Social media impacts on ICT teams

Craig ThomlerGov 2.0 Advocate

Managing DirectorDelib Australia

When agency business areas start officially using social media what does it mean for their ICT teams?

Connected Government25 July 2013

Source: Sensis Social Media Report 2013

ACTVIC

NSWQLD

65+ yrs50-64yrs40-49yrs30-39yrs20-29yrs14-19yrs

FemaleMaleTotal

95%89%

86%84%

60%84%

97%98%98%100%

82%91%

86%

Australian internet use - 2013

Never

Use social media

35%

65%

38%

62%

38%

62%

2011 2012 2013

Australian social media use - 2013

Source: Sensis Social Media Report 2011-13

Never

Less than weekly

Weekly

Everyday

35%

5%

15%

45%

38%

6%

19%

36%

38%

9%

24%

30%

2011 2012 2013Source: Sensis Social Media Report 2011-13

Australian social media use - 2013

17% using 5+ times daily

“We don’t have a choice on whether we DO social media,

the question ishow well we DO it.”

- Erik Qualman

“The use of Web 2.0 is now commonplace in APS agencies.

There are hundreds of government social media sites, including Twitter accounts, Facebook pages and YouTube channels.

Web 2.0 approaches are regularly used in policy development opportunities and many Australian Government datasets are included on data.gov.au with more being added regularly.”

- APS State of the Service Report 2011-12

Source: APS State of the Service Report 2011-12

What about Australian Government?

What about government?

Australian public

Use internet: 86%Use social media: 65%

Australian Governmentofficial use of social media

Agencies: 73% Politicians: 77%

Sources: Sensis 2013, eGovAU 2012-13

Twitter use – all levels of Australian governments

Sources: eGovAU 2011-13

888 accounts in July 2013

Answer Share

For stakeholder engagement or collaboration 54.24%

Operating an information campaign 42.37%

Responding to customer enquiries/comments/complaints 42.37%

For engaging with journalists and media outlets 40.68%

For engagement or collaboration with other government agencies

40.68%

Monitoring citizen, stakeholder and/or lobbyist views and activities

28.81%

For a public consultation process 27.12%

For a stakeholder or other restricted access consultation 22.03%

Other type of activity (i.e. recruitment, crowdsourcing, staff)

18.64%

For policy or services co-design 11.86%

How the Australian Government uses social media

Sources: eGovAU FOI request 2012

HOWEVER:

• Only 8% of Australian Public Servants reported having full social media access

• Only 28% of Australian Public Servants reported having some social media access

• Of those (36%), 46% reported using social media for work purposes.

• 70% of these said it helped them carry out their work more effectively(26% were neutral, 4% disagreed).

Source: APS State of the Service Report 2011-12

In other words

73% of Australian Government agencies officially use social media

36% of APS staff report some social media access at work

However 88% of agencies reported having some guidelines for staff social media use and 41% reported providing training.

Source: APS State of the Service Report 2011-12

For example Immigration:

Source: www.youtube.com/user/ImmiTV

Why? Some of the reasons given…

1. Our staff might spend all day on social media.

2. Staff could breach privacy/confidentiality/security by providing details they shouldn’t online.

3. Staff might behave inappropriately online.

4. People could hack the agency.

5. We don’t believe social media helps our staff do their jobs.

6. We have insufficient bandwidth for social media.

All are relatively easily addressed

1. Management issue – put guidance in place.

2. Management issue – put guidance in place.

3. Management issue – put guidance in place.

4. Reference experience of other agencies and test.

5. Evidence indicates social media has value in many cases.

6. Business should justify value of social media with ICT’s help and source additional funding.

Risks of blocking social media

• Loss of intelligenceStaff can’t directly monitor customer, stakeholder, lobbyist conversations occurring on social channels.

• Loss of response capabilityAgency cannot respond quickly where appropriate online to correct misinformation or provide support.

• Loss of respectAgency is seen as old-fashioned and out-of-touch, losing respect and ability to influence audiences to meet goals.

• Lack of experienceStaff don’t gain experience using social media, placing the agency at a larger disadvantage in using social in future.

Risks of blocking social media

• Difficulty meeting some agency goalsSome agency goals may now require that staff access and interact with audiences via social media.

• Difficulties with Minister’s officeThe Minister’s office may expect social media access and expect agency to use social media to meet their directives.

