This is the presentation I gave at Connected Government 2013, on the impacts of social media on ICT Teams

1. Social media impacts
on ICT teams
When agency business areas start officially using
social media what does it mean for their ICT
teams?
Connected Government
25 July 2013
Craig Thomler
Gov 2.0 Advocate
Managing Director
Delib Australia

2. Australian internet use - 2013
Total
Male
Female
14-19yrs
20-29yrs
30-39yrs
40-49yrs
50-64yrs
65+ yrs
QLD
NSW
VIC
ACT
Source: Sensis Social Media Report 2013
86%
91%
82%
100%
98%
98%
97%
84%
60%
84%
86%
89%
95%

3. Australian social media use - 2013
62%
Use social media
62%
65%
38%
Never
38%
35%
2011
Source: Sensis Social Media Report 2011-13
2012
2013

4. Australian social media use - 2013
30%
Everyday
36%
45%
24%
19%
15%
Weekly
9%
6%
5%
Less than weekly
17% using 5+ times daily
38%
38%
35%
Never
2011
Source: Sensis Social Media Report 2011-13
2012
2013

5. “We don‟t have a choice on
whether we DO social media,
the question is
how well we DO it.”
- Erik Qualman

6. What about Australian Government?
“The use of Web 2.0 is now
commonplace in APS agencies.
There are hundreds of government social media sites, including Twitter
accounts, Facebook pages and YouTube channels.
Web 2.0 approaches are regularly used in policy development opportunities and
many Australian Government datasets are included on data.gov.au
with more being added regularly.”
- APS State of the Service Report 2011-12
Source: APS State of the Service Report 2011-12

7. What about government?
Australian public
Use internet: 86%
Use social media: 65%
Australian Government
official use of social media
Agencies: 73%
Politicians: 77%
Sources: Sensis 2013, eGovAU 2012-13

8. Twitter use – all levels of Australian governments
888 accounts in
July 2013
Sources: eGovAU 2011-13

9. How the Australian Government uses social media
Answer
Share
For stakeholder engagement or collaboration
54.24%
Operating an information campaign
42.37%
Responding to customer enquiries/comments/complaints
42.37%
For engaging with journalists and media outlets
40.68%
For engagement or collaboration with other government agencies
40.68%
Monitoring citizen, stakeholder and/or lobbyist views and activities
28.81%
For a public consultation process
27.12%
For a stakeholder or other restricted access consultation
22.03%
Other type of activity (i.e. recruitment, crowdsourcing, staff)
18.64%
For policy or services co-design
11.86%
Sources: eGovAU FOI request 2012

10. HOWEVER:
• Only 8% of Australian Public Servants
reported having full social media access
• Only 28% of Australian Public Servants
reported having some social media access
• Of those (36%), 46% reported using social
media for work purposes.
• 70% of these said it helped them carry out
their work more effectively
(26% were neutral, 4% disagreed).
Source: APS State of the Service Report 2011-12

11. In other words
73% of Australian Government agencies
officially use social media
36% of APS staff report some social media
access at work
However 88% of agencies reported having some
guidelines for staff social media use and 41%
reported providing training.
Source: APS State of the Service Report 2011-12

12. For example Immigration:
Source: www.youtube.com/user/ImmiTV

13. Why? Some of the reasons given…
1. Our staff might spend all day on social media.
2. Staff could breach privacy/confidentiality/security
by providing details they shouldn’t online.
3. Staff might behave inappropriately online.
4. People could hack the agency.
5. We don’t believe social media helps our staff do
their jobs.
6. We have insufficient bandwidth for social media.

14. All are relatively easily addressed
1. Management issue – put guidance in place.
2. Management issue – put guidance in place.
3. Management issue – put guidance in place.
4. Reference experience of other agencies and test.
5. Evidence indicates social media has value in many
cases.
6. Business should justify value of social media with
ICT’s help and source additional funding.

15. Risks of blocking social media
•
Loss of intelligence
•
Loss of response capability
•
Loss of respect
•
Lack of experience
Staff can’t directly monitor customer, stakeholder,
lobbyist conversations occurring on social channels.
Agency cannot respond quickly where appropriate
online to correct misinformation or provide support.
Agency is seen as old-fashioned and out-of-touch, losing
respect and ability to influence audiences to meet goals.
Staff don’t gain experience using social media, placing the
agency at a larger disadvantage in using social in future.

