Imagine you could ...
- get quick answers to simple questions
- try out new ideas, getting responses from people whose opinions you trust
- learn about issues that affect your agency before they hit the mainstream
- establish a network of people involved in issues similar to yours, with the ability to check them out beyond a handshake
Microblogging can do all of that, in addition to giving you a new outlet for important announcements. Learn all about it, below.
What It Is
As its name suggests, microblogging is writing extremely short blog posts, kind of like text messages. Twitter is currently the most popular microblog service and lets users post entries up to 140 characters long. Users can read these messages online or have them sent as a text message to a cell phone or other mobile device.
The popular social networking websites Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn also have a microblogging feature, called "status update."
Microblogging is more than just random "short bursts of text," – it’s better characterized as short conversations where you listen to and share ideas.
Once you get going with a set of people you follow and people who follow you, it's a never-ending conversation you can dip into when you want. The people you talk to can serve as a filter for the torrent of information online, giving you links to check out, sharing new ways of thinking, and offering responses to the questions you ask.
Two-way Communications
The best use for microblogging is to engage a community in a public forum. Some sites even let you reply to posts, and automatically bring replies to your posts to your attention. For example, on Twitter, you can reply to a post by typing the @ symbol followed immediately by the user name, a space, and then the message. Twitter replies appear on a special screen when a user logs in. For example, posting "@mblger I agree with your last point." will appear on the "replies" screen when the user "mblger" logs in. This is a useful feature – imagine using it to submit questions for a speaker during a live session. Tumblr offers a similar feature, the “Reblog” button.
You can also guide readers to your content by including hashtags (also known as microblogging funnels). When you see a pound sign followed by a word or string of characters in a microblog entry (#gov20, #govloop, etc.), the user is letting you know that the entry is referring to a specific topic. For instance, the hashtag #gov20 is used to identify microblogs that refer to the use and introduction of Web 2.0 activities in government. There are many hashtag directories where you can find content of interest. Meeting planners and event coordinators frequently recommend a hashtag for attendees so that microblog entries related to the event can be easily searched and retrieved.
Various sites help you track how people use information on microblogging sites. For example, TwitterSearch and TwitterFall let you easily search for keywords used by people on Twitter, allowing you to see whether people are talking about your agency. These sites are not owned by Twitter.
Incoming Communications
Use microblogging to learn about any subject of interest, bounce ideas off of people, and stay ahead of media inquiries. There are many ways to take advantage of this tool; see the examples section below.
Outbound Communications
Microblogging can help you get information to people without forcing them to come to your site. Sites that let you use an RSS feed to post are especially useful. Using RSS, you can post content in one place (for example, news releases) and the microblogging site will pick up automatically, posting it in your microblog.
Many microblogging sites let you change your account settings to let your messages be viewed by anyone, or by a restricted group that you choose. You can also block specific users if necessary. It may not pass a careful security review, but this is a way to create a quick closed professional network where everyone can follow each others' work.
Users of popular microblogging sites can “follow” other members to see an up to date list of recent posts when they log into the service. When you follow more than one user, the entries of all the users you follow are posted in chronological order.
Microblogging sites often work well on cell phones and other mobile devices, making it easy for you to deliver content that people would want on the road without building a site specifically for mobile devices.
Microblogging can be used to share announcements, news, special events like holiday hours, new products, updated resources, reminders, instructions, or to share answers to frequent questions.
Microblogging also can be very useful for issuing directions or warnings during emergencies. Some universities encourage students to follow an official school Twitter account so they can quickly broadcast a message to all students in the event of an emergency.
The character limits for various microblogging sites includes text, spaces and characters in URLs - many users choose to replace long URLs with shorter versions so they have more space for personal comments (see Wikipedia’s list of URL shortening services).
Specific Requirements
The same legal issues that apply to most terms of service for using non–government sites also apply to microblogging.
The General Services Administration has determined that, as of May 2009, the standard Twitter terms of service are acceptable for federal government agencies.
How to Implement
Begin by exploring microblogging sites to see how people use them.
Next, consult with your legal and communications offices to confirm you are allowed to create the account.
Choose a meaningful account name. Consider creating a different account for each different type of information you want to share (blog posts, news releases, program announcements, etc.).
Set up your account and check your user settings to be sure your posts are public or private as appropriate.
Type your message and press the button to publish it in your microblog.
To set up an automated feed like an RSS feed, follow the instructions on the site. Sometimes you have to set up an account on a different site. For example, to post an RSS feed on Twitter, you have to use Twitterfeed.com, which is not part of Twitter.
Be aware that you have to provide your user ID and password to use these third-party sites. Essentially, the other site logs in as you. This carries potential security risks, so use only well-established services you can verify have not stolen identities and do not use the same password as you use for other purposes. Use a strong password and change it often.
Note: microblogging is new enough that the tools and concepts are constantly evolving. The examples below are just a sample to help you learn the basics; these lists will always be outdated and incomplete. Use Google to find more information.
Examples
Dozens of government agencies and officials at all levels are using microblogs, and there are several lists.
For example:
Examples of discussions:
Examples of inbound communications:
- Jeffrey Levy at EPA asked for help preparing a presentation for several agency-level CIOs about social media, and received many good ideas from people following him. Read the responses.
- People started talking about a major coal ash spill in December 2008 days before the mainstream media began discussing it
Examples of outbound communications:
Resources
Microblogging sites:
- Twitter.com—allows for posts of up to 140 characters in length to be uploaded and read online or through instant messaging or mobile devices via text messaging. Many guides exist; here's one. (http://bethkanter.wikispaces.com/twitter_primer#tips)
- Jaiku.com—purchase by Google in October 2007, promises further innovations that might include mash-ups with other Google products
- Tumblr.com—makes it possible to add tags to posts and to post videos
- Plurk.com—utilizes a rich interface and horizontal time-line to add a spatial dimension to microblogging
- Spoink.com—released a multimedia microblogging service that integrates blogging, podcasting, telephony, and SMS texting, and supports all major mobile audio, video, and picture formats
Sites that allow you to put an RSS feed into a microblogging site:
Microblog search sites:
Sites that shorten and track clicks on URLs you post (with only 140 characters, shortening long URLs is critical):
Sites that aggregate blogs:
- Friendfeed.com is a social aggregator that consolidates the updates from social websites such as blog entries, social bookmarking websites, and social networks. Individuals using multiple social websites can have a consolidated stream of details on all their activities across these websites.
Other microblogging tools:
- Back up Twitter – Article on various ways to backup your Twitter.
- An ever-growing group to perform various tasks, like allowing you to send a post to multiple sites at once or letting you post from a cell phone without logging into a Web site. Search Google.
Accessibility:
Most microblogging sites are limited to using the standard character sets, which inherently is accessible, especially if the microblogging site offers a mobile version of their tool. However, other software tools that interface with microblogging sites are not necessarily accessible.
Examples:
- TwInbox – Plug-in that works with Microsoft Outlook.
- AccessibleTwitter – has received rave reviews for accessibility, however, it requires you to submit your twitter credentials.
- Twitterrific – reported accessible for MAC, iPhone and iPod users.
- Syrinx – reported accessible for MAC users
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Updated: June 05, 2009 Download Document Here
Comments (1)
Mary Maher said
at 12:18 pm on Jul 24, 2009
Great post! Just two comments... Not sure why we'd recommend establishing separate accounts based on content type supplied (news releases, program announcements, blog posts, etc). Instead, I'd suggest using different accounts based on topic areas, or for different audiences (technical, general). Also, might want to recommend (?) URL shorteners that enable tracking--I don't think tinyurl does, but bit.ly and others do
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