Course details
1. An introduction to social media & a short history of media convergence
- What is social media?
- Why is it big now?
- The principles behind social media and how these impact institutions, media, marketing and public relations
- Why public relations is well placed to take advantage of social media
2. Forms of social media & technologies
- Forums
- Blogs
- Communities
- Social networks
- Video sharing sites
- Micro blogs, status updates & activity feeds
- Costumer Ratings / Feedback
- RSS and XML
- Bespoke mash-ups using various platforms and API’s
- What to expect next?
3. What a business can do with social media & how PR agencies can help
- Listening
- Talking
- Energising
- Helping
- Different platforms
- Case studies
- Case studies
- Different platforms
- Case studies
- Case studies
- Different platforms
- Case studies
- Case studies
- Different platforms
- Case studies
- Case studies
4. How to help a business select what social media tools are appropriate for them
- The Techno-demographics profile (selecting via demographics)
- Identify the communications problem
- Awareness problems – the brand is unknown
- Complexity problems – the product is complex
- Word of mouth problems – people don’t talk about the brand
- Accessibility problems – can’t get to customers with marketing message
- Complexity problems – the product is complex
- Word of mouth problems – people don’t talk about the brand
- Accessibility problems – can’t get to customers with marketing message
5. How to select who in an organisation is best placed to do social media
- The importance of authenticity
- From spin doctors to trust agents
- Executive visibility
- How existing roles dovetail with social media
- Who’s best for Blogging & Facebook pages
- Who’s best for Twitter
- Who’s best for Communities & Forums
- Public relations (brand & corporate)
- Customer service
- Customer service
6. Search engine optimisation and the power of content
- How Google Pagerank works
- How to do SEO research
- Link-building techniques or so-called “Link-bait”
- Why Google loves blogs in particular
7. Social media case studies
- Research
- Creating awareness
- Crisis management
- Brand PR and sales
- Thought leadership
- Internal communication, stakeholder and supplier communication
8. How to Blog
- Starting a blog (including deciding who should write it)
- Designing your blog information architecture
- Plugins
- Technical requirements
- Writing for the web
- Building your audience
- Video and your blog
9. Making an impact – How to use Video
- How to use video including curating existing video and filming your own
- Using YouTube and other video platforms
10. How to use Facebook
- Starting a Facebook page
- Building an audience for your Facebook page
- Difference between Facebook Page and Facebook Group
11. How to use LinkedIn
- Using LinkedIn for networking
- Using LinkedIn for research
12. How to use Twitter
- Starting a Twitter account
- Talking & listening with Twitter (Writing techniques)
13. How to use Listening Tools
- Google news & Google blog search
- Using RSS
- Twitter search
- Other listening tools
14. ROI and measurement
- How to choose the correct metrics?
- Using Google Analytics for blogs
- Using tools like Hootsuite for Twitter