OnlineCommunicationsStrategy Executive Summary

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Please note that the statistics and data included in this strategy were collected in 2010.As with any set of statistics, numbers will change over time.

Online Communications Strategy/Executive Summery 3

City of Kitchener

OnlineCommunicationsStrategy Executive Summary

Within a few short years, online communications – and social media in particular– have revolutionized communications and information sharing worldwide

– creating what some experts call the most significant shift in world culture since:• The Industrial Revolution• The automobile• The airplane• Television

Traditional methods of communication are still important but social media – conversation supported byonline tools – has fundamentally changed the way our citizens discover, consume and share informationand it has enabled millions of people and organizations worldwide to connect and communicatein new and innovative ways.

Making the shiftSocial media is changing the world and it is changing stakeholder expectations for how they willreceive information from – and engage in a dialogue with – businesses and governments worldwide.This fundamental change in how our world communicates is forcing organizations like the City ofKitchener to rethink communications and marketing strategies and to learn to navigate this newonline landscape – or risk being left behind.

Currently, the City of Kitchener focuses the vast majority of its resources and efforts on communicatingwith its stakeholders through traditional forms of communications and marketing such as print, radioand television.

While the city has begun to do some initial work in online communications, to date that work has beendone ad hoc and without any strategy, prioritization or corresponding shift in resources.

Kitchener’s website, www.kitchener.ca, will remain the city’s primary tool for sharing information onlinefor the foreseeable future. However, in today’s connected world a single website is simply not enough.The city is not taking full advantage of a number of online communications technologies that couldassist it in reaching its stakeholders – including a number of groups it has traditionally found difficultto reach and engage such as youth, new Canadians, and potential visitors and investors far beyondKitchener’s borders.

Kitchener’s Online Communications Strategy positions the city for the present, as well as the future,by beginning to make a critical shift in communications resources and strategy towards a morebalanced approach to the use of traditional and online communication methods.

It is important to note that this strategy is about better balancing and integrating all of the communicationstools used by the city for maximum benefit and results. It is not about getting rid of traditional forms ofcommunications – many of which have benefits and reach audiences where online communications do not.

Amore balanced approach to the city’s communications will ensure it is reaching more people, engagingmore stakeholders and operating in a more open and transparent manner.

The need for changeBy embracing the world of social media through the development of a comprehensive Online Communica-tions Strategy, the City of Kitchener will join online discussions that are already happening today.

In combination with traditional communications, the city will leverage these highly-effective online channelsto inspire, enable, nurture and facilitate more relevant, more authentic and more effective stakeholdercommunications and engagement.

The use of social media will also help:• Enhance and increase the ways the city listens and reaches out to stakeholders.• Improve information flow and transparency.• Create a more informed and engaged community.• Engage stakeholders traditionally difficult to reach.• Enhance the city’s customer service efforts by providing online channels

for inquiries and requests.• Enable better monitoring, tracking and evaluation of all the city’s communications

and marketing efforts.

Meeting expectationsResearch and community consultations demonstrate that the city’s stakeholders expect informationto be available online – including but not limited to the city’s website, and via social media tools likeFacebook and Twitter.

For example, the 2009 Environics survey of Kitchener residents indicated:• 40% of respondents use Facebook daily or weekly.• 34% watch videos on YouTube or visit photo sharing sites like Flickr daily or weekly.• 20% of respondents said they fill out online surveys and read blogs daily or weekly.

Additionally, residents have expressed a strong desire to have more access to city information onlinethrough several previous community consultations, including: Voter Turnout Survey (2007); “How DidYou Know?” Online Communications Survey (2009), and the Who-are-you-Kitchener? communityconsultation (2010).

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Strategy developmentThe city’s Online Communications Strategy represents the culmination of more than eight monthsof information collection and research analysis involving a corporate staff team with membershipfrom divisions including: Corporate Communications and Marketing, IT, Human Resources, EconomicDevelopment, Legal and Records Management.

