Highlights government use of social virtual networking, including tools like GovLoop, Disgover, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Flickr. Delivered on April 15, 2009 in Knoxville, TN, at the Government 2.0 Boot Camp.

1. Social Virtual Networking
(Not Just for Kids …Anymore!)
April 14-15, 2009
Knoxville, Tennessee
Andrew Krzmarzick
Senior Project Coordinator
The Graduate School
http://www.graduateschool.edu
Phone: 919-767-9088
Email: Andrew_Krzmarzick@grad.usda.gov
Twitter: @krazykriz
LinkedIn: AndrewKrzmarzick
Blog: http://generationshift.blogspot.com
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3.  Social Virtual Networks – What?
 Social Networks – How?
 Social Networks – Why?
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4. Someone of ANY age
who is actively using social media
and engages others
on the Internet
with a quot;2.0quot; mindset:
creative, collaborative
and community oriented.
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5. Source: Flickr – lyzadanger’s photostream
www.grad.usda.gov

6. Generations Explained
% of total adult % of internet-using
Generation Name* Birth Years, Ages in 2009
population population
Gen Y (Millennials) Born 1977-1990, Ages 18-32 26% 30%
Gen X Born 1965-1976, Ages 33-44 20% 23%
Younger Boomers Born 1955-1964, Ages 45-54 20% 22%
35%
Older Boomers Born 1946-1954, Ages 55-63 13% 13%
Silent Generation Born 1937-1945, Ages 64-72 9% 7%
G.I. Generation Born -1936, Age 73+ 9% 4%
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project December 2008 survey. N=2,253 total adults, and margin of error is ±2%. N=1,650 total
internet users, and margin of error is ±3%.
*All generation labels used in this report, with the exception of “Younger -” and “Older -” Boomers, are the names conventionalized by
Howe and Strauss’s book, Generations: Strauss, William & Howe, Neil. Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069
(Perennial, 1992). As for “Younger Boomers” and “Older Boomers,” enough research has been done to suggest that the two decades
of Baby Boomers are different enough to merit being divided into distinct generational groups.
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7. 2.0
1.0
www.grad.usda.gov

8. www.grad.usda.gov

9. Who has the most
connections/friends/followers?
www.grad.usda.gov

10. The Gurus: Lee and Sachi LeFever
The Mecca: http://www.CommonCraft.com
www.grad.usda.gov

11. Information
Ideas
Insight
Sharing Issues
Individuals
Intelligence
www.grad.usda.gov

12. www.grad.usda.gov

13. Contact Me
Steve Ressler
Founder, GovLoop.com
www.grad.usda.gov

14. Business Problem:
Millions of
government
employees working
on similar issues but
no safe place to
connect and share
best practices
Solution: GovLoop.com - Social Network
for Government Community
www.grad.usda.gov

15. • Assessed various technology
solutions
• Ning provided
a low-cost and
flexible
framework
to build
www.grad.usda.gov

16. Build-Out
• Assessed similar community sites
• Assessed
popular
Ning
networks
• Test users
www.grad.usda.gov

17. Roll-Out
• Launched site grassroots to peers
• Coordinated with good
government organizations
• News ideas generate press
www.grad.usda.gov

18. Building Momentum
• Identify/Empower Early Adopters
• Market where People Are
– Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc
www.grad.usda.gov

19. Continual Evolution
Added Features
Along the Way
• Videos
• Radio
• Photos
• Podcast
• Member and
Project of Week
www.grad.usda.gov

20. • Feedback from Members
• Polls and Surveys
• Google Analytics
www.grad.usda.gov

21. www.grad.usda.gov

22. Where Are We Now?
• Nearly 9,000 members
• CTO, CIO, Politicians, Professors, and
Innovative Minds across F/S/L/I
• Over 1,00 blogs, 350 discussions, 300
groups, 100 events,
3,300 photos, and 200 videos
www.grad.usda.gov

