I've been playing around with Twitter and setting up Facebook as an organisation. It's meant I'm spending a lot more time on social media throughout the day. It's an interesting experience to be using these tools with fresh eyes and from a value perspective when starting from zero.
I've had a twitter account for at least four years, and other than test posts for orgs that I've been setting up I haven't posted on my private account until now. I watched closely when twitter first launched, the hype and the excitement around connectivity and conversations was nice to see. I used twitter for a number of work accounts and at the time it was a successful way to share information.
Four years on and it's a different landscape. I haven't quite worked out the value in it outside of another passive platform for people to find you - not that there isn't value in that. I don't see the active discussions that were being had. People that were active participants have dissipated; people have accounts but don't use them. No doubt this is something that ways on the minds of those who work at Twitter.
I'm still really interested in how not for profits are using twitter and facebook, and especially in the disconnect between the information people post on these platforms and on their websites. There are a number of problems that occur when social content and website content don't align.
Yes, it's easier to post on social platforms (although if your site is set up well and you are using integration tools effectively it should be comparable), but content on other platforms doesn't really provide you with a long term benefit. By not posting on your website first you are losing content, resources and seo potential that makes your site a valuable resource to your community overtime.
Social is instant, but there is limited longevity.
So because I've been using so much social media I've been seeing a lot of content being posted. Your organisations immediacy and timeframe does not align with mine. So whilst I'm grateful that you posted information about your event on say facebook so I knew about it, at that time that I saw it I wasn't ready to action it. This happened to me last week, and then today I need to get that info and finally put it in my calendar and schedule it.
Do you think I can find it on the organisations website? Nope. The event is part of a specific project that the organisation manages - think I can find info about that? Nope.
If I wasn't interested at this point I wouldn't bother going. I've ended up just contacting the person directly because I know them and have their email address anyway. But I'm going to ask them for the link to the info - and they are nice so they will give it to me without caring - but I'm not hunting for it. I've already looked on their website and found no tract, I'm not going to trawl through their facebook page to find it, I can't really be bothered and chances are I'll just get distracted while I'm there and I'm too busy atm.
So treat your social media content like the valuable resource it is - after all every piece took someone's time, energy and thought to create it - it's a piece of your organisations identity. If it isn't connected to your website, it isn't connected, it's just a post that may or may not hit its target and provide longevity.
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