From Retweets to Retention: Using Social Media to Connect with - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

From Retweets to Retention: Using Social Media to Connect with Program Participants and Achieve Outcomes

2013 NYATEP Fall Conference 20 November 2013

™@PublicWorksIQ @OBTJOBS #socialwkdev | Social Media for Workforce Development Programs | 20 November 2013 | 2

About Public Works Partners and Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow

• Public Works Partners is a management consulting firm whose work strengthens the
• rganizations that strengthen our communities. We help our clients promote
• rganizational excellence, streamline operations and launch complex new programs.

Clients come to us because we sharpen their vision and deliver results that will impact their community. Every time.

• Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow helps disadvantaged youth and adults

recognize their own self-worth, and advance towards self-sufficiency and financial security through job training, academic reinforcement, improved life skills, job placement, and support services.

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Connect with us during the workshop

• Use hashtag #socialwkdev
• Tweet your questions to @PublicWorksIQ
• Follow us on Twitter:
• @PublicWorksIQ
• @OBTJOBS

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Table of Contents

Why Social Media? | 4 Create a structure for social media within your program | 9 Post compelling content | 15 Build your audience | 20 Measure Success | 23 OBT Case Studies | 26 Teaching Participants to use Social Media | 35 Small Group Activity | 37

Why Social Media? Why Social Media?

Section 1

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The Challenge: Do Even More With Even Less

• Tight funding environment
• Funders keep asking us to do even more

with even less

• Attrition is a natural part of any program,

but those that stand to gain the most from a program are also those that are mostly likely to “fall through the cracks.”

• Hard to connect with participants when they’re not on site for vital updates on:
• Workshops and preparatory services
• Job opportunities
• Interview follow-up
• Retention
• Communication habits are changing
• Cell phone numbers change constantly
• Emails go unanswered

Source: NYC Workforce Investment Board

38

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The Opportunity: Engagement Is Shifting To Social Media

• Communication habits have shifted from older formats to social media
• Getting on social media is an opportunity to meet participants where they are
• Social media is social
• Conversations happen in a semi-public way and can help spread the positive effects of

a program from one person to the next

• Content is easily shareable—and can even go viral
• Ubiquitous smart phones = ubiquitous social media

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The Obstacles: Starting From Zero

• Intimidating to start from zero likes, friends, or followers
• Hard to understand the unwritten rules and special language of different social media

networks

• Negative content about your program could spread just as easily as positive content
• No sense of where to start

Create a structure for social media within your program Create a structure for social media within your program

Section 2

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Make social media a part of your overall participant engagement strategy

• Think about the other ways you’re reaching people already
• What’s already working?
• What’s not working that should be cut back?
• Are there particular sub-groups of participants that are harder to reach, and what

defines them? Age, gender, etc.?

• Integrate social media into your staffing plan
• Ensure you have capacity (time and expertise) to create and maintain a presence on

social media

• Empower staff to use social media frequently and without need for prior approval
• But have a manager-level staffer who’s checking up on content occasionally and who

can step in when there’s a problem.

• Don’t put social media in a silo within the program. Ensure that all functions see

themselves as stakeholders in social media.

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Understand your target audience

• Remember: program

participants are a different audience from funders, who are a different audience from employers, the general public, etc.

• Start with broad

demographic data

• But also get an

understanding of your target population--at least anecdotally, but ideally through data collected at intake.

Source: Business Insider

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Create the right social media vehicle: Facebook

Facebook Tool How It Works Page

• Participants like the program’s page and get program updates in

their FB feed

• No news feed of participants’ updates

Profile

• Participants friend the profile of a staff person, or the program itself
• Allows access to participants’ updates in the news feed

Group

• Participants and staff join a group
• Participants and staff must post updates specifically to the group to

share them with other members

• Facebook has the most users of all social media sites by far
• Facebook has the flexibility to post text, images, and videos, as well as create and market

events and posts

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Create the right social media vehicle: Twitter, Instagram, Foursquare

• Twitter
• The size of Twitter’s user base is smaller than the media attention

around it would lead you to believe

• Creating a Twitter account for your program is only worth it if

participants are also on Twitter

• Follow participants on Twitter, which will hopefully result in them

following you back

• Get Twitter users with high numbers of followers among your target

population to promote your Twitter account and retweet your updates.

• Instagram
• Social network dedicated to sharing images
• Data indicates Instagram is gaining market share at the expense of

Facebook

• Like Twitter, follow participants on Instagram, which will hopefully

result in them following you back

• Foursquare
• Place-based social network
• Doesn’t require constant updates
• Incentivize “checking in” by creating a prize for the mayor. More

check-ins = more exposure for your program

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Create the right social media vehicle: many, many, more…

• Other social networks:
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• Google+
• Tumblr
• Vine
• Messaging Apps
• Kik
• WhatsApp
• SnapChat
• The next big thing…
• Be prepared to adjust quickly based on changing habits. Young users of social media are

“nomadic.” They go where their parents and teachers are not.

