Organizations are using social media for all sorts of reasons - customer service, outreach, for fun... So how can they use it effectively? And more importantly, how can they include their whole audience, without alienating those with different disabilities?

1. Engaging Users with Social Media
Kate Walser
CX Insights
kwalser@cxinsights.com

2. 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)
2

3. 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!
3

4. 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

5. Using social media
5

6. 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
6

7. 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
7

8. 8
YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/user/whitehouse/videos

9. 9
Instagram
http://instagram.com/instagram

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

11. Organizations using social media
11

12. 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
12

13. 13
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

14. 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.”
14
https://twitter.com/OmniGraffle

15. 15
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/
15

16. 16
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

17. 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/
17

18. 18
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

19. Challenges
19

20. 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
20

21. 21
Not sure what you want

22. 22
Lacking context
https://twitter.com/

23. - 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
23

24. 24
Very visual
http://instagram.com/instagram

25. 25
Rely on alternate text
http://pinterest.com/source/whitehouse.gov/

26. 26
…and lots of tab stops
FACEBOOK

27. YouTube & Twitter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0nvdiRdehw
27

28. Group Exercise (15 minutes)
Try it out
http://youtube.com/whitehouse
https://twitter.com/whitehouse
28
- 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?

29. A better approach
Tips & strategies
29

30. Reasons why people engage
30
1. It’s easy
2. They’re social
3. Competition and prizes!
4. It makes a good story
5. It’s fun
6. They’re altruistic

31. 31
Invite and remind…

32. 32
…where users will see

33. 33
Make it easy to participate

34. For group forums, share agenda, tips
http://www.howto.gov/social-media/microblogging/twitter-town-hall/sample-agenda
34
Suggestions from HowTo.gov:
“We’ll be talking all things social media at 2PM
Eastern today: find out more about our efforts
#SocialMediahttp://www.knowbility.org/v/john-
slatin-accessu/”

35. 35
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…

36. …even when it’s risky
36

37. 37
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

38. 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
38

39. 39
Another reason KristofFacebook’s page is so successful is
that he shows a human side.
https://www.facebook.com/kristof
…most of all be human

40. 40
Do something fun…
http://www.toyotapriusprojects.com/#/006

41. 41
…that makes for a good story
http://www.toyotapriusprojects.com/#/006

42. 42
Accessibility
Use keywords &caption images…
http://pinterest.com/source/whitehouse.gov/

43. 43
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

44. 44
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

45. 45
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

46. 46
Use camel case for hashtags…
#SocialMedia
#AccessU
#GreatIdeas

47. 47
…and use familiar acronyms

48. Group Exercise (15 minutes)
Plan a campaign
Customer: Austin, TX Fire & Rescue
48

49. 49
Summary
Think back to that party

50. Contact
Kate Walser
kwalser@cxinsights.com• @kwalser• +1 (571) 281-2626
To learn more
- "Engaging Citizens with UX Design," HCI International 2013 Proceedings, K. Walser
http://www.hcii2013.org/proceedings
- "The Change We Need Needs IxDA; Designing Gov 2.0 That's Inclusive”
http://vimeo.com/9798575
- HowTo.gov
http://www.howto.gov/social-media/microblogging/twitter-town-hall/sample-agenda
50