Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition Social Media Strategy
Content
Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition Social Media Strategic Plan Developed Oct. 2011 Goal: To cultivate awareness about breast cancer and the DBCC through social media platforms Primary audiences: Delawarean women of all ages and races • Sub-audience: Women 18-65, specifically those 40 and older, who need to be aware of the risk factors associated with breast cancer and preventative care actions • Sub-audience: Women of all ages and races who are currently suffering from or have survived breast cancer Platform: Facebook • Overall strategy: Post updates once per day with various content. Content should only deal directly with DBCC events or announcements 40 percent of the time in one month, which equates to about two or three updates per week. In addition, content will deal with education (preventative tips, risks), services (other organizations or programs women suffering from breast cancer can take advantage of), and stories (testimonial series). Occasionally, the page will feature polls and questions to keep the page interactive. o Aim to post content between 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. or 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., which is when posts are likely to be the most read, according to “Socialnomics” author Erik Qualman.i • Objective 1: Promote Education o Tuesday tip time: Each Tuesday, DBCC will post tips about measures women can take to protect and prevent themselves from breast cancer. Purpose: education and awareness about breast cancer • Objective 2: Share stories to promote engagement and connection o Each week, DBCC will feature a story of a woman who has been “touched” by the DBCC. Perhaps she used the wig service, attended a support group, volunteered at an event, or received a free screening. We will interview her, post her story on the blog, and put a short clip from her interview up on Facebook to promote her story. To increase engagement, we will tag the woman in the post, which will hopefully encourage others who are friends with her to check out the DBCC page. • Purpose: engagement and inclusion of individuals active in DBCC • Objective 3: Recognize volunteers and sponsors
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Each week, we will recognize a “Team Pink: Volunteer of the Week.” We will develop a photo template that says “Team Pink” at the top and “Volunteer of the Week” at the bottom and insert the volunteer’s photo in the middle. We will change the DBCC profile picture to feature a new volunteer each week. The Dunkin’ Donuts Facebook page, which boasts over 4.8 million fans, runs a “Fan of the Week” contest and changes their profile picture each week. The “Team Pink” photo will be similar to that promotion. Purpose: recognition Objective 4: Localize DBCC through “Diving into Delaware” initiative o To keep a local focus, DBCC will feature different women-friendly restaurants, spas, hair salons, shops, festivals, etc. around Delaware and post links and directions to the place on their Facebook page. This will demonstrate DBCC’s ties to the local community and help offer valuable tips about places to explore in Delaware for women who are fans of the page. Purpose: engagement with local community Objective 5: DBCC promotion and additional engagement. o In addition to the previous themes, we will post DBCC and national breast cancer-related news on the Facebook page. We can also post questions such as “What is your favorite pink item of clothing?” to help stimulate conversation and engagement. Autism Delaware posts news in this way and receives a good amount of feedback. Because members of the page are already invested in Autism Delaware, they want to read the articles and resources posted on the page. Our page will mirror this, giving fans the most important information from the DBCC. Purpose: promotion Evaluation: This evaluation measurement should focus on fan activity. Using Facebook analytics, measure the number of active users and post feedback/impressions each week. o
Platform: Twitter • Overall strategy: DBCC’s Twitter presence should focus on three main concepts: sharing information, increasing awareness, and stimulating conversation. Some content will mirror Facebook content but should be specifically developed for Twitter (i.e. stay under 140characters and ideally under 125 so that others can easily retweet DBCC material). Generate and post original content once per day, focus on sharing (i.e. retweeting) and talking about other content two to three times per day minimum. • Objective 1: Recognize sponsors and volunteers o Each Friday, DBCC will use the hashtag #ff (short for #followfriday) and #thanksDE to recognize volunteers and sponsors via Twitter. They will chose three individuals or organization each week to send a #ff to, which will help engage
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and broaden their network. For example: “#ff to a few of our #teampink volunteers: @johndoe, @janedoe, @jjdoe – we appreciate your hard work! #thanksDE” • Purpose: recognition and engagement with Delaware’s Twitter community Objective 2: “Diving into Delaware” (local focus) o Similar to “Diving into Delaware,” focus on the local community by using the #netDE hashtag and feature a different womenfriendly restaurant, spa, hair salon, shop, festival, etc. two times per week. Encourage tweeters in the community to check out and support the business. Purpose: engagement with local community Objective 3: Promote education o Similar to Facebook’s “Tuesday Tip Time,” post a #breastcancerfact to dispel myths and educate women on the risk factors associated with breast cancer. DBCC can also use popular nonprofit hashtags like #advocacy and #charitytuesday to ensure that their information reaches more audiences.ii Additionally, create a Storify piece with the different tips and post it as a resource on your website. Storify is a site that allows you to pull tweets and posts from various