1. Social Media Strategy:
Mission, Tool, Metrics, Teach
Jeffrey Levy
Director of Web Communications
US EPA
Rev 4/12

2. Three Levels of Understanding
• What is this stuff?
• Why would gov’t use it?
• How do we get going?
Where are you?

3. Breaking the Ice
• Personally or professionally, who has hands-on
experience posting to:
– Twitter (anyone live tweeting this workshop)?
– Facebook?
– Other social networking sites?
– Photo sharing?
– Video sharing?
– Document or slide deck sharing?
– Wiki?
• Think of and share one word about feelings the
words “social media” create in you

4. Agenda
• Videos and discussion on what social
media means
• Presentation: brief overview of social
media
• Break
• Mission, tool, metrics, teach: presentation
and working on your own project, then
reporting out

5. What is Social Media?
Anything online where the viewer
can do something more than absorb:
comment, rate, create content, etc.

6. Four Things to Remember
• Social media is free like a puppy is free.
• Social media is a set of tools. Don’t throw out the
old just because you get something new.
• We’re in the first pitch of a baseball game.
• An expert is someone who knows one thing
more than you do.

7. Videos and Discussion
• Information R/evolution: broad overview of how
social media is changing how we think of and
share information
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4CV05HyAbM
• Social Media Revolution: amazing stats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0EnhXn5boM

8. What (tools)?
• Blogs • Business networking
• Microblogs • RSS
• Social networking • Mashups
• Widgets • Idea generation
• Wikis • Social gaming
• Video/photo sharing • Virtual worlds
• Podcasting • Social news
• Document Sharing • Social bookmarking
• Contests • Location check-ins

9. What (figuratively)?
• Collaboration (internal and external)
• Interaction (comments, photos, videos)
• “Force Multiplier” through sharing
• Tools for adults

10. Why?
• Mission, mission, mission
– So keep using older tools, too
• It’s where the people are
– 4,000,000,000 daily YouTube views
– 850,000,000 active Facebook users
• More direct connection to people
• We’re 17,000. They’re 7,000,000,000.
• Chance to hear what others are saying
• Competitive advantage in providing information

11. How?
• It’s culture, not a tech issue
• Trust: employees, the public
• Develop some strategy, but not 400 pages
• Experiment

12. How? (cont’d)
• Be ready to fail (fast, small)
• Be ready to succeed
– Always ask “what’s next”?
– Teach!
• Embrace criticism (it’s almost all useful)
• Accept that odd things will happen
• Acknowledge that fear, confusion, wonder,
excitement are all normal

13. How to Get Started: Try It
• GovLoop.com
• Twitter (to start, just follow people)
• Facebook (try everything: groups, apps, causes,
upload pics, add links, etc.)
• Read blogs on social media
• Post videos to YouTube, photos to Flickr,
Documents to Scribd, slide decks to Slideshare
• Listen to a few podcasts

14. And now a word about …

15. Privacy. No advertising. Copyright.
No Corporate branding. Official source.
Permanent Promotion of
Cookies. outside Records
Lack of COPPA. organizations. management
guidance on Procurement
social media FOIA
Augmenting
appropriation.
Accessibility. Soliciting donations.
Section 508. FACA Anti-Deficiency.
Web 2.0 Policy
Information architecture. IT Security. Resources.
Content management systems. Culture.
Unproven technology.
Knowledge.
Infrastructure
support of Web
Govt info on 2.0
non-govt Restricted
Servers access on govt

16. AAAARRGGGHHHH

17. How to Get Started (Projects)
• Review the stuff about culture
• Thicken your skin
• Start small, grow over time
• Go to lunch with:
– Your IT folks
– Your attorneys
– People who have found success

18. How to Convince Your Boss
• Mission: use gov’t words, not technologies
– Not Blog: “connecting with our stakeholders”
– Not YouTube: “video where people can find it”
• Stay high-level, not technical
• More:
levyj413.wordpress.com/2009/05/12/how-to-talk-to-managers-about-socia

19. Now It’s Your Turn!
Putting
Mission, Tool, Metrics, Teach
Into Action

21. Mission
• What's your mission need or goal?
– Think broadly: go beyond regulations
– Engage, not just direct
• Who are your target audiences?
• What are their top tasks online, and how
does your mission play into those?

