Social Media has captured the world's imagination but not so much for Governments says Gex Smith from Delib as he ponders the role social media could play in our governance
Social media has been one of the greatest changes to human communication, at least in the developed world, for many hundreds of years. But its very name reflects its origins. It is a product of society, of millions of people interacting with one another on platforms and software developed over time by a large and disparate community of companies and individuals.
So, given it is essentially as far from being a product of government or the state as it's possible to be, how can government organisations get involved with something in which, to date, they have played an extremely limited role?
The first thing to consider is what the purpose of government using social media should be. After all, just because something exists does not mean it should be used. Indeed, using social media just because it’s there can be like your dad dancing at a disco; an odd juxtaposition that only makes people feel awkward.
In essence, the benefit of social media lies in its speed and simplicity. Social media now provides a mechanism for communicating with huge numbers of people instantly, and hearing back from them with equal speed.
As such a key benefit for government lies in sharing large amounts of information and promoting openness in its activities. No longer need news just be shared through quarterly reports, people can be provided with real time updates on what goes on in their area of interest.
In addition, social media allows people to share information with one another much more easily, so never forget that a large way government can get involved in that world is just by freeing up data for people to use and share themselves. Anyone with time to spare can in effect be a journalist these days, at least amongst their peer group, a fundamental change that needs to be reflected in comms and engagement approaches across government from local to national.
In return, governance and policymaking can be turned from a slow process with fixed milestones to a more iterative process, people working together to suggest and refine proposals until consensus is reached.
The cost savings through doing this online compared with bringing these people together face to face can be mind-boggling. At the same time however, a massive increase in levels of participation can bring its own challenges and costs. If your engagement levels rocket, do you have the resources to handle and act upon all of the information you receive?
So, if you want to start sharing information with people and hearing back from them with their thoughts, how do you best go about it? An article on the myriad tools and platforms out there would likely grow into a book before being half finished, but there are some overriding principles to bear in mind, regardless of the specifics of your activity.
A good way to think about engaging with people online is to imagine what the same activity would look like offline. A social media platform is a place where people meet, talk and share information on each other’s lives, activities and thoughts. So, why not think of it as a pub or, for younger audiences, a youth centre?
For a start, you can go and talk to people there, but only with their permission. How do you feel if you're chatting to your friends, and someone you've never met barges into your conversation? Exactly the same feeling can happen online, so a key challenge for government at any level in using social media is to make sure that it does so in a way that the target audience feels comfortable with. Don't barge into conversations or established communities online, just as you wouldn't offline.
Indeed, in a recent consultation run by a local authority to see what engagement methods young people would like to see them use, the respondents very clearly stated that the authority should not use Facebook or Myspace, as these platforms were ‘our spaces, not yours’.
Similarly, regardless of what your social media of choice may be, how you talk on it, the language you use, is probably one of the most important things to get right.
Like any sector, public administration has developed its own language, full of technical expressions, legal requirements and ways of expressing ideas. Keeping the language clear and in keeping with the social platform being used is crucial to ensure take up. Likewise, the content of what you’re saying has to be of interest as well. New technology by itself does not make your work interesting to the public, only you can do that.
There are some risks in social media for any organization. The speed with which information and opinion can be exchanged between individuals is something that can catch people off guard. Only in the last month, a court order banning the Guardian from reporting something said in Parliament was withdrawn due to a huge social media campaign that took less than 24 hours. The Press Complaints Commission has just had its record for number of complaints received blown out of the water in a very few days by a social media campaign against a Daily Mail article.
This sort of occurrence against government at any level is still relatively rare, but it will undoubtedly start to happen more and more, and organizations need to be ready for that. As in the offline world, being involved in and respected as members of these communities before things go wrong can pay dividends if things blow up.
So, whilst some organizations are moving towards using social media as part of their engagement and consultation processes at the moment, the majority are still some way off finding their voice online and being ready to handle conversation, no matter what form it takes. Resources are needed to make this happen, both people and planning. The concern currently is that this will only be fully recognized once things have gone wrong more times than they needed to.
Given all of the above, government embracing social media is as beneficial as it is unavoidable. As if government does not start communicating what it does through these channels, other people will do it on its behalf, and, to paraphrase Alan Clarke, ‘the absent are always wrong’
Gez Smith is a Senior Consultant at Delib, an online opinion research and public consultation company.