23. Contact Me
Steve Ressler
Founder, GovLoop.com
Email: founder@govloop.com
Twitter: @govloop
www.grad.usda.gov

24. www.grad.usda.gov

25. www.grad.usda.gov

26. Mission:
To connect millions of public sector professionals
with their colleagues, government partners
and social groups in a single knowledge sharing
and learning community,
enabling them to access information
that will improve their jobs,
their careers and their lives.
www.grad.usda.gov

27. Disgover is for:
Government Professionals: Public Sector Partners:
• Current and former • Learning Organizations
• Federal, mil., state & local • Professional Organizations
• Nearing retirement • Trade Unions
• Changing jobs or locations • Special Interest Groups
• Working across agencies • Content Partners/Providers
• In learning teams • Public Service
Organizations
• Government agencies’
administrative personnel
www.grad.usda.gov

28. Meet
Jack
Bauer
www.grad.usda.gov

29. See
Jack
sign
up
for
class
www.grad.usda.gov

30. See
Jack
snarl
at
email
for
class
www.grad.usda.gov

31. See Jack complete sign-up
and gain access to:
• Class materials
• Class discussion/forums
• Teacher blog
• Telework newsfeed
• Events/calendar/announcements
• Relevant other groups
• Relevant other courses
• Other class members and instructor
www.grad.usda.gov

32. See
Jack
smile
at
anywhere,
anytime
extended
classroom
www.grad.usda.gov

33. www.grad.usda.gov

34. Hi again, Lee!
www.grad.usda.gov

35. • Free
• Social Networking
• “Micro-blogging”
• Send and read user updates
 aka “Tweets”
• Text-based
• 140 characters or less
• Anywhere, anytime via cell or computer
www.grad.usda.gov

36. Profile: Memphis Fire Department
www.grad.usda.gov

37. GovTwit Directory
• 200+ State and
Local
• 170+ Federal
Agencies/ Executive
Branch
• 90+ The Hill
http://newthinking.bearingpoint.com/2008/11/20/govtwit-directory/
www.grad.usda.gov

38. http://twitter.pbwiki.com/USGovernment
www.grad.usda.gov

39. www.grad.usda.gov

40. @Astro_Mike Tweets 
@FDArecalls
www.grad.usda.gov

41. Hashtag: #gov20boot
Real-time tweeting
www.grad.usda.gov

42. Top 10 Ways Government’s Using Twitter
Federal: Crowd-sourcing ideas to improve
State: Communicating with citizens
County: Posting links to key information
City: Reporting incidents, sending alerts
Legislators: Sharing proceedings from floor
www.grad.usda.gov

43. Top 10 Ways Government’s Using Twitter
Candidates: Getting out the vote
Good Gov Groups: Pressing for change, innovation
Academia: Engaging in thought leadership
All: Promoting events, surveys, studies, etc.
All: ???
www.grad.usda.gov

44. www.grad.usda.gov

45. www.grad.usda.gov

46. www.grad.usda.gov

47. www.grad.usda.gov

48. Groups
www.grad.usda.gov

49. 5 Ways Government Could Use LinkedIn
1. Recruit candidates for open positions
2. Find job candidate references/recommendations
3. Launch discussions with industry through groups
4. Engage citizens and constituents in conversation
5. Create cross-agency and international connections
www.grad.usda.gov

50. 3 Ways to Use
for Government
www.grad.usda.gov

51. 1. Post Your Budget
2. Host a Community
Center Website
3. Share Your History
www.grad.usda.gov

52. www.grad.usda.gov

53. www.grad.usda.gov

54. www.grad.usda.gov

55. ?
www.grad.usda.gov

56. Sylvia Sweets Tea Room
Corner of School and
Main Streets, Brockton, Mass.
• Uploaded January 8, 2008 with assorted notes,
subjects, call number, etc.
• 20+ comments from Jan 2008 to last week
www.grad.usda.gov

57. • Internal meetings began early 2007
• Zero staff members worked full-time on this project!
• Purchased a Flickr Pro account at $24.95/year
• 1-time cost of 222 hours of tech programming over 6
months
• Uploaded 3,100 photos in January 2008
• Ongoing costs involve a 7-member team,
equivalent to 1 FTE (including tracking LOC
photo usage on external blogs, communications, etc)
www.grad.usda.gov

