How Government Employees Use Social Networks for Productivity

A recent Market Connections Report* revealed that government use of

almost doubled in the last year (from 18% to 35%). 18% 35%

2010 2011

*Click here to see the report

The number of GovLoop members has tripled from 2009 to 2012.

KNOWLEDGE NETW

ORK

2009 2012

social network

20K

60k

While we know that government employees are using and , we wanted to learn more about how they are using them.

We conducted surveys in July and August 2012 to learn more about the value of ’

and to government employees.

242 respondents

15 questions

529 respondents

17 questions

1.  Networking: how the sites are used to connect with colleagues

2.  Accessing: frequency of use

3.  Collaborating: group participation and frequency of posting

4.  Seeking: the usefulness of

and for finding and

landing jobs.

5.  Improving: how and

solve career problems.

Top 5 Current Uses of : • Connect with known colleagues (74%)

• Find new professional connections (62%)

• Read job-related content (46%)

• Use profile as an online resume (36%)

• Learn about areas of expertise (35%)

Top 5 Current Uses of :

• Read, post, or comment on blogs (55%)

• Learn how-to advice and tactics (48%)

• Get the latest government news (49%)

• Find case studies and examples(37%)

• Connect with colleagues (30%)

“I read the newsletter every day, and most days at least read one of the featured articles, because I like to continue learning, even on topics not directly related to me.”

“I truly respect and enjoy the information and networking that your team provides.”

“I find that GovLoop has been invaluable, and find myself opening a half-dozen or more links per week from your daily e-mails to gain insight into what others are seeing.”

What members are saying:

Weekly (54%)

Daily (33%)

How often do you visit ?

Other (6%)

Monthly (7%)

How often do you visit ?

Monthly (12%)

Daily (28%)

Weekly (44%)

Other (16%)

Daily-­several times a day (7.3%)

Daily-­ once a day

(20.8 %)

Weekly-­several times a week

(29.1 %)

Only once in a while

(16.1%)

Monthly

Once a month (3.3%)

Monthly

several times a month (8.4%)

Weekly-­

once per week (15.1%)

Did you notice that 80% of respondents

are visiting social networks like and

at least weekly?

Less than Monthly (33%)

Daily (10%)

Weekly (35%)

Monthly (22%)

How frequently do you visit groups?

Top 4 Reasons to Post in Groups:

1.  Gauge the buzz around an issue (45.9%)

2.  Ask job-related questions (36.4%)

3.  Post/promote content or events (35.5%)

4.  Establish self as a thought leader (22.7%)

blogs and forums are the top way for government leaders to get real-time answers and solve challenges.

Recently, Facebook stripped our administrator rights from the City of Ankeny's Facebook page. With it, our custom URL was also removed. We can no longer access our Insight's page and we cannot post as the City of Ankeny on other Facebook pages.

Facebook says that we cannot identify ourselves as the City of Ankeny because it is their policy that users may not manage pages about towns, cities or states. Use of "City of" in our name is too generic.

Has anyone else run into this problem with Facebook?

37 comments è Facebook responds

has shared insight from

government leaders and industry

professionals to produce 21Guides on: •  Digital Government •  Government Communications •  Social Media for the Public Sector •  Project Management and Leadership •  Advanced Degrees

135 online survey

respondents

11 federal, state and local

interviewees

Roundtable panel with 4 federal and

private sector leaders

50% have searched for a job on , but

only 2.5% were successful.

52% of respondents said they would NOT hire

someone based on LinkedIn interactions.

Do you look for jobs?

When asked for their favorite feature on

, 1 in 4 said “Career Resources”

Jobs.GovLoop.com

Jobs. .com integrates:

• LinkedIn, Glassdoor and “Best Places to Work” data

• Mashup with Google Maps to show job locations

• A weekly newsletter with exceptional, hand-picked federal jobs

People want to combine community

and job search activities.

4 Ways Respondents Said _ Improves Job Performance

1.  Learn about issues and new information

2.  Ask questions of other experts

3.  Make connections to government peers

4.  Screen job candidates before hiring

“I find so much of your information great not only in work – but in my volunteer endeavors – I look forward to your e-mails each.”

’s online community, skill-building events, and resources help people do their jobs better

“GovLoop is awesome – I use stuff from it every day and just love all the great resources!”

I attended last week's GovLoop event and would love to remain connected. I got some great ideas on encouraging my agency to embrace social media and analytic tools.

“Govloop is one of the first things I check out every day. I have gotten great leads and direction on a number of projects from reading the site.”

hosts in-person and online events to expand our members’ knowledge. In 2012: 10,000 participants attended GovLoop’s online learning events.

•  is used more to stay connected with colleagues than to search for jobs.

•  and improve job performance by facilitating question and answer among government employees.

•  is where government employees collaboratively learn from each other and stay current on government-related information.

We are the knowledge network for government connecting more than 60,000 public sector professionals from federal, state and local government, industry, academia and non-profit organizations.

We help government employees do their jobs better!

•  Still have questions or concerns? We love hearing from people interested in GovLoop and encourage you to get in touch with us, in person or online.

•  For more information about this survey, please contact Andrew Krzmarzick, Director of Community Engagement at Andrew@GovLoop.com.