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New Zealand: Social Media - Impact on Government and Business
IMPACT ON GOVERNMENT
(Adapted from http://www.e.govt.nz/resources/research/progress/agency-initiatives/chapter6.html)
New Zealand government agencies are recognising that the social and community dimension of social media tools enhances their ability to involve and engage people more directly. Social media tools enable people to participate in proposing and shaping policies and laws, and to reach different and broader constituencies. They also allow people to provide feedback on programmes and services, and in some instances influence service design. In addition, some tools allow people to collaboratively and freely tag content on webpages, creating new associations and ways to navigate government information that are more user-centric than anything government itself could design.
Hence, there is much interest and enthusiasm within many agencies to begin to make use of these social networking tools. Some have tested them in short-term pilots; others have used them continuously for as long as a couple of years.
Nevertheless, agencies' experiences with Web 2.0 are still relatively new, and many agencies have yet to use these tools at all. Some initiatives appear to provide an additional channel for consultation that is otherwise similar to paper-based channels. However, most reflect new dynamics, providing entirely new ways for agencies to engage with people.
These new ways of engagement has several implications for both agencies and citizens.
Implications for Agencies
Knowledge Management and Archiving
In future, government staff might use external social networking tools such as MySpace to discuss work-related issues or collaborate on policy development. In such instances, vital information could slip away from agency control, reducing the institutional knowledge base and potential for the reuse of information. Agencies' use of third-party sites (such as FaceBook, Flickr or YouTube) to engage with the public raises questions about the status of uploaded information, such as whether it comes under the jurisdiction of the Public Records Act, and whether (and how) such information should be managed and archived within New Zealand.
Some agencies are also using social networking tools for internal purposes. Wikis or blogs have been established to improve collaboration between parts of an agency (that may or may not be geographically dispersed). Often these are being tried as an alternative to email, which can be less effective in tracking a particular line of discussion amongst a large group of people over an extended period of time. Furthermore, many people find it difficult to manage the daily volume and variety of email, and having a dedicated tool for discussion on particular topics is a sensible segmentation of this activity. It also makes it easier for an agency to archive a collaborative, online piece of work, or to share the collaborative history of a project with new staff. Other agencies are using wikis or blogs internally as an experimental stepping stone towards future public engagement on policy making or programme development. This develops in-house experience and provides important lessons on resourcing, risk management, and other practical issues.One such example is the E-Initiative Wiki, an online library of ICT projects across government, set up by the State Services Commission, to allow those working on similar projects to share information and experience. As one of the first wikis to be piloted in government, the E initiatives Wiki has yielded valuable lessons on the use of wikis in the public sector context.
Communications Strategy
Agencies' early Web 2.0 endeavours may or may not have been planned as part of their organisation's overall communications strategy, but strategic planning for Web 2.0 initiatives is expected to become increasingly important in the future. When setting up a public-facing wiki or blog, agencies will need to consider how it fits with other communications channels and activities, how to engage most effectively with bloggers and other social media users (e.g., on other sites covering similar issues), the extent to which user engagement will drive service delivery and planning (and how this should be communicated to participants), branding, application of the Code of Conduct, and legal matters such as terms and conditions. As agencies begin to participate in third-party sites, or consider setting up places in virtual worlds (such as Second Life), they may need to establish virtual government strategies that define how they will engage in a variety of virtual communities, ranging from internal communities to external communities where they reach out to the public.
Quality of, and accountability for, information Agencies will need to consider how to maintain the quality of government information when it is delivered by non-government organisations. As government moves from electronic service delivery to administering mashable Web services, non-government organisations might mix government information with content from other sources on their own web applications. Agencies will need to consider the boundaries of their responsibility and accountability for information they provide. Furthermore, increasingly, agencies might present information sourced from outside government on their own sites; this will raise questions about the extent to which government is responsible for the quality of that information, and whether it is important for the user to be able to differentiate between government and non-government sources of information.
Better Engagement
By using these tools, agencies are expected to be able to increasingly tap into wider pools of expertise, while broadening and deepening the nature of stakeholder involvement. It is likely that consultation and engagement processes will be able to be undertaken more quickly – over weeks rather than months – while contributions will be received from many more individuals and grassroots community groups, rather than only from well-resourced organisations and lobbyists. For example, the Families Commission has started The Couch, a forum which enables them to receive New Zealanders' views on issues relating to families. Information is used to support advocacy, service improvement, and policy advice, and to identify trends useful for policy research. It also seeks to create community among participants through the sharing of experiences.Resources
Web 2.0 technologies are challenging agencies to apply appropriate expertise to the deployment and management of these new tools. To ensure that their information is discoverable by anyone who may wish to use it (such as through mashups), agencies will need to develop policy and apply a new model to the creation, sharing, pricing, and publication of government-held information. This will require management skills for reinventing business processes, and technical nous to make content available for mobile devices, for example. As agencies make increasing use of wikis and blogs, they will find that the resources required to moderate social media sites 24 hours a day can be significant.
