However, the first comment here was from LouLouK at Blackburn & Darwen Council, just up the road from me, who pointed out that some councils have got it right.

I need to be clear that a lot of good work is going on and that, especially in these times, it can be really hard to get people motivated to try things.  Where this stuff is going on, it needs to be shared.  Maybe it is being, and I’m out the loop.  When you’ve read my post, stick to my action plan….or just skip past it and read LouLou’s comments….what they are doing there seems to be better than any action plan I can produce!

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It’s getting cold out there.

I don’t know who reads this blog in terms of location. I’d like to think we have a readership in exotic places like Hawaii, California and Walton-on-the-Naze. Those people may well not be aware that we’re approaching winter and have snow heading our way, apparently before the end of the week. If or when the snow does come, we’ll inevitably ignore the fact that this happens every year and, in a wild panic, close the schools, shut down the shops and make worried calls about whether we should attempt the journey into work.

Last year, this joke wasn’t even as unfunny as it is now. A heavy covering all over the country left everyone frozen to the spot and local government, schools, colleges, public transport and every other public body scrambled to find the resources to cope. In the mess, everyone realised there was a lot to gain from social media in a crisis and many of the commentators had got it right in predicting this.

In the wake of snow, there was much reflection. Some great examples of the use of technology emerged, some lessons in how not to use technology were learned. Alastair Smith, then a comms man at Newcastle Council, ran a workshop about this at last years UKGOVCAMP and I followed that up with another at LocalGovCamp YH. The details were compiled in my “Told you Snow” post.

So, as the snow approaches again, it’s interesting to see more people on board than last year. Just the other day, Leeds City Council announced that they would be running a feed similar to Kirklees Councils’ “Kirklees Winter” feed (dubbed The Gritter Twitter), giving out information about the closures. It’s fantastic that more councils are looking to social media now and they are right to do so; I certainly use Twitter and Facebook more than ever in emergency situations, and we’ve seen some great examples of Twitter’s use in crisis since then.

What’s disappointing, though, is that many of the lessons have not been taken on board. Again, Twitter is being used like an RSS Reader to roll out news releases that could be on a website.

In many council approaches, the conversations element, where people can ask questions and get responses via twitter extremely quickly is missing. Isolated, cold, damp and fed up people don’t need to know details about every school closure.  They do need cheering up.  A bit of conversation, when time allows, is as valuable as those road closed details.

The strategy for incorporating information into general twitter feeds and facebook pages is missing. This is particularly worrying if an inexperienced person has to update all the social media because management can’t get in.

The social media mashup element, where tweets can be placed on a google map to chart disruption hasn’t materialised. The lessons about wider access to open / mobile working to prepare staff for working from home have, amazingly in a time of austerity, been ignored.

There were some great Twitter stories last time. Newcastle Council’s Twitter worked with Sky News while Sarah Lay got Derbyshire Council working with volunteer 4×4 drivers through social networking. Part of the reason this worked was because, rather than inventing their own hashtags, they used existing conventions like #uksnow. It wasn’t just social media either. A huge percentage of people accessing school closure information did so using games consoles or television compatible browsers…how many councils test their web space with those?

It seems that, as the cold returns, councils are just rolling out the Twitter gritter with the traditional ones and no one is listening to the innovators who tried this last time round. So, what should local authorities do?

• Look at whether they need a separate Twitter feed for the winter or whether their existing feed with a hashtag can cover the job
• Find out existing hashtags and conventions for Twitter (so for snow use #uksnow followed by a postcode followed by any information or a number out of ten to rate severity of snow fall eg. #uksnow bd22 Hebden Road closed or #uksnow bd22 9/10
• Put together a communications plan.  Ensure that the social network tools are accessible from the office and from home, that people know the passwords, how to use them and conventions for using them
• Make sure that as fewer updates as possible are needed.  For example, updating a page with an RSS feed can automatically update twitter (using something like HootSuite), a facebook page and a website at the same time.
• Check that your website updates don’t rely on flash, java or other technicalities that could make it unusable from some smart phones and games consoles.  If it has to rely on these, make sure there’s a link to something that doesn’t
• Think big – this isn’t just a tool for you to roll out news releases, it’s a tool for people to report things to you, for people who’re stuck to talk to you, for the media to keep in touch with what you’re doing.  The feed isn’t just about you locally, it could be used nationally to paint the picture
• Use the right hashtags on Twitter.  Use you own by all means, but make sure you use the nationally trending ones, so that others can pick up on your feeds
• Have a plan – if you need to rope in emergency services, volunteers, community wardens etc, can you get information from them onto social media quickly?  How?  Maybe they have their own feeds you can re-tweet or share on facebook.  If not, is there a comms number/email accessible outside the office to keep the information up to date.
• Above all, make sure if you start this, you finish it.  There’s nothing worse than a twitter feed that shuts down at five when the snow starts at 4.  Make sure you don’t use the feed one day and not the next.  If using separate feeds, don’t neglect your original feeds. Have plans in place for how to do this.

