Presentation to the National Association for Interpretation Annual Workshop, presented 11/17/2012

1. An Introduction to Social
Media for Park Professionals
Nancy Heltman
Visitor Services Manager
Social Media Evangelist
Staci Martin
Visitor Services Specialist
Social Media Choir Member
Virginia State Parks
Department of Conservation and Recreation

2. Social Media Killed
Video: http://youtu.be/DDW7ekiBKx8

3. What we’ll cover
• Why bother with social media?
• Get started – Pick the
Channels that work for you
• Time saving techniques
• Have a policy and use it

4. One Way
Communication
Noise
Message
Sender Receiver

5. Two Way
Communication
Message
Noise
Sender Receiver
Feedback

6. Social Media
Communication

7. Once Upon a Time ….. (1996)

8. First there was the web
The internet expanded the public’s
access to
news, information, entertainment
Web 1.0, or web, refers to the first
stage of the World Wide Web linking
webpages with hyperlinks. (1993)
Wikipedia

9. Then there was Web 2.0
The public was empowered to
comment on and share that
content and their opinions of the
content with their friends.
Since 2004, Web 2.0 has been the term used
to describe social web, especially the current
business models of sites on the World Wide
Web
Wikipedia

10. Social Media is all about sharing
content and relating with your fans.
Your fans share your content with
their friends and it creates a new
dynamic to advertising.

11. I bought
Can’t go
shoes
this time
today
Last time it
started late
Are you going?
I’ll meet you there!
What time does it I love
start? Virginia
State
Parks
Do I need a
ticket? I’ll tell my
Are kids friends! Who
allowed? wants to car I’ll do it!
Wish I had a pool? How
babysitter. much do
you pay?

12. Social Media Revolution
Video
Video: http://youtu.be/x0EnhXn5boM

13. In one minute…
• 100,000 tweets sent
• 648,478 pieces of content shared on Facebook
• 2 million search queries on Google
• 48 hours of video uploaded to YouTube
• 47,000 apps downloaded
• 3,600 photos shared on Instagram
• 571 new websites created
• $272,000 spent online
Source: the socialskinny.com

14. By the numbers…
• 91% of adults use social media regularly
• There are more devices connected to the internet
than people on earth
• 8 new people come online every second
• 61% research products/events online
• Companies with blogs have 55% more website
traffic than those without a blog
• 3.2 billion likes/comments are posted on
Facebook everyday
Source: the socialskinny.com

15. • 65% of adult internet users now say they use a
social networking site like MySpace, Facebook or
LinkedIn.
• under age 30: 61% use social networking sites on
a typical day.
• Ages 50-64, 32% use social networking sites on a
typical day.
• The number of those using social networking
sites has nearly doubled since 2008 and the
population of SNS users has gotten older

16. • 75% of all American adults are active in some kind of
voluntary group or organization and internet users are
more likely than others to be active: 80% of internet
users participate in groups, compared with 56% of
non-internet users.
• Moreover, social media users are even more likely to
be active: 82% of social network users and 85% of
Twitter users are group participants.

17. • “One of the striking things in these data is
how purposeful people are as they become
active with groups.”
• “Many enjoy the social dimensions of
involvement, but what they really want is to
have impact. Most have felt proud of a group
they belong to in the past year and just under
half say they accomplished something they
couldn’t have accomplished on their own.”

18. How to get started
1. What do you want to accomplish? Set goals.
2. Start with the tools that best match those
goals.
3. Poke around the social media sites on your
own.
4. Find an evangelist or team.

19. What Channel?
• Blogging generates web traffic and gives you space to
tell a story
• Statistics show that Facebook has the most
interactions, but…as always..things are fluid and ever-
changing.
• Average user spend 6 hours 30 mins on Facebook per
month
• Average user spends 12 minutes on Google+ per
month
• Photos are worth 1,000 words
• Tweets are short, sweet, on point, fast and easily
shared.

20. Social Media Tools
• Blogs

21. CONTENT DRIVES THE
CONVERSATION

22. Blogging Tips
• It’s not all about YOU – think about your audience
• Develop a schedule or calendar
• Push blog to other Social Network Sites
• Create a blogging personality
• Blog about things not found on your website
(Behind-the-scenes interviews with staff, A Day in
the Life of a Maintenance Ranger, unique location
in the park, trivia/facts about the park)

24. Virginia State Parks Blog

25. • Social Networking

27. • 92% of SNS users are on Facebook
On a given day:
15% of Facebook users update their status.
22% comment on another’s post or status.
20% comment on another user’s photos.
26% “Like” another user’s content.
10% send another user a private message

28. Profile vs. Page
Profiles represent individuals and must be held
under an individual name, while Pages allow an
organization, business, celebrity, or band to
maintain a professional presence on Facebook. You
may only create Facebook Pages to represent real
organizations of which you are an authorized
representative.

29. Page or Group?
Pages allow real
organizations, businesses, celebrities and brands
to communicate broadly with people who like
them. Pages may only be created and managed
by official representatives.
Groups provide a closed space for small groups
of people to communicate about shared interests.
Groups can be created by anyone.

30. Local, Regional or
Nationwide
• Setting up individual Facebook page for each
of your locations means that much more
social media management and a fans spread
over many pages
• Setting up regional or nationwide page means
fans from all over might be inclined to go to
different parks in your area and means your
fans are concentrated in one place.
• Facebook may make this easier

31. Profile or Business
Account
Business accounts are designed for individuals who only
want to use the site to administer Pages and their ad
campaigns. For this reason, business accounts do not have
the same functionality as personal accounts. Business
accounts have limited access to information on the site.
An individual with a business account can view all the Pages
and Facebook Ads that they have created, however they will
not be able to view the profiles of users on the site or other
content on the site that does not live on the Pages they
administer. In addition, business accounts cannot be found
in search and cannot send or receive friend requests.

