DOAS Online Outreach Strategy, Phase 1
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This is the slide deck (which you can download with commentary from the presentation built into the "notes") outlining the Georgia Department of Administrative Services (DOAS) online outreach strategy. DOAS provides business solutions to Georgia’s state and local government entities. DOAS' product and service offerings encompass a broad spectrum that includes purchasing (procurement), risk management, enterprise human resources, fleet support services, and surplus property transactions. DOAS strives to meet the business needs of its customers while providing the highest level of customer service in a rapidly changing state government. And so identifying a clear strategy for effective social outreach, so as best to serve our customers, was imperative.
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DOAS Online Outreach Strategy, Phase 1
- 1. Georgia Department of Administrative Services ONLINE OUTREACH STRATEGY PHASE 1
- 2. This plan identifies 10 lines of effort within the “planning” phase of our online outreach strategy. In it, we: 1.Outline a three-year, six-phase plan of attack ; formulate the first phase 2.Carve out niched utilities for proposed online channels 3.Develop goals and performance metrics for quantifying success What we’ll cover…
- 3. Let’s get to work!
- 4. PLANNING Listen and Learn Understand how customers use channels Prioritize goals where social can have impact PRESENCE Staking Our Claim Amplify existing communication efforts Encourage sharing Make contact ENGAGEMENT Dialog Deepens Relationships Drive business consideration Provide direct support Internal employee engagement FORMALIZED Organize forScale Divisional self- governance Disciplined application of standards and SOPs Meeting strategic business goals STRATEGIC Become a Social Business Scale across all business functions Moves into HR, internal processes C-level involvement CONVERGED Business is Social Social drives innovation, transformation Social helps shape business philosophy and priorities * Six phases of social media transformation as highlighted by Altimeter
- 6. A.Identify agency strategic mission, vision, values and goals B.Determine pattern of information centralization C.Determine needs hierarchy D.Set communication priority funnel E.Set phases of the strategy | One and three-year plans F.Define online strategy outline G.Outline phases of online channel development H.Sketch out content workflow, SOPs and style guide I.Set expectations for risk, risk mitigation J.Provide SOP for measuring success and ROI PLANNING Listen and Learn Understand how customers use social channels Prioritize strategic goals where social can have an impact Phase 1 | Planning…
- 8. PLANNING A.Identify agency strategic mission, vision, values and goals
- 9. PLANNING B. Determine pattern of information centralization Pattern of information release for DOAS would likely best fit “Dandelion” model – allowing separate divisions to communicate autonomously but with centralized oversight and guidance from communications team • Extend departmental guidance to ancillary divisions • Educate, train and correct tacticians • Support collaboration among divisions • Coordinate business communications • Continually monitor, update and collaborate • Standardize measurement • Provide centralized oversight of quality • Create department-wide consistent branding • Extend SOPs and centralized strategy to all divisions • Lead channel and methods selection
- 10. … like bees returning to the hive.
- 11. PLANNING C. Determine needs hierarchy FUNDAMENTAL SECURE FORMULAIC VALUABLE DECISIVE Predictive ROI, Informative, Integrated Productive, Best-practices, Address Gaps Workflow, Continuity, Risk assessment, Crisis SOPs Plan, Policies, Access, Education
- 12. You know, just getting our…
- 13. PLANNING D. Set communication priority funnel CHANNEL TACTICS COMMUNICATION GOALS DIVISION GOALS BUSINESS GOALS BUSINESS MISSION METRICS START HERE NOT HERE
- 15. PLANNING E. Set phases of the strategy | One and three-year plans MARCH – APRIL 2013 MAY – JUNE 2013 JUNE – DEC. 2013 JAN. – MAY 2014 JUNE – DEC. 2014 JAN. – DEC. 2015
- 16. CAMPAIGN: MISSION GOALS TACTICS KPI: IMPACT BUSINESS GROWTH KPI: INCREASE ENGAGEMENT KPI: IMPROVE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION METRIC: # of channels METRIC: click-throughs METRIC: content production METRIC: % of inbound inquiries responded to METRIC: avg. response time METRIC: % of employees engaged METRIC: trend of internal channel activity METRIC: # posts to each channel METRIC: time to distro METRIC: channel reach METRIC: # of 3rd party mentions METRIC: @mentions METRIC: Klout Score METRIC: Interactions WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO? WHAT DO WE WANT TO ACCOMPLISH? HOW WILL WE ACHIEVE OUR GOALS? To assist our customers by providing leadership, guidance, and reliable valued business services. { DOAS Online Outreach } Efficiently deliver solutions, results, and value to help our customers achieve success. Foster an environment that drives high levels of employee engagement, productivity, and goal accomplishment. Build strong customer relationships to increase understanding, trust and collaboration. Increase online “touch points,” get visible where customers can see us. Interact with customers in a timely manner. Provide real-time communication channels for employees. Designate specific channels for specific types of communication. Leverage inbound marketing to draw customers and their communities. Monitor, join and then become topic of relevant public discussion. Online outreach strategy outline METRICS WHAT WILL WE MEASURE?
