Craig McGill - craig@craig-mcgill.com - Falkirk Council

Social Media &
Community
Craig McGill - craig@craig-mcgill.com

What is social media?
Twitter usage across Europe (the brighter
the light, the more activity)

Connectivity
Global Facebook activity showing connections

Online but not alone

Multiple outlets

Most popular
• Bebo, MySpace, Friends Reunited in past
• YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn,
Twitter, blogging, forums, Google+
• Also Flickr, Quora and many others...
• What to choose? Where to go?

“Just a pile of saddo’s...”
• Like it lump it, digital engagement here to
stay - if you don’t reach out, you miss out
on getting more people involved
• It’s not about replacing physical activity but
complementing it
• Not everyone can get to meetings - does
that mean they should be excluded?

“Just a pile of saddo’s...”
•
•
•
Only 10% of a group are ever strongly active
(attending meetings, being but in positions of
authority, etc)
Does that mean the other 90% should be
excluded?
Digital gives them a chance to be involved -
they can read up on information, pass on
opinions, be helpful

Convince & convert
• Everyone has an opinion on their local community
• Not everyone may share your passion so talk and
convince about why being involved is important -
show them why they should get involved
• Even if people can’t make meetings, what they
think is still valid, don’t dismiss it - if anything
digital allows you to see more opinions than
before

Convince & convert
•
Target people likely to be invested in
community - and get them to tell people that
you’re on Facebook/Twitter/blogs/YouTube
•
•
•
•
local businesses
mums and parent groups
councillors & council groups
MPs, MSPs

This a community

But so’s this...

Community
A modern community can be physical or
digital - what matters is what brings them
together - anywhere
A person’s opinion online is as valid as
their opinion in the pub or elsewhere

So, social media then...

So, social media then...

Why do people do it?
• Hectic lifestyles means less time for
catching up
• Easy to do
• Can be done anywhere
• Passes the time
• People like to share information

•
•
•
•
•
Councils? Businesses?
Face to Face costs £10, phone £2
Online: 40pence
People shop 24 hours a day
People want information 24 hours a day
Not everyone can be glued to radio for updates -
need information from somewhere
Source: Socitm - socitm.gov.uk

People look online...

Too much!

Most popular
• Facebook - 850million active and growing
• Twitter - 200million active and growing
• YouTube - one hour of video per second
• Blogs - a way of beating traditional media

Scotland
• Facebook - 1 in 3 people are on it
• Twitter - 49,500 accounts
• Blogs - hundreds of blogs as seen via http://
scottishroundup.co.uk/

Before you start...

Ask yourself...
• WHY are you going online?
• WHAT is your community name (so people
can find you)?
• WHAT are you going to say?
• HOW will you respond to people?
• Can you COMMIT to the time needed?

1, 2, 3...100,000
Don’t expect as many fans or Likes as
these people - you are engaging locally
and that’s a smaller audience

Step 1: what’s the chat?

Seeing what people say
• Set up Google Alerts to see what people
are saying about the community, you, the
councillor - anything
• Free service via www.google.com/alerts

Google Alerts

Step 2: plan your chat

Step 3: Getting involved

Facebook

Handy links
• Facebook.com
• Facebook.com/pages/create.php
• Facebook.com/username/

Facebook pages/
accounts
• Facebook accounts are personal - where
you share/see what you & friends/family
have been up to
• Facebook pages are for a business or a
matter of interest - a charity, a local issue, a
community council

Facebook account

Facebook page

Handy links
• Facebook.com
• Facebook.com/pages/create.php
• Facebook.com/username/

The difference
• Facebook page is PERSONAL
• Facebook page is for a cause/issue - telling
people about the community, selling whisky,
talking about Falkirk, - it’s not about one
person

The steps
• Set up a personal account at Facebook.com
• Create a page at Facebook.com/pages/
create.php
• Give your page a name at Facebook.com/
username/
• Tell everyone else what the page name is

Tips
• You need a Facebook account to set up a
Facebook page
• Give Facebook page an easy to remember
name - Facebook.com/denny or
Facebook.com/dennycommunity for
example

Fill in as much detail as
possible about your
Facebook page - give
people all they
information they might
need
Essential

What’s good on
• Everything
• Words
• Pictures
• Videos
Facebook?

