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Posts Tagged ‘government services’

Social Media in Government: General Mills or Cheerios?

Posted in government, social media, tagged , on 17 June 2009 | 6 Comments »

I’ve been thinking off and on for a while now about what the logical “home” for social media in Government would be.

You see, I work in a corporate communications shop for a capital-D Department (it’s Industry Canada for those of you keeping score). It’s a place that’s used to speaking on behalf of the organization – in a language of key messages via well established vehicles like press releases and the like.

Im a big fan of General Mills

Would you be more likely to tweet about General Mills...

But I have my doubts that this “corporate” voice is of much use in social media — to be sure, it’s all well and good to have an organizational Twitter account or a corporate Facebook page, more or less acting as news feeds into those environments, but that’s not really doing social media is it? It’s just using the platforms as a vehicle to push more traditional messaging. (Tactically, it may be useful to do this, if only to show the doubters across the organization that the sky is not going to fall when the organization starts to have presences in the social web.)

Further, my org is a large and varied, with programs and services that cover a wide range of topics and activities — and working with diverse communities of stakeholders. Us corporate communicators might have a bird’s eye view, but we barely scratch the surface. We’re stretched too thin, trying to cover the organization as a whole.

... or Cheerios?

... or Cheerios?

Here’s an analogy: the government department is like the company, and its programs and services are like the family of product brands that the company owns.  Think of  the difference between General Mills and its brands: Betty Crocker, Cheerios, Yoplait, etc. Where’s the centre of gravity? I can envisage a community around the Cheerios product much more easily.

Anyhow, it seems like it’s going to be at the program level where most of the social media action is, at least for us. It’s a much more natural fit. It’s with government programs where “public service” for citizens becomes real. There’s a focus and depth that exists in a program area that we in the corporate communications shop just can’t get into.

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CMO Survey: Traditional Branding is ‘Broken’

Posted in branding, government, marketing, social media, tagged , , , , , on 5 March 2009 |

Broken!

Oh No! Broken!

CMO Survey: Traditional Branding is ‘Broken’.

Survey from Verse Group and Jupiter Research. Key findings:

  • 62% of marketers say that traditional advertising efforts are no longer as effective as they once were in attracting new customers.
  • 62% are seeking breakthrough methods that are more effective than brand positioning.
  • 89% say that marketing is under greater scrutiny than ever before.
  • The top three trends marketers see are a shift to non-traditional media, the need to adopt brand stories and a growing use of design for competitive advantage.

This points back to those graphics I posted yesterday — where “non-traditional” media, i.e. the social web, revealing the disconnect between brand and consumer more starkly than ever before. And as this survey shows, the corporate landscape is well aware.

Opportunity here for governments? We never got branding 1.0 right, so we’re not burdened by these old models as much as the private sector. So can we jump in with a clean slate?

And in the GoC context specifically — advertising is a tightly controlled channel that most government services and programs don’t really have access to. So they could use the social web in an attempt to reach more directly the people who would use those programs and services.

Mucho risks: it’s a largely unknown, untested area, especially for us. So right now, few are willing to try stuff that’s off the usual path. Not to mention being hampered by an outdated web of rules. These challenges are significant, but they are implementation issues — they can (and will, I’m sure) be worked out.

So, potential for mucho rewards:

  • cheap reach — I fully understand that social media for communications takes time and energy, but on the other hand it does not require a lot of high cost or time-consuming “production” overhead (i.e. creative services suppliers, media placement agencies and whatnot). Easy enough to raise awareness of your program or service online via social channels.
  • more effective and responsive client service — this is obviously a more advanced use of social media, but the theory is that empowering civil servants to use social channels can give you highly responsive service to citizens, near real-time even.
  • instant feedback — given the two-way, always-on nature of social media, you can find out what works and what doesn’t really quickly. Ultimately, the social web could lead your stakeholders or customers to become co-designers of your service offerings.

These are just three aspects that I banged out quickly off the top of my head. What are others?

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