COI, Nick Jones

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The importance of digital communications in local government.

Nick Jones, Director of Interactive Services, COI

Social Media Roadshow: Maximising the Powers of Social MediaLGComms, Nottingham, 21st January2010

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Our conversation today

• What’s this digital comms, social media, Interwebz thing really about?– Definitions – Behaviours– Examples

• Digital Communications is important because..• How the heck do we deliver our bit of the conversation?• What next then?


Simple actions define social media

• Online technologies and practices that are used to share opinions and information, promote discussion and build relationships.’

• “It's a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologues (one to many) into dialogues (many to many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers.”Source: Wikipedia

• Does it allow you to create, connect and share more easily?

And defined digital engagement • dialogue: moving from broadcast to conversation;• not only listening but responding;• two way collaboration sharing information, data, opinion, discussion;• building and sustaining rational and emotional relationships• moving audience from awareness to action.• Metaphors: Engineering: power is transmitted when gears engage. Emotional:

the ring in the finger is a commitment to share and listen


Platforms to create and connect and share

Platform for others to tell their stories.Generative Web

Allowing non-comms staff to be spokespeople


Act On Co2

User generated content takes many forms. Be prepared to manage odd-shaped and angry input

SOCIAL 100

NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED 6http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/royal-navy-engineer-officer-challenge/id339491226?mt=8

Leverage of competitive game play boosts the connections

NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED 7http://www.balanceyourbobbies.com/questions.aspx?txt_postcode=LL573TS

Sharing can help shape service delivery


Our comms management needs to be connected too


Social media isn’t just for a small metro elite• Asking citizens to post, comment and rate.• Massive scale. YF: 500k+ visits, 400k+ visitors, 15k+ ideas, 73k

comments, 38k votes.• Lot’s of ‘hands on deck’.• Be careful in the future when crowdsourcing. “A lot of crowd-

sourcing now feels like a bit like begging.. only lazier” Tom Smith, Collaborative Software Specialist University of York,

• XXDX



Connections can be international, national, local, personal and business.

• Joint Media Operations Centre in Camp Bastion @MediaOps

• NHS Direct @nhsdirect

• Driving Standards Agency @DSAgovuk, @Liz_DSA

• Tom Calver: Blackburn With Darwen BC and RAF reservist, @tomcalver


Social media is simply telling the story and keeping it going

• Nottingham City Council youth services, and otther areas, worked with the local COI office to create interesting social media activities for disenfranchised youth - taking part in social media became an activity in itself.

• Part of a DfE programme to encourage participation in positive activity

• CIPR Award

• The combination of PR and digital skill sets is a powerful one.


It’s important because…

• It’s where the eyeballs are• Allows sustained meaningful interaction that helps

achieve business objectives• Suits the new public comms paradigm


Digital behaviour is everyday behaviour.Social media is everyday digital behaviour

• 73% of homes have Internet access (ONS 10/10)

• Adults spend 14.2 hours online per month (ONS 10/10)

• 37m online (Kantar 06/10)

• Viewing video up 37% YoY (Comscore 04/10)

• 44% of Internet users have a social network profile (ONS 10/10)

• 25m on Facebook, 90% using it weekly, 60% daily (Facebook Q4/10)

• 62% of major organisations using Twitter to publicise but only 27% for customer service (econsultancy 09/09)

• 6% expect a reply in 10 minutes! (IAB 01/11)

• 35% of mobile users user their phones to get news online (AOP 07/10)

• 22% of mobile users use their social networks on their phones (AOP 07/10)

• 52% rise in Over 50s using social media on their mobiles. • Rise of multi-screen usage leading to Splinternet

• Why not repeat the Nottingham youth model with an older group?


This stuff works. Social functionality improves the communication effect

• German research study• Small sample but well

designed. bFake law ;-)• 4-8% increase in the

communication effect• Moderate social

functionality best• The less interested the

respondent is in policy the higher the enhancement of communication effects social media delivers

Source: Daniel Heine, http://www.slideshare.net/ionsanion/government-communication-on-the-social-web-3289811


It reflects the emerging comms paradigm

Command andcontrol

Collaboration

The passive citizen

I inventI direct

I do

I inviteWe invent

We or you do

Active participation

From To


Earned ?

?

?

?

?

?