Recommendations in the strategy are based on extensive research and analysis on more than 40 relevanttopics and tools. Additionally, significant research was conducted into how other Canadian municipalitiesare using social medial and their own work to develop formal social media strategies and policies. In-depthinterviews and research were conducted with 12 cities – 11 from Canada and one from the United Statesand a full case study was completed with the City of Edmonton – a Canadian municipal leader in the useof social media for information sharing and engagement.

Research for the Online Communications Strategy identified several best practiceswhich have informed the strategy’s recommendations in areas such as:• Effective web writing• Keeping web content current• Online graphic design• Online recruitment• Search engine optimization

Recommendations for the Online Communications Strategy were developed basedon this research and they were shared with a number of groups for feedback,including: the Kitchener Youth Action Council, the Grand River AccessibilityAdvisory Committee and the Bits and Bytes Computer Club for Seniors.

Supporting corporate strategiesSuccessfully implementing the Online Communications Strategy will enable the city to improve informationsharing; engage more residents and be more open and transparent; while at the same time supporting anumber of other existing strategies or policies including:

• The City of Kitchener Strategic Plan• Economic Development Strategy• Talent Recruitment Strategy (under development)• Youth Services Strategy• Community Engagement Strategy• Diversity Strategy (under development)• Accountability and Transparency Policy

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Kitchenerand Facebook279,220 users in theKitchener Facebooknetwork.- 100,800 are 13-64.- 56% of followers arefemale; 44% male.- 26% are ages 13-24.- 54% are ages 25-44.- 19% are 45+- 9% (28,200) are 55+

Strategy outcomesWhere once, organizations believed that the web and social media – and how they were used – couldhave a direct negative impact on their reputation, today research demonstrates that not using these toolswill have a far more negative impact on an organization’s reputation and on its policy decisions.

Research demonstrates that more and more, people have come to expectthat they will be able to find and connect with organizations – like their localgovernment – online, through real-time social media platforms. Being a partof social media will enable the city to build relationships, trust and credibilitywith stakeholders, engage them in online conversation – and listen to them– in ways that were never before possible.

In an age where the best and brightest talent expects to find employers ofchoice recruiting through social media tools; where residents want to use– and are using Facebook to request and receive customer service; andwhere bloggers and their followers routinely discuss city projects, businessand decisions – the City of Kitchener cannot sit on the sidelines any longer.

The extensive research conducted during the development of the OnlineCommunications Strategy has lead to a consensus on the best approach to beginning to shift the city’scommunications resources and strategy to a more balanced approach by increasing its online communi-cations. hat approach can be summed up as follows:

• Start small. Do a few things well. Grow from there.• Centralize responsibility for maintenance of corporate social media accounts.• Dedicate resources to manage and monitor content.• Support staff with policy, guidelines and training.

Tools recommended for corporate useAfter extensive research into a wide range of social media tools, the Online Communications Strategyrecommends the creation of a single corporate account for several online tools. These recommendationsare based on a number of factors, including: volume of users of a particular tool, the number of Kitchener-based users, popularity with the general public and ease of use. The online tools recommended for useby the city are:• Facebook• Twitter• YouTube• Flickr• LinkedIn• RSS feeds (incorporate into current website redesign)• E-newsletters (incorporate into current website redesign)• Kijiji (for advertisement of events and some job postings)• Email signatures

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Consider this…

Years to reach fiftymillion users:Radio: 38 yearsTV: 13 yearsInternet: 4 yearsiPod: 3 yearsFacebook: 1 million

9 months.

Tools for future considerationThe Online Communication Strategy takes the approach of starting small, doing a few things welland then growing later. As a result, the strategy recommends that some online communications toolsincluding blogs, podcasting and wikis, not be pursued at this time but be considered again in the future.

Tools not recommendedSome of the online communications tools that were examined as part of this strategy were determined tobe cost prohibitive or ineffective for the city’s purposes and they are not being recommended for corporateuse at this time. Those tools include: Craigslist, MySpace, Digg, YahooAds, Google Ads and YouTubeAds.