- 17. PLANNING G. Outline phases of online channel development Strategy: Define which channels will serve which purposes Organization: Define lines of effort Production: Produce content and grow reach Analysis: Measure for success, ROI and KPIs
- 18. CHANNEL AUDIENCE NICHE All stakeholders, especially customers DOAS Employees Georgia State Employees DOAS Employees and Customers All stakeholders “Inherently interested” Former, current and future DOAS employees Sticky, Static, Formal, External Sticky, Static, Formal, Internal Blog, Editorial, News Dynamic, Real-time, Rich, Informal, Internal Dynamic, Real-time, Rich, Informal, External “Streams of Interest / Conversation” DOAS HR
- 19. DOAS.GA.GOV | Hub of Public Information
- 20. Team Georgia | DOAS Blog, Editorial and News
- 21. IES | DOAS Bulletin Board
- 22. Yammer | Internal Social Networking
- 23. Facebook | Fan Page
- 24. Twitter | Joining Relevant Public Conversation
- 25. LinkedIn | DOAS Professional Networking
- 26. “A place for everything, and everything in its place”
- 27. PLANNING H. Sketch out content workflow, SOPs and style guide Analysis and Reporting Content Strategy Distribution of Content Across Channels Engagement Amplification Content Integration Departmental Communications Workflow
- 29. PLANNING I. Set expectations for risk, risk mitigation Top 12 Causes of Social Media “Crises” 2001-2011: 1.Exposure to Poor Experience 2.Poor Influencer Relations 3.Violation of Ethical Guidelines 4.Rogue Employees 5.Inappropriate Content 6.Astroturfing (i.e. Message-Hijacking) 7.Violation of Legal Guidelines 8.Community Censorship 9.Hacking 10.Lack of Fact Checking 11.Failure to Respond Quickly 12.Inappropriate Online Response Low Risk Log (Risk) High RiskFrequency Area of Reasonable Concern
- 30. “If you prepare everywhere, you will be prepared nowhere.” – Sun Tzu
- 31. “Our responsibilities do not end with anticipating risk. We are expected to take actions to reduce and mitigate risk. Among the many ways to mitigate risk, some of the most effective include having a sound strategy and a ready force with reliable partners. A solvent strategy keeps our ends, ways, and means in balance. It guards against ambitions that exceed abilities.” -- General Martin E. Dempsey
- 32. PLANNING J. Provide SOP for measuring KPIs, success and ROI Feedback Branding Loyalty VisibilityCustomer Experience Efficiency Collaboration with customers drives innovation and refinement Wasted time and expense gets reduced via increased connectivity Relationships with customers improve as a result of providing faster, more intuitive customer service Additional touch points an inbound marketing increase brand awareness Organically grown communities ensure improved marketing efficacy Clear, consistent use of words, actions and images creates favorable perception of the brand
- 34. NEXT STEPS: 1. Acquire SEO-driven DOAS social spaces on Facebook, Twitter, Yammer and LinkedIn 2. Populate channels with salient, SEO, rich content per the content strategy, here defined 3. Complete website RFP 4. Design social spaces relative to style guide and design decisions made through RFP process 5. Sync launch of redesigned website with promotion of new social channels 6. Continue to refine Divisional tactics of pre-existing channels 7. Host open lunch-and-learns for primary channels 8. Provide PIO training opportunities for primary channels 9. Identify and create required SOPs {tactical and strategic} to provide divisional guidance 10. Set metric tracking SOP 11. Plan for periodic channel SWOT analyses 12. Regularly update leadership on lines of effort Phase 2 | Presence… PLANNING Listen & Learn Understand how customers use social channels Prioritize strategic goals where social can have an impact PRESENCE Staking OurClaim Amplify existing communication efforts Encourage sharing
- 35. END STATE | CONVERGED COMMUNICATIONS MARCH – APRIL 2013 MAY – JUNE 2013 JUNE – DEC. 2013 JAN. – MAY 2014 JUNE – DEC. 2014 JAN. – DEC. 2015
