managing government use of social media
TRANSCRIPT
Managing Government Use of Social Media
Moldova
March 13 and 14, 2012
© 2012 The Research Foundation of State University of New York
To be used, distributed, or copied only as authorized.
Today’s agenda
• Welcome and Introductions
• What are others doing: Social media use around the world
• Why do it? Benefits and barriers to social media adoption
• Managing social media: Initiative level
• Managing social media: organizational level
• Adjourn
Who are we?
• Foster public sector innovation, enhance capability, generate public value, and support good governance.
• Applied research, knowledge sharing, and collaborative problem solving
• Look at the intersection of policy, management, and technology.
Policy
Technology Management
Who are you?
• Your name
• Your position
• What do you hope to learn during this training?
Social Media Landscape
What is social media?
Web 1.0
Content creators few
Technologies static
Web 2.0
Anyone can be a content
creator
Technologies dynamic
and interactive
Differences between Web 1.0 & 2.0 & Social media*
Social media
User-generated content
(video, text, or audio)
Technologies feature
strong social component
(user profiles, friend links,
comments, tags, ratings)
Networks of people
Example
Craig’s list is essentially an e–
mail list server, and has no
public user profiles, or fancy
dynamic pages.
Example
Web 2.0 sites allow users to
do more than just retrieve
information (e.g., transactions)
Amazon.com started in the
late 1990s with ratings and
voting.
Example
Facebook is driven by user-
profiles, friends, linking, and
interaction. It has a section for
pictures, for micro-blogging
(called The Wall), and allows
users to embed videos and
links.
For a more in-depth discussion about the differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 see Cormode, G. & Krishnamurthy, B. "Key differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0,” First Monday [Online], Volume 13 Number 6 (25 April 2008). * Table was created and adapted by referencing this text.
Social media types
• Blogs (e.g., WordPress) • Social Networks (e.g., Facebook) • Microblogs (e.g., Twitter) • Wikis (e.g., Wikipedia) • Video (YouTube) • Podcasts • Discussion Forums • RSS Feeds • Photo Sharing (e.g., Flickr) • Crowdsourcing
Trends - Social media around the world
Trends - Social media around the world
Global social media trends – 96 % of the US Millennial have joined a social network
site.
– 17.84% of Moldova internet users have joined Facebook
– Fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55 – 65 year old females.
– In Europe, people join on average 1,9 social networks. In USA it’s 2,1; Brazil 3,1 and India 3,9.
– Youth (between the ages of 15 and 29) make up around 70% of Facebook users in the Arab region, indicating a slight increase in the number of users over 30 years old since the end of 2010.
Sources: Socialnomics – Social media blog, August 11, 2009 at http://socialnomics.net/2009/08; Steven Van Belleghem, InSite Consulting, Social Media Around the World, 2011; Arab Social Media Report, Vol. 1, No.2, May 2011, Dubai School of Government; World Usage Patterns & Demographics at http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/world-overview/34-world-usage-patterns-and-demographics?start=3; Pew Research Center, December 2011, Global Digital Communication: Texting, Social Networking Popular Worldwide
Global social media trends – Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the US.
– YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world, reporting 2 billion video views per day as of May 2010.
– More than 70% of Facebook users come from outside the United States.
– Israel (53%) and the U.S. (50%) top the list with the highest percentage of adults who say they use online social networking sites.
– Russia is the only country where nearly all internet users are on social networking sites.
– In lower income countries the percentage of users tends to be low because majorities do not use the internet at all; however, among those who do use the internet, more are using social networking sites than not.
– Older people are consistently much less likely to engage in social networking than adults under the age of 30.
Sources: Socialnomics – Social media blog, August 11, 2009 at http://socialnomics.net/2009/08; Steven Van Belleghem, InSite Consulting, Social Media Around the World, 2011; Arab Social Media Report, Vol. 1, No.2, May 2011, Dubai School of Government; World Usage Patterns & Demographics at http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/world-overview/34-world-usage-patterns-and-demographics?start=3; Pew Research Center, December 2011, Global Digital Communication: Texting, Social Networking Popular Worldwide
Global social media trends • Growth
– Race to 50 million (radio 38 years; TV 13 years; Internet 4 years; Ipod 3 years).
– Facebook growth: 2004 – 1 million users, 2005 – 5.5 million, 2006 – 12 million, 2007 – 50 million, 2008 – 100 million, 2009 – 350 million, 2010 – 500 million, 2011 – 800 million.
