Consider the following when developing a social media strategy for your department:

Develop good principles of communication planning.

• What communications goals or objectives are you seeking to achieve through social media?

• Which social media applications would best achieve your goals?

• Who are your audiences? Do they use social media?

• How will you engage and interact with your audiences on social media sites?

• What kind of information will you provide?

• How will you manage public records retention and public disclosure requirements?

• How will you integrate social media strategies into broader State communications strategies?

Consider social media risks. Will participation:

• Pose reputation risks to personnel, the department, or the State?

• Affect employee productivity?

• Affect network bandwidth requirements?

• Heighten security risks to the State network or to protected, private, or sensitive data?

Develop a strategy for interacting with your audiences.

• Will you allow customers to comment?

• Will you respond to comments?

• Who will be authorized to respond?

• How will you respond?

• Where will you draw the line on responding?

• Will you monitor what’s being said about your department on external social media sites? Will you respond?

Establish a social media presence.

• Who will update these accounts?

• Are you prepared to provide regular updates?

• Are you prepared for the interactivity that social media requires (e.g. criticism, increased constituent contact, public records requests)?

• Who will regularly monitor sites to ensure compliance with branding and social media guidelines?