Welcome to my CivicStory Diary, as I track my and my team's progress in designing a social media strategy for the organization. We'll be honing in on the CivicStory mission and tracking our progress-- successes, fails, adjustments, new ideas and discoveries, etc.
Storified by Sabrina S. Gordon ·
Tue, Mar 01 2016 10:15:26
Don’t miss What’s New in NJ Media Law? from 11-2 p.m. Friday, Feb. 19 in the Alexander Library at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. The program will introduce RIIPL’s News Law Project, a database of frequently asked questions about media law, and will also feature two panel discussions with top-notch speakers Click below for more info & to register!
I decided to begin with posting events because I thought they might be a good way to jumpstart engagement. I thought it might augment the perception of the organization as one that is active and providing concrete value to its followers with these events. I thought, too, that it would encourage users to engage, even minimally, with the page. As a Facebook user, I tend to "like" events if they look interesting, like the subject, etc, whether or not I plan to attend. And, it serves as a reminder that the organization hosts activities that I might want to participate in, even if I don't go to this particular one. I hoped that CivicStory followers might do the same, and would be reminded that the organization provides great informative and educational activities. The results, so far, are somewhat disappointing. It has several "likes" but all but one are by CivicStory (our team and the org). The FB "reach" is under 20, so far. That said, as bleak as that may seem, the page had virtually no engagement when we first joined, so it will probably take a little time to get the attention of its current followers who probably don't expect much activity from the page. Also, the event is almost a week away, and I will repost as reminders and ICYMI (In Case You Missed It) and see if that helps heighten awareness. The event happens to be organized by teammate jamtidis, so I will ask him to promote it on his page by linking to the CivicStory post.
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This Monday, Feb 15, Cardinal Peter Turkson will discuss Pope Francis' "Laudato Si," an appeal which addresses global warming, and calls for the world to take "swift and unified global action." At Seton Hall University, Chancellor's Suite, University Center, 2-3:30p
I initially posted this event when it was just an announcement. When I went to the site to get the details to post, I discovered that there was no event link or even information about the details for attending the event. I figured I'd update the post with that information when I contact CS and recommend that they create an eventbrite or some kind of an event link. In the meantime, the post received a few likes, which was promising considering the minimal engagement on the page. When Thomas saw the post, he suggested removing it because he didn't see how it fit into CS's journalistic mission. CS was already excited about the post, and I thought it would be worth digging deeper to see why they were having this event. It turns out that the talk was about a very current, hot topic-- the climate change and a call to action. That certainly wasn't clear in the post Thomas saw. It was not at all clear in their framing of the event. I acutally did some research and wrote a blurb to go with the post, to connect it a little bit more clearly with their mission, and also to make it clear for their followers. When I went to update the page, I inadvertently deleted the entire post, and had to repost. Long story, short, I was trying to update a pix which I had to find because they didn't even have a pix to go with their event, and in trying to update with the new event link they created, I lost the entire post. As Rick Perry said, "Oops." Lesson learned-- I can't change a pix; just have to create a new post. Of course, I lost those stats, but I have a new post. The event was today and it did not receive any meaningful attention (12 people reached, 3 likes). Will find out if anyone attended and if they learned of the event from Facebook. What I learned, however, that they don't create FB Events, which I think would be a good thing to do. It will be an opportunity to directly engage with their followers using direct invitations. I was able to "subscribe" to their events, of which they have none, but I can't seem to figure out how to add an Events tab to their page. Will keep looking.
CivicStory is pleased to announce the appointment of its new Managing Director, Marissa Klapwald of New Providence. Ms. Klapwald will work with Founder/Creative Director Susan Haig and the CivicStory board and staff to navigate our transition to an independent, growth-oriented operation. She will also help to broaden awareness of CivicStory in the tri-state area, strengthen development and governance, and oversee income and expenditures.
Welcome, Marissa!
This was the first post posted by our team, by Joe Amtidis. With six likes and 69 people reached, it is the most successful of all of our posts. I'm noticing, even a 2nd week into posting, that people seem to look at the posts but don't click the "like" button. Not sure why. I think this post has done relatively better, and been seen by more people because it is an announcement about a new appointment, new leadership at CS. It's probably the most "personal"post so far. It mentions staff members by name, so users who know these folks may be more inclined to read the announcement, and like it.
