Preservation Conference Social Media notes

Preservation Conference social media notes

These are some notes on the presentation Daniel Norton gave in the session “Preservation 2.0: Using Social Media to Save Places” at the National Preservation Conference 2010 that was presented by the National Trust for Historic Preservation at the Austin Hilton hotel in Austin, Texas on October, 30, 2010.

All social media use a square icon ID
- If your logo isn’t square and clear at 50x50, create one that is.
- Facebook “trims” the outer 15%
- Article: “Internet logo design specs”

There are many forms of “social media”
- Facebook
  - If your resources are limited and you can only do one, do Facebook.
- Twitter
  - In my experience, Twitter audience size is less than 5% of a Facebook audience
- Email discussion groups
  - Google Groups
  - Yahoo! Groups
- Historical context: Usenet, AOL, CompuServe, MySpace, Meetup.
  - Jay Leno last week (video): “According to the Wall Street Journal, MySpace has been leaking some of its users’ personal information to third-party advertisers. Insiders say this could affect as many as a dozen people.”

Different forms:
- Different demographics
  - Under 30-y/o: on Facebook more than email
  - Over 50-y/o: more on Email than on Facebook.
- Different grammar / style
  - Facebook fan page
    - 300 characters
    - Complete sentences.
    - “Friendly” style
    - Proper grammar
    - Almost always include a link
      - Link should have a graphic (different from the logo)
        Article: “Internet logo design specs” (See the section “Facebook link image”)
  - Twitter
    - 140 characters (use less than 120 to allow "Re-tweets”)
    - Use abbreviations wherever possible
    - Use “hashtags” and/or distinct abbreviations
      (Keep them short! 5 chars or less)
    - Use short URLS
      - bit.ly - Free service
      - skwz.me - Provides "Click Count” (30-day free trial available)
  - RSS
    - Formal and complete articles
    - “Teaser” feed
    - aka “Blog”
  - Email groups
    - Peer-to-peer
    - U.S. law restricts commercial use (CAN-SPAM)

How to get started with Facebook
- Common pitfalls (details)
  - Violation of Facebook TOS to use a personal profile (it’s considered a “fake profile”)
    - Article: “Never “friend” a business on Facebook!”
  - A Facebook “Group” is for peer discussions and won’t help you get your message out.
  - Allowing fans to post on your wall isn’t very useful to anyone.
  - Create a new “hidden” personal profile to “host” the fan page.
    - The fan page is not transferable to another personal profile.
    - The personal profile is forever associated with the fan page.
      (Do you want a disgruntled former employee or volunteer to control your organization’s identity?)
    - Register using an email address that uses the company’s internet domain name.
    - Never accept friends to this personal profile.
    - Set the personal profile privacy to hide everything except to friends (i.e. no one, as it has no friends)
    - Turn off directory search option.
    - Associate a cell phone # with the profile (If necessary, buy a prepay phone for $15-$20 at Target)
- Create the fan page
  - Triple-check the spelling and capitalization of the name
    The name can never be changed!
  - Include a graphic with a 15% trim around all four sides
    - Article: “Internet logo design specs” (See the section “Facebook icon”)
- Maintain balance of reader benefit to post frequency
  - The more frequently you post, the more beneficial it must be to your audience.
  - Encourage “Likes” by quality content.
  - Fans generally do not go to your fan page
    - Fans see your post in their “home” page news feed
    - More recent items show up higher on a fans’ home pages
    - The more “likes” and comments a post gets, the higher it is on your fans’ home pages
  - Usually post links to articles, not always your own
    - If no third-party articles, link to your own article / blog entry.

About Daniel Norton

Daniel Norton is a social media communications specialist who also provides the “teeny-tiny websites” service and advanced website development (more).