How social media, such as FaceBook, Twitter, and Pinterest can support the achievement of specific objectives (e.g. raising awareness about a project or circulating results), with a special focus on education and research context. Webinar held on June 26th, 2014 at 11:30 AM CET for the App4inno project

1. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
for communication and dissemination
Ada Giannatelli, Politecnico di Milano - METID
June, 26th, 2014, 11:30 AM CET
Disclaimer: due to the continuing development of social media, no guarantee for the
accuracy of information over time can be assumed

2. Aim of the webinar
To inspire the use of social media
to communicate project activities and results
(dissemination), with a special focus on education and
research context
Webinar outline
1.Definitions and context
2.Examples
3.Tools
4.How to increase the impact on social media
5.How to manage dissemination on social media
Duration: 1 hour

3. Definitions
Social media strategy
for dissemination
websites and applications that enable
users to create and share content
or to participate in social networking
(Oxford dictionary)
otherwise known as Web 2.0 tools
accessibility also from mobile devices
free or (relatively) low cost options
websites and applications that enable
users to create and share content
or to participate in social networking
(Oxford dictionary)
otherwise known as Web 2.0 tools
accessibility also from mobile devices
free or (relatively) low cost options
action plan aimed
at achieving specific
objectives
action plan aimed
at achieving specific
objectives
making project results
available (European
Commission)
making project results
available (European
Commission)

4. self-explanatory
pictures
self-explanatory
pictures
hashtags to
increase tweet
searchability and
virality
hashtags to
increase tweet
searchability and
virality
circulating in-
depth content
from website
circulating in-
depth content
from website
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) on Twitter

5. Online Educa Berlin on Twitter
backchannel to
enrich the ftof
experience
backchannel to
enrich the ftof
experience

6. hangoutshangouts
promotion of new
reports and content
from website
promotion of new
reports and content
from website
World Bank on Google+

7. promotion of
events and news
promotion of
events and news
live chatslive chats
promotion of
learning offer
(e.g. new
MOOCs)
promotion of
learning offer
(e.g. new
MOOCs)
Open University on FaceBook

8. Effective webinars group on FaceBook
community around a
EU-funded project
(Tempus BLATT
project)
community around a
EU-funded project
(Tempus BLATT
project)

9. Media&Learning conference on LinkedIn
professional community
around a conference
(follow-up, enhancing
exchanges among
stakeholders)
professional community
around a conference
(follow-up, enhancing
exchanges among
stakeholders)

10. E-learning 2.0 group on LinkedIn

11. Erasmus Plus group on LinkedIn
professional community
around the European
Erasmus+ programme
professional community
around the European
Erasmus+ programme

12. Open Education Europa company page on LinkedIn

13. disseminating research results
with a visual approach
disseminating research results
with a visual approach
British Medical Journal on Pinterest

14. OBJECTIVES TACTICS INDICATORS
Raising
awareness about
the project
Posting about content published on project website:
•on project FB page / group
•on subjet-related pages/groups
Examples:
•Global Partnership for Education on FB
https://www.facebook.com/globalpartnership
•OnlineEducaBerlin on FB
https://www.facebook.com/ONLINEEDUCABERLIN
• organic reach
of FB page / of
FB post
• engagement
(= Likes +
Comments +
Shares +
Clicks)
Disseminating
project research
results
Publishing regularly documents and presentations on
project channel on SlideShare
•Example: EuropeanSchoolnet
http://www.slideshare.net/europeanschoolnet
Visual magazine on Pinterest
•Example: Research of the British Medical Journal
http://it.pinterest.com/thebmj/research/
Views and
downloads on
SlideShare
“Tactics” describe the means by which the strategy is carried out
operationally
Benchmark similar projects to get inspired
“Tactics” describe the means by which the strategy is carried out
operationally
Benchmark similar projects to get inspired
Social media strategy objectives

15. OBJECTIVES TACTICS INDICATORS
Promoting ftof
events and
webinars
Tweeting alerts, infos and updates about yet-to-come
events
•Example: tweets about MOOCamp on France
Université Numérique https://twitter.com/universite_num
Number of clicks
and retweets of
specific tweets
Enhancing FtoF
events
Backchannelling on Twitter (providing an alternative
channel alongside the event)
•Example: backchannel Media&Learning Brussels
#mlconf13)
Content curation on Scoop.it to circulate and integrate
conference contents
•Example: http://www.scoop.it/t/online-educa-berlin
Number of tweets
with backchannel
hashtag
Social media strategy objectives

16. OBJECTIVES TACTICS INDICATORS
Building a
professional
community
around the
project,
facilitating
interaction
among partners
and stakeholders
Animating a group on LinkedIn
•Example: Europeana Network
https://www.linkedin.com/groups?
home=&gid=4143376&trk=anet_ug_hm
Google hangouts
•Example: http://live.worldbank.org/google-hangout-
youth-and-open-government-in-sports-world-cup)
Promoting Google Hangouts on LinkedIn company
page
•Example: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-world-
bank
LinkedIn group
members,
comments and
discussions
Google hangouts
participants
Social media strategy objectives

