Try to activate user participation.

That’s the main reason why. But there are some other practical problems regarding mass media, budget and italian laws...

Not an obligation but a warm invitation➔ Evolution of media consumption

Citizens are online and they search social media for public issues and topics of general interest. Moreover, while TV news in Italy are by far the first source of information for people over 45, Facebook is the first source for young people (14-29) and the second source for people 30-44.

➔ Media coverageMass media set up the social media agenda and use social media as news sources.

➔ Spending review and budget cutThe public communications mix is definitely going digital

There’s a request (since 2011 Guidelines for PA websites) for a new phase of accountability, openness and participation for Public Administrations where citizens can play an active role in proposing and stimulating innovative services and communication practices and dialogue.

If it ain’t featured on the website, it doesn’t exist.

Since 1999 we have created a team of web editors: their job is to make our services known to the citizens.

If it ain’t featured on the website, it won’t be posted.

Every post, every tweet, every video, each sharing we do points out to a specific URL on our website. Social media as amplifiers of awareness.

The right content for new channels.

We’re constantly planning what to say on Twitter, or on Facebook, in order to convey the right information to the right target (and, with the right tone).

Strategic planningDigital public communication with social media changes its skin. The strategic problem is to select the right content for new channels.

➔ The “hype factor”The pursuit of new social platforms is often driven by the desire to be up-to-date, without strategic planning of communicative flows and goals. The risk is to have "containers" of innovative information but no adequate content. Or use innovative containers the same way as old containers.

➔ The “rhetorical trap”We should use social media as a tool of transparency and storytelling of civic life, by innovating

relationship with our users. But we should be careful to raise the bar of innovation in

communicative processes without disappointing expectations and triggering the rhetoric of technological innovation.

Engagement vs. Confidence.

We don’t do product marketing, we’re not looking for interactions at all costs: we try to establish “trust” in our users.

Part of the processFrom a top-down public communication model, we move on to a relational and conversational model to engage our users. On social media, citizens are enabled to become broadcasters of useful public information. But P.A. mostly speaks of itself and its activities: no engagement, no trust. The administration-oriented use of social media leaves behind the voices of citizens.

➔ What do they ask us, ultimately?To cease using social media as unidirectional toolsTo respond to suggestions and complaints coming from the citizens To use a less bureaucratic language

➔ The “political trap”The overlap between political communication and public communication on social platforms is likely to give priority to the showcase of the top management rather than to the pursuit of the general interest.

“One voice, one vision”.

When speaking on behalf of the Chamber, we avoid personal opinions and try to keep private and public separated. When in doubt, don’t post.

Costs vs. benefits.

Professionalism and experience at our service, but all this has to be carefully supervised (and paid). Because the highest risk is that they do not speak with our voice.

Thanks, you’re welcome, sorry, please.

Netiquette is around since 1995, so it is not conceivable that it has not been internalized.And yet ...

Netiquette ground rules➔ No CAPS LOCK

➔ No off topic

➔ No flames

➔ Easy on the GrammarNazi attitude

➔ “Don’t feed the troll”

➔ Spam, privacy, emoji/emoticon

On social media, also keep an eye on TAGs, "Likes", the confusion between public postings and private messaging, morphing (to deceive oneself for more individuals), the proliferation of "invitations" and "ethical sharing" (i.e. always quoting original sources while sharing).

Poor performance is around the corner.

If you are not used to being social, it's easy to go wrong with even the best intentions. It is known that the road to hell ...

Poor social media management➔ Stealing thunder effect

When someone communicates before us or better than us one of OUR projects

➔ Social media narcissismIf we are there, we must be there "for our business users", not just for self-promotion

➔ Ignore conversation or manipulate itNot reacting is never an option. Erasing comments almost never. Apologizing, always.

And mostly...

Post-truth and fake news...

... or even more trivially untrustworthy or unverified news. There is nothing worse to lower confidence to the minimum.

“Can do” or “No can do”...?

The Internal Social Media Policy is a necessary complement to our Code of Conduct as a public administration.

What does our Policy sayMisuse of social media can damage both the Office and the employee... Our policy regulates the use of social media on the job and warns about some critical aspects of their personal use.

➔ Basic principlesConsistency, updating, opening

➔ Managing business accounts and creating contentHow are they created, who handles them, what is to be said

➔ Conversation managementLanguage, style, response time...

➔ Managing personal accountsExplicitly private opinions, respect for the Office, privacy, confidential information, etc.

A short “video break”

The external Social Media Policy

Users must also comply with the rules. These rules are clearly displayed on our site, on the page

www.to.camcom.it/social-media

What does their Policy say➔ Moderation

Zero tolerance for insults, discriminatory, violent, pornographic content, copyright infringement, illicit content, content that compromises public security or privacy

➔ Netiquette also applies to usersNo off topic, flame, trolling, spam, repetitive "copy and paste" comments

➔ DisclaimerThe Chamber of Commerce does not automatically follow back anyone, and as far as the comments are concerned, it only intervenes whenever it realizes its usefulness

➔ Back to the U.R.P.In case of delicate issues that may fall into the sphere of complaints, we always invite to refer to the U.R.P. mailbox

A recipe for the perfect cocktail

Each subject is different and must find the right mix of communication on various social media, without being afraid to change the ingredients every now and then.

