Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Leveraging Social Media as a Communication Tool
Presented by:
André Pichly, M.S., CPRP
Director of Parks & Community Services
City of Tracy, CA
• Learn about the implementation and value of a staff newsletter managed through a social media platform
• Learn the benefits of private group usage monitored by an agency employee
• Explain usage of Instagram for a public agency fee-based sports program
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Be able to articulate why you think your organization should embrace social media
• Identify some steps you’d like to take that would help you successfully implement social media for use by staff
• Understand the pros and cons of being an organization that goes all in on social media
When we’re done here . . .
The dissemination of information through newspaper, radio and television saw mass appeal in 20th Century America. It was a great way to share the news. Even today, these media channels still share news, entertainment, and advertisements with their audience. In fact, these mediums have joined the digital age and a new way of sharing – the Internet!
A smaller scale of the newspaper is the company newsletter. Most agencies still use this as a tool to share information about what’s happening in the organization, highlights from employee’s careers and lives, social events, and safety and wellness tips, to name just a few. The upside is that every employee can receive it and read what they want.
The downside is that it usually falls on the shoulders of one or two people to collect all the information and images, edit the document, proof the document (several times probably) before it is released to staff. This can be a lot of work for a duty that may not be viewed as essential to the organization.
If you’re the editor of the agency newsletter you spend a lot of time working on something that may not get read by many of the intended audience. For those of you who have been that person you know what a thankless job it can be. A lot of work, but very little feedback. “Why do we have to do this?” you might ask yourself.
I was that person for about 18 months. It started as a monthly newsletter, then a bi-monthly newsletter, then a quarterly publication. After asking some staff if they felt it was beneficial I found that nearly all of them either didn’t read it or just glanced it over before tossing it. Why? Time. They’re all busy, just like all of you. While I loved the idea of having a better informed staff, it was simply too much information (and a lot of it just plain filler) all at one time. In short, it had no value to them and it was taking up too much of my time.
I knew that the sharing of information among employees was important, I just didn’t have a platform that we could use that would get them engaged and not use up one or two people’s valuable time.
Social Media! While not everyone uses it, enough people in our organization did to make this a viable option to a periodic newsletter. While not all staff use social media, enough did that it made the most sense for our organization. The best part – everyone could contribute and interact! It would be a great way for almost everyone to share information that might be found in a newsletter. It would have a better chance at more people seeing it, contributing content, and interacting with one another. While not perfect, I felt it was our best, affordable, and efficient option.
In the end we implemented a 30-day test phase with select staff (full and part-time) to see how it functioned and if it would be beneficial to staff without becoming a distraction we needed to mitigate. After a successful month we opened it up to all staff. We set expectations, trained them on being a good participant and it’s been a success. After 2 years – no problems or concerns.
This concept wasn’t with out some doubters. Some of the management staff had concerns over how staff would use it, when they would use it, would they abuse it.
Here are some examples of the type of information that staff can share with one another. We have had no problems with staff using this private page as we set expectations for how they would use the page and interact with each other. So, how did we do that? We trained them and we got their buy-in.
We found a video on YouTube that was ideal for our situation (there’s a link to it in a few more slides). From there we built our training program that included the video, a user agreement form, and a follow-up discussion with staff to make sure that staff understood what the expectations were.
The agreement form we ask them to sign states that they’ve watched the video and agree to appropriate behavior on our department newsfeed: Moo’s You Can Use. If they don’t sign it (and they don’t have to) then we don’t add them to the newsfeed. Either way, we’ve established ground rules and set expectations – that’s the purpose of the video and the form.
We developed a user-friendly policy that allowed us some administrative control and didn’t box us in or prevent us from being creative. Since social media is still evolving, it made sense to us the policy needed to be ‘flexible’, but have established expectations.
About our Social Media Policy . . . .
seen
Example of a non-City related Post
With a picture like this we asked a simple question at the start of the baseball season: “High socks or pant legs down?” We got a lot of responses from people who wanted to share their opinion. This is a great way to spark engagement with those who like your page and increase the chances of them seeing your posts for programs and services.
Specialty Groups
Specialty Group pages can be private or public. The page we set-up for the department newsletter (Moo’s You Can Use) is a private page and only those staff who are currently employed by the department (even if their status is inactive) can access the page and participate in the discussion. The Silver Surfers page is also private and only available to those individuals who have registered for the Silver Surfers social media class. The other tabs above are examples of public pages – some require the administrator to approve a request to join, other pages there is no such restriction. The decision whether or not to place restrictions on public pages is up to the administrator of the page.
Whether the leader or leaders of the organization are proficient in social media use or are beginners, the use of social media in the work place – especially local government – can seem risky, an unnecessary distraction, time-wasting, or best left to a chosen few for marketing purposes. The truth is, a lot of people are using social media and probably using it at work. So why not leverage it to improve internal communication?
• Where do you feel your agency is with social media right now?
