new to working in social media? 5 common mistakes to avoid.

It’s the time of year when many places have new people working in social media management, whether interns for colleges or other accounts or new hires ready to roll in this field. Which is exciting. And yet. I look at my Twitter ticker or Facebook feed and see so many people making simple mistakes that make me weep a little. So here are five common mistakes in social media you’ll want to avoid to make it all easier.

Watch your @. If you are replying to another Twitter account, an @ is entirely appropriate. If you’re trying to promote something and start with an @, you’re restricting your audience to only those following both accounts. If you want this message to reach your full audience, the answer is simple: Don’t start with an @! If you work in social media, you should be clever enough to know how to reword it.

Avoid the horse latitudes. Different studies say different things about when is the best time to post in social media, but what generally matters most is the content. After all, our most popular Facebook post ever went up on a Friday evening, which many self-styled “social media gurus” would advise against. That said, you should examine when your target market is active and when it’s not. When I see accounts post things appealing to students at 4:30 a.m., that doesn’t seem very wise. Lazy Sunday afternoons are also not the ideal time to try to engage a wide conversation with a general (not necessarily inspiring) question. And if there’s a much-tweeted event (Super Bowl™, award shows, “Walking Dead” season finale, etc.), any tweets — especially off topic — will drown in the flood.

Don’t be a robot. A friend of mine who just assumed greater social media responsibility announced she was unhooking the auto-feed that blasted her school’s Facebook and Twitter accounts simultaneously. And there was much rejoicing. A tweet that is awkwardly cut off in the middle and sports a Facebook link is essentially saying: “I really don’t care about Twitter.” Twitter and Facebook are two distinctly different media with different strengths and different audiences. You don’t run a TV ad on the radio or vice versa. Your social media outlets — while they should be integrated — also should have their own lives. If you can’t find 15 seconds to post something separately in Twitter and Facebook, you really don’t care about your audience.

Have conversations. Social media is not a bullhorn; it’s a conversation. Or a series of conversations. If your Facebook account is just your news releases with hardly any comments or likes, or if your Twitter account is just your posts with no @s or RTs, then it’s not very social. Also, when you post, don’t throw out lame marketing taglines. Sound like a human (see above), as if you were having a conversation with friends. Because even if you’re working social media for a brand, you ARE having a conversation with friends.

Know which account you’re in. Yes, at some point or another, we’ve probably posted something from the wrong account in haste. This is usually harmless, like when I answered a question last week from @TimNekritz via Tweetdeck forgetting to switch over to @sunyoswego. But there’s always the famous “#gettngslizzerd” example where a Red Cross employee accidentally posted about drinking exploits under the official account. To their credit, the Red Cross responded magnificently so the story had a happy ending. In terms of mobile posting, I make sure my personal Twitter account and any professional accounts are on different apps so I don’t have to worry about signing in or out. Whatever method you use, check what you’re doing so you don’t become a social media case study.

All that said, if you’re new to the field of social media management: Congratulations! It’s not necessarily easy, but it’s very fulfilling to help others and make connections. And know that there’s a massive support group of others working in this area on Twitter and elsewhere always willing to help with advice and feedback. After all, social media is about humans being social and helpful, and it really is a great job and community.

building incoming student communities via invite-only facebook groups.

When it comes to community building and management for incoming students, you can find many models involving various costs, commitment levels and features. Like other colleges, we’ve tried many things and sat through countless vendor pitches. So when our orientation coordinator approached me with a modest proposal to build two private invite-only Facebook groups — one for incoming freshmen, one for incoming transfers — it seemed worth a shot.

Like any other community-building attempt on social media, this meant addressing key points:

Staffing: Our orientation operation has many devoted, outgoing and tireless Laker Leaders and other student workers ready to help. Since they learn to be real-life ambassadors during orientation, they are well-suited to playing a similar role in social media.

Security: We had email addresses for incoming students and can invite them via sending a direct link. But coordinators were concerned this link could be shared around and others could get in, so they wanted to verify everyone who asked to join. This is especially hard when students are not using their full name or use a variation of their name as their Facebook handle. The positive about the security is that it keeps out spammers and creepers (and, some students would say happily, parents!), thus maintaining a good atmosphere for interaction.

