For this exercise, you will have to create a status update for your “client” customized for each of their social media platforms. I would like you to 1) link the
news release you wrote previously in one of the posts, 2) link a video in another post, and 3) attach an image to go with one of your posts. The posts must be
relevant to your chosen organization and must utilize the social media where your organization is present (please list the platforms, along with each post).
You will submit the “pretend-posts” in a document via Canvas. For examples, review the social media posts made by the organization you’ve chosen to
follow. And continue reading this assignment for more ideas and learning opportunities related to updating social media posts for your “client.”
Purpose, Audience and Media
Microblogs, such as tweets and Facebook status updates, help organizations and individ-uals maintain ongoing, productive conversations with key publics.
The “Twitter Basics” section of Twitter.com declares: Twitter is where people go to find out what’s happening in the world right now. Whether you’re
interested in music, sports, politics, news, celebrities, or every-day moments, come to Twitter to see what people are talking about and join the conversation.
Instagram’s mission is “to share the world’s moments.” Clearly, microblogs are for communicating and building relationships. They also can serve as
aggregators, providing links to information of interest to targeted publics—especially important in content marketing. Traditional publics for microblogs and
status updates include any groups or individ-uals that possess desirable resources: customers, employees, stockholders, voters and more. Publics for
microblogs and status updates, however, generally are self-selecting. Most organizations, therefore, use many forms of media, including their websites, to
encourage people to follow them on Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms. Demographic studies show that Twitter and Facebook usage is
greatest among individuals aged 18–45. Older publics use social media less, although their usage increases every year. Microblogs and status updates exist
only digitally. They appear as concise messages on computer or mobile-device screens.
Key to Success
Business-oriented microblogs and status updates are brief, highly focused and often multimedia. They immediately emphasize something of interest to the
reader.
Format/Design
Compared with Twitter, social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn include several sec-tions for information: Photos, Videos, Events, About Us and more.
However, the formats and capabilities of social media vary and change rapidly. Profile photos or icons usually accompany and identify Facebook status
updates and tweets. Organizations generally use their official logos. Starbucks, for example, uses its familiar green mermaid. Rock groups such as the Foo
Fighters often use artwork from a recent album. In addition to profile images and brief written messages, status updates and tweets often include an
attention-grabbing photo, video, GIF or link image. Survey research con-firms that posts with visual elements gain more attention than do simple text posts.
Because of the increasing popularity of microblogs and similar media, several services have emerged that permit users to coordinate posts to many social
networks. For example, companies such as Hootsuite allow you to manage posts to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other popular social media platforms.
Content and Organization
Although business-related microblog posts, such as Twitter tweets, and status updates, such as those on a Facebook page, are different, they do have much
in common:
1. They’re short. The maximum length for Twitter tweets is 280 characters and spaces. Facebook status updates generally shouldn’t exceed four sentences.
2. They quickly focus on reader interests. (Remember that your target publics will focus on WIIFM: What’s in it for me?)
3. They encourage responses, either through comments, replies and/or links to websites.
4. They often are responses to messages initiated by others. Consider commenting on and/or sharing favorable messages posted by others. In Facebook,
you can comment or simply click “Like” or one of the related emojis to respond to someone else’s post. In Twitter, you can retweet favorable comments
posted by others. Within no more than 24 hours, be sure to respond to questions and negative comments.
5. They’re conversational, but they use strong verbs and precise nouns to achieve brevity and power.
6. They use casual grammar, including sentence fragments. However, such informality must clearly be intentional, not a careless error. When appropriate,
they show a sense of humor. For a good example, check out Arby’s multimedia Twitter presence.
7. They use personal pronouns: you, your, we and our.
8. They avoid jargon and technical language that could puzzle some readers.
9. They use capitalized words for emphasis, but they DON’T overdo it.10. They can include links to news releases and other documents and sites, including digital newsrooms and YouTube videos.
11. Finally, they avoid using vulgar or obscene language, images or links.
Twitter in particular includes a variety of ways to encourage conversation:
a. Mentions: Twitter users have usernames. By placing the symbol @ before an individ-ual’s or organization’s username—for example, @username—you can
ensure that the tweet will go either to the user’s Twitter page (if they follow your account) or a folder that contains such messages. Such messages are not
private; they’re available to anyone who follows both the sender and the recipient or simply visits the sender’s profile.
b. Replies: To reply to a tweet, click or tap on the Reply icon (a left-pointing arrow) beneath the original tweet. Such messages also are public.
c. Direct messages: You can send private tweets—direct messages—to any user who follows you either by clicking or tapping on the Envelope icon. Direct
messages also can be used for private group conversations. Organizations can adjust their Twitter accounts to receive private, direct messages from users
whom they don’t follow.
d. Retweets: You can share—retweet—others’ messages by clicking or tapping on the Retweet icon (two curved arrows) at the bottom of a tweet. You can
then add a com-ment or simply share the original tweet; adding a comment to a retweet is known as quote tweeting.
e. Hashtags: You can insert hashtags into your tweets to help categorize them and make them easily findable in keyword searches. Just add a hash mark (#)
to a keyword—for example, #publicrelations or #BTS. Hashtags often appear at the end of tweets—and some are more for editorial comment (for example,
#eyesrolling) than category purposes. Erin E. Templeton, a frequent poster in the ProfHacker blog, recommends concise hashtags and notes that groups that
really do want to use hashtags to share messages should create unique hashtags that everyone in the group knows and will use. Trending topics within
Twitter often are hashtags.
f. Shortened website addresses: Website addresses, also known as URLs, can con-sume a big percentage of your 280 characters and spaces. If you tweet
from Twitter. com, that site often will shorten the URL for you. Google’s URL Shortener app can do the same. Microblogs are ideal media for delivering
engaging, informative and entertaining content to important publics. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter can be important parts of content
marketing.
MICROBLOG TIPS
1. Go to the experts: Microblog and social network services often have Help sites for users. For example, the Facebook Newsroom offers tips and updates,
and Twitter has a similar Twitter Help Center.
2. Imitate the best: Study how other organizations use microblogs and status updates. What works well—and what doesn’t?
3. Plan: Build a social media calendar (Links to an external site.), and coordinate your posts with a social media dashboard (Links to an external site.) (like
Hootsuite).
4. Be timely: Post during times when your research shows that your target publics are most likely to be online. Organizations such as Sprout Social often
publish studies about the best times of day to post for different target audiences.
5. Build a team: Designate managers for organizational microblogging and status update functions. Your organization should have clear gatekeepers for
such messages.
6. Expand: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are current leaders, but be present in LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest or any social media preferred by target
publics.
7. Monitor: Continually scan social media for references to your organization. Have a policy for addressing criticism and removing comments from your own
sites. And have a thick skin; it can be rough out there.