June 30, 2013

Presentation for JCMO Social Media Day (celebrating Mashable's 4th Annual Social Media Day). Details about the event here: jcmosmday.eventbrite.com.

The Governor of Missouri officially declared June 30 as Social Media Day. Article here: http://mashable.com/2013/06/29/missouri-social-media-day/

For more about me, view my "About me" deck:
http://www.haikudeck.com/p/VCIBqieAvA/stephanie-s-bell

Blitz, Bardgett & Deutsch
www.bbdlc.com

For my B.S. in Political Science.

Truman State is Missouri's only highly selective public university. A liberal arts and sciences university located in Kirksville, Missouri. Recognized by U.S. News & World Report as the No. 1 public university in the Midwest. www.truman.edu.

For my J.D. and M.P.A. (Master of Public Administration). www.missouri.edu.

I'm also on Pinterest, with 300+ followers.

I am a social media enthusiast.

Just read my blog: www.myjcmoblog.com.

People in my town complain of information about events and other happenings not being readily available.

This is my blog.

I did a significant amount of work prior to launching my blog.

I use Bluehost I used the tutorial by Michael Hyatt to set up my blog. You can find it here: http://michaelhyatt.com/ez-wordpress-setup.html

I use Elegant Themes - www.elegantthemes.com

I did a little advertising when I first launched my blog. I targeted my ads to people living in or around JCMO.

...which means my blog is only two months old.

Writing down your 100 headlines and your editorial calendar will really help you focus. You have to focus on something, but you can't be too narrowly focused.

Everything I write about has to do with JCMO. I strive to make my content valuable to people who live in JCMO, surrounding communities, visitors, and people who might be considering a move to JCMO.

These are my blog stats.

The second line is for two months.

Is my blog a success? I don't know how to define that. I do know that every person I reach is one more person reading my story (and seeing JCMO through my eyes) than was reading before I started the blog.

I think most people would assume that only people in JCMO ready my blog. More than a third of my readers are from outside JCMO.

It is 2013.

I held on to my blackberry for as long as I could. Then, I got an iPhone and never looked back. Apparently my readers also love the iPhone.

I think this has a lot to do with our local social media audience. Most people in JCMO are on Facebook and are not on Twitter. While I tend to like Twitter a little more than Facebook, I know most of my traffic is coming from Facebook.

I ranked my blog posts by most views.

What did I glean from these being my top posts?

-Provide Helpful Info to your Readers (The P Word is about finding Parking in Downtown)

-Spark People's Curiosity ("Something New in Downtown" -- People want to know WHAT is new in Downtown)

-Write about stuff you love (because other people probably love it too). Turns out I love living in the Riverhood -- and so do all my friends and neighbors.

-Present Info Creatively - Rather than just stating "We have 3 farmer's markets, 5 new mom's groups and a vegan cafe" - I made a Seventeen Magazine style Quiz - "How JCMO Hipster Are You" and people laughed, shared it and (I hope) learned something too

-Tap into other people's Audiences - I wrote the last article about a local music club in JCMO. I shared it with them, and they shared it on their page. They have a super loyal following -- and so this post got a lot of traffic.

Social media is mostly about listening. You can learn so much about your business, brand, city, etc. by just observing.

I have the JCMO Lists here: www. myjcmoblog.com/JCMO-Social-Media

If you are looking for tweets about a particular topic -- lists are noisy. Most people these days are tweeting about both business and personal topics. While you might want to know about Gus' Social Media tips, you might not want to know all about his dog.

So, I don't really use twitter lists.

I do use searches...a lot.

Especially if your seeking an audience that is local/regional.

For JCMO, that is the State Capitol.

#MOLeg is the official hashtag for the state legislature.

Also, a lot of people tweet that they are at or visiting the Capitol. That second search catches them.

Make sure your own events have official hashtags. Follow those hashtags to find out what people are saying.

Are there other events/conferences happening near by? What are those people saying?

So the whole reason you are listening is to

-find out what people love

-find out what people hate

-find out what people are interested in

Then, start talking to them about these interests. People are always asking for an opinion or for information? Where is the best place to park? Where should I eat? What app is your favorite? Start answering their questions.

My favorite social media moments are when brands or companies have engaged with me. I tweeted about their brand or company, and they tweeted something back. How cool is that?

If you love someone's app, food, service -- tell them about it. It will make them smile. And you will smile when they engage with you in return.

If you have a brand, company, interest -- it's your turn to do the same for others. If they say they love your Downtown/food/business/blog. Tell them "Thank you."

Or if you are super awesome, you could try to order them a pizza: http://blog.haikudeck.com/customer-support-haiku-deck-style/

These are the tools that I'm using most days.

www.tagboard.com

Aggregate any hashtag across social media platforms. Great for events.

Find out who is talking about any webpage. See an interesting article and want to talk to people about it? Pull up Embedle.

www.embedle.com

This is a great Wordpress Plugin for your Blog. It will make sure you are showing up in the google searches of your choice.

Hate those people that tweet 5 tweets all at once? That is really annoying. With buffer, you can load those tweets into your "Buffer" and they will go out throughout the day.

This is especially helpful for tweeting for volunteer organizations if you have a day job. You can load up the buffer the night before and then it looks like your organization it tweeting all day long.

It also has an analytics function to show you how many people are clicking on your links, favoriting your tweets, etc.

www.bufferapp.com

Haiku Deck helps me reach larger audiences than I ever thought possible.

People love stories, especially when they have amazing pictures to go with them. HaikuDeck makes it easy to share your story on your blog, and across all your social media platforms.

The first deck I created and shared on Facebook & Twitter had 1,000 views in 24 hours.

www.haikudeck.com

I have not yet sent out a newsletter, but people have been subscribing on my blog. So that is what I'm working on....newsletter content.

If you want to subscribe -- it's www.myjcmoblog.com.