Issue 1
Social Media
February 2014
APS Human Capital Matters: Social Media
February 2014, Issue 1
Editor’s Note to Readers
Welcome to the first edition of Human Capital Matters for 2014—the digest for leaders and
practitioners with an interest in human capital and organisational capability. This edition focuses
on Social Media. Human Capital Matters last examined Social Media in September 2012.
In line with the Government’s new E-Government and the Digital Economy Policy, Social
Media continues to be an important area of focus for the public service. The Department of
Finance will be implementing a number of social media “league tables” in the coming months
including online engagement, open data publishing, platform agnostic service delivery and
customer satisfaction. It is understood that there will be some discussions in the Cross Agency
Social Media Forum to facilitate discussions about determining useful performance metrics
across the APS.
Human Capital Matters seeks to provide APS leaders and practitioners with easy access to the
issues of contemporary importance in public and private sector human capital and organisational
capability. It has been designed to provide interested readers with a monthly guide to the national
and international ideas that are shaping human capital thinking and practice.
Thank you to those who took the time to provide feedback on earlier editions of Human Capital
Matters. Comments, suggestions or questions regarding this publication are always welcome and
should be addressed to: humancapitalmatters@apsc.gov.au. Readers can also subscribe to the
mailing list through this email address.
Contents
Commonwealth Department of Finance, Online Engagement Courses-Final Report, 10 July
2013
This edition commences with the final report of the pilot sessions of two online engagement
courses run by the Department of Finance in mid last year. The hyperlink to the full report
includes links to the basic courseware as well as some additional reading. This is a good starting
point for people who wish to become more familiar with the use of online engagement.
Wendling, C., J. Radisch and S. Jacobzone (2013), “The Use of Social Media in Risk and
Crisis Communication”, OECD Working Papers on Public Governance, No. 25, OECD
Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5k3v01fskp9s-en
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has also been doing
some work on developing guiding principles in relation to the use of social media for risk and
crisis communication in emergency services. The working paper highlighted in this edition of
Human Capital Matters draws on the outcome of the discussions held at a workshop organised
jointly by the OECD and the International Risk Governance Council (IRGC), in Geneva
(Switzerland), on 29 June 2012 on the theme of ''Risk and crisis communication: the challenges
of social media''.
Moor, A & Aakus, M, "It's the Conversation, Stupid!" Social Media Systems Design in J.E.
Lundström et al. (eds.), Managing Open Innovation Technologies, Springer, Berlin 2013.
ISBN 978-3-642-31649-4
In the third article Aldo de Moor and Mark Aakhus elaborate on the role of conversation for
successful open innovation. This highlights that social media in itself is a tool for collaboration,
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however, just providing access to social media and information systems is not sufficient for
successful communities and collaboration to emerge.
Cockerill, C. H. (2013). Exploring social media obstacles and opportunities within public
agencies: Lessons from the Ohio Division of Wildlife. International Journal of Business and
Social Science, 4(2)
The fourth article examines the implementation of using social media in the Ohio Division of
Wildlife to connect and interact with constituents. Concerns associated with the adoption of
social media applications within public agencies were found to be mostly unwarranted.
Huy, Q and Shipilov, A. The Key to Social Media Success Within Organizations, MIT
Sloan Management Review, 18 September 2012
The fifth article examines how the use of social media in the workplace can build emotional
capital. The researchers developed a theory about the relationship between emotional capital and
social media usage by using comparative case studies and tested this theory by a survey method.
Manyika, J, Chui, M, and Sarrazin H, Social Media's Productivity Payoff, Harvard
Business Review Blog Network, 21 August 2012
The sixth article refers to a blog about research undertaken by the McKinsey Global Institute that
has found that companies are beginning to discover that social technology platforms provide an
efficient way of communicating and collaborating. It also finds that productivity can only be
achieved if there is widespread participation in the new technology by employees. It emphasises
the role of leaders in the adoption of social media technology.
