SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
2013 WA State Trails and Outdoor Conference Outdoors October
WITH A SHORT LEAD-IN OF JUST TWO WEEKS TO THE WA STATE TRAILS AND OUTDOOR CONFERENCE (WASTOC) THE SOCIAL MEDIA OBJECTIVES WERE SIMPLE. FOCUS ON DEVELOPING A STRATEGY, SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES THAT WOULD ACT AS A TEMPLATE FOR FUTURE INITIATIVES. ANY UPTICK IN LIKES AND FOLLOWERS WAS REGARDED AS AN ADDED BONUS.
BACKGROUND
The WA State Trails and Outdoors Conference (WASTOC) was held on October 4, 2013 at All Saint’s College in Bull Creek. This acted as a launchpad for the ‘Outdoors October’ calendar of events that promoted the sector and encouraged Western Australians to get outdoors and be more active.
Outdoors October was promoted by sector representative body, Outdoors WA and provides positive participation opportunities in adventurous outdoor recreation throughout the state. The initiative also aims to raise awareness and recognition of the clubs, trails and organisations operating in the outdoor recreation sector. In 2013, social media was utilized for the first time
to promote WASTOC as well as Outdoors October. This special feature will examine the social media objectives and strategies employed, as well as the operational plan for implementation and the outcomes and results that were achieved. This initiative was undertaken by the SportXchange Project in partnership with Outdoors WA and the Department of Sport and Recreation.
2013 WA STATE TRAILS AND OUTDOORS CONFERENCE
PLANNING Approximately two weeks prior to the conference a social media strategy for WASTOC was developed that incorporated a number of objectives. • Raise awareness and recognition of the WA State Trails and Outdoors Conference, Outdoors WA, the Department of Sport and Recreation and stakeholders • Raise awareness and recognition of Outdoors October and its calendar of event • Engage conference attendees through social media. Encourage participation in online conversations with the aim being that this engagement would continue long after the event cycle
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Act as THE social information hub for those unable to attend the event • Increase engagement through the Outdoors WA social media accounts long after the event cycle • Raise awareness and recognition of conference sponsors and affiliates • Create legacy content that could be used to promote events happening throughout the next 12 months (in particular images and video footage) These objectives defined the aims and purpose for all social media activity in the lead-up to, on-event and post event.
SOCIAL MEDIA CAN APPEAR TO BE AN INCREDIBLY RANDOM AND CHAOTIC MEDIUM. THE REALITY IS THAT THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES ARE UNIVERSAL TO ANY COMMUNICATION CHANNEL. BY FOLLOWING ITS INTERNAL RULES AND UTILIZING 3RD PARTY APPS IT CAN ACTUALLY BE APPROACHED IN A HIGHLY STRUCTURED AND DISCIPLINED WAY.
ACCOUNTS A ‘WA State Trails and Outdoors Conference’ Facebook page was already established and had been used in an ad hoc manner since July 2013. It was agreed that this account would remain under the management of the Department of Sport and Recreation who would post content about the event, while SportXchange and Outdoors WA would post through the Outdoors WA Inc Facebook page. Social media activity was undertaken via: 1. WASTOC Facebook Account 2. Outdoors WA Inc Facebook Account 3. DSRWA Account 4. OutdoorsWA Twitter Account
PRE-EVENT
STRATEGY The roll-out of the social media strategy was split into pre and on-event. This defined the tone/type of content and what needed to be done, when. Tasks included..... 1. Establish accounts and direct followers to Outdoors WA Inc and WASTOC Facebook pages 2. Identify influencers, stakeholders and affiliated accounts. Follow these and interact accordingly (commenting, ‘liking’, sharing content) 3. Promote WASTOC account through influencers and affiliated accounts (goal was to increase page ‘likes’) 4. Create ‘10-Day Countdown’ graphics to generate buzz and excitement for the conference. Source suitable images from the Department of Sport and Recreation and Outdoors WA
CONTENT 5. Post profiles of keynote speakers along with an image to generate interest 6. Create a social media ‘cheat sheet’ featuring all account details and suggestions of how attendees and stakeholders can get involved via social media 7. Prepare posts in advance to be sent out on the day (to simplify management and limit the amount of posts that needed to be made on-the-run) All Facebook and Twitter posts and graphics (including speaker profiles and countdown images) were approved by the Department of Sport and Recreation and Outdoors WA. These were then scheduled and posted to Outdoors WA Facebook and Twitter profiles, while the Department of Sport and Recreation shared this content via their accounts.
