This love month might make you think that this post is about romantic relationships but it’s not. This is about how ADB opens its communication lines to build relationships with more people, making development more inclusive through social media and blogging. It starts with changing what’s inside.
Three days before Valentines, Intermedia in partnership with ADB conducted a social media and blogging training for its staff and consultants. The learning program involved a lot of tips and tricks on how to use popular online tools to engage the public on what ADB is doing. Currently, ADB has a Twitter account (@ADB_HQ), Facebook page (AsianDevBank), and other several accounts that it uses for communicating to the public. Posting to these portals have so far been limited to the official communications team of ADB. What Intermedia suggests is for ADB people to have their own account in these platforms and be able to share their thoughts/insights/knowledge in a more personal manner.
When Professional becomes Personal
Using personal accounts to post something about their profession is encouraged as it adds more emotions and ingenuity to what was posted. Facebook and Twitter users with most followers are those who put a personal touch on what they most, meaning the name of the account is the same person who uses it.
The issue with most people, especially for the older ones (youth nowadays are more open to share themselves to be honest), is the issue of privacy.
Certainly, there are parts of our lives that we want to keep in ourselves and some which are not meant to be shared especially if you are a public figure. This is the reason why there are several tools that are we can choose from depending on what we want to share and what is the purpose. Here are they:
* Twitter is for broadcasting to the general public. It you want to get more attention from a bigger group – may they be your friend or not – use this.
* Facebook is for easy connection to your network. This social media apparently gives you a captured audience. If you want it to be seen by more than your friends, you can choose to post something as public. Otherwise, there are filters that you can choose from to make your post visible only to certain group of people. Of course, this means you need to group your friends in categories.
* LinkedIn is for creating a professional network. Use this if you want to find and build relationships with people in your field. This is the best place to update regarding your professional experiences.
* Youtube is for video sharing. It is ideal for creating online campaigns or for broadcasting your message in a more creative way.
* Blogs are most of the time public. Use this if you wish to share longer posts.
Using Social Media
Four most popular social media that a serious communicator should use by now are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Youtube. Use of these platforms vary for each individual but these 5 tips and tricks will surely boost ones reach.
* Tweet with pictures to get 18% more clicks, 89% more, and 150% more retweets
* Put 1 to 2 #hastags to get 55% more chance of getting retweeted
* Keep your tweet characters between 100 to 150 characters
* Include “Please Retweet” to get 51% more retweets.
* Best to tweet around lunch, or Thursday and Friday after 4pm
Cool tool: http://post2015.unglobalpulse.net/
* Use pictures. Videos are even better.
* Add a call to action. Be obvious. Rather than “Do you agree? Click if you like!”
* Inspirational and famous quotes gets a lot of shares
* Put emoticons in your posts to get 33% higher share rate and 57% higher like rate (Amex Open Forum Study)
* Best time to post is between 1-12pm or after 7pm to get more shares. Best to post every Thursday, Friday, and weekends to get more shares.
* Best days to post is Tue, Wed, and Thur.
* Most click and shares is between 10am to 11am
* Include link in your posts to engage 200% more people
* Include pictures in your posts to 98% more comments
* Put a picture in your profile
Youtube
* Tell stories. Inform your audience. No boring lectures
* The more videos your post in Youtube, the higher you will appear in the search results
* Use Youtube’s DONATE button. You can use that to get support in your project.
* Tell people what you want them to do.
* Think about the thumbnail image. People click based on what they see there.
More tips: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/youtube-channel-optimization/
Using Blogs
Blogs are ideal for voicing out more details but not necessarily long messages. To maximize the use of this platform, here are 8 interesting points which might interest you:
* Take responsibility for promoting your posts. Share it in forums or in social media. Start creating a mailing list.
* Make easy for your readers to share by putting easy sharing icon
* Blog should be easy and quick to write and read
* One idea/insight/innovation per blog
* Popular post topics has something to do with the following:
1. Lists
2. Rants
3. Case Studies
4. Anniversaries
5. Interviews
* Think of good titles which has something to do with the following:
1. Original, unique or quirky
2. Ask a key question
3. Reveal a startling fact
4. “Top-ten” – style lists
* The rocket formula for blogging:
1. Topic
2. Main idea
3. Specific examples
4. Connect to audience
5. Conclude
* Use simple words. Avoid jargons or complex words.
* Make your post interactive by posting a question, inviting a dialogue or making a request.
* Make sure that your blog is understable by human terms. Check its readability here: http://gunning-fog-index.com/. Your score should ideally be around 12 or below if you want to be read by most people.
Jecel Censoro 