A 45min presentation on why social media may be the best medium for local government organisations seeking to communicate with their community. Presented at LiveWire2011 Wollongong (see http://livewirenetwork.com.au/)

1. Ctrl+V
The cut and paste on the social sphere
Alan Jones, The New Agency

2. Before we begin
I’m very
old

3. Before we begin
•http://about.me/alanjones
I’m very
old

4. Before we begin
•http://about.me/alanjones
•http://bit.ly/livewireresources
I’m very
old

5. Before we begin
•http://about.me/alanjones
•http://bit.ly/livewireresources
•Not a Social Media Expert
I’m very
old

6. Before we begin
•http://about.me/alanjones
•http://bit.ly/livewireresources
•Not a Social Media Expert
I’m very
•Chief Hindsight Officer old

7. Social media is the natural medium
for local government

8. Why should I care about social media?

9. Why should I care about social media?
•Before the internet, all communication media was
broadcast (one-to-many)

10. Why should I care about social media?
•Before the internet, all communication media was
broadcast (one-to-many)
•Early web was broadcast too

11. Why should I care about social media?
•Before the internet, all communication media was
broadcast (one-to-many)
•Early web was broadcast too
But social media is different — it is “many-to-many”

12. Why should I care about social media?
•Before the internet, all communication media was
broadcast (one-to-many)
•Early web was broadcast too
But social media is different — it is “many-to-many”
Difference between broadcast (one-to-many) and social
media (many-to-many) is the ‘network effect’

13. Network effect = N2
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tsevis/
552035968/

14. Time to 50M users
•Printing press - hundreds of years
•Radio - 38 years
•TV - 13 years
•Web - 4 years

15. Time to 50M users
•Printing press - hundreds of years
•Radio - 38 years
•TV - 13 years
Facebook -
•Web - 4 years 100M
users in <9
months

16. Top Australian TV audiences, by share
1.Diana Spencer's funeral 1997 6.LA Olympic opening ceremony
1984
2.Wedding of Charles and Diana
1981 7.The Sound of Music first TV
showing 1977
3.Olympic opening and closing
ceremonies 2000 8.Boxing: Rose v Rudkin 1969
4.Cathy Freeman's Olympic gold run 9.The World Of The Seekers 1968
2000
10. Roots miniseries, 1977
5.Olympic swimming events 2000

17. Facebook reaches half of Australia
SocialBakers, Nielsen, Hitwise 2011

18. Facebook reaches half of Australia
• 49.99% of all Australians use Facebook each month (Aug 2011)
SocialBakers, Nielsen, Hitwise 2011

19. Facebook reaches half of Australia
• 49.99% of all Australians use Facebook each month (Aug 2011)
• Roughly 50-50 male-female
SocialBakers, Nielsen, Hitwise 2011

20. Facebook reaches half of Australia
• 49.99% of all Australians use Facebook each month (Aug 2011)
• Roughly 50-50 male-female
• Grew 855,000 last month
SocialBakers, Nielsen, Hitwise 2011

21. Facebook reaches half of Australia
• 49.99% of all Australians use Facebook each month (Aug 2011)
• Roughly 50-50 male-female
• Grew 855,000 last month
• Not just for kids: fastest growing demographics: 45-54 (11%), 25-34 (26%)
SocialBakers, Nielsen, Hitwise 2011

22. Facebook reaches half of Australia
• 49.99% of all Australians use Facebook each month (Aug 2011)
• Roughly 50-50 male-female
• Grew 855,000 last month
• Not just for kids: fastest growing demographics: 45-54 (11%), 25-34 (26%)
Ye ar to Feb,
Australian Twitter
audie nce grew
1,300%
SocialBakers, Nielsen, Hitwise 2011

23. But I’m not a communications professional

24. Communications industry
• Journalists, producers, creative professionals
• Public relations, public affairs, investor relations, community relations
professionals
• Evolved to control, restrict, influence, create, broadcast media
• Relied on choke-points like TV, radio broadcast licenses, expense and
qualifications

25. Bye-bye barriers to reaching an audience

26. New model needed
• When there are no choke-points, can we control the message at all?
• When there are no choke-points, who is responsible for communications?
• When everyone else is communicating, what message do we send if we’re
not?

