team? This pre-luncheon seminar will help you assemble a playbook sure to make you the company MVP. Learn social media tactics from all-pro social media scholar and practitioner Kaye D. Sweetser, Ph.D., APR. Dr. Sweetser will coach you on a mix of best practices and case studies covering a wide range of social media tools, including Twitter, Facebook and search engine optimization, among others. We’ll watch game tape of what others have done – both successfully and not so – in social media spaces to develop plays that will have your fans cheering in no time. Join us, and go from powder puff to pro.

This PRSA chapter is the second largest in the nation & Atlanta is home to many Fortune 500 companies – so it is an understatement to say that I’m honored to be invited.

We’re going to be drinking from the firehose, so come join us for the crazy fun!

Imagery, as one of the most powerful means of communication, should be both harnessed by the company as well as monitored for situational awareness.

Hosting

• Titles of images should be descriptive with keywords with the intent of maximizing SEO. Search engines rank a title of a page as an important element which tells what is on that page – so using the image name (DSC10032) as the image title means you totally miss this opportunity. The public doesn’t understand that name & while it’s important to classify the image, it can be done at the end of the caption. Sample titles should make sense like a bulleted item and be rich with keywords, such as: Miss USA talks to School Children in Athens, Ga.

• Tie flickr image back to site to generate traffic to the company Web site. If there is a companion story then make sure to add that link to the story in the caption, which will connect the flickr content with company Web site & probably generate new visitors to the site.

• Be accurate with keywords. Keywords should only reflect what is happening in the photo – so if the picture is Miss USA at the same event as another dignitary – but the dignitary is no where to be seen, don’t tag the image with that other guy’s name.

• Ensure tags are consistent. Make sure that everytime you tag a component of the company from photo to photo that the tagging conventions are consistent. For example is it Coke, Cocacola or Coca-Cola? Be consistent so that you are better able to group similar pictures over a long period of time.

• Be maximally inclusive with tags. What is every and any possible object featured in the image and what would people type into a search engine to find that picture? Don’t settle for a single keyword because not everyone will use that same word when searching for the same type of image. Use the “referrers” in the “domains” part of the flickr stats to understand what people are typing in search engines to get to these pix to help you pick the most successful tags.

• Since this flickr is targeted at the public, try to make it more understandable to the public. That is, pick a username without acronyms. Make the name as generic & big company branded as possible.

• Create albums. With the flickr pro account, you can add several albums. Make the most of that & create differently themed albums then file images appropriately.

• Link the profile back to the company Web site. The profile should make it obvious that this is an official account, and be written conversationally. Additionally, it should link back to the company to drive traffic there & lend credibility to the fact this is the official account.

Engaging
Consider starting a group for others’ pictures dealing with your company. People would be able to share their own brand-related shots in the pool and is a great way to also increase exposure to your own imagery. You simply need to create a group or a pool as desired then when you find someone eles’s image that fits with the theme of that group you click “Invite this photo to ….” (under the comment block) and select the appropriate group. Even if the user doesn’t allow his photo be added to your group, other viewers of the image will see the invitation which is listed as  comment on that image.

Make more contacts (i.e., “friend” more people). When you friend someone, that person is likely to friend you back. Getting someone to add you to his lists of contacts is key because then everytime you upload a new image it will show up for that friend when he logs in — which often leads to unplanned viewing of your images. Don’t be afraid to friend people or align with them – if someone has racy or inappropriate content then just unfriend that person, it isn’t a big deal.

Monitoring
Create a list of keywords that describe your company and its issues. Do regular searches on Flickr, Google images and other photo sharing sites to see what is being posted on these topics.

Metrics
With regard to metrics, the pro account allows you to look at all kinds of really elementary stats in the stats screen.

It shows which pix are most popular, referrals, etc. The stats are pretty basic so you will just get an idea of what TYPE of pic the users like the most (pics of people or coke bottles?).

The best use of stats is to really review the referrals to figure out what people are typing into search engines to get to the site, which should help in fine-tuning tags. Additionally, it will help showcase a particularly popular referral (say Facebook, for instance). Use this to not only inform decisions on putting more of what people like on the flickr, but also to identify areas to work harder (increasing referrals from a specific site like Facebook etc).

While YouTube remains the most popular video hosting sites, there are other popular competitors. Sites like Vimeo, Viddler and Blip.tv also offer server space for users to upload their videos.

