Social Media Techniques You Can Begin Using Tonight Cindy Royal, Ph.D Assistant Professor Texas State University School of Journalism and Mass Communication [email protected]www.cindyroyal.com www.onthatnote.com cindytech.wordpress.com twitter.com/cindyroyal facebook.com/cindyroyal
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Social Media TechniquesYou Can Begin Using Tonight
• Once you find your true passion, use social media to express yourself; develop personal brand
Start a Blog
• Blogging allows you to explore your passion, improve writing skills, communicate with others who share your interest
• Explore the topic and become current, eventually an authority
• Blogger is simple; Wordpress allows you to add pages that make it more like a Website
• Free; but pay for a custom domain
• Allows you to have a Web site without knowing how to make one
• Can customize via templates or CSS if you know it
• You can add photos, video, links, other social features
• Tag posts with appropriate key terms to help others find your content
• Include a page with your resume
LinkedIn
• LinkedIn is the professional social network
• Your LinkedIn profile can connect you to thousands of professionals
• Search for connections at companies of interest
• Create a LinkedIn profile that reflects your interests and background much like a resume
• Include your Website on your LinkedIn profile
Facebook• Facebook is a fun place to share with friends
• But remember, any friend can be a potential career contact
• Friend faculty and professional contacts, as long as you keep your Facebook activities professional and above board. Use privacy settings and friends lists carefully.
• Get a custom url for your Facebook profile - facebook.com/username
• Start a Facebook Group or Page for your interest. This allows you to communicate with others who share the same interest.
• A Facebook Group is a listing of friends on a separate page, provides its own Wall, discussion, profile, ability to email
• A Facebook Page allows users to become Fans. People will want to associate their interests with you
• Any time you have new content for your blog, post to Facebook
Twitter• Start a Twitter account; free & simple
• Follow interesting people. Some suggestions at the end of the presentation
• Don't worry about “What are you doing?”
• It's not as much about who follows you as who you follow
• Sometimes, it's not about the tweet, it's about the link
• Use RSS feeds and widgets to repurposeTwitter to your Web site or blog. New content all the time.
• Respond to questions
• Retweet interesting items
Twitter• Use a hashtag for conferences or conversations (#)
• Use a url shortener (bit.ly, tinyurl.com) for links
• Any time you have new content for your blog, Tweet it
• Realtime search – ability to see what people are saying about any topic right now
• Trending – ability to see the most popular things people are talking about right now.
• Gary Vaynerchuk - “Twitter is perhaps the most powerful brand-building tool in your toolbox”
• Use Twitter clients like TweetDeck, HootSuite, Seesmic or Tweetie to help organize tweets on your desktop
Photos• Join a photo sharing site like Flickr or Picasa
• Learn how to upload photos and create a slideshow
• Use the embed code from the slideshow or follow your blogs rules to embed it on your blog. Use HTML tab in blog form.
• Learn how to optimize photos for the Web via Photoshop or via a Web-based solution like webresizer.com
• Provide interesting captions to your photos that tell the story
YouTube
• Get an inexpensive camcorder or camera with video capabilities
• Learn to use simple editing software like iMovie or Windows MovieMaker
• Interview people, have a talk show, do a video blog with commentary, make short films, be creative
• Embed the video on your blog. Embed code is readily available to the right of your videos on YouTube
• Your username becomes a channel
• Tag videos with appropriate keyterms to help others find your content
• Other sites, like Vimeo, Viddler
UStream.tv
• Push the envelope with live streaming video
• With a laptop and a Web cam (or camcorder connected to laptop), you can easily broadcast live from an event
• Easy to embed in your blog
• Show pages allow for audience to chat and comment on an episode
Go Mobile
• Get a smart phone and find apps that will allow you to expand your social media activities
• News apps help you stay in touch
• Twitter apps – Tweetie, Twitterific, Twitterfon, UberTwitter, TwitterBerry – allows you to Tweet when you are on the go.
• Qik.com – live stream video from phone
• Make your own iPhone app. Companies like iLike provide formats for musicians. Other options
The rest• Analytics – use Google Analytics or those associated with
your blog platform to get information about users, locations, link referrals, etc.
• Delicious – social bookmarks. Tag interesting articles, put in categories, share with others
• FriendFeed – recently purchased by Facebook. Stay tuned as to how they integrate that in their offering
• Slideshare.net – use to upload presentations and pdf's that you can embed on your site
• Use Google Sites to create own Web site; get some html skills and you can host your site anywhere, much more flexible
• Ning or KickApps – start your own social network
Building your community• Comment on others blogs, tweets. Become part of the
conversation. Others will respond.
• Be positive. A super positive version of yourself. People respond to enthusiasm and will gravitate toward you more readily if you are positive, honest, transparent.
• Focus on building community. Later you may be able to generate revenue from your blog but your focus should be the online presence at this point.
• Include all your social media activities on your business card – domain, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook custom url
• None of these strategies will work if you don't have passion, a sincere interest in what you are doing.
• You can't just sign up for one of these accounts and sit back and wait. You must put in time and effort.
• Follow trends in your interest area as well as social and online media. Be aware of changes, new technologies.
• Be open-minded. Be creative
• Become an active member of the community
• Help others with their social presence
• Have fun!
Some Twitter follow recommendationsTX State facultytwitter.com/cindyroyaltwitter.com/dquacktwitter.com/jonzmikly twitter.com/mairalg twitter.com/txst - that's the official txstate twitter
Professional Mediatwitter.com/nytimestwitter.com/wiredtwitter.com/smashingmagtwitter.com/techcrunchtwitter.com/statesmantwitter.com/universitystar
Other people/organizationstwitter.com/jeffjarvistwitter.com/jayrosen_nyutwitter.com/aejmctwitter.com/ojrtwitter.com/sxswitwitter.com/scobleizertwitter.com/thepeoplesmedia