Comments on: Why government agencies need a social media strategy

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:45:09 +0000

Jolene right now GovLoop is the best chance for you to find what you are looking for.

By: Jolene Meier

Jolene Meier — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:00:33 +0000

I am looking for Social Medial information pertaining to Government Agencies Commisaries, the Pentagon, and Auditing for my capstone project for the ElP program.

I am interested in what’t working and what doesn’t. Why certain social media tools are used and which ones are not. I am also looking at the security security vulnerabilities of using social media in the government.

I am particularly interested in twitter, blogs, wikis, video sharing, photo-sharing, podcasting, microblogging, etc.

If anyone can direct me to a web site that would provide this information, thank you.

By: harriet

harriet — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 05:55:18 +0000

Thanks Nick, a great post – and one which re-iterates the power of ‘word of mouth’ – aka ‘word of blog’ as opposed to more traditional media formats. I’m passing it on

By: Nick Cowie » Government agencies and social media strategies

Nick Cowie » Government agencies and social media strategies — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:01:28 +0000

[...] series of posts on Government agencies and social media strategies over on my other blog. The first Why government agencies need a social media strategy has been up for a few days, the second and third are half written and should turn up [...]

By: Donna Spencer

Donna Spencer — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:55:54 +0000

Good point Nick. Most of the time when I hear people talking about needing a social media policy, they are talking about a solution, but not describing the problem it solves (which is where the broader comms strategy fits – this could be the hook that describes the problem).

But your point about needing a policy simply to deal with what is already out there is a good one. In that case the social media policy (inc guidance for staff as jason commented) does address a clear problem.

By: Jason Ryan

Jason Ryan — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 06:53:32 +0000

Good post Nick. It is also worth mentioning that an agency's communications strategy should include, as part of a social media section, guidance for staff wishing to –or already– using these tools. It is not just corporate comms or, God forbid, IT that use social media in or outside the firewall...

By: nick

nick — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 06:30:07 +0000

I agree with you, most govt agencies have poor communications strategy. Often that is exasperated by the communication section handling the old school media, the IT section handling the corporate website and social media if used by the customer service section.

Govt departments needs to develop a solid all encompassing communications strategy that includes online and a social media strategy. This is where I disagree with you, even if a govt agency is not using social media, it needs to have a social media policy to deal with others using social media to communicate about it.

By: Donna Spencer

Donna Spencer — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:05:32 +0000

Just musing out loud, but I feel like there is a bigger piece missing.

Most govt I work with (and I work with a lot of govt) don’t even have a decent communications strategy. Most really need to start thinking about what their real communications goals are, how they use the web, how they use people etc etc. A part of a broader comms strategy may include social media if social media is likely to help them achieve their broader comms goals…