10 Tips for Using Social Media for Professional and Business Development

Use social media when it fits your personalprofessional schedule. Focus your social media adventures and pick the tools that meet your interests. Allot a setspecific time to do social media during the day. Star blog posts, favorite tweets, and bookmark with Delicious CONNECT: Find those with similar interests and develop personal relationships COLLABORATE: Contribute and collect information. ACROSS CHANNELS: Keyword search at addictomatic.com • BLOGS: Keyword search at Alltop.com and Google blog search • TWITTERERS AND TWITTER LISTS: Keyword search at listorious.com • REALTIME TWEETS: Hashtag search at tweettabs.com • PROFILES: Keyword search Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, MySpace, among others COMMUNICATE: Promote yourselforganization and control messaging

10 TIPS FOR USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR PROFESSIONAL + BIZ DEVELOPMENT

Flickr: Robert S Donovan

A discussion with WTS Boston Chapter

Hi, we’re Mike and Bluma

We’re strategic communications

consultants at Booz Allen

Download @ slideshare.net/MikeRobert

Flickr: Armend Krasniqi

Roadmap for today’s discussion

using it, and why does it matter?

biz development

What is social media?

youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8

Who’s using social media?

19% of Fortune 500 companies

were podcasting in 2009 (up from 16% in 2008) and 31% were video blogging (up from 21%)

The average professional uses 3-5

social networks for business use – the top being LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter

51% of the Inc 500, America’s

fastest growing private businesses, are on Twitter

whitehouse.gov/open/around

Every major Federal agency met the most recent deadline for

President Obama’s Open Government Directive -Information Week

-Society for New Communications Research

There’s something for everyone

MBTA delivers customized service alerts via SMS text

Caltrain shares PSAs on

YouTube

Metrolink, MTA, BART, among others, announce service alerts via Twitter

Washington State DOT blog shares information on programs and activities

Transbay Joint Power Authority promotes new infrastructure on Facebook

Washington State DOT

Flickr page shares transit photos

International No-Pants

Subway Ride 2010 in Boston

was organized on Facebook

2008 Toronto

Transitcamp was

planned through a wiki

Popular tools at a glance

Blog A blog is a direct conversation between an individual/organization and the public

Twitter A microblogging site that allows individuals/organizations to share brief messages about news, what you’re doing or thinking

Facebook The world’s most popular social networking site with over 300 million active users including organizations

LinkedIn A popular social networking site for working professionals

YouTube The world’s most popular video sharing site that allow individuals/organizations to easily upload and share videos

Delicious A social bookmarking site that allows individuals/organizations to search, save, categorize, and share bookmarks of online content

#1 Social media mirrors real life.

collaborative participatory honesty authenticity transparency

sharing

creation

Flickr: takomabibelot

community

#2 Set your objectives before launch.

What do you want to accomplish?

 CONNECT: Find those with similar interests and

develop personal relationships

 COLLABORATE: Contribute and collect

information

 COMMUNICATE: Promote yourself/organization

and control messaging

Flickr: Dawn Endico

#3 Will you just post a sign or sell too?

Flickr: Robert S Donovan

#4 Know your audience.

Identify channels, influencers, and topics

• ACROSS CHANNELS: Keyword search at addictomatic.com

• BLOGS: Keyword search at Alltop.com and Google blog search

• TWITTERERS AND TWITTER LISTS: Keyword search at listorious.com

• REAL-TIME TWEETS: #Hashtag search at tweettabs.com

• PROFILES: Keyword search Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, MySpace, among others

#5 Blogs.

 A blog is a direct, unmediated

conversation between one person or

group and the public

 133+ million blogs exist and 22%

of the top 100 news sites are blogs

#6 Facebook profiles, pages, and groups.

#7 Twitter profiles.

#8 LinkedIn profiles.

#9 Yammer profiles.

#10 Measure your success!

 Positive/negative tonality of discussion

 Referrals, leads, conversions

 Comments, public @replies, direct messages, retweets

 Fans, followers, RSS subscribers

 Positive/negative press, online rumors squashed

#10 Measure your success!

Our best advice to you

personal/professional schedule

adventures and pick the tools that

meet your interests

social media during the day

and bookmark with Delicious

Flickr: Shahram Sharif

10 TIPS FOR USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR

Flickr: Robert S Donovan

Connect with us:

Bluma Sussman sussman_bluma@bah.com

@MikeRobert robert_michael@bah.com

Flickr: Shahram Sharif

Some considerations for the tools

+ Direct line to agency/program - Legal implications for inaccuracy

- Comments may require moderation

Twitter + Real-time and offers location functionality

+ Reaches mobile audiences

- Audience can sometimes be unclear

- Requires regular use and potentially engagement

Facebook + Most popular direct line to stakeholders

+ Content is shared virally and ads are very targeted

- Applications should be carefully selected

- Easy to sound corporate

LinkedIn + Most popular social network for professionals

and recruiters

+ Online, shareable resume

- Still gaining in popularity

- Not as readily accessed in comparison to Facebook

YouTube + Easily shared and embedded

+ Contributes to Google rankings - Comments may require moderation

- Video responses may require moderation

Delicious + Online library of easily shared resources

+ Indexed and searchable by keywords - No click-through data on traffic

- Limited engagement with stakeholders

Resources to get you started

 Social Media SmartBrief

 Mike’s social media bookmarks on delicious

 10 commandments of social media

 Facebook guidebook

 Twitter guidebook

 How to manage your social media goals

 10 musts for your social media policy

Transportation examples of social media

Blogs

Local bloggers are engaging the public about capital

projects, service offerings and administrative issues

Social Networks

Customers are creating their own communities to rally around causes and to ensure their voices are heard

Transportation examples of social media

Transportation agencies are sharing information

(including service alerts) and inviting community

comments through Twitter

Video

Transportation agencies are sharing information and inviting community comments through on-line video

(e.g., YouTube)