From September 23 to October 4 (when posting began on Outdoors WA profiles) the following content was produced: • 6 countdown graphics • 6 speaker profiles • ‘WASTOC One Week to Go’ graphic • ‘Getting to the conference’ map/graphic A YouTube page was also established for Outdoors WA as an outlet for videos post-event.
ON-EVENT
STRATEGY An on-event strategy was developed to define roles and the content to be used by each of the four social media accounts. This was approved by all parties as well as a checklist of ‘on-event’ activity to be undertaken by the team tasked with creating content on the day. This was essential as there were four social accounts in-play at WASTOC. The checklist ensured an even spread of content, prevented any overlap or doubling-up while providing a schedule and clear objectives for all concerned.
CONTENT FACEBOOK • WASTOC (content centric): Official announcements relating to conference, presentation specific content • Outdoors WA Inc (people centric): Outdoors specific presenter’s recognised, behind-the-scenes content shared TWITTER • @dsrwa (content centric): Official announcements relating to conference, presentation-specific content • @outdoorswa (people centric): Outdoors specific presenter’s recognised, behind-the-scenes content shared
Two days prior to the event, a schedule for WASTOC was drawn-up, assigning duties to the four personnel who would be working on social media throughout the day. The schedule ensured that every conference stream was covered and there would be a steady flow of content for all four accounts as per the on-event strategy. Of the four personnel, two were assigned ‘socialmaster’ status, taking responsibilty for managing and publishing posts.
RESULTS
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A ‘cheat sheet’ listing all affiliated social media accounts was distributed to stakeholders to promote the accounts and attract followers. A flyer promoting the Outdoors WA accounts and Outdoors October calendar of events was also produced. Other content on the day included an album of ‘social snaps’ that was published on the ImageXchange website. These images were then used to create a viral-style video to promote Outdoors October (see above)
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Posting began on Outdoors WA Inc Facebook brand page on September 23 Pre and on-event activity led to an increase in page ‘likes’ of 48.4% 39 posts were published on the Outdoors WA Inc page in total, resulting in a reach of 2,604 The most popular posts throughout the pre and on-event strategy were those which included images of personalities involved in the WA Outdoors industry
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Tweets began on the OutdoorsWA account on September 23. Outdoors WA posted through the account via Hootsuite (a third party app) that had been in use for several months All twitter posts were composed and approved by Outdoors WA before then being scheduled during pre-determined peak usage times on the SportXchange Twitter account A hashtag was developed and approved for use to promote any social media activity surrounding WASTOC (#WASTOC) 85 users shared WASTOC-tagged posts with 189 WASTOC-tagged posts sent in total during the conference. These posts led to 65,559 impressions on Twitter. A board of all social media activity using #WASTOC can be viewed at: http://tagboard.com/WASTOC
ACHIEVEMENTS Social media achievements for WASTOC. • Increased awareness of Outdoors WA, and WASTOC. Demonstrated through the number of people exposed to the messages from all profiles • Raised awareness for Outdoors October and its calendar of events. This was achieved through the creation of the Outdoors October video and the distribution of flyers • Engaged conference attendees through social media. Facilitated participation in online conversations (85 people) via the #WASTOC hashtag. • Provided information to and engaged those unable to attend the event. Acted as an information resource hub. • Increased engagement on the Outdoors WA social media accounts. Demonstrated through the increased follower count across all social media accounts
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Raised awareness and recognition of sponsors and affiliates. Photos of sponsor signage posted as well as promotion of sponsor raffle on Facebook and through RT’ing of the Department of Sport and Recreations tweets Creation of legacy content that can be used to promote future events
OUTDOORS OCTOBER
STRATEGY The Outdoors October strategy had similar goals to WASTOC. • Increase awareness of Outdoors WA, Outdoors October and the outdoor sector • Direct traffic to the Outdoors WA website and Google calendar • Promote events during the month • Increase engagement on the Outdoors WA social media accounts As WASTOC was at the start of October it was used as the ‘launchpad’ for the Outdoors October social media campaign. With resources at a premium throughout the month the strategy for Facebook and Twitter was kept simple. The approach being that any activity to promote events would be beneficial as this was the first year social media had been used in any concerted way to leverage the Outdoors October concept. With this in mind the social media schedule for the month was as follows.