Implications for Users
Benefits
Government use of social networking tools is expected to enable people to participate more easily in government policy making and service delivery planning in a manner that best suits them. If such processes are made clear and transparent, people might more readily see the results of their participation, and more might participate than would otherwise be inclined to engage with government.
Such tools might also enable people to learn from and contribute to the wider community's engagement with government, with positive, synergistic effect. People might feel a greater sense of ownership and vested interest in their community and government.
Changing Behaviour and Expectations
User behaviours and expectations are being shaped by their experiences – as customers of businesses and online organisations, and with virtual communities and social networks. As government begins to use the same Web 2.0 tools that are being used by others, members of the public are likely to demand similar (or perhaps even greater) user-driven services, and have high expectations about their influence over the manner and timeliness of their exchanges with government. That agencies have already taken the initiative to go where their users are – to MySpace, Facebook and similar communities – might herald an increasingly important approach to government service delivery.
Transparency and trust
Such initiatives illustrate the wide range of approaches agencies are using to inform users whether the service being provided is a government service – and this might have implications for people's trust in government. A user will not perceive consistency across government via websites with inconsistent domain names, government branding, or explanations of agency responsibility for information provided. Furthermore, they will not always be able to tell readily whether a government service or information is being provided directly by government or through an intermediary. It is unclear at present what effect this might be having on people's confidence in the reliability of the information they are receiving, and on their trust in government.
As the edges of government become increasingly blurred – through nearly seamless linkages between sites, or mashups that make use of authoritative government data on third-party sites – it is likely to become increasingly difficult to define whether a particular service is being provided by government.
IMPACT ON BUSINESS
Brand Building
Given the dominance of internet and even social media in many New Zealanders’ lives today, a company’s brand is very much determined by the related search results on the Internet. This is further supported by our earlier findings on the social media trends that New Zealanders places great importance on the information available online, and especially for customer-centric business, the information on the social media platforms are also increasingly relevant. Well, social media platforms such as blogs, Twitter and Facebook allow customers to share their respective brand experience online and this word-of-mouth influence has immense power in shaping a brand reputation. With that, businesses need to look beyond its traditional corporate communications and marketing channels such as press releases or print advertisements, and start to build a holistic online presence and leverage on the advantages of social media. For instance, social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Bebo allow companies to connect with their customers, build brand relationships and even speak directly to their target market.
At the same time, by promoting the company’s image and values to the public and giving customers the opportunity to post comments about the brand, it will in turn help to build brand equity for companies. The customer testimonials are highly valuable as customers tend to listen to word-of-mouth advertising over paid promotional advertising any day. On the other hand, companies would also need to regularly monitor and listen to what the customers have to say and also learn to manage potential negative feedback.
Due to its low cost involvement, the concept of branding using social media platforms is especially viable and valuable for small businesses such as Giapo, a gelato shop in Auckland which is also one of the business case studies.
New Talent Recruitment
As reported earlier in the social media trends, membership in social networking sites is strongly age-graded, with over 80% of people under the age of 30 being part of the social network. With that, businesses are beginning to reach out to the pool of young talents, especially the fresh graduates, through the social media. Being extremely tech-savvy, this pool of talents often gathers information relating to the company’s corporate culture, career opportunities and even employees’ feedback before they consider applying for the company. Moreover, they are looking out for companies who are keen to connect with their employees. That said, fans on Air New Zealand on Bebo have also been seen to inquire about their career opportunities in general – with a few getting quite specific about comparing several prospective employers in the same industry.
Additionally, the extensive professional network on LinkedIn not only enables the company to build its corporate brand online, but also provides the human resource department in the company with another source to look out for suitable employees.
Fostering Collaboration and Driving Innovation
Being on the internet and engaging others in the social media world, businesses can build up better relationships with other retailers who are also on these channels. These relationships can lead to collaboration efforts between the businesses. One good illustration of collaboration between two businesses is the partnership between Giapo's Gianpaolo and The Wine Vault's Jayson Bryant to create New Zealand's first Sauvignon Blanc Sorbet. John Lai of Social Media News NZ reported that Giapo and The Wine Vault lead the way in social media marketing for businesses in New Zealand. He said that both companies have demonstrated the right way in utilizing social media, in terms of engaging, interacting and building relationships.
Reaching Out To The International Market
Social media allows its users to communicate with people outside their networks of friends and beyond a country's borders and, about topics that interest them.
As businesses dive into the social media landscape, it is important that they take note of international audiences and their behaviors when they reach out to overseas markets. One of the issues mentioned by FLITTERMEDIA's Justin Flitter was the sweet times for retweets which mentioned that Twitter users should take note the time audiences across the world in different timezones that so that they increase their chances of getting exposed on Twitter.
Furthermore, it is important to note the popular social media channels that are unique to each country with customers a business is trying to reach out to. One good learning point from Giapo's case is that it was present on Posterous as well as Blogspot. Its owner had a blog that was on blogspot while the store's blog is set in Posterous. Content on both blogs are the same but viewers of both might differ.
References
E-Govt. (2009). Web 2.0 Social Networking Tools. Retrieved March 22, 2010, from http://www.e.govt.nz/resources/research/progress/agency-initiatives/chapter6.html
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