17. Some data

18. Some data
impact on
information
visualization on
social media:
e.g. text length,
picture size
impact on
information
visualization on
social media:
e.g. text length,
picture size

19. Some data

20. Some data
globally, the fastest growing
demographic on Twitter
is the 55–64 year age
bracket (Oct, 2013 source:
ComScore)
globally, the fastest growing
demographic on Twitter
is the 55–64 year age
bracket (Oct, 2013 source:
ComScore)

21. Which tools
?

22. Despite peculiarities of each tool…
…the only limit is your creativity
• building a
professional
community around
a topic (group)
• interacting with
experts and
stakeholders
• Integration with
SlideShare and
Twitter
• most popular
• useful to publicize
events and to
recruit participants
to research or e-
learning activities
• integration with
Scoop.it
• visual board to
combine existing
content (e.g. about
the project +
external related
content)
• not very used by
academia
• Hangouts: free
videoconference
with up to 10 people
(useful also in
academia)
• Extras: integration
with Gdocs
• Sessions can be
recorded
• 140 characters
• useful to broadcast
news and links to
blog posts, journal
articles, …
• useful to engage in
conversations (e.g.
event
backchannel)

23. Social media: examples of tools

24. stability over time
social media landscape is quickly evolving and many free tools either
expire or change their pricing policy;
familiar interface
popular social media provide an interface target users are already
familiar with and signed-up to
account federation
many social media allow to log onto third-party applications with their
existing identity, so that people do not need to sign up separately.
(Popular) social media: advantages

25. sometimes less is more
maintaining many social media channels for the same project can be too
demanding: sometimes it is better to choose and preside only 2-3
channels
backup of social media content
export features (or custom procedures) that allow backup of social media
content are often lacking or poor: possible loss of materials if the social
media fails
cautious plans for indicators
to set objectives it can be useful to benchmark performances of similar
projects (e.g. project FB group members, Twitter followers, etc.)
internal policy
consider possible internal social media policy and terms of use of each
chosen social media
possibly indelible
contributions of social media users are persistent, which implies that they
are stored for others to view and share, also out of the original context
Social media: caveat

26. How to increase the
impact on social media
?

27. Which audience?
In the case of education and research projects, we can
reasonably consider not only:
•teachers
•researchers
•students
…but also other stakeholders, such as:
•academia (universities, research institutions)
•educational and non-educational institutions at local, regional,
national, European, and international level
•policy makers
•media

28. Tips to increase the impact of social media
Provide connections among dissemination channels
•display social media channels on project home page and on project
leaflet (if any)
•display the other social media channels of the project on each social
media channel
•advertise project social media channels on personal social media profiles
(e.g. LinkedIn, Twitter)
Use keywords, hashtags, and tags to increase content
virality
•upload slides and documents on SlideShare (or other document sharing
tools) to increase virality and circulate the link on the other social profiles
(e.g. FB, LinkedIn,Twitter)
•use hashtags (Twitter) and tags (e.g. SlideShare) consistently: same
spelling, punctuation and capitalisation
•in case of international / EU-funded projects: mind localisation of tags,
hashtags, and keywords
•useful tools to get inspired about the most trendy / effective keywords
and hashtags: Hashtags.org, Ritetag.com, Google Trends, Top
Keywords of SocialMention.com
See also the handbook #1 and #2 of the Web2LLP project
http://web2llp.eu/training
See also the handbook #1 and #2 of the Web2LLP project
http://web2llp.eu/training

29. Writing for dissemination is different than writing an article for a
scientific or professional journal:
•make text concise and go straight to the point; be sure that
information is easy to find (using tags, keywords, and hashtags)
•leverage self-explanatory pictures in posts and tweets
•highlight key points / findings with bulleted lists
•write clear conclusions and recommendations, so that audience knows
what to do with the information provided
•use clear and understandable language; if you must use
technical terminology, define terms in lay language. Also organisations
with “bureaucratic” style, such as EU institutions, are adopting a less
formal approach
Writing style guidelines

30. How to create an audience on social media

31. How to create an audience on social media

32. How to create an audience on social media

33. How to manage
dissemination on social
media
?

34. Phases of dissemination on social media

35. Some useful tools
editing and monitoring tools
Hootsuite and Buffer allow to
•schedule posts and Tweets for deferred communication
•post on multiple social media channels at the same time
•monitor the social media channels of the project from a single platform
Klout helps to measure the impact of the social media presence
utility
IFTTT (If This Then That) automates simple tasks, such as automatically
adding new Twitter followers in a Google spreadsheet

36. Useful links
…

37. Designing social media strategy for dissemination
http://www.scoop.it/t/social-media-strategy-for-communication-and-dissemination-
of-e-learning-e-collaboration-and-research-projects
Implementing social media strategy: examples and tools
http://www.scoop.it/t/social-media-strategy-examples-and-tools