Keynote address for the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Luncheon for Legislative Information and Communications Staff and National Association of Legislative Information Technology professionals on October 10, 2012.

1. How to Use Social Media
(and Not Lose Your Job)
Andrew Krzmarzick
Director of Community Engagement, GovLoop
@krazykriz

2. Our Time Together Today…
1. How are people using social media?
– The Public
– Your Peers
2. How should policy be implemented?
– Internal
– External

3. Caveat: My Experience…
Starship Captain Lawyer (Not!)

4. What is ?
Tools: Online community of
• Blogs
government colleagues
• Forums
• Groups
that help each other
• Datasets to do their jobs better.
• Video / Photo Sharing
• Tools
Value: 60,000 Members
• Learn and share with peers • Federal, state and local employees
• Contractors, non-profits, academia
• Get questions answered quickly • International (Canada, UK, Australia, etc.)
• Solve problems faster
• Find and contribute best practices

5. I
Source: http://www.pewinternet.org/

6. Who uses social media more?

7. Who uses social media?
AGE
Source: http://pewinternet.org/topics/Digital-Divide.aspx

8. Source: http://pewresearch.org/millennials/quiz/

9. Who uses social media?
AGE
Source: http://pewinternet.org/topics/Digital-Divide.aspx

10. Who uses social media more?
OR ?
Source: http://pewinternet.org/topics/Digital-Divide.aspx

11. Who uses social media?
GENDER
Source: http://pewinternet.org/topics/Digital-Divide.aspx

12. Who uses social media?
GENDER
Source: http://pewinternet.org/topics/Digital-Divide.aspx

13. Who uses social media more?
GENDER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR4LdnFGzPk

14. Who accesses more by phone?
OR OR ?
Source: http://pewinternet.org/topics/Digital-Divide.aspx

15. Who accesses more by phone?
51% of Hispanics
vs.
46% of Blacks …use their phones
to access the internet
vs.
33% of Whites
Source: http://pewinternet.org/topics/Digital-Divide.aspx

16. Who accesses more by phone?
36% of Hispanics
vs.
33% of Blacks …use their phones
to access social media
vs.
19% of Whites
Source: http://pewinternet.org/topics/Digital-Divide.aspx

17. Who uses ?
Source: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?id=8394258414&ref=mf&note_id=205925658858

18. Who uses ?

19. Who uses ?
Source: http://pewinternet.org/topics/Digital-Divide.aspx

20. Source: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Politics-on-SNS

21. …oh, and

22. Source: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Communities-and-Local-News.aspx

23. Source: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Communities-and-Local-News.aspx

24. Source: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Communities-and-Local-News.aspx

26. How do we
Are we
translate
being
political
political
interest
or are we
to
being
civic
helpful?
engagement?

27. Reactions?

28. Not Meagan Dorsch
(but could be)
• At least 46 states have legislators actively using Twitter, but still
only 10% of all state legislators are using it
• Top five Twittering state legislatures are Florida, Missouri, Pennsylvania,
California, and Illinois.
• Every state has a legislator using Facebook - more than 2,500
state lawmakers.
• Top five Facebook state legislatures: New York, Minnesota, Michigan, Texas,
and North Carolina.
http://www.dcigroupdigital.com/digital-america/

29. • provides a side by side comparison of the social media participation rate of
each of the 50 states.
• compares state's Facebook and Twitter accounts to numbers in 2010 census.
• provides links to Twitter and Facebook accounts for elected officials
• help public affairs and communications professionals better understand the
geographical differences in the use of social networking technology to
facilitate more strategic campaign plans.
http://www.dcigroupdigital.com/digital-america/

30. Our hosts rock, too!
http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/telecom/legislative-social-media-sites.aspx