- 36. TL;DR This plan identified 10 lines of effort within the “planning” phase of our online outreach strategy. In it, we: 1.Outlined a three-year, six-phase plan of attack ; formulate the first phase 2.Carved out niched utilities for proposed online channels 3.Developed goals and performance metrics for quantifying success
- 37. { Phase 1 }
Notes de l'éditeur
- There are a lot of moving parts, here. The aim is to give you both a high-level, macro sense of the overall strategy and to provide you a degree of justification for the methodology. I’ve provided you with a print out of some of these slides. The idea is for you to have something to take notes on – but mostly to have these selected slides for your reference after we leave this room. After all is said and done, I want you to leave here feeling confident of three things: That there is a clear online outreach plan, and this is its outline. That we have a point and purpose for each online channel we’re going to use – which will be synced with organizational goals, priorities and target audiences. That none of these choices are made arbitrarily, and we will be keeping score – meaning we will be measuring the success or failure of our efforts and adjusting accordingly.
- These six phases of social business transformation come from a recent white paper put forward by Altimeter. They graphically represent what social media leads have always said: online outreach is a process – and there is a tangible desired end state. Stage 1: Planning - "Listen to Learn" The goal of this first stage is to ensure there is a strong foundation for strategy development, organizational alignment, resource development, and execution. Stage 2: Presence - "Stake Our Claim" “ Staking our claim” represents an evolution from planning to action – where we establish a formal and informative presence in social media. Stage 3: Engagement - "Dialog Deepens Relationships" When organizations move into the third stage, social media move from simply being “nice to have” to becoming a critical element in relationship-building and customer service. Stage 4: Formalized - "Organize for Scale" The risk of uncoordinated social initiatives is clear. Stage 4 focuses on three key activities: Establishing an executive sponsor (communications staff) Creating a hub (DOAS website) Establishing organization-wide governance Stage 5: Strategic - "Becoming a Social Business" As organizational channels evolve, social media initiatives gain greater visibility and begin to have real business impact – driving traffic and transactions. This is of note to leadership who will want to monitor social metrics to gauge what worked and what didn’t. Stage 6: Converged - "Business is Social" As a result of cross-functional and executive support, social business strategies start to weave into the fabric of an evolving organization wherein social channels help the decision-making process to become predictive, so there is less guess-work about how customers will react or why. The real-time, two-way symmetric communication of social media allows us to not only see what customers thought about an action but – in this stage of social evolution – allows us to accurately predict how they might react, and so shapes our actions around those predictions.
- I thought about using a picture of Macaulay Culkin from Home Alone here – you know, the one where he has his BB gun and says “This is it, don’t get scared now.” But I thought that might send the wrong message...
- There are 10 lines of effort within this planning phase. I use the military phrase “lines of effort” intentionally. The idea is that each one of these efforts will be in a different stage of development at different times – but they’re all pushing toward the same end state: a converged model of communication. As we go through each of these, please just keep in mind that some of these will be considered complete merely by presenting them here to you today and getting your buy-in, others are sketched outlines for an ongoing process.
