Using the Web and New Media

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• Using the Web and New Media
• Kristina Norvell
• Director of Public Affairs
• Fairfax County
• Department of Housing and Community Development

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Getting the News Out

• Traditional News Releases, Media Advisories,
  News In Brief
• FCRHA Website
• e-ffordable.org
• Fairfax County Social Media Sites

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FCRHA Web Site
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E-ffordable.org
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E-ffordable.org
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What is Social Media?
Social media describes the online technologies
and practices that people use to share opinions,
insights, experiences, and perspectives with each
other. A few prominent examples of social media
applications are Wikipedia (reference), MySpace
(social networking), YouTube (video sharing),
Second Life (virtual reality), Digg (news
sharing), Flickr (photo sharing) and Miniclip
(game sharing). These sites typically use
technologies such as blogs, message boards,
podcasts, wikis, and vlogs to allow users to
interact.
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What is Social Media?

• Traditional media (newspapers, television,
  radio, books, CDs) cant be changed.
• Social media is interactive.
• Social media allows for real-time feedback.
• Anybody can publish social media.
• Social media is infinite with no limitations on
  length or quantity.
• Social media is linkable and easily reused.

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Social Networking

• Social networking services are primarily
  web-based and provide a collection of various
  ways for users to interact, such as status
  updates, chat, messaging, e-mail, video, games,
  file sharing, blogging, discussion groups, and
  more. Common examples include
• My Space (115 million visitors in May 2008)
• Facebook (124 million visitors in May 2008)
• Linkedin (for the business community)
• Eons (for the 50 community)
• Club Penguin (for kids)

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Social Networking

• Information posted on social networking sites is
  public and could cost you your job!
• Employers are Googling prospective employees to
  learn more about them.
• Spokeo allows you to spy on all of your
  friends social networking sites. Spokeo is a
  social-network-based people search service.
  Spokeo looks for social network accounts for each
  person by performing deep Web searches across
  over 40 such networks.
• Smart mobs are groups of individuals who come
  together online to influence politics or major
  decisions.

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Blogs

• Web logs, or blogs, are Web sites, free and easy
  to set up, hosted by individuals, media outlets
  and others which serve as online diaries where
  opinions and thoughts are shared. Examples
  include
• Washington Post
• Raising Kaine
• Not Larry Sabato
• Blogs are the new trade press.
• Wondering how to monitor blogs? Technorati is the
  most common blog search engine.

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Blogs

• There are now more than 75 million blogs online,
  and they are becoming a reputable source of news.

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Online Video

• Some television programs are only seen by
  thousands of people. But segments of TV programs
  when placed on YouTube and other video-sharing
  Web sites, are viewed by millions of more people.

The era of the creepy blue light leaking out of
every living room window on the block is now
officially at an end, said one founder of a
video-sharing startup. The simple, wonderful,
delicious fact is that people like you and me can
now make and share content. Just as some kids
don't understand the difference between broadcast
and cable, the line between TV and Internet TV is
about to disappear. -- Wired Magazine, December
2006
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Online Video

• The presence of online video has allowed news to
  be created that otherwise wouldnt exist.
• Former Seinfeld actor Michael Richards verbally
  attacked an African-American man at a comedy club
  and used several derogatory terms. The incident
  was taped by an audience members cell phone and
  posted on YouTube.

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Online Video

• Recent research by Pew
• 48 of internet users have been to video-sharing
  sites such as YouTube and the daily traffic to
  such sites on a typical day has doubled in the
  past year.
• 15 of respondents said they had used a
  video-sharing site "yesterday" -- the day before
  they were contacted for their survey. A year ago,
  8 had visited such a site "yesterday." Thus, on
  an average day, the number of users of video
  sites nearly doubled from the end of 2006 to the
  end of 2007.
• Close to 16 percent of American households who
  use the internet watch television broadcasts
  online.