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Toolkit, Managing and Leveraging
Workplace Use of Social Media , 12 May 2012
The seventh article provides an overview of the use of social media by employers and their
employees. Topics include common business applications of social networking sites, employee
use of social media at work and potential risks of social media in the workplace. The article
covers the role of human resources, policy development, and emerging legal and regulatory
issues. The article does not cover marketing-related applications of social media.
APS Human Capital Matters: Social Media
Australian Government Department of Finance, Online Engagement Courses-Final
Report, 10 July 2013
In May and June 2013, the Australian Government Department of Finance ran some pilot
sessions of two online engagement courses for the Australian Public Service (APS), one focused
on individual public servants using social media, and one for agencies looking for how to use
social media strategically. Over 130 public servants from 30 agencies attended one or both of the
courses held over 5 days during May and June 2013. The Final Report of the courses has been
made available on the Finance website in the form of a blog. The department has made course
documentation available under Creative Commons License.
The documentation outlines basic principles for applying social media to a specific purpose.
These include:
1. Identify what you are trying to achieve
2. Identify what success looks like
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3. Identify who your audience is, where they are, how to reach them, and what they can
(broadly) contribute
4. Identify the best one-to-many tools for your community
5. Ensure you have a team with the right skills
6. Be as transparent and open as possible, even going so far as to say you are interested in
feedback to the process and how you can improve. People respond well to feeling
listened to
7. Put yourself in the shoes of a participant and make it as great an experience for them as
you possibly can
8. Ensure your outcomes are meaningful, that you recognise the contributions of individuals
(internal and external) and that you take an iterative approach to build upon the learning
as you go
9. Establish a strong presence over time.
Of interest, it highlights the twenty official government twitter accounts active as of July 2013
based on the number of followers. (Twitter is primarily used for public discussion.)
Top (by followers) APS Twitter Accounts (1 July 2013)
# Account
Followers
# Account
48,679
1 @Australia
11 @AusAid
17,668
2 @CSIROnews
12 @AboutTheHouse
17,481
3 @2011Census
13 @AusHumanRights
15,590
4 @dfat
14 @nlagovau
15,342
5 @RBAInfo
15 @ABSStats
15,088
6 @auscouncilarts
16 @ScreenAustralia
@TourismAus
15,059
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17 @HealthAgeingAU
14,250
8 @artsculturegov
18 @business_gov_au
13,820
9 @ato_gov_au
19 @AustralianArmy
12,715
10 @NatGalleryAus
20 @AuSenate
Followers
12,604
12,271
12,152
11,764
11,275
10,511
10,104
9,439
8,956
7,913
The Australian Government Department of Finance provides strategic advice, guidance and
service provision for the productive application of new and existing information and
communication technologies to government operations.
Contents
Wendling C, Radisch J and Jacobzone S (2013), “The Use of Social Media in Risk and
Crisis Communication”, OECD Working Papers on Public Governance, No. 25, OECD
Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5k3v01fskp9s-en
The objective of this report is to contribute to the identification of guiding principles for risk and
crisis communication, and in particular as regards to the uses of social media in emergency
services. It addresses risk and crisis communications, a core policy area for the OECD High
Level Risk Forum. It draws on the outcome of the discussions held at a workshop organized
jointly by the OECD and the International Risk Governance Council (IRGC), in Geneva
(Switzerland), on 29 June 2012 on the theme of ''Risk and crisis communication: the challenges
of social media''. This workshop gathered participants from 12 OECD countries, think tanks,
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academia, the private sector and international organizations to discuss the challenges that
emergency services and public relations managers confront in relation to the emergence of social
media.
The report highlights the changing landscape of risk and crisis communications and in particular
how social media can be a beneficial tool, but also how it can create challenges for crisis
managers. It proposes a framework for monitoring the development of practices among countries
in the use of social media for risk and crisis communications. The three step process spans
passive to dynamic use of social media, and provides governments with a self-assessment tool to
monitor and track progress in the uptake of effective use of social media by emergency services
or crisis managers.