- So, I rethought the Home Alone reference once I realized I had 10 lines of effort in my plan… But it’s really not that scary. Let’s go through these stages of Phase 1, one-by-one. A lot of these are pretty straight-forward, and some of the leg work has already been done by the folks in this room before I arrived.
- Nothing new here, right? The point of including this and ensuring that everyone’s still on board with it is – as you will soon see – these organizational posture statements are formative in later steps of this plan. Note, too, the little progress bar at the bottom of this slide. That’s just a visual aid as we progress to give you a sense of how far into the Phase 1 | Planning presentation we are.
- Sid has identified a “center-led” model for our organizational structure. So, our communication pattern should reflect that. The little bullets you see in the middle there are meant to highlight how this “dandelion” structure will impact the flow of communication. For example, the DOAS communication staff will extend department guidance to ancillary divisions. I’m already doing that with the Surplus Twitter account and the SPD Facebook page – because the horses were already out of the barn, there. The point in all this is to help break down some of the divisional silos that appear present in DOAS, and then get all of our communications efforts lined up with departmental priorities. When we get to Phase 4 | Formalized, we will create a comprehensive plan very similar to this one for each division that will sync their efforts with those of the overall Department. Today’s center-led plan is for our DOAS presences. But the idea here with this model is that our communication staff will run the DOAS public-facing channels, and the PIOs from each division will do the same for their channels, but will frequently conference with DOAS communication staff to receive guidance…
- The adjectives on the left can best be thought of in this way: “How do we want to describe our online channels as they evolve?” Each step up in the hierarchy is meant to represent an evolution in need. The idea is that once you’ve successfully addressed a given level of need, you should continue looking upwards to the next progression – remaining professionally dissatisfied, seeking continuous improvement until we reach the top of the hierarchy. You’ll note this needs hierarchy syncs with our six phases of business development. The end state of both our six phases and this needs hierarchy aims at a predictive state, wherein communication helps to preemptively inform the decision-making process in the C-suite. Our channels will be “Fundamental” when all the basics are there – design, a localized TOU (already drafted), populated with content, etc. Our channels will be “Secure” when we have organizational workflow defined and standardized and standardized risk mitigation is fully implemented. Our channels will be “Formulaic” when each of them has a clearly and widely understood purpose and formula for use. Our channels will be “Valuable” when they start to impact our business practices. And our channels will be “Decisive” when our familiarity with our communities allows us to predicatively mold our strategic decisions around what we know our customers want.
- I mentioned earlier that the communication plan – the mission, vision, values and goals were important to this overall plan. This is a visualization of why. This plan and all online communication decisions should first be filtered through the “communication priority funnel.” The general point is that – by filtering everything through this funnel – it all stays aligned with overall organizational priorities. You will see a very direct example of this in a few slides.
- In short… we should avoid this… ^
- What we’re discussing today is Phase 1 – the planning phase. If we all leave the room today in agreement that the plan as we’ve discussed it is copasetic, we will move into the “presence” phase, wherein channels and SOPs are built. Otherwise, we can refine and brief to a broader group of decision makers. Either way, at the end of the presentation, I will go over some Phase 2 “next steps,” which will include cross-training, lunch-and-learns, and the like. As I noted, this is the planning phase for the Department and our Department-wide channels. The divisional plans (which will mirror and sync with this one) will come in Phase 4 – when we scale these solutions out across the organization.
- Remember the “priorities funnel” from a few slides ago? If I were to turn this outline on it’s side, it would almost exactly mirror that funnel. This is the one-page visualization of all the decisions we’ve made in “phase one” of this online outreach plan. Here we have the organizational mission and goals – as identified earlier in our planning process – synced with what we identified as the most broadly applicable tactics to achieve those goals. Relative to those tactics, we’ve identified quantifiable metrics we will regularly measure. Those metrics, over time, should allow us to determine whether or not we’re hitting our Key Performance Indicators. In the first year of this plan, we’re really just looking for a net impact on those KPIs – because we have no previous efforts to benchmark ourselves against. In the future, I see us being able to set more concrete benchmarks, perhaps even based on a range of percentile increases.
