Promoting Your Club via
Facebook and Twitter
By Lauren MacDonald
Communications Coordinator
Kin Canada
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Social media – the Stats
• 22% of time spent online is spent on social media
• 50% of home internet users use the web to research
community events
• 64% of users stay up-to-date with a brand via social
media
• Small amount of people want to receive marketing
messages from brands they follow online. Users are in
control! Traditional marketing/ advertising doesn’t
work online.
1 - http://thesocialskinny.com/99-new-social-media-stats-for-2012/
2 - 2009 Statistics Canada, Internet use at home
3 - http://stryvegroup.com/how-are-canadians-using-social-media/
4 – Why it’s important to have diverse posts and to make sure you aren’t
“spamming” your followers. Also, that percentage that want to receive them will
most likely be following a brand that advertises their giveaways (they know they’re
going to get promos)
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Benefits to club and brand
• Potential to reach a wide range of audiences
• Stay up-to-date on relevant issues, organizations and
leaders
• Builds a consistent brand
• Generates traffic to other important communication tools
-People most often need to see messages multiple times before they can be fully
aware of an issue or in this case club, to then move onto the acceptance stage
(realize the benefits of your club, being in your club, etc), to finally decide to support,
join, help you and so on.
-Social media isn’t just about what you say but just as importantly what others say.
For promoting your club: if you’re visible and have a voice online, start
conversations with others and engage your target audiences, you’ll reap the benefits
– retweets, people linking to your page. Overall, awareness and credibility!
-Brand – more places consistent messages are the more likely you’ll be
remembered. Plus, social media gives you a chance to put a face to the name
through pictures / status updates demonstrating how much of a difference your club
makes; again, it humanizes your club.
-Generates traffic – people digest info best in small chunks (Twitter sure used that
to their advantage!). This greatly allows for linking to other sources of information,
such as your website event page, blog, pictures from a club project or event, etc. It’s
a web of working your way to supporting information and convincing users to follow
you.
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Setting up your online profiles
For all profiles: Include the right keywords – club name,
industry, what you’re known for, website, etc.
Twitter
• Choose an avatar that makes sense - the crest
• 140 characters for your bio. Include:
– Club name
– Short summary sentence
– Add website url
Quick Overview: Big part of club promotion is how your profile is set up and filled
out; what you look like online is just as important as what you say or do. Included
this in the presentation because if your profile isn’t set up properly, promoting your
club and events will be that much more difficult.
SEO – Need to include keywords in your profiles so that when people search, your
social media profiles show up in their results! Same goes for your posts.
Twitter:
-www.twitter.com/kincanada – avatar is crest
-Logo will help ensure your brand – people need to associate your club with an
image so give them a consistent one!
-Short summary sentence about what you do; this should be/ combine the Kin motto and/or a
short list of well-known community projects
-Add your club website if you have one!
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Twitter – @KinCanada
What your Twitter profile looks like on www.twitter.com
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Setting up your online profiles
Facebook Fan Page
• Cover photo – capture your club
• Avatar (square photo) – has to be square; not conducive
to a club-specific logo
• Vanity URL
• Custom tabs – prime real estate on your page
• About
• Add milestones
Avatar could be Kin crest – not much flexibility with choosing your avatar because of
the shape but you can customize your page by adding a cover photo that captures
club members, a community project or fundraiser, and so on. Example – St.
Thomas Kinsmen Club has great photo of members lined up, wearing Kin gear,
receiving or giving an award
-Vanity url – after your page gets 25 likes, customize your url. Choose something
easy, like facebook.com/barriekinettes
-Custom tabs have prime real estate, so customize yours; choose the ones that will
be interesting or important to your target public, such as photos, events, etc (you
can also choose their order).
-About section – Limit to one or two short sentences.
-When filling in the other fan page descriptions (like company overview), don’t be
too wordy. Be specific about your local contributions and give a short, concise
overview of the bigger picture.
-Link to other media (website, Twitter, email, etc); if you have a general club email
address, club house / mailing address and/ or website, link to it/them!
-Milestones – everyone likes a story! Add your club’s milestones/ events so people
can see your history.
-Adding these will also show up in news feed and attract people to your page.
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Facebook facebook.com/kincanada
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Facebook Fan Page, not profile
-Create a fan page, not a profile. A couple of reasons why you need to use a fan
page include: Facebook can pull the plug on your entire profile if they find out;
Facebook pages get indexed by search engines, profiles do not; Facebook Insights!
-For more info on why you shouldn’t use a profile as your club page, go here:
http://www.michielgaasterland.com/facebook/facebook-for-business-personalprofile-or-fan-page/
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Club promo via social media
• Social media tools are not for advertisements
– Using social media as a place to post your ads will only get you
“unliked,” “unfollowed” or “marked as spam.”
• Social media tools are relationship builders; without
these relationships, you won’t succeed
– You need to tell stories, humanize your brand and build the
relationship before you can expect your audience to take action
Must emphasize that social media platforms are not tools to advertise. Therefore,
promoting your club will come in more subtle ways, through storytelling, and the
promotion is actually through building and maintaining your club’s online reputation.
-Social media is the “new” word of mouth, which is still the most effective way to get
your message across, whether you’re creating awareness about an event or trying
to sign people up – but this word of mouth now exists mainly online, in a world
where information is uploaded and spread with the click of a button.
-Those you build relationships with will become your biggest advocates, your
walking (or more correctly, net surfing), plugged in “friends” – it’ll pay off in the end!
