If you’re involved in managing your organization’s online social presence using a tool such as Facebook or the MemberClicks Social Community, you’ve probably asked yourself questions like:

• When should we post? And how often?
• Are there certain words or content that will generate more responses?
• When are members engaging with our content?

That’s why we’ve researched the issue and compiled these tips to help your posting efforts.

1. Post Length: Short And Sweet
Research shows that there is a strong negative correlation between post length and engagement, indicating that the longer the post length, the less engaging readers find it. This supports the traditional best practice that concise copy increases readability and comprehension. Consider this – posts that are between one and eighty characters in length have, on average, a 27% higher engagement rate!

2. Don’t Use URL Shorteners
Though a necessity on a service like Twitter, URL shorteners actually lead to less engagement. Research reveals that engagement rates are three times higher for posts that use a full-length URL. Why is this? It’s because URLs often give people valuable insights into the nature of the link. For instance, the link http://www.memberclicks.com/ security will lead a reader to think that the destination site is owned by MemberClicks and it’s probably related to security, whereas http://tinyurl.com/aBcD tells them nothing. Readers find that context valuable.

3. Best Time To Post
Most posts are made during business hours – between 10 AM and 4 PM. But research indicates that if you post outside of business hours, either early in the morning or later in the afternoon and evening, you’ll have a 20% higher engagement rate. That’s because posts made during those hours appear near the top of readers’ news feeds and activity streams at times when they are more likely to be browsing. Don’t post during the day just because that’s when you’re at work – write posts beforehand and schedule a time to post them later for maximum impact.

4. Best Day To Post
Generally speaking, people are more likely to be reading your posts when they don’t want to be working. Studies indicate that posts made on Thursday and Friday lead to engagement rates that are 18% higher than other days of the week for this very reason. This varies a little by industry, but in general those two days lead to the highest level of engagement. The next best day to post is Sunday, likely due to readers picking up content first thing Monday morning. But be careful about posting on the weekend – Saturday posts lead to the lowest level of engagement. Stick to the very beginning and end of the work week, with perhaps one midweek post to keep readers engaged.

5. Tell Them What You Want
Finally, if you’re trying to increase engagement, be upfront about it. Ask people to “like” you on Facebook. Request feedback to your posts. Ask them to “post” or “comment” or “tell” you something. Research indicates that outright requests like this are the most effective means of soliciting participation. And if you are asking them to do something, be sure to ask the question at the end of the post instead of leading with it. Posts that end with a question have a 15% higher engagement rate than those that have one in the beginning or middle.

As social networks increasingly become key components for communication between organizations and their members, it’s vital that you understand what drives engagement. These tips should help you maximize your posts and increase member engagement.

Getting people to interact and add their own content to an online community might seem like a no-brainer in today’s constantly-changing world. But it requires time, dedication and effort to get it right – online communities often don’t just build themselves.

Here are some tips to help you build and foster your online community and increase member engagement.

1. Provide Tools For Involvement
If you’re building an online community, the first thing that you need to provide are tools for participation. These will vary depending on the purpose of your community but a few of the more popular community-building tools are:

a) User Profiles – Users need to be able to shape their own identity in the online community. Having a customizable profile that they control gives a user a real sense of investment in the community.

b) Community Forums – Online forums and message boards provide a place for users to discuss topics of interest to them. They have the advantage that all content is organized around topics already, making it easy to browse when looking for specific information.

c) Comments or Article Feedback – A great way to stir up participation is to post articlesand allow users to post their own comments in reaction to it. By posting the article, you are guiding the conversation around a topic you choose, as opposed to the forum approach, which is often more free-form.

d) Blogs / User-generated Content – In some cases, you might want to allow your members to write their own articles or blog content. By promoting user-created content or spotlighting the best posts, you directly reward your members for their participation and provide them with a larger forum for their ideas.

