Social Media - Use & Mis-use. Best working practices

Social Media - Use & Mis-use. Best working practices

Luke John Emmett, 1 July 2012

Participants:

Alison Farina, Harriet de Winton, Jojo Townsend, Lucy Heard, Luke John Emmett

We had a really interesting conversation which covered a lot of the different areas and usages of social media. More than anything it created a lot more questions which hopefully make some sort of sense below.

Businesses & Individuals

What is the best practice for business use on Twitter?

Should tweets be professional or personal? Does it help to have an account with a personality.

What is your brand - what are you trying to say about you or your business?

Business accounts with multiple users tweeting info. Good practice to put initials of those tweeting to make distinctions between tweets and also to allow owners to check

what is being posted and to measure frequency.

How do you make your account stand out from all the other accounts on Twitter? By giving it a personality or something that isn't just photos and info.

Users have a responsibility for content and planning content that is sent via Social Media.

Facebook - enabling users to share files, photos, events and info. Much more open than Twitter - but can this openness be too much?

Why do people join social networks? What are their reasons for joining? What makes them a potential follower of you?

Point raised: is it best to focus on 1 thing and do it well or lots and potentially dilute the audience and content.

What Does Your Potential Audience Want? What Are You Offering Them?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Social Networking?

ADVANTAGES:
Instant access to lots of people very quickly and also lots of people with similar interests.

Easy to set up accounts and use/

FREE - this was a big point. No exclusivity. ANYONE can join.

Easy to share pictures and media info across platforms.

DISADVANTAGES:
You can never know what people are thinking or what impact your posts are having on your potential audience.

Facebook insights are on the whole inaccurate and don't give a good overall view of who is looking at content and what.

Fickle - takes time to update, content, who's around for events etc?

MARKETING PLAN
Have a clear idea of brand identity. Who are you and what are you trying to say.

Clarity and planning.

Marketing plan.

Create a PULSE coming out of your tweets and posts. Make them engaging and interesting. Set off a spark that leads to something more.

Make the info relevant. No-one really cares what you had for breakfast.

Do separate show accounts work or just create a saturation of information? Is there too much going on? Would it be better coming from a central account?

Is social media becoming too main stream? Has it lost it's stumbling across feeling?

RULES:
Should their be a set of guidelines or etiquette for Social Media use?

Examples could include: Spelling things correctly Disbursement of info

JOBS & NETWORKING:
Many people have gained jobs from Twitter. Not as much from Facebook.

Social Media - should not be ignored. People should embrace the technology available to them.

Thin line between it being useful and taking over.

Facebook has a more human element than Twitter - it is possible to learn more about a person or companies identity and personality via Facebook. At the same time it can also be very exposing. Twitter feels somehow safer.

Twitter - you have more control of what your see and what you respond to. Facebook allows you less control.

What is the difference between you and your company? Should you have different identities?

Linked-In

Many people are members but what does it actually do?

BLOGS
Why are they interesting? How can they be useful? When are they not useful? What should people avoid putting?

Be VERY careful what you put on social media sites

Self-censorship. How much honesty can you put?

LIVING IT!
Amazing show work & platforms to do it on.

How much do you NEED to put on Twitter?
Do people who follow you generally know about you anyway so do you HAVE to force your shows down their throat every other tweet?

How reliant are we becoming on Social Media?

It allows easier contact with what were un-approachable organisations.

There is a real ease of access to companies and info than there used to be.

Tags:

social media, facebook, linked-in, twitter