58. …9 Months Later:
…24 Hours Later
• 5,621 photos as of 3/19/09
• All 3,100+ photos viewed
• 10 Million+ views
• 392,000 views on the
photostream
• Site averages 500,000
views a month
• 650,000 views of photos
• 7,166 comments
• 1.1 million total views on LOC
• Flickr members favorited
account
79% of photos
• 420 photos had comments
• Between Jan - May 2008,
average LOC PPOC websites
• 1,200 photos were favorited rose 20% per month,
compared to 2007
www.grad.usda.gov

59. “Increasing the ability to engage and
connect with photos increases the
sense of ownership and respect that
people feel for these photos.”
“Lessons learned from this project
provide guideposts to the type of
experience that people would like to
have with our collections.”
www.grad.usda.gov

60. Steps to Implementation
1. Why? Tie to mission, goals, objectives, needs, gaps.
2. Who? Assign owner/contributors; define audience.
3. How? Decide which tools best meet goals.
4. What? Content is the key to success.
5. When? Create a schedule to implement and evaluate.
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61. “I have never been one for networking of any kind,
so I wasn’t really thrilled at the prospect
of jumping into the world of social networking.
However, as I aspired to the ranks of the federal
government’s Senior Executive Service,
I realized that building coalitions and developing
an extensive network of associates helps us
collaborate and share best practices and
provides for the flow of diverse ideas and diverse thinking.”
-Linda Cureton, NASA CIO, April 20, 2009
http://fcw.com/Articles/2009/04/20/Cureton-comment.aspx
www.grad.usda.gov

62. Federal Brain Drain
 60% of all Federal workers
are eligible to retire by 2015
 90% of 6,000 Federal Executives
 70% of boomers expect to work in their
retirement years
 68% expect to never retire – cycle of work/play
 Half of boomers want second careers that help
others
Sources:
- Partnership for Public Service, Issue Brief PPS-05-08: Federal Brain Drain, November 2005
- AARP, Knowledge Management, Staying Ahead of the Curve 2003: The AARP Working in Retirement Study.
- Harvard School of Public Health-MetLife foundation Initiative on Retirement and Civic Engagement, Reinventing Aging:
Baby Boomers and Civic Engagement, October 23, 2005
- Merrill Lynch, New Retirement Survey: A Perspective from the Baby Boomer Generation, February 23, 2005.
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63. Partnership for Public Service Survey
 42% of college juniors/seniors were
extremely/very interested in working for the
federal government
 Only 13 out of 3,000 students felt extremely
or very knowledgeable about federal jobs.
Source:
- Ruzick, K. Students Eager for Government Jobs, Unsure How to Get Them.
Found at goveexec.com/dailyfed/0506/0506r1.htm.
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65. • resolve the government’s issues with standard terms and
conditions governing:
 liability limits
 endorsements
 freedom of information and
 legal jurisdiction
• negotiated the agreements on behalf of all agencies
• avoids development of separate agreements with each
• agencies free to use Twitter: compatible w/federal use.
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66. • Recruitment
• Transparency • Retention
• Accountability • Efficiency
• Participation • Communication
• Knowledge Transfer
Business Reasons
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67. 1. Not just for kids!!! It’s THE bridge between the generations.
2. Move ‘em up the mountain
via education and training.
3. Who’s your end user? Solutions
must be sensitive to people of all ages.
4. It’s for your own good! Boomers
need to lead; create a flex culture now.
5. Get ’em in! Recruit fresh public
sector personnel (Boomers, too!).
6. Keep ‘em there! Retention of current
personnel via knowledge transfer (and fun!).
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68. Perpetual
Professional
PARTY!
CONFERENCE?
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69. Thank You!
For More Information:
Andrew Krzmarzick
Senior Project Coordinator
(202) 821-6288
Andrew_Krzmarzick@grad.usda.gov
http://www.graduateschool.edu
http://generationshift.blogspot.com
Twitter: @krazykriz
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