Tools for Online Engagementl
This is by no means the canonical list of available online engagement platforms and tools. There
are far too many niche and up-and-coming options to list. The social media space by its’ very
nature forever evolving. This document will give you a good idea of what is out there and
available for you to use.
This list is not an ‘authorised’ collection of platforms allowed to be used in the APS. Each
platform has inherent strengths and weakness and should be well understood before
committing APS resources. If you find a tool which you think is better ‘fit-for-purpose’ you
should build you business case around it.
If we’ve missed a tool that you think can add value to our Online Engagement, please let us
know and we will consider it for the next version of this document.
Online Engagement Platforms
Twitter
Type
Microblogging Service
Founded
March 2006
Alexa Rank
10
Users
200 Million
Strengths
Easy to use
Quick setup
Large potential audience
Geared towards one-to-many conversations
Myriad of third party monitoring and management tools available
Used widely throughout the APS
Weaknesses
Large noise to information ratio,
Can be hard to build a followership
Demographics
Estimated Demographics are on Quantcast
From Wikipedia
Twitter is an online social networking service and microblogging
service that enables its users to send and read text-based messages of
up to 140 characters, known as "tweets".
Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and by July, the
social networking site was launched. The service rapidly gained
worldwide popularity, with over 500 million registered users as of
2012, generating over 340 million tweets daily and handling over 1.6
billion search queries per day. Since its launch, Twitter has become
one of the ten most visited websites on the Internet, and has been
described as "the SMS of the Internet." Unregistered users can read
tweets, while registered users can post tweets through the website
Twitter
interface, SMS, or a range of apps for mobile devices.
Website
www.twitter.com
Facebook
Type
Social Network
Founded
2004
Alexa Rank
2
Users
1.11 Billion
Strengths
By far the largest social network
Used widely in APS for promoting graduate programs
Used very successfully by Queensland Police
Good sharing and broadcast tools
Weaknesses
Dependent on discovery
Platform is based on personal ‘social graph’ and connecting on a
professional level can be difficult
Continuity on account can be difficult due to Page management
structure
Demographics
Estimated Demographics are on Quantcast
From Wikipedia
Facebook is an online social networking service, whose name stems
from the colloquial name for the book given to students at the start of
the academic year by some university administrations in the United
States to help students get to know each other. It was founded in
February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and
fellow Harvard University students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew
McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. The website's
membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard students,
but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League,
and Stanford University. It gradually added support for students at
various other universities before opening to high school students, and
eventually to anyone aged 13 and over. Facebook now allows any
users who declare themselves to be at least 13 years old to become
registered users of the site.
Website
www.facebook.com
Reddit
Type
Discover, News Aggregator & Entertainment
Founded
June 2005
Alexa Rank
117
Users
43 Million
Strengths
Strong Discovery Culture
Lots of speciality and niche ‘subreddits’
Weaknesses
Anonymous nature of comments encourages trolling
Large amounts of inappropriate content
Very difficult to reach a large audience
Demographics
From Wikipedia
Estimated Demographics on Quantcast
Reddit, is a social news and entertainment website where registered
users submit content in the form of either a link or a text ("self") post.
Other users then vote the submission "up" or "down", which is used to
rank the post and determine its position on the site's pages and front
page. Reddit is based in San Francisco, California.
Reddit was founded by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian. It was
acquired by Condé Nast Publications in October 2006. In September
2011, Reddit was split from Condé Nast, and now operates as a
subsidiary of Condé Nast's parent company, Advance Publications
Website
www.reddit.com
Tumblr
Type
Microblogging & Sharing Service
Founded
February 2007
Alexa Rank
32
Users
As of April 13, 2013, Tumblr has over 102 million blogs.
Strengths
Young Audience
Strong sharing culture
Weaknesses
An overabundance of inappropriate content
Limited control over content
Reaching a large audience can be challenging
Demographics
Estimated Demographics on Quantcast
From Wikipedia
Tumblr, is a microblogging platform and social networking website,
owned and operated by Tumblr, Inc. The service allows users to post
Tumblr
multimedia and other content to a short-form blog. Users can follow
other users' blogs, as well as make their blogs private. Much of the
website's features are accessed from the "dashboard" interface, where
