Process Doc

Refer to email 4/24.

Below are some Instagram posts of the notes and thoughts that I had while reading "What makes content go viral?" by Jonah Berger and Katherine Milkman. I chose Instagram posts as they were the best option to visually show the notes and highlights I made throughout the article. They were mainly looking for how emotions play into virality of content. They hypothesized several times that the more positive content is, the more likely it is to be shared. They also took into account the placement of the original content from its initial source. Ultimately they found that:

1. The more positive content is, the more likely it will be shared even with the placement of the original source of content taken into account.
2. The reason content is shared has more to do with the content actually being interesting and how people feel at the time of transmission.

Basically, if you want content to go viral, make sure it is positive, it is interesting, and that people have stimulating emotions when seeing the content.

The subject that I have chosen for this semester long project is very dear to me, as it is my hometown. I have thought carefully about the target audience, policies, style guide, goals, distribution plan, and content samples for the city of Williamsport. The audience of the social media strategy should reflect the demographics of Williamsport. With that being said, the focus is on late twenties to early thirties young professionals looking to start a family (http://www.city-data.com/city/Williamsport-Pennsylvania.html). The people of Williamsport also appreciate the outdoors as there are plenty of activities to do here such as hiking, kayaking, fishing, swimming, plus many more. This speaks to the relaunch/summer kick off campaign for the city of Williamsport's social media accounts. This campaign's distribution plan has been inspired from chapter six (Distributing Social Content) of Ben Shield's book. It has been mapped out in a table with columns for the platform, brand, asset, content, and timing. The social media accounts, or platforms, will include Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Each will use hashtags in order to be cohesive among all platforms. These include #williamsportpa, #relaunch, and #TheWillisInUs. The Facebook and Twitter will be sponsored as they will serve as the main platforms for information distribution. Government officials and other people of the area will be the ones to sponsor the account. The Instagram will have an organic type of asset as its main focus will be the aesthetically pleasing and inspiring images posted, not the information provided (http://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-demographics-2013-12). All of these plans speak to the goals of the entire social media strategy for the city of Williamsport. The main goal was to get attention and gain new and loyal followers among all of the platforms. The fun kick off of summer theme will align greatly with the kick off of the relaunch of the social media accounts. The campaign will announce fun, outdoor, and family friendly activities that will appeal to the target audience. The first post will say something like "Welcome to our Facebook relaunch! We're kicking it off along with the kick off of summer! Follow us to stay informed on the latest summer events and activities, plus other important information for the citizens of Williamsport." The Twitter will say about the same, except shorter to fit the character limit. Finally, the Instagram will also say this information along with a picture of a summer themed picture of Williamsport. Ultimately, all metrics will be analyzed to see how well our followers are engaging with our content. This strategy would be doing Williamsport a great service by updating its information distribution with the use of social media and providing great content for its citizens to enjoy while keeping the city's brand fresh.

Each of the platforms that I have chosen for the city of Williamsport's social media strategy have in-app measuring systems. I plan on using these metrics to realistically study the engagement between the created content and the publics of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For Facebook, it would be important to see the engagement between the followers in the comments section. This would be telling of how the public is reacting to the initial post and then how they are interacting together. The interactions will determine if the goal of creating a sense of community is being met. I want to create conversations and for the people in Williamsport to bond together. Another aspect of engagement to pay close attention to is the possible events created through Facebook. I imagine that the city of Williamsport will host a countless amount of activities this summer and will inform its citizens through Facebook. The measurement of how many people mark that they are interested, attending, or not attending could tell me many things. If not a lot of people are wanting to attend, the way the event is being advertised might not be the best. It could mean that I need to change the copy of the event in order to reach my audience of the citizens of Williamsport in a better way. If there is a big turn out, that shows that the event copy is interesting and reaches the right audience. The main metric from the Instagram page would be the amount of likes the post gets when taking the ratio of followers into account. I mean that if the Instagram account had 100 followers, and a post got 56 likes, I would say the post is successful because over half of the viewers chose to like it. Twitter's metrics will be less important as its information is a reiteration of the Facebook information. Once the Facebook is well established, Twitter will become more important.

