Social networking – best practice

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Social networking was once only for teenagers, chatting to friends and sharing music on sites like MySpace and Facebook. In 2010 40% of Facebook users were over 35 and 7% are 55 or older (source worldofdifference). Social networking is now widespread and no longer just for individuals. The majority of organisations big and small have a presence on social networking sites and they are increasingly becoming a tool for running campaigns, generating media coverage and building supporters.

Here we share some top tips for effective social networking to help you maximise your communications.

1. Choose your network carefully

There are a lot of networks out there and it’s easy to spend a huge amount signing up to different ones, creating numerous profiles. The golden rule is be selective. Even large organisations don’t have a presence on every single site. It's better to spend your time managing a few networks well than many poorly. 

As well as having a presence on the well-used, well-known social networks, bear in mind that there are many smaller social networking sites for specific groups of people, whether that be artists, musicians, mums, photographers, travellers...

The most important thing is to choose outlets that are relevant to your audience and that serve your purpose.

Wikipedia's list of the most popular social networking websites is a good place to start.

2. Know your audience

Make sure you choose social media networks that your target audience uses and think carefully about how they interact with the networks they’re on. Are they interested in videos and photos, statistics or news stories? Do they have a large group of followers or ‘friends’ that they interact with and share interesting comment? Try to focus your activities on what your audience will want to read.

Keep an eye out for new websites or networks that your followers might be using – and make sure you’re aware of emerging trends.

3. Build an effective profile

Make sure your organisation’s profile is relevant, up to date and interesting to make the most of social networks. It’s important to strike a balance between being expert, authoritative and professional – and being friendly and approachable. A few key things to remember:

• keep it brief - the description of what your organisation does should be brief and to the point 
• lead with your expertise - you want people to know you’re leaders in your field
• use a strong photo - if you’re a campaigning organisation, use an image to reflect what you do. If you’ve got an iconic logo, stick with that.
  

Example

Cancer Research UK's Facebook bio is a short and factual explanation of what they do. The second paragraph clearly presents the facts and a simple call to action.

“Cancer Research UK is the world's leading independent charity dedicated to cancer research. We carry out scientific research to help prevent, diagnose and treat cancer. We have discovered new ways to beat cancer that together have saved hundreds of thousands of lives across the world.

One in three of us will get cancer at some point in our lives. Our groundbreaking work, funded almost entirely by the general public will ensure that millions more people survive."

4. Contribute to the social networking community

Social networking demands that you respond, share, like or comment on what you read, watch and hear. The two-way process of sharing, liking, responding and commenting means you can build up a dialogue with your followers and respond to their needs.

In order to maximise your presence on a social networking website, you have to contribute to the community. That means keeping your profile up to date, sharing relevant information, posting comments on other people’s posts and intervening in debates as they emerge.

5. Timing is everything

Social networking is a fast-moving, time-consuming medium. The most effective social networkers respond and comment quickly on announcements and events relevant to them. It’s no good posting an insightful comment on a particular blog two months after the blog has been posted. Things move on.

Keep an eye on ‘trending topics’ and key policy and media debates as they emerge. Make comments on them if they’re relevant to your agenda or might be of interest to your followers.   If you’re one of the first to respond, then you can direct the discussion – and you may find people start responding directly to you and commenting on your posts.

6. Don’t overshare

There is a temptation with social networking sites to post a lot of information and to appear ‘busy'. Whilst it is crucial to keep your profile refreshed and to be active in the network, there is nothing more irritating than organisations or individuals posting too much information – often on topics that are of no interest to their audiences. Remember, make sure all posts are:

• relevant
• timely
• brief.

7. Invite feedback

One of the useful aspects of social media is that it allows you to invite users to give their opinion. If you write a blog, or post something on Facebook, you’re effectively asking your followers to interact with you. Use these outlets as an opportunity to test opinion – you could even link to a short online survey if you want to gather some specific data from your key audiences.

Think about running a simple survey on your website or in your e-bulletin.

8. Link, link and link again!

If you do have a profile on other social networking sites – or a blog or Twitter feed for example, then make sure you include links to each of them so that they’re all connected. If someone is reading one of your blog posts, they should easily be able to find links to your Facebook and Twitter page. 

Also, if you think something someone else is blogging about or tweeting is interesting then link to it via your social media networks. Not only will this be valuable to your followers, but it’ll help build connections. 

Useful links

• Why use social networking- An introduction
• Facebook’s own guide to creating a Facebook page
  

• Why Twitter matters to those in PR (blog) 
• Why Twitter matters to media organisations (Alan Rusbridger, Editor of The Guardian)
• Top Tips for Twitter (Media Trust) 
• 21 steps to creating a successful business blog
• Social Networking topics (Media Trust)
• Effective Facebook campaigns: see for example the Take Back Parliament campaign
  

Further reading

• Book: The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott (Amazon)

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