With the right thought processes, another snow crisis could mean some real innovation in local authorities….I just hope it’s not a snowman that melts with the thaw, but one that stays with local government for a while, because, let’s be honest, it’s getting cold out there.

Part of my dislike for this is born from the fact that I love that social networking gives us the chance to share real things with real people and these “social games” seem to trivialise so much of that. Maybe I take life a bit too seriously.

So, when I first saw FourSquare I dismissed it as a game. The network involved gaining points, claiming prizes…it all sounded a bit trivial to me. However, I noticed more and more people using it. Suddenly it seemed like I was the only social media geek not on it, so I thought I’d better give it a try.  What’s more it’s soaring in popularity.  According to the founders, it had 175,000 users last December and, say the LA Times, it has just under 1million users as of last month.  That’s growth on a curve that’s close to the one Twitter had in its early days and only a few 100,000 less (that’s just a drop in the ocean) than facebook had back in the day.

FourSquare is a social game and geo-located service for mobile devices.   When you go somewhere, you use your phone to pinpoint your location and a list of nearby places, such as the park, are shown. You can then “check in” to these places. Once there you can add tips about the places for your other friends (or the wider public) to see. If you go to one place more than anyone else (and at least five times) you become “the mayor” of that location. You collect points for the distances you travel, the new places you add, etc and get trophies. So, how is this different from farmville?

Well, firstly it’s about real places. The next addition is that you can “shout” from locations (basically, tweet, about what you’re doing) which is handy if your friends are there as well and you want to meet up. Thirdly, FourSquare tell us, businesses such as cafés are starting to offer “mayor deals” where to mayor of their café gets a discount.

So, armed with my iPhone and new FourSquare app, I started checking in everywhere I went.  I noticed that many businesses, such as local cinemas, had a presence on there already.  Councils, meanwhile, had none.  I’m not suggesting that people would want to check in with their council.  But they might at their libraries, sports centres, community venues and theatres.  Many of these venues have already been added on FourSquare – but without the council having any kind of control, branding or any other association with it.   They are missing a trick.

Maybe it’s not suprising that council’s aren’t looking at social games like FourSquare.  After all, many are still struggling with Facebook and Twitter.  However, we can see from social games popularity that they are here to stay and the popular ones may well become the household names that facebook and twitter have become.

What this teaches us is that social media strategies need to be built to change.  In 2006, I’d have told you the we needed MySpace strategies.  a few years later we were talking about Facebook, Twitter and social bookmarking.  Just a few months ago, I would have dissmissed social games as being just that  – games that had no community benefit.  Today, maybe we should be thinking about their impact however, along with geo-located services and augmented reality.

In summary, strategists need to be looking beyond the individual tools and looking at the wider vision – how can local authorities keep on top of social media practice and react to new apps and programmes. Are these kind of applications the next big thing for people….or really, are they all just a trivial game?

1. Everyone can see everything.  These people are often so paranoid they don’t use it for work at all or seriously under utilise it
2. No one can see anything.  These people are naive at best and often end up putting something on they shouldn’t

So the first question, really, has to be – who can see what?

Well, in the old days it was very different.  But, since facebook brought in privacy settings, the answer is entirely up to you.  So, I’ll deal with the defaults, then I’ll look at how you change them.

• NETWORKS:  If you join a network (eg Leeds or University of Wolverhampton) everyone else who is on these networks can see large chunks of your profile by default.  Even after you have set privacy settings, any new item you set privacy for will, by default, be available to your networks.
• PHOTOS:  Only your friends and networks can see photos you can upload.  However, if a photo is tagged of you, even if you don’t tag it, your friends will automatically be able to see it and will be informed you’ve been tagged in their feeds.  You can remove the tag and, at that time, your friends can no longer see it.  However, if they have already seen it and saved it, obviously, the damage may be done
• PROFILE PHOTO:  Everyone will be able to see a thumbnail of your profile pic
• STATUS:  All your friends and networks will be able to see this
• PROFILE:  Your networks and friends can see everything you put in your profile.  This includes any pages you are a fan of and groups you are members of.  So, if you join “I vote Nazi” they can all see that!
• FRIENDS:  Anyone at all will be able to see your list of friends.  The only people they will not see are people who have fully hidden their profile.
• SEARCH:  Anyone who searches for your name will find your profile, though they will only be able to see your list of friends.  This “Public Search” will also appear if someone Googles your name
• MESSAGES:  If someone sends you a message and you reply they can see a limited amount of your profile, including your status, for two weeks
• CHAT (using the live chat box at the bottom of the page) This is private between you and the other person chatting
• WALL Vs MESSAGE:  Messages are best posted by clicking INBOX at the top. These are confidential (but can open privacy loopholes, see ‘messages’ above) Clicking on a persons page and sending a message may mean you posdt to their wall.  This is open.  You can restrict who can see YOUR wall but not who can see your posts on friends walls.
• APPLICATIONS:  Many applications post things regardless.  Be aware of SuperWall and FunWall which initially seem fun but are often used to send messages that may not look professional.  Feel free to not add/block these applications.