Source Pew Internet and American Life Project,
January 9, 2008.
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Citizen Journalism

• Citizen journalism is the act of citizens
  "playing an active role in the process of
  collecting, reporting, analyzing and
  disseminating news and information" according to
  the report We Media How Audiences are Shaping
  the Future of News and Information, by Shayne
  Bowman and Chris Willis. Examples include
• Yahoo! You Witness News
• CNN I-Report
• Chicago Tribune

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Citizen Journalism Resources

• Center for Citizen Media Resources for citizen
  journalists from a venture affiliated with the
  University of California and Harvard Law School.
• WikiNews Original Reporting Some simple
  guidelines for reporters, including sourcing,
  disclosure of potential conflicts, and preparing
  for interviews.
• J-Lab The Institute for Interactive Journalism A
  spinoff of the Pew Center for Civic Journalism,
  J-Lab is probably the most active organization in
  promoting the development, study and training of
  participatory journalists.
• The Largemouth Citizen Journalism Manual
  Largemouth is a group of professional journalists
  who volunteer time to listen to citizens and to
  teach the necessary skills to produce accurate,
  compelling journalism.
• South Carolina Citizen Journalism Project The
  First Year Good site for guides to setting up and
  running a citizen journalism site. Available as a
  PDF.

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Citizen Journalism
A phone call to a Fairfax County public school
administrator's home in January 2008 about a snow
day -- or lack of one -- took on a life of its
own. Through the ubiquity of Facebook and
YouTube, the call has become a rallying cry for
students' First Amendment rights.
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Citizen Journalism
The clip even made its way to Good Morning
America.
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Wiki
A type of Web site that allows the visitors
themselves to easily add, remove and otherwise
edit and change some available content, sometimes
without the need for registration. This ease of
interaction and operation makes a wiki an
effective tool for collaborative authoring. The
term wiki also can refer to the software itself
that facilitates the operation of such a Web
site, or to certain specific wiki sites,
including an online encyclopedia such as
Wikipedia. 
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Ways to Push Out Information
RSS Meaning Really Simple Syndication, RSS is a
simple system that allows users to subscribe to
their favorite Web sites. It allows viewers to
subscribe and then download newly published
content to their computers automatically once it
becomes available. 
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Ways to Push Out Information

• Podcasting
• Another way to share content beyond the printed
  word.
• Its original meaning comes from the idea that
  users would download and then listen to podcasts
  on their iPods or other portable devices.
  (Fairfax County launched its podcasts in March
  2007)
• However, studies have shown that 80 percent of
  podcasts are actually listened to on a computer,
  not a portable device.
• The ideal length for a podcast is no longer than
  five minutes.

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Other Social Media

• The social networking phenomenon is leaving the
  confines of the personal computer. Powerful new
  mobile devices are allowing people to send
  round-the-clock updates about their vacations,
  their moods or their latest haircut.
• New online services, with names like Twitter and
  Jaiku, hope people will share the details of
  their lives in the same way they have become
  accustomed to doing on Web sites like facebook.

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Whats Happening in Fairfax?

• The county is expanding and redefining
  communications efforts beyond traditional news
  releases.
• We our getting our content where the eyeballs
  are.
• We are monitoring new media.
• Rise of the Horizontal Influence Consumers trust
  other consumers more than top-down
  communications.
• Engagement is the key!

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Whats Happening in Fairfax?

• Taking strategic approach (Benefits, risks,
  costs, risks and staff time.)
• Wrote Social Media Policy
• Modified social media news release
• Monitor and respond to blogs

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Whats Happening in Fairfax?

• The county has launched pages YouTube, MySpace
  and Facebook

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Whats Happening in Fairfax?

• So has the Library
• YouTube, MySpace and Facebook

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County Policy

• Social Media was added to the Web Content Policy
  (PM 13-04) in 2007.
• County employees are not allowed to participate
  on blogs, wikis or social networking sites from
  their work computers, or at home while
  identifying themselves as a county employee.
• Social Media Used for Internal Communications

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Conclusion

• Social Media is not just a communications wave of
  the future, it is here now.
• Strategic approach.
• Reach your audience where they are.
• Social Media Used for Internal Communications