Page 47 - FCW, July/August 2018

CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT
The Transportation Security Administration has one of the most popular Instagram accounts because employees answer questions and provide a service in a funny, unique way.
message will be viewed by a leader in that precinct, which is encouraging adoption of social media, changing the culture and increasing positive sentiment about the NYPD.
Indeed, one of the keys to launching a successful social media strategy is having buy-in at the top of the agency. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh hosts town halls and chats with citizens via social
media. Today he has over 275,000 Twitter followers. In fact, many other city leaders have mandates for serving citizens via social media.
Another key is understanding your agency’s mission and objectives and then directly linking those goals to social media metrics. For NYC 311, city officials might measure success by the number of engagements or completed assignments.
That’s the type of meaningful reporting that allows a leader to say, “Our social media program served 5,000 citizens this month.” And it’s the type of success that gets employees excited about furthering an agency’s mission by using social media.
Ben Cathers is principal value consultant at Hootsuite.
Government is social.
Is your agency/department adapting?
Learn more at
Carahsoft.com/IIG-Citizen-Engagement/Hootsuite
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