Rules of the Road

Social Media for Public Entities

Kris Baxter-GingCity of Tempe

Social media has become a primary communications tool for Tempe

With newspapers becoming smaller and covering fewer stories and stretched TV crews, it became an opportunity for us to become our own communication outlet. We provide written and visual stories with accurate information to our audiences.

We also greatly cut our advertising budget, like most other cities. Social media has allowed us to continue to reach our audiences.

WHY SOCIAL MEDIA FOR TEMPE?

WE ARE DIFFERENT

• Government has to follow different rules than the average company or person

• Open Meeting Laws• Records Retention • Appropriateness takes on a whole new

meaning• Our budgets are decided not

necessarily on our successes, like business

BEFORE THE LAUNCH

• Creation of Social Media Guidelines for those employees posting as city spokespeople

• Who can create an official page and why?• Goal setting – Which tools will help us reach our

target audiences? What do we want to communicate? How do we measure it?

• Thorough review of our brand to ensure that we are communicating who we truly are

• Style discussion – not a formal guide, but agreement of how to be one voice for Tempe

• Creation of Social Media Plan• Meeting with City Council to inform them of our

tools and efforts• Gear and training

Copies of our Social Media Plan and Social Media Guidelines are available.

ARE YOU FOLLOWING THE LAW?

• Original material must be archived • Are a majority of your governing board members commenting on the same post?

That’s a meeting. • How many of your governing board members have blogs, FB and Twitter

accounts? Educate them?

RULES OF THE ROAD

• Privacy? What privacy? Even if your account is locked …

• What guidelines must your employees follow in terms of their personal conduct 24/7?

• In short, employees can get in hot water because of their social media use

YOU SAID WHAT?

• Can employees bash employers on personal FB pages? Cases for firing have been made …

• Representing yourself as an employee means you represent your employer – is your job listed on your FB page, Twitter account?

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

• Should teachers/staff be allowed to have FB or Twitter accounts that invite students to be friends without parental consent?

• Are your employees and students allowed to use social media during school hours?

• What about for research? • Can staff use social media as an

educational tool?

COMPONENTS OF TEMPE’S PROGRAM

Social Media AccountsYouTube http://www.youtube.com/Tempe11Video

Facebook www.tempe.gov/cityoftempe

Twitter @tempegov -frequent user of Twitpic

Posterous http://www.tempegov.posterous.com/

Blogspot.com http://blogwithonnie.blogspot.com/; http://www.tempemanager.blogspot.com/

Twitpic, Twitterfall and many other items are used. We manage our Twitterfeed with CoTweet.

TOOLS WE USE WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

• Microsoft Tags • Email lists• Slideshare.net – for those PPTs that you want to post (like this one)• Newsroom web page and other driving web pages• Newsletters, banners and other traditional communication tools• Tweetbackup free account for Twitter• Backupify free account for Facebook

YouTube 130,000 viewsFacebook +/- 1,800 ‘likes’Twitter +/- 3,300 followers

Odd stat: we get about one RT per Twitter post and about three comments per Facebook post.

Our most popular YouTube videos are those about the dam bursting last summer – fast, relevant information is king for building followers and fans. Cute comes a close second.

THE STATS

MEASURE IT

We track everything we can without spending money to do it.

MORE FRIENDLY, LESS GOVERNMENT-Y

• Fast, relevant information is most important for crisis situations and for high profile news

• Water cooler stuff is important – rocket Christmas tree, new pizzeria on Mill

• Want to have conversations? Shared experiences will draw people out.

• Photo of temporary Hello Kitty cart on Mill generated huge response

• Be creative in your efforts to disseminate information

SIDE EFFECTS …

People who would never call City Hall let us know about burned out light bulbs on basketball courts, potholes in public parking lots

They Tweet about seeing our public officials in public places

They treat us like friends, not Big Brother. They treat us like heroes when we fix something fast.

SOCIAL MEDIA IN A PINCH

• When Town Lake burst in July, social media was a primary communication tool

• We had more than twice as many new followers and fans in July and August as usual – pretty amazing for the most mellow time of year for Tempe

• We Tweeted and posted our status for repairs nearly every day the lake was down, greatly reducing phone calls and letters.

• Twitpics, webpages, YouTube, more

• Crisis drives numbers – when people need your info, they find you fast.

Some photos Tweeted and Facebooked during Town Lake Dam Repair Process

• Talk to all your user groups – parents, students, teachers, staff, administration, governing board to get feedback on acceptable standards – within legal constraints

• You will need governing board approval for your policy

• Work with your attorney• Steal from the best – you don’t need to start

from scratch

Need a policy?

Want to share this with someone? Download this presentation at slideshare.net/tempegov

LOOK AT OUR STUFF:www.tempe.gov/newsroom - our social media policy is on this page, as are links to all our social media pages

NEED A HAND?Kris Baxter-GingCity of TempeKris_baxter@tempe.gov480 858-2059