Your first step as a government communicator
It seems like the tide is turning in Canada, and more senior executives in the public service are expressing an interest in social media of all types.
Being a cautious species, many are experimenting behind the firewall, with Deputy Ministers setting up blogs to speak with their employees, and departments using wikis to revitalize their intranet.
Over the next year or so, this trend will accelerate - and managers will find themselves facing a staffing crunch.
That’s right. I think we all agree that social media demands a flexible skil lset, capable of interpreting organizational priorities, incorporating communications goals and acting as a strategic advisor on engagement and consultation
Social media strategists also need to have a sense of experimentation and an appetite for risk - in tools, tactics and strategy.
That’s not a combination easily found in the public service.
I can see a point - not too far in the future - when communications branches will be identifying the social media strategist as a valuable and high profile position in the branch.
It will be a transitional appointment, where young and upcoming strategists will be given the opportunity to bridge the world of traditional policy development and innovative communications.
It will be a recruiting tool and a staff retention strategy - to prevent the bleeding of otherwise interesting and stimulating staff in the communications branch.
These strategists will have to navigate the world of information technology, strategic communications planning and reassuring senior management - a skill set that will prepare them well for larger horizontal files and wide-ranging projects.
As we begin to see concrete and measurable results from government experiments in social media, these multi-faceted communications strategists will find more doors open to them at more senior levels of the bureaucracy.
The question is, will they want to move on?
June 4th, 2008 12:53
I wanna be a Social Media Strategist when I grow up! :-)) I think I already am in my spare time, between regularly scheduled tasks contained in my “official” job description. Not easy getting the boat to turn though. I sense both fear, reluctance and down right ignorance about the place/value/role of social media within government. Some who have used it, haven’t had great success and really don’t understand why it didn’t take. But then again, they’re not looking for the answers in the right places. It’s a whole new world out there and some individuals with communications or PR training obtained 20 or even 10 years ago, are not always up-to-date with new media and how to create meaningful content. In a small government (smaller than the federal government anyway), Communication Officers are not specialists in anything really. They are expected to know and DO just about everything having to do with communications: media relations, strategic planning, speechwriting, senior adviser… You name it, from writing the actual news release to organizing the press conference itself. Some are so caught up in the day-to-day weeds of churning out news releases that they have no time to do even a little bit of planning or strategizing. While it’s energizing and stimulating to think of and seize opportunities to experiment with social media (or anything new for that matter), it can also be overwhelming when you can barely keep your head above water as it is. The notion of “engagement” is also one that is creating a bit of a stir. Some are using it as a buzz word but are still doing the same old type of consultation (public or otherwise) while calling it “engagement”. Another revolution on the horizon.
June 4th, 2008 20:03
A lot of federal govt communicators aren’t specialists either - I’m thinking of the folks embedded in programs rather than in Dept’l comms shops, or comms people in smaller agencies … they’d be facing some of the same issues of day to day crowding out a longer planning horizon.
And then some of us are stuck in the production ghetto ;+)