27. We’re all communications professionals now
•If Ashton Kutcher will respond to my tweet, why
won’t the council?
•You have to start building your personal brand
•Authenticity matters most in social media so ghost-
writing is hard

28. Your switchboard will thank you

29. Communication asymmetry
Phone
Urgency
Newspaper Brochure
Website
Detail

30. Communication asymmetry
Phone
Facebook
Blog
Urgency
Twitter
Newspaper Brochure
Website
Detail

31. The new telephone switchboard looks like this

32. Customer service on Twitter
Wait time for enquiry
Plus, on Twitter and Facebook
Phone one answer can help many people
Twitter Facebook Blog/website
Wait time to learn

33. Why Social media is ideal for local government
•Self-serve
•Target locally, demographically
•Low production, distribution cost
•Instant and persistent
•one-to-one or one-to-many
•Can involve the community

34. Please involve the
community

35. We’re all communications professionals now
•Practice:
•A real person answered my tweet!
•Authenticity:
•It matters that you do it

36. What can I do to develop social media skills?
•Practice, practice, practice
•Get mentoring

37. Benefits of social media at work
•Employees allowed
recreational internet at work
are 9% more productive
(<20% of total hours)
University of Melbourne 2011

38. Equip your organisation
•Train them on the tools
•Give them permission to practice personal and
professional social media in the workplace
•Give them a FAQ (Frequently-Asked Questions)
•Reward great work

39. The importance of ‘voice’
• Don’t sound like an LGA, sound like a
person
• Identify yourself (e.g. “^aj”)
• Get straight to the point

40. My email disclaimer
Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail. After you’ve printed it, please consider the
environment again. The environment thanks you for your consideration.
The information contained in this email and any attachment is confidential and may contain legally privileged
or copyright material, Facebook friend updates, new Twitter followers, unsigned artists who want to be your
friend on MySpace or unexpected windfalls from representatives of African financial institutions. It is
intended only for the use of the addressee(s) (is that even a word(s)?), those people the addressee(s) choose
to forward it to, Google’s AdSense servers and the CIA. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, the
intended recipient’s assistant, wife or close friend, you are not permitted to disseminate, distribute or copy
this email or any attachments. If you choose to ignore this warning you will be prosecuted to the maximum
possible extent of the (non-existent) law up to and including us sending someone round to sing loudly
outside your bedroom window at three in the morning and peeing on your doorstep. If you have received this
message in error, please notify the sender immediately via Twitter or Facebook and delete this email from
your system, delete your system, reformat your drive and send the computer back to the manufacturer with
a letter clearly explaining that you opened and read an email that wasn’t intended for you and would they
please send you a new computer when they have a moment. The employer of the sender of this email does
not represent or warrant that this transmission is secure, virus free, bad joke free, relevant to you
professionally, or a good use of your time. Before opening any attachment you should check the attachment,
your computer and your immediate surroundings for viruses, spraying any contaminated surfaces with an
approved disinfectant. The organisation’s liability is limited to telling you to stop wasting our time reading
pointless and unenforceable fine print at the bottom of emails.

41. Be great at social media the TNA way!

42. Be great at social media the TNA way!
• This is a personal medium.
Communicate like a person, not an
organisation.

43. Be great at social media the TNA way!
• This is a personal medium.
Communicate like a person, not an
organisation.
• Start conversations by asking
questions

44. Be great at social media the TNA way!
• This is a personal medium.
Communicate like a person, not an
organisation.
• Start conversations by asking
questions
• Twitter versus Facebook: news
versus current affairs

45. Be great at social media the TNA way!
• This is a personal medium.
Communicate like a person, not an
organisation.
• Start conversations by asking
questions
• Twitter versus Facebook: news
versus current affairs
• Follow the people who tweet
about you/your organisation

46. Be great at social media the TNA way!
• This is a personal medium.
Communicate like a person, not an
organisation.
• Start conversations by asking
questions
• Twitter versus Facebook: news
versus current affairs
• Follow the people who tweet
about you/your organisation
• You don’t have to respond