The report concludes that the use of social media in risk and crisis communication remains in its
infancy. Tools are emerging to aggregate more and more data, so that meaning can be drawn
from the flow of information exchange via the Web 2.0 during a crisis. Crowd sourcing risk and
crisis relevant information from social media streams is a key area where technological
innovation can be valuable for emergency services and authorities in charge. An increasing
number of emergency officers, volunteer organisations, etc. are active online to enhance the
resilience of their communities when a disaster strikes. While social media has enabled informal
partnerships that enhance dialog capacity among various stakeholders, major challenges have
been identified. Emergency services must clearly state to their audience what they can expect to
receive through social media in terms of risk and crisis communication.
Moving towards greater government use of social media has implications, not only for external
communication, but also working practices and changes in organisational culture, and
organisational structure, etc. The use of social media can alter a user’s perception of lines
between persons, functions and institutions, and impart a false sense of access to each that raises
expectations. This needs to be taken into account when deciding to use social media in risk and
crisis communication, with a need for adapting practice to meet expectations that are reasonable
for the organisation to handle. Change management might be needed to develop its use.
Greater uptake of social media in risk and crisis communication is not only a strategic decision,
but also has to be done according to the means and resources available to an organisation.
Contents
Moor, A & Aakus, M, "It's the Conversation, Stupid!" Social Media Systems Design in J.E.
Lundström et al. (eds.), Managing Open Innovation Technologies, Springer, Berlin 2013.
ISBN 978-3-642-31649-4
Aldo de Moor and Mark Aakhus elaborate on the role of conversation for successful open
innovation. More specifically, they provide a framework based on linguistics and language
philosophy and use this to propose a social media tool system that could be used by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to improve their interaction with
stakeholders. However, they provide a useful set of advice for anybody aiming to approach the
social media space to engage with the crowd in product and service innovation.
The authors focus on the uses of social media to create networked synergies in/across
collaborative communities. They argue that conversations are the lifeblood of communities,
building the common ground of shared meanings, beliefs, interests, norms, goals, trust and social
capital. The authors contend that a fundamental challenge for open innovation lies in the
successful crafting of the social media systems supporting the community conversations.
Innovation communities (which are not limited to business interests but also include public and
civic organizations and communities) therefore need to continuously make sense of the
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conversation context of the tools they use. The chapter they have written provides a conceptual
lens with which to examine this socio-technical conversation context. It illustrates the use of this
lens with a scenario of open innovation in the societal stakeholder networks around climate
change research.
The authors make the observation that collaborative communities these days make use of an ever
growing palette of online tools: social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, Twitter,
wikis, blogs, and so on. However, typically the adoption of these tools happens ad hoc and
without much reflection. This results in undesired effects like collaborative fragmentation,
unclear responsibilities, and privacy. The authors propose a systematic systems design approach
that can help think through these issues systematically. The focus is on conversation, since this
defines and fosters communities.
Just providing access to social media and information systems is not sufficient for successful
communities and collaboration to emerge. Equally needed for collaborative communities, such
as open innovation communities, to become successful, is for them to continuously reflect in a
focused way on how to effectively match their collaborative needs with the functionalities to
which they have access – that is, how to craft conversation.
Aldo de Moor is owner of the Community Sense research consultancy company, founded in
2007. He earned his Ph.D. in Information Management from Tilburg University in the
Netherlands in 1999. From 1999 to 2004, he worked as an assistant professor at the Department
of Information Systems and Management at Tilburg University. From 2005 to 2006, he was a
senior researcher at the Semantics Technology and Applications Research Laboratory
(STARLab) of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium.
Mark Aakhus is Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers
University. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in Communication with an
emphasis in Management Information Systems and an MA from the Edward R. Murrow School
of Communication at Washington State University. He investigates the role of communication in
managing complex situations through close examination of language, argument and social
interaction in professional practice, organisational processes and information systems.
