Question One
Will your organization be participating in social networking websites in 2009?
- No 77%
- Yes 23%
Out of all the questions, this one provided the most surprising results. Only 23% of those surveyed are planning on using social networking sites in 2009. I believe there is a hesitation among local governments to use these sites—Twitter, Facebook, YouTube—due to lack of usage policies, public record requirements, first amendment issues and limited resources.
These hesitations are valid, but can easily be overcome through the development of through usage policies and stated terms of service. Social networking and Gov 2.0 are here to stay and should used to deliver information to otherwise hard-to-reach demographics.
If Yes, what social networking websites will you be participating in?
- Facebook 45%
- YouTube 33%
- Twitter 33%
- Other 11%
Out of the 23% that plan on using social networking sites in 2009, the majority will be using Facebook; with YouTube and Twitter following close behind. Facebook is an excellent interactive environment for posting news announcements, photos, videos, website links and contact information.
YouTube is a good resource for posting council meetings, community leader speeches, and public service announcement. Add personality to your channel with holiday greeting videos and impromptu interviews of local citizens; basically anything that adds character to what’s behind the perceived cold doors of government buildings..
Twitter, just like Facebook, is great for posting announcements, but your posts must be under 140 characters. I have seen some governments effectively using Twitter as a secondary mode for emergency communication; especially since it can be updated via almost any mobile phone.
Question Two
What is the highest priority for your IT department in 2009?
- Maximize IT Budget 31%
- Improving your website 25%
- Implementation of eGov Solutions 23%
- Other 18%
- Greening IT Dept 3%
It was expected to see maximizing IT budgets as the highest priority for 2009, since many cities and counties are trying to do more with the same, if not less. Of the 18% that responded “Other”, nearly all of them were replacing or purchasing new hardware and/or servers.
Question Three
What is the highest priority for your website in 2009?
- Allowing citizens to perform more business online 49%
- Improving communication with citizens 38%
- Open access to government information 13%
- Other 0%
It’s no surprise that allowing citizens to perform more business online came in at number one. In the midst of a deepening recession, organizations are looking for ways to streamline procedures and trim the fat, so to speak. Providing core business functions online can automate processes and dramatically reduce the amount of staff time needed to complete a task.
Question Four
How will your IT staff development and training budget be affected in 2009?
- Remain the Same 56%
- Decline 39%
- Increase 5%
While many staff development budgets are declining, the majority have remained the same. Especially in a sputtering economy, the return on investment you will experience by keeping staff educated on the latest trends and techniques far outweighs the cost of the education.
Question Five
How will your travel budget for IT staff be affected in 2009?
- Decrease 64%
- Remain the same 36%
- Increase 0%
This is a trend that we expected to see. Through research for the 2009 Website Management Conference we heard from a lot of organizations that their travel budgets had, at the least, been frozen. These results support our expectations as it appears a lot of organizations that hadn’t officially decreased staff travel, they encouraged it even though the budget would remain the same.
Posts
The results to question 1 are both disappointing and exciting at the same time. While it’s great for Levelland because it allows us to separate ourselves apart as a progressive community and maintain a lead in this area, it is disappointing that communities are missing an incredible opportunity to connect with their citizens. The lack of synergy also means that tools for leveraging the social sites will be slow in developing until more cities adopt the social media as a tool for change.
ReplyDeleteThe reason for the answer on question 1 is found in question 3. 62% of respondents had something more important than improving communications on their task list. And imrpoving communications covers a lot of territory, possibly very little of which is social networking.
ReplyDeleteBottom line for us on social networking is that nobody is asking for it and nobody is driving it. So the few forays we have made are simply initiatives by one or two people who really don't have the influence to form a policy.
I don't know what could be simpler and more effective than Twitter. It's free, it's fast, and it's totally opt-in/opt-out for the users. Our Treasurer's office and animal shelter have Twitter accounts. The philosophy: it takes little time to set up, almost no time to maintain, and is totally worth your extremely small investment if your message reaches just a few extra people.
ReplyDeleteBeyond those few extra people, Twitter offers the potential of being retweeted. Perhaps your agency only has 12 followers, but if one of those followers has 120 followers and likes a tweet enough to retweet it, you've just reached 10x the people.
I can definitely understand why Facebook or YouTube or MySpace would cause hesitation: the time involved in setting the profile up, the constant task of maintaining the profile, public perception of wasted time and money.
We do have a few policies forming about how these Twitter accounts should work. For example, the mere creation of the account has to be approved by our Web Committee and none of our organizations are allowed to follow anyone else so that the timeline stays clean.
I think Twitter is a cool technology to leverage. It reaches a demographic of people who may not be reading the newspaper or listening to the radio or even signing up for email lists. When you consider the tiny amount of resources involved in creating and maintaining a Twitter presence and the return on that investment in resources, then Twitter seems like a great thing for governments. Besides, we need to reach the people in as many ways as possible. "Cast a broader net" someone said in a meeting here once. That's precisely the point.