• Difficulty recruiting good peopleAn agency that blocks social media will increasingly not be considered a good workplace by younger workers.

• Reduction in service capabilityStaff who can’t see what the agency publishes via social media cannot engage effectively with a public who can.

Where does an organisation’s ICT team fit in?

Develop and manage the organisational social media presence

Have no role in the organisational social media presence

Choose an ICT stance

LeaderProactively leads the organisation on selecting appropriate

social media channels and operating them

ObserverRemotely monitors what business areas are doing and

steps in to advise if a line is crossed

SupporterSupports business to achieve its goals through social

media, but allows business to lead approach

Stance affects involvement in social media ‘roles’

• Access (bandwidth/security/support)

• Monitoring (tracking/reporting)

• Development (custom & web/apps integration)

• Use (acct. creation, operation & management)

• Support (responding to business needs)

• Technical mgmt (servers/systems)

Indicative ICT stance: LEADER

Access

Monitoring

Use

Development

Support

Technical Mgmt

ICT Business

Indicative ICT stance: OBSERVER

Access

Monitoring

Use

Development

Support

Technical Mgmt

ICT Business

Indicative ICT stance: SUPPORTER

Access

Monitoring

Use

Development

Support

Technical Mgmt

ICT Business

SUPPORTER approach

Area ICT role Business role

Access Facilitates and manages access.

Develops staff usage policies and strategies.

Monitoring Provides input into monitoring approaches, manages hosted monitoring.

Investigates, selects and manages monitoring.

Use Provides input into management tools.

Manages day-to-day operations of social accounts.

Development Integrates social into websites & intranet.

Provides requirements and guidance.

Support Supports self-hosted services.

Supports use and monitoring.

Technical mgmt

Manages self-hosted services.

Works with third parties to manage externally hosted services.

Aligning expectations, goals and outcomes

• Clarify ICT’s role in the organisation’s social media presence – leader, supporter or observer.

• Identify how social media can help meet specific agency goals (monitoring, communication, engagement, collaboration, delivery).

• Ensure staff guidance is in place – social media policy and training (Human Resources), legal framework (Legal), engagement strategy (Communications/Engagement).

• Ensure necessary skills are available.

How does ICT benefit from social media?

• Knowledge sharingStaff accessing ICT support forums and groups for sharing programming tips and tricks, resources and tools.

• Solution sourcingFinding programs and code that can aid in solving agency problems, sharing of code across agencies.

• RecruitmentIdentifying and attracting top ICT talent, as well as demonstrating the talent of the team to attract good candidates to apply.

• Early warningOf emerging security threats and issues.

The real social media risks

• ResourcingLack of skills/bodies to implement/manage platforms.

• Data controlWho controls the data, how can the agency retain a copy and minimise misuse by third parties?

• Platform controlIf an agency has invested years in building a following on a platform due to its features, what happens if the platform removes those features?

• System integrationHow much can and should you integrate social media into core agency systems – and what are the potential impacts?

Resourcing social media

Unless ICT is taking a leadership role, most resourcing is needed in business areas.

What experience and skills are useful for an ICT team?

• Experience using social media – if your team doesn’t use a platform it’s harder for them to provide expert advice about it.

• Agile methodology – social media is iterative, not waterfall.

• API design and use – many social tools use APIs to integrate.

• Experience with open source platforms – increasingly used.

• Social analytics – what and how to monitor social media from a technical standpoint.

Social media ICT strategy: share, buy, build

Share‘Build on the shoulders of giants’ by reusing

the hard work of other agencies or open source.

BuildConsider building as a last resort if you have

legitimate unique requirements or must control the code.

BuyCompanies invest many years and dollars into developing robust solutions – why should gov invest time & money?

Eliminating risk is not practical, and so the public sector needs to manage risk by engaging with it.

Additionally, acceptance of manageable risk is a necessary element of innovation.

When managers do something new, when they work out a better way to deliver a service to the public, or develop a new policy option, it will involve risk. Something untried always will.

But, within the right risk framework, this is precisely the innovation we want to foster in the public sector—it is the approach that will drive performance and better outcomes.

- Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury

ICT teams must engage with risk

Source: ParlInfo – BILLS : Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Bill 2013

Questions?

Craig Thomlercraig@delib.net@CraigThomler

http://eGovAU.blogspot.com

www.delib.net/australia/@Delibaunz