– More than 1 billion people (>70% of internet population) use social networks.
• Attitudes – 60% does not want any new social networks.
– 93% are happy with what they have and won’t in- or decrease.
Sources: Socialnomics – Social media blog, August 11, 2009 at http://socialnomics.net/2009/08; Steven Van Belleghem, InSite Consulting, Social Media Around the World, 2011; Arab Social Media Report, Vol. 1, No.2, May 2011, Dubai School of Government; World Usage Patterns & Demographics at http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/world-overview/34-world-usage-patterns-and-demographics?start=3; Pew Research Center, December 2011, Global Digital Communication: Texting, Social Networking Popular Worldwide; Steven Van Belleghem, InSite Consulting, Social Media Around the World, 2011
Retrieved from: Rich’s Blog http://www.richsblog.com/files/40a33566f6df449d356cfe003293bdb7-132.html (10/2010)
What do users preferences look like?
Retrieved from: Rich’s Blog http://www.richsblog.com/files/40a33566f6df449d356cfe003293bdb7-132.html (10/2010)
What do users preferences look like?
US users Moldovan
users?
What are others doing? Social media in public space
Most frequently used social media tools by governments
• Social networking site – allows registered users to interact with other users for social purposes.
• Launched in February 2004.
• As of December 2011, Facebook had more than 800 million active users.
• Users may create a personal profile, add other users as friends, and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they update their profile.
• Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, and categorize their friends into lists, such as "People From Work".
and government
helpful starting ideas
•Connect to and integrate your Facebook site with your agency
website
• Use Facebook’s network to drive people to your website for
information
•Take advantage of Facebook’s mobile platform to send
messages to smart phone users
•Create Facebook groups for more targeted marketing and
communication strategies
• Utilize Facebook Share, a button on your website that makes
it easier to share Facebook content
• Micro blogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets", and images.
• Created in March 2006.
• Has over 200 million users as of 2011.
helpful starting ideas
•Keep citizens updated on “up-to-the-minute” type events (such
as snowstorms, parking changes, community events, or school
closings)
• Streamline communication with the press (you follow them,
they follow you)
•Receive instant feedback from individuals – pose a question, see
what kind of information you get in response
•Learn the “tweeting” language (@ = public, DM = private, RT =
retweet)
• YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos.
• Created in February 2005.
• Users can freely upload their own video content to the site, as long as it is less than 10 minutes in length and the file is less than 100MB in size.
• A video can be made either public or private. It also includes other features such as the ability to comment on videos.
and government
helpful starting ideas
•Change up your content based on demographics, publish a
video about “teenage drinking” instead of a manual.
•Host a contest, get citizens involved, high school students, or
local college students to create video content for you.
•Post videos of town meetings, special community events, or
other participation-like events to increase your transparency.
•Use it as a less expensive way to publish public service
announcements (e.g., H1N1).
•Make sure content uploaded is not copyrighted.
• Flickr is an online photo management and sharing application that allows users to post, share and organize photos and videos to the public.
• The service is widely used by bloggers to host images that they embed in blogs.
• Flickr has a total of 51 million registered member and 80 million unique visitors.
• In August 2011, it reported that it was hosting more than 6 billion images
and government
• A type of website maintained by an individual or organization with regular entries about events, news, or other material such as graphics or video.
• Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites.
• A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic.
Social media in the public sphere
• Used by civil society to influence the public and government
• Used by media to inform the public
• Used by political figures to communicate their message
• Used by government agencies to communicate with their citizens
• Used by governments to engage and collaborate with their citizens
• Used by governments to facilitate services to their citizens
Social media in the public sphere
Used by civil society to influence government actions and policies
Financial Transparency: Contract Level
32 http://www.otvorenezmluvy.sk/
Fair-Play
Alliance
“Slovakia’s
Most Wanted
Watchdog”
Transparency and accountability by tracking influence of money in politics
Used by media to inform the public
Journalists use social media to:
• Finding Leads, Noticing Trends (Iran revolution)
• Finding Sources (Virginia Tech shooting)
• Crowdsourcing (US Airways flight 1549)
• Sharing/Vetting Stories
• Creating Communities/Branding
How Journalists are Using Social
Media for Real Results, Brenna Ehrlich
Used by media to inform the public
Investigative journalism is changing – with large quantities of data becoming freely available, we see arrival of data journalism
What is it?