Post compelling content Post compelling content

Section 3

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What to say in posts

• Your content should be compelling, relevant to the target audience, and inviting for

engagement

• Your content needs to beat out stiff competition from individuals and organizations who

are trying very hard to attract eyeballs and clicks

• Your content should reflect--and flow naturally from--all of the great things you’re doing

in your programs

• Develop an authentic voice that connects with participants while also reflecting the

program’s identity and values

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How to get your message across

• Simple text updates
• Photos
• Events
• Use Facebook events to get RSVPs and spread awareness of the event through

attendees’ social networks

• If converting a flyer to an image, make sure that text is legible on a small phone screen

Can’t read on phone Legible on phone

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How to get your message across

• Questions: Invite participants to share their opinion on both program and non program

related topics

• News & Resources relevant to audience
• Videos: Instagram and Vine provide tools for “editing” short videos using a smartphone

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Other Content Considerations

• Schedule content in advance to create more consistency in posts
• Cross-post with caution
• Respond to inquiries quickly—ideally within the same day
• Respond to negative feedback honestly and professionally. Only delete the truly

inflammatory/inappropriate content.

Build your audience Build your audience

Section 4

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Promote social media to participants

• Make a compelling case to participants to join your audience
• Make direct outreach to program participants
• CONSTANTLY remind participants to join in your print and electronic materials

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Get help from others

• Ask organizations with larger, more established social media presences to promote

your social media presence

• Community partners
• Community leaders
• In some cases, funders (but audience may not be the right fit)
• Enlist trusted participants to be ambassadors of the program. Encourage them to

promote the program among their own social networks

Measure Success Measure Success

Section 5

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Measure Social Media Activity and Engagement

• Start by tracking basic metrics: audience size, content creation
• Set goals based on size of program, staff resources, and peer programs
• Use analytics tools that are provided by social media tools to measure engagement

with content

• Adapt behavior based on data

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Measure Social Media Impact on Program Outputs and Outcomes

Discussion How can we measure social media’s impact on different aspects of our programs?

• Recruitment
• Engagement for services
• Referral to job opportunities
• Job placement
• Retention & advancement

OBT Case Studies OBT Case Studies

Section 6

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How to use Social Media on a Bare Bones Budget

• Identify goal, audience, and best strategy for implementation
• Use various social media tools such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook
• Use combination of public and private platforms depending on desired
• utcome
• Integrate social media into the employee handbook as an “all hands on deck”

approach.

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Connecting with Employers

• Public Forum
• Audience: HR Managers
• Strategy: OBT’s Job Developers use LinkedIn to engage potential employers

in events where they will have the opportunity to meet OBT participants and learn about the agency.

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Engaging Community Stakeholders

• Public Forum
• Audience: Potential CBO Partners, Community Leaders, Employers,

Donors, Elected Officials and Government Agencies

• Strategy: Using Twitter and Facebook to promote events, re-tweeting, and

tagging.

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Recruitment

• Public Forum
• Audience: Candidates for OBT programs
• Strategies: Using OBT Public Facebook Page and Fan pages to like and

promote programs and events.

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Engagement and Retention

• Private Forum
• Audience: Current OBT participants and Alumni
• Strategies: Programs within the agency have individual private pages to interact with

students.

• Staff are required to create a separate OBT profile and receive guidelines for

interacting with students and representing the agency

• A reliable way to communicate with a student both in the program and after

completion

• An effective tool for case managers to have a proactive role in the participant’s

progress

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Profile for YAIP Program

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Referral for Job and College Opportunities, Retention, and Outcomes

• Private Forum
• Audience: Current OBT participants and Alumni
• Strategy: Job developers establishing relationships with participants on Facebook.
• Posting opportunities for employment fairs
• Connecting with individuals with specific opportunities allows the job developer

to track their relationship with the participant

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Retention and Outcomes for Job Placement and College Retention and Outcomes for Job Placement and College

• Private Forum
• Audience: Alumni
• Strategy: Create online support group through Facebook to continue dialogue

from our monthly Stay At Work meetings

• Participants are able to provide each other feedback and post additional

questions for guest speakers.

• Staff can use this platform as an opportunity to monitor the participants status to

provide additional support or to inquire about outcomes

Teaching program participants how to use social media Teaching program participants how to use social media

Section 7

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Teaching participants

Give advice tactfully. Don’t be paternal.

• Facebook
• Adjust privacy settings to shield content from future employers
• Address username issues
• LinkedIn
• Set up profiles for participants
• Create alumni group, particularly for older participants
• Discuss unwritten rules/etiquette

Small Group Activity Small Group Activity

Section 8

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Group Activity

• Divide into groups by clients served (e.g. youth, adults, special

populations)

• Discuss a social media plan for your organization:
• Define a goal
• Define an audience to target
• Come up with 3 strategies to achieve this goal with this

audience

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Keep the conversation going

• Follow us on Twitter:
• @PublicWorksIQ
• @OBTJOBS
• Use hashtag #socialwkdev
• Like OBT on Facebook:

facebook.com/obtjobs83

• Connect with Public Works Partners on
• n LinkedIn:

linkedin.com/company/public-works-partners

• Visit us on the web:
• publicworkspartners.com
• obtjobs.org