Matthew Gould

Web 2.0Engaging with social media

By Matt GouldOnline Systems OfficerNSW Rural Fire Service

Did You Know…

• 5 of the 10 most popular websites in the entire world are social media sites, the other 5 are search engines. [1]

• 3 out of 4 Australians visited a social media site in June 2009 [2]

• If Facebook were a country, it would be the third most populated place in the world. This means it easily beats the likes of Brazil, Russia and Japan in terms of size.

So what is Social Media?

Social media is media designed to be disseminated through conversation and social interaction, utilising web based technologies.

It is created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques designed to foster social dialogue.

Or put more simply…

Social Media is people having conversations online.

Types of Social Media

These conversations are powered by technologies such as:

Blogs Micro-Blogs Social Networking

Wikis Social Bookmarking Social News

Photo Sharing Video Sharing Livecasting

Virtual Worlds Audio Sharing Forums

Some Examples

Micro-blogging

• Is a form of social media that allows users to publish brief updates (typically about 140 characters).

• Similar to a SMS text message

• Popular platforms include Twitter

• In excess of 20,000 tweets are made every minute

Social Networking

• A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others

• Is the predominate communication medium for Generation Y and Z.

• In Australia social networking is dominated by Facebook

Blogs

• A Blog is an online journal where users post commentaries, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.

• Viewers of the blog can interact with the blogger through comments, replies and feedback.

• There are over half a billion blogs worldwide

• 70% of frequent internet users read one or more blog

Forums

• A Forum is an online discussion site. They originated as the modern equivalent of a traditional bulletin board

• Forums usually have a defined theme and focus on discussion and debate around that topic.

• Popular Firefighting Forums include the RFSA Forums and Ozfire.

Video Sharing• Video sharing is the publishing or transfer of videos online.

• Has grown increasingly popular over recent years, both in terms of amount uploaded and number of viewers

• Most popular site is Youtube

• Youtube is the third most accessed website in the world

• Over 1.2 billion Youtube videos are viewed every day

Wiki’sA wiki is a website that allows the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser.

Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used to create collaborative websites, to power community websites, for personal note taking, in corporate intranets, and in knowledge management systems.

The most well known Wiki is Wikipedia

Other channels

Photo Sharing

Livecasting

Social Bookmarking

Social News

Opinion sites

Community Q&A

Virtual Worlds

MMORGS

Why should I care about social media?

It’s a force to be reckoned with

“Old Media”

Older styles of communication are a monologue

“New Media”

Social Media uses a communication model that is all about creating dialogue.

The Art of Listening

This means when you talk your also expected to LISTEN

Conversely if you listen you’ll find yourself wanting to talk

Hey presto we have a conversation

From that conversation we can develop buy in

and user engagement

So how can we utilise social media in an

emergency organisation?

Welcome to the Attention Age

• Attention is a valuable commodity

• The average person is exposed to 3000 messages a day.

How can we possibly hope to be heard amongst all that How can we possibly hope to be heard amongst all that noise?noise?

The 10 Golden Rules• The Internet never forgets

• Accept your responsibility

• Be Transparent

• Talk about what you know

• Cite your sources

• Understand the expectation

• Watch your tone

• Always add value

• Admit your Mistakes

• Timeliness is key

Build Friendships

You Build Friendships through:

– Shared Experiences

– Shared Values

– Mutual Respect

Types of Postings

• Questioner

• Opinion

• Knowledge Bank

• Happy Customer

• Constructive Criticism

• Unhappy Customer

• Misinformed

• Ranter

• Troll

A special note about Trolls

Do not Feed the Troll

What can social media offer

• An opportunity to build strong relationships before the storm hits

• Provides an opportunity to deliver messaging direct to your target markets

• Building the relationship means having a conversation in the good times and the bad

• This investment provides a direct communication channel in times of emergency

The Challenges

• Huge variety of channels

• Social networking means that people who have an opinion can group together

• How do you influence the influencers?

• The conversation will go on without you.

How can I succeed in the social media space?

Recipe for success

• Measurable Goals

• Define a plan with contingencies

• Select your team

• Know there will be setbacks

• Build a community

• Plan to continue

Plan = Success

• Set Measurable and Achievable Goals– Tangible results

• increase your social media traffic by 20% over the next 6 months• Increase number of followers by 200 over the next month

– Did we reach the goal?

Implementation Success

• Develop your Plan– How are you going to get to your goal

• Plan contingencies– How will you respond when things go wrong

• Results or cultural challenges

– Revisit and redefine– Resilience

Implementation Success

• Select your team– The people who can best help achieve the goal– Accept your budget, resource and time constraints

– Place your trust in the team to

execute effectively

Implementation Success

• Know there will be setbacks– Fear comes with the unknown

– Remember to breathe

– Not everything is as bad as you think

– Resist knee-jerk reactions

– Use diagnosis techniques to find the source of the setback

– Revisit and Refine your planStay focused on the plan

Implementation Success

• Build a community– It’s an outcome– Don’t forget about them

• Plan to continue– What will you do once they’ve done what you wanted them

to do?

Developing a Policy Framework

In An Ideal World

Implementation

Engagement Plans

Policy

Strategy/Road Map

Vision

What Tends to Happen

Strategy/ Roadmap

Policy

Vision

Engagement Plan

Implementation

The Problems

• Tendency to randomly select channels, without examining target market or key messaging requirements.

• Lack of strategic thinking leads to either having to reposition channels at a

latter point, or results in ineffective channels with unengaged communities.

• No clear path or direction forward, resulting in a fragmented social media footprint.

• Leads to a lot of chasing your own tail

• Leads to lack of clarity over who owns what and where accountabilities lie

Vision

• Should establish a high level framework for where the organisation wants to go with social media

• Should be aspirational

• Get the power players in the room

• Use to drive Executive buy in

Strategy/ Roadmap

• Should have an organisation wide focus.

• Needs to examine all areas of social media usage within the organisation

• Should remain channel agnostic but may commit to specific types of social media

• Should have a 2 -3 year focus

• Is the foundation document for all engagement plans

Policy

There are a few key things you need to be aware of when designing a social media policy:

• The conversation is happening, and will continue whether your involved or not.

• The social media landscape can be monitored and influenced, but not controlled.

• You need to Consult! Consult! Consult! And then consult some more

• A good social media policy should focus on what people can do via social media, not what they can’t.

• To have any chance of success you need to engage all the key players

• Beware the lawyers

Engagement Plan

• Needs to be a part of a larger organisational strategy

• Doesn’t need to be War and Peace

• Needs to be reviewed regularly

• Commits to particular channels

Workshop Item: Developing an

Engagement Plan

Contact Me

• Matt Gould – Matthew.gould@rfs.nsw.gov.au

• LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/in/mattgouldau