31. Plan:

32. Invited: 1,500
Going: 51
Maybe: 27
Total: ~5%
Comments = 44
Participants = 15
Total = 1%

34. Source: http://www.senatesite.com/home/about/

36. Source: http://www.nysenate.gov/mobile

40. Reactions?

41. Should you have social media policy?

42. What do you think?
• Form a small group with 4-5 people around you
• Assign a spokesperson / note-taker
• Using the worksheet, take 10 minutes to address the
scenario assigned to your group
• Be ready to share with the large group
• We’ll address each scenario for 5-10 minutes

43. Scenario 1: Venting in the Wrong Venue
Karla is a state legislative staff member. After a
particularly difficult day, Karla is frustrated with a
colleague and makes the following comment on Twitter:
“Ridiculous how [name of office] keeps incompetent
people around. Time to clean House!” She makes the
comment after work hours from a home computer on her
personal Twitter account.
Questions
• Would / should Karla lose her job?
• What would be a fair policy in terms of how agency employees
should use social media during their personal time?

44. Scenario 1: Venting in the Wrong Venue
• Recommendation 1:
• An employee should be extremely careful in posting anything
about work, especially if it casts the agency, a colleague or a
customer in a negative light.
• Recommendation 2:
• A fair policy would seek to clarify the difference between
professional and personal use and connect online behavior to
current guidance on the appropriate conduct of an employee in a
public setting.

45. Scenario 2: The Uber-Active Citizen
Your lawmaker has a Facebook page that is relatively
active. It is important to him/her that you post and gain
feedback on pending legislation. However, there is one
active citizen who frequently posts off-topic comments.
He never uses derogatory language or explicitly attacks
either the lawmaker or the other commenters.
Questions
• What would you do with this poster’s comments?
• Do you have a policy in place for this kind of scenario?
• What kind of policy would govern this situation?

46. Scenario 2: The Belligerent Citizen
Recommendations:
• While it depends on the specific comments, these are most likely of
the variety that should remain on the page.
• Reach out to the citizen to explain your policy and coach the person
as to how they can stay on topic.
• Strengthen your policy to ensure that you are able to delete off-topic
comments that detract from the conversation.
• Create a “Comment Graveyard”?

47. For Staff and Legislators
• Transparency. Your honesty (or dishonesty) will be quickly noticed in the
social media environment…use your real name, and organization, and be
clear about your role.
• Be careful. Make sure your efforts to be transparent don't violate privacy,
confidentiality, and legal guidelines.
• Write what you know. Make sure you write and post about your areas of
expertise.
• Perception is reality. In online social networks, the lines between public
and private, personal and professional are blurred. Be sure that all content
associated with you is consistent with your work and with the Legislature’s
professional standards.
http://www.ncsl.org/documents/nalit/AKSocialMedia.pdf

48. For Staff and Legislators
• Are you providing information? If it helps people improve knowledge or
solve problems—then it's adding value.
• Act Responsibly: Participation in social computing is not a right but an
opportunity... Please know and follow these guidelines as well as the Alaska
Legislature’s Computer Acceptable Use Policy, as well as our Ethics Policy.
• Correct errors quickly. If you make a mistake, admit it. Be upfront and be
quick with your correction.
• If it gives you pause, then stop. If you're about to publish something that
makes you even the slightest bit uncomfortable, don't shrug it off and hit
'send.' Take a minute to review the material, try to figure out what's bothering
you, and then fix it.
http://www.ncsl.org/documents/nalit/AKSocialMedia.pdf

49. For Staff and Legislators
http://www.ncsl.org/documents/nalit/AKSocialMedia.pdf

50. For Staff and Legislators
• Limited Personal Use. During normal business hours, personal
communications and obtaining information for personal and incidental
uses of social media shall be limited to avoid conflicts or interference with
legislative duties and responsibilities.
• Security. Senate issued computers, laptops, mobile devices and other
hardware, or wireless facility used for social media shall have up-to-date
software to protect against destructive technical incidents, including but
not limited to cyber, virus, and spyware/adware attacks.
• Management of Senate Social Media and Approved Social
Media Accounts. Whenever possible, institute available controls or
settings to prohibit or limit the ability of the public to post information
and comments that are inconsistent or that violate the Senate's social
media policy on content of social media;
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2012/docs/SenateSocialMediaUsePolicy.htm

