Dissemination: Short training session on social media based web strategies

Katerina Zourou, Ph.D

Sør-Trøndelag University College, Norway

EACEA meeting for Erasmus project leaders, Brussels, January 23-24, 2014

Improving Internet strategies and maximizing the social media presence of LLP projects

The power of engagement! • Campaign Emptyplate on

Instagram • Campaign ≠ malnutrition • For every picture of an empty

plate on Instagram followed by #donatuplato a meal was offered

• Using social networks for a social cause: 3500 meals offered by Caritas

#Donatuplato Article and Video

(Example taken from Gary Shochat,’s presentation as Web2LLP keynote talk, Coventry, Nov. 2013)

What is the presentation about?

–Familiarize Erasmus project managers with the basics of a digital valorisation strategy

–Share some tips on social media components of a dissemination strategy

–Offer insights into commonly encountered problems

–Help in building sustainable and up-to-date dissemination plans

Once upon a time.. In 2012: launch of the Web2LLP project (« Improving web strategies and maximizing the social media presence of LLP projects »)- a KA4 project.

Scope: upgrade skills of LLP project teams in building up-to-date and sustainable dissemination strategies for their project.

More than 450 beneficiaries (LLP project members) attended courses.

Some 11k views on Slideshare

Extended desktop research and an online survey: some findings • Diversified training needs, ranging from novice to experienced users

• Need to focus on the appropriateness of tools in a given dissemination strategy of an LLP project, beyond their mere use

• Need to see web and social media as means to create opportunities for engagement with the public

• Need to consider viability of Internet and social media presence after the life cycle of the LLP project

Zourou, K., Song, J. 2014, under publication. «How LLP projects use Internet and social media for communication purposes: a needs analysis». INNOQUAL Journal. Song, J. & Zourou, K. 2012. «How LLP projects use Internet and social media for communication purposes: a desktop research». In C. Stracke (Ed.) The future of Learning Innovations and Learning quality: how do they fit together? Proceedings of the LINQ conference, p. 114-123.

What is feasible?

Typology of tools (Conole & Alevizou, 2010)

1. social networking sites; (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning) 2. blogs 3. microblogging tools; (e.g. Twitter) 4. Slide repositories (e.g. Slideshare) 5. video sharing tools; (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo) 6. social bookmarking applications; (e.g. Diigo, del.ici.ous) 7. web 2.0 picture repositories (e.g. Picasa, Flickr) 8. RSS feeds One extra application considered useful to LLP projects: 9. shared web 2.0 public libraries (e.g. Mendeley). 10. Networking widgets (e.g. the “Add this” button)

7

A Social networking site: Facebook

http://www.crean-home.net/

A Social networking site: Ning

A video repository

http://patient-project.eu/

An online curation space http://www.scoop.it/t/intent-project-news

A LinkedIn group

A Twitter account

A slide repository

A monitoring tool:Google Analytics

Beyond the tools, the networking culture

Social grooming

The power of the visual

“visually empowered

social connectivity”

Starting from somewhere…

3, 2, 1: action plan!

Target

audience

Goal Task Resources Timeline and

frequency

Monitoring

mechanisms Human:

partner(s)

Material:

channels

Teachers Gathering

feedback on a

recently

finished study

Enhance conversation on the project’s Facebook Page

All partners Facebook wall

(or partner A

and B)

2 months

starting from…

Two times a

week

Facebook

Insights

•Specify the target audience(s). •Identify the main goals you want to achieve with Internet and social media tools. •Specify the task in relation to the audience and the goal. •Identify the resources needed (human & material resources) •Determine the timeline of the activity and the frequency of investment in the project. •Set the monitoring mechanisms upfront.

Plan your strategy

Social media is about engagement, this is not another tool for posting news from your website Christel Vacelet, EUN

It is important to be present in the social media but at the same time social reputation is also an issue: don’t get involved in a Facebook page if you won’t be able to spread it around. There is little need for a page with just 10 likes Erica Delucchi, MENON

Monitoring your social media activity

• Some social networks offer monitoring facilities themselves: Facebook, LinkedIn, Slideshare, Flickr

• Some free monitoring tools (or dashboards) are very effective for an LLP project: Tweetdeck and HootSuite

• Google Analytics seems to be #1 solution to monitor traffic of your website and associated social networks

Some tips

1.Communicate with your audience!

2. If you choose social media, make them work

First set up your social networks, then embed them into your website

2. If you choose social media, make them work

PERL project http://www.perlprojects.org/Project-sites/PERL/News-Events/News/PERL-2013-Media-Competition-Launched

3.Attract your audience!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLmnhoCv5bc

4. Bring your social networks to the forefront

• http://intluni.eu/

Bring your social networks to the forefront

5. Make it fly! (make it viral)

6. Make others benefit from your project

http://groups.diigo.com/group/web2llp

“Feel” your target group From own channels to active engagement in existing channels

• Go and meet your target group: do not just wait for your audience to

come • Engage with your target audience through existing social media

channels • Identify niches where your audience “meets” online • Choose the appropriate social media tool to fit the culture of

connectivity of your target group (enterprise, students, academia) • Identify experts in your area active on social networks and

connect/engage/learn together with them • Understand how “others” deal with it (peers, competitors, etc.)

Frequently occurring problems

1. “We have no extra days to allocate to dissemination through social media”

2. “We don’t have the skills to cope with a WS containing social media”

3. “The project operates in many languages and we don’t know how to cope with the multilingual aspect of social media”

4. “Although we want to use social media, we don’t know how to make users interested in our project”

Situation #1: Few human resources to deal with dissemination through social networks

https://www.addthis.com/

• Create an RSS feed

• Embed an AddThis plugin/ share buttons in your page

• Set up a slide repository (Slideshare) or a picture repository (Flickr)-both offer free tools to monitor activity

=> Making project activity visible, sharable, transferable to other contexts

Situation #2: Lack of skills Get your project partners to see the added value of social media in their own context

Situation #3: multilingual dimension

Situation #4: increasing interactivity/attractiveness

3 free downloadable handbooks in EN, FR & IT http://www.web2llp.eu/

A video showcase • Alessia Rogai • Armin Hottmann • Christel Vacelet • Eleonora Pantò • Erica Delucchi • Graham Attwell • Joel Josephson • Karel Van Isacker • Mazar Ildiko • Petra Newrly • Shona Whyte • Wendy Newman • Simon Heid • Sally Reynolds • Katerina Zourou

http://www.web2llp.eu/videos

Recordings of webinars

• Session 1: Setting up a web strategy and communication action plan

• Session 2: Selecting and choosing social media tools

• Session 3: Managing and measuring your social media presence

• Session 4: Sharing online content

• Session 5: Round-table with experienced managers and troubleshooting

[link]

Video tutorials for the needs of LLP projects

Video tutorials in EN, FR and IT on 10 topics (web analytics, online curation tools, SNS, social media editors, media sharing, microblogging, etc.)

http://www.web2llp.eu/tutorials

Thank you!

@web2LLP @web2learn_eu http://www.web2llp.eu/