Social Media in the Ontario government
Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing
September 2012

Social media is exploding
MEDI & MOL
MRI Wiki & Podcasts join Pinterest, G+
30+ Twitter channels registered
15+ YouTube channels registered
15+ Facebook pages registered
MNRCentral joins Twitter
I Heart Greenbelt Facebook Page
Premier joins Flickr
Mumps Facebook Page
FoodlandOnt joins Twitter
Youth Connect joins YouTube
Digital Ontario opens Second Life Island
Finance joins Twitter
8 pilots
between
2004-2008 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
2

Our approach
• Social media is still relatively new to
government, particularly in areas of
audience engagement and customer
service
• Approach had been to observe and
share ministry case studies, provide
advice and research emerging trends
• Now that social media is maturing, we
need to support ministries by
providing more concrete, strategic
guidance and metrics
3

Social media in the OPS
• Some ministries have little involvement in
social media while others operate more than
a dozen different accounts
• Pockets of ministries are working together to
share best practices and support each other
• Increased interest in more formal guidelines
and structure for social media
• Increased interest in shifting social media
activity towards engagement as opposed to
broadcasting
Map of social media accounts across government from the OPS Web
• MMAH developed employee guidelines were Database
developed in August 2011. OPS guidelines are
expected to draw clear distinctions between
official, professional and personal use
4

How are we using social media?
• Lots of enthusiasm for new tools, especially
Twitter
100
• Some teams are very successful, usually when
80
they focus on one platform 78
60
• Most platforms have 1-2 popular OPS pilots
40
• Mainly used as a broadcast medium, sharing
20 32 33
updates, links, photos, videos but also
6 21
excellent examples of customer service or
campaign alignment
• Increased interest in LinkedIn, Pinterest and
other niche sharing platforms Number of known ministry accounts across social media
platforms
5

New challenges
• Standards on French language, accessibility and
privacy need to be met
• Look and feel varies across channels
• Number of posts, timeliness and level of
engagement varies
• Ministries use different metrics to measure
performance, can be difficult to demonstrate
success aligned to outcomes
• Resources across ministries are stretched as
social media channels demand greater attention
6

Rules of engagement
Right now
• No guidelines on look and feel, each ministry has
taken a different approach
• Campaign specific Facebook pages (LGW)
• Different approaches for handling French,
privacy, accessibility and other legal obligations
What’s coming
• Updated guidelines and toolkits will provide
direction on legislative compliance and improved
guidance on strategic use of social media
• Ministry Facebook page with broader scope
• Online Design Program template options for
background, masthead and avatar images
• Updated central privacy statement and new
central terms of use for social media
7

What we’re working towards
1. Clear and simplified approvals process
Social media efforts centralized and coordinated through communications
2. Best practices and performance benchmarks
KPIs aligned to social media platforms and communications goals
3. Cabinet Office support and guidance
Case study sharing, updated toolkits and resources
4. Centralized standards
For privacy, French language, visual identity, accessibility
8