Social Media TechniquesYou Can Begin Using Tonight

Cindy Royal, Ph.D

Assistant Professor

Texas State University

School of Journalism and Mass Communication

croyal@txstate.edu

www.cindyroyal.com

www.onthatnote.com

cindytech.wordpress.com

twitter.com/cindyroyal

facebook.com/cindyroyal

Have Passion

• Care about something

• Be sincere; authentic

• Have a point of view

• You can't fake true passion

• 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

• Later – advertising, speaking engagements, sell things, write articles, consulting, paying jobs...

Passion

• 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