Savvy Social Media for Open Source Communities

Editor's Notes

• #2: Make up a glorious (yet brief) bio here.
• #3: Overheard in the hallway track at Texas Linux Fest 2014: “I don't believe in social media.”
• #4: Results of “Best Practices” approach @projectatomic launched: Tues. April 15, 2014 by Mon. April 21: 435 Feb. 18, 2015: ~1,300 followers (~10 months since launch) @RDOCommunity: launched April 15, 2013 by Mon. April 21, 2014: 372 (~1 year since launch) Feb. 18, 2015: 1,055 (184% increase in 10 months)
• #6: Project news: releases, changes, fixes, new contributors, IRC meetings, activity on other project platforms (github, IRC, mailing lists) Events activity: booth details, specials, project talks, BoFs, meetups Links to internal and external blog posts and articles Industry news: coverage of your project or related projects Remember: Quality of content is more important than quantity.
• #7: Stay on-message with retweets so followers know what to expect. Retweet/share sister accounts sparingly. Focus on tweets related to your project/projects. You want to amplify the message for sister accounts, but you don't want to spam followers, either. Double-check reshare links to confirm they are accurate and current before sharing.
• #8: Squeeze as much info into as few characters as possible. Use URL shorteners when possible. These also help track traffic via reports (Hootsuite, for example). Leave enough characters so followers can retweet easily without needing to revise the post.
• #9: If you only have room for one hashtag, pick the one that will get the most eyeballs. Don't overdo the hashtags because they become obnoxious.
• #10: Campaign launched for October 2015 “Most Open Month” theme on Opensource.com
• #11: Example responses
• #12: Avoid PR verbiage, marketing speak, exclamation point abuse, and Upworthy-type headlines
• #13: Numbers do well
• #14: Q&A, how, what, and why headlines do well
• #15: Tweets with images received: 18% more clicks 89% more favorites 150% more retweets
• #16: Make sharing your message easy: If possible, leave enough characters so that followers can simply hit "retweet" without having to edit any of the tweet text or cutting it off. Give credit (for example, use “via @....”) Reply to responses to your messages, or forward the responses to the appropriate person. However ... Replying to flames and spam isn't necessary. Revisit past posts: Remember to repost news and links that aren't outdated (to hit different time zones, for example).
• #17: Ask your network to share particularly important content. For example, drop a note in IRC and ask contributors to share the message. Make it easier to share by providing retweet text, link, etc. (This also works well for promoting links on Reddit, Slashdot, and other sharing sites.) Remind people about your social media accounts: on business cards, marketing pieces, website, event talks, newsletters, signature on emails, mailing lists. Do not “like-bait”, post too much, or buy followers. [4]
• #18: Schedule posts to hit different time zones. For a local meetup, focus on local time zone. Create a posting schedule or system so you don't double-up on posts. Schedule tweets to fall during events (reminders of upcoming talks, BoFs, etc.).
• #19: Access professional social media on dedicated work computer. Do NOT feed the trolls or reply while angry (or from a bar...). Are you sure you really want project social media accounts on mobile devices? Double-check URLs and images for accuracy before sending. Double-check sources before resharing. (Is the source credible? Is this the original source? Is the news recent and relevant?) Apologize and correct errors when necessary.
• #21: Twitter Impressions: 1,490 Total engagements: 28 Link clicks: 12 Retweets: 6 Favorites: 4 Detail expands: 4 Media engagements: 2
• #22: Facebook News Feed “Of the 1,500+ stories a person might see whenever they log onto Facebook, News Feed displays approximately 300.” ~52K page “Likes”: This post: 3 shares, 30 likes, 1,966 people reached
• #24: If you're posting about a product, company, or thing that has a Facebook page, tag it in your post. Try to post about things Facebook has identified as "trending topics." Facebook's algorithm favors those. Hashtags can increase your reach if it's a popular topic, but don't overuse them. Facebook likes videos, but don't overdo it. If you do, the algorithm will punish you.
• #25: Be sure to tag any companies, products, etc. you're posting about. Hashtags work well on G+. Include a few relevant ones, but don't overdo it. Google+'s algorithm likes images.
• #26: Invite a few guests that will participate. Promote your Twitter chats well in advance. Send out questions to your guest ahead of time. Select a unique hashtag. Measure success: Check out hashtracking.com.
• #37: Measuring follower growth and traffic lets you know which content is most interesting to followers (and which content makes you lose followers). Site analytics URL shorteners Twitter, G+, Facebook analytics Hootsuite (other) reports on a regular basis (weekly or monthly, for example) https://github.com/OSAS/twitter-stats (written by Justin Clift, Gluster)