the option to post content and posts of followed blogs appear.
Website
www.tumblr.com
Pinterest
Type
Scrapbooking Service
Founded
March 2010
Alexa Rank
34
Users
[January 2012] 11.7 Million Uniques
Strengths
Strong Sharing Culture
Pinterest has a stated that they strive to keep their community
positive and respectful
Higher than internet average CTR (click through rate)
Weaknesses
Limited usefulness for Online Engagment for the APS
Demographics
Demographics on Pinterest
From Wikipedia
Pinterest is a pinboard-style photo-sharing website that allows users
to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events,
interests, and hobbies. Users can browse other pinboards for images,
're-pin' images to their own pinboards, or 'like' photos. The site was
founded by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra and Evan Sharp, the site is
managed by Cold Brew Labs and funded by a small group of
entrepreneurs and inventors
Website
www.pinterest.com
LinkedIn
Type
Professional Social Networking
Founded
2003
Alexa Rank
14
Users
225 Million
Strengths
Professional and mature audience
Professional nature of network discourages ‘trolling’ behaviour
Weaknesses
Premium options are not available for free
LinkedIn
Demographics
Estimated Demographics on Quantcast
From Wikipedia
LinkedIn is a social networking website for people in professional
occupations. Founded in December 2002 and launched on May 5,
2003,it is mainly used for professional networking. As of January
2013[update], LinkedIn reports more than 200 million acquired users
in more than 200 countries and territories.
The site is available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese,
Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Romanian, Russian, Turkish, Japanese,
Czech, Polish, Korean, Indonesian, and Malay.Quantcast reports
LinkedIn has 21.4 million monthly unique U.S. visitors and 47.6
million globally.In June 2011, LinkedIn had 33.9 million unique
visitors, up 63 percent from a year earlier and surpassing
MySpace.LinkedIn filed for an initial public offering in January 2011
and traded its first shares on May 19, 2011, under the NYSE symbol
"LNKD".
Website
www.linkedIn.com
Google+
Type
Social Network / Social Layer
Founded
2011
Alexa Rank
N/a
Users
500 Million (235Mn Active)
Strengths
Using circles it’s possible to compartmentalise personal &
professional under one account
Google+ is fully integrated into the full Google experience
Google ‘Hangout’ video conferencing
Data Liberation; Google give you the ability to save data
Weaknesses
Google+ users only spend a minimum amount of times looking at
Google+ Pages / Profiles (3.5 minutes monthly vs 7.5 hours on
Facebook).
Demographics
An infographic is available here
From Wikipedia
Google+ is a multilingual social networking and identity service
owned and operated by Google Inc. It is the second largest social
networking site in the world, having surpassed Twitter in January
2013.As of December 2012, it has a total of 500 million registered
users, of whom 235 million are active in a given month.Google has
described Google+ as a "social layer" that enhances many of its online
properties, unlike conventional social networks generally accessed
Google+
through a single website.
Website
plus.google.com
From Finance’s Online Services Branch
govdex
Type
Controlled collaboration platform
Cost
Free [at May, 2013]
Platforms
Online [based on Confluence]
Description
The govdex service provides an online communications platform that
supports an access controlled collaboration environment for
government agencies and their stakeholders. It is managed by the
Department of Finance and Deregulation (Finance).
Features
Secure: govdex is accredited to hold documents up to (and including)
the security classification level of UNCLASSIFIED with a
Dissemination Limiting Marker (DLM) of For-Official-Use-Only
(FOUO) or SENSITIVE.
Document and information sharing: documents and/or information
can be uploaded and shared in their original formats within the
community.
Collaborative authoring: community members can add, edit and
remove text within a document or provide feedback in a forum.
Project, task and issues tracker: keeps track of projects, tasks, and
issues.
Event planning: the calendar function enables key dates to be listed
with details of requirements, locations and contacts.
Update alerts: community members can opt to receive daily emails
providing summaries of any updates made to the community
Benefits
Quick: a govdex community can be provisioned for an agency within 5
working days of the receipt of a completed application.
Simple: templates and guides are available to help agencies customise
and utilise their communities.
Cost effective: communities are provided at no cost to the agency
Website
www.govdex.gov.au
govspace
Type
Blogging Platform
govspace
Cost
From $4,500 Per Annum [at May. 2013]
Platforms
Online [based on WordPress]
Description
The govspace online communications platform hosts public blogs and
websites on behalf of Australian Government agencies. The service is
managed by the Department of Finance and Deregulation (Finance).
The service was introduced in April 2010, and by March 2013, 38
agencies have taken advantage of the service publishing a total of 56
