Social Media and its Application in the Public Sector Social Media and the Public Sector Research & Presentation Project on: Presentation by iWEBbic.com

Social Media and its Application in the Public Sector

Social Media and the Public Sector


Research & Presentation Project on: Presentation by iWEBbic.com


Social media offers government agencies (private sectors) opportunities to improve the qualities and efficiencies of their interactions with the citizens.

In the 1990s, the private sector began embracing the social media as a way to listen to and engage their customers to create repeat business, increase customer loyalty and improve customer satisfaction. The public sector is catching up. For example, in 2009, the Obama administration mandated in a legislative memorandum that the public sector needs to use social media as a way to engage the citizens and collaborate across government agencies. Some public sectors are already using social media to promote programs and services to the citizens, inform the citizens of key healthcare issues, resolve critical citizen issues, or change policies to make them more user friendly.

Social Media Capabilities and Benefits in the Public Sector

Capability Benefits

Expand marketing campaigns to your existing or new audience.

Allows the sector to reach an existing or new audience from the citizen population to promote services, and or benefits available to them in real-time via additional channels.

Connects with your audience, when, where, and how they want to be reached.

Ability to connect with citizens in targeted manners via social media they used in their everyday lives, on-the-go, and in real-time.

Build an interactive communities to share ideas and information.

Creating a collaborative forum to engage citizens in sharing ideas and disseminating information:• Allow for group collaboration of citizens to solve problems and share concerned ideas.• Share relevant information and enhance services with citizens input.

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Collect and Track Citizens Feedback.

Capability Benefits

Track Feedback across multiple social media channels.

Ability to listen to the customer and solve issues in a timely manner across various social media channels – Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Web-blogs etc.

Analyze data to understand citizens needs/expectations to quickly identify gaps and take actions in real-time.

Understand citizens information in media channels and compare to other sources (calls, email, letters etc.) to optimize how your agency enhances marketing campaigns, service development and availability.

Capability Benefits

Engage Citizens to test and/or develop new programs/services.

Ability to engage citizens in a real-time conversations on thoughts, views and ideas on existing programs/services, as well as gather thoughts on new/upcoming programs/services.

Engage in two-way conversations with citizens to build stronger and loyal relationships.

As agencies starts to listen to citizens and show they are responding to their opinions and ideas, an agency will build a stronger, trusted, loyal and a more personal relationship with the citizens.

Enhance / Develop New Programs and Services



Making Government more Transparent and Collaborative with Public Participation

Success Stories

The Australian government at both local and federal level - is a prime example of how government uses social media to collaborate with citizens, allowing for more open and transparent government.

Studies shows that hundreds of government agencies across the globe have social media pages, to include Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn, etc. Most government agencies do not limit their presence to these social platforms only, most go as far as using online email marketing (such as iContact, MailChimp, Benchmark etc.), and online editable flyers (such as smore.com) to create interactive messages, which are read by and share among citizens.

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• Over 200 government agencies have Twitter accounts, 50 agencies have blogs, and 30 agencies have YouTube accounts, and 20 agencies have Facebook pages.

• The Melbourne City Council used a collaborative Wiki platform to engage citizens in the creation of the 10-yr Future Melbourne Community Plan. The Wiki was so popular that there were 30,000 unique pages viewed over a four-day period.

• The Premier’s office in Victoria uses Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, blogs, and live chat technology to connect with citizens about key issues and services provided.



Case Studies of Social Media in the Public Sector

Making Government more Transparent and Collaborative with Public Participation

Success Storiesa


How to Increase Fan Base

In general, Facebook fans or fans are people who like your programs/services and as such, connects with you to stay updated with latest news and activities in your sector. Facebook fans are measured by likes. They users that likes your page are your fans.

Below are ways to build and increase Facebook Fans/Likes:

To successfully use the social media and execute your plans and/or attain your set-goals, an agency must first build a fan base, that is, bring its audience together. There are different ways and means to achieve this.

How to Increase Fan Base (For All Social Media) – Via Awareness/Invitations

On press releases; response to inquiries and opinions; publications; etc. inform your audience about the availability of your social media pages.

1. Utilize Every Available Opportunity to Announce the Availability of Your Page

Social Media and the Public SectorPresentation by iWEBbic.com

2. Invite Your Friends/Followers to Join Your PageTarget your friends. On your Page, invite your friends who will benefit from / have interest on your services.

3. Use Existing Fans to Get New FansMake some of your fans admin of your page. Restrict their role to friends invitation only. In this way, they can invite their own friends to join your page. For twitter, post a request to your followers, asking them to recommend your page to their own followers


How to Increase Facebook Fan Base – Via Ads

This is the easiest way to increase Page Likes. A Page Like Sponsored Story is simply promoting that “Friend A Likes Brand X.” Such ads target only friends of Fans and can appear within any placement (sidebar,

desktop News Feed or mobile News Feed).

