If Twitter is the answer, wt* was the question? Is there a place for social media in the formulation and implementation of government policy in 2011?

Slide 1

Title slide.

Slide 2

Who?

  • War is boring: “We go to war so you don’t have to”
  • Carl Pine’s Line of Departure: Military.com’s News and National Policy Journal
  • Screenshot of Admiral Mike Mullen’s Twitter account (@thejointstaff)
  • Screenshot of Twitter search results for actvcc hashtag.
  • Screenshot of Kings of War Twitter account (@Kingsofwar)
  • Screenshot: “The Best Defence: Tom Ricks’s Daily Take on National Security”
  • Screenshot of QantasWallabies’ Twitter account (@qantasqwallabies)
  • Screenshot of Abu Muqawama blog
  • Screenshot of Small Wars Journal’s Twitter account (@smallwars)

Slide 3

But who do I know?

Statistics from the Sensis Social Media Report May 2011 (3265KB)

Chart: Frequency of accessing the Internet

  • Everyday: 79%
  • Most days: 7%
  • A few times a week: 5%
  • About once a week: 1%
  • Less often than weekly: 1%
  • Never: 6%

Chart: Proportion who access the Internet

  • Total: 94%
  • Male: 96%
  • Female: 93%
  • 14-19: 100%
  • 20-29: 100%
  • 30-39: 98%
  • 40-49: 96%
  • 50-64: 93%
  • 65+: 80%

Slide 4

Sensis table: Social networking site usage by age and gender

Frequency / Total (803) / Male (402) / Female (401) / 14-19
(100) / 20-29
(140) / 30-39 (134) / 40-49 (135) / 50-64 (160) / 65+ (134)
Everyday / 30% / 25% / 36% / 70% / 52% / 39% / 14% / 15% / 5%
Most days / 10% / 9% / 11% / 15% / 20% / 9% / 11% / 5% / 3%
A few times a week / 8% / 8% / 8% / 7% / 12% / 10% / 7% / 7% / 5%
Once a week / 5% / 6% / 5% / 1% / 6% / 6% / 5% / 5% / 8%
Less than weekly / 9% / 10% / 7% / 0% / 4% / 9% / 22% / 5% / 10%
Never / 38% / 42% / 34% / 7% / 7% / 27% / 41% / 64% / 69%
Average times per week / 12.4 / 10.6 / 14.1 / 24.9 / 21.4 / 15.2 / 7.9 / 6.5 / 3.1

Slide 5

Social Media Use in Australia

Sensis chart: Frequency of using social networking sites

  • Everyday: 30%
  • Most days (4 to 6 days a week): 10%
  • A few times a week (2 to 4 days a week): 8%
  • About once a week: 5%
  • A few times a month (2 or 3 times a month): 4 %
  • About once a month: 3%
  • Less often than once a month: 2%
  • Never: 38%

Average = 12.4 times a month

Slide 6

What sites?

Sensis table: Social networking sites used

Site / Male (224) / Female (226) / 14-19 (92) / 20-29 (130) / 30-39 (94) / 40-49 (78) / 50-64 (58) / 65+ (38)
Facebook (97%) / 95% / 99% / 98% / 98% / 93% / 99% / 97% / 99%
LinkedIn (9%) / 11% / 8% / 1% / 3% / 12% / 14% / 17% / 14%
Twitter (8%) / 9% / 7% / 9% / 7% / 14% / 3% / 5% / 4%
Myspace (4%) / 6% / 3% / 4% / 3% / 9% / 1% / 4% / 0%
Other (3%) / 8% / 1% / 4% / 3% / 8% / 5% / 1% / 5%

Slide 7

How often and how long?

