How Should Government Agencies (Really) Use Social Media?

As we’ve written before, there are many great reasons why government agencies should be on social media. Whether it’s issuing critical updates, promoting valuable initiatives, sharing wins, or humanizing an organization, government agencies can benefit a lot from social media.

Like Police Departments and other government agencies, Fire Departments should be active on social media. In order to help facilitate this, the Firefighters Support Foundation (FSF) recently released a great new training program titled Social Media for Fire Departments. The training is provided by Ron Morgan (@morganrp), a firefighter and communications professional who has acted as the social media director for a number of public safety organizations.

For government organizations, social media can seem like a risky proposition. What if an employee posts something inappropriate that ends up embarrassing the agency? And what about those crude and inappropriate comments that public-sector Facebook pages and Twitter account are almost sure to attract?

Social media has transformed how government organizations and public information officers (PIOs) communicate with the people of a city. Giant platforms like Facebook and Twitter, as well as more niche government solutions like Nixle and Nextdoor, have made it possible to quickly share information, expand citizen engagement, and improve emergency response.

Late in 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged two robo-advisers with false disclosures. It wasn’t just the first time that the SEC went after these modern software-driven investment operations, it was yet another example of how important compliant social media use and recordkeeping is.

The public information landscape has changed incredibly over the last few years. Whether simply engaging with constituents on a day-to-day basis or planning for an emergency, social media forms an important part of just about every communication strategy.

When it comes to social media and website archiving solutions for government organizations, pricing models can be rather nebulous. This is not an accident. Many archiving vendors use a strategy of charging a low fee for a small number of records, so initial prices seem very reasonable, but as soon as social media channels gain traction and see success, the organization suddenly finds itself being charged a lot more because of all the records created.

Social media offers an unprecedented opportunity for information sharing and conversation. As an example, just consider Twitter. For many of us, Twitter has become our go-to for breaking news. And unlike television or print media, it allows us to play an active part in that news—we can share information, offer our condolences, show our frustration, and sometimes even report from the scene.

Government social media professionals will be descending on Nashville, Tennessee, from April 2-4, 2019 for the 2019 Government Social Media Conference (GSMCON). In total, close to 1,000 social media coordinators, communicators, elected officials, marketers, law enforcement officials, emergency managers, vendors, and representatives from major social media networks will be attending the event.

While there has been a lot of news centered around social media and privacy lately, there’s no denying that platforms like Facebook and Twitter continue to be incredibly useful tools for governments interested in having meaningful conversations with citizens. Used correctly, social media can increase engagement and provide a forum for dialogue that’s hard to find anywhere else.