Do you think 140 characters is enough?

Our use of Twitter is linked to a target of companies, institutions and journalists. It is not wide-spread like Facebook, and it’s periodically pronounced "dead," but it guarantees us a fair return.

Find us on@camcomtorino

Hashtag#camcomtorino

Twitter in our mix➔ Programming

Every Friday we schedule tweets for the next week (typically 4 or 5 per day, and 2 per day on weekends). We try to cover all the Chamber of Commerce topical issues, comparing us with the news already published on the website and newsletter.

➔ Live tweeting / StorifyFor the most relevant events we organize a "live tweeting": one of us takes the time to tweet what's going on, taking photos, commenting and reporting. In this case, the use of hashtags (#) is crucial. In some cases, we collect our tweets and those of others in a "Storify", that is an online report enriched with tweets, photos, video and web press review..

➔ Some dataWe have over 2,300 followers, we produced about 7,000 tweets since October 2014. We have an average of 1,400 views per day and 3 or 4 interactions per day (click, like or retweet)

Don’t push a video too far...

30 seconds may seem too short (but it's ideal), 2 minutes is already too much. YouTube for us is more intertwined with the website than any other social. Let's see how.

Find us onyoutube.com/ camcomtorino

Follow our channel

YouTube in our mix➔ Production and collection

We produce motion graphics, interviews, and video clips; we collect and cure videos produced by other Chambers of Commerce; we maintain a "video clipping" archive from local TV services; we make animated shorts with animation school students .

➔ Integration with the websiteVideos uploaded to YouTube refer to our website, but most importantly, they are integrated into the pages of our website (it only takes to copy and paste a piece of HTML code). We made the code responsive in order for the clips to be available on smartphones too.

➔ Some dataMore than 100 subscribers to the channel, nearly 40,000 total views, 34 playlists, 309 videos. We also have launched a specific channel for the 2015 WCC and one for the Meet@Torino project.

Turn on, tune in, drop out

This year, the Facebook institutional page is active (that is, we use it).We already had "project" pages to experiment with. Now we’re getting serious.

Find us on @camcomtorino

...like us and share the word!

Facebook in our mix➔ Programming

Every week we choose two prominent topics to build an articulated post. A Facebook post can include tags, photos, videos, animations, slideshows, music, and of course the inevitable link to a website page. Very often we just share what others write about us (and they write a lot).

➔ The Facebook peculiarityFacebook offers several interesting opportunities, some of which are already under "exploitation": creation and management of Events, integration of content from other social media, creation of "Canvas" units (ad formats suitable for smartphones ) and more.

➔ Some dataWe started in January 2017 (after one year of lurking), but our page already have almost 900 Like. So far, our posts have reached from a minimum of 150-200 to a maximum of 1,800 users, generating from 20 to 150 interactions (always organic, never sponsorized).

All work and no play...

On LinkedIn we manage a Company Page and some "groups" and project pages. It's perfect for creating networking professionals, but is not so widespread among average users (we have almost 800 followers).

Find us onlinkedin.com/ company/ camera-di-commercio-di-torino

Not only for the press...

Flickr was the first true social media: even if it is declining today, it's a very good photo archive: venues, events, infographics ... Almost 3,500 photos can be downloaded in high resolution.

Find us onflickr.com/ camcomtorino

The “default” social media.

By creating a Google profile (for YouTube and Google Analytics), we also found Google+: a sadder and less popular Facebook (and yet we have 56 followers).

Analytical framework.

We set some goals and we measure our social media results. This is never done to actually “see who performed best”, but to set new goals and strategies, and to guide our following activities.

How to measure➔ Define the expected goals from social action

Increase knowledge around the Office activities / Decongest your physical desks / Collect feedback from users / Increase traffic to your website

➔ Define the metricsPlatform metricsLike, retweets, sharing … Vanity metrics, to be analyzed in a diachronic way (over a defined time period) and to be aggregated (inter- and intra-platform)Business metricsManagement understandable parameters such as "knowledge on project X", "impact on desk access," "number of online services delivered"Background metricsThey have impact on the organization in a general way, not only on single offices (eg interaction with users, support from users and advocacy, impact on services delivered)

2013 2014 2015 2016

A social media is a great place to tell the world what you’re thinking before you’ve had a chance to think about it.

(Chris Pirillo)

LinkedIn is for the people you know. Facebook is for the people you used to know. Twitter is for the people you want to know.

(Seth Godin)

The best way to engage honestly with the marketplace via social media is to never use the words engage, honestly, or marketplace.

(Jeffrey Zeldman)

Quotes for illustration purposes only

Pietro Izzo

p.izzo@to.camcom.it