Plan, plan, plan

What could go up?
• Ideas for updates
• Local football/sport team results
• Any news about local shops or local people
• Details of what local councillor is up to
• Roadwork or other information
• Details of events at a park
• Police details
• Anything of interest in the Herald?
• Meeting times/items for discussion
If it’s good enough
to talk about
when you see
someone or in
the pub or at a
meeting, it’s good
enough for online

Good tips
• Reply to everyone who posts to you
• Go and talk/look at the pages of people you
follow - talk to them on their pages
• Set expectations
• Vary the content, mention lots of people
• Try not to post too much on your own page
in one day - schedule things out

More tips
• You can post links to material you’ve seen
elsewhere (but don’t post it directly if you
don’t own copyright) so instead of posting a
picture, post the www. link to it
• In the UK, the best time to post is between
8-9.30pm
• If you use tools like Hootsuite (more later)
you can schedule your Facebook posts

Last of the tips
• If you set a page up, you can have more than
one person as the administrator, meaning
there’s more of you to share the work
between
• Setting up a Facebook page is free (and so is a
Twitter page, YouTube page and so on) - don’t
pay unless it’s for something extra.

Remember it’s social
• Add in @ and then a person’s name
• Invite people to group’s by email
• Add details to all materials
• Share your other online activity
• Say who you are

Spam on a page -
removing it
Go to the arrow/globe at side of post, click,
follow instructions

Keep an eye on...

Insights
Insights lets you see
who is looking at
your posts, how
popular they are -
great way to see if
you are reaching the
right people & what
is popular on page

Twitter

Twitter

Twitter
• TWEET
– Each comment posted on Twitter is referred to as a tweet, and the act
of sending a tweet is referred to as tweeting
• RETWEET
– A Retweet is a type of message posted (or tweeted) on micro
blogging service, Twitter, that repeats some information previously
tweeted by another user, symbolised by RT at beginning of Tweet. E.g.
RT@BRITNEYSPEARS Social Media Academy is hot!
• FOLLOWING
– To subscribe to someone’s Twitter updates
• FOLLOWERS
– To have people subscribing to your Twitter updates
• @Reply
– Beginning your Tweet or citing @personsname in your Tweet designates
that you are referring to @personsname. People tend to monitor their
@ mentions so it acts as a convenient, albeit public, way to
communicate with people who are not following you

Twitter basics
• HASHTAG
– a topic with a hash symbol (“#”) at the start to identify it. Twitter hashtags like
#followfriday help spread information on Twitter while also helping to organise
it
• LIST
– Basically Twitter’s “Group” function, offers a convenient way to bunch other
users on Twitter into Groups to get an overview of what they’re up to
• DM
– Short for Direct Message, a private Tweet which you can only send to people
who are following you
• TRENDING TOPICS
– Twitter indexes the most common phrases currently appearing in messages,
making it into a discovery engine for finding out what is happening right now.
Cool

Anyone here using it?
• Multiple sites to let you find local people - all
you have to do is type in the world Falkirk
• Twitaholic.com
• Wefollow.com
• Twellow.com & Twellowhood.com

Twellow

Wefollow

Wefollow

A Twitter tip
• If you find an account you can click on their
FOLLOWERS and follow them back
• Odds are anyone following Falkirk Council
or Falkirk FC is a local person, so follow
them to build up your followers
• You can do this on old Twitter accounts too

Hootsuite.com

Hootsuite.com
• Another way of using Twitter - presents the
same information in a slightly more compact
way
• You still need a Twitter account to use it.
Then set up Hootsuite and set it up as you
like - set up columns for mentions of Falkirk
for example

Finding more people
• The entry point to trying to find people
within Twitter is probably Twitter Search
• Twitter Search can be used to find
information within Twitter in real time
• A decent place to start if you know who
you’re looking for – not so great if you
don’t, as is often the case

Finding...
• You can also click the Advanced search link to do more advanced searches
– With all of the words you specified, none of the words you specified, or exact
phrases
– In specific languages
– From specific people
– Near specific places
– On or between specific dates
– Containing emoticons
– Containing links
– Containing ReTweets