Videos hosted on sites such as these have an increased opportunity to “go viral.” Key to this not only lies in creating compelling content but also marketing the content properly through keywords and tags that use search engine optimization.

Video sharing sites are great opportunities for the story of your company — as an organization and on a more human level.

Hosting
Company are encouraged to re-purpose their existing video packages and upload to viral video sites. However, companies are encouraged to create specific packages for these viral sites that are more in line with the content regularly posted. Rather than sharing slick packaged news, companies should consider special pieces that showcase the lifestyle and operations through compelling video and stories told through the words of your own personnel.

When creating videos for posting on video sharing sites, several things should be remembered:

• Never use copyrighted materials, such as songs or photos, without proper credit and authorization from the artist. While the personal music video format is popular on YouTube, using songs to which you do not have copyright permission to is stealing and punishable by law. There are many artists and songs available (often listed on Creative Commons licensing music sharing portals) that are legal so make an effort to use those.

• Identify your audience then make a video with the message for that audience and an appropriate message appeal. In some cases humor might be a good appeal, whereas in other cases emotion might be a good appeal.

• Keep ethics in mind.

• Consider creating a storyboard to plan out the video before shooting video or conducting interviews. Storyboards help ensure the purpose of the video remains the focus.

• Determine the appropriate length keeping in mind that most YouTube videos are quite short and attention span of viewers is even shorter. You can use the InSights “hot spots” data discussed in the metrics section to determine at which point people typically turn of the video or rewind content to see something over. This data can help with making decisions for future videos and editing. For example, if interview pieces are too long and the hot spots graph always drops at that point then shorten the interview segment and add interest by playing b-roll over parts of it.

• Put important information in the video, not just in the text description or tags that accompany the video. In the actual video, clearly and visually identify the company or any other take away you want the viewer to have. Remember that some videos end up being embedded in others’ Web sites and the video may not necessarily be viewed from the YouTube page where you’ve posted a nice description.

• Promote the video sharing account for your company numerous ways, such as a link from the company Web site, Facebook page, Twitter account and e-mail signatures.

• Allow your videos to be embedded in other’s Web sites. This will increase the reach of your content.

• Remember that various segments of your audience both have the potential to view an online video. Don’t make something that you target to young people with a message that you would be embarrassed if more older and loyal publics saw it. You can target publics all you want, but when the content is public then you have to understand that all of your publics will see it.

Engaging
When you come across a video that showcases the company or company issues, feel free to comment publicly on the video. Quality comments are not “great video,” but instead a more in-depth reaction or providing related information. Engagement on video sharing sites is just like engagement in a face-to-face conversation, saying something is really good and not discussing what is good about it or why is not engagement.

The company may opt to have a video competition where they invite people to post videos on a certain topic. Note, though, that a lot of organizations that have tried this before say this method doesn’t really work well.  So while most social media experts agree “video contests don’t work,” such evaluations are more from an ROI perspective. The time that it takes someone to think through a video, create it and then share it requires a mental and time investment on that video creator.

Monitoring
Create a list of keywords that describe your company and its issues. Do regular searches on YouTube and other video sharing sites to see what is being posted on these topics. In doing this, you may come across a video produced by an employee who produced an honest and quality video about a recent company event that you can ask to post on the company Web site. In other cases, it gives you an idea of what people are thinking about or saying your company issues which will help in future messaging.

Metrics
Different video hosting sites offer different sets of metrics. The important thing is focus the metrics on more than just how many “hits” or views the video received. Afterall, it could be the same one person watching the video 500,000 times.
Quality metrics include:

• Location of viewers – are viewers in your region or outside?

• Gender make-up and age of viewers – are the videos being watched by the previously identified target?

• YouTube InSight “hot spots” graph shows how viewers react to every second of a video, with the graph going down if people closed the video at a point or going up if people rewound the video to re-play a portion. This information can help with planning future videos in knowing what made previous videos successful (or where people lost interest).

• Links to video and referrals – how many different people are linking to the video? What other social sites (Facebook, Twitter) is being used the most?

• Keyword searches – examine which keywords people used to land at your video to help determine more successful search engine optimization (SEO) keyword writing for the next video

Note: Like “best of” post, this information comes from a variety of sources which I can’t even begin to credit even though I’ve tried. At this point all this information should be pretty standard best practices & I’ve just posted them here to bring it all into one place.