Data journalism is based on analyzing and filtering large data sets for the purpose of creating a new story
Guardian Data Blog
http://datajournalism.stanford.edu/
“Presenting a pile of facts and numbers without directing people toward any avenue of understanding is not useful.” (Amanda Cox)
Social media in the public sphere
Used by political figures to communicate their agenda
Social media in the public sphere
Used by government agencies to communicate with their citizens
Social media in the public sphere
Used by governments to engage and collaborate with their citizens
Social media in the public sphere
Used by governments to facilitate services to their citizens
Use of social media in US government
Retrieved from: NASCIO Friends, Followers, and Feeds: A National Survey of Social Media Use in State Government September 2010 http://www.nascio.org/publications/surveys.cfm (10/2010)
“As of July 2010, we identified that 22 of 24 major federal agencies had a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.” - Challenges In Federal Agencies' Use of Web 2.0 Technologies - Statement of Gregory C. Wilshusen, Director Information Security Issues
Social media in the public sphere
Social media in the public sphere “Please put the contact number in the common home page and also please put information about the required documents for the various services offered by General Directorate of Nationality, Passports and Residence Hamid Abualfath Blog Owner Reply: excellent idea will be applied soon, God willing .. Thank you very much”
Modest Moderate Elaborate
One or two social
media channels in use
Form of content is
usually limited to text
Engagement efforts are
simple, generally
involving solicitation of
comments
Updates are done
regularly but frequency
is relatively low
More than one social
media channel used in
an integrated fashion
Form of content is
more diverse
Engagement initiatives
are more advanced,
involving voting and
comment strategies
Updates are done
more frequently,
generally every few
days
Several social media
channels used in
interconnected fashion
Forms of content are
varied including text,
video, photos
Elaborate engagement
initiatives involving
voting, reward
systems, and intense
monitoring
Updates are done on
frequent basis, several
times a day
Social media continuum
Social media toolkits
What are your organizations doing with social media?
Do you know of any examples of government entity using social media
channels?
The focus of this training
• Our focus is on use by government agencies for communication, engagement and service provision purposes
• We will not focus on use of social media for political campaign purposes or use of social media by civil society
What are social media good for?
• Information sharing and dissemination
• Soliciting feedback and input from citizens
• Engaging citizens in a conversation
• Soliciting citizens’ assistance
• Assessing community’s reactions/state of mind
Challenges to social media use by government
• Service delivery models limited
• Monopolization of conversation in cyber space
• Low level of interest in engaging with government
• Low level of trust in social media
• Trade-offs when social media replaces others channels of communication
Why do it? Benefits and barriers to using social media in government
What benefits might government organizations in Moldova gain by
using social media?
What benefits might citizens of Moldova gain through government
use of social media?
Perceptions from the field: Social media benefits
• Reaching new audiences through information
access, dissemination, and sharing
• Provides new channel for communication and thus enhancing reach of traditional media already in place
Perceptions from the field: Social media benefits
• Enhanced engagement and collaboration opportunities with stakeholders
• Reducing routine questions to agencies and getting more citizen feedback
Perceptions from the field: Social media benefits
• Having more control and tools available for communicating with the public
• Improving public perception of government
• Cost savings
Retrieved from: NASCIO Friends, Followers, and Feeds: A National Survey of Social Media Use in State Government September 2010 http://www.nascio.org/publications/surveys.cfm (10/2010)
What obstacles might government organizations in Moldova face to
using social media?
What obstacles might government organizations in Moldova face to
using social media to engage citizens?
Barriers to social media adoption
• Governance of social media engagement within the organization
• Legal and regulatory ramifications stemming from agency using social media tools
• Possibility of negative perception by the public
• Security threats reaching organization through social media tools
Barriers to social media adoption
Barriers to social media adoption
• Lack of organizational resources to build and sustain effective social media engagement
• Information overload of citizens
Barriers to social media adoption
• Making a business case to executives
• Accessibility of social media tools
Risks and obstacles
http://www.nascio.org/publications/documents/NASCIO-SocialMedia.pdf
Today’s agenda • Welcome and Introductions
• What are others doing: Social media use around the world
• Why do it? Benefits and barriers to social media adoption
• Managing social media: Initiative level
• Managing social media: organizational level
• Adjourn
Managing social media in government
Why should you manage social media?