Advanced search

What the #####
• People often use hashtags to find information about specific subjects, so
if you use hashtags, they are more likely to find you via that subject.
Hashtags are therefore a great way to extend your reach and get more
followers in a meaningful way.
• There are a wide variety of already established hashtags, and new ones
being created daily, that you can join
• You need to be careful, however, that your use of hashtags is consistent
with both your brand and the tag itself
• You can create any hashtag you want but remember you’ll never own it

#hurricanewhat?
• While you certainly shouldn’t use hashtags to describe all of your tweets, they can be
helpful
• The first step in creating a hashtag is deciding on the tag word itself
• You should pick something memorable, easy to spell, and perhaps more importantly, as
short as possible
• Once you’ve figured out the tag itself, the next step is simple: start using it and
promoting it
• Make sure your tweets using the hashtag are worthwhile and add something of value to
the conversation

Making a hash of it
• Unfortunately, as hashtags have become more
popular, they’ve also become a vehicle for spam
• You should never use a hashtag on a tweet
unrelated to that tag, and you should never stuff
your tweets with currently popular hashtags
with the sole purpose of appearing in Twitter
search results
• Proper etiquette dictates that you should only
use hashtags if your tweet is actually relevant to
the tag’s associated meme or topic.

What the...
Easy way to find out what a # means

See how far your
tweets go...

Tweetreach
Measures how far a tweet went...

Keep it short

Takes www.whyteandmackay.com and shrinks it
to bit.ly/po2ime - saves space for tweeting

Video

• YouTube is the second largest search
engine
• That should speak volumes in terms of
the significance and importance of
having a presence on YouTube
• The other important factor is that
YouTube is a social networking site on
par with Facebook
• You can make friends on YouTube
(subscribe to channels) and others can
make friends with you (subscribe to
your channel)
YouTube

Why?
• YouTube allows you to tag your videos, share them easily on other sites
(Twitter, Facebook, etc.), and it’s as socially integrated as a site gets
• There are two very solid arguments to focus your strategic efforts ONLY
on YouTube (basically ignoring other platforms like Viddler or Vimeo)
• YouTube is the largest and arguably best integrated with Google and
other colossal Internet hubs (in fact, YouTube is an Internet hub of its
own)
• If mastering multiple platforms seems like an overwhelming task, you
would be well-advised to focus your efforts on YouTube alone

Get a channel
• A YouTube Channel is like a Facebook page - a place where you can
post material relevant to one (or many topics) so you would have your
own personal YouTube page but one for the community council too.
• And you can customize your YouTube channel by giving it a branded skin
• You can also connect your YouTube account to your Facebook and
Twitter accounts
• On your YouTube page, go to the top and:
– Click on Username
– Click on Account
– Click on Activity Sharing over on the left
– Select your different accounts to connect
• It is recommended just to select “Like” and/or “Favourite” in the
settings where you choose to automatically send updates onto the
profiles you select here

Video
• Engagement - video offers
tremendous opportunity to engage
audience groups online
• Media thirst – traditional media
sites are constantly trying to
compete with the BBC’s extensive
libraries of content
• PR opportunity – creates
opportunity for high-profile story
placement
• Creative extension –
opportunity to add further depth to
a story

Video tips
• Sound matters as much as the picture
• Try and have a steady camera/cameraphone
• Use YouTube or Vimeo instead of your own
website
• Once posted, provide a text version if you can
• If in doubt, ask permission to film people - but
sometimes even if they say no, you can be
justified in putting it online
• Tell people on Facebook and Twitter that you’ve
posted a video and share the link

Remember podcasts
• Audio and video podcasts still incredibly popular
• Platforms like AudioBoo have shown life in the format
• Easy to record via Skype and most PCs/macs have simple editing tools
• If recording, use headsets, in a quiet room free from other noise and
distractions
• Sit up straight and have water handy
• Avoid the umms and the ahhs. Instead buy time by saying “That’s a good
question” or “You may see it that way, but...”
• Companies like Libsyn offer affordable hosting costs
• iTunes still popular to be hosting podcasts

AudioBoo

What can I video/record?
• Everything
• Events
• Meetings
• Previews of events
• After events

Blogging

Blogs for everything

Blogs for everything

Blogs for everything
Schools have
blogs!
Children
learning to
share and
engage -
fantastic

