This presentation was delivered to an extended management team meeting (audience included managers, supervisors, directors and general managers) in a municipal government. The objective was to gain buy in for adopting social media within the organization.

1. Venturing into the realm of Social Media

2. Who cares about social media?

3. How did we get here?

4. How did we get here?

5. What is it anyway? Social media are primarily Internet-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings. The term most often refers to activities that integrate technology, social interaction and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. ~ Source: Wikipedia 2008

7. YouTube

8. Wikipedia

9. Twitter

10. MySpace

11. Flickr

12. Second Life

13. SlideShare

15. Webcasting

16. Blogs

17. RSS feeds

18. Webinars

19. Text messaging

21. Why should we care? Since 2000, growth rates of Internet use have been highest among seniors – they recorded use rates in 2007 that were nearly 4 times higher than in 2000. Source: Statistics Canada, 2007 data

22. Why should we care? Source: Anderson Analytics, “Social Network Service (SNS) A&U Profiler,” provided to eMarketer, July 13, 2009

24. Member communities are visited by 67% of the global online population

25. Time spent [on social networks] accounts for almost 10% of all internet timeSource: Nielsen Online, March 2009

26. What’s in it for CoB? Opportunity to provide open and transparent information to the community in real time Ability to gain feedback from community regarding various issues Content is being pushed to the resident, rather than relying on them to come find it Provides an opportunity to engage a larger segment of the community

27. What’s in it for CoB? Complaints can be addressed quickly Rumours can be dispelled publicly Will also give the City of Burlington stronger online profile

28. Can be used to enhance customer service by providing frequent information on programs and services Start conversations with residents to get feedback on issues How can we use it?

29. Who is using it in our community? Royal Botanical Gardens Performing Arts Burlington GenNext: United Way Young Professionals - Hamilton/Burlington

33. fire safety and prevention

37. www.shapeburlington.ca

39. How can we use it? Ongoing opportunities to use social media: Environmental issues Transit scheduling and information Promote special events Major announcements Construction updates Human resources recruitment

40. Who else is using it? Elliot Lake Kingston Port Coquitlam OttawaOakville MississaugaNiagara Region North Bay TorontoVaughan WindsorAurdrie, AB Calgary Edmonton Nanaimo Medicine Hat Kelowna Guelph Saskatoon St. John, NBVancouver Victoria, BC Oshawa Thompson, MB Timmins Brampton Surrey, BC

41. Case studies: City of Guelph Region of Niagara City of Calgary And how is it working for them?

42. And how is it working for them? City of Guelph – Facebook,Twitter accounts, Mayor’s and Councillors’ blogs Engaged in social media for about 1 year It has been a positive experience The workload is quite manageable Experience very little negativity from users Females 35 to 45 are the main users

43. And how is it working for them? 2 to 3 employees share the account management responsibilities part-time Moving to multiple authoring permissions for Twitter Expect to move maintenance and account management into customer service responsibilities in next year Now working on policies and procedures for web and social media

44. And how is it working for them? Region of Niagara - 12-month pilot project Drafted a social media policy and created disclaimers with the legal team Recently finalized strategy with senior management team Currently pushing news releases out through Facebook and Twitter

45. Web co-ordinator responsible for updates and account management Back up support from Corporate Communications Will monitor staff time involved – resourcing a big issue Was useful for H1N1 – used YouTube And how is it working for them?

46. And how is it working for them? City of Calgary Joined Facebook in 2008, Twitter in March 2009, blog introduced in July 2009 Launching a new city newsroom in January 2010 Social media is integrated into communication planning Has resulted in being better able read the pulse of the community Found that media view does not always link with public view: people have their own beliefs

47. Have equivalent of 1 full-time person dedicated to social media Still determining the best way to practise social media—sorting out workloads and strategy Several councillors use Twitter and are on a blog platform Calgary’s communications director and general manager supported use of social media And how is it working for them?

48. But what about… Complaints? -> We have an opportunity to correct misinformation in a public forum, addressing complaints shows transparency Inappropriate comments? -> Moderators can remove rude and inappropriate comments – policies and guidelines would outline parameters for removal

49. But what about… Misuse by employees? -> providing content on corporate page as a “friend” -> viewing, distributing or generating inappropriate or unauthorized content -> personal use (productivity concerns) -> Existing HR and IT policies and guidelines address these issues -> May require updates and new policies to fully cover social media concerns

51. Select social media platform (Facebook? Twitter?)

52. Develop preliminary policies and guidelines

54. Begin integrating social media into our communications strategies

55. Integrate social media into the city’s e-Government strategyWhere do we go from here?

56. Questions ?