NC Goes Social
North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue, who has 3,985 Facebook supporters, announced the state's first social media policy today.
"State government must stay current if we are to be fully transparent and accountable to the public," she said. "I encourage all state agencies to take advantage of social media to increase communication and interaction with the citizens of North Carolina."
The stated goals of the policy are to make sure social media are implemented appropriately, that security concerns are addressed and that records are maintained in accordance with state law.
Social media will give the government more control over its key messages. Instead of relying on traditional media to take messages from the government and deliver them to the people, the government will have more direct contact with those who follow state agencies through social media.
But..
How many people can we expect to follow, say, the North Carolina Department of Revenue on Twitter? The state's use of social media will give citizens a forum for discussion about state policies -- on Facebook pages, for example, but I wouldn't expect a rush by the people of North Carolina to start becoming fans of state agencies in droves.
The state made a tutorial for employees to learn about the policy, but it's so dull I only made it to slide 27 out of 46. Mostly, it covers aforementioned public record considerations (everything posted on those sites becomes public record) and privacy stuff. All agency pages and accounts have to be set to public and comments and contents can't be deleted except for obscenity concerns.
The policy does not regulate the personal use of social media by state employees. Personal use is addressed, but only to say that it is allowed, even during business hours, but that users should maintain the professional standards of the state.
It will be interesting to see how, if at all, this new policy affects the political system in the state and how long it takes for anything to change.
"State government must stay current if we are to be fully transparent and accountable to the public," she said. "I encourage all state agencies to take advantage of social media to increase communication and interaction with the citizens of North Carolina."
The stated goals of the policy are to make sure social media are implemented appropriately, that security concerns are addressed and that records are maintained in accordance with state law.
Social media will give the government more control over its key messages. Instead of relying on traditional media to take messages from the government and deliver them to the people, the government will have more direct contact with those who follow state agencies through social media.
But..
How many people can we expect to follow, say, the North Carolina Department of Revenue on Twitter? The state's use of social media will give citizens a forum for discussion about state policies -- on Facebook pages, for example, but I wouldn't expect a rush by the people of North Carolina to start becoming fans of state agencies in droves.
The state made a tutorial for employees to learn about the policy, but it's so dull I only made it to slide 27 out of 46. Mostly, it covers aforementioned public record considerations (everything posted on those sites becomes public record) and privacy stuff. All agency pages and accounts have to be set to public and comments and contents can't be deleted except for obscenity concerns.
The policy does not regulate the personal use of social media by state employees. Personal use is addressed, but only to say that it is allowed, even during business hours, but that users should maintain the professional standards of the state.
It will be interesting to see how, if at all, this new policy affects the political system in the state and how long it takes for anything to change.
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