A social media 101 exploration into leveraging social media to engage with federal government audiences.

1. Social Media in Government
Ways to Engage with the Federal Community
Elizabeth Shea, CEO
SpeakerBox Communications
@speakerbox
@eliz2shea

2. Introductions…
Elizabeth Shea: President & CEO of
SpeakerBox, founded in 1997
(Competes with Elizabeth Shea,
country-western singer, for first page ranking)
§ SpeakerBox Communications is a
B2B/B2G technology PR firm
(Competes with subwoofers and the Bud
Light Speaker Box tailgate toy).

3. resistance to
For companies,
social media is futile. Millions of
people are creating content for the social
web.Your competitors are
already there. Your customers have
been there for a long time. If your
business isn’t putting itself out there, it
ought to be.
- B.L. Ochman, BusinessWeek, February 2009

4. Buyers Used to Solve Problems:
§ Talking to Salespeople
§ Product Literature
§ Tradeshow attendance
§ Reading articles or ads, commercials

5. Now They Solve Problems:
§ Google searches
§ Online portals and news sites
§ User-generated content and opinions
§ Word of “mouse”
§ Direct to company websites
©2008 Online Marketing Connect Institute

7. Myths of B2G Social Media…
§ “The government isn’t on Facebook or Twitter.”
§ “I don’t have enough time or the resources to go
down the social media path.”
§ “I have a limited marketing budget and need to
focus on lead generation.”
§ “ I have no idea what I would even tweet about.”
§ “There are so many social networking options,
where do I even start?”

8. B2G Communications Evolution
YESTERDAY TODAY
Core set of print publications FedScoop, GovLoop, GovTwit, GovConWire,
OhMyGov, NextGov
Website optional SEO or No-Go
Golden reporter rolodex Followers with authority
Direct Mail Social Media Channels
Printed “clip” books Google analytics
Press Conference Breaking stories on Twitter
THE GOOD NEWS: YOU ARE MORE IN CONTROL THAN EVER!

9. “The Government Isn’t On Twitter…”
@WhiteHouse (3,038,034)
@NASA (2,795,530)
@USArmy (171,134)
@USCoastGuard (38,882)
@USAgov (104,259)
@NASAGoddard (54,391)
@USDOL (47,106)
@FEMA (127,189)
@USEdGov (138,430)
@Statedept (320,535)

10. “The Government Isn’t On Facebook…”

11. Who’s On What? (http://govsm.com/w/Federal_Agencies)

12. Where Do They go?

13. What Do They Use?
Source: 2011 Social Media in the Public Sector Report, Market Connections, Inc.

14. Three Steps To Social Success
Listen/Learn
Create
Engage

15. LISTEN
Audit yourself:
Google Search / Google Alerts
Technorati.com
Search.twitter.com
Tweetdeck.com / HootSuite.com
Compete.com
Klout

16. What Do You Hear?
At a minimum, the
expectation
is that you are
listening

17. LEARN
§ Social media listening posts help you
learn what customers want
§ Open a channel to see who walks through
§ Incorporate into your product strategies,
customer support procedures,
communication strategies

18. CREATE
§ You need to either curate or create your
stance, your value proposition, the reason
your customers buy.
§ Social media is reliant on content. Plan a
way to create content that is useful to your
audience.

19. The Most Valuable Thing You Can Do…
Blog!
§ Highlight your SMEs! Help your customers realize:
– You can solve their problems
– Save them valuable time
– You have the expertise they need
§ Syndicate your posts to LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter
automatically to help with SEO and engage.

20. Content Curators/Aggregators
§ Scoop.it § Storify.com
§ Curated.by § RebelMouse.com
§ Trunk.ly § Nextmags.com
§ Redux § Glos.si
§ Paper.li § Chime.in
§ PersonSpot § Projectlimelight.com
§ Snip.it § Storylane.com

21. ENGAGE
§ Social media tools enable you to engage
with your audience in a meaningful way.
§ Not a one-size fits all approach. Determine
which channel your customers use, and
meet them there!

