Facebook & Social Media Tips for Feds

Good tips from Federal Communicators Network newsletter

Sarah Scruggs from GPO attended the L2 Social Graph Clinic. Here are her key take-aways.

1. Figure out what you want your Facebook followers to do. They can do multiple things. View old pictures? Become contractors? Learn about your program? Come work for you?
2. Go big or go home. Social media is more forgiving, you’ll make mistakes and it’s okay.
3. www.facebook.com/government lists all agencies using Facebook.
4. www.facebook.com/insights is a way to get metrics about Facebook fans.
5. Facebook will drive people to your website, not the other way around.
6. “like” and “tweet” buttons on all electronic products is a must.
7. Put photos on Facebook and have a Flickr account.
8. Use a consistent voice and have a style guide.
9. Have a guide for how to handle comments and complaints and any type of “sit in” on your accounts.
10. Use a publishing calendar.
11. Share something multiple times if you want people to know about it.
12. Send out a monthly social media report. Low numbers are okay at the beginning. Number of followers or likes or comment counts.
13. If people leave comments/complaints that will affect your business, make sure they get passed along to the right person so they get answered.
14. Ask users what they want to see/know about on your page or tweets or blog.
15. All social media should be coordinated and involve other people than the PR or Communications Office.
16. People have an appetite for information, especially when something is happening.
17. Ask yourself what happens if you don’t use the tool. Facebook has 500 Million users. Half access it on a given day.
18. If you don’t use a particular tool, you still need to look at it to see what other people are saying about you.
19. Have clear and obvious rules and guidelines for employees about using social media.
20. http://apps.facebook.com/twitter/ Twitter to Facebook app- automatically updates your Facebook page with your twitter feed.
21. For twitter, the importance of re-tweets.
22. Promoting other people will in turn get you promoted. Nature Conservancy uses a 7:1 ratio. (7 things about other topics for every 1 about themselves).
23. Recognize your users – fan of the month, someone with tons of followers should be treated as if in a relationship.
24. Use 2-3 sentences on postings and tweets that tell people everything they want to know. The click-thru is the bonus part.