47. Be great at social media the TNA way!
• This is a personal medium. • You don’t have to respond in this
Communicate like a person, not an medium
organisation.
• Start conversations by asking
questions
• Twitter versus Facebook: news
versus current affairs
• Follow the people who tweet
about you/your organisation
• You don’t have to respond

48. Be great at social media the TNA way!
• This is a personal medium. • You don’t have to respond in this
Communicate like a person, not an medium
organisation.
• If it gives you pause… pause.
• Start conversations by asking
questions
• Twitter versus Facebook: news
versus current affairs
• Follow the people who tweet
about you/your organisation
• You don’t have to respond

49. Risk

50. Risk
• In broadcast media there’s no undo
• In social media there’s no deadline, nothing is ever fixed, every discussion
can be continued
• There’s a credibility upside in making mistakes and correcting them

51. Publish everything

52. Publish everything
• Publish in searchable formats
• Use an Application Programming Interface (API)
• Others will create the tools if you publish the data
• Don’t make them register, allow anonymity
• Everything one click away

53. Great tools

54. Social media tools
•Hootsuite - group Facebook and Twitter
management
•Skitch - quick, simple screen grabber
•Bit.ly - shorten an URL, track who clicked on it
•UserVoice - great lightweight platform for
community engagement

58. Great inspiration

59. Mosman Council Big Ideas
ideas.mosman.nsw.gov.au

60. Development application tracking

61. Development application tracking

62. Development application tracking

63. Development application tracking

64. Development application tracking
1 Hackathon, 8 hours, 7 people
= 19 new sources added, helping 1.8m people
OpenAustraliaFoundation.org.au

65. Snap Send Solve
• Promoted by Moonee
Valley, Townsville,
Wodonga, Lane Cove and
other councils
• Inner city council residents
the most regular reporters
• 20K users, 800 reports/mth
(Aug 2011)
What if Council published blog posts or tweets updating progress on
maintenance work?

66. Snap Send Solve
• Promoted by Moonee
Valley, Townsville,
Wodonga, Lane Cove and
other councils
• Inner city council residents
the most regular reporters
• 20K users, 800 reports/mth
(Aug 2011)
What if Council published blog posts or tweets updating progress on
maintenance work?

67. Snap Send Solve
• Promoted by Moonee
Valley, Townsville,
Wodonga, Lane Cove and
other councils
• Inner city council residents
the most regular reporters
• 20K users, 800 reports/mth
(Aug 2011)
What if Council published blog posts or tweets updating progress on
maintenance work?

68. Snap Send Solve
• Promoted by Moonee
Valley, Townsville,
Wodonga, Lane Cove and
other councils
• Inner city council residents
the most regular reporters
• 20K users, 800 reports/mth
(Aug 2011)
What if Council published blog posts or tweets updating progress on
maintenance work?

69. Snap Send Solve
• Promoted by Moonee
Valley, Townsville,
Wodonga, Lane Cove and
other councils
• Inner city council residents
the most regular reporters
• 20K users, 800 reports/mth
(Aug 2011)
What if Council published blog posts or tweets updating progress on
maintenance work?

70. Wrapping up

71. Wrapping up
• You don’t want to be the only organisation of your type not interacting with
your community using social media

72. Wrapping up
• You don’t want to be the only organisation of your type not interacting with
your community using social media
• You don’t want to be bad at something as important as this

73. Wrapping up
• You don’t want to be the only organisation of your type not interacting with
your community using social media
• You don’t want to be bad at something as important as this
• You’re better off training your people and giving them permission to learn
than trying to choke it off behind a communications team

74. Wrapping up
• You don’t want to be the only organisation of your type not interacting with
your community using social media
• You don’t want to be bad at something as important as this
• You’re better off training your people and giving them permission to learn
than trying to choke it off behind a communications team
• The best person to do this is you, whoever you are

75. Resources
http://bit.ly/livewireresources
alan@thenewagency.com.au
http://about.me/alanjones