Measuring and monitoring effectivenessMonitoring and measuring the effectiveness of the city’s social media effortswill ensure the city is using the right online tools, the right way – and that weare staying on top of new tools and emerging trends. It will also ensure stafftime and other resources continue to be used most effectively in sharinginformation with stakeholders.

Because social media is still so new to municipal governments, no specificstandards for measuring the effectiveness of each tool have been developed,though best practices do exist and will be implemented. Specific effectivenessmeasures have been developed for each online tool recommended in the strategy.

Staff will prepare an annual report to evaluate the effectiveness and use of the city’sonline communications tools which will explore any additional opportunities for in-creasing online communications that may emerge – or recommend discontinuing theuse of tools shown to be ineffective.

Staff resourcesIn order to ensure that the City of Kitchener’s online and social media presence is effectively monitoredand maintained, the Online Communications Strategy recommends that the Corporate Communicationsand Marketing Division serve as a centralized resource for the oversight, content creation, monitoringand evaluation of online communications tools.

A single corporate account will be established for each recommended social media tool from whichinformation from across the corporation and its enterprises will be disseminated.

Implementing the Online Communications Strategy and increasing the city’s use of online communicationswill be supported through the transition of an existing communications staff member to an online commu-nications specialist.

Additionally, a formal social media training program will be developed and offered to all staff to ensure con-sistency in, education about, and awareness of corporate social media efforts, best practices and policy.

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“When it comes to thebalance between onlinecommunications andusing social mediachannels, and whetheror not to use yourtraditional, tried and truecommunications meth-ods….social mediaisn’t an ‘instead-of.’It’s an ‘in addition to.’”

Mitch Joel, author, SixPixels of Separation,

April 2010

Protection of privacy and personal informationIn recent months increased attention has been paid to issues of the protection of privacy and personalinformation online – and especially through social media networks. The city’s Online CommunicationsStrategy takes a proactive approach to addressing these issues by:

• Developing and communicating a comprehensive Corporate Social Media Policy which includesspecific direction about inappropriate content, privacy and protection of personal information.

• Developing and communicating Social Media Guidelines for Staff.• Developing and implementing social media training for all city staff.• Developing a disclaimer to be included on the city’s Facebook page explaining criteria for

inappropriate comments and reminding fans that their personal information is being managedand stored by a third party. The disclaimer also reminders users to ensure that their privacysettings are set appropriately.

• Creating a dedicated staff resource to ensure consistent and timely maintenanceand monitoring of online social media tools.

Corporate social media policyResearch and interviews with other Canadian cities indicates that the Kitchener’s new comprehensiveCorporate Social Media Policy makes it amongst national leaders in this area. The purpose of the policy,which applies to all city staff, is to:

The policy covers a wide range of topics related to the implementation of the Online Communicationsstrategy, including:

• Sets out how we’ll establish and monitor corporate social media sites and tools.• Centralizes oversight of corporate social media accounts.• Determines criteria for inappropriate content - which will be removed.• Provides protocol for response to sensitive or negative posts.• Ensures timely and accurate information and responses are provided.• Allows staff to monitor online conversations about City of Kitchener projects and business on work time.• Does not allow staff to view or update personal social media sites on work time

–lunch hours or breaks only.

Ensures the city continues to meet its responsibilities for protection of privacy and personal informationand for records management and retention.

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ConclusionOnline communications, and social media in particular, has radically changed the way people discover,consume and share information. It has also changed their expectations for how their government sharesinformation and engages them in decisions.

The City of Kitchener’s Online Communications Strategy responds to this fundamental shift in societyby beginning to transform the way the city is communicating with its stakeholders towards a morebalanced approach between traditional and online tools – and it does so within existing resourcesand through a well thought out and planned approach aimed at maximizing the benefits to thecorporation and to its stakeholders.

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