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Club promo via social media
• Storytelling is the most persuasive and effective
language to use online
• Decide who you’re targeting and evaluate their
characteristics to learn how to relate to them
• A picture’s worth a thousand words – with a concise, 140
character count description on Twitter
Who you’re targeting
Example: You have a Christmas craft sale. You may want to appeal to both men
and women, crafty-community members, and so on, but what resonates with one
group might not resonate with the other. So phrase it in a couple ways, spread out
over a couple weeks leading up to the event. “Looking for ideas for your crafty mom,
sister, wife? Find solutions at one of these tables on Nov. 28.”
Example: If a club is about to start planning a winter coat drive, post a stat or
something else “persuasive” about how many coats were given out last year to
those in need. You could then tag on a call to action to try to persuade or attract
others into helping out: “Interested in helping out? Come out to our next meeting to
find out how you can get involved.”
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Twitter – who to follow
Who to follow – suggestions based on who follows you, who you follow, your
Tweets, and so on
•Follow and engage relevant audiences (community leaders, charities, etc)
-Use search.twitter.com’s Advanced search link to find people in your sector or
geographic region. Other tools like Klout, SocialMention and Twitter Lists to find
others who you can help and vice versa, and start building your relationship.
-Will help you choose the best people to promote to and build relationships
with (as well as stay up-to-date on topics that matter)
-Watch what they post to see how they interact with others and do the same.
Ex, does your local news RT stories that others send them? Do they promote
community events? If so, MT them in a post about your event (but don’t
overdo it and spam them). Or comment on something they’ve been tweeting
about! Remember: it’s all about relationships.
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Club promo via social media General tips
“People don’t have relationships with businesses; they
have them with people.” – Frank J. Kenny, Social Media
Project Management Guru
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Use a person’s voice; no corporate / stiff language
Update live!
Link to relevant resources
Call to action
Event promo – pre, during and post
•Can’t speak with the voice of a corporation; people don’t trust advertisements any
more and want to be engaged (speak at their level, to them instead of “at” them)
-Social media is live, so update in the moment if you can.
-Call to action – don’t make your audience search for what their next move is; if you
want them to come to your event, include a call to action for them to come! Give
them the information they need so they can carry out your goals.
•Leading up to the event, add pictures and updates about related past events,
preparing for the event, etc
•This will promote your event without overdoing it; no one wants to repeatedly
hear “come to our Halloween party on Oct. 31 at 8pm”
•Enhance your message through painting a picture of the event; who’s
headlining? What’s the schedule? Release these bits of information leading
up to the event
•Thank your volunteers, sponsors and anyone else who made your event or project
a success.
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Tweeting
• “Micro-blogging” – 140 character limit
• RT / Retweeting – do it often!
• Status updates
-Character limit – there are apps that allow you to go over the 140 limit (just links
your followers to the app page with the full tweet) but it’s not really necessary to go
over the limit and you’re just adding another hoop for your followers to read your
message. Try to stick to the limit.
-RT – do it often. This is a great way to interact with your followers but also new
people/ organizations you’re following. Users can see when they’re retweeted and
will appreciate it. They may also be more inclined to follow you or retweet something
you do in the future, expanding your reach to their followers. This relationship
interaction will promote your club!
-60-30-10 rule: 60% RTs, 30% interaction/ conversations with others, 10%
club promotion (events or projects)
-Status updates –Need to do more than list the details of your event or club meeting
times.
-Humanize your profile with pictures, milestones, and so on. Ask people
questions. Retweet. Compliment others. It’s all about your relationships!
Note: Can also schedule Tweets to go out using something like Hootsuite.
-You have to interact or no one will follow you; updates just about you will be
considered spam.
Example about retweeting- Charity:water retweeted another charity because of the
great stuff that charity was doing, even though it’s technically competition!
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Tweeting
• #Hashtags
• MT
• Pictures
-Pictures – Can app pics to your post; reinforce your message and “entice” followers
to see what you’re talking about. Note: Users can also comment on photos.
-Hashtags – Users can view all posts with the same hashtag. This comes in handy
for more widespread events that your club is taking part in, if clubs across the
Nation participate in something, when a topic is popular (#Movember, #Stopbullying)
-Follow your local municipality and other local organizations to see their
hashtag use; may be able to work together to get a topic trending!
-MT – to draw someone’s attention to a project/ event or recognize their part in it;
others can see when they’re mentioned = reaching bigger audience.
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Facebook
• Event promotion
– Event tab
– Special event pages
• Again, use visuals
• Tag your posts
and photos
•Events – set up Facebook event through your page or, if your event is annual and
is well-known in your community, you could set up a whole event page. (Think
Ribfest, Canada Day parties with a lot of sponsors and performers, etc)
•Better to start up a Facebook event than link to another calendar outside of
Facebook; Facebook is more likely to display posts that keep users on their
site. Add a link to your website within the event details, below pictures, etc.
•Tagging will ensure the post shows up on that person’s wall, automatically
expanding your reach
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When to post
• How many
times per day/
week/ month?
No magic number.
Social media is not going anywhere, so start with what you can to get comfortable.
But don’t expect things to happen over night.
Facebook: 1 – 2 times a week could be enough. Don’t go overboard on Facebook –
users can and will mark you as spam or hide your posts, which will lower the
chances of your posts displaying on your other fans’ pages!
Twitter: Really should be daily if possible to stay current and promote your club. But
remember, you can RT and if your club is active, there’s always stories to tell or talk
about!
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