http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_crawl
Australian Emergency Management Institute's Connection 2014 Social Media Master Class. The title "Australian Crawl" may make some think that the progress made in using social media across the Australian Public Service has been unnecessarily slow. I contend that this is not the case, relying instead on another interpretation of the title.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Crawl


The Australian band for the end of the baby boomer generation - Australian Crawl

Sometime incomprehensible lyrics, everywhere in the early 80s

From quite near Mt Macedon - so geographically relevant too

mixing music and beach culture - uniquely Australian - like APS use of social media - doing it our way, doesn't make it wrong.

Using the Crawl's discography as a meme for the points to be made today.

The Gov 2.0 task force was established in June 2009. Before that, use of social media and other Web 2.0 tools in the APS was minimal. This didn't make us very unusual. Twitter was launched publicly eight years ago yesterday and Facebook some 2 and a bit years earlier. While today there are 13.2m Australians on Facebook and 2.5m on Twitter, there were far fewer back then. http://www.socialmedianews.com.au/social-media-statistics-australia-june-20...

Social media was just kicking off, the garage band of APS interaction channels.

Discussion of the task force's conduct and report http://gov2.net.au/report/

Not just social media - a range of other issues too.

Discussion of government's response http://www.finance.gov.au/publications/govresponse20report/doc/Government-R...

Declaration of open government http://www.finance.gov.au/e-government/strategy-and-governance/gov2/declara... informing, engaging, participating

The design of social media services present a departure from historical norms of government IT infrastructure provision. Owned and maintained by someone else, APS involvement in social media channels has more in common with talk back radio than with the Web 1.0 version of online government communications and service delivery. It was suddenly not enough to publish and forget. The APS now needs to participate and engage.

The recognition that the user is the product on social media is important to understand the relationship needed to manage a social media presence.

Beloved of the Crawl, Errol Flynn features in more than one of their songs. Flynn's yacht, Sirocco, was named after a Mediterranean wind that blows out of the Sahara, reaching hurricane velocity in North Africa and Southern Europe.

Social media, while not at hurricane strength yet, has been particularly important in assisting governments to deal with emergencies of various sorts. The well publicised success of the Queensland Police Service has been mirrored by other agencies.

Social media has also changed the way news is delivered for many of us. Following a carefully selected number of established Twitter sources can be a more than sufficient source on news, particularly breaking news. Government must stay aware of these changing modes to avoid having its communications swept away by the force of the social media storm.

Myths

Build it and they'll come vs go to where they are

Another, better broadcast channel vs real engagement

Need to respond to everything vs considered response

Shield of anonymity will drive bad comment all the time vs self-correcting communities

Need to manage 24 hours vs reasonable expectations

Shouting at the bus stop vs real engagement - follow and follow back, hashtag usage

Can't trust staff vs real experience of day to day interaction

Someone else runs the platform

Broader reach

No middleman interpreting government's message

faster response times possible

mythbusting

Common problem of not delivering benefits as fast as expected and thus management loses interest

Need to separate hype from reality

IT Journalists always ahead of reality

Talk to other users to benefit from their experience

Don't feed the trolls, but

a quick answer or consultation will defuse situations

provide facts and links without arguing

use USAF engagement guide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Air_Force_Web_Posting_Response#m...

sometimes just let it go - 2 hour tweet life

can't manage what you don't measure

Simple monitoring tools for small agencies to watch their online presence

More enterprise level tools for major engagements

Analyse statistics to see what is happening.

use a risk management framework

mainly reputation risk

develop an emergency management plan

know when to escalate and how to do it

maintain password security but don't have just one person having access for corporate accounts

verify government accounts via Finance

ride the wave don't try to stop the tide

plenty of opportunity to start small and grow incrementally

decide on what you are doing as part of a communications strategy not a social media strategy. Carpenters don't have hammer strategies

Questions?