Getting ‘Social’ with Social Media

Most people would agree that engaging in social media expands your boundaries and serves as a bridge between your organization and its audience. So why aren’t more museums and cultural groups embracing these communication tools? Many say they don’t have the time, budget or staff. We found one savvy marketer who disagrees with that reasoning.

For some time now, we’ve been the recipients of Morgan Devlin’s social media outreach. Morgan is the one-woman marketing department at Newport Restoration Foundation (NRF). We chatted with Morgan about her social media experience and the benefits and challenges it has brought NRF. 

Objective
SLD - What are your objectives in using social media?



MD - My goals for engaging in social media are to:
- Communicate more frequently and quickly with our constituency
- Expand our current audience and reach out to a younger constituency
- Share more informal and fun information about our organization

Social media helps us to expand our reach without increasing our budget, builds on relationships with our constituents through non-sales communications, and raises awareness about NRF and its activities, some of which do not have a marketing budget.

Target Audience
SLD - Who must you reach with your social media efforts to meet your objectives?

MD - While I do wish to expand into a new, younger audience, we have found that many of our existing online friends and followers represent an older demographic. Another important community is the media, who are increasingly sourcing news online. I utilize Twitter more for outreach to the media and other organizations that promote Newport as a destination. I keep up to date on new social media tools and networks by reading various PR sites, including PR Daily. 


Integration
SLD - How does your social media support other components of your Internet strategy?

MD - Social media increases traffic to our web site. Whenever I post a news item on our site, I automatically post links to it on Facebook and Twitter. I also cross-promote using our e-news. While our web site is better suited to program and event descriptions, I can post very informal or brief items on Facebook. It is also a great way to share fun visuals, which interest and inform people about NRF’s activities.


Capacity
SLD - How many hours a week do you spend working on your social media marketing?


MD - I would estimate that I spend about 2-3 hours a week on social media.

Tools + Tactics

SLD - What are the strengths and weaknesses of each social media channel you’re using?

MD - Facebook is great because it builds a community, and people can easily provide feedback by posting comments on your wall. The only challenge is that setting up Facebook and learning the various tools is somewhat time consuming, and it is important to get it right the first time, as it is not easy to change.

Twitter lets you share a lot of information, but you also have to compete with a large amount of quickly changing information. So its strength is also a weakness.

Constant Contact is a paid service, so that could be seen as a drawback. However, the cost is scaled to the size of your e-mail list, making it pretty affordable for a small non-profit. It has great reporting features, so you can easily assess the strength of your articles.


SLD - How do you create personal connections and yet brand NRF at the same time? 



MD - With Facebook, I started with my personal account and did outreach to professional connections. Then I encouraged them to become fans of NRF’s page. I still share some personal updates on Facebook, so it is not just a ‘sales’ connection. Also, there are some professional events and resources that are nice to share with others and are not related to NRF. While many of my Facebook friends have become fans of NRF’s page, we have many fans that have found us through other channels. 


SLD - How do you develop or repurpose content?

MD - Instead of using a social media management tool such as Tweetdeck or forwarding Facebook posts to my Twitter account, I customize the content for each outlet. That way, I think about what is the important information to share with that audience. In the same way, you should tailor the subject line when sending a press release to a local newspaper versus one that you send to a national outlet. Also, it is important to remember that people are being inundated by information and you need to get to the point fast.

Assessment
SLD - How do you measure your social media success?

MD - Mostly, I measure our success through the number of fans for our Facebook pages, number of followers on Twitter, and the size of our e-mail list on Constant Contact.

SLD - Do you have a system or tool that tracks your results? 


MD - I refer to the detailed metrics provided on Facebook and Constant Contact about activity levels. I also subscribe to social media alerts, which allows me to monitor re-tweets and Facebook posts on a daily basis. Since we promote our events across many channels, it would be hard to identify the contribution of social media directly. However, we do have sign-up sheets at most of our programs, so it provides some feedback on how they hear about events.

One Last Questions...
SLD – Do you have any recommended dos and don’ts as one dives into the social media waters?

MD - Keep it fun and informative. Ask yourself whether you would follow your own page. Remember that you are competing with other personal and professional connections in your followers’ lives. At the same time, try not to obsess over your posts. If something isn’t worded perfectly or isn’t the most incisive update ever, no one will hold it against you. People understand that this is a more informal communication method and the occasional typo might slip in. 



Share Your Social Media Stories with Us
Are you using social media in your marketing mix or thinking about diving in? Join our conversation and share your experience by e-mail, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. You can also send us your thoughts by clicking the “Post a Comment” link at the top of this article. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!