Twitter users tend to be older than Facebook users. Twitter content varies from the cliche posting of what someone had for lunch to back channel conversation at events or corporations using Twitter to engage their stakeholders. Currently Twitter is a free service where organizations do not have to pay for their presence in the network, however some media coverage of the service has hinted that organizations may be charged for their Twitter profiles.

The short messages that one writes on Twitter is often called  “tweet.” Users set up an account and then “follow” other users. When other users follow you they are called “followers.” It is common practice for users to “re-tweet” information they see posted by other people. This is typically shown as RT @username (that being the username of the original person who tweeted the information) or via @username. The community adheres to this method because it shows deference to the person who originally found or reported the message in the first place. When one wants to target a message to a particular user, one will put @username (that being the username of the targeted person) and these replies, or @s as they are called, will show up in the user’s sidebar.

It is best for organizations to set up short and obvious (minimize inter-organizational acronyms) Twitter usernames. The username a company chooses should be short because it is a goal that the information tweeted by the company will be so interesting that others on the network will want to repeat that information and post it themselves. Therefore, to conform to the community standards, the re-tweeted information will likely include @username for the company. It is considered best practices for the username to be obvious because other people not following the company may see the company’s username mentioned around Twitter. If the company’s username makes sense then those unfamiliar with the company’s account can still ascertain that the account is related to the company. If the most obvious username for your company is taken and it appears that someone is cybersquating (no real reason for the person to have @DeltaAirlines as the username other than Delta Airlines!) then the company can contact Twitter to have the username released back to the company.

Twitter now offers “verified account” services as well, typically used by celebrities (real ones, not Internet-made ones), which means that when you see a tweet by @Oprah it really is the Oprah.

Hosting
Tweets posted on the company Twitter account should attempt to stay well under the 140 character limit. One should attempt this so that if the company’s tweet is re-tweeted and posted by another user then there is enough space to include “RT @username” (that being the company’s username) with the entire message.

When an official company account is created, it should be written from a human voice and transparent as to who is writing the tweets. However, the account should not become so human that it appears to be the personal Twitter account of the person writing the messages.

The Twitter avatar should be a company logo or picture that allows other users to easily understand what the company is about (note that most avatars are seen as small squares so the picture should be cropped tightly). The company account should not be a photo of the person writing the tweets (that person can have his/her photo on his/her own personal Twitter account).

Others have suggested that to encourage re-tweeting (the viral spread of your message), you should:

• Compose message in as few characters as possible, to allow room for re-tweeting

• Ensure message is simple, include link (use bit.ly URL shortener to track clicks) for additional information

• Ask people to RT (re-tweet) the message

• Say please when asking to re-tweet

• Thank people (either publically or privately through DM) when they RT your message

Messages that typically get retweeted are those that contain: breaking news, interesting facts or information, lists of things, information about Twitter (since you all have that in common with your followers), links to interesting stories/resources.

That said, I encourage people not to use their company’s Twitter account to talk about social media if their company – other than participating in it – has nothing to do with social media. I don’t want to see tweets about advances or advice in social media posted on @HomeDepot. I want to know what cool and neat things Home Depot is doing or get home improvement advice 140 charaters at time. The key here is that the medium should not be your message – your message is your message. You wouldn’t pay to run a television commercial about how great TV is so why would you tweet about social media (unless of course it is related to your message, industry, product, etc.)

Engaging
If a company makes the decision to get involved in Twitter (run an account), it is critical that the company engage & contribute to the conversation in that network.

A company can certainly tweet about news related to the company, point out a picture of the day or a story about the company/company issues – however this must not be the sole content. The company, if it selects to use Twitter must actively monitor Twitter to find opportunities to really connect with other users. The company should not only begin conversations (such as @flynavy’s question of the week where followers are asked to name favorite aviator, aircraft type or naval aviation movie) but jump in where appropriate (responding to those talking about company/company issues).

Tweets should be human. Tweets should be fun. Think of this as an opportunity to really get to know your stakeholders and talk to them.

Tweets should not metacommunicate about the process of engaging social media. Don’t tweet messages like “I’m new to Twitter what should I do?” Do your homework. Know the community before you dive in so you know what you should do. Certainly take advice when offered from your stakeholders, but don’t try to shine a spotlight on the fact that you are in the spaces so you deserve a ribbon. Instead just get in there, do a great job & the recognition for being a positive case study will come.

