How and When to Use Social Media Channels
to Strategically Support Government Goals
October 2012
Prepared by
Craig Thomler
Managing Director
Delib Australia Pty Ltd
Email:
[email protected]
Phone: 0411 780 194
This guide provides an overview of a number of social media channels available to government and how they may be best used to support government and agency goals.
What is social media?
Social media refers to internet services and mobile phone applica4ons used for the
genera4on, dissemina4on, and discussion of informa4on in textual, pictorial, audio or video formats. It includes all forms of current and future tools used for digital interac4ons
between people.
Social media channels allow people to interact online in a ‘social’ manner, whether for personal and professional reasons, or for official business.
Current examples of social media tools include, but are not limited to, social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn; blogs and blog publica4on plaForms such as
Wordpress; discussion forums and bulle4n boards such as Whirlpool and Aptaclub; micro-‐ blogs such as TwiKer and Yammer; wikis such as Wikipedia and Wikispaces; virtual worlds such as Second Life, sharing sites for documents, video and audio such as YouTube, Scribd and Slideshare, prize sites custom built for hos4ng mash-‐up compe44ons and finally, real-‐ 4me chat and liveblogging tools.
Social media is becoming an increasingly popular set of channels for organisa4ons to use in their communica4on and engagement mix because:
• they provide a cost effec4ve means of engaging with an audience;
• more and more people across different demographics are using social media; and • they are perceived as simple to set up and use.
The Australian and UK Governments support the use of social media and have released several guides and primers regarding its use, including:
UK Cabinet Office Social Media Guidance
COI Engaging through Social Media APSC Code of Conduct in Prac4ce Declara4on of Open Government The AGIMO Government 2.0 Primer
Risks of social media use
This paper does not discuss the risks and mi4ga4ons for specific social media channels. Risks should be determined based on individual program goals, the specific channels (social media and otherwise) used and how these channels are being u4lised.
In many cases the use of social media can reduce risks for engagement programs, through increasing the reach of informa4on or a consulta4on. This allows a more 4ghtly moderated environment than achievable through a town hall mee4ng and may reduce costs and 4meframes.
Social media channels
The channels detailed in this paper are only a sample of those now available, however these should provide a good overview of the main types. There are many varia4ons, combina4ons and new channels developed each year, each with their own strengths, weaknesses and considera4ons.
Blogs
What are they?
A blog is a regular list of ar4cles (‘posts’), usually organised in reverse chronological order (the most recent at top).
Blogs usually, but not always, allow readers to comments on posts. They may be moderated before publica4on.
Blogs may also contain content pages, link lists and naviga4onal tools, similar to regular websites.
Blogs are o_en operated by individuals as personal or professional informa4on-‐sharing channels. Blogs may also be managed by teams, who post regular or semi-‐regular ar4cles.
While specific blogging plaForms are available at liKle or no cost to simplify blogging, most web content management systems can support blogging, albeit in a less managed fashion and with less support for comments or rich content.
When to use them
Blogs are best used for dissemina4ng informa4on or holding structured discussions with audiences on specific topics (similar to an online town hall mee4ng). As a blog is managed by the blog owner, and only those with administra4ve rights may post to it, this provides a measure of direc4on and influence over any discussions.
Blogs are o_en used to discuss the progress of a project, discuss a par4cular topical area or provide rapid, but structured, news updates during a crisis.
Discussion Forums / bulletin boards
What are they?
A discussion forum, also called a message board or bulle4n board, is a website where people can hold conversa4ons by pos4ng text messages and responding to messages from others. Discussions in forums take place over 4me; though on rare occasions can move quickly. They differ from blogs in that a single user doesn't define the terms of each discussion (via blog posts).
Like blogs it is possible to moderate forum posts before they are visible; however this approach tends to significantly restrict the level of interac4on and the overall success of the forum. Indeed, strong modera4on may be required to manage the behaviour of some par4cipants, although this isn’t always the case and well-‐established forums are largely self-‐regula4ng.
