Al Smith Social media in local government

TMIAC – what I think I said

I was invited down to Liverpool last week to speak at the Tourism Management Institute's Annual Convention. It's a great city with some similarities to my adopted home, Newcastle.

The convention was titled 'Regeneration, Re-invention, Recession: Capital of Culture One Year On' which of course led me to add another 'R' in the title of my workshop: Social Media Revolutions.

A copy of the Powerpoint is available through Slideshare in the Presentations section of my blog here.

Anyway, as out of context the slides can be a bit meaningless, here's what I think I said!

Social Media Revolutions: How to communicate in the web 2.0 world

Liverpool is a great city, it's got a lot going for it and it's changing all the time. Much the same as Newcastle. But ask people about Liverpool and their first thoughts may be of scousers in curly wigs saying "calm down, calm down". Newcastle has similar issues, our first thoughts may be of noisy, angry football fans eager to depose Mike Ashley and appoint a new messiah.

Of course this is not "on-message". There are images of Liverpool and NewcastleGateshead that fit better with city and destination branding. But "on-message" and "off-message" doesn't always fit well with the web. But that's because of what the web is.

What's a social network?

Talk about social networks and people think you're talking about computers, about Facebook or Twitter or MySpace or Bebo. There are social networks for all sorts of interest groups. Knitters may be members of Ravelry, but they might also go round to each others houses to knit.

When we think about (the fictional) Fight Club do we think, "that's a social network". Maybe not. But interest groups may find themselves bonding together through seemingly unlikely activities where previously they may not have found each other or even spoken to each other. It's offline, but it's a network.

I illustrated this point by finding people in the room who had pet cats and drawing a physical connection between them with string to form a rudimentary social network named 'StringFace' [okay this bit didn't work all that well, but in my head it was amazing].

So whether you like cats, knitting, bare-knuckle fighting or all three, there will be others out there with similar interests. In arranging yourselves together and making connections it becomes a social network. It doesn't matter if you use a website or an abandoned cellar, your group exists.

So if it's about connections not computers then our approach to it must reflect this. It's all about communication.

Behaviours

If we can communicate offline then we can communicate online. Don't let the computers scare you, they work for you. But we may need to examine our behaviours to see what will work.

Key behaviours are:

• Openness - if you're on the web and you're choosing to communicate then do it, don't lurk in the shadows and don't keep things to yourself. The best parties are the ones where you talk to new people, not the ones where you stick with the people you came with
• Sharing - you're not on there to sell. You might manage to sell, but that comes through sharing your knowledge, experiences, your views and personality. Don't just broadcast, create something
• Friendship - this breeds trust. I trust what my friends say about something more than someone I don't know. But if I get to know you then I'll trust your opinion too
• Human - be human. Tell people who you are and what you do, give something away and you'll get it back. I find it difficult to form a bond with a bit of code that powers some repetitive interaction. People can still tell a mail merge letter from a hand-written one
• Interesting - this should really follow from the rest of the behaviours, but what your audience find interesting is not necessarily what you will be asked to communicate. There's a balance to be struck here, but if it's something that's unlikely to be of any interest to anyone then it's probably not worth the effort

Social media is not another megaphone, it could be, but then again it's open to everyone so there are millions of megaphones and if everyone's shouting at the same time then nobody will be heard. If you sit down with someone and have a chat then you'll get more done and people will be able to hear your message. Don't go for the hard sell, you'll end up being ignored.

Have a look at this Twitter page for how the soft sell can be used to good effect in the tourist trade.

Get into Newcastle

This is a TV ad. It's on YouTube, but it's still a TV ad. Don't get me wrong  it's fine on YouTube, a chance to get extra exposure with no real additional investment. If you've got video content it's probably better on YouTube than on your own site, it'll get seen more (although if you upload to YouTube and embed on your own site you'll have the best of both worlds).

J'aime la Tour

This is a nice video. It's sharable. I'd feel much more compelled to show other people this video than the one before. It has that quality which makes it ripe for YouTube and social media in general.

If you know what makes something sharable then you're halfway there. The second video would work well on TV or YouTube (although it's a bit too long for TV). But if you really want to use YouTube then look at what it can do that TV can't.

Choose A Different Ending

YouTube is web based, so it can be linked. This 'choose your own adventure' style video uses this to good effect. If you're choosing between YouTube and TV then think what each can offer against each other right from the start. Each has pros and cons. If you work in communications or marketing you can always choose your tools, social media just offers us more tools.

Risks

People often associate social media with risk. Which is fair. And to be honest if you're not aware of risks you're more likely to fall foul of them.

But the risks associated fall into two main categories, internal and external. Internal risks are the real risks, but they're also the ones you can prepare for. Are your staff going to 'waste time' on Facebook? What if someone says something they shouldn't in public?

These risks should be managed through HR processes and through line management. Who are your public facing staff? If you trust people to speak to people over the phone, by email or face-to-face then they should be trusted to communicate on the web. Monitor and evaluate this. If you can't trust your staff then why were they hired?

External risks are those that come from the general public. They won't stay 'on message', they won't bite their lip if they're annoyed about something and they cannot be controlled through internal policies, procedures or protocols. they never signed up to your terms of use.

So... I've said before that controlling these people is not really an option. People will say bad things about you anyway, whether it's on the internet or in the back of a cab.

You can leave it be (it may cause more trouble to get involved), try and sort their issue (if it's sortable) or provide an answer which may not help that particular person but may be of use to others with similar problems. Or you can report them.

It's important at this stage to first remember the spirit of the internet. Reporting someone without first giving them a chance to have a look at their own comments isn't all that nice. And also consider whose house it is. Which site are the comments on? If it's Facebook then refer to their terms of service. You don't own the space, you're just visiting, and in the eyes of the internet everyone is equal (you're all users).

Listening

All of this is about communication, knowing who you're talking to, tailoring your message. It's all straightforward for a comms professional. But one of the most important aspects of communication (especially in thew web 2.0 world) is listening.

Monitoring may seem creepy to some, but how can you answer if you can't hear the question? It's key that you have this in place so you can join the conversation. If someone asks where's a good place to stay in Liverpool you may be well placed to answer them (so long as you're aware someone's asking).

A cheesy video

Some objected to me calling this cheesy and said that this sort of thing was what they needed to convince people of the value of social media. It still grates with me a bit - I suppose it's a bit hard sell. But if you need a simple "what's in it for me" response then this does the job.

Selling social media is not really the tough part. It's getting beyond the stage where you're thinking about technology and on to the stage when you're talking about the behaviours needed to achieve your goals.