How To Get Your Public Service Agency To Take Social Media Seriously

(Sidenote – this blog and a recent experience inspired a podcast episode on Relationships at Work)

Social public service isn’t effective off the side of your desk.

Whether you’re trying to start a successful social media presence for your public service organization or grow an existing one to better serve the public and your organization, there are a few key ingredients you’ll need to be impactful.

And if you don’t have them, you’re going to suck or stall. And certainly not meet the growing expectations the public has for digital engagement.

Serious Social Media

Social public service can’t be thought of as an “oh right, that thing we should also do” check box and expect it to be successful or even relevant. It needs to be treated as importantly as any other public communications channel, and sometimes more so. That is due to its role in public dialogue and the serious culture change/change management internally needed to make it work. 

Traditional communications will continually take priority, time and resources over your social media program if you don’t identify the barriers to be taken seriously.

Of course you need to know how to use the tools and platforms to be successful, but there are multiple factors outside of your team that can get in the way of your growth.

Success Barriers

Here are some reasons why your government social media isn’t going anywhere (and what to do about it): 

1. 1. No executive champions – You can’t be alone in your effort to grow and improve your digital engagement. Having no consistent executive support or a “seat at the table” in communication decisions makes you a side project, not a valued communication channel. It is essential to have someone at the executive table (or has the C-suite’s ear) who champions your work and its benefits on your behalf. To not have an executive champion prevents you from being part of the larger strategic conversation and may leave you forgotten or an after thought. 
      What to do about it – It’s important to start building relationships and get the lay of the land so you can determine A) who is open and influential enough to be your champion so you can go about building that connection and B) who is not helpful, who’s words do not match their actions or are open to learning, so you can invest less energy on them and move on. As with any relationship, it must be built and nurtured over time. Also, keep in mind that these champions may move to other organizations so you’ll have to continually assess and reassess this role. You can also have more than one.
      
   2. Don’t know how to sell it – No one cares what you do… until you give them a reason to. If you can’t tell your stories of success and impact consistently, regularly and over time, you’ll never be seen as an important part of your organization. Why should you? People are busy with their own work and if they can’t see how you help them, they’ll stop giving you their time or attention. You have to be able to tell your story, tell it often and tell it well. 
      What to do about it – Look for any opportunity market your program internally, either to the whole organization or to specific business areas. Be proactive (weekly reports, additions to existing communications, presentations to any and all business areas) and reactive (after major events, after you’ve promoted a campaign or worked with another business group) showing how what you do helps them and the attention it can get. Connect the dots for them. Do you, and will you, create content that helps answer questions so that business area gets less phone calls or can easily link to in an email to save time? Are you finding growing issues that the organization isn’t even fully aware of yet? Are you correcting misinformation or highlighting great work or getting the word out… How does your work benefit your organization? Sell it. And sell it again. 
   3. Culture is too risk adverse – to be successful in your digital public engagement, you can’t be surrounded by the risk-adverse. These are those people that are paralyzed with worry in what negatively could happen, feeling more comfortable in over analysis and being generic rather than timely and impactful. How does this show up? Approval processes and micro-management. Lengthy processes to have content, content calendars, campaigns, communication plans, or even a tweet approved, serves fear, lack of confidence and a culture’s need to micromanage and control, not your audience or your customers. Risk-aversion paralyses timeliness, relevancy, connection, relationship building, accessibility, and public trust.  It also frustrates your social media managers and their ability to do the job they were hired to do, building a barrier to meeting the growing expectations of those they are trying to serve.
      What to do about it – foster an environment of risk-awareness. Yes, in a perfect world leadership and management would trust the people they hire to do their work but that’s not always the case. To move your social media program forward, it comes back to being able to communicate what you know, what you do and how it can benefit the organization. Build the confidence of those that are risk adverse – show the success of being timely, demonstrate you know of the risks and how you mitigate them, showcase other related organizations and their approval processes, etc. You may not be able to shave off ALL the levels of approval but you can build trust by better selling what you do and why you’re good at it so they don’t have to worry as much. 
   4. Don’t have enough staff/resources – so your organization wants a copywriter in various formats; digital/multimedia producer in graphics, video and audio; metrics analyst; news curator; customer service representative; community manager and engagement facilitator; digital marketing campaign strategist and executor; stakeholder relations and and and… but they want this all in one person AND they want it to be successful? And if your one-person team manages to start growing any size of following, their reward is more work via engagement. Which means your one-person will be too busy answering questions and comments than doing all their other jobs. It’s the price of even a smidge of success. If the public service organization is going to take social media seriously, it needs to invest in the program seriously.
      What to do about it – again, tell the story. If your managers don’t know the challenges you face to success, they can’t help you – invest in you, champion you, support you. What won’t happen if you are too busy? What opportunities are you missing? Who can’t you support? What will you have to say “no” too? And if you can’t say “no” to something, what will suffer in other areas of your responsibilities? Show the actual or possible decline in quality, ability, service due to lack of resources. And tell them, and tell them again. Especially your executive champion (refer to bullet no. 1).
   5. No plan or purpose – it’s very hard to grow or be successful if your organization doesn’t know what success looks like. Do you even know why you’re on social media? “Hey, lets get a Twitter account” is not a plan or a purpose. It’s a checked box for someone in a management position to feel like they’re doing something or being “innovative”. That’s a huge waste of time for anyone involved.
      What to do about it – Even if you’re not getting it from leadership, define your purpose. Align it to your corporate vision, mission and values so it is easier to sell to your boss and executive. Create relevant goals that you know will not only demonstrate your value to your customers but also is something that resonates with your leaders. Win-win. If you’re not getting the leadership you need, you have to be that leader.
      

You can’t expect success if you won’t do the the things that earn that success. That recipe demands the right ingredients.

REMINDER – you’re communication professionals. Ironically, we are quick to say “but no one understands what we do” but don’t understand that we’re the ones that are responsible for communicating that. Think of getting internal buy-in as a communications strategy (cause it is). What kind of planning and tactics would you use to inform, educate and get your internal audiences on board? That could help.

Next Steps

This above list should start you down the path of where to look and what to address, whether as a member of a social media team, as the entire team yourself, or as a manager wondering why your program isn’t being taken seriously.

In my experience, your growth and success depends on individuals taking the reins and being their own champions, their own advocates, their own salespeople, their own leaders. It’s far more successful than waiting, and waiting and waiting for others to do it for you.

Good luck.