networks and put them all in one place to create a digital “story.” This is a creative way to promote education, as well as a good way to engage your online community. o “Where in Delaware?” series: Tweet about where in Delaware women can go for free or low-cost cancer screenings or to receive support. Because DBCC has their own traveling mammography bus, tweet about where the bus will be each day and include a link to a Google map giving women directions on how to get there. Purposes: education and awareness Objective 4: Host Twitter Chat o Reach out to a Delaware doctor to host a one-hour Twitter chat once per month. Register the hashtag #DBCC (if available) and use that as a way to categorize the conversation. During this hour, anyone can ask the doctor any breast cancer-related questions, and he/she will respond in real-time. Warning: Be clear on any confidentiality issues that may arise and have measures in place if it’s necessary to take a conversation farther than simply answering a question during the chat. • Purpose: education Objective 5: DBCC promotion and additional tweets o Post information and updates about DBCC events, programs, and initiatives as necessary. Posts should focus on non-DBCC related content at least 70 percent (or more) of the time. o Aim to retweet other individual’s or organization’s content at
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least three times per day. Purposes: engagement, promotion Evaluation: Because the overall goal is engagement, success should be measured by the amplification of content and conversation. Use software to measure weekly engagement, number of retweets, and amount of mentions. Socialbrite recommends nonprofits use tools like Klout, Twitalyzer, and TweetStats to measure influence.iii
Final suggestions: Conversation is key to maintaining an active and useful presence on these social media platforms. Respond to any comments or tweets at least three times per day (recommendation: morning, lunch, late afternoon), or more if possible. Focus on telling people-centered stories to help spark an emotional, lasting connection between content consumers and the DBCC. Also, visuals are powerful ways to tell stories, so post pictures or videos whenever possible of DBCC events or people. Final analysis: As previously stated, the DBCC is already fairly active on both of these platforms and using them in innovative and engaging ways. However, they currently focus heavily on promotion (i.e. announcing events, programs). By incorporating the above ideas into their social media strategy, they could broaden their focus to emphasize engagement, education, and awareness. To truly increase engagement, here are three key recommendations for DBCC: 1. Recognize individuals and organizations to broaden the DBCC network: By tagging individuals in posts, mentioning top volunteers in #ff posts, and recognizing people in the weekly “Team Pink: Volunteer of the Week” initiative, you will broaden your network and stimulate engagement. 2. Use social media to talk, not promote: Although it’s important to publicize events and programs via these networks, it’s equally important to talk. Focus more on responding in real time to tweets and posts rather than generating original content. Establish a monthly Twitter chat to promote education and awareness of DBCC and breast cancer. 3. Localize content: View all of Delaware as a solitary community, and utilize already-existing online communities like #thanksDE, #netDE, and #wilmDE to post and share content. Promote local businesses and organizations that donate time or money to the DBCC and encourage fellow Delawareans to support those places.
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i
Erik Qualman. (2011) “Best Times to Post.” < http://www.socialnomics.net/ 2010/11/29/best-time-to-post/>
ii
Company Media. (2011) “30 super useful nonprofit hashtags” < http://www. companykmedia.com/2011/05/18/30-super-useful-nonprofit-hashtags-twitter-chats-too/>
iii
Socialbrite. (2011) “7 top tools to measure performance and influence on Twitter.” < http://www. socialbrite.org/2011/10/10/top-tools-to-measure-performance-influence-on-twitter/ >
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Each week, we will recognize a “Team Pink: Volunteer of the Week.” We will develop a photo template that says “Team Pink” at the top and “Volunteer of the Week” at the bottom and insert the volunteer’s photo in the middle. We will change the DBCC profile picture to feature a new volunteer each week. The Dunkin’ Donuts Facebook page, which boasts over 4.8 million fans, runs a “Fan of the Week” contest and changes their profile picture each week. The “Team Pink” photo will be similar to that promotion. Purpose: recognition Objective 4: Localize DBCC through “Diving into Delaware” initiative o To keep a local focus, DBCC will feature different women-friendly restaurants, spas, hair salons, shops, festivals, etc. around Delaware and post links and directions to the place on their Facebook page. This will demonstrate DBCC’s ties to the local community and help offer valuable tips about places to explore in Delaware for women who are fans of the page. Purpose: engagement with local community Objective 5: DBCC promotion and additional engagement. o In addition to the previous themes, we will post DBCC and national breast cancer-related news on the Facebook page. We can also post questions such as “What is your favorite pink item of clothing?” to help stimulate conversation and engagement. Autism Delaware posts news in this way and receives a good amount of feedback. Because members of the page are already invested in Autism Delaware, they want to read the articles and resources posted on the page. Our page will mirror this, giving fans the most important information from the DBCC. Purpose: promotion Evaluation: This evaluation measurement should focus on fan activity. Using Facebook analytics, measure the number of active users and post feedback/impressions each week. o