It is important to follow people related to the company’s issues. Before you begin following people, ensure the bio statement is completed, there is a good avatar & there are several interesting tweets posted. It is suggested to have approximately 20 interesting tweets before you begin following people. At that point, go around and find 10 people to follow (if they are to follow you back they want to see what you’re about so don’t start following people if you don’t have any tweets up). Do not add a large number of followers all at one time. The rule of thumb suggested is for every 20 tweets you do, you can add 10 more followers.

Remember your Twitter avatar represents your brand. Many suggest that once you as a company pick an avatar you stick with it. Don’t change it with every new week because people won’t be able to keep up that you are you. If you want to feature new imagry, instead change the background picture on your Twitter page (not your avatar). Then you can let folks know that you changed it & direct them to actually visit your page to see the new image.

The more interesting tweets you post, the more likely someone is to retweet (RT) what you say – which will open up a new set of prospective followers.

If you are an open company account you should always follow “real” people or related organizations that follow you. It is okay to not follow tweeters who look like spam. It is also okay to have people follow you & you not follow back — but what is the point of that? Also, note if you’re not following someone back then that person can’t direct message (DM) you.

Make sure the account is open, not locked or private. This means that everyone can see it. If you update it often and link appropriately, you can use it as a search engine optimization tool for your own Web site.

Do not set up auto-direct messages (DMs), as many people consider them spam. You do not have to reply to every single tweet targeted to you or that mentions you – though you are encouraged to get involved in the conversation when it warrents.

When hosting a Twitter account for the company, try to tweet at least once a day. If possible use it more often.

Ensure you check the @replies tab daily to see what messages have discussed you or been directed at you.

There may be times when you want to “pitch,” for lack of a better word, someone on Twitter. Best practices to mastering a pitch in 140 characters or less include:

• Pitch in as few characters as possible (well under 140 limit) in the event your pitch is re-tweeted (RT)

• Build a relationship first, before the pitch

• Individualize pitches, don’t send the same thing to an entire group of people

• Don’t post all your pitches right in a row — when the person you’ve pitched comes to check out your Twitter feed it shouldn’t be filled with pitches like they just received

• Avoid buzzwords or acronyms

Monitoring
The following sites provide free, easy tools that can be used for monitoring Twitter conversation:

• Twazzup – like Twitter search but better in that it shows keywords related to your initial keyword search & most popular tweets related to KW

• TweetGrid – Twitter Search dashboard that updates in real time.

• Trendistic – charts conversational activity on Twitter for a keyword.

• Twilert – advanced Twitter search features (all/any/none of these words, by hashtag, sender, receiver, geography and ATTITUDE) , so you can get alerts of all the people having conversation about a given topic and respond to them.

• Twitalyzer

• TwitterFriends

• TweetEffect

• Tweetstats

• Twitturly

• Thummit Quickrate

• TweetVolume

• Social Rank (may not work) – “grades” the specific search term, provides data on how often that term is tweeted and computer-assisted tone analysis (be careful with the tone analysis because it is subject to false interpretations).

When posting links to Twitter, you should always use a URL shortener like bit.ly because it will track how many times the messages has been re-tweeted by other sources, number of click throughs and general region information about people who clicked on the link. These metrics assist in providing information about which content is most popular and who is interested in your tweets.

Metrics
Eric T. Peterson classifies meaningful tweets — those worth monitoring and therefore measuring — into 4 categories:

• References to other people (defined by the use of “@” followed by text)

• Links to URLs you can visit (defined by the use of “http://” followed by text)

• Hashtags you can explore and participate with (defined by the use of “#” followed by text)

• Retweets of other people, passing along information (defined by the use of “rt”, “r/t/”, “retweet” or “via”)

Using the monitoring methods outlined above, one can classify and analyze all of the tweets discovered in the ongoing monitoring process. A basic outline of items to record for each tweet found in the monitoring process could be:

1. Name of person who posted the tweet
2. Date and time of tweet
3. Peterson tweet typology category: reference, URL, hashtag, RT (note one tweet may fall into several categories)
4. Issue — company conducting the tweet analysis should come up with a list of 10 overall issues (note that keywords for monitoring/searching should correlate with this list as well)
5. Did the item mention a company/company product? (if so, which one)
6. Did the item link to a company/company product? (if so, what link)
7. Did the item mention the company Twitter account
8. Did the item interact (carry on conversation) with the company Twitter account
9. Circulation – number of followers that person who posted the tweet has
10. bit.ly URL shortener will show how many people clicked through on the link you posted in your tweet & also provide general location information (what country the click through occurred in)

This method of individually analyzing each tweet then reviewing the data in the aggregate is important because it helps identify elements that lead to viral messages. Perhaps a single user (be it an official company twitter account or personal/unaffiliated account) is beginning a conversation — through this method of evaluation you can identify that influence. Perhaps a certain topic is trending at great interest — this method can reveal that. Perhaps a specific piece of Web content (URL) is being linked to — this can help identify that trend as well.

