The Dorset Coast Forum took place in Poole on the 14th of November. Desribed as a strategic partnership, pestilence the Forum brings together in a yearly event many local and national coastal and marine organizations to discuss long-term broad scale issues facing the Dorset coast and its inshore waters. Social media was on this year’s agenda. My focus was on managing social media communications with the resources, advice knowledge and skills available.
My talk therefore concentrated on two areas: communication routine and measurement. I argued that in order to create meaningful relationships with stakeholders, organizations need to learn how to listen (research and monitor social media) as well as how to interact online (this includes understanding how the platforms work as well as how to create content that is both public and platorm relevant while avoiding to the dreaded sell and broadcast type messages). I have mentioned several tools such as Addictomatic, Twazzup, Topsy, Meltwater Buzz together with the now usual Google Alerts, Twitter Advaced Search, YouTube advanced search and Statigram.
I suggested focus, relevance, consistency and coherence – something I often talk about in the Digital Communication Strategies course I teach at BU as well as the research, consultancy and training I do through the Creative Enterprise Bureau.
In terms of measurement, this is highly dependant on the goals and objectives of each organization. However, assuming that most of them would be online to raise awareness about coastal and marine issues and rally support, I suggested focusing on influencer and influence indentification, idea accelleration, sentiment, share of voice and loyalty. The Prezi below includes suggested formulas and mentions several measuremnt platoforms such as SocialMention, Trackur or Google Trends.
Check out this white paper for some more detail on planning your social media and get in touch if you have questions and suggestions.