Cook County Bureau of Technology

Transcription

1 Assessment of Cook County Portal/Websites Redesign Social Media Channel Assessment from for Cook County Bureau of Technology August 30, 2012

2 Table of Contents 1. Overview Forming The Team Department & Content Roles Developing Policies and Social Media Content Objectives Social Media Usage and Conduct Social Media Content Objectives & Strategy Social Media Platform Deployment Social Media Monitoring Tools Free Tools Entry Level Tools Premium Tools Performance Benchmarks Measure the Impact Benchmark Data Key Findings Starbucks Conclusion Clarity Partners, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 2

3 1. Overview Clarity Partners has been engaged to assess the redesign of the County s portal/websites. As part of the redesign assessment, Clarity performed an assessment of the County s Social Media (SM) properties, other public and private sector entities, and interviews with key stakeholders to provide the following report and recommendations. 2. Forming The Team 2.1 Department & Content Roles To recruit SM team members, the County should cast a wide net and consider personnel from the following areas as potential team members: Department Departmental Public information Officers (PIO) Legal Information Technology Finance Public Safety Performance Management Content providers Role Create acceptable use policies and ensure compliance with the policies Ensure compliance with County s network, hardware, and software requirements. Develop an appropriate set of security protocols Could provide funding and resources, such as interns Content providers Development of, and adherence to, performance metrics The SM team should identify clear responsibilities and reporting structures. In addition, the County may want to consider utilizing external resources to leverage their subject matter expertise. The Performance Management team liaison should work with the SM Coordinator to help develop the appropriate governance structure. 3. Developing Policies and Social Media Content Objectives The single factor in developing successful Social Media Networks is excellent, timely content, written in concert with an organizations goals and its audience. The development of usage and conduct policies and granular online objectives addressed in an editorial calendar, ensure that the organization is in concert with its goals. 3.1 Social Media Usage and Conduct The legal team liaison should be engaged in developing the County s official usage and security policies. A critical success factor is that the legal team should not create policies which impede creativity and speed of deployment. The County must balance these objectives to ensure that messaging remains timely, accurate, and appropriate. There are several resources that the County can use to develop policies without re inventing the wheel as many other government agencies have previously done. The following list is not comprehensive, but provides several ideas on where the County can secure ideas for drafting a SM Code of Usage and Conduct: 2012 Clarity Partners, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 3

4 1. media policies/#government 2. City of Hampton, VA 3. National League of Cities Risk Information Sharing Consortium (RISC) Building Local Government Social Media Policies nlc/state league programs/nlc risc 4. Harvard Law School for blogging of use/ 5. Designing Social Media Policy for Government by Jana Hrdinová and Natalie Helbig Brookings.edu When designing the policy the following factors should be considered: Security Legal issues Sunset laws FOIA issues/ open records compliance Consistency Integrated/multi channel approach Protect confidential and proprietary information Acceptable use Language 3.2 Social Media Content Objectives & Strategy Establishing granular objectives that support larger goals like improved leadership and services lay the ground work for an effective Social Media content strategy. When the granular objectives of an organization are formally documented and the Social Media platforms are utilized exclusively for their specific purpose to serve them, a content strategy begins to emerge for Social Media. The secondary goal of a Social Media content strategy is to track and measure the effectiveness of specific Social Media platforms and posts in supporting the goals of the organization including the goals of its Social Media users. Initially the County should implement a vetting process where the SM content is reviewed to ensure it is compliant with their guidelines and it addresses specific measurable objectives. Though this will impact how quickly the County can post content, it will initially ensure that the content will have a similar look and feel. After this training period is completed, the departments should be familiar with the policies and they will be able to post content without the SM team review. 4. Social Media Platform Deployment Though SM has been available for several years, only recently has the County started harnessing its power. Though hundreds of SM platforms exist, we recommend that the County start with the basic platforms and technologies. As the County builds an interactive, collaborative community they should consider expanding their SM offerings. Specifically, we recommend that the County utilize the following SM platforms initially: Facebook Twitter Blogging You Tube Flickr 2012 Clarity Partners, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 4