Risks of IT innovation
• Public sector environment – divided authority, multiple stakeholders
• Organizational factors – alignment, support & acceptance
• Work-associated risks – business process design
• Technology-related risks – too much hope, too little knowledge
Sources of risk
• Misidentifying the problem
• Underestimating complexity
• Underestimating costs
• Lack of trust (and trustworthiness)
• Design shifts/technological change
• Lack of champions & sponsors
• Inadequate amounts & kinds of communication
• Overvaluing novelty
3 ways to mitigate risks
– thoroughly understand the problem to be solved and its context
– identify and test the possible solutions to the problem
– evaluate the results of those tests against your service and performance goals
1. Initiative level
• Developing an objective and a strategy
• Managing agency-generated content creation
• Managing of citizen engagement on government social media channels
• Managing expectations
2. Organizational level
• Management of social media accounts
• Management of employee use of social media
• Development of a social media policy
Managing social media in government
Management of social media on initiative level
1. Initiative level
• Developing an objective and a strategy
• Managing agency-generated content creation
• Managing citizen engagement on government social media channels
• Managing expectations
2. Organizational level
• Management of social media accounts
• Management of employee use of social media
• Developing social media policy
Managing social media in government
Developing a social media objective and strategy
How will developing a strategy help me?
• Laying out clearly what is the aim of your initiative
• Gaining understanding of who your stakeholders are
• Making a case to your executives
• Building support among your colleagues
• Communicating to interested people
Steps to developing a strategy
1) Determine an objective
2) Identify your stakeholders
3) Analyze effect on existing business processes
4) Assess amount of time and resources available both to launch and to sustain
5) Conduct an environmental scan
6) Assess SM tools
Start with a good problem or good opportunity
• Avoid the “everybody else is doing it” syndrome.
• What problem is your agency trying to solve?
• Do you see an opportunity in using social media and if so, what is it?
1) Determine an objective
Examples of good problems or opportunities
• A public health agency is trying to reach the target population of parents and the elderly with information about a flu epidemic.
• Ministry of environmental protection is planning to implement a new environmental regulation and wants to gather feedback from the public on its potential effects.
• Ministry of transportation is faced with budget constraints that prevent them from properly surveying route conditions during the winter months.
Assignment 1: What problem or opportunity is your agency facing that could be addressed by social media?
A Service Objective What is it? And why use it?
• A structured way to express your intent
• To get team members to agree on the intent
• To get everyone using the same words to
describe the intent
• To use as a foundation for future planning
efforts
A Madlib exercise
To provide (who)
with (what) that
allows them to (action) so that
(outcomes).
Service objective example
“To provide at risk population including parents with small children and elderly citizens with 24 X 7, on-line access to the updated information on availability of flu vaccines and related health information that allows them to identify the nearest health provider that has access to flu vaccines so that they can secure necessary flu vaccination to protect their health or health of their loved ones.”
Assignment 2:
Considering the problem or opportunity described earlier, what
should be the objective of your social media effort?
2) Identify your stakeholders
– Stakeholders are individuals and groups who are affected by or have influence over your initiative
– Anyone who has a “stake” or interest in what you are doing
Identifying stakeholders
• All users who are affected by the project
• Special interest groups impacted by the project
• Advocates of the project
• Direct customers of the project
• Indirect customers of the project
• Organizations or government agencies that will be impacted by the project
• Intermediaries to the project
• All users who may be negatively affected by the project
Know your audience
• Who is your target audience/your key stakeholder?
• What are their interests and preferences?
• What is their preferred communication channel?
Assignment 3: Who is your key audience? What are their interests?
How would you best reach them?
3) Identify effects on existing business processes
• Looking at how work is done now.
• What functions will be affected by adopting of social media?
• How will these functions be affected?
Why is it important to study existing processes?
• Making the implicit explicit
• Inhibiting prematurely jumping to a solution
• Creating a commonly understood, externalized definition of the problem
• Helps better assess the overall impact on the organization
• Helps better assess the non-monetary cost of change
• Establishes benchmarks for measuring the impact of a particular change
Example of process change
Old Process
New Process
Intake
feedback
from mail
and online
comment
forms
Joan Smith in
the IT
department
reviews
feedback and
sends to right
department
Department
A has its
own
process
Department
B has its
own
process
Department
C has its
own
process
Intake
feedback
from mail
and online
comment
forms
Intake
feedback
from ALL
social
media uses
(Facebook,
YouTube,
Twitter, etc)
Joan Smith in
the IT
department
reviews
feedback and
sends to right
department
New “Social
Media” team
responsible for
communicating
and feedback
Finds answer and
responds
Aggregates
answers and
prepares a report
to agency mgmt
team
Social media
analysis & citizen
feedback used in
agency “planning”
What process analysis helps us discover
• Information flows
• Information bottlenecks
• Policy issues or challenges
• Roles and responsibilities
• Skill set requirements
• Tasks or work functions
• Cross-organizational boundaries
• Technology inventories
4) Assess amount of time and resources available
• Social media are not free
• Do you have staff with the necessary skills?
