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More and more government communicators tell us at Ragan that they'd love to use Twitter and other social media sites, but such sites are banned at the office.
This can't go on, can it? How can we change the mind of the powers that be?
Huh? We have no rules about Twitter that I am aware of in California state government. To my knowledge, the issue hasn't come up for us. If it did, I imagine the discusison point would be whether or not Twitter would be of a benefit to state workers and the public, making those workers more efficient or making the workplace more pleasant and functional. If the issue is private use of Twitter, I imagine the thinking would go the same way as with private email or private use of telephones: incidental use is likely to be accepted, but the guy who spends much of his day among the Twitterati is likely to get in trouble.
Many Federal gov agencies have their networks locked down. Some can't access hotel sites because of the restrictions. The reason is securing the network against viruses/cyber attacks. Would suggest that gov communicators show how social media can help them be better communicators, case studies, cost savings, ROI, etc., so they can get an exception to the restrictions and are allowed access to these tools. May also have to work with Twitter to find out what they are doing to secure their networks and keep their users’ networks safe from hacking.
I know thist viewpoint is sort of heresy in the My Ragan world but I feel no need to Twiter at work. Until a few months ago I was a Federal government communicator and to this day I can't figure out how Twitter would have made my job any easier or better or more productive. I didn't need to do anything that couldn't be handled by a phone call, text, voice mail or e-mail.
I work for a state government authority in Australia and we use Twitter to communicate with our customers. Personally, I use twitter as does half of our management team and a large portion of staff. As yet, IT haven't blocked it - normally where there is issues.
We have a Twitter account (gov't utility) and the "writer" for the account is our communications mascot. However, it's not updated as frequently as it should be, but would be a great tool for posting road closings, etc., in addition to our public outreach.
IT hasn't blocked that; however, we do have Facebook blocked in our office and are currently trying to get that unblocked for the communications group so that we can utilize that tool.
We can use Twitter within the State of Indiana network, but are blocked from accessing Facebook. We are also blocked from YouTube, which has become increasingly frustrating.
For the City of Red Wing, Minn. we use Facebook (over 1,000 fans), Myspace (about 500 friends) and have a Youtube account with about 60 videos. We don't have a Twitter account, mainly because it's not as widely used in our community as the other applications.
My department actually began the accounts on home computers and after successfully creating three sites, we convinced IT to unblock the sites for the Communications Department (we had the “if you build it, they will come” mentality). We didn't find it necessary for employees to be on social media sites during work hours; the goal is how to get a message to the community, not employees.
We have a nice success story from this summer: a man went missing August 31 and I posted the news on Facebook. We received great reviews from the fans of getting the message out and in a timely manner (we called for volunteers to help look through the swampy area). We are excited to see how effective these sites will work this winter with snow emergencies.
As a local government Public Affairs Director, i often forget about using Twitter. I do push info out via Facebook and regular podcasts. However, when Southcentral Alaska was recently at the mercy of a sputtering volcano, The Alaska Volcano Observatory, (state, federal, university), did a great job of tweeting the latest news on pending eruptions or ashflow. Twitter is ideal for emergencies or pending emergencies. It helps the authorities get the message out and the resident stay connected without thinking about it.
I use it at Washington State University Spokane, @WSUSpokane. WSU has been a heavy adopter of Twitter; see the account list at http://university-relations.wsu.edu/internal-communications/WSU-on-Twitter.html.
I present regularly on how we use it to build a presence and identity for our campus as a health sciences center, and as a local community relations and media relations tool. I had barely started the account when we had heavy snow winter 2008-09; I used it but we didn't have many followers then.
Washington Dept. of Transportation @wsdot is another government agency using it effectively to inform people about accidents, closures, construction work and the like.
We are developing a policy that will allow employees to utilize social media for work related purposes. The IT department will give access on a case by case basis if you sign a form and make an argument on why you need it. Access will also need to be approved by your supervisor as well. I think it will take responsibility away from the city and make the employees accountable for any misuse of social media.
A few of the communication types currently have access to Twitter, since we were "grandfathered" in. Once the policy is in place, I want to create a Facebook account and other social media pages.
Here is where I tweet for work: @greeleywater. I try to update it several times per week.
I work for Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, a public corporatiion. We began using Facebook and Twitter (@alaskahousing) about six months ago. We consider it just another communication tool to reach Alaskans. We wanted to first get comfortable using them, so only recently started promoting the sites and already have 278 followers on Twitter. I try to post something of interest about housing, energy efficiency, Alaska's economy, and our jobs and public notices several times a week. We've started posting videos on YouTube, but it's the only one of these SM sites that is blocked by our IT dept., which is often frustrating.
King County, WA’s Executive office started using Twitter a couple years ago at the request of a tech savvy former County Executive to reach residents who were using social media but who were not likely to visit local government web sites for information.
That early adoption, and the demise of a local daily that was later resurrected in web-only form, actually prompted many local reporters to start using Twitter and other social media more.
Since then, we’ve rolled out Twitter and Facebook pages across King County government for communications staff in particular departments and programs when it’s relevant and useful to their mission.
We’ve also done trainings for regional government communications professionals and for county department directors to get them up to speed on what Twitter is (another tool for communicating with the residents we serve) and what it isn’t (a catch-all or silver bullet for communicating with the public).
We did set some limits on who could post to social media on behalf of the county (we have a core web and communications team spread across departments) and some departments had to un-block access to social media sites. Some managers worried about security risks and creating extensive policies to cover social media.
But we decided that much of what needed to be covered in a Web 2.0/social media or security policy was adequately covered by existing rules and web protocols about appropriate use of workplace tools, because if you have an employee wasting time on non-work related social media or downloading malicious software, that not a web 2.0 problem. That same person could as easily be wasting time on the phone with friends or surfing the internet for personal use - both of which are inappropriate uses of workplace tools and already covered in our HR policies.
So our social media guidelines are a scant two pages and feature rules like:
- Respect your audience and follow King County workplace rules. Anything that is not acceptable in the county’s workplace such as the use of ethnic slurs, personal insults and obscenities, is not acceptable in written communication, including online. Do not engage in topics that may be considered objectionable or inflammatory.
- County rules guiding use of the internet apply to use of social media on the internet as well.
We’re still gaining new followers on our main Twitter feed @kcnews, which is also used by our Transit Dept. to alert the public and media (who are among our followers) to major accidents, schedule impacts, construction work, etc. that will affect service, in addition their use of a Metro Transit Blog.
We also have a Twitter page for our animal shelter, “written” by a shelter dog @kcpets to highlight adoptable animals.
So far, staffers have lived up to our best hopes and expectations in their use of social media to help us better inform and connect with the residents we serve.