Other metrics dealing with Twitter involve measuring the success of the company Twitter account. One can keep weekly totals of:

• Number of new followers

• Number of people who stopped following

• Number of RTs of company Twitter information by other Twitter users

• Number of total click throughs on bit.ly shortened links

Note: I’m not breaking any ground with this post, I’m just doing yeoman’s work bringing all this info together in one place for you. This post was written after scouring the Web for the best in tips so if you want to call out a source, suggest a link or add a best practice please feel free to share the goods in the comments!

Think of social networks like cafeteria tables in middle school. People with common interests and ties come together to create a social network. That is, a network might be just for people working or studying public relations, as is the case with PR Open Mic, or it might be for people with a shared personal interest.

Social networks are growing in popularity, and the older networks (like Facebook) have opened their membership up further beyond their initial charter. Social networks are where people go to talk to people like themselves. In some cases, users know these people in real life and in other cases they find one another based on interests.

Seeing this increased adoption among the public, organizations began also setting up profiles within social networks as a means to further connect with their audiences. Organizations who have been most successful in these endeavors take time to survey the community, understand the values and rules of engagement. In short, they pay attention to the culture and identify what is accepted before they join. When they join, the organizations who have had success within social networks remember that this isn’t a place for traditional public relations tactics but a place for engagement. These organizations don’t always just talk about themselves, but they have real and human-toned conversations with real people.

Hosting

Before deciding to host content (for example, a page in Facebook) on a social network, the company should ask itself several questions:

• Why does the company want to use this network?

• Is this the best network?

• What are that network’s terms of service and are they acceptable?

• Will this community accept the presence of the company or will it go against the network’s culture?

• What precedent has been set for other similar organizations’ interaction in the network?  (Benchmarking and case studies)

• What options are available for a company presence within the network (ex: Facebook allows “page” or “group” option for organizations, additionally company leadership may have their own personal profile)

Once these questions have been answered satisfactorily and the company has determined that a presence in the social network has benefits that outweigh the consequences, the company can move forward.

It is suggested that the company spend a good deal of time monitoring the network and understanding the internal culture before setting up a presence. This is covered in the above pre-hosting checklist where the company PR practitioners review the network to ensure the climate is conducive to organizational presence and the case studies of similar organizations who have begun hosting a presence within the network.

The company should only set up a presence in the social networking site if it can dedicate the time, attention and manpower to adequately maintain the presence. This level of “adequate” should be defined by precedent determined through benchmarking and case studies. In most cases, the company should remember that this space is a place to build relationships with their stakeholders and have very personal, meaningful interactions with them. The page should not be one-way asymmetrical communication. It should be interactive, responsive and human in its approach.

All information communicated by the company through the social network should be considered an official release of information. That is, it should not contain classified or otherwise nonreleaseable information. The communication should be professional and meet the normal standards of ethical and excellent practitioners.

It is not appropriate to use a social network simply as a means to re-purpose PR material. Companies should not simply link to press releases or other official content from their social network presence, as such activities are merely promotional and likely go against the community culture.

Resist the urge to main the front page of the microsite all your content, that you as the company has added. Instead, post comments from users/friends/supporters/fans or content showcase what they have added to the site. Even if it is your site, it isn’t all about you. People will be much more interested in what an independent third party says about your company than whatever PR prose you’ve posted up there.

Companies should encourage interactivity within the network to engage their stakeholders. For example, in Facebook the official page of a summer camp might have “fans” of the page post memories related to the camp. The company should have a clearly posted comment policy. The company should also encourage user-generated multimedia such as videos or photos to be posted. Again, if this is done the company may consider moderating this content and should have a very clear and posted policy in place.

