Social Media: Local Government Use

Steven Clift
stevenclift.com
e-democracy.org
@democracy
Social Media:Local Government Use
Slides available now: http://slideshare.net/netclift

Introduction

Government by Day, Citizen by Night
15+ years of experience “interacting’ online within and “around” government

E-Democracy.org Today
Hosts 30+ Local “Issues Forums”
Mix of technology – e-mail, web, web feeds, Facebook, Twitter
Ford Foundation-funded “Inclusive Social Media” effort in low income, high immigrant communities (including Somali community in Minneapolis)

Perspective

Model Use of Social Media
1. What the government lawyers don’t scare you (officials) from using.
2. What the open government advocates and social media mavens want.
3. What the public expects and to which they actually respond.
Discussion on CityCamp Exchange:
http://e-democracy.org/citycamp

“Digital Embassies” - Edelman
Reaching people “where they are” via third party social media tools versus websites you ”own”

Pick a tool, any tool
Source: Jeffery Levy, EPA

Gov Online – PewInternet.org
Agree or disagree on impact of social media in government
April 2010 report brings fresh data:
82% of internet users (representing 61% of all American adults) looked for information or completed a transaction on a government website in the 12 months preceding this survey:
48% of internet users have looked for information about a public policy or issue online with their local, state or federal government
46% have looked up what services a government agency provides
31% use online platforms such as blogs, social networking sites, email, online video or text messaging to get government information
23% participate in the online debate around government policies or issues

Gov Online – PewInternet.org
April 2010 report further reports:
21% who feel government posting on Facebook, Twitter very important:
17% Whites
31% African-American
33% Hispanic
18% College Educated
30% W/O High School Degree

Examples

Necessity Helps – Disaster Response
Use of Twitter during San Bruno gas fire in California #sanbrunofire
Tweeting assisted by nearby San Carlos gov that used Twitter actively
More: http://www.socialtimes.com/2010/09/san-bruno-fire/

Official City Facebook Pages
Collecting links:
http://pages.e-democracy.org/Minnesota_government_Facebook_Pages

Why does St. Paul have more fans? Also on YouTube
5857 Mpls, 6700 St. Paul
What is a “Liker” worth?

Representation – Mayor Rybak
Uses mix of social tools. Official blog.
Why must official sites be boring?

Representation – Mayor Rybak
Very active on Twitter and Facebook
Appear to be “personal” use.
Not officially linked.

Representation – Cllr. Cam Gordon
City of Minneapolis provides “toolkit”:
Home page CMS
Map, Picture, Pages with Links
E-Newsletter
Date Book

Representation – Cllr. Cam Gordon
Cam “represents” across Net:
Blog
Facebook Profile
Neighbor Issues Forums

Engagement
UK Lessons
AskBristol.org
Redbridge.gov.uk – Budget balancer

Engagement - Public Input
Santa Cruz – UserVoice
Kings County, WA
Manor “Labs” Texas

Engagement - Lessons
Ongoing v. time-limited
Recruit, recruit, recruit
Expectations - Describe space accurately – who is LISTENING
Facilitate – First person is best
“Seed and Weed” – Actively share information and address problems in dialogue.

Engagement – Ooops.
Santa Cruz – UserVoice was time-limited example … now generates error, gather lessons when you can
ParticipateDB.org – Excellent listing of projects and tools

Local “Community Sites”, Facebook
Stillwater, MN page has 10,000 friends (over 50% of local residents)
Citizen-run, what about government?

But wait, something is wrong …
Be the government that connects with people.
Help your government get it.

Pick your tools and serve
Conclusion …
It is time for both government and elected officials to connect with their citizens where they “are” online and not wait for them to come to you.

Further Resources

Government 2.0 Report Collection
http://e-democracy.org/sunshine
20+ Government 2.0 Reports Linked
Earn Five “Suns,” 25 Draft Indicators
Drafting guide for national League of Women Voters
Representation
Decision-Making
Information
Engagement
Online Features

Webinars, Unconferences
Using Technology to Build Community In-Depth Webinar, Podcast:
http://e-democracy.org/webinars
CityCamp – Local Gov 2.0 meet Citizens 2.0
http://citycamp.com
http://e-democracy.org/citycamp - Forum

Twitter Hashtags
#edem – General e-democracy
#opengov – Open Government
#gov20 – Government 2.0
#opendata – Open Data
#hyperlocal – Local News
#citycamp – Local mix of everything above

Contact
Steven Clift
clift@e-democracy.org
@democracy on Twitter
+1-612-234-7072
netclift – on Skype
Links
http://blog.e-democracy.org
http://e-democracy.org/p3
http://stevenclift.com
Slides also available from:
http://www.slideshare.net/netclift

Social Media: Local Government Use

by Steven Clift

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