Managing government use of social media

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 Policy
collaborative problem
solving
• Look at the intersection
of policy, management,
and technology.

Management Technology

Who are you?

• Your name
• Your position
• What do you hope to learn during this
training?

What is social media?
Differences between Web 1.0 & 2.0 & Social media*

Web 1.0 Web 2.0 Social media

Content creators few Anyone can be a content User-generated content
Technologies static creator (video, text, or audio)
Technologies dynamic Technologies feature
and interactive strong social component
(user profiles, friend links,
comments, tags, ratings)
Networks of people

Example Example Example

Craig’s list is essentially an e– Web 2.0 sites allow users to Facebook is driven by user-
mail list server, and has no do more than just retrieve profiles, friends, linking, and
public user profiles, or fancy information (e.g., transactions) interaction. It has a section for
dynamic pages. pictures, for micro-blogging
Amazon.com started in the (called The Wall), and allows
late 1990s with ratings and users to embed videos and
voting. 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

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

– 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

• 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

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?

Moldovan
US users
users?

Retrieved from: Rich’s Blog http://www.richsblog.com/files/40a33566f6df449d356cfe003293bdb7-132.html (10/2010)

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".

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.

•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.

•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

• 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

Used by civil
society to
influence
government
actions and
policies

Financial Transparency: Contract Level

Fair-Play
Alliance

“Slovakia’s
Most Wanted
Watchdog”

32
http://www.otvorenezmluvy.sk/

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)

Used by political
figures to
communicate
their agenda

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

Use of social media in US government

“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

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)

“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”

Social media continuum

Modest Moderate Elaborate

One or two social More than one social Several social media
media channels in use media channel used in channels used in
Form of content is an integrated fashion interconnected fashion
usually limited to text Form of content is Forms of content are
Engagement efforts are more diverse varied including text,
simple, generally Engagement initiatives video, photos
involving solicitation of are more advanced, Elaborate engagement
comments involving voting and initiatives involving
Updates are done comment strategies voting, reward
regularly but frequency Updates are done systems, and intense
is relatively low more frequently, monitoring
generally every few Updates are done on
days frequent basis, several
times a day

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


• Enhanced engagement and collaboration
opportunities with stakeholders

• Reducing routine questions to agencies and
getting more citizen feedback


• 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


• Lack of organizational resources to build and
sustain effective social media engagement

• Information overload of citizens


• 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

Managing social media in government
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

Management of social media on
initiative level

1. Initiative level
• Managing agency-generated content creation
• Managing citizen engagement on government social
media channels

• Developing social media policy

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

1) Determine an objective
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?

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 • Organizations or
affected by the project government agencies
• Special interest groups that will be impacted
impacted by the by the project
project • Intermediaries to the
• Advocates of the project
project • All users who may be
• Direct customers of the negatively affected by
project the project
• Indirect customers of
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
Department
A has its
own
process

Old Process

Joan Smith in Department
Intake the IT B has its
feedback department own
from mail reviews process
and online feedback and
comment sends to right
Department
department
forms C has its
own
process

New Process

Joan Smith in
Intake the IT
feedback department
reviews
from mail
feedback and
and online sends to right
comment department
forms
Finds answer and
Intake responds
feedback
from ALL New “Social
social Media” team
responsible for Aggregates
media uses
communicating Social media
(Facebook, and feedback answers and
YouTube, analysis & citizen
prepares a report
Twitter, etc) feedback used in
to agency mgmt
agency “planning”
team

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
• Managing agency content creation
• Managing citizen engagement on government social
media channels

• Developing social media policy

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
Photos
objective Videos

• Consider your intended Budget
Events
audience
Meeting Data sets
announc
ements Services

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?
BY TOOL

Every minute/ As frequently as
hour Every day/week Every week/month necessary

Traffic Regular data Event Emergency
conditions reports announcements announcements
Information Photos from Budget
about services region/events documents
Regular meeting Videos about Election results
updates services

BY PURPOSE

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
Pros:
Citizens &
Other stakeholders •More varied content
•More personal engagement
•Shared burden for content

Cons:
•Sense of less control
•Possibility of inconsistent message
•Increased cost of coordination

Communication Program
Staff Staff
Parallel
Communication Patterns

Different models of content creation:
Centralized approach
Citizens & Pros:
Other stakeholders •Centralized control over content
•Consistency of message
•Better chance of coherency

Cons:
Communication •Lost social aspect of social media
Staff •Perception of censorship
•Greater burden on selected
individuals
•Less degree of content richness
Program Program
Staff Staff
Centralized
Communication Patterns

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

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

IdeasScale, other
Websites, Any social Any social media Wikis, tools that enable
RSS feeds, media tool with tool with blogs, and citizens to actively
podcasts comment comment other social evaluate and vote
function turned function turned media on ideas
off on

One way One way Commentary and Static ideas Dynamic ideas Contest
information channel information channel questions and input and input submissions
without two-way
public
communication
capability - 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
• 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
Citizen
Pros: Citizen
– Consistent responses
– Limited amount of coordination needed Citizen Citizen
– Limited effect on existing business Citizen
processes
Citizen
Cons:
Designated monitor
– Only one person trained and capable and responder
– Missing “social” character
– Potentially pronounced effect on selected
individual

Multiple person response team
• Several designated monitors
• Generally also given permission to produce content
• Often seen in larger organizations with multiple social media
channels
Pros:
Citizen Citizen
– Greater continuity for monitoring and
responding Citizen
Citizen Citizen
– Greater feeling of “socialness” among
staff Designated Designated
monitor and monitor and
– Ability to develop greater comfort with a responder responder
specific tool Citizen Designated Citizen
monitor and
Cons: responder
Citizen
– Coordination mechanisms need to be Citizen
developed Citizen
– Potential for inconsistent responses

Channeling incoming content to
existing departments
• 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 Citizen

Pros: Citizen Citizen

– Consistency of responses across different Designated
channels monitor and
responder
– Answering many with one response
Cons:
– Coordination mechanisms need to be
Call center
developed Constituent
– Adding additional responsibilities services center

Subject-specific system to
channel content
• 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 Citizen

Topic B
Citizen Citizen
Pros:
To
– Accuracy of responses p ic ic
C
A
Top
Designated
Cons: monitor and
responder
– Large degree of coordination and follow
up
– Creation of new business processes Unit B Unit A

Unit C

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?

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

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 Challenges

• Simultaneous engagement • Monitoring employee use
in professional and is more difficult
personal uses • Difficulty in coordinating
agency message
•Linked up personal and • Legal issues connected to
professional identities employees’ right to privacy
and free speech
•Permanency of social • Change in organizational
media content culture and business
processes

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 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.
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.

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

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

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

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 Service
Records management
Freedom of speech
Citizen 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.

Managing government use of social media

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