Contents
Cockerill, C. H. (2013). Exploring social media obstacles and opportunities within public
agencies: Lessons from the Ohio Division of Wildlife. International Journal of Business and
Social Science, 4(2)
The article argues barriers to the implementation of social media applications within the public
sector, thathave included the inability to keep up with changing technologies, lack of funds, lack
of human resources to manage such applications, and concerns about security threats connected
to information technology systems. However, as is the case with the Ohio Division of Wildlife
(DOW), for those agencies that have removed the barriers to adoption, the use of social media
applications has demonstrated real potential to connect and interact with constituents. Because
many state agencies provide public services, connecting with the public in a virtual one-on-one
basis is essential to understanding shifts and changes in public perception and public need. This
article presents a case example of a US state agency’s adoption of social media applications in an
effort to facilitate greater interaction among and between constituents.
In July of 2010, the DOW launched an initiative to engage social media technologies for the
purposes of enhancing customer service and facilitating media relations. Although much of the
early efforts of the Social Media Team (SMT) emphasized responding to public inquiries, the
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agency did report engaging in some advance content planning. Within the first six months of
social media implementation, the agency reported having to add support staff to the SMT in
order to respond to the increase in web-based queries. An intern and two “emergency” back-up
staff were given social media support responsibilities as needed.
With the added human resources, and prior to the one-year advent of social media adoption, the
DOW began to focus more on relationship and trust building within and among their social
media audience. The priority shifted from responding to the public to engaging with the public.
Pressure to add support staff to social media efforts forced the SMT to face questions from
agency administrators regarding the return on investment. In other words, administrators
questioned whether the gains (e.g. improved relationships, increased trust in the agency, and
enhanced customer reach) could be quantified.
Concerns associated with the adoption of social media applications within public agencies were
found to be mostly unwarranted. One year out from initial implementation of Facebook and
Twitter, the agency reported no security breaches or threats brought on through the use of social
media. With regard to whether the agency’s existing human and capital resources were sufficient
to handle the demands of social media management, the agency did identify several valid
concerns. The agency’s initial management approach involving two full-time employees already
working in other roles was not sufficient to handle the capacity of inquiries from both social
media applications. Ultimately, additional staff had to be assigned to the SMT to meet the human
resource demands of social media management.
Dr Corey Cockerill is an associate professor of communication arts at Wilmington College in
Wilmington, Ohio.
Contents
Huy, Q and Shipilov, A. The Key to Social Media Success Within Organizations, MIT
Sloan Management Review, 18 September 2012
Many organizations have started using social media (a.k.a. Enterprise 2.0) tools internally to
interact with their employees.
In 2010 the authors conducted a survey of 1,060 global executives. Only about 50% said that
their companies had adopted social media initiatives within their organizations; of those, about
60% reported that social media had positive effects on their company’s internal communications.
The researchers developed a theory about the relationship between emotional capital and social
media usage by using comparative case studies and tested this theory by a survey method. In the
case studies, they established causality by asking multiple respondents about the history of social
media deployment in their organizations, the evolving nature of emotional capital as a result of
social media deployment and the outcomes. The researchers argue that the results of this study
should be widely generalizable and are not likely to be biased by the focus on specific industry,
geographical region or company size.
The authors note that social media can help emotionally attuned executives see where their
company needs nurturing. It reduces the power distance and helps executives build and maintain
human bonds with a large group of employees more efficiently. It allows employees to identify
themselves more readily with an organization and can provide them with varied non-financial
rewards. Employees join communities to experience authenticity, pride, attachment and fun, and
social media tools can help executives build these pillars of emotional capital more effectively.
On the flip side, internal social media use can also relentlessly expose the shortcomings of a
company culture and sometimes even magnify them.