23. Building Blocks to Your Profile
§ Complete your profile! Photo, logo, websites,
Twitter handles, RSS feed etc.
§ Add keywords within specialty section. Under
which words do you want to be found?
§ Give recommendations to get recommendations
(Hint: recommend your customers!)
§ Invite others in. Triangulate with alumni, former
coworkers, and let LinkedIn do the work.
§ Join and engage in Groups.

24. Settings

25. Follow Your Customers

26. Find Your Groups

27. The Power Of Groups

28. Engage in Groups

29. You can watch, and stalk…

31. Friendly Facebook: Listen and Learn

32. Engage and Triangulate

33. Build YOUR Page for Engagement

34. Best Practices
§ Content matters! Keep it relevant,
informative, non-salesy, and max 1-2 posts
a day.
§ Share blog posts if you have a blog.
§ Share relevant articles you find your
audience would enjoy.

37. Twitter Terms
§ Twitter is a microblog, each post limited to 140 characters.
§ Twitter handle: your personalized id (@secafdc)
§ Hashtag: a “topic” identifier that is searchable on Twitter
to monitor trending topics (#secaf)
§ List: a subsection of those you follow by your own defined
category (HootSuite, TwitChimp)
§ Retweet: sharing someone else’s tweet on your Twitter
handle. Show the love!

38. Twitter Engagement Best Practices
§ Follow your customers, their agencies, your
partners.
§ Set up one tweet a day at the beginning of the
week with articles, news, etc. your audience
would find valuable.
§ Use a tool like HootSuite.com or TweetDeck to
monitor your own company, as well as your
customers’ key tweets.
§ Retweet your customers’ news with your own
commentary.

39. Other Tools To Consider…
§ Flickr: Strong indexing in search engines and passes
links and page rank.
§ YouTube: Good for building links back to your site
because the videos rank very well.
§ Digg: Indexes your stories quickly (popular or not).
Popular ones attract bloggers.
§ StumbleUpon: Large user base; many people can find
stories and link to them.
§ Tumblr: high potential from a link-building perspective.
Sites rank well in the search engines.

40. Don’t Try to Boil the Ocean

41. Engage with Government
Listen Create Engage
What does your Create content for Write once, use 5X!
customer read and your expertise vis-à- Work to make it two-
what do they say? vis customer needs way for high impact
Address customer Build plan/create
What does your
objections with strong channels for reaching
customer need?
messaging your target
What is the one thing White papers, articles, Engage customers,
you provide that they speeches, videos, partners to speak on
want the most? blogs, releases your behalf

42. Desired Results From a Social Media Effort
§ Google searches for your solution produce your name.
§ 3-5 pieces of content on your specialized skill or solution.
§ Awards honor you around your best practices.
§ Conferences seek you out for speaking engagements.
§ You have bylined articles in influential publications.
§ You are an influencer: the ecosystem follows your lead.
§ You are seen as an expert, and thus, business comes your
way.

43. Step-by-Step Social Media Outreach
1. Create your top 2-3 agency targets
2. Understand their mandate/agency objective
3. Understand the channels they use to learn about you
4. Know what they read, where they “live”
5. Engage with them on social media platforms
6. Build your content plan to engage the buyers
7. The government is made up of…social people!
When your prospect is ready to buy, make sure you
are everywhere they look!

44. HELP!!!
§ Shoutlet – Social media marketing communications
platform.
§ Sprout Social – Social media dashboard, monitoring,
workflow, influencer and contact management.
§ Sendible – Social media marketing platform.
§ HootSuite - Social media dashboard for managing social
content and engagement on multiple networks with
team workflow.
§ Seesmic – Manage social marketing activity on Twitter,
Facebook, FourSquare, Google Buzz and LinkedIn.

46. Elizabeth Shea
SpeakerBox Communications
703-287-7810
eshea@speakerboxpr.com
Twitter: @speakerbox
@eliz2shea