engaging users with social media

Engaging Users with Social Media

Kate WalserCX Insightskwalser@cxinsights.com

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Speaker – Kate Walser

- 15 years in usability, accessibility and user experience design

- Member of TEITAC, or Section 508 / Section 255 refresh

committee

- Principal consultant at CX Insights, the user experience

division of Tritus Technologies, Inc.

- Originally from upstate NY, now call Fairfax, VA (near DC) home

- Wrote "Usability and Gov 2.0" chapter for Usability in

Government Systems book. (June 2012)

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Think of a party

- Have trouble finding it

- Don’t know anyone

- Can’t hear (or understand) what people are saying

- Don’t have a chance to talk!

Topic Timeline

Introductions 2:00 – 2:10

Using social media 2:10 – 2:25

Challenges to engaging users 2:25 – 2:35

Group Exercise: Best & Worst 2:35 – 2:50

A better approach 2:50 – 3:05

Group Exercise: Plan a campaign 3:05 – 3:20

Discussion & wrap-up 3:20 – 3:30

Using social media

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Companies like Asics along with non-profit organizations and government agencies have taken to Facebook, sharing news, new products, events, and inviting fans to like or follow them.

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/ASICSamerica

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People and organizations can create their own Twitter accounts, posting updates and news and responding to others, including total strangers.

Twitter

https://twitter.com/justinbieber

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YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/user/whitehouse/videos

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Instagram

http://instagram.com/instagram

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Pinterest

Pinterest.com lets users find and pin pictures from websites to pinboards, allowing people to discover others’ 10

Organizations using social media

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Other organizations and agencies use social media mostly for outreach purposes to get the word out about things like health, diseases, and emergency situations.

Outreach

https://twitter.com/fairfaxhealth

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The asics Support Your Marathoner website let L A Marathon runners register their social media account (Facebook, Twitter) and let friends and loved ones send them supportive tweets and comments.

Share an experience

http://www.supportyourmarathoner.com/13

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Provide customer service

According to a Nielsen State of the Media Social Media Report in 2012, “over half of consumers now use social media to directly reach out to companies to report satisfaction, lodge complaints, and ask questions.”https://twitter.com/OmniGraffle

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Report a problem

SeeClickFix lets citizens report problems like potholes in their area, and lets government agencies pull that crowdsourced information to find problems more easily and quickly.http://seeclickfix.com/

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Ann Taylor LOFT uses Pinterest to show their products and “looks” and attract new customers. They also advertise events, sweepstakes, and giveaways.

Attract new customers

http://pinterest.com/loftgirl/16

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Agencies including the White House use Twitter and other social media to host open forums with citizens, with hopes of improving dialog.

Open up government

http://askobama.twitter.com/

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The IRS tracked down identity theft suspects after finding their Instagram picture that placed the suspects at the restaurant the night of the alleged data handover.

To catch criminals!

“Identity thieves caught by IRS after Instagraming their dinner of steak and macaroni and cheese”

Story: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/couple-busted-posting-dinner-pic-instagram-article-1.1341380#ixzz2TByA2knv

Challenges

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While Justin Bieber may have a strong following among teen girls, his one-sided conversations won’t work well for organizations who want to engage users.

Not a conversation

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Not sure what you want

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Lacking context

https://twitter.com/

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- WebAIM.org survey:– Only 7.4 percent of users rated social media web sites

as “very accessible”– 46.8 percent giving a rating of “somewhat accessible”– 25 percent said “somewhat inaccessible”– 8.7 percent “very inaccessible”– 12 percent responded “I don’t know”

25% somewhat accessible

Accessibility

Content, media limit access

46.8% somewhat accessible

Source: http://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey4/#socialaccess

8.7% very inaccessible

7.4% very accessible

12% I don’t know

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Very visual

http://instagram.com/instagram

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Rely on alternate text

http://pinterest.com/source/whitehouse.gov/

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…and lots of tab stops

FACEBOOK

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YouTube & Twitter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0nvdiRdehw

Group Exercise (15 minutes)

Try it out

http://youtube.com/whitehousehttps://twitter.com/whitehouse

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- Pick a social media channel- Who’s effective at engaging you?- Now, how well does it work with keyboard, phone voiceover,

etc.?- What worked, what didn’t?

A better approach

Tips & strategies

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Reasons why people engage1. It’s easy2. They’re social3. Competition and prizes!4. It makes a good story5. It’s fun6. They’re altruistic

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Invite and remind…

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…where users will see

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Make it easy to participate

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For group forums, share agenda, tips

http://www.howto.gov/social-media/microblogging/twitter-town-hall/sample-agenda

Suggestions from HowTo.gov:

“We’ll be talking all things social media at 2 PM Eastern today: find out more about our efforts #SocialMedia http://www.knowbility.org/v/john-slatin-accessu/”

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Whole Foods Market has 3M followers, though the company has just over 340 stores. That’s a ratio of 8824 followers per store. How do they do it? The store has an active presence on Twitter, posting news, recipes, and tidbits that customers (and potential customers) might like, but more so by actively listening for kudos and complaints and following up on them.

Recognize people…

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…even when it’s risky

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Users respond to incentives, whether it’s a fan of the day approach, a coupon, a chance to win a gift card or something more. If it’s worth their while or takes little time, they are more likely to participate.

Offer prizes

https://www.facebook.com/Levenger

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NY Times journalist, Nicholas Kristof, has an active and growing Facebook presence, with close to 600,000 fans. Many of his posts offer his reaction and ask what his fans think, encouraging responses and dialog among total strangers.

Ask & listen, don’t just talk…

https://www.facebook.com/kristof

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Another reason Kristof Facebook’s page is so successful is that he shows a human side.

https://www.facebook.com/kristof

…most of all be human

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Do something fun…

http://www.toyotapriusprojects.com/#/006

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…that makes for a good story

http://www.toyotapriusprojects.com/#/006

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Accessibility

Use keywords & caption images…

http://pinterest.com/source/whitehouse.gov/

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YouTube lets users upload captions and transcripts to complement videos. It also offers auto captioning, a nice feature when the video isn’t critical. A recent White House YouTube video shows President Obama meeting with students in Austin, Texas. Users who can’t hear the audio can turn on the auto captioning to hear the dialog.

and multimedia...

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/05/09/president-obama-talks-jobs-skills-and-opportunity-austin

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Auto captioning gets it mostly right for clear, spoken dialog, but conversations are trickier. In that same White House trip to see Austin students video, President Obama’s words “yes, let’s go see it” were misinterpreted as “Yes, chump.”

…but don’t rely on auto captioning

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/05/09/president-obama-talks-jobs-skills-and-opportunity-austin

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When Ann Taylor LOFT held a sweepstakes giveaway, they pinned the info to Pinterest in a graphic, and also provided a short blurb with a link to more information.

http://pinterest.com/pin/285626801337613884/

Link to more info

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Use camel case for hashtags…

#SocialMedia#AccessU#GreatIdeas

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…and use familiar acronyms

Group Exercise (15 minutes)

Plan a campaignCustomer: Austin, TX Fire & Rescue

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Summary

Think back to that party

Contact

Kate Walserkwalser@cxinsights.com • @kwalser • +1 (571) 281-2626

To learn more- "Engaging Citizens with UX Design," HCI International 2013 Proceedings, K.

Walserhttp://www.hcii2013.org/proceedings

- "The Change We Need Needs IxDA; Designing Gov 2.0 That's Inclusive”http://vimeo.com/9798575

- HowTo.govhttp://www.howto.gov/social-media/microblogging/twitter-town-hall/sample-agenda

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