This document discusses social media use in government. It notes that the top 5 uses of social media by federal agencies are to communicate with citizens and other agencies, collaborate internally, conduct marketing and promotion, conduct research and gather information, and support informed decision making. The top 5 benefits are increased education of the public, information access, agency promotion, cost savings and efficiencies, and increased collaboration. It provides examples of GovLoop, a social network for government, and how the CDC has used social media analytics to improve engagement. It also discusses challenges in measuring social media return on investment and provides recommendations for doing so.

1. Social Media In Government:
Today and Tomorrow
Pat Fiorenza
GovLoop Research Analyst
@pjfiorenza
pat@govloop.com

2. Top 5 Federal Uses of Social Media
Communicate with
Informed Decision
Citizens and Other Internal Collaboration
Making
Agencies
Marketing and Research/Information
Promotion Gathering
Source:
Market Connections 2011 Social Media in the Public Sector
Study, Oct. 2011
http://www.marketconnectionsinc.com/Reports/social-media-
in-the-public-sector-2011.html

3. Top 5 Federal Benefits of Using Social Media
Increased
Information Agency
Education of the
Access Promotion
Public
Cost Savings and
Increase
Other
Collaboration
Efficiencies
Source:
Market Connections 2011 Social Media in the Public
Sector Study, Oct. 2011
http://www.marketconnectionsinc.com/Reports/soc
ial-media-in-the-public-sector-2011.html

4. Informed Decision
Making
Online community of
government colleagues Communicate with
helping each other Other Agencies
to do their jobs better.
Research /Information
Gathering
55,000 Members
• Federal, state and local employees
• Contractors, non-profits, academia Marketing and
• International (Canada, UK, Australia, etc.)
Promotion

5. Problem:
Millions of government employees working on
similar issues…but how do they connect?
Solution:
Knowledge network where government employees
connect, learn and share: real-time + repository

6. Member Overview
Top 10 Agencies on GovLoop Federal Government
1. Dept. of Defense
2. Dept. of Health & Human Services 12.48% State Government
3. Dept. of Agriculture
4. Dept. of Veterans Affairs 9.18%
5. Dept. of Homeland Security Local Government
6. General Services Admin. 14.83% 50.37 %
7. Dept. of Commerce Industry/Gov’t
8. Environmental Protection Agency Contractors
9. Dept. of Transportation 13.14 %
Other (i.e. non-
10. Dept. of Labor profit, academia &
Total # of Agencies: 37 International Gov’t)
Average Age:

7. Top 5 Tactics for Government
1. Think Strategically
2. Be Authentic
3. Go where your audience is
4. Don’t Be Afraid to Fail
5. Don’t Just Push Information

8. Where Social Media is Heading..
1. Closely Tied to Government Core Services
2. Wider Acceptance
3. Increasing Use For Emergency Management
4. Data Driven Decisions
5. Mobility
6. More Devices = More Data

9. 5 Challenges to Identify ROI
1. What are we trying to quantify?
2. What impact are we measuring?
3. Who is our core audience?
4. How does this ROI fit into our agency mission?
5. What do I do with all this data? Where can I find
knowledge?

10. First tip, don’t let
an undefined ROI
stop you from
getting you where
you need to go!

11. ROI – Is there a formula?
(Gains from Investment) – (Cost of Investment)
Return on Investment =
Cost of Investment
What about for public sector? Are we
really measuring ROI?

12. Return on Influence?
(Gains from Influence) – (Cost of Influence)
Return on Influence =
Cost of Influence
If influence is the metric – how do we
effectively measure influence? Is this
something we can truly quantify?

13. Is there Program Evaluation Model to
get at ROI?
• Can we apply a traditional program evaluation
model to social media to understand our ROI?
• I’d say yes.
• Think about traditional metrics – how can we
apply these to government

14. 10 Steps to Understanding How to Find
Your Social Media ROI
1. Define Scope – Why are we doing this?
2. How will you define success? – Think Traditionally
3. Consider how you can design your evaluation
4. Collect Data
5. Show Impact and Quick Wins
6. Analyze
7. Share
8. Feedback from Stakeholders
9. Share Your Success, Learn from Experiences
10. Improve and Repeat

15. Create a Scorecard
1. Spot for you to track metrics
2. Ways to look month over month (or desired time-period)
3. Calculate changes – track improvements
4. See what is working, what is causing spikes
5. Monitor & Show Value
6. Share Across Team
7. Keep a list of accomplishments

16. Case Study - CDC

17. Case Study – GovLoop
1. Used Social Analytics to Increase Engagement on Twitter
2. Removed “Automated” Tweets
3. Humanized Voice
4. Significant Improvements in how we have defined engagement
5. Data Collection

18. GovLoop Data Project
Challenges
• GovLoop has more data than we know what to do with
• Even at a small company, data operate rests in silos
• Goal was to consolidate and use data to drive decisions

19. Audience
• Various Members in Our GovLoop Audience
• Lurkers
• Evangelists
• Goal is provide the right service to the right kind
of user – meet customer needs/demands
• Same on Social Media Sites

20. GovLoop Data Landscape – February
Member Email
Events Training Webinars
Data Data

21. GovLoop Data Landscape – Today!
Member
Email
Events
Trainings
Webinars

22. Outcomes
• Data now can be accessed by everyone
• Stronger decision making
• Improved Strategy
• How connected to social media? – Think of
social media like any other data project.
• Know your audience
• Grow by providing services

23. Data Consolidation - Lessons for Social
Media
• Define scoop
• Address a need
• Tie to entire mission
• Define success
• Meet your customer demands

24. GovLoop Resources
• GovLoop Resources
• Twitter Guide for Federal Agencies
• Twitter Guide for Federal Employees
• Dorobek Insider – Daily Podcast
• Blogs
• Discussions

25. Contact Information
• Pat Fiorenza
• Email: pat@govloop.com
• Twitter: @pjfiorenza