Using Social Media Tools for Government Affairs

I just returned home from Philadelphia, where I presented at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Regional Government Affairs Conference at a session titled, “Social Media: A New Tool for Government Relations.”  I was fortunate to have a very engaged audience of state and local Chamber of Commerce executives from across the northeast United States.

Rather than “Social Media 101″ — my presentation focused more on case studies of how advocacy organizations (many of whom are our clients) are using various social media tools to communicate their message, empower their network to take action, and make real change happen in their state capitols.

I also shared a number of lessons from various posts we’ve had here on this Web site, including:

• Twitter Strategy?  Facebook Strategy?  No — You Need a Content Strategy
• Is the Press Release Dead?
• Would Somebody Please Kill the E-Newsletter

Also presenting during the session was Will Burns, communications director at the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, who is leading that organization’s successful effort to engage in a comprehensive, successful online content campaign.

You can view my PowerPoint presentation here (although without context and the accompanying discussion it might not make much sense to you), and I’d like to share some of Q&A that occurred during the session:

Q:  I’m a Chamber executive who’s been told I should spend an hour a day engaging with social media tools.  That’s a big time commitment — how can I justify it?

Engaging with social media tools is no more an extra time commitment than writing a press release, meeting with your members, or engaging in any other activity that fulfills the core mission of your organization.  If you (or your communications staffer) took a half hour to write a press release — would you question that expenditure of time?  If you spent an hour on the phone calling through your media list, would that be an extra time commitment?  Of course not.  Communications departments need to hit the “reset” button on how they do business — embracing the new tools that allow them to do their jobs more efficiently and effectively. Social media tools are no different than a cell phone, email, or even a typewriter.  They are simply communications tools.  How you use them will ultimately determine if you are wasting your time — or getting a return on your investment of that time.

Q.  I’m from a small chamber of commerce — do you suggest we hire an outside consultant, or hire a “Gen Y” expert to help spearhead our online efforts?

As a consultant, I am certainly a proponent of hiring a consultant to help you with your communications needs!  That being said, I am a strong believer that your existing communications staff either has to embrace these online tools — or find new jobs.  The days of a public relations professional simply relying on a phone and and a fax machine are long gone.  Your communications executive needs to become your chief content producer — producing regular, compelling content that tells your organization’s unique story and then using a variety of communications tools to help disseminate that story.  If a PR flak can produce a 400-word press release, he or she can certainly produce a 140-character tweet and a status update on Facebook.  If you can work a video camera, you can certainly post short, simple video interviews to post on YouTube.  Remember — it’s about the content, not the tools and technology.  And content is (or should be) the responsibility of your communications department (just because it involves the “Interwebz” does not make it the responsibility of your IT department.)

Q.  I agree with your statement about “killing the e-newsletter.”  Our chamber sends out a weekly e-newsletter and has seen declining open rates.  What do you suggest we try instead?

E-newsletters may look nice, allow you to stick to a weekly schedule, and provide a ready-made template for you to use — but that doesn’t mean they are effective.  Instead of building your program around a regular schedule, build it around your content.

In short — send emails to your network when you have something compelling to say.  This goes back to the first step of developing your content strategy.

Further, rather than simply providing a rundown of news and updates, the emails you send to your network should be personalized, short, and include a clear call to action.

We’ve written about this topic here and here — but think of it in these terms:  when you want to communicate with your friends or family, do you send them an e-newsletter?  Of course not, you write them a personal note.  Do the very same thing with emails you send your network.  Remember, the Obama campaign (one of the most high-profile recent success stories of online communications) had a very successful email program built not around weekly e-news compendiums, but short, personalized action alerts from the campaign.

Futher, one of the most important keys to a successful email program is the management and constant analysis of your database.  Keep close track of who is opening your emails, who is clicking links in your emails, and who isn’t opening your emails.  For an advocacy organization, see what issues are motivating certain members of your network to engage and take action. Segment out your lists by issue and intensity, sending people emails only on those issues in which they are interested.

Treat email as a conversation with your network, and your open rates and engagement will greatly improve.

Q.  Thanks for your presentation.  I agree that we, as chamber executives, need to start using these online tools if we want to be effective.  For example, this week, I traveled around the state of Pennsylvania, and met with numerous elected officials and even the state Attorney General.  These are all activities I could have — and should have — tweeted or put as Facebook updates.

I agree 100%.  Providing simple updates about important meetings and activities shows your members (or customers) about the great work you’re doing on their behalf.  It helps portray you as an expert who making good things happen.  In addition, as a chamber of commerce executive, you get a lot of firsthand “breaking” news about legislative developments — use these updates to break real news on Twitter, Facebook our your blog.  This compelling, unique, timely content will build your audience, provide value to your members, and even position you as a primary source for the mainstream media.

Thanks again to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for allowing me to address this highly-engaged audience.  I will also be addressing their regional conferences in Chicago and San Francisco in November, and will be sure to provide updates on those sessions soon after they occur.