2012 Municipal Series: Social Media Bootcamp

transcript

Building a MunicipalBuilding a MunicipalSocial Media Social Media

PresencePresence

Carol A Spencer, Web ManagerCounty of Morris, NJ • Building a Municipal Social Media Presence

Social Media Bootcamp

What you’ll do today• Learn why this is important• Set up a Google account• Set up a blog on Blogger• Learn about posting• Set up an RSS feed for your blog• Feed headlines to your web site• Learn about custom Blogger

templates• Review an actual example• Practice posting

AutomaticManual

The Morris County Process

Creates in MS Word

Website

PIOissues a

pressrelease

PIO posts on the website using Blogger.

(Create a custom template)

Can use links and graphics, even videos in the blog post

Using RSS Feeds, subscribers sign up to get notified via email or in a reader.

Home page “What’s New” is auto-updated.

Blogger auto-emails press releases to whomever you want.

Use Hootsuite to post to Twitter and Facebook. Include a link to website press release.

Twitter followers and Facebook fans are automatically notified.

AutomaticManual

Public Notices, for example

Created in MS Word

Website

PublicNoticewritten

Posted to the website on your Public Notice Blogger page. Using RSS Feeds,

subscribers get the notice in an email.

Home page “What’s New” is auto-updated. OR, if you want a Public Notice section, you can send feed there.Blogger auto-emails public notice to whomever you want. If you’re also putting in the newspaper, Blogger can auto-email to the press.

Use Hootsuite to post to Twitter and Facebook. Include a link to the full notice on your website.

Tools you need• A website• A Gmail account

– Gmail is a Google application• Blogger

– Blogger is a Google application• Feedburner

– Feedburner is a Google application • Hootsuite or equivalent

– One post goes to multiple social networks

• Twitter • Facebook

Step by StepStep by Step

Getting Started• Go to Google.com. Create an

account.• Use a generic jurisdiction email address, or• Create a gmail account, one that will stay with

your jurisdiction• We use webmaster@co.morris.nj.us, but that’s a

problem for Facebook. Something like MorrisCountyNJ@gmail.com would be good.

• Go to Blogger.com. Create an account.

• Blogger is a Google product, so use the same email as above.

• Create a blog. Use any simple blogger template. We’ll be changing it, so it doesn’t matter.

Blogger 101: Getting there

Or, you can go directly to Blogger.com

Blogger 101: Getting there

Or, you can go directly to Blogger.com

Blogger 101: Log in

Going directly to Blogger.com brings up this screen

Blogger 101: Identify yourself

You’ll only do this once.

Blogger 101: Create your blog

This is where you’ll create all your blogs

Blogger 101: Create your blog

Blogger 101: Set up your blog

Blogger 101: Settings

Blogger 101: Settings, Basic

Blogger 101: Settings, Posts

Change to HIDE comments

Change to fit your page

Blogger 101: Settings, Mobile

Sharing this secretword will be a security problem.Be careful!

Blogger 101: Settings, Language

Blogger 101: Settings, Other

Blogger 101: Ready to post

PostingPosting

Blogger 101: Posting

Cut and paste text. Format font, color, bold. Add links, bullets, photos, video.

Blogger 101: Draft or Live Post

Publish: LiveSave: DraftPreview: See itClose: Save without changes

Blogger 101: Labels

Like tags. Helps people find what they’re looking for on Blogger.

Blogger 101: Schedule posts

Schedule post publication dates so you can set it up in advance.

Blogger 101: Published page

Problems:● header bar● posted by● about me● links

All are fixed with customizing the Blogger template

Blogger 101: Records Retention

Do not delete posts. Revert them to draft and keep them.

Draft posts do not appear, even if they once did.

Blogger 101: Co-authoring

You can (should) have multiple authors for each blog, with varied permission levels.

Admins can remove or add authors for each blog.

AutomaticManual

Creates in MS Word

Website

PIOissues a

pressrelease

FeedburnerFeedburner

What the heck is a “feed”?• Information that can be grabbed and

used in a variety of ways across the web.

• A feed can be an entire blog post or the first few lines as a summary.

• People can subscribe to feeds.– They don’t have to come looking for

your updates. Whenever you post an update, it comes to them.

– They choose where to receive the feed: in a reader or in email.

• Web designers can grab feeds to automatically update “what’s new”.

Feedburner: Creating a feed

If you’re logged into Blogger, Feedburner will use that same account.

Choose an RSS feed.

This is done automatically

Only change it if you want it called something else.

You have a feed. What’s next?

Now we’ll grab some code. This is where you will want web help.

Setting up email subscriptions

Allow email subscriptions.

The press loves these. They don’t have to keep checking for news.

Setting up email subscriptions

Your web folks can just copy and paste this code where you want it on the page.

People subscribe.

Send your feed to a web page

Put short snippets on any web page.

Customize with these options.

Your web folks can just copy and paste this code where you want it on the page.

Posts show up on a page

Code copied directly from Feedburner.

RSS Feeds: They’re magic!

Visitor subscription

choices Post archives

BuzzBoost

AutomaticManual

Creates in MS Word

Website

PIOissues a

pressrelease

Publish toPublish toSocial MediaSocial Media

Publish w/social media; use blog link

Publish EVERYWHERE!!

AutomaticManual

Let’s review our Public Notices example

Created in MS Word

Website

PublicNoticewritten

Posted to the website on your Public Notice Blogger page. Using RSS Feeds,

subscribers get the notice in an email.

Home page “What’s New” is auto-updated. OR, if you want a Public Notice section, you can send feed there.Blogger auto-emails public notice to whomever you want. If you’re also putting in the newspaper, Blogger can auto-email to the press.

Use Hootsuite to post to Twitter and Facebook. Include a link to the full notice on your website.

What you learned today• Why integrating tools is important• How to set up Blogger• How to post• About RSS feeds• How to use Feedburner to create an

RSS feed for your blog• How to publish one thing many places• Where you can use this in government

– Public notices, recreation and special events,

– Emergency notices• About customizing Blogger templates

Contacting me…

Carol A SpencerWeb Manager

County of Morris NJ

cspencer@co.morris.nj.uswebmaster@co.morris.nj.us

PresencePresence

CustomizingCustomizingBlogger Blogger

TemplatesTemplates*Requires HTML knowledge

Advanced Blogger: Custom Templates

• Blogger allows Custom Templates

• Choose a “classic template”• Modify the HTML to match your website

pages• Need someone fairly proficient in HTML to

help you • What you need is code between

<blogger> and </blogger>• Look at source code for:

http://mcprosnews.blogspot.com/ http://preparemorris.blogspot.com/ http://morriscountypr.blogspot.com/

• Keep your blog private until you have it set• Need help figuring it out? Email us.

→ List of Blogger custom template tags.

http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=42070

→ Includes don’t work properly. Use full code. → Add <base href=“ “> in header to not have

to use absolute references. → Turn off comments (unless you want them).→ Blogger does not allow FPT posting.→ Must use blogspot.com.→ Can point your own domain to your blog.

PresencePresence

2012 Municipal Series: Social Media Bootcamp

Technology