1. Run Page Like Sponsored Stories

How to Increase Facebook Fan Base – Via Content CreationKeep the page updated with quality content. Be interactive, that is, respond to your audience’s remarks.High quality and interesting contents (posts) on your page prompts visitors to like the page (become fans), so as to be inform of similar or new posts. Keep Post free of spam, and delete any spam messages on your Page’s wall.


2. Use a Basic and Relevant TargetingWhen you set up any ad on Facebook, you need to make sure you use at least the most basic of targeting.Here are a few of the ways you can isolate potential Fans and avoid wasting money on people who won’t care about your Page/services:Geography (Country, state/province, city, zip code) Age Interested in: (Government, Public sector, Service Provision etc.) Education (Anyone, college grad, in college, in high school) Workplaces If your Page/Services only applies to people in the Sydney, there’s no reason to waste money on people outside Sydney. Same goes for language, age, gender and the other targeting basics.


How to Increase Facebook Fan Base – Via Ads

You can also pin down your basic targeting a bit more by entering in some relevant keywords, phrases and brands within Precise Interests. This allows you to narrow your search for fans to a group of users that belongs to your local government/category and has interest in your sector. This people are more likely to click on the ad and like your page.

3. Use Precise Interest or Broad Category Targeting


4. Target Your Email/Phone ListsIf you already have an email and/or phone lists, you can use that to find fans on Facebook.

If your email/phone lists is high quality but small, this can help you target audience similar to the ones you have on your list.

5. Target Lookalike Audience


How to Increase Facebook Fan Base – Buy Likes

Facebook Likes (Fans) can also be bought. Many services sell Facebook likes at low cost. Swagsocial.com is one of most used websites for this purpose.

How to Increase Fan Base (For All Social Media)

Use email marketing services such as iContact, MailChimp, Benchmark, etc. or online flyers such as smore.com to create high quality campaigns/messages for your audience to read. While creating your campaigns, you’ll also be able to integrate your social media pages/profiles. Turn on your Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn, etc. This services also provides you with a link to the final campaigns, share the link and ask your audience to share it with friends. This newsletter has your social media links, that allows people to like, subscribe, follow (i.e. become your fan), while reading the message.


Content Posting and Interactivity

Social reported in one of their analysis, the relationship/interactivity between content poster and the users; and the interactivity with such contents

According to Social Baker, an old post is a dead post.

“ When we collect engagement data in Analytics PRO, we see that the vast majority of engagement occurs within minutes after a post is published.


How to Keep & Inform Fans

Getting Fans is one thing, keeping them coming back to your page, or keeping them from disliking your page (no longer fan), is another thing.

1. To keep fans, the page admin must keep the page updated with high quality contents (posts). Post must be made on daily/weekly bases, based on schedule.

After using your page for sometime, your fan knows when to visit the page and get new information, and/or see new activities. Make sure you keep to this schedule.

2. Be interactive. Respond to questions and opinions (comments).

3. Control posting. No matter how interesting your posts are, users are bound to be bothered with them every once in a while. Too much notifications about your posts (especially on daily basis) might prompt them to take actions such as disliking your page (no longer fans).

4. Keep posts free of spam and advertisements. Some of your fans will cease the opportunity to showcase their products/services to your audience (other fans) by posting adverts and spam messages on your page wall. Hence, the need to visit the page as often as possible. Remove such posts immediately, and send the fan a private message, informing him/her not to make similar posts, and the consequences if he/she fails to adhere. If repeated, deny such fan access to post content (remove from fan list).


Best Time to Post Content and Get Audience

Since Facebook posts are organized in ways that newer posts presses down the older ones, it’s better not to post when your audience are not online (actively browsing their posts).

Buddy Media, a social marketing company revealed this on their report. The company collected data from 200 of its clients' Pages* over a 14-day period and found that time is an important factor in determining the success of a Facebook post. The study reveals that more often than not, a Facebook post is ill-timed — in fact, office hours could be the worst time to blast content.


Best Time to Post Content and Get Audience


References

1. http://www.jonloomer.com/2013/04/30/increase-facebook-likes-ads/2. http://www.supportivehands.net/2013/05/increasing-facebook-page-likes.html3. http://www.socialbakers.com/blog/1304-understanding-increasing-facebook-edgerank4. http://mashable.com/2011/04/06/facebook-engagement-data/

IBMTaking Social Media Public:

Social Media for Successful Citizen Relationship Management

By Tish Falco, Social Media Center of Excellence Leader

Publication by:

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Social Media and its Application in the Public Sector Social Media and the Public Sector Research & Presentation Project on: Presentation by iWEBbic.com