About Social Media in Toastmasters
Social Media today, for some of us is like air, for others is just a tool!
This is an article that I wrote some years ago for District 95 newsletter, since that stop published at one time and my article never saw the light of the internet, I decided that it should go here.
Once upon a time there was a girl that fell in love with Public Relations, that story included a complicated relationship with Social Media - a big and strong monster with so many arms that the poor girl lost count. She adored to # everything, instead of coffee she was sharing „live”s! „Develop content” became her nick name: pictures of microphones, movies and stories, and sometimes when sadness lurked…memes where her salvation and turned the frown into a bright smile, pocking the monster a little more.
I am Ana and I am a Digital Addict! And the story from above is my morning routine. As a communication specialist Social Media is one of my tools, it lets people know what I do, the projects I am involved or what I stand for. It does so for my accounts I handle. In a world where our communication is more digital than ever, it is important to know some ground rules:
Content is the KING;
Video is the KING;
Provide content that gets you shares and comments, Likes are so…last year;
Always answer your comments, messages and tags;
Promoting something is a team work, so use your club as a marketing tool.
For some of us, Social Media means only Facebook - this is true - for some. For a Toastmasters Club though is a little bit more complicated! Consider it as your business even if you are just a member, a VPPR, President or VPM. Since the blue universe is a marketing tool - it means that it can bring people to your meeting if you use it right, and bellow I will try to give some tips and tricks in how to use digital world in your favour. What happens at the meetings turns your „likes” into members.
Members are your promoting team - develop content on you page that makes them want to share or comment or tag friends. Make them part of your facebook engagement strategy! Give them informations that are meaningful for them. And keep posting, at least 3 times per week, if you can not do it daily. At this part never forget about dark social - messages to your friends, or the the people that answer ”going” to your meeting. A contact with them prior to the meeting will increase by 80% the chance of them showing up, according to a study published in January 2017 - related that that is the precent.
Now let’s go geek - Meetup is a social portal that encourages users for offline meetings, you know - old style communication. With an algorithm that is based on postal code and topics, people that hate facebook are there because there get information based solely on their interest. So if you are from Bucharest and you are interested in Leadership, Public Speaking, Networking and Painting - chances are that the several meetings of Toastmasters Club to pop up as a recommendation.
LinkedIn is also an option for you if you target young professionals - this is their area - and there you can find them and they can find you. You can use their platform for blogging - Pulse - to publish articles about your club and activities, also about leadership or communication - that will engage your members and officers to write more, producing content for promoting Toastmasters.
But also don’t neglect Dark Social that I mentioned above: the giant bucket of ‘direct’ traffic from emails, facebook stories and messages, whatsapp status, instagram stories to sms. Radium One estimated in January 2016 that 80% of social shares are dark, so they are made with one or several ways described already. They also think that since this is one-on-one communication, people are more inclined to make a purchase, attend or feed-back decision, that is definitive.
So when you think about the Digital World, go as creative as you want and learn that it is important to let people know that you care about their opinion and time - if they ask you a question on your page answer, if they send you a message reply, if they comment appreciate and comment back. Because as in real life digital communication is about feedback and if you are not into engagement, your likes will never become your club members!
