Blogs, podcasts and other social media in government

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Blogs, podcasts and other social media in
government

• A bunch of stuff I learned at the 2007 Chicago
  Social Media Summit.

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• Advanced Learning Institute
• task
• Attend and learn whether this is something our
  agency should use.

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Before the Summit

• It might be nice to have blogs
• It might be nice to have videos on YouTube
• We probably want to distance our agency from this
  sort of social media

My thoughts
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At the Summit
I asked..

• Wont people be able to post our stuff anywhere
  they want?
• If we link to other sites, wont we lose control
  of what might be associated with our agencys
  mission?
• Wont we lose control?

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After the Summit
I realized...

• Yes, we will lose control of how people post and
  use our content
• The alternative (doing nothing) is worse
• We must begin to use social media
• Our agency must associate itself with this media

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What is social media?

• Examples
• YouTube
• blogs and podcasts
• Flickr
• Wikipedia
• Del.icio.us

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What is social media?
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What is social media?

• You can read the headlines of many sites without
  ever visiting them
• You can mash up information from many sites in
  ways no one predicted
• You can know within minutes if someone in the
  world is thinking what you are...and then
  encourage them.

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Social media vs. dot.com

• Low or no-cost entry
• Low or no technology threshold
• Anyone in the world who has a beef with your
  organization can, in an evening, create a
  well-networked, polished work -- ready for a
  group of like-minded individuals to organize
  around.

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How does it work?
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How does it work?

• All social media depends on syndication
• XML feeds like RSS2.0 or Atom tell aggregators
  what people are talking about
• Aggregators categorize information and provide
  ranking based on interest, traffic, timelyness
  and connectivity
• Aggregators can present information from many
  resources or feeds in one personalized interface

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How do people use it?

• Because the aggregators are constantly making
  connections to the content of many sites, you can
  almost instantly know what is being said on any
  topic
• The more you reference other peoples sites, the
  more your site will be referenced
• People can quickly gather around an issue and
  push it into the spotlight of mainstream media

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Social media is powerful

• It enables people of a like-mind to quickly
  foster support on issues
• Social media has demonstrated immense power in
  the past year

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Whats the problem?

• Your agency already is already out there
• Your supporters
• Your employees
• Your detractors
• Your agencys message is not out there

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When to begin

• Before you need to
• Blog authority depends on
• Credibility given by others
• Links to and from others
• Publishing track record

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How to begin

• Create a policy
• Assess whats out there and who the players are
• Initially, support players while crafting a
  strategy

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How to begin

• Have a group blog (not individual)
• Train your staff on best practices
• Write as yourself
• Write it yourself
• Write Regularly
• Link to others

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How to begin

• Track whos reading you
• Keep your privacy
• Watch out for cyberbullies

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Switching to Web..

• (pretend this was a seamless transition...)