• Does your agency communicate directly with user groups? If not, why?
• What are your concerns in regards to staff using social media?
Small Group Discussion
Meet Jacki
Silver Surfers Silver Surfers
Jacki was attending an event and saw me taking pictures. After I asked her to smile with another group of event attendees she asked where she would be able to see the pictures. I told her I was posting to the department’s Facebook page and she could see them there. She responded, “I don’t use Facebook! You know, you should offer a class on how to use it so people like me (seniors) could learn. My grandkids are on it and it would be helpful for me to see what’s going on in their lives.” That suggestion was the start of our Silver Surfers class!
Silver Surfers Silver Surfers
So, we developed a class, put a program together, and set out to teach some of our seniors how to use social media. Our first class was $5 per participant. We paired each senior with a staff person (mostly part-time) and set a laptop up (provided by our IT department) so they could get hands-on experience. We focused on the basics, which for some meant setting up their very first email account! We covered online safety and security, how to set up a Facebook account, how to invite friends and accept friend requests, post, comment, edit posts and comments, add pictures, Like, and so forth.
Silver Surfers Silver Surfers
Jacki joined the class and started learning how to use Facebook. The experience in the class helped her gain confidence in using it and greatly decreased her fears regarding online safety.
Look who participated . . . . . Jacki
Look who’s helping teach the class -Jacki!
One of my goals was to get Jacki to a point in her knowledge and abilities where she could help other participants learn to use Facebook . . . and she did!
Silver Surfers Silver Surfers Not long afterwards, Jacki travelled to Ireland and posted pictures from the road. An artist, she shared gift cards she makes and even sold some to interested Facebook Friends.
The point here isn’t that social media is something we should teach seniors to use, it’s that we were able to use social media (like we use any other program, facility or service) as a means by which to help improve a person’s quality of life!
Here’s another example of a private or closed group. The Fitness Challenge is a fee-based program and using a closed Facebook page to help augment the value of the program has helped this program thrive. With every new session the previous group is cleared and the next group of customers are added.
Fitness Challenge Fitness Challenge
Fitness Challenge Fitness Challenge While the sharing of food choices and recipes, workout ideas and challenges, group outings and field trips is fairly typical and even expected, the point here is that the program uses social media as a way to increase and encourage communication among participants and increase the value of this “club” to the participants. This has resulted in repeat customers who want to continue to belong just to stay part of the club.
Social media is popular and chances are many of your customers are using social media as a way to stay connected and informed. An agency that only uses social media to share program information is limiting the impact this tool can have on their customers and the community. Why not use social media as a way of helping us talk to our customers and facilitating the development of new relationships among our customers? By using social media in this way it becomes a powerful 2-way communication tool that helps us create community.
Micro-blogging While minimizing text is always advisable, some formats do not give you a choice. Twitter has a limit of 144 characters per tweet. Shorter is better, so make your goal 100 characters in Twitter. Just remember with all social media – Short and Sweet.
Some micro-blog sites are image-based, such as Instagram and Snapchat.
Micro-blogging
This Twitter feed is managed entirely by part-time staff. Management set the expectations and trained them on how we wanted them to use it. Not only do they exceed our expectations, but they use social media better than any other staff. Young people get social media!
Image-based Social Media
Perhaps nothing on social media evokes a response more than pictures. They make an instant impression. Instagram is a great platform for telling your story. Let your pictures do the talking!
Image-based Social Media While you might have great pictures to share, I’ll bet your customers have better ones. You can’t be everywhere to take pictures, so why not take advantage of the fact that your customers are out there taking pictures?
Have an Instagram Photo contest and have them hashtag the photos. In this way they can market for you!
Image-based Social Media We set-up the rules and opened submissions for 1-month. At the end of the month the pictures were judged and we had our winners. Best part was that this program was very inexpensive to offer.
Be sure to explain that participation in the contest gives your agency permission to use the images for future marketing materials.
The best part is getting images like this . . . for free!
It’s also a great way to let your customers be part of the show. You can’t buy this kind of engagement!
Image-based Social Media
Pinterest is another great we to reach your audience. Link program information to your web page or registration software.
Pinterest is also a great way to share resources and information with co-workers and colleagues. Need a game or craft idea? Store these on Pinterest for staff in your organization and borrow ideas from other agencies!
• For the most part, the younger generation gets social media. What would you need to do to allow more staff, including part-time staff, to use social media for your agency?
• What are some ideas you have about how to use social media to your agency’s benefit?
Small Group Discussion
Social Media is not marketing . . . It is a form of
2-way communication that should be part of your marketing plan
Social Media is not marketing . . . It is a form of
2-way communication that should be part of your marketing plan
Social Media is not marketing . . . It is a form of
2-way communication that should be part of your marketing plan
Presented by:
André Pichly, M.S., CPRP
Director of Parks & Community Services
City of Tracy, CA
(209) 831-6203
: www.linkedin.com/in/andrepichly
Thank
you!
