twitter

Having a social media presence on the Internet such as a Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Flickr, is becoming increasingly important for anyone especially those in business.  But is there value in social media for community government?  Based on the research I completed, I would have to say YES!

This past January a group of individuals from differing governmental offices in Ohio came to the Government Social Media Conference.  While some of the groups are still figuring out the benefits and how it fits their community, there were others that immediately got it and have implemented some strategies that were right on.

Before I give examples of some of the good, I would like to say a few things to anyone who might be reading this.

• Celebrate Experimentation - It doesn’t have to be perfect the first time. For reasons too numerous to mention people think they need to have the perfect social media strategy before they try anything but that simply isn’t the case.  If you aren’t sure what to do or how to use the tool don’t just wait until it comes to you, do something, anything and see what happens.  If people don’t like it, they’ll tell you and you can rework your strategy.

• Reasonably Commit– Implementing a social media strategy will take time and commitment.  If you aren’t sure how much time you can commit, that’s okay.  Figure out what you can do and start there.  Maybe the depth of your commitment is posting to Facebook one time a week.  That’s all right, start there.  As you figure out what you are doing, it will get easier and you’ll most likely find that you want to, especially as people start to respond.

With that said, we’ll move on to the good.  

There was a lot of great stuff I saw as I looked over the different Pages that were put together.  The City of Dublin, Ohio has a great Facebook Page and it was stellar to see how they were using their Facebook Pages to keep the community informed with what was going on in the city.  On the OSU Medical Center Page someone asked about hotels in the area and he got an answer!  On the Canal Winchester page there was a discussion on the pool closing early this year.  It’s not shocking that people would talk about the pool closing but it’s great the City allowed it on their Page.  After all, isn’t that the sort of feedback they want to hear?

I found some wonderful examples in the Twitter-sphere also.  

• The City of Columbus did a great job of showing what is going on all over Columbus.  
• MORPC did a great job of educating its followers on using the # to create a hashtag to follow what’s going on at #morpc.

The list of good goes on and on.  The fact that any of these groups are developing a social media presence is a big deal and deserves to be commended.  The challenges can feel huge but these groups took the challenge and are showing that there is a use for social media for the local government and it brings a lot of value to the community.  

As for the bad, what can I say that was bad? There are things that could use improvement such as making sure all of the social media sites are easy to find from the website, and conversely, including website links on Facebook and Twitter.  With that said, all efforts of building an online community through social media deserve to be commended.

Now if I could only get my small little borough in Bucks County, PA to take the hint and implement a social media strategy of their own.  Maybe I should get them to show up to the next Government Social Conference in Columbus in March of 2011!

Twitter 201

Below is an example of a Twitter 201 workshop agenda created for a government agency. The class was taught to management and staff. Keep in mind, all classes are customized according to the needs and interests of the client.

Twitter Accounts and Users

Management:

Target Audience

• Workshop is intended for entry level social networkers. Attendees will have minimal experience with any social network. Most likely have a LinkedIn account but rarely use it. Some have Facebook accounts but those who do use Facebook do so socially, not professionally. Very few use or understand Twitter.

Guidelines

Two days before I was to drive to DC for the inauguration craziness, I backed out of my garage with a car door open.  Bent the door back.  It looked REALLY bad.  What did I immediately do?  Who did I turn to?  My online network.  I knew SOMEBODY or rather SOMEBODIES would be online to help me figure out this problem.  Lots of folks jumped in with support, both logistical and emotional.  The end of the story?  I got 3 positive recommendations for one Rife's Autobody.  I took it there thinking I would be leaving it there.  But this amazing dude shifted the door so it would latch and bent the top of the frame so I wouldn't have a huge gap.  Freakin Fabulous!  My car was now safe to drive. 

Social networking is not just a marketing tool for me.  My online network is my support network.  Themore I interact with folks online, the more they know me and trust me.  And yes, the more they know me and trust me, the more likely they are to recommend my professional services.  

Brian Lockrey of Assist Data Recovery shot a video of me discussing online and offline networking with a group of my tweeps (friends on Twitter).  The video should have been edited, but well, in all honesty imovie was giving me fits and I'm about to leave for DC for my inauguration adventure!  So, if you are strapped for time, just watch the first 4-5 miutes.  You'll get the idea.

My friend Anne is working with the World Economic Forum as a Fellow and
asked me how my Facebook updates differ from my Twitter updates. She
also mentioned being unsure of her purpose for using Twitter. Below is
my response:

I would guess your purpose has something to do with making the world a better place.  Share your experiences, share resources you find and appreciate, share you.   You will deepen your current relationships and build new ones.

I suggest you split your time between Twitter and Facebook.  You will have a few folks on Facebook who are also on Twitter but my guess is they are mostly different populations.  Keep pushing your Tweets to Facebook but recognize that they are different folks.  This means there will be some times that you only post to Facebook or items you only post to Twitter.  If a tweet goes to Facebook that you want to remove, just delete it.  Also remember that you can do more than post status updates to Facebook.  This includes:
- the option to post Links (in which a graphic from the url is posted also),
- the option to post Notes (as I should do with this response!) and
- the option to post video (in which a graphic of the video is posted also.

Anne's response - "Thanks for your thoughts on Twitter. I hadn't thought about the dual purposes before...pushing information, knowledge and questions out, as opposed to more 'what am i doing now' pieces."

My friend Annei is living in Geneva, Switzerland for a few years on a stint as a Global Leadership Fellow at the World Economic Forum. Through the Fellowship, she work full-times for the Forum examining technology issues impacting different regions of the world.  She is especially interested in discovering how IT is impacting government and the NGO sector outside of the US, how we can apply lessons across sectors to improve the access to and practical uses of technology, and what makes cross-sectoral partnerships really work.  All that is coupled with leadership training and academic coursework in economics, international relations and other fun topics. Outside of work, Anne is learning french, visiting as many countries as possible, and discovering the many types of vin chaud.

Sounds cool, doesn't it?  Want to help her make the world a better place?  Follow Anne.