1. Good morning! Does this picture look familiar to you? If so, you would also familiar with Twitter. When bureaucrats met Twitter, when I made this title, I thought a lot about making some analogies to the movie When Harry met Sally, but it didn’t work eventually. I’m still working on it.By the way, my name is Kevin Kim, and I’m an Information Privacy Officer, a.k.a., “the Privacy Guy,” at my ministry, Alberta Education. However, I’d like to make a full disclosure here. Any opinions or views on this presentation I am going to provide are solely mine, not my employer’s.
Quick & unscientific analysisBefore going further, I’d like to do a quick analysis. Could you please raise your hand if you’re working in the public sector? Thank you.How about Twitter? Please raise your hand if you know that your business area is using Twitter?What about personal account? One more time, could you raise your hand if you have your own personal Twitter account? Thank you. From what I saw, I can guess that more than half of you must be quite familiar with Twitter, and the social media in general.
What would happen when bureaucrats meet Twitter? Let’s see how different they are. Well, maybe I’m a bit exaggerating, but still it makes sense, doesn’t it?
Then what would be the answer to what would happen when bureaucrats meet Twitter? A fail whale? That is what I want to explore – what would happen, and how to make things happen in a better and more productive way. If you’re using Twitter, this image can’t be too strange. With this image, Twitter tells you that “Twitter is over capacity. Too many tweets! Please wait a moment and try again.”
Conducted in February 2010, the Edison Research study polled 1,753 Americans ages 12 and up and presented three years of tracking data regarding Twitter awareness and usage.1. Awareness of Twitter has exploded over the past twelve months: from 5% in 2008 to 87% in 2010.2. 2. Despite near-ubiquitous awareness, Twitter is currently used by 7% of the population, or approximately 17 million Americans.3. Almost 50% of Americans 12+ maintain a profile on at least one social networking site, with the vast majority using Facebook. Twitter has yet to articulate its value and usage benefits to the vast majority of Americans.4. One strategy to encourage Twitter adoption may be to emphasize the parallels between status updates via Twitter and SMS messaging.5. The majority of Twitter users are “lurkers,” passively following and reading the updates of others without contributing updates of their own.6. Marketing and Business use cases for Twitter far exceed similar usage for social networking Web sites in general.7. Twitter is a natural “companion medium” to other media channels - in particular, as an accompaniment to live TV.8. A significantly higher proportion of Twitter users update their social networking profiles - and access Twitter - using mobile phones than the average user of other social networking sites and services.
From Corporate to Personal: The Four Types of Twitter ProfilesPure Corporate Brand These accounts, which are often sporting the proper brand name of a company are used often to provide corporate news, deals, and support. Pros: This account can be managed by a team, and less risk of an individual being co-branded with the brand, as they may leave later.Cons: This may be perceived as a just an extension of corporate PR or the corporate website with little human interaction.Corporate With PersonaAbout 80% corporate brand + 20% personal brand.Pros: This account maintains the face of the corporate side, yet shows a human element, building trust with the community.Cons: The account may be limiting itself as the community may come to expect and rely on the individual person to participate.Employee With Corporate Association20% corporate + 80% personal information. Perhaps the most common accounts are the hundreds of thousands of accounts that may not explicitly represent a brand –but they represent their individualism and often indicate they’re an employee of a company.Pros: These personal accounts are often organic and are a great way to build connections with a community.Cons: Even if a disclaimer states that “these opinions only represent me, not my employer” they still are representatives of the brand.Pure Personal AccountPros: This account has no tie or risk to a brand.Cons: Although the risks are reduced, so are the opportunities. The chance to evangelize the brand with their community are lost.Which type is right for your social media endeavors? It depends on the culture and goals of the organization. Expect many brandsto have several of these accounts (For example, Cisco has types 1, 2, and 3) within their social arsenal). Type 1 may be useful for sharing facts, Type 2 may be helpful for support, Type 3 may have advantages in evangelism and type 4 may be helpful for employees that have little connection to the product or customers.Having multiple types of profiles for your brand strategy is useful, play to the strengths of each, however it’s important to note that having internal coordination with process and policy will also help to provide a common, high-quality experience to customers.
Who owns the content that you post in social media. It depends on the tool. You need to know who owns the content and who can copy the content.
In-house, outsourced, or third-party sites?All GoA info on third-party sites must also reside on GoA-owned site/server.Metadata, tagging, primary steward.Ensuring records management: scheduling for retention and disposition.No other’s content, and “transitory” records.Information in computing cloud: outside of Canada.
Law and Harm: We may disclose your information if we believe that it is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation or legal request; to protect the safety of any person; to address fraud, security or technical issues; or to protect Twitter's rights or property.How to respond to FOIP requests quickly? Just direct the requester to the Twitter accounts? Or to deny on the basis that the information is readily available to the public?