• Does you staff have the time to add maintenance of social media channels to their existing duties?
• Do you have the technical resources and capabilities to support your initiative?
5) Environmental scan
• Taking a look around to see what others in a similar situations have done. Consider your own capability to do what they have done.
• Designing a creative social media presence is demanding – learn from others first.
• Do not focus just on what they did, learn how they did it, and where they had problems and successes, and why.
6) Survey various SM tools
• Review your objective
• Identify functionalities that are a must for your ideal tool
• Compare tools in regard to the functionalities they offer
• Determine which tools are best at reaching your target audience
• Consider which tools support the type of content you are planning to use
1. Initiative level
• Developing an objective and a strategy
• Managing agency content creation
• Managing citizen engagement on government social media channels
• Managing expectations
2. Organizational level
• Management of social media accounts
• Management of employee use of social media
• Developing social media policy
Managing social media in government
Managing agency content
What is agency content?
Agency content is any social media content created and posted by the agency.
What’s new?
The type and tone of content The form of content Frequency of update Content generators Public nature of interaction
Agency- generated content
Five required decisions:
1. Content guidelines
2. Type and form of content
3. Frequency of posting and updates
4. Responsible parties
5. Technical and staff resources and training needed
1. Creating content guidelines
• Common sense rules about appropriate and inappropriate content
• Such guidelines often follow existing employee conduct policies
• Guidelines with respect to language, grammar, political endorsements, etc.
2. Deciding on content
• Determine the scope of your objective
• Consider your intended audience
Services
Meeting
announc
ements
Events
VideosPhotos
Budget
Data sets
What form should your content take?
– Initiative’s objective
– Intended audience
– Agency’s resources and capabilities
– Available tools
3. How frequently should agency content be published?
• What type of tool are you using?
• What is the objective of your social media initiative?
• What resources do you have available?
How frequently should agency content be published?
Every minute/
hour Every day/week Every week/month
As frequently as
necessary
BY TOOL
BY PURPOSE
Traffic
conditions
Regular data
reports
Information
about services
Regular meeting
updates
Event
announcements
Photos from
region/events
Videos about
services
Emergency
announcements
Budget
documents
Election results
Content calendar
What is it?
• Content calendar is a plan for publishing your content.
Why use it?
• Helps you be organized, helps you be more regular in your updates, helps you assess what type of content seems to resonate with your audience, helps you look at the big picture, helps ensure continuity, helps you delegate responsibility
What form does it take?
• Any form you find most helpful.
Creating a content calendar: getting started
Brainstorm content ideas – Start with brainstorming a list of regularly occurring content (press releases,
monthly reports, budget information, etc.)
Start slow and small – Start with baby steps and grow in phases
Think about frequency – Break it down month by month, week by week
– Different tools have different timing needs
Get feedback from others – Share your plan and get additional ideas from others such as your program
staff, your PR staff, etc.
Align with other efforts – Social media represent just one channel of communication – make sure you
social media efforts are aligned with other channels of communication
Adapted from http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2136988/How-to-Create-a-Social-Media-Editorial-Calendar; How to Create a Social Media Editorial Calendar, Lisa Buyer, January 12, 2012
Assignment 4:
Consider your objective and your needs to begin your content
calendar. Consider the content you would want to present, in what
form, how frequently?
4. Who is responsible?
• Determining who is responsible for content is key to ensuring a successful social media strategy
• Why do you need to control who can post and create content? – Avoid inconsistency
– Avoid inaccurate postings
– Help minimize risks
Different models of content creation: Parallel approach
Communication
Staff
Program
Staff
Citizens &
Other stakeholders
Parallel
Communication Patterns
Pros:
•More varied content
•More personal engagement
•Shared burden for content
Cons:
•Sense of less control
•Possibility of inconsistent message
•Increased cost of coordination
Different models of content creation: Centralized approach
Communication
Staff
Program
Staff
Citizens &
Other stakeholders
Centralized Communication Patterns
Program
Staff
Pros:
•Centralized control over content
•Consistency of message
•Better chance of coherency
Cons:
•Lost social aspect of social media
•Perception of censorship
•Greater burden on selected individuals
•Less degree of content richness
Assignment 5:
Considering your organization’s context, which model would you
most likely use?