5 Podcasts RSS feeds By deploying these platforms using a consistent approach the County can expect to achieve the following: Education, general impression and awareness of activities Building a sense of community through retweets, likes, repeat comments, and re posts Greater transparency of events, activities, and services offered Registration for services Purchase advocacy (users may proactively push others to acquire or enroll in County services) Build enhanced loyalty of County delivered services A future phase deployment could include the following SM tools: Pinterest Foursquare Google Hangout Linked In Mind Mixer Google Plus Mobile applications Successful government organizations indicated that they initially started with a simple approach to developing a SM program. After they were able to develop an internal iterative, repeatable process, then they expanded the team and SM offerings. A key lesson learned is that these successful organizations did not get too exotic or cutting edge until they were firmly established with the basics. Clarity recommends that the SM tools should be deployed on a decentralized basis. Each County department should have their own Facebook page, Twitter account, etc. This will make it easier for constituents to locate the content relevant to them. For example, if a constituent is only interested in healthcare services, they could sign up for their Twitter feed and be able to quickly access and review healthcare related content without having to filter through content from the assessor, homeland security, etc. 5. Social Media Monitoring Tools According to a recent SM survey by Kiss Metrics, there are more than 75 Social Media Monitoring (SMM) tools available. They can be categorized as follows: 1. Free 2. Entry level 3. Premium When procuring SMM tools, the County should consider the following decision making factors: The metrics it can collect The interface type Integrations with different social networks Ability to schedule updates Price Hardware and additional configuration required 2012 Clarity Partners, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 5

6 Fire hose access (When a user has fire hose access to a particular product they typically are given access to the complete data stream, not just a sampling). 5.1 Free Tools Based on the proposed SM deployment approach, the County should consider using the following SMM tools in the initial deployment: Tools that monitor Twitter and Facebook o Hootsuite o Seesmic o Twitter Advanced Search Tools that monitor Social Networks and Blogs o Google Realtime search o Social Mention o BlogPulse Tools that use Alerts to Monitor o Google Alerts o Yahoo Pipes Tools that monitor comments and forums o Comment Sniper o Board Reader o Google Trends 5.2 Entry Level Tools Entry Level tools which typically cost less than $500/month per user license, should also be considered during the initial SM launch, including: Hootsuite Pro Beevovle Viral Heat 5.3 Premium Tools In future phases, as the County expands their SM presence, they should consider the following premium priced SMM tools, which typically cost more $500/month per user license: Radian6 Vocus 6. Performance Benchmarks The SM team should work closely with the Performance Management team to develop appropriate benchmarks to measure the impact of the County s SM program. Our recommendation is to establish metrics that are linked to the County s overall goals. To help achieve those goals, we recommend that the following metrics be utilized, on a departmental basis, for the initial SM deployment. 1 2 blogs per week 2012 Clarity Partners, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 6

7 5 7 tweets per week 5 7 Facebook posts per week One You Tube video posted per week Ten pictures posted per week One podcast posted per week These should be done at periodic intervals. For example, it is would not be appropriate for a department to make five tweets within 15 minutes starting Friday at 4:30pm. 6.1 Measure the Impact Based on the availability and skills set of the SM team, the County should develop reasonable performance metrics. Suggested metrics include: 1. Number of Facebook friends 2. Number of likes 3. Number of Twitter followers 4. Number of re tweets 5. Number of mentions 6. Number of You Tube views 7. Number of Flickr photo posts 8. Number of blogging comments 9. Number of re posts 10. Number of constituents using services or attending events 11. Number of subscribers 12. Usage by handicapped constituents These should be established from both a total usage as well as growth perspective. For example, the County would like to have the number of Twitter followers increase by 5% each month, as well as have 200,000 followers in the first 12 months of deployment. 6.2 Benchmark Data Based on our review of successful public sector SM programs, they included the following components: Executive level support; some public sector organizations secured their top executive as the primary sponsor Started small, using only 1 3 SM tools Inclusive staffing and governance model; secured staff and funding from multiple departments/teams Measured the impact, including costs savings and revenue generated Linked the SM strategic goals to their balanced scorecard goals Developed a consistent, repeatable posting approach Utilized a consistent format Cross referenced SM to their primary portal/website The Clarity team also conducted a benchmark analysis of three organizations, whose SM program is recognized as an industry leader, including: 1. State of Utah 2. Montgomery County, MD 3. Starbucks 2012 Clarity Partners, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 7