When to use them
Forums are best used for unstructured discussion, support requirements and broad community-‐building and engagement ac4vi4es.
As forums provide an almost level playing field for suppor4ng free-‐flowing conversa4ons, they are effec4ve in suppor4ng communi4es who need to ac4vely share informa4on between all par4cipants.
While forums can support structured discussion and the owner of a forum can manage the breadth of a discussion, it is significantly more difficult to control the flow of conversa4on than with a blog.
Microblogs
What are they?
The term
‘micro-‐blogging’ refers to using a service which allows users to distribute short messages very quickly to groups of followers.
TwiKer is the best known and most used micro-‐blog plaForm (about 200 million users worldwide), although compe4tors exist, par4cularly for use within intranets.
These services operate by allowing users to ‘follow’ or ‘friend’ other users and thereby are able to view public messages from them.
TwiKer-‐based search tools allow you to establish networks based on interests or topics rather than on pre-‐exis4ng offline rela4onships. Most micro-‐blog tools also allow private or direct messages to be sent that are only visible to the sender and receiver.
Most micro-‐blogs support some way of grouping messages by topic, in TwiKer using
‘hashtags’. A hashtag is a method of tagging messages with a specific topic by simply placing a # in front of a keyword (such as #egov or #gov20). This allows informa4on sharing and limited discussion on par4cular topics, issues, television programs, conferences and other notable events.
When to use them
Micro-‐blogs have proven extremely effec4ve at breaking news and providing alerts and have been extensively used during various crises and emergencies to disseminate and share
Delib’s TwiKer page
informa4on. They are also becoming useful for Q&A and other customer service/support ac4vi4es, allowing more rapid and direct contact then via phone or email. Finally, micro-‐ blogs have proven effec4ve for sharing informa4on and knowledge rapidly, par4cularly around conferences and television programs.
Micro-‐blogs are best used for dissemina4ng informa4on quickly, linking back to full details in sites or blogs.
An excellent guide for gejng started with using TwiKer in a government sejng can be found here: TwiKer: A Quick Start Guide for People in And around Government.
Prize sites
What are they?
Prize sites are used to operate user-‐driven compe44ons, where the public, or specific groups, are invited to submit a design, applica4on, website or service into a compe44ve process, then through a public vo4ng and/or internal judging process winner(s) are selected.
Prizes are par4cularly popular in the US, with a recent prize announced for the development of an algorithm to model health risks having a US$3 million award.
Prizes have been used to s4mulate interest in and reuse of government data, such as Australia’s Apps4NSW. Canada’s MintChip Challenge asked developers to create a new digital currency.
When to use them
Prizes are best used when the goal is to involve and empower audiences and promote innova4ve development at a low cost. Invi4ng the public, or stakeholder groups, to develop material, then reused by the Department, both builds awareness of the ac4vity and can produce cost-‐effec4ve outcomes.
They are not suitable for policy input or other discussion-‐based processes.
Social networks
What are they?
Social networks are systems that support connec4ons, or 4es, between en44es based on common characteris4cs, interests or goals.
O_en the emphasis is placed on ‘social’, with social networks iden4fied as being casual or personal networks of friendships and acquaintances. However ‘social’ actually refers to a broader defini4on -‐ the characteris4cs of an en4ty and interac4ons between en44es, whether on a personal or professional basis and irrespec4ve of whether they are aware of these interac4ons or not, or whether the interac4on is voluntary or involuntary.
Professional networks such as LinkedIn are also considered ‘social networks’ as they involve interac4ons between en44es.
In the context of the internet, social networks are websites that support connec4ons and interac4ons between people for any purpose (personal, professional or official).
Online social networks are o_en person-‐ centric, with each individual connected to others based on their rela4onships, shared interests and ac4vi4es. They may also centre on other commonali4es such as employers, organisa4ons, na4ons, sports teams, topics, products or services.
The best known social networks are
Facebook (over 800 million ac4ve users) and
MySpace (around 230 million users),
however LinkedIn, a professional networking site, now has over 150 million ac4ve users and other services.