Brand

• Known as the Little League World Series capital of the world. This can be expanded as Williamsport has way more to offer than baseball.
• Once known as the 7th most growing city in the United States. I believe this statement still holds, and it is a reputation that the city should try to keep up on a public relations front.

Cultural

• Hold events in the city that help the community members bond.
  • More events like "First Fridays"
  • Celebrate the arts of Williamsport more

Revenue

• The more people like their city, the most they will support it financially.
• This "Port Pride" would spread to surrounding areas and draw in tourists.

Operational

• Have the neighborhoods of Williamsport connect more. Neighborhoods are the building blocks of cities and would provide a strong foundation for Williamsport as a whole.
• Get feedback from residents to see how their area can be improved.
• Clean up run down areas and pick up trash.

• Voice and Tone
  • Official but not stuffy
  • Authoritative but not condescending
  • Conversational but not silly
  • Friendly but not unprofessional
  • Kept with a millennial and family audience in mind
• Content Types
  • Facebook
    • Statuses, sometimes with pictures
      • Spread any information that Williamsport citizens might need to be aware of.
      • Also document social happenings around the area. Facebook can act as a scrapbook of all the memories created in Williamsport. This will emphasize the community feeling that social media can help create.
  • Twitter
    • Mostly text
      • Again, used to spread any kind of information that is important for the citizens of Williamsport to know.
      • Might have a less serious tone due to the platform's restriction of characters. Also more abbreviations or hashtags can be used to get information across.
    • Polling would be a great feature, especially when looking for the people of Williamsport's opinions on plans or issues with the city.
  • Instagram
    • Mostly beautiful pictures of the town
      • Fit the aesthetic quality that Instagram was made for.
    • These pictures can follow what the original Instagram account was doing. Basically, it was an accumulation of photos sent in by other Instagram users. When their pictures were chosen, they felt recognized and special. This again builds up the idea of community.
• Grammar and Usage
  • Grammar should normally always be correct.
  • There might be some cases where slang is appropriate (i.e. trying to reach a younger audience, shortage of characters). These cases must be approved by the appropriate supervisor.

Rules and Regulations

• Brand guidelines
  • Follow Williamsport's Vision Statement when speaking for the city.
    • "The City of Williamsport, PA will be a model of excellence as a family friendly, well planned city that focuses on business, education, culture and recreational opportunities. We will form partnerships with citizens and business to make our community a second to none choice for residents and visitors. "
• Etiquette and engagement
  • Stay professional and engage with any positive, neutral, or negative comments in an appropriate way. If you are unsure of how to respond or if a response is necessary, ask the appropriate supervisor.
• Confidentiality
  • Never post legally protected personal information that you have obtained from the city of Williamsport.
  • Ask permission to publish or report on conversations that occur within the City of Williamsport.
  • Never post information about policies or plans that have not been finalized by Williamsport, unless you have received explicit permission from your supervisor to post draft policies or plans on the department’s social media sites for public comment.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Message approval
  • Messages must be approved by the Town Social Networking Moderator of Williamsport.
• Customer service
  • Replies to either positive or negative messages on social media sites must be approved by the Town Social Networking Moderator of Williamsport.
• Social engagement
  • As informal as social media sites are meant to be, if they are on a government domain or a government identity, they are official government communications. Social media sites will be sought out by mainstream media – so a great deal of thought needs to go into how you will use the social media in a way that benefits both the city of Williamsport and the public. Employees should not comment about rumors, political disputes, or personnel issues, for example.

Potential Legal Risks

Make sure you review the following procedures:

• Crediting sources
• Privacy and disclosure procedures
• Employee disclaimers

Accountability

• Every employee is responsible for what they publish online!
• Exercise caution and common sense

Outline from hootsuite.

Inspiration for content from Town of Oxford's Social Media Policy.

Williamsport currently does not have active social media accounts and the last time its website was updated was about three years ago. The accounts that the city had were on the social media platforms of Instagram and Twitter.