Or would you use a different model all together?
5. Technical and staff resources and training
• Availability of necessary technical equipment
• Technical training for new mediums
• How to leverage being “social”
• Training for specific social media tool
Content tips
• Integrate different forms of content
• Be engaging – create a cartoon character
• Be responsive, answer all comments and all questions even if just to say thank you
• Post about what other
agencies are doing
• Post non-government
information related to the
mission of your agency
Content tips
• Use social media to drive people to your website
• Use conversational tone
• Become fan of other pages
• Form collaborations with other agencies to like and cross-post your content
• Do not take it personally
• Do not post press releases
Social media don’ts
• Do not express personal opinions
• Do not embrace political campaigns
• Do not have sporadic content schedule
• Do not post only one-way information – try to elicit conversation
• Do not post the same content everywhere
• Not responding to comments or questions
• Not using images and video to make your visually interesting
1. Initiative level
• Developing an objective and a strategy
• Managing agency content creation
• Managing citizen engagement on government social media channels
• Managing expectations
2. Organizational level
• Management of social media accounts
• Management of employee use of social media
• Developing social media policy
Managing social media in government
Forms of citizen engagement
• commentary and questions – generic comments and questions not purposely solicited by the agency.
• ideas and input – ideas and input submitted in response to a specific question or request for comment initiated by the agency.
• submissions to contests – content that is submitted in response to an agency -sponsored contest.
Why manage citizen engagement?
• To maintain professional standards
• To fulfill expectations of engagement
• To retain certain degree of control
Five decisions for managing citizen engagement
1. Level of engagement
2. Content guidelines
3. Monitoring and responding
4. Using citizen content
5. Training and resources
1. Deciding on level of engagement
One way
information channel
without two-way
public
communication
capability
Commentary and
questionsStatic ideas
and input
Contest
submissions
Dynamic ideas
and input
Any social
media tool with
comment
function turned
off
Any social media
tool with
comment
function turned
on
Websites,
RSS feeds,
podcasts
One way
information channel
Wikis,
blogs, and
other social
media
IdeasScale, other
tools that enable
citizens to actively
evaluate and vote
on ideas
- Initiative’s objective - Intended audience -Agency’s resources and capabilities -Engagement can be done in stages based on comfort with tools
2. Creating citizen content guidelines
• What citizens can and cannot provide as content
• How inappropriate content will be handled
• The timeframe in which content will be published
3. Monitoring and responding
Monitoring
• Regular review of content posted or submitted by citizens
• Modest, moderate and elaborate monitoring depending on objective, resources, and topic at hand
Responding
• Regular posting of responses to submitted content including questions, updates and information.
Strategies for monitoring and responding
Different strategies for monitoring and responding: – One person response team
– Multiple person response team
– Channeling incoming content to existing departments
– Subject-specific system to channel content
How to choose a strategy: – Objective of your engagement
– Resources available
– Size and current business processes of your organization
One person response team
Designated monitor
and responder
Citizen
Citizen
Citizen
Citizen
Citizen
Citizen
Pros: – Consistent responses
– Limited amount of coordination needed
– Limited effect on existing business processes
Cons: – Only one person trained and capable
– Missing “social” character
– Potentially pronounced effect on selected individual
• One designated monitor
• Often the same person who is responsible for producing content
• One of the most frequently seen strategies
• Often seen in smaller organizations
• A good starting point
Multiple person response team
Designated
monitor and
responder
Citizen
Citizen
Citizen
Citizen
CitizenCitizen
Designated
monitor and
responder
Designated
monitor and
responder
Citizen
Citizen Citizen
Citizen
• Several designated monitors
• Generally also given permission to produce content
• Often seen in larger organizations with multiple social media channels
Pros:
– Greater continuity for monitoring and responding
– Greater feeling of “socialness” among staff
– Ability to develop greater comfort with a specific tool
Cons: – Coordination mechanisms need to be
developed
– Potential for inconsistent responses
Channeling incoming content to existing departments
Citizen
Citizen
Designated
monitor and
responder
Citizen
Call center
Constituent
services center
• Designated monitors channel questions to existing department that focuses on citizen interaction
• Only seen in large departments that have intensive contact with constituents
• Designated departments either respond directly or channel answer back through designated monitor
Pros: – Consistency of responses across different
channels
– Answering many with one response
Cons: – Coordination mechanisms need to be
developed
– Adding additional responsibilities
Subject-specific system to channel content
Citizen
Citizen
Designated
monitor and
responder
Citizen
Topic C
To
pic
BTopic A
Unit B Unit A
Unit C
• Questions and comments sorted based on topic
• Topics are given to units responsible for given topic
• Responses are channeled back through a designated monitor
• Generally seen in large organizations
Pros: – Accuracy of responses
Cons: – Large degree of coordination and follow
up
– Creation of new business processes
4. Using citizen content • Be clear about the purpose for seeking citizen content and
what you plan to do with it once you have it • Identify existing processes for incorporating citizen input • Ensure sufficient transparency and accountability to
incorporating citizen input
5. Training needs
• Applying content guidelines
• Citizen engagement training
• Tool specific training
Assignment 7:
Based on your objective and content, what level of engagement do you
think would be right for your organization?