32. Facebook Tips
• Provide what your users are interested in
• Facebook is Visual – never post without a
picture
• Frequency and timing of posts will be
specific to your fans
• Multiple advertising opportunities for a
small investment with great targeting
• Investigate Tools for creating tabs like
heyo.com

33. Is Facebook
Really Free?

34. • Micro
Blogging

36. • 15% of online adults use Twitter
6/2012, (up from 8% in November
2010 and 13% 6/2011), 8% use
Twitter on a typical day.
• 95% of Twitter users own a mobile
phone, and half of these users
access the service on their handheld
device.

37. • African Americans and Latinos continue to
have high rates of adoption of the service.
• 25% of online African Americans use Twitter
at least occasionally, with 11% doing so on a
typical day.
• Twitter use by internet users ages 25-34 has
doubled since late 2010 (9% to 19%)
• Usage by ages 35-44 has also grown
significantly (from 8% to 14%).

38. Twitter
the allure
of 140
characters

39. Twitter Tricks
• Shoot for 120 characters
• Use Hash Tags when they make sense
• Share what interests your followers
• Grow your followers by following the
followers of Twitter accounts in your
niche
• Following limitation
• Refollow.com – free for non profits

40. ReTweets
New retweet – the original tweet shows in your feed even if you
don’t follow the account.
Old retweet (also just ‘ or MT). Shows your followers you are
sharing the content with them. Also gives you a chance to add
comment.

41. • Picture Sharing

42. Flickr
• Photo Sharing Site
• Can also post short video
• Tagging allows for easy search/sort for
social media management and for
viewers
• Can handle high resolution files
• Free or subscription options
• Many people can upload to one account

43. Virginia State Parks Flickr Page
VSP Flickr Site

44. Flickr Advice
• Train your staff on upload requirements
and tagging protocol
• Keep your page public so anyone can
view your pictures
• Allow other places to use your pictures
with photo credit
• Buy a few cheap cameras so staff have
them available while in the field

46. •Video Sharing
71% of online
adults now use
video-sharing
sites

47. • Streaming

49. Time Saving
Techniques
• Cross Posting
• Desktop
Applications
• Scheduling
• Teamwork

50. Content
posted
to Blog

53. • Desktop Social Media
Monitoring

54. HootSuite

55. • Scheduling Tools

56. Building a Team
• Reallocate existing marketing funds. You
don’t need ‘new’ money.
• Hire interns
• Assign current marketing team times when
they manage the pages
• Use your existing volunteers and employees
to help generate content—everyone has a
story to tell

57. Social Media Policy
Comments and posts on our site
• We in DCR's Virginia State Parks believe
in transparency and engaging the public.
Public comments made on our blogs and
other social media portals are valuable.
However, we reserve the right to restrict
comments. We consider the following
when restricting comments:

58. • Inappropriate, vulgar and offensive
comments will be deleted. Parks are family
friendly venues, and comments and posts
must pertain to their users.
• Comments meant to belittle, demean or
bully others will be deleted, as will personal
attacks, hate speech and comments that
promote, foster or perpetuate
discrimination, inflammatory remarks and
those that are spiteful or discourteous.

59. • Posts and comments that are spam or irrelevant
to Virginia State Parks will be deleted. Our social
media account administrators determine which
comments, photos, videos, posts and other user-
submitted content are inappropriate or offensive.
Administrators also decide when to remove or
disapprove user-submitted content pertaining to
places and attractions outside Virginia State Parks
or of no general interest to park visitors. Our
admin team is the final arbiter on relevancy.

60. • We welcome criticism and the
opportunity to address complaints
in public forums. Continued
comments regarding the same
complaint or made on posts that are
unrelated to the complaint's
topic, however, will be deleted. We
provide a forum for complaints, but
complaints must pertain to the
given post or blog.

61. Twitter Follow Policy
• We generally follow those who
follow us on Twitter. We reserve the
right to not follow accounts that
seem to be for spamming, are not
identified with an avatar, or have
descriptions that aren't adequate for
us to tell whether or not the account
is family friendly.

62. • We won't follow those with lewd or
inappropriate avatars. Accounts focused on
topics irrelevant to Virginia State Parks or our
mission may not be followed. For
example, accounts with a description that
implies ways to get more followers, forex
currency trading, or get-rich-quick
schemes, etc., would not be followed even if
those with such accounts mention family and
similar interest as well.

63. • Our decision on whether or not to follow a Twitter
account is often based on limited information so those
who feel we were wrong about not following them
should send us a message.
• We also reserve the right to discontinue following
those with accounts we deem to be not family friendly
or in violation of the above criteria. We also may block
accounts that "spam the timeline" or persist in sending
us messages even though we are not following them.

64. Important
Considerations
• Social media is all about being SOCIAL. That
means your staff need to share content and
interact.
• While most of the tools are free – you have to
spend time adding
content, monitoring, responding, SOCIALIZING

65. • Start with a plan. Coordinate
branding with other media.
• Pick the social media sites that
will have the most impact
reaching your audiences
• Doing social media badly is worse
than not doing it at all

66. When Complaints
Happen
• Don’t hide them, respond quickly
and professionally
• Try to take the conversation off
line
• Use your policies when folks
hijack your page

68. Social Media Will Kill
• Source:
www.socialnomics.com
• Used by permission from
Erik Qualmann
Video: http://youtu.be/Nwwq3l39lqk