SOCIAL WEB 101

Dave Gibson Propeller Media Works

City of Burlington May 19, 2009

Introduction Its all right here: personal transparency

Introduction

Who is Propeller? •   Founded in 1997 •   Located here •   Staff of 7 •   Providing online marketing, creative web design, custom application development.

Why am I here today?

Why should city government need to understand what social web is and why its

important?

The New Paradigm

How government and citizens interact has evolved significantly from FDR and the fireside chat.

•   Transparency •   Communication •   Interaction •   Resources

He has raised the bar for all levels of government.

Just follow his lead.

From Washington to Burlington

The City of Burlington Our audiences and goals are different

AUDIENCES •   Citizens •   Businesses •   Press •   Tourists •   Relocators

GOALS •   Attract tourists •   Support & keep existing businesses •   Attract new businesses •   Promote policies & programs •   Manage perception (PR) •   Inform the press and citizens •   Gather feedback and new ideas •   Build consensus •   Provide access to information and services

The City of Burlington Our audiences and goals are different.

Marketing / PR

Communication

Resources

GOALS •   Attract tourists •   Support & keep existing businesses •   Attract new businesses •   Promote policies & programs •   Monitor perception (PR) •   Inform the press and citizens •   Gather feedback and new ideas •   Build consensus •   Provide access to information and services

The City of Burlington Our audiences and goals are different, yet the tools available to meet those goals are the same for the White House and City Hall.

The Tools •   Search •   Website •   Blog •   Twitter •   Facebook •   YouTube •   Flickr •   many many more…

Social Web 101

Tools of the Trade

Social Web is more dynamic that Web 1.0 Where the website serves as one-way conversation, Social is a multi-way conversation between the •   organization and the online visitor •   online visitor and their growing network (sphere of influence)

Social Web: Overview

Influencing influencers

Social Web is more dynamic that Web 1.0 Information and media becomes more viral as users’ sphere of influence grow.

Users become empowered and begin to define the brand and the message. •   When users are happy, that’s good. •   When users are not happy, that’s bad.

The main point is to understand that brands/governments have little control of that conversation.

But you can monitor and influence it.

Social Web: Overview

The Bigger Picture of Social Web This diagram illustrates where Social fits into an integrated strategy. Content is cross syndicated.

Social Web: Overview

Segmenting The Social Web

•   Social Media : Content Centric •   Flickr •   YouTube •   Wikis

•   Wikipidia •   Bookmarking

•   Delicious •   Blogs

•   Microblogs •   Twitter

•   Social Networks : Relationship Centric •   Facebook •   LinkedIn •   MySpace

Social Web: Overview

Social Web 101 : Website

Website Core element of any online program.

•   Clear marketing message •   Design that pushes your identity forward •   Clear navigation and logical information architecture •   Content that is up to date. Some content/media types syndicated to other online properties. •   Establish metrics and conversion points. •   Measure performance (Google Analytics)

Social Web 101 : Search

Search Search engines will always contribute the majority of the traffic to your online properties. Give them what they want or pay for placement. Relevancy between search term and your content is the key to success

•   Search Engine Optimization •   Hundreds of variables •   Identify core keywords and track performance

•   Pay Per Click (PPC) Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Social Web 101 : Blogs

Blogs Blogs serve multiple functions for a municipality •   Engage visitors on a more conversational level (authenticity)

•   Content should avoid direct calls to action and marketing language to be authentic •   Content must be relevant to the visitor (vs the city)

•   Reinforce leadership •   Reveal community culture •   SEO – inbound links from relevant content •   Content and message distribution

Twitter In a very short time, this tool has quickly climbed the adoption ladder. This is primarily because people stopped sharing what they were eating, and more about what had their attention. Now, as they say, tomorrow’s news is on Twitter today… in 140 characters.

Opportunities include:

•   Promote policies & programs •   Monitor perception (PR) •   Inform the press and citizens •   Gather feedback and new ideas •   Build consensus •   Provide access to information and services

Social Web 101 : Microblogs : Twitter

Social Web 101 : Social Media

Social Media Tools like YouTube and Flickr enable users to share and consume media.

Each tool enables syndication that pushes the content out to website, blog, and social network pages.

Media content is indexed by search engines.

Social Web 101 : Social Networks : Facebook

Facebook Facebook provides users with an incredibly efficient tool for managing relationships.

•   High school lockers between classes •   Surface level information of a user’s current life •   A place for expressing one’s personal brand

•   Lack of anonymity provides accountability and provides security

•   Real names replace nicknames and hidden identities •   You only share information with people you choose

•   Clean interface and defense of the user experience •   Applications that extend functionality in ways that allow users to further express themselves.

Social Web 101 : Reputation Monitoring

Reputation Monitoring Even if you lack the resources to fully engage, at the very least you should be listening to know what is being said.

There are a number of tools that enable you to track keywords across the public facing side of the social web.

•   Tweetdeck : tweetdeck.com – Tracks Twitter - Free •   Trackur : trackur.com – Tracks blogs, news, images, video – great filters - $18/mo •   Google Alerts: google.com/alerts – Tracks websites, blogs – Free

Social Web 101

Opportunities… Burlington Vermont is at the core of the creative economy. We’ve earned an identity as being healthy, smart, hip, creative, socially responsible, progressive, hard working, and generally ahead of the curve.

Are we projecting this online?

Social Web 101

The Low Hanging Fruit If you can’t do it all, do what you can. •   Track analytics performance •   Monitor •   Start with the website. Please.

Social Web 101

Reference

Dave Gibson http://www.propdave.com Propeller Media Works http://www.propellermediaworks.com

White House http://www.whitehouse.gov Albuquerque, NM http://www.cabq.gov/ Fresno, CA http://www.fresno.gov/ Chandler, AZ http://www.chandleraz.gov/ Augusta, GA http://www.augustaga.gov/

Computer World review of government sites http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9005371