When to use them
Social networks are very versa4le tools for amplifying informa4on sharing and building collabora4ve audiences as short or long-‐term assets, such as for high-‐profile programs and both campaign and non-‐campaign communica4on ac4vi4es.
They are best used when there are clear connec4ons between audience members that encourage them to group together based on shared interests and then share informa4on about those interests.
Social networks are in wide use by companies to monitor and build sen4ment around their profile, products and services. Many government agencies use them to monitor public opinion on key topics or to extend the impact of campaign messages from other media and to build a retainable audience for campaigns over extended periods.
One of the most effec4ve uses of social networks is to build ongoing rela4onships with interested stakeholders. Managed correctly, they can be used to retain audiences between campaigns or maintain effec4ve communica4on with a par4cularly vocal group.
They can also be effec4ve for two-‐way communica4on, like an ‘always-‐on’ focus group, although one of their inherent risks is that par4cipants may cri4que ac4vi4es even when an organisa4on isn’t explicitly seeking feedback.
Virtual worlds
What are they?
Virtual worlds refer to immersive online 3D environments which allow users to interact with each other and with objects and constructs as they can in real life, as well as visualise informa4on in ways impossible in the real world. Virtual worlds are in widespread use around the world for educa4onal, crisis management, consulta4on, tourism and gaming purposes. They are o_en used as effec4ve spaces to convene gatherings, hold mee4ngs and discuss issues, as well as to visualise informa4on in a 3D graphical manner.
The NHS uses Facebook for a wide variety of community engagement ac4vity
Some notable examples of virtual world use include for trea4ng stress-‐related mental illness in soldiers; facilita4ng mobility and ac4vi4es for people suffering mobility and/ or mental impairments from condi4ons such as arthri4s, cerebral palsy, mul4ple sclerosis and mental illness; training doctors using virtual pa4ents; and conduc4ng medical research.
The US Government has developed vGov, a virtual world to be used for disaster and emergency management training, medical
simula4ons and to collaborate, train and study cyber-‐security opera4ons and rehearse response scenarios. Similarly, the US Army uses MOSES as a military training simulator. Several of the most popular virtual worlds are designed and secured specifically for children and teenagers, such as Club Penguin and Habbo Hotel, or for teen and adult gaming, such as
World of Warcra_ and City of Heroes.
A number of commercial providers offer solu4ons that can be used to rapidly deliver a virtual environment, such as Linden Lab, the commercial provider of the persistent Second Life virtual world.
When to use them
Virtual worlds have the capability to represent immersive 3D real-‐world environments, making them ideal for training simula4ons. They are ideal for mul4channel educa4onal experiences, involving both audio-‐visual material and ‘physical’ ac4vi4es, where people must nego4ate a situa4on through physical manipula4on of objects – such as for training health workers on the use of new equipment or allowing a walk-‐through of new health facili4es before they are built.
Virtual worlds can also be used as real-‐4me collabora4ve spaces, for ‘virtual town halls’, conferences and presenta4ons for geographically dispersed audiences. Companies like IBM maintain persistent virtual worlds with conference facili4es and small mee4ng rooms to support both scheduled and impromptu mee4ngs between their staff and external par4es on a global basis.
Wikis
What are they?
Wikis are collabora4ve workspaces used to co-‐develop material and to store knowledge in an updatable format.
The best known example of a wiki is Wikipedia, the world’s largest encyclopaedia, built collabora4vely over ten years. It had 91,000 ac4ve contributors in February 2011 (and a total of 14 million registered users) working on over 17 million ar4cles in 270 languages
(3,597,000 ar4cles in English).
Wikis may be completely open to edits from anyone, restricted to registered users, or support a combina4on of approaches, including approval processes for some or all content.
Effec4vely, wikis take the process of collabora4ve crea4ng and approving content and move it completely online. The largest concern expressed about wikis is their apparently open nature, which create the poten4al for inappropriate updates and vandalism. In prac4ce this has proven to be a minor and easily managed concern, based on applying appropriate editorial guidelines,
limi4ng access to edit controversial topics and using wiki so_ware with full roll-‐back and user logging – meaning that every edit is iden4fiable to a user and is reversible.