There are several means that can be used within the network to promote a company’s presence. If there are other similar groups (non-competitors), the company can become “friends” or “fans” (depending on the nomenclature of that specific network) of these groups. Understand that when doing so it may appear to be an official endorsement of that group. In many cases, this is not prohibitive, but it should be remembered. If the network allows widgets which pull content from other sites — such as a Flickr photo badge or Twitter feed widget — these should be placed within the social network company presence. Content can be cross-promoted across platforms, such as a Twitter message announcing a “Sea Stories Saturday” where users on a commercial cruise line may be encouraged to go to a Facebook page and share their sea stories or a posting a YouTube video on the Facebook page about a trip on that cruise line. An events page, if available, can be made to promote upcoming company events – both virtual ones and real-life ones – to the fans/members/supporters. Finally, the URLs for the company presence in the social networking site should be listed in e-mail signatures and other materials as appropriate to drive traffic to the content.

Two of my all-time favorite social network uses are PR Open Mic, which brings together practitioners and students (oh! educators too!) into one place where they can talk about public relations, and Graco Baby Products’ Facebook page. Two very different tools — Ning runs PR Open Mic and Facebook powers that Graco microsite. Two very different sets of audiences — public relations professionals & future practitioners vs. mothers. But two very engaging & execllent social networks!

Engaging
Social networks are places for like-minded people to congregate and interact online. As such, each social network has a very specific culture and set of values. When entering any social network, care should be taken to understand the ways people within the network operate and how other organizations are allowed to interact/how organizations are perceived.

Engagement should be a second step when entering an online activity. The first step is monitoring, engagement and then possible hosting of a presence for the company.

Even though the Internet is a mass communication medium and social networks are public spaces, the level of personalization within them is typically high among users. That is, there is typically a connection between two users before they interact with one another. Sometimes this is a real-life connection like friendship and sometimes this is a virtual connection made possible through a common interest. Thinking of the people one interacts with through social networks as “friends of the company” and remember that they are actual humans will help the PR in engaging. This is a one-to-one conversation — never a mass blast to a faceless group of people.

It is suggested that once a set of followers/fan/members/supporters is amassed that you not abuse them by sending too many messages or only pointing them to material on the company Web site. While you may be tempted to send out messages weekly or with every new blog post or news release, only send out messages to all your fans for extremely special occasions — such as a live event kicking off on the page. When sending these messages always include a call to action.

Ensure that the conditions are set for two-way symmetrical communication.

Monitoring
Monitoring content online in a specific social network or community should be the first step in getting involved in social media. There are several free sites online which enable social network monitoring.

• Addictomatic does a multi-network search to pull up mentions of keywords from YouTube, Twitter, blogs, social bookmarking sites and more

• IceRocket enables searches of blogs, social networks and imagery, separating returns by tabs at the top of the page

• Technorati is a classic blog search for mentions of keywords or URLs linked to across the Web. Technorati Chart – search for blogs on a specific keyword, & compare conversations based on terms.

• Google Blog Search uses the power of Google searching focused solely on blog content

• Yahoo Pipes

• SamePoint (link may not be working right now) – monitors conversations in all social media and set filters

• SocialMention – offers a “social rank” score and some top-level summary of sources of mentions

• Google Alerts - delivers realtime returns on keywords from blogs and news outlets

• PostRank – tracks re-sharing based on any original feed

• Google Insights for Search – measures search volume and interest over time and by region

• Trendpedia – repeat of the Technorati compare chart

• Trendrr – specify data sources and customize the reporting you get to a much more robust level

• Facebook Lexicon – tracks conversations on Facebook walls

The first step for companies is to set up a systematic monitoring process. To do this, a specific set of keywords to include the company name, acronym for the company, topics, issues, leadership and common misspellings for each of these should be generated. All of these should be keywords should be searched on daily for conversation monitoring. Next, the tools to gather the conversation should be selected. Tools listed above, such as Addictomatic and IceRocket, are suggested and often used by agencies specializing in social media monitoring. Then, the company must identify what elements of the coverage they wish to monitor.

Suggested monitoring “coding” for each social media element discovered:

• Tool through which item was published (Twitter, blog, Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, etc.) – reveals whether one tool has more conversation about

• Username or URL for published item – enables tracking if one person in particular discusses company frequently

• Date item published – enables tracking over time of aggregate data

• Topic/issue discussed – devise a list of company-specific over-arching topics or issues and track each time one is present in element

• Linked to company WWW presence, if so which one – record whether the element actually linked to a company Web site or other online presence which would funnel readers of the element to company content

• Interaction/conversation with company – determine whether the element began or continued a conversation with the company

• Tone – determine if it was positive toward company/company issue, neutral in that it was fact-based or negative

• Language – record language item was published in

• Circulation – when possible, record the readership for the item. Readership can be number of Facebook friends, number of Twitter followers, number of unique visitors to blog, etc.