Platform: Twitter • Overall strategy: DBCC’s Twitter presence should focus on three main concepts: sharing information, increasing awareness, and stimulating conversation. Some content will mirror Facebook content but should be specifically developed for Twitter (i.e. stay under 140characters and ideally under 125 so that others can easily retweet DBCC material). Generate and post original content once per day, focus on sharing (i.e. retweeting) and talking about other content two to three times per day minimum. • Objective 1: Recognize sponsors and volunteers o Each Friday, DBCC will use the hashtag #ff (short for #followfriday) and #thanksDE to recognize volunteers and sponsors via Twitter. They will chose three individuals or organization each week to send a #ff to, which will help engage
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and broaden their network. For example: “#ff to a few of our #teampink volunteers: @johndoe, @janedoe, @jjdoe – we appreciate your hard work! #thanksDE” • Purpose: recognition and engagement with Delaware’s Twitter community Objective 2: “Diving into Delaware” (local focus) o Similar to “Diving into Delaware,” focus on the local community by using the #netDE hashtag and feature a different womenfriendly restaurant, spa, hair salon, shop, festival, etc. two times per week. Encourage tweeters in the community to check out and support the business. Purpose: engagement with local community Objective 3: Promote education o Similar to Facebook’s “Tuesday Tip Time,” post a #breastcancerfact to dispel myths and educate women on the risk factors associated with breast cancer. DBCC can also use popular nonprofit hashtags like #advocacy and #charitytuesday to ensure that their information reaches more audiences.ii Additionally, create a Storify piece with the different tips and post it as a resource on your website. Storify is a site that allows you to pull tweets and posts from various networks and put them all in one place to create a digital “story.” This is a creative way to promote education, as well as a good way to engage your online community. o “Where in Delaware?” series: Tweet about where in Delaware women can go for free or low-cost cancer screenings or to receive support. Because DBCC has their own traveling mammography bus, tweet about where the bus will be each day and include a link to a Google map giving women directions on how to get there. Purposes: education and awareness Objective 4: Host Twitter Chat o Reach out to a Delaware doctor to host a one-hour Twitter chat once per month. Register the hashtag #DBCC (if available) and use that as a way to categorize the conversation. During this hour, anyone can ask the doctor any breast cancer-related questions, and he/she will respond in real-time. Warning: Be clear on any confidentiality issues that may arise and have measures in place if it’s necessary to take a conversation farther than simply answering a question during the chat. • Purpose: education Objective 5: DBCC promotion and additional tweets o Post information and updates about DBCC events, programs, and initiatives as necessary. Posts should focus on non-DBCC related content at least 70 percent (or more) of the time. o Aim to retweet other individual’s or organization’s content at
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least three times per day. Purposes: engagement, promotion Evaluation: Because the overall goal is engagement, success should be measured by the amplification of content and conversation. Use software to measure weekly engagement, number of retweets, and amount of mentions. Socialbrite recommends nonprofits use tools like Klout, Twitalyzer, and TweetStats to measure influence.iii
Final suggestions: Conversation is key to maintaining an active and useful presence on these social media platforms. Respond to any comments or tweets at least three times per day (recommendation: morning, lunch, late afternoon), or more if possible. Focus on telling people-centered stories to help spark an emotional, lasting connection between content consumers and the DBCC. Also, visuals are powerful ways to tell stories, so post pictures or videos whenever possible of DBCC events or people. Final analysis: As previously stated, the DBCC is already fairly active on both of these platforms and using them in innovative and engaging ways. However, they currently focus heavily on promotion (i.e. announcing events, programs). By incorporating the above ideas into their social media strategy, they could broaden their focus to emphasize engagement, education, and awareness. To truly increase engagement, here are three key recommendations for DBCC: 1. Recognize individuals and organizations to broaden the DBCC network: By tagging individuals in posts, mentioning top volunteers in #ff posts, and recognizing people in the weekly “Team Pink: Volunteer of the Week” initiative, you will broaden your network and stimulate engagement. 2. Use social media to talk, not promote: Although it’s important to publicize events and programs via these networks, it’s equally important to talk. Focus more on responding in real time to tweets and posts rather than generating original content. Establish a monthly Twitter chat to promote education and awareness of DBCC and breast cancer. 3. Localize content: View all of Delaware as a solitary community, and utilize already-existing online communities like #thanksDE, #netDE, and #wilmDE to post and share content. Promote local businesses and organizations that donate time or money to the DBCC and encourage fellow Delawareans to support those places.
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i
Erik Qualman. (2011) “Best Times to Post.” < http://www.socialnomics.net/ 2010/11/29/best-time-to-post/>
ii
Company Media. (2011) “30 super useful nonprofit hashtags” < http://www. companykmedia.com/2011/05/18/30-super-useful-nonprofit-hashtags-twitter-chats-too/>
iii
Socialbrite. (2011) “7 top tools to measure performance and influence on Twitter.” < http://www. socialbrite.org/2011/10/10/top-tools-to-measure-performance-influence-on-twitter/ >
