#UFBugs Campaign Re-Cap

We had an unbe-weevil-able (#punny) time celebrating all things that creep, crawl and fly! Now that we've finally wrapped up with Bug Week 2015, I put together a comprehensive report of our campaign results. To share some of the highlights, here's an executive summary and analysis: 

From 2014 –

·         194.43% increase in Impressions

·         85.45% increase in Unique Users

·         70% increase in Interactions

Twitter -

·         We shared more content and engaged in less conversation (follow up questions, etc.)

o   We garnered less link clicks. Reasons for this include: In 2014, we posted the Better Bed Bug Trap, which was retweeted by Science Friday with 580K followers; People will Retweet without clicking on links; UF/IFAS sent out content with less link variation (i.e., Bug of the Day and #BugWOTD linked to bugs.ufl.edu)

Facebook -

·         We sent 8 posts per day and gained MORE fans! This is significant because we see an increase in Page Unlikes when UF/IFAS sends 4+ posts a day. I'm most proud of the fact that we nearly doubled the number of individuals sharing/talking about our content!

Overall, the campaign ran very smoothly. We finally have a uniformed voice shining through - one that is friendly, relevant and educational. We created and shared lots of great photos - some of the best were of our UF/IFAS leadership with bugs and educational bug posters from the IFAS Extension Bookstore. We received more than 30 photo submissions on Facebook which we were then able to spotlight on Instagram. The best part was hearing feedback from our audience members (from California and Germany) who wanted to participate and learn because bugs were their passions!

To see our best posts, overall performance of #UFBugs campaign and reasons for bumps/spikes along the way, you can see the whole presentation here.

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What it means to be an Internet Writer...

Comic Cred: The Oatmeal

The comic above is humorous, but there's a lot of truth to it. In the last few weeks when trying to describe what it means to be a Social Media Manager to my peers-- mostly outside of academia--I get a lot of blank stares. They just don't seem to get it. They don't seem to understand its purpose. And this, as you can imagine, is baffling to me.

I mean, sure, I get paid to play around online all day... But I promise it's not in vain!

Thankfully, I came across this article last week which goes into detail on explaining content creation to non-content people. This is just a fraction of what I do overall, but I found it helpful.

They make it clear that we are NOT advertisers, but rather strategic marketers that create and share digital content, such as articles and videos, to inform, educate, or entertain you. Our end-all goal is for our audience to form positive associations after receiving valuable information and become brand ambassadors.  

I'm a bit of a minimalist and am constantly looking to make efficiencies in my life, so to find out about the one-liner approach made perfect sense. It makes the "What do you do?" conversation much more bearable. More importantly, it's easy for the other party to comprehend and remember so I can have fewer awkward conversations like the comic strip above. Phew!

What practices have you perfected in succinctly telling people what you do? Leave a comment below!

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Thankful for Synergy

In light of the holiday, I thought it appropriate to take the time to express how overwhelmingly thankful I am. Of course I am grateful for my family, friends, and health. But beyond that, I'm appreciative to have found a career AND a job that pushes me to the limits as a strategist, marketer, and creative. It's never a dull moment.

The craziest bit about it? It's only been a month - 42 days to be exact - and yet I've learned more about myself in these last 6 weeks than I have in the last 6 months. I'm never one to brag, but I just have to give thanks to my mind, body, and heart for working as hard as it does each and every
day.

I think the picture below sums it up best:

And let me tell ya, it is awesome when you can get paid for doing what you love and what you're good at - especially when the entity genuinely believes in changing the world for the better.

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It's official... I'm a social media-er!

Pardon me for not even getting three weeks into my blogging before falling off the face of the earth this last week. I've been hit with the whirlwind called Life,visiting family in NYC and moving into a new place across town. Nevertheless, here I am with a quick post of good news!

I recently accepted a position with UF/IFAS Communications as their new Social Media Communications Manager! As such, I'll be their main communication specialist managing the main UF/IFAS social media presence and helping oversee the more than 300 UF/IFAS social media accounts across the state of Florida. Some of my responsibilities will include strategy, content, analytics and measurement, site approvals and training.

I am honored and humbled by the opportunity to apply my curriculum and new skill set to the position. In preparation, I've been reading up on all kinds of blogs to ease my anxieties (I know more than I'm willing to admit TBH!) I can't wait to learn the realities and practicalities of all things social media!

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Hootsuite takes control of your social business

So, it's been a while since I've posted...sorry about that! I took a hiatus once classes ended, enjoyed sleeping in and playing with my pup, Tobias. But now that fall is here (Happy belated Labor Day, btw!) I'm getting back into the swing of things.

I thought you should know that I'm not taking classes this semester either, but it won't stop me from posting diligently at least once a week. *Fingers crossed*

These last few weeks, I've been getting calls, emails, and presenting at work about different facets of social media and various platforms. And I'll admit, it's been a great experience applying my newly acquired knowledge IRL and providing my (albeit, limited) two-cents on content curation and engagement.

I recently just finished a webinar on Hootsuite, and thought this would be a great opportunity to talk about a few highlights that I've gathered on the online social media management tool.

Its original form dates back to 2008, when it was known as BrightKit, a dashboard for all things Twitter-related. It was renamed in 2009 and quickly expanded with new features, including the integration of other social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. I found it especially important because of the following three features:

1. Listening - Only using Hootsuite to get the word out to followers? Sorry, but you're doing it wrong. You've got to listen, too! Listening to targeted conversations is often one of the underutilized methods of the management tool. You can listen to (almost) everything anyone is saying about you (or your company) by setting up streams for your platform. Take Twitter for example: you can follow Tweets Retweeted; Mentions; Keyword Search (domain name, a hashtag, alternate spelling); Sent Tweets; Your Retweets ; Direct Message (Inbox); Direct Message (Outbox); and Home Feed. This is especially great for engagement and user-generated content!
2. Insights - A social media strategy means nothing without analyzing your efforts. Luckily, Hootsuite allows users to measure ROI with real-time social analysis in brand sentiment, tracking a social profile's brand growth over time, and visualizing audience social demographics like gender and geography. You can pinpoint your reach down to the city-level. Whoa.
3. App Directory -  Hootsuite offers a collection of extensions and apps that users can add to their dashboard to create a customized experience. This goes way beyond the typical Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. You can add Instagram, EverNote, SlideShare, Reddit, DailyMotion... seriously, the list goes on and on. Users can manage, share, search, monitor, engage, optimize and explore streams of content that matter to them.

 

Hootsuite is great for its time saving capabilities. It allows users to manage social media sites from one place, no longer having to log in to four or more accounts separately. More than that, it's a crucial resource for a social strategy. Its scheduling and listening features are useful for content management and can help managers with creating additional timely/relevant posts. It's time to take control of your social business so social business can't take control of your time.

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