To change who can see what, you first need to group your friends.  This is where the search in part 1 comes in.  Go to your main facebook page (by clicking on the facebook logo NB:  This is NOT your profile page) and click FRIENDS at the top and ALL FRIENDS.  On the left hand side you will see “FRIENDS LIST” and below that “MAKE NEW LIST”.  Make these lists and add your friends to appropriate groups.

Next, go back to the main facebook page (click on the logo again) and click on SETTINGS at the top right (see picture) and select PRIVACY.  Now, you can work your way through various options, switching off networks and, by clicking on CUSTOMISE selecting the only people you DO or DO NOT want to see this, by individuals or group.

A more comprehensive guide to privacy settings is found here.

There are still some things to consider:

• PHOTOS:  Even if you remove a tag and have set up your priovacy so peopel don’t know that you’ve been tagged, if friends of yours are also friends with the person who uploaded the photos, they can still see it.  There is nothign you can do about this.
• PUBLIC SEARCH:  It’s very tempting to remove yourself from search engines.  However, facebook is a social network.  if no one can see you, or add you, is there much point really?
• There are a few do’s and don’ts to think about.  The first one, whether you use it for work or not, is what you say about work.  People have lost their jobs for slagging off work online.  And why not?  It’s easy to say you have the right to do so in private.  However, if your boss can find it, it’s not really private.
• Don’t join groups that could be a conflict of interest with your work.

I said in part one that this wasn’t about using facebook AT work but FOR work.  However, if you’ve been told you can’t use it AT work but are, be aware of the time stamp on wall postings and status changes.  Can you justify them?

Remember to stick to your rules.  For example, you may add colleagues but not customers.  You may had managers but not staff you manage.  You may add everyone, and filter.  Whatever you do, be aware that, if you like the wrong button or forget to tweek a privacy setting, it could all become public very very quickly.   If you’ve got to do things you don’t want work seeing – stick to things like private messages etc – or use a different network.

There’s more tips on “How to use facebook and not loose your job” here.

So, that’s the scare tactics out the way.  Next, it’s time to look at the positives.  Why would you use this for work, how would you build a work network and, more importantly, what would you do with it?

That’s all Part 3, Coming Soon……

The most definite way to separate work and play on facebook is to have two profiles.  I know people who do this.  They have their work profile, with their work friends and their social profile with their old and new friends.  Initially, this seems like a great idea…but there are drawbacks.

1. Social Networking is concept that crosses boundaries.  Most of us socialise, at least to a point, with the people we work with and sometimes the people we have worked with in the past.  Anyone who works in a role that requires networking will also know that you don’t entirely switch off when you’re socialising.  If someone says they work in your field, you’re quickly getting their number.  So, which category to these people go into?  Work profile?  Social Profile?  Both?  There are times when you might even want this cross-over
2. It’s pretty likely that, unless all your work and social contacts never ever meet, your two profiles would collide.  For example, you get married and invite some colleagues.  They tag you in a photo under one profile (see part 2) and your friends in another.  The two both become viable and someone adds the “wrong” you.
3. Logging In – It’s hard enough to remember you passwords and emails for the accounts you do have – imagine remembering what account you’re logged in as as well.  It would be very easy to be logged in as personal and add a work contact and vise versa.

It’s worth noting that, if you have added anyone who is senior to you, anyone who has been into your shop, or someone who was your service user you’ve already crossed the line into using facebook for work.  So play it safe and think the whole thing through.