Some other observations I've made tinkering around this page. Civic Story also has a personal profile page, in addition to the organization's "Fan" page. I can see the benefit in having both pages, but they should probably have different artwork, ie different cover pix in order to distinguish the two, otherwise, I think it can be confusing. Also, I can't tell if the "profile page" is even an Admin for the "fan page," which it should be to get leverage out of having both kinds of pages. I cannot find information about the other Admins. For ex, if I no longer wanted to be an admin, I don't see where I'd opt out, and I can't see who else are admins along with me. That seems weird. Again, I don't understand why there is no Event tab. Perhaps once I create one, it will appear. Right now all I've been able to do is "register" for their events. Something I've never seen. Maybe this is a new Facebook thing. Generally speaking, I'm a little frustrated trying to navigate FB and all these other platforms without training. I barely understand Storify, the tool I'm using right now, lol! Not a flaw of the class, by any means, but I think the program, generally, assumes familiarity and level of usage which some of us may not have. That said, I'm happy to tinker under the hood and discover, and sometimes, stumble on answers and discoveries, but I sometimes feel a little bit like I"m flailing about.
Next steps: discuss with team who we are reaching out to partner with and share stories. Figure out issues listed above. Select posts for this week. CS sent their requests. I selected two, which are shares from other publications. Noticing that their content is very environmental issue-heavy. Seems that their content needs some diversification. Discuss a strategy for cutting down and posting videos. I noticed that some of their videos have tech issues, like no audio where there should be. I've checked to make sure it's not user error, ie, volume down, muted, etc. There is one posted now with no sound-- we should be tech checking the videos before posting! I noted all of the above in my summary notes email to my team today.
Anticipating a future when Ford will have to do much more to survive than sell cars, the company has enlisted the help of the design firm, Ideo, to develop products focused on "the commute of the future." #transportation
Overall progress: according to FB Insights, our progress is modest. CS sent more posts-- again, very environmental-issues driven. I'm taking care to write pithy blurbs to amplify the news worthiness and value to community quality of the articles. Also adding hashtags, that I hope will encourage dialogue among users. 59 people reached and no likes. Generally speaking, users don't seem to use the "Like" button very much. Even the most "liked" post peaked at 6. The reach numbers have improved overall since we started posting, so we're moving slowly, but surely in the right direction.
The battle between the solar industry and electric utilities has the makings of a classic David versus Goliath tale, raising the ultimate question: what value do distributed solar and utilities provide to society?
This post-- another environment-centric one-- is consistent with the overall performance of other posts, but I did expect it to have a higher reach, to match my other posts. I thought the "David and Goliath" framing of the issue, and solar paneling being so "close to home," so to speak, would generate more interest and engagement. I think next steps have to include a call to the page followers, something for them to do, or respond to. I think they need to be reminded that they like/follow this page, and there's stuff happening on it now! Also, we still need to address the environment-heavy posts, as I think this doesn't reflect the broader, more diverse coverage for which CS seeks to be known.
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So, I mentioned that I would try more overtly engaging links, that is, links that would invite the user to do something. I found a quiz on the civicstory site, and thought this would be perfect! People like quizzes! They're quick and they're fun! However, I'm afraid that civicstory managed to make it as unfun as possible! First, it was inconsistently formatted. Instead of making them all multiple choice, the first question required an answer, which was a bit lengthy. I found a tool to make a Facebook quiz but did not figure out how to format it/get it to behave the way I wanted. Finally, there appeared to be an incorrect answer, so I decided to hold off until I got confirmation from the CS folks about the correct answer. I was also a little challenged with the image. CS had no image on the site that was appropriate, and some "quiz" gfx did not quite fit, or I was unsure of the rights to use them. I settled on an image of a person typing on their phone, to illustrate that they're doing the quiz right there! Nevertheless, it is among our more successful posts-- not only does it have one of the highest "reaches," this was achieved in a relatively short time. I am not ready to abandon the quiz idea, but I think it will involve a little more design and collaboration with the CS folks, if they're willing, to format and embed it more engagingly on their site.