Sensis table: Frequency of using social networking sites

Site / Proportion who use / Under 1
time per week / 1 to 2 time per week / 3 to 5 time per week / 6 to 10 time per week / 11 to 19 time per week / 20+ time per week / Average times per week
Facebook / 97% / 5% / 20% / 20% / 24% / 12% / 18% / 16.2
LinkedIn / 9% / 17% / 31% / 21% / 14% / 3% / 14% / 7.7
Twitter / 8% / 9% / 15% / 13% / 28% / 8% / 28% / 23
Myspace / 4% / 33% / 46% / 6% / 14% / 0% / 1% / 2.6

Sensis table: Frequency of using social networking sites

Sensis table: Time spent on social networking sites

Site / Proportion who use / Up to 2 minutes average time spent on each usage occasion / 3 to 5 minutes average time spent on each usage occasion / 6 to 10 minutes average time spent on each usage occasion / 11 to 15 minutes average time spent on each usage occasion / 16 to 30 minutes average time spent on each usage occasion / Over 30 minutes average time spent on each usage occasion / Average times (mins)
Facebook / 97% / 5% / 17% / 22% / 15% / 19% / 22% / 21.1
LinkedIn / 9% / 19% / 25% / 10% / 17% / 16% / 11% / 13.1
Twitter / 8% / 29% / 17% / 22% / 19% / 8% / 6% / 11.4
Myspace / 4% / 28% / 13% / 19% / 8% / 13% / 19% / 14.8

Slide 8

Why?

Declaration of Open Government

The Australian Government now declares that, in order to promote greater participation in Australia’s democracy, it is committed to open government based on a culture of engagement, built on better access to and use of government held information, and sustained by the innovative use of technology.

Lindsay Tanner, Minister of Finance & Deregulation, 16th July 2010

Slide 9

Ok, but really, why?

  • Informing: strengthening citizen’s rights of access to information, establishing a pro-disclosure culture across Australian Government agencies including through online innovation, and making government information more accessible and usable;
  • Engaging: collaborating with citizens on policy and service delivery to enhance the processes of government and improve the outcomes sought; and
  • Participating: making government more consultative and participative.

Slide 10

Seriously, why?

  • Make the news not be the news
  • Tap into a wider circle of stakeholders
  • Accelerate the information cycle
  • Reduce the cost of communication
  • Eliminate the middle man
  • Correct errors
  • Understand the channel
  • It’s surprisingly interesting

Slide 11

What?

  • Plan on Facebook
  • Organise on Twitter
  • Report on YouTube
  • Channel choice
  • Tool choice

Blog:

  • Post: Publish
  • Comment: Reply
  • Like: Approve

Tweet: Events, Alerts

  • RT
  • HT
  • #

Slide 12

But I’m no expert...

Screenshot of an archive and analytics of the gov2au Twitter hashtag. Detail includes:

  • Archive: #gov2au
  • Archive contains 11,286 Tweets
  • Archive started: 28 August 2010
  • Archive Status: Archiving
  • Archive last updated: 30 hours ago
  • Visualisations updated on 24 July 2010
  • Archive is Public
  • Image: Tweet volume over time from 1 January 2010 to 1 July 2011
  • Pie chart showing top users in descending order:
  • Craig Thomler
  • sherro58
  • Piawaugh
  • Tri
  • zBeer
  • chieftech
  • DavidBromage
  • lizbuchanan.
  • Tweets VS Retweet: pie chart showing slightly greater proportion of retweets compared to tweets.
  • Chart showing top words in descending order:
  • GOV2AU
  • GOV20
  • &
  • GOV
  • GOVERNMENT.
  • Chart showing top URLs:
  • Pie chart labelled “Source”. Sections in descending order include:
  • Web
  • TweetDeck
  • Echofon
  • HootSuite
  • Twitter for iPad
  • TweetMeme
  • Twitter for iPhone
  • Twitter for iPad

Slide 13

Where to start?

Individually:

  • Follow
  • Read
  • Comment
  • Post

Organisationally:

  • Decide the aim
  • Pick the channels
  • Develop the content
  • Schedule
  • Post
  • Respond

Slide 14

Questions