Building: Security concerns and the added step for verification created a bottleneck for those wishing to join. Shortly after the initial email, I went to the group and found more than 100 students awaiting approval from the community’s coordinators! It is good to see that kind of enthusiastic response but if anyone is stuck in the queue too long it’s not the best introduction. Also, we already have a public-facing Class of 2016 Community on Facebook — which escorted students from interest to application to acceptance to enrollment to pre-orientation — that has more than 700 members and remains very active.

Sustaining: Student workers have done a nice job of generating conversations, posting photos and answering questions. The question-answering was a bit rocky at first but it’s improving. The incoming students have generated some great conversations on a variety of topics. One tool that may or may not see much use is our behind-the-scenes wiki with answers to a lot of commonly asked questions. The excitement on all sides is still high, so maybe this is a bit of a honeymoon phase, but other than some transfers concerned about room-assignment issues, the conversations have been decidedly upbeat.

This experiment bears watching, but we’ve already seen some nice wins. One involves an oft-praised employee in residence life who has made a lot of people happy by working her magic in accommodating students wanting to switch rooms. And transfer commuters — a group that often feels like they get less attention — started a wonderful, supportive conversation that has already cemented great connections. So while this is a preliminary snapshot, and I’m not sure how far into the lifecycle this project will run, I’ll track and report results as the project continues.

how we use pinterest: it’s about goals, users and gut.

If you work in social media, you couldn’t help but catch the buzz over Pinterest, which repeatedly smashed records for fastest social media community to [insert just about any number] members. We’ve started up a Pinterest page — but not because it’s the next shiny object. The SUNY Oswego Pinterest page came about because we saw another way to connect with key users, fulfill communication goals … and because of an intangible gut instinct.

When I brought the idea of Pinterest up to our student social media team, the three young women in the group were immediately excited about it. That doesn’t happen when I mention working in Twitter or Formspring or Foursquare, so my gut instantly realized that if part of our target market was this into the platform, it had real potential. Of course, that Pinterest mainly appeals to women is considered a punchline in some sectors … but it’s foolish to pooh-pooh such a huge market (around 55 percent of our students are female, for one thing).

One intern, Jenna, immediately thought of two potential boards — photos of items students should bring when moving in (one of the questions we hear the most in social media) and images of places of interest in the Oswego community (ditto). Thus our ongoing goal of better communicating with potential/incoming students gives one great peg for using Pinterest. As I always say: Goals first, then tools. Ideas for boards about various living options, activities on campus, sporting events and even winter preparation followed … all produced by students on the team.

I’ve also talked to key folks in alumni relations, who are also interested in photos and items of interest to alumni. One of the alumni magazine’s most popular stories involved images and stories of famous performers who played Oswego over the years, so historic photo galleries are in the planning stages. Thus we can offer content that spans the student lifecycle — from when they’re choosing a college to graduates recalling their glory days.

Say what you will about Pinterest, but if your institution has goals, motivated people (students!) working on it and a focus on content of interest to your audience, it’s well worth pursuing.

social media may be sexy, but email is still important.

As a profession, we seem to spend so much time concentrating on monitoring and responding via social media that we forget for much of our audience — especially our institution’s alumni — email is still a medium of choice. And that sometimes the informative, upbeat response with a smile can mean a lot.

Consider the following email from an alum, sparked by our Sesquicentennial history activities, that seems to come with a side of snark:

Industrial arts has long been one of our signature programs, but the alum did not know it is now known as technology education. So his very real concern about a program near and dear to his heart deserves an answer in a positive tone. Thus:

Succinct, smiling and with a link for more information. How did the alum like the response? Very well!

From worrying about the direction of his alma mater back to a proud alum just like that. Not the hardest thing I had to do that day, but still pretty important — because every person who has a valued connection with our institution is important.

I also want to address this topic because I’ve seen companies and colleges that throw a lot of their resources into social media but do a poor job of responding to email — which may not be as “sexy” as Facebook or Twitter but is still a very vital medium. Whether it’s not acknowledging an email at all, not replying in a timely manner, giving an insufficient answer or firing back something terse as if our email is a bother, many entities have room for improvement in the email department. And that’s too bad, because there are no character limits and an opportunity to craft something thoughtful.

hearing voices: doing a 180 on how we use 140.

When we launched the @sunyoswego Twitter account a few years ago, we weren’t using it in an ideal manner. But some evolution in Twitter itself and a change of our philosophy has led to a 180-degree change in how we use our 140 or less characters.