When to use them
Wikis are very useful when authors of material for public or internal use are geographically separated and the material requires upda4ng on a regular basis. In par4cular this has proven effec4ve in crisis situa4ons or where expecta4ons are changing rapidly and each itera4on must be recorded.
They have also proven very useful as knowledge management tools, allowing a group of highly knowledgeable people to store their exper4se in a central repository, allowing faster dissemina4on and reducing issues around corporate knowledge loss when skilled individuals leave an organisa4on. For example the Australian Taxa4on Office maintains an internal wiki on different tax jurisdic4ons around the world, a resource that allows specialists on
par4cular na4ons to more readily share their knowledge with colleagues. This protects the organisa4on against the loss of an expert on a par4cular topic.
Wikis are in widespread use across the Australian government via the Govdex service from the Australia’s Department of Finance and Deregula4on, which is essen4ally a wiki with a few extra func4ons. This is used for collabora4on between agencies and external par4es. The UK Government has hired Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales to help them create a research wiki.
Sharing sites
What are they?
Sharing sites are designed to support the sharing of public content such as video and audio material, photos, documents and presenta4ons.
Examples of sharing sites include YouTube and Vimeo for video, iTunes for audio, Flickr for images, SlideShare and Scribd for presenta4ons and documents.
They are generally free to use and offer func4onality such as the customisa4on of
their interface to suit par4cular organisa4ons. They allow for repor4ng, embedding of content into any website, various rights frameworks to manage copyright issues and closed cap4oning for video and audio material. Sharing sites generally include various community
The Scojsh Government uses Flickr to share important images
capabili4es, allowing people to follow an organisa4on, alerts when new presenta4ons become available and even rate or comment on new material (if allowed by the organisa4on).
When to use them
Wherever public content needs to be distributed widely and to be easily discoverable or presented in an accessible manner, it is worth considering the use of these sharing websites. While organisa4ons can host this type of audio/visual and documentary material on their own websites, sharing sites leverage the value of these assets by exposing them to a broader audience, providing improved search capability and offering enhanced func4onality, usually at no cost.
Sharing sites are also valuable when on a budget as they offer substan4al cost savings, par4cularly for video and audio material, as the material is hosted externally, meaning that the organisa4on doesn’t pay for the storage or distribu4on of content.
Organisa4ons can embed the content back into their own websites, generally with beKer repor4ng and func4onality than is possible to deliver within their own cost constraints.
Real-time online chats/liveblogs and Twitter chats
What are they?
Real 4me chat refers to an approach whereby people congregate on an online channel and engage in a real 4me discussion around a given issue or topic.
Chats can be restricted access or public, and can also involve modera4on, such as to facilitate a ques4on and answers session. There are many ways to hold real 4me online chats, such as through the use of chat services such as IRC, via a ‘liveblog’ which is wriKen during an event and allows people to comment and ask ques4ons (poten4ally in a moderated way), or by holding a regularly scheduled conversa4on on a service such as
TwiKer, using a specific ‘hashtag’ (keyword) to aggregate the discussion into a discrete group.
For example, the UK Na4onal Health Service hosts a TwiKer chat each week using the hashtag #nhssm, to discuss social media trends in healthcare.
Facebook also has a chat facility.
When to use them
Real 4me online chat is best used for 4me-‐restricted ac4vi4es where there is an aim to aKract a significant audience and hold a public conversa4on over a given period of 4me. They work quite well when structured around physical launches or events (which are 4me-‐
Regularly scheduled real 4me online chats can subs4tute for some regular face-‐to-‐face mee4ngs or similar engagement ac4vi4es.
They are par4cularly useful in coordina4ng online ac4vi4es between several authors and editors who are geographically dispersed. They can also be useful for par4cipants who might not want to voice their concerns out loud in an office environment, i.e. discussing personal health issues, and for providing technical support.
