How Government Agencies Can (and Have) Use Social Media to Get the Public to TAKE ACTION

How Government Agencies Can (and Have) Use Social Media to Get the Public to TAKE ACTION

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  Good Social Media HowGovernment Agencies Can (and Have) Use Social Media to Get the Public to TAKE ACTION Presented to CAPCOA by David Libby
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  Agenda • Role ofgovernment agencies and social media • Short-term ways to benefit from social media • Long-term way to get the public to TAKE ACTION • Real-world examples of what did and didn’t work • Key to success with social media Good Social Media
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  The Role ofGovernment with Social Media• Informative – Announce improvements, news on projects • Educative – Teach parents & children, support gay rights • Helpful – Fix infrastructure • Preventive – Guide on ways to stay healthy, carpool, walk, bike • Entertaining – Promote events, give-away items • Community Building – Bring people together to support issues, team-up on emergency response Good Social Media
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  Short-Term Ways toBenefit from Social Media • Alert Systems – “Spare the Air” days are promoted on Twitter, Facebook, IMs • Fun, Interactive Content – Photos, videos, polls, surveys • Contests, Sweepstakes – Give-aways, share with friends, edutainment • News, Information – Posts, online video, podcasts, livestreams • Partnerships – Between agencies or with private sector Good Social Media
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  Outcomes from Short-TermUse of Social Media • Increased interactions on social media channels • Helps identify most influential and engaged fans, followers • Builds momentum for the social media channel • Extends the awareness of the content to the friends of the people who interacted with the content • Gives the page a style, flavor, helps with overall positioning and branding Good Social Media
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  TAKE ACTION TOMAKE ACTION – Have a goal! • Issue: Η1N1 virus outbreak in April 2009 put the CDC on the frontline • Solution: CDC built an online communications infrastructure on Facebook, e-mail updates, e-cards, Twitter, RSS feeds, Flickr, podcasts, online videos, and widgets to disseminate timely and accurate flu- related information • Results: CDC created e-cards were a hit, 100 free free health e-cards to send to friends, family, co-workers; research helped CDC target communication to at risk families Good Social Media
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  What Happens WhenNo Action is Taken •BART disrupted cellphone service on BART to avoid a peaceful protest • A group named “Anonymous” took action on social media • Organized the BART website to come down, used Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, distributed digital flyers to various websites for posting • Not only did the BART trains come to a halt, so did their communications team • The press coverage online and on-air swelled and exploded Good Social Media
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  San Bruno Fire:PG&E and Bay Area Red Cross Were Not Alone on Social Media• KGO-TV has a partnership with YouTube for “Citizen video” called U Report and a number of clips were submitted there – overnight coverage on Twitter outpaced its broadcast coverage • SF Chronicle retweeted others and responded to questions – same is true on SFGate’s Facebook account • San Mateo Daily updated furiously using Facebook in an interactive way • San Bruno’s Patch Blog blogged on the topic citing lessons learned from the Oakland firestorm • Contra Costa Times live blogged for hours, mixing in Google Maps Good Social Media
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  Apps for HealthyKids • Campaign: The Apps for Healthy Kids competition is a part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign to end childhood obesity within a generation • Idea: Apps for Healthy Kids challenges software developers, game designers, students, and other innovators to develop fun and engaging software tools and games that drive children, especially “tweens” (ages 9-12) – directly or through their parents – to eat better and be more physically active • Results: 59,946 participants; 41,943 adults; 16,003 kids Good Social Media
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  Citizen Comm withLocal Gov • Campaign:  Open 311 is a standard for citizens to communicate with their local governments •Idea: For instance, SeeClickFix integrates with Open 311 to communicate service requests directly into a city customer relationship management (CRM) system by reporting issues through the Web, widgets or smartphone applications. •Results: Developers across the nation can create applications that will work in any city that uses Open 311. That means citizens will be able to tell their governments what’s happening where they live, participating in improving their own communities. Good Social Media
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  Key to SocialMedia Success • Do your research • Find case studies (gov and private sector) • Know the social media channels • Be creative! • Plan, get agency, Board member buy-in • Budget • Experiment, test • Learn from your mistakes • Have fun with it Good Social Media
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  Discussion Good Social Media