Going in, I knew Twitter was about interacting. But it began as One More Thing To Do, so the initial efforts were more push than interaction, and I didn’t do a great job budgeting time to responding to tweets mentioning our school. Of course, we had all those misleading polls and articles alleging Teens Don’t Tweet, although we discovered that was a fallacy fairly quickly.

So, with the help of great social media interns, we went more interactive, provided more live-tweeting, posted more photos in addition to answering questions. And it was good. But I realized that, while this painted a pretty good portrait of the campus, something was missing: Other voices.

Starting a few months ago, I placed greater emphasis on putting other voices into our stream, generally through retweets. Some thought-provoking #highedweb11 presentations provided inspiration, as did the idea from roller derby (and, before it, yes, professional wrestling) of “putting over” skaters, or helping audiences care and/or understand more about the players. I set up Tweetdeck columns for “sunyoswego” “suny oswego” and “oswego state” which keep us apprised of our mentions. Our goal: Weave in the stories of other accounts on campus and our supporters already tweeting our praises on social media — alumni, current students and incoming students.

The stream now features retweets of various organizations and offices on campus doing awesome events and programs. It provides value and validation to those accounts and their activities — growing not only their followers and participants but providing a better cross-section of what happens on campus. We’ve had accounts on campus ask for us to retweet them which we will do when they are providing value. A few times we’ll have someone ask to tweet their account’s existence, check to find they’ve posted no content and suggested they include @sunyoswego in a tweet of something they’re doing when they want a retweet. Saying “hey, check out this account that isn’t posting any content of value” lessens the value or our validations.

For the past week, we’ve had all kinds of students happily tweeting about their acceptance into SUNY Oswego. Here I stick with the awesome advice of Scott Stratten, aka @unmarketing: “I don’t know the ROI (return on investment) of tweeting back when a student says they’ve been accepted. And I don’t care. Just do it! It’s the right thing to do.” We usually retweet with a congratulations and/or welcome and/or something related to their tweet. A straight-up retweet seems lame and self-promotional, while adding some greeting or congratulations is more engaging and special to the recipient.

As a result of all this, we’ve seen a flood of new followers (the people we retweet will follow us, and often retweet our retweet, which leads to more followers), and a higher level of interaction than ever. We’ve been able to show those followers a wider swath of campus life. And most importantly we’re building a larger, more engaged and richer community experience … which is, as Stratten says, the right thing to do.

management by wandering around, revisited.

“You are out of tune with the times if you are in the office more than one-third of the time.” — Tom Peters, “Thriving on Chaos”

One could wonder if Peters’ 1987 quote no longer applies now that we can connect with the world via email, social media and countless new channels without leaving our offices. I would argue his point is more valid than ever.

I’m bad at this. I spend way too much time in front of my computer in my office. There was a running gag where our web/new media coordinator, who reports to me, and I would say “good morning” to each other face-to-face for the first time in the afternoon. But this is marginal management on my part, so I’ve made a point to try to check in with her early in the day, every day.

Moreover, working on a college campus, it’s really hard to get a picture for what’s happening from the island of our offices. Getting out and around helps immensely.

Peters had a term for this: Management by wandering around. It’s not complicated. Just by walking around your area, talking to your employees, co-workers, bosses and the like (in our case, students!), you not only maintain a good line of communication but can improve how everyone does their job.

I notice this most when I get out of my building and go through places like our Campus Center. In buildings teeming with offices, casual spaces and interesting people, I often find myself in conversations that solve some kind of problem for one or both of us, move a project along or spark a whole new collaboration. Sitting down to lunch or talking over a cup of coffee provides a much richer, deeper and more fruitful conversation than text messages or email, Facebook or Twitter ever could.

This is not to discount online communication. I’ve worked on good projects and formed great friendships with people before meeting them in person. But meeting them face to face — interacting in three dimensions in real time — makes the relationship so much richer. The same goes for your bosses or employees, your colleagues and your students. Social media can facilitate connections and communication, but it can never replace in-person interaction.

So … if you’re reading this in your office, I offer this simple challenge: Get out from behind that desk and wander around to talk face-to-face with at least three people you don’t normally speak with over the course of today. It could prove much more fruitful than you imagined!

you can’t outsource authenticity.

