SOCIAL MEDIABeware the text-heavy presentation ahead

Kelley FreemanCommunications Associate

Secular Student Alliance

WHAT’S A SOCIAL MEDIA TALK WITHOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

• @ramenneedles• @SecularStudents• #SSAcon

Basic Knowledge

• Less is more!• Brevity is the soul of wit• Be easily locatable • Don’t be offensive*• Be authentic• Write your own story• Only you will read all of your social media!• Don’t be dead.

Posting Guidelines

Consider having posting guidelines in place:• No flame wars!• Think.• This is a safe space. • No topics are off-limits for discussion.• Admins reserve the right to terminate threads. • www.secularstudents.org/fbguidelines

Primary

• Facebook• Twitter• Email• Tumblr*

Internal vs. External

• Consider your audience• Page or group? Both?

Internal Social Media• Facebook group

– Don’t have it .edu locked– Open v. closed v. private– Internal planning– Forum– Things that elicit

discussion & continue dialogue

– Beware of spammers– Posting Guidelines.– Do not be afraid of

banning!

• Email– USE BCC– Most will be internal– Unique titles = good– Brevity, y’all– Spell check,

capitalization, etc– Use a mail client? – Have a sign up list

External Social Media

• Facebook pages– Much wider reach than a

group– Best for public facing

documents: events, memes, articles, blog posts, reminders for casual members

– Public statements go here!– Make sure all information is

up to date!– Post news from SSA

National here – especially if we’re bragging about your

group!

• Email– USE BCC– Mostly for press?– Learn more at my

traditional media talk!

Don’t!

• Post the link in the caption of a post.• Repurpose ad content for organic content.• Explicitly asks for likes, shares, or comments. • Overuse hashtags.

Do!• Post (short!) videos

directly to Facebook*• Ask questions & solicit

responses. • Tag other pages.• Post a variety of

content.• Use grabbing,

engaging PHOTOS!• Be relaxed and

conversational.

Twitter• If you have no members on Twitter,

then don’t waste your bandwidth.• Stick to answering questions,

promoting events and meetings, thanking volunteers and sponsors, and participating in campus events.

• Retweet mentions of your group, tweet articles relevant to your group.

• Quote tweets that need to be corrected!

• Don’t fight with people on Twitter.• Follow @SecularStudents, your

members, supporters, and sources!• Get involved in wider campus

events & tweet about them!

Tumblr• Group blog, if you ‘need’ it.• Allows for multiple bloggers with multiple user

names.• Reblogs! Original content!• Utilize the tag system! • Acts as an online web presence!• Put your press releases here!• Keep your information up to date!

Secondary/Tertiary

• reddit• Instagram• YouTube• Others

Reminders

• Less is more.• Keep all your information up to date.• USE BCC.• Posting guidelines.• Follow the Secular Student Alliance!• Don’t be dead.

THANKSStick around for my talk on traditional media!

Kelley FreemanCommunications Associate

Secular Student Alliance@ramenneedles