51. For Staff and Legislators
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2012/docs/SenateSocialMediaUsePolicy.htm

52. For Staff and Legislators
Personal or private use during work hours is strictly prohibited.
Any such use should occur on employee's personal, after hours or break
times, provided that use of government computers is prohibited because of
the potential misuse or possible threats to system. Any and all personal/
private use must be on personal or private computer equipment.
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2012/docs/SenateSocialMediaUsePolicy.htm

53. For Staff and Legislators
• Don’t tweet or post when you are angry or in a bad mood. You
may say something you’ll regret.
• Remember that your bosses can go back and check what you’re
tweeting or posting, and at what time of day. Therefore, don’t
show off your awesome “Bejewelled” or “Farmville” scores, for example,
when you are supposed to be working.
• You want to come across as a real person, not a robot. Don’t be
afraid to show your personality as long as you don’t embarrass yourself,
your representative, or the legislature.
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2012/docs/SenateSocialMediaUsePolicy.htm

54. Policy Considerations (from Federal CIO Council)
• Goal: not to say “No” to social media websites
and block them completely, but to say “Yes,
following security guidance,” with effective and
appropriate information assurance security and privacy
controls.
• Focus on user behavior, both personal and
professional, and to address information confidentiality,
integrity, and availability when accessing data or
distributing government information.

55. Training Considerations (from Federal CIO Council)
• Provide periodic awareness and training of policy,
guidance, and best practices:
ü what information to share, with whom they can share it, and
what not to share.
ü mindful of blurring their personal and professional life - don’t
establish relationships with working groups or affiliations that may
reveal sensitive information about their job responsibilities.
ü Operations Security (OPSEC) awareness and training to
educate users about the risks of information disclosure and various
attack mechanisms

56. For Citizen Engagement
This is a moderated blog, and TSA retains the discretion to determine
which comments it will post and which it will not. That means all
comments will be reviewed before posting. In addition, we expect that
participants will treat each other, as well as our agency and our
employees, with respect. We will not post comments that contain vulgar
or abusive language; personal attacks of any kind; or offensive terms
that target specific ethnic or racial groups. We will not post comments
that are spam, are clearly "off topic" or that promote services or
products. Comments that make unsupported accusations will also not be
posted. Off topic comments can be posted in our "Off Topic" post as long
as they conform to the comment policy.
http://blog.tsa.gov/2008/01/comment-policy.html

57. For Citizen Engagement
Please be reminded that Florida has a broad public records
law. Comments, messages, and links posted here may be
subject to public records law. Article 1, Section 24(c) of the Florida Constitution,
states each house of the Legislature is exclusively authorized to adopt rules governing the
enforcement of the public records with respect to its own public records.
This is a family-friendly public forum. Please keep your comments clean and observe the
following guidelines when posting on our page:
• Please do not post vulgar, graphic, obscene or explicit comments or materials.
• Please do not post comments or materials that are abusive or hateful. This expressly
includes but is not limited to posts that attack a person or entity based on race, ethnicity
or religion or posts that represent personal attacks on any person or entity.
• Please do not post solicitations or advertisements. This includes posts that endorse or
promote any financial or commercial entity, product or service as well as posts that
defame any financial or commercial entity, product, or service.
• Please do not post comments or materials that suggest or encourage illegal activity.
Failure to comply with the guidelines listed above will result in your posts being deleted.
http://www.facebook.com/MyFLHouse/info

58. For Citizen Engagement
http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/telecom/policies-related-to-legislative-use-social-media.aspx

59. Andrew Krzmarzick
andrew@govloop.com
GovLoop.com/profile/AndrewKrzmarzick
@krazykriz
202-352-1806