live blogs and websites on a wide range of issues from policy to
community engagement.
Examples of the use of govspace are available at
govspace.gov.au/directory.
Features
The govspace platform makes it easier for Australian Government
agencies to create blogs and websites, to enhance the ability for
individuals to contribute to government discussions and forums.
Govspace uses WordPress software and is housed on fast, reliable and
secure infrastructure.
By using govspace agencies are able to concentrate on content and
online engagement rather than infrastructure-related issues.
Agencies can use govspace to establish their own ‘space’ to host a
blog, website or combine the features of both, for example a website
with commenting functionality.
Benefits
Quick: a streamlined engagement process means a govspace site can
be provisioned for an agency within five days of the receipt of a
completed MOU.
Simple: themes, templates and guides are available to help agencies
customise and utilise their space.
Cost effective: Engagement capability using a .govspace.gov.au
domain is provided from $4,500 per annum.
Website
www.govspace.gov.au
Social Media Management Tools
Tweetdeck
Type
Twitter Management Dashboard
Cost
Free
Platforms
Online & Desktop Versions
Description
For twitter power users, allowing you to more effectively monitor and
interact with twitter.
Tweetdeck
Using a column layout to relay tweets in real-time. Based on different
parameters including keywords, hashtags or lists a user can
effectively monitor multiple information streams concurrently.
Features
Ability to schedule tweets
View and control multiple accounts
Monitor multiple keywords and lists in real time
Unified login across multiple platforms
Benefits
The cross platform nature of the platform makes it very handy for use
‘on-the-go’ and the unified login allows you to have your setup
accessible from any computer or most internet enabled devices.
Ability to track keywords or set up lists allows you to easily monitor
everything from specific keywords (or hashtags) to the people in your
organisation.
Scheduling tweets gives you the ability to better co-ordinate the
release of information across multiple sources.
Free of charge it’s one of the most powerful apps available in this
category.
Website
www.tweetdeck.com
Hootsuite
Type
Social Media Dashboard
Cost
Free [Basic Service], Pro [~12$ a Month], Enterprise [Costs vary]
Platforms
Online / Mobile Platforms [iPhone, Android & iPad]
Description [From
Wikipedia]
HootSuite is a social media management system for brand
management created by Ryan Holmes in 2008. The system’s user
interface takes the form of a dashboard, and supports social network
integrations for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Foursquare,
MySpace, WordPress and Mixi.
Additional integrations are available via HootSuite’s App Directory,
including Instagram, MailChimp, Reddit, Storify, Tumblr, Vimeo and
YouTube.
Features
Control Multiple Social Networks
Ability to create custom reports and analytics
Ability to create teams to manage your online presence
HootSuite has a lot of features to recommend it which are based
described on their website [hootsuite.com/features] and for
Enterprise [enterprise.hootsuite.com/features].
Benefits
Hootsuite is a very comprehensive dashboard for Social Media
Hootsuite
engagement. At an enterprise level the tool it can be to manage
conversation across multiple platforms, team members and locations.
You can find a list of HootSuite case studies on their website at
blog.hootsuite.com/category/resources/case-study-resources/
Website
www.hootsuite.com | enterprise.hootsuite.com
Other Social Media Management Tools
 Crowd Booster
Analytics Tools
Google Analytics
Cost
Free [Basic Service]
Platforms
Online
Description [From
Wikipedia]
Google Analytics is a service offered by Google that generates detailed
statistics about a website's traffic and traffic sources and measures
conversions and sales. The product is aimed at marketers as opposed
to webmasters and technologists from which the industry of web
analytics originally grew. It is the most widely used website statistics
service.
The basic service is free of charge and a premium version is available
for a fee.
GA can track visitors from all referrers, including search engines and
social networks, direct visits and referring sites. It also displays
advertising, pay-per-click networks, email marketing and digital
collateral such as links within PDF documents.
Website
www.google.com/analytics
Analysis Tools
ESA
Type
For early detection and monitoring of emergency situations discussed on
Twitter
Cost
Membership of the CSIRO Adopters group is $40,000 for 12
monthshttp://www.csiro.au/Outcomes/ICT-and-Services/Adopters-GroupSocial-Media/Adopters-Group-Details.aspx - For details speak with Ronald
Jones, 02 6216 7089, ron.jones@csiro.au
ESA
Platforms
Web based
Description
Our Emergency Situation Awareness (ESA) software detects unusual
behaviour in the Twitter stream and quickly alerts the user when an event is
being mentioned on Twitter. ESA also stores tweets and allows post-event
analyses.
The potential applications of social media information for disaster managers
include providing:
Features
Benefits
Website