Recently I made a comment on Twitter about a talented singer-songwriter and, a few days later, received an @ reply from someone suggesting I get said artist’s latest single. Curious, I checked the account to see it bragging about its “digital marketing clients” including a pretty decent roster of performers.

Too bad the whole thing is all kinds of wrong.

A couple years ago, I mentioned singer/songwriter Pete Yorn in a tweet. You know who responded and started following me?

Pete Yorn.

Pete Freaking Yorn.

Pete The Freaking Man Himself Yorn.

Not someone repping “digital marketing clients.” The artist himself, who tweets as he tours the country, promotes himself well but also shows his human side. And while I had sort of drifted from watching his career, I’ve bought all three records he’s released since.

Why? Because, strange as it seems, I feel a connection with him. Not with the team that handles him as a “digital marketing client,” but Pete Freaking Yorn.

Because I don’t go to Twitter to get marketed to. I go there for conversations.

If you’re an artist — or a company or an organization — who is a “digital marketing client,” you’re missing the boat. Sure, you can have people help you learn about social media, assist with a drawing up a digital strategy, but only you can be you. Heck, I bought two albums from the band Vancougar after discovering their tweet about attending a roller derby bout. Authenticity is the currency of social media, and you can’t outsource authenticity.

Look, I’m nobody special, yet I’ve had all kinds of performers follow me (or follow me back) and engage me in conversation. That makes me want to stay connected. To their music. To their brand, to use the marketing term.

I think most agencies struggle in the world of social media because they can’t do authenticity as well as their clients. They can’t converse when they focus on pushing messages. They can find suckers to pay them to tweet … then they spew marketing taglines and no one responds.

Because we don’t talk to taglines.

We don’t talk to entities repping their “digital marketing clients.”

We talk to people. It’s personal. It’s conversational. It’s authentic.

It’s what every performer who wants a presence on social media should be doing … themselves! Personally. Conversationally. And authentically.

how home renovations are like using social media.

Like most homeowners, I found myself deep (over my head?) in a renovation project during my week off. Seemed simple enough: Remove an old sliding patio door and install a new one. Not that simple, of course, but it nonetheless reminded me of good advice I’ve received about social media.

Tools support a goal. Because of a number of complications, I used just about every tool I own (and had to buy more). I didn’t just say: I want to use a hammer and a saw! Which is, alas, what too many people do when they say: I want to make a Facebook! or Let’s do a video! with no attention to why and how they want to use social media. For my project, I had a goal — replace my patio door — and the way it unfolded dictated what tools I’d need.

Learn to adapt. The condition of the (soon-to-be-removed) Florida room where I installed the door provided some obstacles (or even hazards). The previous owners appeared to have framed the door after putting it in, which made it impossible to fit without taking out the old framework. Much adaptation ensued, and sometimes I was on my third or fourth tool to take out an obstacle. This is true of social media too: You’re never sure what to expect. You can plan, but sometimes you have to roll with what happens and respond. Or you may find a social media avenue is not working as you want, thus you have to change. Or you have to go into your social media toolkit for another option.

We can’t do it alone. Did I mention that a sliding patio door is a large, cumbersome item? After a lengthy amount of trying to negotiate it by myself, I eventually realized I’d need someone to help situate it (thanks to Fred Vigeant for the extra hands). This happens in social media too. We can’t monitor our Facebook pages and Twitter accounts 24/7 without some help (often students). We need other people contributing engaging content. If you’re fortunate enough to have a great network (via Facebook, Twitter, G+ or other), you can learn from colleagues at any time, and tap them for advice.

It’s never over. If you own a home, you know that there’s always another project waiting as soon as you finish anything (I have several). And working with social media is a never-ending process — whether you’re answering questions, learning about new means of communication or trying to figure out how to do things better. But even though there always seems to be more work to do, don’t forget to step back and take some time to admire a job well done once in a while.

5 reasons businesses should be using social media.

I gave a presentation to a community leadership class last week and realized that (despite my arrogant assumption to the contrary) not all businesses and organizations are yet sold on the value of using social media. Whether it’s fear of the lack of control, tight resources or not believing they have the skills navigate Web 2.0, some businesses hesitate to take this step into what appears The Great Unknown.