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The paper indicates that the reason social media tools work well within one company and are
ineffective in another can be seen both from the survey results and by looking at the experience
of two different companies—a technology company and the northern European branch of
Tupperware.
Executives whose social media initiatives had increased emotional capital for their company
reported that social media made it easier to communicate both across hierarchical levels (vertical
communication) and functional units (horizontal communication). However, companies where
social media had not increased emotional capital found that social media had little impact on the
ease of communication in the company and in some cases even aggravated existing problems.
The results of the survey suggested that the usage of social networking tools, such as internal
Facebook-type applications, could harm vertical and horizontal communication if used
unreflectively. When an organization introduced social networking that did not increase
emotional capital, ease of communication inside the company actually declined. Internal
communication improved only when organizations introduced social media tools that increased
emotional capital.
Quy Huy is an associate professor of strategy at INSEAD, Singapore. Andrew Shipilov is an
associate professor of strategy at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.
Contents
Manyika, J, Chui, M, and Sarrazin H, Social Media's Productivity Payoff, Harvard
Business Review Blog Network, 21 August 2012
Research by the McKinsey Global Institute has found that companies are beginning to discover
that social technology platforms provide an efficient way of communicating and collaborating.
The authors estimate that “interaction workers,” (managers, professionals, sales people, and
others whose work requires frequent interpersonal interactions, independent judgment, and
access to knowledge) spend 28% of their workdays answering, writing, or responding to email.
They also spend another 19% of the time trying to track down information (including searching
through their own e-mail files) and 14% collaborating with co-workers.
The authors suggest that these activities could potentially be done much more efficiently and
effectively using social technologies.
It is argued that to capture this value, companies will have to do a lot more than buy some
enterprise social technology. To get the improvement in knowledge worker productivity,
organizations need robust and widespread participation by all sorts of employees. Participation,
in turn, depends on having an environment of openness, information sharing, and trust. The
authors assert for this to happen, leaders must take the lead. Leaders will have to role model the
use of these technologies, explain how to use them to drive value, observe success stories and
help them to scale up to the rest of the enterprise. At the same time, these technologies are only
as effective as the degree to which individuals participate, so lessons from consumer social
applications can be applied in the enterprise.
James Manyika is the San Francisco based director of the McKinsey Global Institute, where
Michael Chui is a principal and senior fellow. Hugo Sarrazin is a Director in McKinsey's
Business Technology and Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Practice.
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Contents
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Toolkit, Managing and Leveraging
Workplace Use of Social Media , 12 May 2012
This article provides an overview of the use of social media by employers and their employees.
Topics include common business applications of social networking sites, employee use of social
media at work and potential risks of social media in the workplace. The article covers the role of
human resources, policy development, and emerging legal and regulatory issues. The article does
not cover marketing-related applications of social media.
This article discusses frequently used business applications for social media, including
recruiting, building employee engagement and communication, strategic real-time listening tools
for business intelligence, and expanding learning opportunities among employees. Another vital
application of social media by employers is as a knowledge-sharing platform, with employees at
all levels using blogs, microblogs (similar to Twitter), expert directories and communities of
practice. These tools and groups turn social media into collaborative tools to improve work
product and workflow.
SHRM argues that employees tend to feel more engaged in the workplace if they feel informed
and if they believe their opinions are heard. Social media can give employers a way to spread the
word as well as a way to channel employee comments.
Some organisations use a corporate Facebook page to communicate new programs or policies to
their employees. A key benefit is that employees can react to announcements immediately with
comments or questions. Other employers use a corporate blog or video sharing to keep
employees around the world engaged in regular meetings. Social media can be an excellent tool
for quickly disseminating information on the state of the organization and have everyone feel
involved, making them feel more connected and more a part of the organization and its mission.
Founded in 1948, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is the world’s largest
HR membership organisation devoted to human resource management. Representing more than
275,000 members in over 160 countries, the Society is the leading provider of resources to serve
the needs of HR professionals and advance the professional practice of human resource
management.
Contents
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