- This is the one stage of the overall plan which really could have been slipped into Phase 2. Generally speaking, “channel development” is considered part of building a “presence.” But in my interviews of various DOAS staff, it was made clear there’s an organizational desire to see what the channel-specific development plan will look like, and so I’ve slipped the beginnings of this rather large line of effort into the planning phase. Remember when I mentioned earlier that we will be in different stages of each line of effort at any given point in time? This line of effort (G), will take the longest. Really, we’re only knocking out the “strategy” and “organization” portion of this flow chart. Production will come in phase two.
- This is the simplest way I could think to depict the overall organizational vision of DOAS channels (some of which we have not created yet). Taken holistically, these channels are meant to address all of the organization’s stated online communication priorities. The respective audiences and niches are meant to do two things: Deconflict and streamline the content production and dissemination process Sync and optimize how we use these channels with their inherent utility in mind The basic premise is that if you’re feeding the same content to the same community on two different platforms, you’re not optimizing your outreach or your resources.
- In my first week of work here, I sat down and did a thorough troubleshoot of the entire DOAS website. There were dozens of things that could be improved – many of which will be addressed in the RFP process – including the process of integrating social content. I see this website filling the role of a “hub” more than a destination station. We should us it to hand static, formal, public information – but also the feature live feeds of our social content. We can easily do this by embedding a Facebook “like box,” social bookmarking buttons, and perhaps even including Facebook or Google-powered comment features on sections of the website for which we want more feedback. I’ve heard this approach referred to as the Homeland / Embassy Strategy – which is just another euphemism for our center-led / dandelion model. A recent article from Social Media Explorer explained this Homeland/ Embassy Strategy in this way: http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/social-media-marketing/how-to-integrate-social-media-into-your-website-with-a-homeland-embassy-strategy/ “ On your own website, you control the user experience. That’s why your website is your sovereign nation. It’s your homeland. Your Facebook Page, on the other hand, or your Twitter feed, are more like embassies. When a country has an embassy in a foreign country, diplomatic immunity aside, it must abide by the local laws of the host nation. Facebook and Twitter are also sovereign nations. You’ll find the laws of those lands in their Terms of Service. Violate them and they can deport you anytime… You’ll need to staff your embassies with people who understand the local customs of the social networks you decide to settle in. In most embassies, the majority of employees are local hires. They guide Foreign Service Officers through the local laws and customs of that culture. We need to do the same thing on social media. We must appoint representatives who understand the way things get done there as well.” More to the point, I think, is the fact that people don’t really come to websites any more unless they’re looking for something. Let’s get them to what they’re looking for – but expose them to some strategic communication while we’re at it by smartly integrating our various communication efforts… Which I think leads us to the two biggest priorities for the website RFP: getting visitors where they want to be 1) easier and 2) faster. Pictured here, I’ve highlighted Missouri’s home page to show how we can address both of those concerns. I’d like to see us move towards incorporating this sort of taxonomy combined with the mega menu bar feature I’ve also highlighted from Alabama’s portal. These recommendations will work themselves out through the RFP process – but the overall goal is to get customers closer to what they’re looking for, faster.
- There’s a huge opportunity here to leverage Team Georgia as our blogging arm… To make the most of the real estate, we can bump the “related sites” section into the menu bar, downsize the text in all the menu bar buttons so that it will fit, and replace that section with an “Administrative Updates” section which will highlight DOAS-specific news. Potentially, we could integrate the RSS feed from the DOAS section of Team Georgia into the news slider of the DOAS home page, providing several solutions to stated needs: A means for real-time website content creation without tying up IT staff and resources A way to remove the delay between submission and front-facing visibility A formal fall-back option for when the DOAS website server goes down Potentially even have a way for PIOs to upload their own content directly, and then for communication staff to immediately review and approve the content to appear on the front-end
- Folks love the content on IES but no one seems to really like the platform. It’s static, clunky and dated. By thinking of IES as a bulletin board, it’s purpose becomes more clear – to hang static content. For that purpose, the channel still has great utility.