Preparing for that presentation (as well as a rush job for class when a guest speaker had to cancel for a death in her family), I assembled 5 top advantages businesses and organizations can gain from social media presence. Turns out the reasons spell out the word MEDIA — pure happenstance, as I’m not nearly clever enough to create such a thing.

Multimedia storytelling: It’s so much easier to show with visuals than words, whether with video (the richest form of online content) or photos/slideshows. For example, would you rather read about our college having more than 100 student organizations or see a user-contributed Flickr slideshow with students in action? The bonus is you can embed slideshows on your own pages or share via social media.

Engagement: Your customers or clients, students or alumni are key to, and part of the narrative of, any business or organization. Interacting with them via Facebook or Twitter helps solidify their connections with you, and may help you better solve their problems. If a potential client posts on three Facebook pages looking for more info, and yours is the only one that responds, how much of a better chance do you have of earning their business? Or if you aren’t on Facebook, that discussion can’t even take place.

Direct communication: How traditional PR pushes out a story: We write a news release. We send it to editors who may throw it in the trash, put it into some kind of story purgatory or chop down to two sentences and make it a brief. Even if you get a good story, then consumers have to actually pick up a paper that day, turn to the page where it is and find time to read it. With social media, you bypass gatekeepers and uncertainty to get directly to your stakeholders. Also worth noting that our official Facebook page has decidedly more fans than our hometown daily newspaper has circulation.

Immediacy: Getting the word out, and placed in the media, can be a laborious process … albeit one that’s still worth doing. But if you create a Facebook event and invite all your fans to it, it’s immediate (and engaging and direct, as noted above). Or if something changes at the last minute, you can let attendees (or maybes) know immediately. There are other countless reasons businesses may want to get some kind of important message out instantly, and social media is delivers quickly.

Authenticity: Our businesses, our brands are not about buildings or sales figures. They’re about people. Authenticity — being who you are, telling the truth and embodying your values — is required for social media but also provides opportunities. Why not allow users to see behind the scenes at your operation in some way? Why not invite your most loyal customers to tell their stories? Why not make everyone feel like they are a genuine and important part of your story?

I’m not saying social media doesn’t come with perils, but then anything worth doing — just opening a business in the first place — comes with some type of risk. And I’m not saying delving into social media should completely replace existing marketing efforts, although they can greatly enrich, extend and complement existing marketing. Social media is more of an investment of time than of money, but it’s an investment that can reap great dividends.

how roller derby helped me fall back in love with PR.

In some form or another, I’ve worked in public relations most of my adult life. While I love my ever-evolving day job, there’s a chance some things can feel a bit stale after a while. But I have to admit that doing publicity for Oz Roller Girls has reminded me what I enjoy about public relations.

My day job is for a college that’s also the largest employer in the county, so what we do is news whether we want it to be or not. And sometimes decisions involve what not to write about under the If We Cover That Bake Sale, We Have To Cover All Bake Sales theory.

But with the Oz Roller Girls, it’s like a budding relationship where everything is fresh and new. We’re starting, essentially, from square one, so seeing Oz news releases and photos in the media is exciting again, and watching folks on the team post Facebook links to our coverage gives a sense of accomplishment, of being part of a group that deeply appreciates it.

Since we recently launched the @OzRollerGirls Twitter account, I find myself going back to basics. My regular Twitter account having 1,300+ followers and the college account having 900+ followers has spoiled me. With the derby account, I have to remember how to build an audience again through interesting content and engagement.

It’s also refreshing to write about a new subject and be able to start a campaign from scratch. If I have an idea for a good story, I can just dive into it. The Media Committee also has awesome volunteers ready to help at any time. The whole team is so cooperative and supportive when I need something from them, and the enthusiasm for the sport is contagious and fulfilling.

The Oz Roller Girls are still an underdog in the media game. We’re a novelty act to some, hard to categorize to others, unproven to others still. But as we build toward our home debut on April 23, you can feel a kind of momentum from dozens of skaters and volunteers all believing in something and working together. When they see publicity come through, it’s just further encouragement. And being a part of all that, of seeing everything come together and enjoying every little success, makes me fall in love with public relations all over again.

Postscript: My advice: If you ever feel a little stagnated, finding a volunteer outlet can prove refreshing. You don’t have to get as far in as I have, but just meeting new people and gaining new perspective can really be a boost.