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Social Media for Social Media for Internal RelationsInternal Relations

Emily C. WilliamsEmily C. Williams Los Angeles Fire DepartmentLos Angeles Fire Department

April 7, 2010April 7, 2010

LAwS Academy

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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.

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So far…So far…

SITE

INTERACTION TYPE Informational Briefs Socializing Professional Networking Opinion/info sharing

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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?

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

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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?

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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.

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Direct Instant Expressive Democratic/equalizes individual

voices Easy Dialogue-based Occurs throughout our lives,

anywhere, anytime

What Makes Social Media An Ideal Tool?

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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.

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SURVEYING MEMBERS

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50

100

150

200

250

300

350

July 27 - August 18, 2006

On-line Survey

E-mail

In-person: Fire Station

In-person: Classroom

In-person: Focus Group

Telephone

Other: Employee Groups

Other: Letter to FireCommission

Other: Public Hearing

Other: Suggestion Box

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EDUCATING MEMBERSToday's workshop is intended to demonstrate alignment with

the Department's core value of InnovationInnovation and the operating principle of Positioning the Department for the Positioning the Department for the Future.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.

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TWO-WAY EXCHANGE

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REMOVING BARRIERS

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PRAISE

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Other Social Media Myths

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.

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The threat and the opportunityEMPLOYEE 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?

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New employees who decidein first six months whether 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

80%

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Engagement & Retention Stats

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Non-Millennials Millennials

Intranet 65% 72%

Text messaging 25% 38%

Instant messaging 46% 48%

Social network sites 13% 20%

Blogs 8% 13%

Use of social media to do one’s job

Aon Consulting Web 2.0 and Employee Communications Survey March 2009

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Internal External

ID who in your organization is already using social media.

What are they saying about:Their work?The organization?Themselves?

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Official Twitter account

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Examples from the private sector

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Getting Started

1. Start small and focused

2. Act with purpose

3. Be transparent

4. Let the on-line community moderate itself first

5. Monitor heavily

6. Leverage your Gen X and Millennial employees

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search results

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

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

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3 Social Media Strategy DO’s

1. View social media as another form of outreach and an investment in the future.

2. Find out which members are already on social networks.

3. Leverage your Gen X and Millennial employees. Many of them are already social media veterans.

And one DON’T…

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Don’t be afraid to embarrass yourselves!

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Thank You!Thank You!Contact Information

Facebook: Emily C. Williams

Twitter: @emilypresents

YouTube: emilypresents

WordPress: Emily Presents

Linkedin: Emily C. Williams

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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.

Other sites: Professional

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Collaboration sitesCollaboration 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

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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

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Microblogs

Yammer Present.ly Nixle

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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.