Metrics

• Count number of fans/members/supporters

• Count number of posts/wall comments/discussion/forum topics within page

• Ratio of new members/fans/supports to people who left the group

• New members/fans/supporters who join per day/week/month

• If using Facebook, employ Insights (built-in metric program for organization pages only)

Facebook specific metrics
“Facebook Insights” is the first page you will see when you go to “Ads and Pages.” Clicking on the word “Insights” underneath the title of the page will show you more in-depth demographic statistics for each menu item, including gender and age range. You can also access this page from the Editing dashboard by clicking “All Page Insights” on the right sidebar.

With Insights you can review statistics on page views, unique views, total interactions, wall posts, discussion topics, fans, new fans, removed fans, reviews, photo views, audio plays and photo views. The default graph shows page views, so to see a different graph click the arrow next to the title of the page and a drop-down menu will appear from which you can choose the graph you want to view.

Check Insights weekly to monitor activity on the Facebook page. Be aware of when a spike in page views coincides with certain uploaded content. A spike in page views may signal that the most recently uploaded content is particularly popular with users. Upload similar content in the future to bring even more people to the page. For example, if you post an interesting link and note that your page experiences a spike in traffic, look for similar links to post because you now know that topic is popular with your audience.

Note that the “Page Views” graph can be misleading because it counts all page views, including multiple visits from the same person. The “Unique Views” graph gives a better idea of the amount of traffic coming to the site since it counts individual people instead of individual views.

Watch for new fans and note when they join the page. If there is a fan drive or announcement sent out over the listserv about Facebook and then you see a spike in new fans, it could mean people were not aware of the Facebook page before your announcement. Use conferences, newsletters and events to make announcements and raise awareness of the Facebook page. Check the fan statistics after these events and announcements to see if more fans join. If you do not see an increase in fans, you will need to increase your marketing of the page.

To download daily or weekly reports of the data and have them delivered to your account, click “Export Data” below the page name at the top of the screen. This way you can share the information with people who are not on Facebook.

Note: this blog post was written compiling about a million (no less!) different other blog posts that offer much better advice than I … I wish I still had the links so if you have any links (which were probably my original sources, best practices or updates please put them in the comments.

Heck, many people turn to social media for first-hand experiences of people on the scene.

The structure of social media also benefits in times of crisis as it creates a better opportunity for information to spread, through reposting of content on blogs or re-tweeting information.

There are best practices gleaned from industry performance and academic research on this topic – none of these are new ideas but they’re put all right here for ease of review:

• Use existing accounts with established readership, avoid the temptation to create a new special account. New accounts will segment your brand. If you use existing accounts then when the crisis posting subsides and you return to regular content you may have readers stay on.

• Post information in a consistent and timely manner. Make a decision to either post information as it is confirmed, when a release is sent out or at a special time of day.

• Answer questions as much as possible. Avoid one-way communication, which is what press releases are for. Be prepared to have people ask questions and treat those like media queries and respond back as quickly as possible through the most appropriate means of communication.

• Monitor conversations regularly and correct inaccuracies. This is the best way to stop rumors before they run rampant. Use search engines and other monitoring tools to track discussion on the topic.

• Encourage on-scene and first-responder personnel to engage via social media. You can do this by having them either use their personal accounts or feeding you information to post on the official company social sites. Regardless, the company site should promote this content when appropriate.

• Promote the social media content on outgoing materials like press releases, e-mail signatures, links on the home page and even in conversations with reporters. The social media content isn’t helpful if it isn’t discoverable or people don’t know about it.

• Use the best tool for the job. For example, breaking news can be broken on Twitter, then a press release or multimedia posted on the company Web site which can be social bookmarked (Digg, Reddit), shared on Facebook, discussed on the company blog and sent to previously engaged bloggers.

• Analyze success of social media after the crisis by looking at click throughs, conversation, replies and reactions to postings, etc.

I actually did a research study a few years ago about using social media in crisis. It came down to the fact that the more an organization communicated via social media during crisis, the less its publics thought that the situation was a crisis.

What are your best practices for using social media in a crisis?