Current Reduce paid. Increase owned

and earned

Finite capability of owned and earned. Accept outcome

shortfall?

Purchased

Purchased

Efficiencies

Owned

Owned

Owned

Earned

Earned

Earned

Outcome gap

Outcome gap

Ou

tco

mes

an

d e

xpen

dit

ure

It’s got to be perform if we are to avoid the comms outcome gap

More control

Less control


How to deliver

• Set principles and communicate them• Strategise strategically (apologies)• Counter the fear


Staff principles

• Be credible– Be accurate, fair, thorough and transparent.

• Be consistent– Encourage constructive criticism and deliberation. Be cordial, honest and

professional at all times.

• Be responsive– Share insight and create a dialogue

• Be integrated– Make it part of something bigger, not just an add-on

• Be a civil servant – Remember that you are an ambassador for your organisation. Wherever

possible, tell people who you are

Principles for Online Participation. Part of the Civil Service Codehttp://www.civilservice.gov.uk/about/resources/participation-online.aspx

:


How to make it stack-up and stick.Social media strategies…

• Start life…– As an add-on to campaign activity

– With part-time resourcing

– In the tool-shed

– Powered by enthusiasm


…should nest in a digital comms strategy…

• Such strategies… – Integrate all digital comms activity

• Content: reuse, sharing, signposting

• Cooperation across paid, owned, earned channels

• Conversion: pull towards action goals

– Feature full-time resourcing

– Tools and time

– Powered by the comms plan


…and contribute to digital engagement strategies going forward.

• Integrated beyond traditional comms function– Public participation

– Data

– Enabling the workforce

• Resourcing from beyond comms– Operations

– Delivery

• Tools and time are applied in a system• Powered by the business plan

• It should become business as usual


Common fears of using social media and how to counter them

• Losing control of the conversation vs. Missing the chance to participate in the conversations

• Anti-trust and privacy vs. Lack of trust

• Experiments that fail vs. Failing to experiment

• Members won’t use it vs. Organisations that don’t use it

• Spending too much time without seeing returns vs Spending too little tie and watching your value proposition erode

http://www.diaryofareluctantblogger.com/2009/01/fear-no-more.html


Our crowdsourced calendar of social media predictions

20201111

1. Integration and ScreensGreater integration of social across media, specifically increased use of hash tags and TV, as well as general blurring of lines between 1. communication and services and 2. messages and experiences

2. Social Commerce RisesMore virtual group buying opportunities and discounts, as well as bricks and mortar storefronts moving into Facebook to give the mix of shopping and social media to drive further sales and retention. But conversely…

3. It Gets SeriousAs organisations become more social, they will grappl3 with issues of reputation management, security and privacy like never before. As we’ve seen social media being used in backlashes against corporations, this could force organisations to become more risk adverse and cautious with their social media activity.

4. Internal CommsGreater focus on social media for internal comms as organisations search for meaningful, valuable ways in which they can use tools effectively. Social media becomes part of the job description of the masses, not just a job title for the few. Which begs the question:.

5, Common senseWill the term ‘social media’ lose it’s cache as organisations realise that it’s less smoke and mirrors and more common sense?.

7. Smart Listening to OptimiseListening is just one example of (4). Organisations dedicate resource to listening and measurement and try to figure out how what people are saying in social spaces can effectively be embeded into various functions across organisations. From a government perspective, the drive for ‘more for less’ will put an emphasis on both end-to-end evaluation and real-time optimisation.

8. Keep On CrowdsourcingWe also foresee more crowdsourcing across govenment to satisfy public appetite for digital participation and engagement

9. A Nation of BillionsAnd while Facebook may reach 1 billion users,

9. Twitter Commercialisesand, hopefully, Twitter get serious (more bandwith, no more Fail Whale, advertising, UK sales team),

20201111

10. Social Fatigue Sets In we may see more withdrawl into the off-line world as bloggers stop blogging, (it can be exhausting).And Finally…

We predict that social media will be used to greater extent for prediction

http://iabuksocial.co.uk/?p=1429#more-1429


Help and thank you. Let’s keep talking.

• Web standards and guidelines www.coi.gov.uk/webguidelines

• Usability toolkit www.coi.gov.uk/usability

• Digigov blog www.coi.gov.uk/blogs/digigov

• Twitter @nickjonescoi

• [email protected]

Thank you

COI, Nick Jones

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