Social Media Tips for an EPIC year! by President Wesley

​Title: Social Media Tips for an EPIC year!
 
 
This past summer I attended DECA’s 2015 Emerging Leaders Summit in Washington D.C. where I had the opportunity to personally interact with the new Executive Officer team and meet other Chapter and Chartered Association officers. While I was there, DECA’s Communication Manager, Janelle Scudder, presented to members in attendance how they can make social media work for their chapters over the next year. Here are the top five things that I learned from Ms. Scudder about how to make the most out of your Social Media this upcoming year:
 
Sign-Up to be a Social Media Correspondent - This is the first step to becoming an published author on DECA Direct. On the sDECA Direct website any member, officer or advisor can sign-up to be a Social Media Correspondent. This allows you to post articles and content to the DECA Direct website. DECA highly recommends that all officers sign-up and submit content monthly. This year, for the first time ever, Florida DECA will also be encouraging our members to join the Florida DECA Social Media Correspondent Program. These are members who are nominated by their chapter advisor(s) to help publicize and promote our conference activities at the Florida DECA Emerging Leaders Summit and the Florida DECA Career Development Conference.
 
Plan your posts - Use the official DECA Content Calendar to help your officer team plan your posts. Don’t forget to add Summer of DECA, DECA month, Career and Technical Education Month and Global Entrepreneurship Week, just to name a few, to your Content Calendar.  Also, be sure to communicate with your officer team and know who will be responsible for posting which articles. This will help your officer team to make the largest impact possible!
 
Keep it Trendy! - Use hashtags, request for your followers to tag others (or like your content) and utilize relevant, trending topics that will grab the readers attention. The internet is a graphic medium, use trending photographs or campaigns to encourage potential readers to click the link to view your content. Remember that having a catchy title is important!
 
Be Consistent - As a general rule of thumb, social media is most powerful when content is posted at least once a day for four days out of the week. As a part of planning your posts, also plan when your content will be posted. Check for consistency that will maintain your connection and presence in the social media world.
 
Re-share and Promote DECA’s Posts and Articles - You can drive readers to content you post on DECA Direct, as well as other DECA content, by re-sharing and promoting DECA’s posts on your own social media pages.
 
Official DECA Content Calendar: http://www.decadirect.org/ELS%20Content%20Calendar(1).pdf
 
Sign up to be a DECA Social Media Correspondent: http://www.decadirect.org/Social-Media-Corespondent/
 
Florida DECA Social Media Correspondent: (See attached file - needs approval, let me know if anything needs to be changed or adjusted.)
 
Social Media Guide: http://www.slideshare.net/jjscudderdeca/content-is-king-creating-a-content-calendar-for-your-deca-chapterassociation?ref=http://www.decadirect.org/June-2015/Keeping-Your-Chapter-Associations-Social-Media-Pages-Fresh-All-Year-Long/