Assuming you d0n’t have two profiles, these are the stages I think for planning to make use of facebook professionally:

1. Think about how you are going to use your profile professionally.  Are you going to use it to network, or are you going to add customers / service users too?  Make your rules and stick with them.
2. Decide on some categories, which will later be used for setting privacy levels.  Would you, for example, want colleagues to be able to see some things that wider work colleagues could not?  For each setting, you will need to be able to group people.  Bare in mind that your needs may change.  For example, you may not have an issue with your boss seeing your whole facebook page…but what if things change?  You could create a new category then, but it’s probably easier to have the categories set up from the start.  I currently have 17 different categories on my facebook.
3. Check with your work about a social networking policy.  If they don’t have one,  do not assume you’re OK.  If they have one, read it and learn it.  If you think it’s unfair, bring it up with your manager, but don’t flout it.  If there is no policy try and get your manager to draw up some clear, written, guidance about social networking.  At least that way you know where you stand.  If you don’t, you run the risk that some other clause in your contract, normally one about disrepute, may be used against you.
4. Don’t assume that, because it is in your own time, your work do not have a right to say what happens.  You are interacting with colleagues, customers and potential customers in a very public way.  If you declared your work was boring on the shop floor you would be disciplined.  The same is true on facebook.  You can prevent certain people from seeing certain things (see part 2) but if it is findable through a way you’ve not thought of and it is found, expect consequences.  This story is a good example.
5. Look at your role and think about conflicts of interest.  Go through any groups, pages and anything else that could associate you with topics of people you don’t want to be associated with.  For example, if you work in local government, groups criticizing the council might not be a good idea, along with political groups.

After that bout of paranoia, it’s time to move onto setting the privacy control to make sure the right people see the right things.  That’s Part 2….coming soon.

When I started using facebook nearly three years ago, I had no idea I’d ever use it for work. However, I’ve found more and more use for it both socially AND professionally and, it’s fair to say, the two are not always mutually exclusive.  I now use facebook both as a social and a professional tool.  The groups I access are mainly work,  my time on facebook is fairly evenly split and almost exactly 25% of my 325 “friends” are work related.  I’ve used facebook to meet new work contacts, establish new professional relationships and keep abreast of the latest news and good practice.

I also spend a fair amount of time ensuring my professional and personal presence on facebook don’t run into conflict.   So, I thought I’d write a blog with some instructions on why and how to use facebook for work and some of the dangers involved in this. The resulting posts will then be published on my site as a downloadable file, along with any comments that come up along the way.

It should be noted that this guide will shos the use of facebook FOR work, not the issue of using facebook AT work.  While we’ll look at the issue of separating personal and professional content and not doing your personal contact at work, you might well find that your organisation doesn’t see a need for you to use the web socially at work.

Personally, I think that organisations with appropriate systems should let you, during your breaks (ie outside paid work time), access websites that are not against company interests and do not cost them additionally for you to access, as I think they should let you use telephones at your own expense.

However, there are many reasons both good and bad why many places of work don’t and, not being an expert on employment law and rights, it’s a minefield I don’t want to get into.  Increasingly, workplaces are seeing a key need for a professional use of social networking and are allowing those who make a business case for its use use it.  If you think you can do this, go for it!

Even if you can’t use it at all at work or from a mobile device, you may well still,  in your own time, till use facebook as a professional tool and there are things you may need to know and think about.

Finally, please note that I’m writing this about facebook because that’s the tool I use.  There are other social networks and Web2.0 tools that some of these rules apply to and others that they don’t.

Cue “working with facebook”

Part 1 – Mix’n'Match – Separating Professional & Personal

Part 2 – Privacy Issues – Who can see what and what’s not to see

Part 3 – Who you know – Building a facebook professional network

Sadly, neither of the stories looked at facebook and innovation from the point of view of adults.  It’s generally accepted that young people should be contacted through social networking (65% of councils agree, according to the MJ article) but I wonder how that would change if it was looked at from an older persons perspective?

Steve Dale looked at this during an IDeA presentation recently (I wasn’t there, I just read the blogs and slides), citing Ofcom statistics that even in the ‘over 65′ catagory, 3% of people have a social network profile.  In America, facebook recently released statistics showing that, while 52% of facebook users are in the 18-25 catagory, only 15% are under 18.

My own facebook network backs this up.  Using the wonderful socialistics application, I can see that, while unrepresentative of society as a whole, of my 261 friends, only 9% are 18 or under and 18% are over 40.  As websites like Forces Reunited become more social, maybe we can expect these figures to rise.  Certainly, as the 50+ year olds become the 60+ year olds, the next decade will see social network statistics soar amoung older people.

That’s why I was drpessed to see that only 33% of councils have actually tried contacting young people using social networks.  Indeed, my local authority colleagues report that facebook is dismissed at best and blocked at worse.  If  we’re missing out on this obvious community, we’re certainly missing the failed to reach groups.