Blogs for everything
More4Mums
- a Falkirk
blog that
became a
business
selling
maternity
clothes

The Basics
• The most important aspect of your blog is the
content. As long as you write regularly, frequently
and engagingly, you are blogging. Content is king, and
it’s the main reason people will subscribe to you.
• But think about:
–Blog avatar
–Tag cloud
–Blogroll
–Contact page

Avatar/picture
• An avatar is a small picture that you use to identify yourself
• Try to choose an image that will work across all of your online presences. So, for
example, it will work at 48x48 pixels for your Twitter account, and at larger sizes
for your Facebook page, and so on. In this way you create a coherent, consistent,
recognisable online brand.
• If you are a personal blogger, it’s common to show a photograph of yourself.
Some people like to stylise their photos by making them black and white, or only
showing part of their faces.
• If you are a corporate blogger, it’s common to use your organisation’s logo

• A ‘tag’ is a keyword that you use to
categorise what you write about.
• So, for example, if you write about
Microsoft, you might tag your post
‘technology’ even though you don’t
actually mention that word in the
post, because that’s what the post
is about.
• This makes it easier for people to
find your post because you
categorised it, rather than a
computer.
Tag

About
• As with the tag cloud, you need to tell people
who you are very quickly so that they can
decide to subscribe
• An About page is also your opportunity to get
search engine attention, by placing keywords
in your page. You will learn about keywords
later.
• You should include the following information
in your About page:
– Your (real) name
– The services you offer
– The organisation you represent, if any
– Your biography.

Blogroll
• A list of bloggers whom you read or think are good, is called a blogroll
• By including a blogroll you do several things in one go:
– You promote the blogger that you link to, because you create a link going to
that blogger. Search engines like these links, so the blogger will rise in search
engine rankings.
– In return, the blogger might link to you. Even if that blogger does not, you
have established a link which will help you in search engines, although to a
lesser extent.
– You help people who come to your blog to find other similar bloggers, and
they will be more likely to subscribe to you because you are perceived as a
productive, helpful member of that community

Find blogs via search...

Contact
• A contact page is important because people may want to contact you personally.
If you’re running a corporate blog, this could mean the difference between
making or losing a sale.

Quick tip
• You don’t need to pass on your own contact details -
you can have it as a postal address or phone number
for the council or the local councillor (if they have
public details)
• If providing an email address, don’t put it up as text -
you will be spammed - put it up as a picture or get
someone to create a contact form

Plan what to put on blog

What can I blog?
• Everything
• Doesn’t even need to be current - can be
about the community in the past and have
people post pictures, memories, etc

Where to blog
• You can buy your own website and set it up for as little as £15
or you can let someone else do all the hosting (and cost) for
you
• If someone else hosts it for you, it’s free but you may have a
longer website address -
www.dennycommunitycouncil.wordpress.com - for example
• No need to put communitycouncil in though - you should keep
it as short as possible - try and keep it as the same name as your
Facebook page or Twitter if you have them

Blogging simples
• Wordpress is a very simple blog interface to use but if you want
something even easier, go and use Posterous - posterous lets you
send your blog posts by email - no need to learn any sort of
interface

Wordpress interface

Posterous

Where blog?

What Platform?

What Platform?

Why?

More WordPress

The difference

Posterous

Posterous
• Posterous.com is a free blogging platform
– You post to it via email
– It has limited preset templates but you can control its appearance if you can
code
– You can use Google Analytics
– You cannot create static pages
– You can map to your own domain
– You cannot write it as part of a team
– You cannot download the software and self-host it
• Posterous is good for mobile blogging when customisability is not important

If you only have time
for one platform
• Go onto Facebook - it’s where the most people are
• If you have the time, set up a blog via Posterous and join in
Twitter
• Remember to be polite - you’re dealing with human beings
• Remember it’s public too

In closing...
• You can ignore all of this if you want
• But mobile phones aren’t going away, computers aren’t going
away - people want to be online getting good, relevant
information and you can help them get information about
their local area
• Some will then get more involved - some will help out more
than others, but every community is like that - those who
want to, chip in to improve it for everyone

Thank you
Craig McGill - craig@craig-mcgill.com
Twitter: @craigmcgill