evidence of pre-incident activity

near real-time notice of an incident occurring

first-hand reports of incident impacts

gauging community response to an emergency warning

detect unexpected or unusual incidents, possibly ahead of other
communications

condense and summarise messages about an incident maintaining
awareness of aggregated content without having to read individual
messages

classify and review high-value messages during an incident (e.g.
messages describing infrastructure damage or cries for help);
understand the impact of an incident on people and infrastructure

identify, track, and manage issues within an incident as they arise,
develop, and conclude; pro-actively identify and manage issues that
may last for hours, days or weeks

perform analysis of incidents by exploring social media content from
before, during, and after an incident.

Timely situation awareness for disaster managers and emergency response
agencies

Information is location specific and unusual activity above background levels
is detected

Customer support through adopters group
http://www.csiro.au/Outcomes/ICT-and-Services/emergency-situationawareness.aspx
Vizie
Type
For customer engagement and monitoring of discussions relating to key
words of your choice
Cost
Membership of the CSIRO Adopters group is $40,000 for 12
monthshttp://www.csiro.au/Outcomes/ICT-and-Services/Adopters-GroupSocial-Media/Adopters-Group-Details.aspx - For details speak with Ronald
Jones, 02 6216 7089, ron.jones@csiro.au
Vizie
Platforms
Web based
Description
The software, based on CSIRO research in natural language processing
analyses content from online platforms grouping the content in issues or
discussion topics.
Vizie sorts the social media posts, which helps identify 'hot topics' which are
being discussed more often at a particular time.
Features

Visual interface: A river graph represents the retrieved posts in a simple
overview so that staff can instantly see the 'hot topics' and how they are
changing over time.

Tracking back to original posts: It also allows them to isolate the original
post in order to discover its context.

Reporting: Vizie allows staff to prioritise posts, identifying which posts most
need follow up comments to prevent the spread of misinformation.
Benefits
High level, structured overview of online discussions, supporting teams to
monitor social media for an organisation. Move quickly between overview to
individual messages to engage effectively.
Website
http://www.csiro.au/Outcomes/ICT-and-Services/Social-mediamonitoring.aspx
Other Analysis Tools
 Palantir [www.palantir.com]

Social Flow [www.socialflow.com]

Leximancer [www.leximancer.com]
Miscellaneous Tools
Old Reader
Type
RSS Reader [What is RSS?]
Cost
Free
Platforms
Online
Description
The Old Reader is an online RSS aggregator which allows you to read
collected ‘feeds’ from several website (or any RSS sources such as
comments) in one location. It utilises much of the functionality and
feel of the original Google Reader.
The strength of collecting RSS feeds in one location is the ability to
essentially create a stream of news specifically of interest to you by
selectively aggregating sources.
Old Reader
Website
www.theoldreader.com
Survey Monkey
Type
Survey Manager
Cost
Free, Select [$228 per annum], Gold [$300 per annum], Platinum
[$780 per annum] as at 14 May 2013
Platforms
Online
Description
On online survey tool which allows you to quickly create and publish
surveys.
Website
www.surveymonkey.com
MailChimp
Type
Newsletter List Manager
Cost
mailchimp.com/pricing
Platforms
Online
Description
Mailchimp is a mailing list manager, providing a platform to help
create, manage and send your email campaigns. It also allows you to
track your email rates and provides reports on how well the campaign
did.
Website
www.mailchimp.com