social media for governments and public service providers
DESCRIPTION
Government agencies and public service providers can effectively use social media to increase public collaboration, engagement and participation. This presentation highlights the importance of social media for service providers and introduce tools to maximize their online presence, incorporate social media in marketing strategy and generating ideas for posts/ tweets. The presentation shows examples of what's working and what's not working for the public sectorTRANSCRIPT
THE EFFECTIVE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIAIN THE PUBLIC SECTOR
Ayman AlafifiUtah State University
WEAU Mid Year Conference – Salt Lake CityNov. 18, 2014
OUTLINE
This is NOT:
Social Media 101
This is:
Who’s on social media?
Maximize your virtual presence
Social media for service providers
Social media and marketing strategy
What’s working and what’s NOT!
THE MOTIVE
The 2009 White House Open Government
Directive requires all federal government
agencies to “open new forms of
communication between government
and the people.”
WHO’S ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Utah ranks 2nd nationwide in e-governance in
2013
VIRTUAL PRESENCE
Social media is step 2!
SEO friendly website
Social media friendly website
Increase discovery, search ability
SOCIAL MEDIA-FRIENDLY WEBSITE
Links to social media hubs
Real-time feeds
Easy to share
SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SERVICE PROVIDERS
It’s not about quantity! Who will answer your social media
phone?
It’s beyond status updates - It’s about people you serve
First impression (profile picture, cover page, contact info)
City of Logan @cityoflogan
GOALS FOR YOUR AUDIENCE: 3E’S
Educate
Entice
Engage
EFFECTIVE?
MARKETING STRATEGY
Having an account is not a strategy!
Know you audience. How?!!
Integrate into your marketing/ PR plan
Who do you need to tag/ follow/ like:
Influencers: popular/ powerful people (e.g. Mayor, State Rep, City
Council)
Advocates: who help you get the message out (e.g. KSL, news
agencies)
Contributors: others who endorse your content (WEAU, WEF)
WHAT YOUR AUDIENCE WANT
Top calls for service
Emails/ Live chat help service
Google Analytics
Short messages (140 characters)
More formal
Link with Facebook!
1
2
3
EXAMPLE
USING HASHTAGS
Do:
One or two hashtags per tweet.
Only hastags that fit the content and used by other users.
Don’ts:
#Do # Not #Hashtag #every #word #in #your #tweet.
Don’t string together as many popular hashtags as possible to receive
attention.
#DontUseMadeUpHashtagsThatMakeNoSense
RIDE THE TRENDS
Search for hashtags and read
feedback
Attention spans are very short! Trends
don’t last very long. Engage quickly.
SET UP ALERTS
Twitter Alerts
OUT OF IDEAS?
Set up Google Alerts:
“Central Weber Sewer
Improvement District”
membranes wastewater,
WEFTEC
OUT OF IDEAS? Cover events live (post tweets, pictures, etc.)
#WEFTEC14
Break down a report (strategic plan) to a list of
tweets/ posts
ONE HUB.. MULTIPLE PLATFORMS
EVEN EASIER
POLICY?
Review existing social media policies
Your page/account = your responsibility!
Monitor for:
Language and tone
Copyright and intellectual property
Privacy control
Protection of proprietary and confidential info
WHAT WORKS? Make it personal! Post questions and illicit responses.
Engagement is KEY
Answer that phone
Use pictures, videos (informative, educational, humorous)
Find trending hastags and USE them
Create Google Alerts and use Twitter Alerts
Run surveys: use crowdsourcing tools to gather market data
Do a G+ hangout with the officials.
THANK YOU(435)881-0541
mfb.com/ayman.afifi
@aymanalafifi
linkedin.com/in/aymanalafifi