Social Media for Internal Relations

1. LAwSAcademy Social Media for Internal Relations Emily C. Williams Los Angeles Fire Department April 7, 2010

2. Today’s Focus Internal  Internal • Effective organizational communication with and among employees through social media channels. Internal External • Positioning employees to effectively represent your agency positively through their usage of social media.

3. SITE INTERACTION TYPE Informational Briefs Socializing Professional Networking Opinion/info sharing So far…

4. Internal  Internal • What methods does your agency currently use to communicate with employees? • What social media tools are out there that might improve upon these methods?

5. What issue have you always wanted to measure or address that you haven’t been able to so far?

6. Some issues to consider • Level of alignment with the department’s guiding principles • Do employees feel connected to the mission, vision and core values of the organization? • Level of employee motivation and engagement • How’s on-the job satisfaction, performance and productivity? • Level of teamwork, trust and morale • Are members treating one another with respect? • Level of trust between employees and higher-ups • What are members saying about management? What do managers say about the rank-and-file? • Level of service provided to the public • If the public could choose its service provider, would it be us? • Are members serving as ambassadors of our Department? • What are employees communicating about our department to prospective recruits? To members of other departments? To the public?

7. Internal  Internal: Social Media Functions • SURVEYING: Taking the temperature • EDUCATION: Providing information before employees receive it from outside sources. • TWO-WAY EXCHANGE: Providing feedback mechanisms for employees. • REMOVING BARRIERS: Providing opportunities for collaboration, more efficient workflow. • PRAISE: Providing opportunities for recognition.

8. What Makes Social Media An Ideal Tool? Direct Instant Expressive Democratic/equalizes individual voices Easy Dialogue-based Occurs throughout our lives, anywhere, anytime

9. Myth or reality? “90% of the members of our department don’t have e-mail addresses.” • Of the 3,800 employees, who has a department e-mail account? • All 600+ captains • All 90+ chief officers • All 300+ civilians • 200+ special duty/special assignment members • Approximately 30% of the department’s members have department e-mail addresses.

10. SURVEYING MEMBERS

11. EDUCATING MEMBERS Today's workshop is intended to demonstrate alignment with the Department's core value ofInnovationand the operating principle of Positioning the Department for the Future. We hope the content will prepare participants to better understand Web 2.0 tools and recognize how social media is shaping our work and the role of government. Employees are encouraged to further explore the benefits of social media sites...from the comfort of their own homes. Please refrain from accessing social networking sites during work hours without the express approval of your supervisor, as per the Citywide Internet Usage Policy.

12. TWO-WAY EXCHANGE

13. REMOVING BARRIERS

14. PRAISE

15. Giving employees a forum to express themselves will result in an uncontrollable site filled with anonymous rants & name-calling. We can’t let our people use social media; they’ll do something stupid, embarrassing, or illegal. Internal communications are not a priority in an economy characterized by hiring & promotional freezes, furloughs and layoffs. A blue-collar or in-the field workforce will not use social media. Other Social Media Myths

16. The threat and the opportunity EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT 29% of employees are actively engaged, 54% are “checked out”, 17% are actively disengaged. An August 2009 Nielsen Online study shows that nearly half of all online workers use Facebook at the office. There is no doubt that employees are communicating virtually and globally. What are they saying about their work experience? How do members learn about proposed initiatives and policies? Are employees able to voice their ideas & does leadership show that input is valued?

17. Engagement & Retention Stats 80% 10-14 New employees who decide in first six monthswhether they’ll stay with a new job Number of jobs today’s learners/tomorrow’s workers will have by the time they’re 38 years old

18. Use of social media to do one’s job Aon Consulting Web 2.0 and Employee Communications Survey March 2009

19. Internal  External • ID who in your organization is already using social media. • What are they saying about: • Their work? • The organization? • Themselves?

20. Official Twitter account 

25. Examples from the private sector

27. Getting Started Start small and focused Act with purpose Be transparent Let the on-line community moderate itself first Monitor heavily Leverage your Gen X and Millennial employees

28. LAFD Results: 1,180 “firefighter pranks” Results: 254 “LAFD firefighter pranks” No videos found “LAFD pranks” No videos found firefighter bucketing” Results: 149 “firemen bucketing” Results: 184 LAFD bucketing Results: 1 search results

29. CASE STUDY: Cincinnati Fire Department “Cincinnati Firefighters Investigated for YouTube Videos”

30. 3 Social Media Strategy DO’s • View social media as another form of outreach and an investment in the future. • Find out which members are already on social networks. • Leverage your Gen X and Millennial employees. Many of them are already social media veterans. And one DON’T…

31. Don’t be afraid to embarrass yourselves!

32. Thank You! Contact Information Facebook: Emily C. Williams Twitter: @emilypresents YouTube: emilypresents WordPress: Emily Presents Linkedin: Emily C. Williams

33. Other sites: Professional • GovLoop - the "Facebook for Government" connecting 25,000+ government innovators from federal, state, and local government. A great resource to connect with peers, research best practices, and find conferences & educational opportunities.

34. Collaboration sites • Microsoft Sharepoint • http://sharepoint.microsoft.com • Google Docs • http://www.google.com/google-d-s/b1.html • Socialcast • http://www.socialcast.com/ • Joomla • http://joomla.org

35. Video sites • 12 Seconds (http://12seconds.tv/)- allows users to share video status updates to Twitter and Facebook • Vimeo (http://vimeo.com) - better tools and higher quality video than Youtube • Blip and StrikeTV (http://blip.tv/ & http://strike.tv/) - next generation web tv networks

36. Microblogs • Yammer • Present.ly • Nixle

37. Best Practices in Public Safety • Bellevue PD, has both a Twitter and a Facebook page. BPD even encourages their individual police officers to send “tweets” about activity while at work. • The Oxnard Police Department in California has asked a lead officer from each beat or sector within the city to send out Twitter updates specific to their service area. OPD also produces web video providing crime info, press release information, and other information to promote their agency.