8 6.3 Key Findings State of Utah (population 2.8 million) There are multiple SM tools available from their website home page including: Google Plus Utah State House of Representatives has an interesting get to know your representative feature focusing on their personal interests You Tube Facebook provides access to state, local, federal, public education, and higher education Facebook pages Twitter aggregates multiple accounts, e.g., all educational institutions, all local governments RSS Feeds Podcasts Pinterest In addition, there is easy access to: Blogs written by separate departments Mobile apps access to more than 50 apps including: o Salt Lake City 311 o University of Utah information o Book finder for libraries o Utha.gov mobile app for locating sate services and information o One click access to the Apple app store Also, many elected officials have their own Twitter feed, Facebook page, You Tube channel and RSS feed. The site makes it very easy to sign up to follow the elected officials. The state has successfully deployed a decentralized content creation strategy where each department is responsible for posting and maintaining their content Montgomery County, MD (1,000,000) There are multiple SM tools available from their website home page including: Twitter Facebook You Tube RSS feeds Linked In The County has taken a decentralized SM approach allowing the departments to own their own SM content. For example, blogs for the following departments include: Environmental Protection Public Libraries County Executive Recreation Technology Services Transportation Public Information The following departments have their own RSS Feeds: Environmental Protection Fire/Rescue Services Public Libraries Recreation 2012 Clarity Partners, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 8

9 Housing & Community Affairs Police Public Information County Council Technology Services Transportation Procurement County Executive The following departments have their own Twitter accounts: Public Information Office Fire & Rescue Public Library Housing Opportunities Commission Solid Waste Service Consumer Protection The County also maintains separate You Tube Channels for the following departments: Public Information Office Fire & Rescue Correction and Rehabilitation Environmental Protection Recycling County Council Recreation The County also maintains 14 separate departmental Facebook pages Montgomery County, MD, Area for Improvement Though the County has done an excellent job of leveraging SM tools, their approach has been inconsistent. The departments have deployed different SM technologies which may cause confusion for users. For example, if a constituent has been using Twitter to get information about Solid Waste Services, they may be expecting to use You Tube also to get similar information. However, they may be disappointed when they realize that Solid Waste Services does not have a You Tube channel. 6.4 Starbucks Starbucks does an excellent job of maintaining multiple SM platforms including the standards such as: You Tube Channel Twitter Facebook Blogs A unique item that Starbucks includes is the My Starbucks Idea page which helps to capture ideas and tracks Starbucks progress regarding how they are responding to them. The types of ideas submitted are classified into three categories: Customer Experience Community Involvement Product Starbucks tracks the ideas via the following categories: Under Review Reviewed In the Works Launched 2012 Clarity Partners, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 9

10 They also include a Lister Leader board that includes the following metrics: Ideas submitted Comments submitted Votes submitted Another unique feature is the daily survey which solicits user feedback via a close needed survey. Starbucks also makes it very easy to link to other SM tools/widgets by offering one click access to more than 300 sites including: Pinterest Amazon.com Digg Tumblr Yammer Lastly, Starbucks leverages Facebook (more than 31MM likes ) to help generate more revenues via special offers such as: Coupons Discounts on new product intros Music downloads Links to other e commerce sites to purchase Starbucks branded products 7. Conclusion In conclusion, Clarity believes that the current implementation of the County s Social Media channel is not consistent with current best practices for content strategy and is affecting the County s ability to deliver the depth and breadth of its content. Specifically, the blog & news centric design of the Homepage contributes to a disjointed information architecture that currently exists within the County s Homepage. The lack of a unified governance model, content strategy, and a single source of oversight for the online experience, will result in a continued decrease in Citizen and Agency engagement and satisfaction. Cook County s SM program should be integrated with its web design and development (D&D) team. We believe that a unified governance model and content strategy with tight integration between SM and web teams will translate into a cohesive, uniform, consistent messaging approach for the County. This governance structure should be inclusive and provide for a system of checks and balances which currently does not exist. The County should officially identify Sebastian James as the SM Coordinator who would also be on the County s web D&D team. Until a governance model and cohesive content strategy is in place and tested, for all SM or Web matters, Sebastian should work with the oversight of the County s web director Kathleen Markham. Lastly, if the County elects for the recommended, decentralized approach to the Social Media channel, a phased approach should be used to implement a successful governance and content strategy with its existing centralized approach and SM properties. It is recommended that no new SM properties or platforms be added until a unified governance model and content strategy are in place to fully leverage the Social Media channel Clarity Partners, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 10