Blogs, podcasts and other social media in government Kirk Keller - [email protected] Blogs, podcasts and other social media in government A bunch

Blogs, podcasts and other social media in government Kirk Keller - [email protected]

Blogs, podcasts and other social

media in government•A bunch of stuff I learned at the

2007 Chicago Social Media Summit.


•Advanced Learning Institute

• task:

•Attend and learn whether this is something our agency should use.


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:


At the Summit

•Won’t people be able to post our stuff anywhere they want?

•If we link to other sites, won’t we lose control of what might be associated with our agency’s mission?

•Won’t we lose control?

I asked..


After the Summit

•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

I realized...


What is social media?

•Examples:

•YouTube

•blogs and podcasts

•Flickr

•Wikipedia

•Del.icio.us



Web 1.0

- One-to-many- Preach/spin- Control- Formal and predetermined

Web 2.0

- Many-to-many- Advocate- Influence or persuade- Informal and dynamic



•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.


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.


How does it work?





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


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 people’s sites, the more your site will be referenced

•People can quickly gather around an issue and push it into the spotlight of mainstream media







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






What’s the problem?

•Your agency already is already out there

•Your supporters

•Your employees

•Your detractors

•Your agency’s message is not out there




When to begin

•Before you “need” to

•Blog authority depends on:

•Credibility given by others

•Links to and from others

•Publishing track record


How to begin

•Create a policy

•Assess what’s out there and who the players are

•Initially, support players while crafting a strategy




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


How to begin

•Track who’s reading you

•Keep your privacy

•Watch out for cyberbullies


Switching to Web..

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

Documents

Blogs, podcasts and other social media in government Kirk Keller - [email protected] Blogs, podcasts and other social media in government A bunch