How do you think your agency should handle citizen content? How would
you use it?
1. Initiative level
• Developing an objective and a strategy
• Managing agency content creation
• Managing citizen engagement on government social media channels
• Managing expectations
2. Organizational level
• Management of social media accounts
• Management of employee use of social media
• Developing social media policy
Managing social media in government
Managing expectations
Why manage expectations
• Addressing preconceived notions protects your initiative
• It gives you freedom to try new things
• It opens up communication
Internal expectations
• Amount of time to build a community
• Levels of likely citizen engagement
• Prepare for the range of commentary
External expectations
• Responsiveness
• Wasting resources
• Trust
• Big brother
1. Initiative level
• Developing an objective and a strategy
• Managing agency-generated content creation
• Managing citizen engagement on government social media channels
• Managing expectations
2. Organizational level
• Management of social media accounts
• Management of employee use of social media
• Developing social media policy
Managing social media in government
Management of social media at the organizational level
Management on organizational level
• Social media is an organizational asset and should be treated that way
• It should be viewed as both, a communication channel and a technical tool
• Its uses vary and each use has different implication for an organization
• Creating boundaries for employees gives them the freedom to explore these tools
Boundary issues & challenges
Issues
• Simultaneous engagement in professional and personal uses
•Linked up personal and professional identities
•Permanency of social media content
Challenges
• Monitoring employee use is more difficult
• Difficulty in coordinating agency message
• Legal issues connected to employees’ right to privacy and free speech
• Change in organizational culture and business
processes
1. Initiative level
• Developing an objective and a strategy
• Managing agency-generated content creation
• Managing citizen engagement on government social media channels
• Managing expectations
2. Organizational level
• Management of social media accounts
• Management of employee use of social media
• Developing social media policy
Managing social media in government
Management of social media accounts
Why manage social media accounts?
• Social media accounts are official communication channels
• Integrity is key to maintaining trust
• Extremely low technological barriers
• Easy to open
• Easy to forget
Steps to managing social media accounts
1. Establish an account opening protocol
2. Maintain a list of existing accounts and their log-on names and passwords
3. Maintain list of employees with access to official agency accounts
4. Periodically update passwords
1. Account opening protocol
What form does it take? – Forms vary from formal business cases that lay out
the objective, needed resources, etc. to more informal memos asking for permission to establish an account.
What is it for? – To ensure appropriate tracking of the
government’s social media presence.
What is it? – Protocol that lays out steps that need to be taken to secure a
permission to open an account. Should explain who has the final decision making power and what does a unit need to do to obtain a permission.
2. Maintain a list of existing accounts and their log-on names and passwords
3. Maintain list of employees with access to official agency accounts
4. Require periodic updating of passwords
1. Initiative level
• Developing an objective and a strategy
• Managing agency-generated content creation
• Managing citizen engagement on government social media channels
• Managing expectations
2. Organizational level
• Management of social media accounts
• Management of employee use of social media
• Developing social media policy
Managing social media in government
Management of employee use of social media
Three aspects to managing social media use by employees:
1. Access
2. Acceptable use
3. Employee conduct
1. Access
Access decisions are decisions regarding who, if anyone, within the organization will be allowed
to access social media sites for personal, professional or agency use.