Do you remember the GoA Communications policy I’ve shown you before? What do you think? Do we need another new “Twitter policy”? To be honest, it is more often than not necessary to create a brand new, but in fact mostly duplicate policy. It’s waste of time and energy as well as of keeping people even farther from actually reading it. Then perhaps what we need, and we need it quickly, would be a procedure or a guidelines. The shorter the better, the simpler and more flexible, the better. “The best practices that guide our use of social media are really no different than the behaviours we already practice in other work situations. Because of all of this really comes down to one of the core values that every public servant shares: trust and personal responsibility in all relationships. GoA Values: Integrity, “I suspect you already follow these guidelines in practice in you everyday work. Because the reality is, while social media may change how we communicate, it doesn’t change what we can and should say. It doesn’t change our fundamental behaviours.” IBMWhen you publish o a blog or Twitter, be sure to include a disclaimer that makes it clear that what you say is representative of your views and opinions and not necessarily the views and opinions of IBM.
1. Be transparent. Your honesty – or dishonesty – will be quickly noticed in the social media environment. If you are blogging about your work at the Ministry, use your real name, identify that you work for Alberta Education, and be clear about your role. If you have a vested interest in what you are discussing, be the first to say so. 2. Be judicious. Make sure your efforts to be transparent don’t violate Alberta Education’s privacy, confidentiality, and legal guidelines for external commercial speech. Ask permission to publish or report on conversations that are meant to be private or internal to the Ministry. Never represent yourself or Alberta Education in a false or misleading way. 3. Post meaningful, respectful comments. No spam and no remarks that are off-topic or offensive. 4. Write what you know. Make sure that you write and post about your areas of expertise and do feel free to provide unique, individual perspectives on non-confidential activities at Alberta Education. If you publish to a website outside the Ministry, please use a disclaimer something like this: “The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent my employer’s positions, strategies, or opinions.” Also, please respect brand, copyright, fair use, trade secrets, confidentiality, and financial disclosure laws. 5. Perception is reality. In online social networks, the lines between public and private, personal and professional are blurred. Just by identifying yourself as an Alberta Education employee, you are creating perceptions about your expertise and about Alberta Education by our stakeholders, customers, and the general public; and the perceptions about you by your colleagues and managers. Do us all proud. Be sure that all content associated with you is consistent with your work and with the Ministry’s values and professional standards. 6. It’s a conversation. Talk to your readers like you would talk to real people in professional situations. In other words, avoid overly pedantic or “composed” language. Consider content that’s open-ended and invites response. Encourage comments. 7. Are you adding value? There are millions of words out there. The best way to get yours read is to write things that people will value. It should be thought-provoking and build a sense of community. If it helps people improve knowledge or skills, build their businesses, do their jobs, solve problems, or understand our Ministry’s business better – then it’s adding value. 8. When disagreeing with others' opinions, keep it appropriate and polite. If you find yourself in a situation online that looks as if it’s becoming antagonistic, do not get overly defensive and do not disengage from the conversation abruptly: feel free to ask the Communications Branch personnel for advice and/or to disengage from the dialogue in a polite manner that reflects well on Alberta Education. 9. Your responsibility. What you write is ultimately your responsibility. Please know and follow the Code of Conduct and Ethics for the Public Service of Alberta. Contact XXX@gov.ab.ca for more information. Please also follow the terms and conditions for any third-party site. 10. If it gives you pause, please pause. If you’re about to publish something that makes you even slightest bit uncomfortable, don’t shrug it off and hit “send.” Be smart about protecting yourself, your privacy, and the Ministry’s confidential information. What you publish is widely accessible and will be around for a long time, so consider the content carefully. Google has a long memory.
Avoid Personal Attacks At All Times.Respect the Opinions of Others.Do Not Tweet While Intoxicated.Keep the private private (DMs are there for a reason).Don’t post thoughts across multiple Tweets.Before post anything, consider this: Would you want your kid sister, mother, future girlfriend, boss or mother-in-law to read it? If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all.The web is forever: what you put on the web remains there forever, searchable, traceable, source-able, ready to resurface years later.Rights of free speech – with some additional obligationsNo harm to reputation of GoANon disclosure of GoA information or content.Need to clearly identify contributions are made as an individual and not as a government representativeDisclaimerDo not comment on government policy unless it is appropriate to your roleBe discreet about what you say, do and post.A Twitter-Like Twitter Policy: Be professional, kind, discreet, authentic. Represent us well. Remember that you can’t control it once you hit “update.”
Some of the good companies have a clear strategy, while others are just dipping their toe in the water. The key with social media is to fail fast, fail forward and fail better. You aren’t going to get it right the first time, but you aren’t going to learn anything if you don’t take that first step. The beauty of social media is that your customers are very forgiving and at the same time, helpful at expressing exactly what they need from you as a company. It is the world’s largest focus group on Steroids.