Tag Archives: social networks

Power of Social Media in a Crisis

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FP Wellman, a former Army public affairs officer, has an older post about the power of social media and new technology in a crisis.  He explains how social tools can be very helpful to existing crisis response plans, specifically talking about a shooting and a blizzard:

Mr. Don Carr, Director of Public Affairs, tells me that “most of what we did is part of the PA (public affairs) annex to the installation’s adverse weather response plan. The SM sites are not specifically part of the annex; we just did it. Our update to the annex will roll ‘em in.”

Mr. Carr goes on to note what made the social media outlets especially powerful “was the ‘instant’ feedback we got on FB and Twitter. As residents or employees would post a comment about how things were, I was able to cut-n-paste them into emails to the IOC (Installation Operations Center), DPW (Department of Public Works) or the Housing folks, so that priorities for plows and other work could be adjusted accordingly.”

I think if you are a PIO or anyway involved in crisis response, this is a very valuable article.

Statistics to Judge Your Social Media Efforts

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Business.gov (“the Official Business Link to the U.S. Government”) posted recently an article on quantifying your social media efforts.  The article provides a list of social media benchmarks, which should be helpful for any organization.

  • 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.

Building a Social Media Guide

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Orange County, California, details how it created a social media guide.  And the best part?

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.

Study on the Impact of Government 2.0

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SmartPlanet reports on a study by Grant Thornton and FreeBalance on the impact of government 2.0.  The conclusions?

Government 2.0 — enabled through social networking tools — provides benefits such as reduced cost of engagement through more productive tools and processes, simplified knowledge creation and retention though usable applications, easier knowledge sharing, and enhanced information discovery through transparency and data mashups. It all sounds like good mom-and-apple-pie stuff, but is it actually being put to use?

The Grant Thornton report says yes.

And on better using social media and government 2.0?

To help government better take advantage of social networking technologies, Grant Thornton suggests that government organizations better incorporate “design thinking” (Government 2.0 mindset) as a supplement to “management thinking” (Government 1.0 mindset).

“Design thinking” uses a collaborative and iterative style of working that builds up ideas – the best ideas surfacing from a pool of many.” The consultancy also recommends that government managers embrace “viral” change, versus the more static, top-down command-and-control decrees. “Change Management in the Web 2.0 era is more peer-to-peer, viral – change is pulled by participating constituents, employees, customers.”

These are conclusions that many of us have already realized, but I think the study is a good reassurance of where government 2.0 is going.

Library of Congress to Archive Tweets

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Yesterday, Twitter and the Library of Congress announced that the Library will digitally archive all public tweets made on the social network Twitter.  The Library of Congress announced the plan on its blog, and Twitter did the same on its blog.  Wired has a good overview of the news.

Something I didn’t know, but the Library of Congress archives lots of websites (from the LoC blog):

So if you think the Library of Congress is “just books,” think of this: The Library has been collecting materials from the web since it began harvesting congressional and presidential campaign websites in 2000. Today we hold more than 167 terabytes of web-based information, including legal blogs, websites of candidates for national office, and websites of Members of Congress.

We also operate the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program www.digitalpreservation.gov, which is pursuing a national strategy to collect, preserve and make available significant digital content, especially information that is created in digital form only, for current and future generations.

The Federal government, the White House, and the Library of Congress are taking Twitter seriously- are you?  Let us know in the comments.

Giving the White House Feedback Thru Twitter

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ExpertLabs and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have teamed up to help the White House identify major goals:

The White House wants to identify Grand Challenges in science and technology that will help inspire a new era of innovation. And they’re asking for your ideas, right on Twitter. These challenges will inspire innovations that create jobs, improve education, power clean energy, transform health care, and more.

Here’s how to help:

  1. Think big! Imagine an ambitious science or technology challenge (something huge like the moon landing!) which you think can inspire great new ideas and inventions.
  2. Reply to the @whitehouse tweet with your idea, or a link to ideas you find interesting. Use the hashtag #whgc.
  3. Encourage your friends and followers to respond, too!

This is a pretty neat way to use the social networking site Twitter to help the country. And you organization could do something similar by polling Facebook friends or Twitter users in your community.

And just so you know this is real, here’s the tweet from @whitehouse:

What Grand Challenge should be on our Nation’s to-do list? Reply w/your idea now! http://bit.ly/dy9fkL #whgc

Creating Your City’s Facebook Presence

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AllFacebook, an incredible Facebook resource, has a great new article on starting your brand’s presence on Facebook.  I know we post a lot of articles that don’t specifically apply to governments or the public sector, but these articles typically have the best information.  Like this:

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.

Social Media for Government Communications

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Software provider Adobe’s Government Bits Blog has a great post on using social media for government communications:

One lesson from social media is the immediacy and richness of information that can be shared through digital channels. Blogs, online video sharing platforms and Twitter have demonstrated the power and desire by the public to share information quickly and easily.

An example of injecting social media lessons into achieving core agency missions is the French Government, who in partnership with students of EPITA (France Graduate School of Computer Science and Advanced Technologies) created a cross-platform widget, DirectGouv, to increase transparency and communication to the press community and thus, to citizens-at-large.

Bringing Attention to Open Government

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govfresh has another good article, this time by Luke Fretwell.  He lists 10 ways we can bring more attention to our open government and government 2.0 initiatives, including blogging, leveraging social video sites, guestposting on major news sites (like Mayor Newsom on TechCrunch), and simplifying our message.

A very good read.

FEMA’s Social Media Site

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The Federal Emergency Management Agency has a great site for it’s own social media accounts and explanation of what they do.  Check it out here, and read FEMA’s factsheet on social media usage here.

About this page, FEMA writes:

FEMA has been engaging in Web 2.0 tools and on social media sites nationwide as part of its mission to prepare the nation for disasters. FEMA’s goals with social media are: to provide timely and accurate information related to disaster preparedness response and recovery; provide the public with another avenue for insight into the agency’s operations; and engage in what has already become a critical medium in today’s world of communications. FEMA’s social media ventures function as supplemental outreach, and as appropriate channels for unofficial input.

All FEMA social media accounts outside of the www.FEMA.gov domain carry the branded femainfocus look and feel. This provides consistency and accountability for content in that the public and our partners can rest assured it is the authorized FEMA account and that the information is accurate. Citizens can engage more easily with the emergency management community through social media sites, and increase their role in disaster preparedness, response and recovery.

FEMA has wholeheartedly engaged social media, how does your organization stack up?