- I’ve never recommended Yammer to a customer or client before, but I think it fits perfectly for DOAS. I can send you all a webinar link breaking down its features after this meeting, but the basic point is that this platform is: Free Integrates with SharePoint – which we’ve identified as our intranet and extranet platform for the foreseeable future Can create the interactive element of internal digital communications DOAS has been missing and wanting Anecdotally, I can see – instead of just posting a “welcome John to DOAS” update on IES, DOAS employees will actually be able to welcome and then converse with John. What’s more, while access to the DOAS Yammer is restricted to those with a DOAS e-mail address, sub-forums can be created for customers to have access so that divisions can have informal, forum-like conversations. This could be a whole-sale solution for those divisions that have been looking at costly portals to create the exact same solution – or even Fleet, who already has a message board but desires more metrics monitoring. The degree to which Yammer will fully integrate with IES is a bit of a question mark, because IES is so dated. But it’s a stand-alone product in the event of any complications. In terms of an internal, enterprise social medium – Yammer is our best option, and it’s a good one.
- I think everyone has a sense of what a Facebook fan page for DOAS should look like. This is where we can hang infographics, publicity, organizational milestones, and other visual content. This is also where we can directly push/pull content to/from our stakeholders who are already in the space. Our fan page should highlight for our stakeholders salient news and updates about the organization and its works, of course, but Facebook has a very real, measurable customer service value as well. It’s not just about projecting DOAS news – though that’s an important part of it. It’s also about answering costumer questions – or, more likely, connecting them with someone who can. It’s also about processing the feedback we get from the social platform to help inform the DOAS decision-making process. That end-state level of convergence is identified as the sixth and final phase of this online outreach plan – but the process of curating content and building trust within our online community begins the instant the channel goes live.
- Twitter has real-time customer service value as well, but it’s primary value is the opportunity to inject ourselves into relevant streams of conversation – exposing our brand to inherently interested stakeholders and growing our reach / access to them. In an emergency – whether that be a natural disaster or in the event our servers go down – Twitter offers us the opportunity to put out bite-size, micro-blogged bits of information as it becomes available. GEMA and Ga. DoD follow this model. Their Twitter accounts are largely “in neutral” during a normal day, but they shift their communication model heavily to Twitter when instant information becomes a prerogative. Perhaps more than any other channel, too, Twitter is an outstanding curation tool. Because Twitter’s really just one giant conversation, regular searches and monitoring of relevant key term mentions can help improve customer service and / or grow reach and help innovation.
- LinkedIn has outstanding SEO value. Because the channel is mostly used to discuss HR-type content, the communication staff doesn’t really have a vested interest in maintaining a LinkedIn presence. However, getting into the space to secure the DOAS company profile, build out the company page with SEO-driven boilerplate copy, and make it live so DOAS employees (past and present) can link to the page in their own accounts is an “easy win.” Long-term, LinkedIn is really the way of the future when it comes to job applications. In many instances, simply having a LinkedIn profile lets you apply to a job listing just by clicking the “apply” button. DOAS HR would do well to consider this platform in the future as it will expand the talent pool to which we appeal and potentially help current employee morale, but we can revisit that in Phase 4, when we scale out online outreach strategies to all the divisions.
- So, that’s the high-level, macro outline of today’s proposed content strategy. Again, the point of all that is to show each given channel has a certain utility. We will house content relative to a channel’s utility, and then integrate the channels to reduce double-work, confusion and version control issues. Just as you should give careful consideration to audience, purpose and occasion when delivering a speech, so too should you consider those things when determining a content strategy for online communications channels.