2. Make Participation Easy
You could have all the best technological tools, but they wouldn’t do you much good if no one could find them. You need to make it easy to participate. Be sure to include prominent links to your forums. Make it easy to create and update a user profile by featuring easy-to-spot links. If you allow comments on articles, put the comment form on the same page as the article itself, so that users don’t have to navigate away from the content to which they are replying.

If you have a private web community, create a special “Member’s Only” page that each user sees when they log in with their profile. Create links to your forums or to featured articles on this page and update the content regularly so that users will know that it’s regularly maintained. You want to provide plenty of ways for users to find the tools you have available for them.

3. Welcome Newcomers
If your organization often brings in new members, you want to make sure that those newcomers feel empowered to participate. Often, when faced with an existing online community, people are hesitant to jump right in and start commenting. There are several
ways you can help new users overcome this hesitancy. If you have guidelines or rules for posting on your message board, have them clearly labelled and easy-to-find so that newcomers will see them. Ask new users to introduce themselves to break the ice. Encourage established members of the community to welcome and reach out to new members. You want to foster an environment that welcomes members, both new and old.

4. Act On User Suggestions
One of the most overlooked but effective ways of building community involvement is tolisten to the community. Ask them what they’d like to see, what could be improved or what doesn’t work. Encourage feedback through the use of polls and surveys.
But don’t just collect this information – be sure to act on it! Tell your users when you make changes based on their feedback and give them further opportunities to comment on the process. That doesn’t mean you have to enact every suggestion that comes your way, but make an honest effort to evaluate what your membership wants. The more you do this, the more they will know that their voice matters.

5. Engage Users On Their Own Turf
There’s no sense in reinventing the wheel. These days, many people belong to Facebook or Twitter or other social media communities. So your organization should too! Create a Facebook page for your organization and reward members who participate by friending you or posting on your wall. Send out special updates through Twitter that link back to your articles and forums. Connect your online tools to the social media sites your members are already using by cross-linking content between the two. Meet users on their own turf and show them that you are interested in their feedback, no matter what form it takes.

Photo source

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend.

I wanted to share a few great slideshows to encourage everyone to use tools – such as YouTube – to their greatest potential. I’ve also included a primer on Twitter for those who may not know the basics. It’s always good to have a refresher!

In some interesting social media news, Twitter has just launched its own photo and video search. Now, when you search a term at the top of the page, relevant photos and videos will appear on the right side along with related tweets. Additionally, Twitter users will soon be able to attach photos and video to their tweets without third party clients – even from Twitter’s own mobile apps.

What does this mean for associations?

Well, members will be able to more easily find photos from the association and other members, provided the image’s corresponding tweet has enough information. And these features are likely bad news bears for companies such as Twitpic, which hosts millions and millions of Twitter users’ photos.

Photos and videos are a huge part of Twitter’s success and allow users across the world to share experiences with one another. I wouldn’t be surprised if your own members have shared photos while at your annual conference or another association event.

Do you use Twitpic or another photo sharing service for your association’s social media efforts? Will you switch to using Twitter’s official photo and video uploader when it’s unveiled?

By now, you may (or may not) have heard about the rogue tweet that was sent out on the Red Cross’ official account. Someone with access accidentally posted a tweet meant for her personal account that was, shall we say, not Red Cross material.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a life-or-death situation, but the Red Cross could have handled this much, much worse. The tweet was live for about an hour, and then this was posted:

The original tweet?

The Red Cross has confirmed the rogue tweeter was not drunk, and they even blogged about the incident! What’s crazy is that the Red Cross actually reported an uptick in donations after Dogfish Head Brewery encouraged its fans to donate to the organization.

What if the Red Cross didn’t have a sense of humor? They could have reacted with ire; they even could have attempted to ignore the whole incident. Instead, they were honest with their followers and fans and as a result of their honesty and, yes, humor, they received tons of great PR. Tons of people tweeted to @RedCross and @dogfishbeer that they were planning on donating blood.

Take a moment to reflect on this and ask yourself how your organization would react if such an incident happened to you. This is a great example of social media done right - because nobody’s perfect and crisis management skills are critical.