TO DO LIST
IMAGES
1. Create Outdoors-October event page 2. Create one post for every day in October • If event the next day, prepare a post promoting event and link • If no event on that day, prepare a post with a list of the next week’s activities • If none of the above, prepare a generic ‘get outside and have a go at this outdoor activity’ post, source photo from Outdoors WA Flickr account, or affiliate’s Facebook page 3. Use hashtag #OutdoorsOct on event posts and tag relevant affiliate accounts where possible
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Several posts were also created to promote the use of the #OutdoorsOct hashtag by encouraging followers to share photos of themselves embarking on outdoors activities to the Outdoors WA social media accounts. The aim was to ‘crowd-source’ photos from the month to promote Outdoors WA and the outdoors sector in WA beyond October.
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Create a post for each day in October Typically this would be a shorter version of the scheduled Facebook post Use hashtag #OutdoorsOct in event-related posts @Mention relevant accounts where possible Prepare two promotional tweets per week to send to Western Australia-based news outlets. Eg. ‘We’re getting the WA community outside enjoying the Outdoors in October, more information here:’
DELIVERY FACEBOOK
58.6% Increase ‘Likes’ 3,687 Total Reach 55 Total Posts 39 Total SportXchange Posts 11 Total Comments 66 Total Likes 10 Total Shares
14.8% Increase Followers 110 Total Tweets 78 Total SportXchange Tweets 21 Total RT’s of other accounts 10 Total Outdoors WA Tweets 27 Total RT’s (from other accounts) 11 Total Mentions
From September 23 to November 1 the number of Likes increased by 58.6%.
From September 23 to November 1 there was a 14.8% increase in Twitter followers on the OutdoorsWA profile.
YOUTUBE
An Outdoors October promotional video was created from photos shot at WASTOC. This was uploaded to the Outdoors WA’s YouTube account and shared across their social media profiles. Through October this video had 57 views equating to 63 minutes watched.
TAKEAWAYS THOUGHT STARTERS
Social media activity observations and actions for Outdoors October. • While OutdoorsWA encouraged followers to share their #OutdoorsOct experiences and photos using the hashtag, there was limited engagement. • The low level of activity on the #OutdoorsOct hashtag may have been due to a lack of promotion outside of social media. It is recommended for next year that the month and hashtag be heavily promoted via non-social medica channels. Participation and sharing is also more likely if there is a reward or more of an incentive to join in (e.g. make it a competition, or offer prizes)
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While there was little interaction with the tweets and posts on Facebook, the message did reach a wider audience than would have been achieved if no activity was undertaken. Using social media throughout the month led to a significant increase in followers on the Facebook and Twitter pages, which is expected to remain after the month is over. Facebook images of people involved in the outdoors community (such as Linda Daniels, Jason Zaurs, announcement of new Board in September) were the most popular type of content. Based on this observation Outdoors WA should continue to share these ‘behind-the-scenes’ images.
FROM A LOW BASE, PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE IN BUILDING THE WA OUTDOORS SOCIAL COMMUNITY THE REAL CHALLENGE AHEAD IS NURTURING THE GREEN SHOOTS OF THIS ORGANIC GROWTH
www.outdoorswa.org www.dsr.wa.gov.au
www.sportxchange.com.au www.imagexchange.com.au Social Media Strategy: WASTOC and Outdoors October is published by the SportXchange Project in partnership with Outdoors WA. Written by Jordan Slight and Stu Williams. Social media support provided by Glenn Langridge, Luke Rodgers and Jess Brimage. Images by ImageXchange, Relentless Sports and Shutterstock. (November 2013)