A local government agency has decided to be proactive, and they have followed through! Recently, the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) contracted ShinyDoor, to consult on social media strategy and education for the agency. 
As an intern at ShinyDoor, I was not involved with this project. I met with Laura Koprowski, Director of Public & Government Affairs at MORPC, to try and find out how the process went, from start to finish. As an outsider looking in, with an understanding of what our company does, but no knowledge of this agency or its needs, I asked questions anyone would have. Laura’s insight is both very interesting and valuable.
My first inquiry: What led to MORPC’s decision to explore social media?
- Laura replied that communication has become a big priority for the agency, not just internally but externally with the people that they serve. They want to find where people are in order to better reach and serve them.
- MORPC feels, as a government agency, exploring the newest technology will help them stick out. Being reactive, as opposed to proactive, in government business has become the norm. Utilizing the newest tools makes MORPC’s news both fast and very mobile.
- Reaching a younger audience is an ongoing challenge for MORPC. The organization believed becoming active in social media would allow interaction with the younger generations. This goal led to some surprises.
Next: Describe the process of developing your strategy and how ShinyDoor was involved in this.
- “We brought Angela in originally to do basic training on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter with the staff. The staff and Angela began to see possibilities, and the trainings snowballed into implementing the new technology into MORPC’s State of the Region luncheon event.”
- Angela helped accelerate the learning curve the staff was facing. Setting up a Facebook Page to highlight the State of the Region luncheon brought an event with momentum for the staff to see immediate usage and feedback.
- MORPC began to see itself at a plateau point with its social media efforts. They set everything up, checked for new followers and group members, but knew something was wrong. Angela advised on methods of breeding participation. When the staff began implementing these methods, they saw immediate climbs in comments and questions, hits, and fans. The staff began asking questions, not just waiting for public communication. Their interaction bred interaction on each of their social networks.
Instead of hiring an outside experienced social media director to assume a full time position of social media efforts at MORPC (as more and more companies are doing), the agency decided to train each of its employees to use the networks. Laura had several thoughts on this:
- As any government entity, non-profit, or small business, the budget MORPC, operates on would not allow for such a full time hire. Angela’s initial trainings encouraged the confidence the leadership needed to go forward with the current team strategy.
- Laura believes having employees directly interacting on the networks gives MORPC authenticity, which is very important in creating value with these tools.
There were several challenges in initiating the social media strategy. They included:
- Control: People were worried about what might be said on the networks. The agency realized that having its employees adhere to a social media policy was important. They have developed an official social media policy that employees can reference and use as their guide. It gives them guidelines, but does not sternly censor them.
- Time: Many companies believe that social media use can be a time waster, and it can. By clearly setting goals, MORPC has established guidelines for employees use. They are result oriented.
- Staff Participation: Not every employee has embraced the social media charge. Surprisingly, age has not been an indication of participation. There are older employees who actively participate and young employees who do not. The opposite is true as well, making MORPC social media representation varied in age and experience.
As a leader of government entities in social media, MORPC has had several inquiries about their plans and strategy. While they admit to, in no way, being pros with the tools, their willingness to experiment, make mistakes and expand their network has lead to exposure and interaction with community they would not have otherwise had.
When I asked Laura about her thoughts on the way Angela guided her staff, she explained, “Angela learned our culture and made it work for us, she didn’t make us learn her system.” This is key for organizations getting started in social media. Social media is another way of showing the public who you are, and being as genuine and accurate to your organizations identity can really make or break the effort.
Talking to Laura gave me some great insight about the whole process of social media strategy implementation. MORPC is a model example of a government agency proactively asserting itself into the new age of marketing and communications.
Judy Estrin, author of Closing the Innovation Gap:Reigniting the Spark of Creativity in a Global Economy and former CTO of Cisco:
Angela Siefer, Lumifi VP of Business Development: “Some tech jobs may be going overseas but tech innovation is very much American grown. It can and does happen in any U.S. state and with encouragement will happen more frequently. I love my state. Obama's technology platform will elevate non-Silicon Valley regions like ours. There is no reason why a tremendous amount of homegrown innovation cannot happen here. When I am asked why Hoffman and Estrin are coming to Ohio I always respond ‘Because we are a battleground state. And because we asked."