The primary followers on the Instagram account (@williamsportpa) seem to be more personal rather than focused on a brand or company. The small amount of companies that do follow the Instagram have similarities though. They are all part of the more up-and-coming businesses that target a younger crowd. Some include @brickyardwilliamsport (the best place to go out), @downtownpoppy (a new clothing boutique), and @williamsportescapes (a new "escape the room" attraction). These could be the secondary or tertiary audiences. This aligns with the platform as over 90% of the 150 million people on Instagram are under the age of 35. http://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-demographics-2013-12

On the other hand, the Twitter account's followers seem to primarily be all kinds of businesses targeting all kinds of audiences in the city of Williamsport and other surrounding areas. There are also some personal accounts that follow @WmsptPa, but a lot of them seem inexperienced as their profiles have no pictures and no “about me” section. This leads me to believe that these accounts are inactive or belong to older people that either do not know how to fill these things out or do not care to have them filled out. These would be the secondary/tertiary audiences. If this is the case, is the Twitter account’s content actually being seen?

I think that both profiles did not plan what kind of audience they were targeting other than the broad idea of the people of Williamsport. As of 2014, these demographics include 29,197 people with 49.8% of males and 50.2% of female. The median age of Williamsport residents is 30.8 years old and the average income in 2016 was $36,108. 87.2% of Williamsport residents have a high school diploma or higher, and only 20% have a Bachelor’s Degree or higher. http://www.city-data.com/city/Williamsport-Pennsylvania.html.

This information is very valuable when considering social media platforms and their content for the primary, secondary, and tertiary audiences of Williamsport, PA.

The city of Williamsport basically has no official social media. They have a website, but no social accounts are linked to it. I found an Instagram account, called williamsportpa, but it hasn't been in use since 2014. Twitter was also used (only from 2012 to 2015) and I'm not sure if they were ran by the same person. This is why the city needs a strategy!

When the Instagram was active, it looked pretty cohesive. There is evidence of heavy filter usage. Although they were not all the same filters, the fact that they were used intentionally unifies the collection of images. The content of the images basically focused on the well-known landmarks and landscapes of Williamsport. These include The Genetti Hotel, the Brandon Park totem pole, the Susquehanna Riverwalk, Pine Square, plus many more. What I found interesting was that the majority of the images were from other people. Whoever ran the account basically only gave credit to whoever posts the image originally with a #regram, then added a bunch of other different hashtags related to Williamsport or whatever was in the picture.

The Twitter account followed suit. The majority of its content was from other accounts that @WmsptPA had retweeted. Many were just random people, but the majority were from verified accounts such as Senator Gene Yaw and Lycoming County’s official thread. Williamsport’s Twitter account pushed along important information while also shedding light on the city’s social events. These were the tweets that normally came with pictures. For example, there would be a picture tweeted by someone about an event they were attending and @WmsptPA would retweet it or reply to it. I screen grabbed the example of someone attending the Victorian Christmas Tour.

Overall, both accounts seemed to be well maintained, had a good amount of user exchanges, and had decent number of followers. It is as if one day whoever was in charge of the accounts simply did not feel like updating anymore. Even though they are pretty useless now, they at least prove that social media accounts for Williamsport had a purpose and were rather successful. If there was more of a strategy and schedule for these accounts instead of relying on other users’ material, they both might still be in use today.

• Inventory of Noel George
  • Google results
    • Not Noel George from class, but a professor from Ryerson University
  • LinkedIn
    • It might be Noel George from class, but there’s no picture to make sure.
      • Might be due to the fact that the profile says he’s a student at the University of Pittsburgh
  • Facebook
    • I don’t believe that any of the profiles listed belong to him.
  • Twitter
    • I don’t believe that any of the profiles listed belong to him.
  • Other social platforms
    • Instagram
      • Only 2 posts, but has 322 followers and follows 403 people.
  • Were the profiles easy to find
    • No!
• Summary of perception
  • Social media does not seem like Noel’s first priority, which is totally okay! From the two posts on Insta that I could actually find, it seems like he has a lot of friends. He has over 100 likes on both pictures and several comments.
  • He’s athletic- both pictures are either basketball related or track related
• Feedback for Noel’s social media strategy
  • Noel needs more content! I think that he’s already had great responses to his two posts and if he added more content he would have more of a presence.
• Reflection of my personal social media strategy