Get Out Of Your

Comfort Zone

Colin McKay

September 17, 2008

ALI Social Media in Government Conference

Creative, Not Foolhardy

You want to be imaginative

You want to be inspirational

But still be practical

Practical means:

• integrated with your strategic communications plans

• tied to branch and departmental business goals

• linked to departmental IT plan

What Was That About Planning?

Two ways to implement social media in a large organization:

• sneaky

• effective

Sneaky is quick and fun.

You look cool to your friends – online and off

Effective means you adapt social media tools to meet your communications goals, speak to your stakeholders, develop new communities – and get your organization to buy into the concept.

Hoodwinking Your Colleagues

Your pitch for a social media campaign has to:

• prove benefits

• meet existing policies

• reassure decision makers

Your Pitch Must Also:

• anticipate how the campaign will raise expectations from stakeholders

• forecast increased workload for your team and supporting staff

• explain the campaign will be integrated with client’s plans

Mitigating Risk is the Key

How will your campaign go wrong?

• poor engagement by target groups

• negative reaction from online community

• poor preparation for high profile issues

Responsibility for the campaign

YOU are responsible, and YOU must be capable of tracking, interpreting and evaluating your social media campaign.

After all, YOU sit down the hall from the boss.