- What’s of note here relative to the workflow is that it’s cyclical. After close analysis, we’ve come up with the foundation of a content strategy (which is to say, what content will go where). We just covered that. As we move into Phase 2, we will create or flush out the channels as we’ve discussed and then distribute content accordingly across those channels. In Phase 3, we’ll see real, measurable social engagement and amplification – which will require interaction and monitoring on our part. From there, in Phase 4, we will drill down with the various DOAS divisions and scale out this online outreach strategy for them – identifying the right online channels and means for them and their customers, and then integrating their content into our departmental channels (and vise versa). Then the process starts over as we refine and strive for a converged state of communications. Like the “channel development” line of effort (stage G) – this stage will take a long time to be truly complete. SOPs and style-guides are not-immediate deliverables that generally appear in the planning phase. A style guide will come during the RFP process, and I will certainly work with the vendor to ensure we’re syncing words, actions, and aesthetics with our overall plan here. This style guide will influence decisions on channel design, iconography, color palette, etc. down the line – and we will scale out any style changes across the organization’s pre-existing communication channels and material. Tactical SOPs are largely unneeded, because professional tactical guides (from corporate and government entities) on how to do things like posting to Facebook already exist and are publicly available. Instead, we will identify any gaps in SOP coverage and cover down where needed. These SOPs will focus on enforcing basic DOAS communication standards and practices as defined in this strategy and the overall strategic communication plan. Remember, too, the priorities funnel, where tactics are pretty low on the list – and for good reason. They’re far less difficult to come by once you have the higher order decisions cemented. A lot of these tactical guides are dated within months of their creation because these channels are always evolving. It is a strategic decision to tap third party sources for these – sources who are better resourced to research, design, produce and make available such guides. Our communication staff impact comes in the selection of which referrals to make.
- As I mentioned on the last slide – communications workflow tends to be cyclical. As we refine workflow, we’re going to notice something I call “shifting the bottle neck.” Right now, we don’t have enough communication channels to house all the content and types of conversations we want. Once this plan is in place and we move into Phase 2 | Presence, we’ll find that the bottle neck has moved towards content production – wherein we’re looking for enough content to keep all of our channels properly fueled. Through our content strategy, partner outreach and various other content curation best practices, we will find ways to regularly collect lots of salient content, but then find the bottle neck has moved toward content distribution – wherein we only have so many people to post the content we’ve generated. Once staffing redundancies and force-multipliers are put into place in phase 4, our eyes will turn to generating more earned media with our polished and distributed content. This requires a lot of relationship building – but once the bridges are built, they need to be maintained. And, like most bridges, the traffic goes both ways – and this is where becoming a social business comes into play in Phase 5. As other departments and government partners help us communicate our story, we will be inclined to do the same for them. Once we’ve built enough relationships to regularly earn media mentions, we will find the bottle neck shifted full-circle – wherein we re-consider what other channels we might leverage to best communicate our story – and how best to integrate our lessons learned into our business decisions.
- I refer to this graphic as the risk bell graph. I’m sure there’s a better technical name for it, but the point is that there are dangerous risks and there are common risks. We should focus our attention on the risks with the worst mix of theses – where our efforts are most likely to have a real impact. Another way to think of this paradigm is to identify the most dangerous thing that could possibly happen – so we’re all working from the same page of “worst-case scenarios,” because often people imagine a risk that’s much more menacing than is even possible --- and then let’s identify what the most likely danger is, and plan around that. What’s most dangerous?... What’s most likely? In the military, one would refer to this as identifying the enemy’s “ most dangerous course of action and the most likely course of action.” The most dangerous item on this list, I would say, is a hacking incident – wherein we lose all control of one of our channels because we do not own the servers on which the channel operates. But there are recourses built into these channels to regain administrative access within a relatively short period of time (usually 24-48 hours). In this digital age, this worst-case scenario simply entails the potential of a brief period of buzz about our account getting hacked and some potential confusion from our customers as they try to figure out what’s going on. But consumers have shown hacking incidents do not really impact their overall faith in the organization. The most likely risk – as you can see from this list – is an “exposure to a poor experience.” Meaning someone comes to one of our online channels and is either ignored or offended. Today’s online outreach plan seeks to mitigate the chances of either the most likely or the most dangerous thing happening by systematizing our efforts on these channels and syncing our messaging with overall organizational priorities.
