Nottingham City Council, Stephen Barker

Why and how NCC Communications and Marketing should be using Social Media

Social Media Champions:

• Katie Freeman

• Jo Jagiello

• Dani Jenkins

• Paul Burns

Why should we use social media

• Facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites

• A social utility that connects people with family, friends and allows them to network with people who work, study and live around them.

Using Facebook as a marketing tool

• Creating a Facebook page will allow you to tap into an online network to help you encourage interest, participation and knowledge about your project.

• Most importantly it’s FREE and easy to use.

• Facebook has many features and applications that allow you to engage with your audience.

• Facebook opens a whole new channel for citizen engagement, branding, communication and viral word-of-mouth marketing.

Facebook pages can help you:

• Raise awareness of a project or campaign

• Inform our citizens about news, events and campaigns

• Attract visitors

• Promote events & campaigns

• Encourage feedback and online collaboration

• Enable you to ask questions and tap into collective intelligence

• Provide an interactive experience that engages

Using Facebook as a marketing tool….

• 1st June 2010: 27.1 Million Monthly active users 44.2% of UK population

• 2.2 million more than 1st May 2010 = 8.9% growth

Some interesting social media stats….

• In Dec2009 Facebook was the top site accessed by mobile internet users

• Page views 2.6bn of 6.7bn total

• 2.2bn minutes of 4.8bn minute total

• 5 Million Facebook Mobile Unique Users Context: All Google sites 2nd 396million minutesInteresting Fact: By the same measures   Flirtomatic was the 9th most accessed site  

Facebook on your mobile…

Where are we now?

• We do have some successful examples

• We recognise the value and importance of using social media

• Inconsistent use across the team

• Un- coordinated approach

• Not taking full advantage of the benefits

• Easily avoidable errors or mistakes

• Orphan pages with no access

Where do we want to be? (our aims)

• Instil a culture where social media is viewed (where appropriate) as an integral part of our marketing strategies and campaigns

• Develop a consistent, high quality and seamless approach to social media marketing techniques and tools

• We want citizens to use it naturally as a first choice to engage with us

• Establish the My Nottingham master page as a main comms channel and make it the face of our social media presence as a council

• Reduce spend on expensive and non targeted print materials

• Demonstrate the effectiveness of our social media activity and ROI

The new “Master page”…Katie’s baby

www.facebook.com/mynottingham

Do’s and Don’ts

• It’s time to start thinking about how you will use social media in your current or next campaigns

Do’s

• Come and talk to us to get advice

• Make at least one of us admin on your page

• Make time for your social media activity

• Set yourself aims and objectives

• Plan your time effectively

• Measure ROI

• Think long term

• Create a seamless link between all your online and offline activity

More do’s…

• Post consistent, regular and relevant content

• Moderate your page daily

• Get a friendly URL

• Run competitions

• Be personable without being over familiar

• use the find us of Facebook/Twitter logo on promotional materials

• “ Fish where the fish are”

• Use multi media content: photos, videos, links

• Think ‘conversation’

• Engage, don’t push

Don’ts

• Think you are on your own! We are here to help

• Use any other social media channel other than Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

• Set up a page for one off events

• Expect immediate results

• Over saturate

• Ignore posts/interactions

• Become “friends” with members of the public

• Mention individuals/colleagues in a public forum

• Delete or edit comments or responses of your fans unless absolutely necessary

Competitions

Dealing with complaints

Multi media links

Topical status updates

Immediate responses

Next Steps…

• Continue to develop the My Nottingham master page:

• Gain a realistic number of “likes”

• Ensure staff and service areas are aware and using it correctly

• Develop guidelines to help marketing colleagues (and eventually the wider council) deliver high quality and consistent activity

• Produce a social media request form to help colleagues identify suitable campaigns

• Continue to “Stay on top of” the developments and changes of social media and technologies

• Carry out evaluation to determine how successfully social media had been embraced by the team

Any Questions?

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