Mergel says that the best way for government managers to engage the public via technology is to use the tools themselves – officials must be seen as both engaged and engaging! As Mergel notes, public managers have to “create energy and vibrancy so that others start finding value in it.” One manager featured in the report puts it this way: “Create the party everyone wants to join.” That’s a wiki good idea.

This applies to all social tools, not just wikis. Get out there and use them!

Every company has a list of projects and responsibilities they want their community manager to manage. But don’t just think about the tasks you want them to complete. Think about finding someone — with a personality and passion that reflects your brand — who can complete them in an independent manner.

Managing all of these networks often presents two options: either set them all up to post to each other and get the same content and updates on every network, or spend an inordinate amount of time typing made-up words into your address bar.

If you’ve got the right tools in hand, though, your task becomes a little easier. There are a few great applications out there that will help you manage all (or at least some) of your social networks all in one place, making interacting and connecting much simpler and more efficient.

Some of the tools they suggest?  TweetDeck, Brizzly, and Seesmic.

• Are you using video to market your small business? Not sure it’s worthwhile? Well, consider this: 62% of adult American Internet users watch videos on video-sharing sites* such as YouTube.com.
• If your Facebook business Fan page has more than 100 fans, you are in the top 65%* of all users.
• If you post at least one Twitter update per day, you are among the top 15% most active Twitter users*.
• If you have 100 Twitter followers or more, you are among the top 7% of Twitter users as measured by number of followers.

If you need help hitting any of these benchmarks, govfresh recently had a good article on the subject, titled “Social media in government is like riding a bike.”

Why do I tell this story? Because I think government can greatly benefit from a “small glider bike” when first taking on social media. Too many agencies are reluctant to try not just because they’re afraid of falling, but because some mistakes lead to severe consequences.

During several panels and workshops, I’ve shared our draft social media guide and asked for feedback from social media users. I also posted the guide on my blog. After all, isn’t that what public engagement is all about? You can download the guidelines here.

Be sure to check out Introduction to Social Media for some very instructional videos.  We will be adding more resources as we see them (or as you request them).

If you think of anything else we need, let us know in the comments or contact us.  Thanks!

1. Build It, And They Might Come

For years, people have asked “What’s your brand’s AOL/Second Life/Twitter/YouTube/iPhone/MySpace Strategy?” Facebook is the world’s leading social network, with over 400 million users — 50 percent of whom login everyday. It’s easy for brands to become distracted by the latest trends, but let’s face it, Facebook is the real deal. Affluent consumers are slowly gravitating to social networking, specifically Facebook. However, simply creating a Facebook presence alone just doesn’t cut it. It’s better to create the destination, guide it, nurture it — and allow your followers to flock to an official channel. Your brand’s Facebook Page may not explode overnight, but at least you control the medium.

Does your organization have a Facebook presence?  Let us know in the comments.

1. Post at least weekly to maintain an audience. Less than weekly tends to lose your audience as they don’t develop a habit.
2. Keep a couple of posts in hand at all times to cover busy periods. Otherwise you can easily miss a few weeks and start losing your audience.

Phil Bertolini, CIO of Oakland County, Mich., established a Cost-Reduction/Investment blog in summer 2009 on which employees, regardless of rank, could propose cost-cutting ideas. Suggestions from the blog have slashed $600,000 from the county’s annual IT budget so far.