- So, as Sun Wu noted in the Art of War , "If you prepare everywhere, you will be prepared nowhere.“ Or, to mix my sports and combat metaphors, “We can’t allow the fear of striking out prevent us from playing the game.” We cannot let the existence of risk paralyze us into inaction. For instance, if employees or customers are disgruntled – they will be disgruntled whether or not we have a Facebook page. Better that they express their frustration on a channel we own (instead of to Fox 5 on the nightly news) – not just so we can mitigate damage by restricting visibility, if necessary, but so we know they’re upset and can try to give them actual customer service – and can then adjust business practices so as to avoid similar frustration in the future.
- I pulled this quote from General Martin Dempsey’s Facebook page last week… S.L.A. Marshall once noted that our nation’s best commanders’ “moral willingness to make a superb gamble was inseparably linked with the determination to eliminate every material impediment to movement. What they willed they first made possible." To his point, and General Dempsey’s, here, success does not come without accepting some degree of risk. It’s simply a matter of knowing what the risks are and how to mitigate and respond to them. Viewing our online channels as a touch-point for customer service is a good way to think about many of the most common risk concerns.
- For each channel {departmental and divisional} a series of metrics will be consistently monitored per defined methods – the primary of these was identified in the strategic plan outline we reviewed earlier. These metrics aim to both gauge reach, measure success, and quantify progress towards achieving KPI benchmarks – also identified in the strategic plan outline we reviewed earlier But, in addition to quantifiable ROI, there are many qualitative returns on investment to expect from our online outreach, including: collaborative feedback from customers, a clear and present brand, improved customer experience and – as a result – increased stakeholder loyalty, and a means by which to refine our business practices with tangible feedback data.
- Of those intangible benefits, let’s focus on “loyalty” for a moment, since building strong customer relationships is one of our primary goals… When employees or stakeholders share great news about a company, cognitive dissonance helps pave the way to loyalty and engagement : publicly declaring your support and affiliation motivates you to back it up with real loyalty and engagement. It’s loosely like telling yourself, “I can really do this,” before shooting a free-throw. The online equivalent of red face paint and a Falcons jersey, is one’s personal social media posts about companies they love. Cognitive dissonance explains how – just like wearing a Falcons jersey can help turn you into a bigger Atlanta fan – sharing and interacting with online posts about a company can help make you a bigger fan of that company.
- All that planning reviewed, these are the next steps I’m looking at as part of Phase 2 | Presence. If there’s anything of concern here – or anything that’s unclear – please just let me know. The gist is that – once we have leadership buy-in on the plan, we will start building the channels we’ve discussed today according to this plan. We will refine as necessary and start working in cross-training opportunities for PIOs in anticipation of the latter phases of this online outreach plan – where we’ll scale these efforts out to the divisional level. But, again, year one of this plan focuses primarily on DOAS department communications and channels.
- Just to review all six stages of social development and our projected timelime one more time… This plan, pending leadership approval, marks the end of Phase 1. We will scale out to divisional-specific online outreach strategies in year two, Phase 4. And, as we’ve covered, the end state is one where we’ve reached a state of converged communications – wherein there are no more divisional silos, and our online communications are helping to inform the decision making process. I anticipate we can accomplish all these things in three years.
- As you maybe now know, I can get long-winded. If you get an e-mail from me with a wall of text, look for the tl;dr at the end. Tl;dr means: too long, didn’t read. It’s just a recap, in this instance of what I told you we would cover today. I said at the beginning of our meeting I wanted to leave you all certain of three things: That there is a clear online outreach plan, and this is its outline. That we have a point and purpose for each online channel we’re going to use – which will be synced with organizational goals, priorities and target audiences. That none of these choices are made arbitrarily, and we will be keeping score – meaning we will be measuring the success or failure of our efforts and adjusting accordingly.
- Thank you all for your time. What questions do you have?