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Unofficial Aus Govt Social Media Handbook

Page history last edited by Jen Calipari 11 years, 8 months ago

Important notice and disclaimer
This Social Media Handbook is not officially endorsed by the Australian Government. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Government or any other individuals or organisations.

 

Sections: Home - Overview - Blogs - ICT requirements - Content and brand administration - Administration process - Legal considerationsMonitoring Summary of Government guidelines - Open data - Media sharing sites - Tips - Exit strategies - Future work

 

 

UNOFFICIAL HANDBOOK

 

Standard Operating Procedures
for Australian Government blogs & forums/online communities

 


 

Overview

 

Getting a government blog up and running

Now moved into Getting a Government blog up and running.

 

ICT requirements

Now moved into ICT requirements.

 

Content and brand management

Now moved to Content and brand management.

 

Administration processes

Now moved to Administration processes.

 

Legal considerations

Now moved to Legal considerations.

 

Summary of Government guidelines

Now moved to Summary of Government guidelines.

 

Blog promotion tips

Now moved into tips.

 

Exit strategies

Now moved to Exit strategies.

 

Future work

Now moved to future work.

 

Maintenance

Comments (20)

Michael Harris said

at 12:29 am on Jul 22, 2010

Is there any value in splitting up this document into smaller 'chunks' (pages by section)?

Reading and contributing to the whole thing at once means that not only is it hard to read and keep your thoughts composed, it means that the article is edit locked for longer thus delaying immediacy of participation.

Lisa Howdin said

at 1:02 am on Jul 22, 2010

Yes, lots and lots of value. Please go right ahead. Please add in more sections if you think we need them. I think we should have a section on Youtube/Video/media sharing sites too.

Michael Harris said

at 2:11 am on Jul 22, 2010

Add as many sections as you think are needed. I've added in a common header as well, so it makes getting back and forth between pages as easy as pie. Will place a link on the main page in a few moments for a direct link to the header for editing.

Lisa Howdin said

at 2:16 am on Jul 22, 2010

Nice - thank you. I notice the Canadians have 53 revisions to their pages...can the Australians be more proactive? Can everybody who has edited or intended to edit forward the link and information on to their circle of colleagues?

Lisa Howdin said

at 1:07 am on Jul 22, 2010

Should we remove the APSC stuff and just have links to their material?

Craig Thomler said

at 2:15 am on Jul 22, 2010

Hi Lisa,

Best to link rather than include - it may change and there are copyright considerations.

Cheers,

Craig

Michael Harris said

at 2:21 am on Jul 22, 2010

Agreed.

Craig Thomler said

at 2:32 am on Jul 22, 2010

Needs to be clear whether this is a blog-specific handbook or more general social media. If more general, move the blog specific content into a section - and have other sections for other services - ie: Twitter, Facebook, Digg, etc.

David Bromage said

at 3:37 am on Jul 22, 2010

Lots of complications on the recordkeeping issues for third party sites outside Australia.

PiaWaugh said

at 9:33 pm on Jul 22, 2010

Hi all,

Can I suggest a useful section would be on cloud computing? I blogged some of my thoughts a while ago (http://pipka.org/blog/2010/05/26/cloud-computing-finding-the-silver-lining/), but basically whilst there are great benefits of using the cloud, I worry about the issues that you need to check out up front to make sure you don't have major lock-in/out or a hijacked ICT strategy. Seeing most social media foo is in the cloud, might be worth including some thoughts, and guidance around procurement and responsibilities.

Cheers,
Pia

PiaWaugh said

at 9:34 pm on Jul 22, 2010

PS - I didn't have time to click through to every section to check, and I know I'm late to the party, but just thought I'd contribute my 2c :) Hope that is ok.

Michael Harris said

at 10:23 pm on Jul 22, 2010

Better late than never Pia, all contributions welcomed and greatly received.

Wendy Pang said

at 6:27 am on Jul 23, 2010

I'd like to see the blog tips moved to be with the other blog content - it's not obvious to the reader seeking info about blogging that they might also need to visit Tips. Tips will then be (momentarily) empty, but can be used for tips that don't yet have a category.

Shey Cobley said

at 10:49 pm on Jul 26, 2010

I have been working in the UK government for a number of years and have just come back to Australia. While as yet I do not have extensive Australian experience I think there are a number of useful learnings from the UK that could be brought to this document. I am particularly interested in the creation and maintenance of discussion forums whether they are in a hosted environment or within a government website. I think it would be useful to have a section on this - including protocols for the management of discussions. What does anyone else think?

Imogen Smith said

at 11:02 pm on Jul 26, 2010

Hi Shey
I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on discussion forums. At the moment I am trying to find ways to lift council officers' engagement in discussion forums. I'd like to have a better understanding of whether we're providing the right overall environment by hosting them on our subscription website.

Lisa Howdin said

at 11:47 pm on Jul 26, 2010

Hi

Thanks to every who is pitching in here - it is great to see. Shey & Imogen - yes, I'd love to see a section on discussion forums and I think a part of that on on how to encourage staff/public servant contributions would be well worth having. Has anybody resorted to offering prizes to participants? I have seen suggestions such as including commenting/responding in people's Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). I would like to explore people's reluctance to contribute in forums (and here!) even when they are well qualified.

Imogen Smith said

at 7:30 pm on Jul 27, 2010

Hi Lisa
I'm an online producer from the Local Government Association of Queensland. We're having difficulty because council staff find it hard to participate in forums hosted on our website for a few reasons. Chiefly, they are uncomfortable posting (essentially publishing) opinions and discussions that are not policy or endorsed by their council without formal signoff, or the perceived privacy of email or phone discussions; contributing online is against the IT policy of their council, or they believe it to be; they lack experience with social media and UGC generally.
We haven't offered prizes but are thinking about presenting forums differently. Instead of 'discuss xx here' we're going to pitch a 'q & a' space, where council officers can pose our staff questions, and we'll provide the answers, and hope things grow from there.

Lisa Howdin said

at 12:55 am on Oct 19, 2010

Hi

AGIMO have set up a Govdex community that will allow public servants to discuss these issues in private - so if you are feeling unsure about contributing to this document in public, you might like to contact finance and request access to the closed group by emailing them at: gov2@finance.gov.au.

Perhaps the private sector and the general public might like to use this wiki to tell us how they think government should be using social media to communicate with them? AGIMO has been doing work using blogs to improve the outcomes of public sector procurement/purchasing. By way of example: http://agimo.govspace.gov.au/tag/data-centres/ Or should we just take it all down? Thoughts?

Neil Douglas said

at 1:19 am on Oct 19, 2010

Hi Lisa,

A good read are the three docs (policy, staff toolkit and social media reference guide) at http://www.egov.vic.gov.au/victorian-government-resources/website-practice-victoria/web-2-0-victoria/department-of-health-social-media-action-plan-part-1-policy.html. It's like we have multiple groups of intersted and keen people working to the same end. I'm sure there would be little difference between the Fed and State government approaches but it's a little bit adhoc at the moment.

Lisa Howdin said

at 1:43 am on Oct 19, 2010

Thanks Neil. The South Australian government policy one is quite good too: http://www.socialmedianews.com.au/south-australian-government-social-media-policy/

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