Small CitiesandSocial Media

A Review of Best Practices and Current Studies

Presentation Objectives• Acquaint interested parties with:• A simplified landscape of social media venues• Industry estimates of ongoing costs• Best Practices for Social Media planning & use• Practical and Statutory considerations• Key differences from personal & commercial use

Why is this important?

If you don’t know where you’re goingANY road will take you there

• Start with the end in mind• (Seven Habits of Highly Effective People)

• One cannot manage what is not understood• One cannot manage what is not measured• Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right

things• (Peter Drucker)

Social Media• The Big Four (and one more)• Facebook• Twitter• LinkedIn• YouTube

• Our own blog/website…but there are alternatives

The Venues Evolve, Specialize and Consolidate

Each with strengths & weaknesses

Hence, the importance of objectives

• Target audience, • who & which venues

• Span of objectives• Communication / dialog / persuasion / branding• Service delivery / transactions / scheduling

• Content types• End Result Proposals, Alternatives, Data -> Ideas

• Content source and monitoring• Performance measuring

Social Media Cost ComponentsMay include any of the following:• Venue (i.e. Facebook) account fees and analytics fees• Multi-venue management service fees• Audience research and/or Strategy consulting fees• Site(s) / app(s) development costs• Content creation, review and approval• Content strategy and policies development• Staff resource commitment• Management oversight and commitment• Contract content development• Image / video licensing or development• Development of News Media collateral

• Monitoring, analytics and interpretation• Community management (posting, comment approval, etc)• Public Relations consulting• Legal review• Advertising and Venue promotion

Industry Cost Estimates

At this time there are no established industry-wide certifications of knowledge, ability or expertise in social media management. Caveat emptor.• A study by Bonsai Interactive concludes the average

cost for a social media campaign is over $210,000• Campaign consists of: social media strategist, community

manager; micro-site and mobile app.• According to contacfac.com social media

management agency contracts typically run $3,000 to $15,000 per month• Management agencies post supplied and developed

content

The Scaling Problem

For large entities seeking large audiences, upscaling is very cost effective:

• it costs no more to post to 100,000 followers than it does to post to 5,000

• however, it costs no less to post to 500 followers than it does to post to 5,000

The cost effectiveness depends upon the value of, and ability to achieve the objectives

Whoa…what’s a follower?

Follower is a term generally applied to a user who has subscribed (“like”/”follow”) and is noitfied of the social media posts of a given entity.According to the Local Government Management Association, governments typically obtain 6 - 9% of their population in Facebook “likes” and up to 11% of their population in Twitter followers.

Wait…what do you mean by ‘community’?

A community refers to a common area of interest. This may be a full Brand (ie Coca Cola) or a specific subset such as a product or area of interest within the Brand (shareholder news, or promotional events).

Municipal ‘communities’ might include:• City council activities• Individual High School or youth league sports• Community Events• Emergency Management / Disaster Preparedness• Traffic / Public Works alerts• City news

Guiding Principles of Public Engagement(excerpted from Institute for Local Government)

• Inclusive Planning (with potential audiences)• Transparency (who sponsors the process, purpose)• Authentic Intent • Breadth of Participation• Informed Participation• Accessible Participation• Appropriate Process• Authentic Use of Information Received• Feedback to Participants• Evaluation

Typical Social Media Process

(Excerpted from commercial strategies)

• Listen• Engage•Respond•Persuade•Measure

Best Practices for Social Media(excerpted from Institute for Local Government)

• Define Purpose and Objectives of Public Engagement• Understand the audiences• Consider both the message and the messenger (venue)• Set clear roles and expectations of staff, official & consultants• Create a plan• Establish and analyze measures of success• Present community oriented information & questions• Ensure sustainability of communications• Maintain stakeholder relationships

Best Practices for Social Media(excerpted from Local Government Mgmt Assoc.)

• Define approval authority and requirements• Who posts, who replies, who approves comments received

• Identify resources to maintain presence• Who creates content, who reviews• Content should be posted daily to each community

• Establish Workplace Protocols• What content and comments are acceptable in each community• Protocol for review of negative comment: respond, ignore, delete

• Spam, Spoof, Flamer and Troll management• Advertisers deleted• Research Imposters / Spoofers• Manage flamer content, access

Legal Issues for Social Media(excerpted from Institute for Local Government)

• First Amendment• Is venue traditional / designated / nonpublic forum?

• Use of Public Resource• Use for apparent non-public business / personal comments• Issue advocacy / campaigning / ballot initiative advocacy

• Posting, content, comments as public records• Search and retention as part of public records request?• Identity of commenters, if known?

• Open Meeting, Sunshine Laws• Impact on elected official making content, comments?

• Compliance with Privacy statutes• Venue indemnification contract language• Procurement process for venue use

Commercial Use• Revenue / market share objective• Brand building, brand loyalty focus• Cost offsets traditional marketing / advertising venues• It’s all about persuasion

• Target audience tends to be large• Performance related compensation to community managers• Rapid innovation cycle

• PLAN• TEST• MEASURE• ADJUST

• Integrated with broad marketing objectives and plans• Return on Investment focus• Drop venues, communities, strategies that don’t perform fast