16. Risks of blocking social media
•
Difficulty meeting some agency goals
•
Difficulties with Minister‟s office
•
Difficulty recruiting good people
•
Reduction in service capability
Some agency goals may now require that staff
access and interact with audiences via social media.
The Minister’s office may expect social media access and
expect agency to use social media to meet their directives.
An agency that blocks social media will increasingly not
be considered a good workplace by younger workers.
Staff who can’t see what the agency publishes via social
media cannot engage effectively with a public who can.

17. Where does an organisation‟s ICT team fit in?
Develop and manage the
organisational social media presence
Have no role in the organisational
social media presence

18. Choose an ICT stance
Leader
Proactively leads the organisation on selecting appropriate
social media channels and operating them
Supporter
Supports business to achieve its goals through social
media, but allows business to lead approach
Observer
Remotely monitors what business areas are doing and
steps in to advise if a line is crossed

19. Stance affects involvement in social media „roles‟
• Access (bandwidth/security/support)
• Monitoring (tracking/reporting)
• Development (custom & web/apps integration)
• Use (acct. creation, operation & management)
• Support (responding to business needs)
• Technical mgmt (servers/systems)

20. Indicative ICT stance: LEADER
ICT
Access
Business
Monitoring
Development
Use
Support
Technical Mgmt

21. Indicative ICT stance: OBSERVER
ICT
Business
Access
Monitoring
Development
Use
Support
Technical Mgmt

22. Indicative ICT stance: SUPPORTER
ICT
Access
Business
Monitoring
Development
Use
Support
Technical Mgmt

23. SUPPORTER approach
Area
ICT role
Business role
Access
Facilitates and manages
access.
Develops staff usage policies
and strategies.
Monitoring
Provides input into monitoring
approaches, manages hosted
monitoring.
Investigates, selects and
manages monitoring.
Use
Provides input into management Manages day-to-day operations
tools.
of social accounts.
Development
Integrates social into websites & Provides requirements and
intranet.
guidance.
Support
Supports self-hosted services.
Technical mgmt Manages self-hosted services.
Supports use and monitoring.
Works with third parties to
manage externally hosted
services.

24. Aligning expectations, goals and outcomes
• Clarify ICT’s role in the organisation’s social
media presence – leader, supporter or observer.
• Identify how social media can help meet specific
agency goals (monitoring, communication,
engagement, collaboration, delivery).
• Ensure staff guidance is in place – social media
policy and training (Human Resources), legal
framework (Legal), engagement strategy
(Communications/Engagement).
• Ensure necessary skills are available.

25. How does ICT benefit from social media?
•
Knowledge sharing
Staff accessing ICT support forums and groups for
sharing programming tips and tricks, resources and tools.
•
Solution sourcing
Finding programs and code that can aid in solving
agency problems, sharing of code across agencies.
•
Recruitment
Identifying and attracting top ICT talent, as well as demonstrating
the talent of the team to attract good candidates to apply.
•
Early warning
Of emerging security threats and issues.

26. The real social media risks
•
Resourcing
Lack of skills/bodies to implement/manage platforms.
•
Data control
Who controls the data, how can the agency retain
a copy and minimise misuse by third parties?
•
Platform control
If an agency has invested years in building a following
on a platform due to its features, what happens if the
platform removes those features?
•
System integration
How much can and should you integrate social media into
core agency systems – and what are the potential impacts?

27. Resourcing social media
Unless ICT is taking a leadership role, most resourcing is needed
in business areas.
What experience and skills are useful for an ICT team?
• Experience using social media – if your team doesn’t use a
platform it’s harder for them to provide expert advice about it.
• Agile methodology – social media is iterative, not waterfall.
• API design and use – many social tools use APIs to integrate.
• Experience with open source platforms – increasingly used.
• Social analytics – what and how to monitor social media from
a technical standpoint.

28. Social media ICT strategy: share, buy, build
Share
‘Build on the shoulders of giants’ by reusing
the hard work of other agencies or open source.
Buy
Companies invest many years and dollars into developing
robust solutions – why should gov invest time & money?
Build
Consider building as a last resort if you have
legitimate unique requirements or must control the code.

29. ICT teams must engage with risk
Eliminating risk is not
practical, and so the public
sector needs to manage risk by
engaging with it.
Additionally, acceptance of manageable risk is a necessary element of
innovation.
When managers do something new, when they work out a better way to
deliver a service to the public, or develop a new policy option, it will involve
risk. Something untried always will.
But, within the right risk framework, this is precisely the innovation we want
to foster in the public sector—it is the approach that will drive performance
and better outcomes.
- Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury
Source: ParlInfo – BILLS : Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Bill 2013

30. Questions?
Craig Thomler
craig@delib.net
@CraigThomler
http://eGovAU.blogspot.com
www.delib.net/australia/
@Delibaunz