Three access strategies:
• Open access
• Access based on position
• Access based on tool
Open access strategy What is it? All employees of the government organization are allowed to access social media sites. This does not imply ability to post content on behalf of agency, only ability to access it from place of work. Pros:
– Satisfaction of employees – Employees able to take advantage of information exchange
on social media.
Cons: – Less control over employee time – Greater chances of negative public reaction – Possible security implications for government infrastructure
Access management based on position
What is it?
Access to social media sites is given based on function or role of a particular employee within an agency. Generally such employees have responsibility for communication functions or are positioned highly in the organization. Governments should develop guidelines as to what constitutes legitimate need for use.
Pros:
– More control over employees time.
– Lesser possibility of inappropriate use by government employee on government time.
Cons: – Limiting access to important tool for acquiring knowledge – Stifling creativity of its employees
Access management based on selected tools
What is it? Access is granted to all or most employees but only to selected tools. This selection is generally done based on perceived value of the tool or some other selection criteria. Pros:
– Access to selected tools allows employees to use these tools to enhance their skills and knowledge.
Cons: – One shoe generally does not fit all. – Greater security and use implications for organizational
infrastructure.
2. Acceptable use
Acceptable use policies outline how employees are expected to use agency resources,
restrictions on use for personal interests, and consequences for violating the policy.
– Generally follows other already established rules for technologies such as internet.
– Need to differentiate between personal and professional use
3. Employee conduct
Employee conduct addresses what is “right” and “wrong” in terms of employees’ behavior when
engaging with social media tools or on social media platforms as an employee of a particular agency.
There are two aspects to employee conduct:
a. Conduct while officially representing government
b. Conduct as a private citizen
a. Conduct while officially representing government
• Closely mirrors guidelines to creating content on official
social media channels.
• Should also apply to representing government organization on social media channels that are not owned by the given government. For instance, responding on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency to a blog post of a private citizen on his or her private blog regarding environmental concern.
• The guidelines generally follow generic conduct policies regarding offensive language, misrepresentation of government information and so on.
The blurry line: private and official conduct
“[The] lines between public and private, personal and professional are blurred. By identifying yourself
as a State employee, you are creating perceptions about your expertise and about the State by legislative stakeholders, customers, business
partners and the general public…Be sure that all content associated with you is consistent with your work and with the State’s values and professional
standards.” ~ State of Utah
b. Conduct as a private citizen
• Very difficult issue in some countries given the legal restrictions on the extent to which a government can limit self-expression of their employees in their private life.
• Governments do feel the need to make clear the separation between their employees and official government positions by requiring disclaimers on any private sites of their employees.
• Governments do restrict their employees conduct on social media.
Source: http://ohmygov.com/blogs/general_news/archive/2010/09/03/Dos-and-Donts-for-Feds-on-Social-Media-INFOGRAPHIC.aspx
Why manage employee use of social media?
• Protects the organization
• Gives employees clear boundaries of what is and what is not acceptable
• Gives employees freedom to explore and innovate
• Sets clear rules for potential disciplinary action
1. Initiative level
• Developing an objective and a strategy
• Managing agency-generated content creation
• Managing citizen engagement on government social media channels
• Managing expectations
2. Organizational level
• Management of social media accounts
• Management of employee use of social media
• Developing social media policy
Managing social media in government
Why do governments need a social media policy?
• Inform and educate employees
• Set internal and external expectations
• Define proper use and procedures
• Prevent problems from happening in the first place
• Establish and maintain legitimacy
http://www.ctg.albany.edu/publications/guides/social_media_policy/social_media_policy.pdf
Eight Essential Elements
Security
Security policy outlines security procedures employees have to
follow when using social media tools.
Security considerations:
● Behavioral versus technical issues
● Employee education
● Fast pace of technological changes
● Some policies utilize existing security policies for Internet use, others are more specific to social media environment
Legal issues
Legal issues connected to agency and employee use of social media tools.
Legal considerations:
● Policy environment has not caught up to technology ● Policies reviewed took two approaches – make reference to users abiding by existing laws or detail specific laws to abide by ● Issues that seem to be most pressing in the United States:
Terms of ServiceRecords managementFreedom of speechCitizen privacy
Creating a policy – getting started
• Determine goals and objectives for using social media tools.
• Bring together a multi-functional team including all stakeholders from communication, legal, technology, human resources, and program units.
• Identify existing policies that apply to the use of social media tools.
• Discuss conflicts or inconsistencies between proposed and existing policies and procedures.
Questions?