22. Mission Example:
Earth Day and EPA
• What's our mission need or goal?
Get people to protect the environment
• Who are our target audiences?
Everyone in their daily lives, not at work
• What are their top tasks online related to our
mission?
Learning what they can do, protecting
themselves, purchasing, recycling

23. Mission: More Examples
• Policy forums
• Community-building: convening, not directing
• Hearing about problems (traffic, crime, etc.)
• Educating beyond our own websites
• Engaging people’s creativity

24. Mission: Your Turn
• What's your mission need or goal?
• Who's your target audience?
• What are their top tasks online, and how
does your mission play into those?
Take 5 minutes

25. Tool
• What tools or channels will help you most
directly serve your mission and your
audiences' needs?
• Think multi-channel
• Remember “traditional” tools

26. Tool: EPA Examples
• Earth Day
– News release
– Facetweets
– Podcasts
– Photo, video projects
– Widget
– Home page banner
– Email
– Videos
• Jobs
– Email
– Auto-tweet
– Auto-Facebook posts (researching new FB page)

27. Tool: More Examples
• Policy forums: blogs, social networking
• Community-building: social networking, wikis
• Hearing about problems: mashups, mapping,
mobile reporting apps
• Educating beyond our own websites: widgets,
social networking, blogging, microblogging
• Engaging people’s creativity: photo/video
sharing, contests

28. Tool: Your Turn
• What tools or channels will help you most
directly serve your mission and your
audiences' needs?
• Think multi-channel
• Remember “traditional” tools
Take 5 minutes

29. Metrics
• What defines success qualitatively for this project?
Engagement is what matters, but isn’t always easy to
demonstrate
• What can you measure that will describe quantitatively
how it's going? Much is available from some tools, not
much from others (and keep staffing and budget in mind)
• How often will you measure?
• Name benchmarks that will tell you whether you're
succeeding.

30. Metrics Example:
Earth Day and EPA
• What defines success qualitatively for Earth
Day?
– People taking action
– People owning the environment
– People teaching others
– People changing how they purchase, use, and toss
out stuff
– Attitudes toward EPA and EPA’s mission improve

31. Metrics Example:
Earth Day and EPA
• What can we measure that will describe
quantitatively how it's going?
– Views: website, Facebook, YouTube, widgets
– Reach: retweets, shares, likes, people
participating
– Contest/project entries: photos, videos, apps
– Comments left (# and nature)
– Anecdotes: look especially for evidence of
action

32. Metrics Example:
Earth Day and EPA
• How often did we measure?
– Daily, weekly, or overall depending on the
effort
• Name benchmarks that told us whether
we succeeded
– To be honest, we didn’t do this; just did
summary reports
– Still trying to figure out what “big” means (is
60,000 email subscribers a lot?)

33. Metrics: More Examples
• Policy forums: # of comments, # of participants, # of useful
ideas that emerged (esp. if they changed the policy direction)
• Community-building: size of network, level of activity,
actions that emerged
• Hearing about problems: # of reports, # of resulting actions
• Educating beyond our own websites: page views,
followers/fans, # of widget installations
• Engaging people’s creativity: # of participants, # of entries

34. Metrics: Your Turn
• What defines success qualitatively for this project?
• What can you measure that will describe qualitatively
how it's going?
• How often will you measure?
• Name benchmarks that will tell you whether you're
succeeding.
Take 5 minutes

35. Teach
• How will you share what you've learned
from this project in your own organization?
• How will you share what you've learned
beyond your organization?

36. Teaching Example:
Earth Day and EPA
• Tweeted results
• Taught webinars
• Spoke at conferences
• Briefed management
• Incorporated lessons into other briefings

37. Teaching: More Examples
• Same methods as above for all examples, plus:
– Training videos
– Recorded webinars for later viewing
– Create policy or guidance documents

38. Teach: Your Turn
• How will you share what you've learned
from this project in your own organization?
• How will you share what you've learned
beyond your organization?
Take 5 minutes

39. Resources: Social Media
• Jeffrey Levy
– Twitter: http://twitter.com/levyj413
– Slideshare (including this workshop): http://slideshare.net/levyj413
– Infrequent blog: http://www.govloop.com/profiles/blog/list?user=28e2wynnsadv3
– (I'm on LinkedIn, but check in only every several months)
– (I'm on Facebook, but for personal sharing, not related to work)
• Social media for beginners: Jeffrey Levy blog post linking to resources,
including today's videos:
http://www.govloop.com/profiles/blogs/social-media-resources-for-beginners
• Govloop: social network for people in and around gov't (just crossed 50,000
members): http://govloop.com
• Many gov't and private-sector social media policies:
http://govsocmed.pbworks.com/w/page/15060450/Web%202%200%20Governanc

40. Resources: MTMT
• Mission
– 10 Communications Objectives of Social Media:
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/10-communications-objectives-of-social-media
• Tool
– Search for tips and tricks
• Metrics
– Blog post with good additional links:
http://andrewpwilson.posterous.com/a-new-take-on-social-media-metrics-for-govern
– Category of one blog related to measurement:
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/category/social-media-measurement/
– One view on 10 social media metrics to monitor:
http://socialtimes.com/social-media-metrics_b2950
– How far did your tweet go? http://tweetreach.com . http://topsy.com
– Twitter stats: http://tweetstats.com
• Teach: try out Slideshare and Scribd