Learning from public entities’ use of social media

Discussion paper

Presented to the House of Representatives under section 20 of the Public Audit Act 2001

June 2013

ISBN 978-0-478-41031-0 (print)

ISBN 978-0-478-41032-7 (online)

Contents

Auditor-General’s overview

Part 1 – Introduction

Social media in public service delivery

What is social media?

Our work

How we did our work

What we did not cover

Structure of this paper

Part 2 – About the eight social media case studies

Part 3 – Success factors that emerge from the eight case studies

Summary of the success factors

Leadership

Strategy

Implementation

Risk management

Integration

Adaptation

Measurement

Considered communication

Part 4 – Regulation and social media

Department of Internal Affairs’ social media guidance

Official information requests through social media

Privacy issues

Granting indemnities

Appendix 1 – Theoretical models we refer to in our work

Appendix 2 – About the respondents to our senior management survey

Figures

1 – The eight case studies of social media use

2 – Success factors that we identified from the eight case studies

3 – Senior management’s personal and business use of social media

4 – Our survey respondents’ progress in realising business opportunities from social media

5 – Our survey respondents’ purpose for using social media

6 – The New Zealand Police’s integrated approach to recruitment

7 – Our review of Facebook pages: Prevalence of techniques to maintain audience interest

8 – Our review of Facebook pages: Frequency of use of multiple techniques to maintain audience interest

9 – Awareness of the high-level guidance for using social media among our survey respondents

10 – Our survey respondents’ level of agreement with statement that the Department of Internal Affairs provides effective leadership of social media

11 – Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s comments on different social media considerations

Auditor-General’s overview

In our private lives, New Zealanders are making widespread use of social media to connect with people – friends and acquaintances, their friends and acquaintances, and complete strangers, nationally and internationally. Collectively, a great many of us are using social media to share our news, opinions, interests, and photos with a wider audience than we can otherwise reach.

The potential to connect with people has led many public entities to actively consider whether to use social media to communicate with the public.

For public entities, using social media can mean different degrees of interaction. Social media can be used to monitor how a public entity is talked about, to broadcast information to interested people, or to initiate rich and ongoing dialogue. Social media has the potential to change the way that public services are delivered to New Zealanders, not just connecting and communicating with people, but actively involving them and even empowering them.

In my view, the public sector is moving cautiously but positively to embrace social media. There have been some well-known and successful “early adopters” of social media – the Companies Office is one such example. But getting involved in social media does not automatically bring better results, and it is not always the right “tool” to achieve a public entity’s objectives. Public entities will get the most value from social media when they are clear about the purpose and the appropriateness of their involvement and have people using the technology wisely.

This report shares what eight entities (seven public entities and one non-government organisation) have learned from using social media in different ways. It also draws out success factors from the experiences of these eight entities. I hope that this information will help other public entities to thoughtfully consider how they could use social media to best advantage.

The eight success factors that we have identified are:

• leadership – good leadership means being open to exploring the possibilities of social media and providing a culture for innovation;

• strategy – social media should be used deliberately and targeted to achieve a clear purpose;

• implementation – people and time are just as important as technology and money;

• risk management – risks need to be recognised and managed, but do not need to act as a barrier to participation;

• integration – the use of social media needs to be nurtured, then slowly and deliberately brought into the entity’s day-to-day operations;

• adaptation – entities need to be adaptable and learn as they go;

• measurement – it is not always easy to measure social media’s effect on outcomes, but it is important to know “what success would look like”; and

• considered communication – public entities need to make their “terms of engagement” in social media clear, and consider how social media might require changes in the way they communicate.

The guidance that the Department of Internal Affairs has produced about using social media is well regarded, but my staff found low levels of awareness of that guidance among senior management. I encourage the leaders of public entities to access the material that the Department has produced.¹

In my view, social media has the potential to do more than monitor or seek to improve an entity’s reputation or the public’s understanding of its work. The dialogue that social media allows could enhance policy development or contribute to more widespread improvements in service delivery throughout the public sector.

I thank the entities whose experiences feature in this paper for their co-operation and help. I also thank all those staff from entities not featured in this paper, who gave their time generously, and the senior management staff who took part in our survey.

Lyn Provost
Controller and Auditor-General

21 June 2013

1 The guidance is available at https://webtoolkit.govt.nz/guides/strategy-and-operations/social-media/.

Part 1

Introduction

Social media in public service delivery

1.1
Social media is now in widespread use, in New Zealand and throughout the world. In our public sector, many entities use social media as one of their “channels” for communicating with the public. It can be used passively to monitor how an entity is talked about, more actively to broadcast information to the public, or as a means to discuss and debate. Social media can be used to create, share, and exchange information and ideas with the public, and can help public entities to connect with people that can otherwise be hard to reach.

Social media is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction and collaboration.

– Whatis.com

1.2
We carried out some work to look at how entities were using social media, and used a form of social media to report on that work. The examples of entities’ social media use are described in more detail on our blog (blog.oag.govt.nz).

1.3
In this paper, we discuss the lessons that the eight entities learned and draw out themes from their experiences.

What is social media?

1.4
There is no universally accepted definition of social media. According to the Department of Internal Affairs’ high-level guidance about social media, it is:

… a set of online technologies, sites, and practices which are used to share opinions, experiences, and perspectives. [It is] about conversation.²

1.5
According to Wikipedia, which is itself a form of social media:

Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks.³

1.6
The Department of Internal Affairs states that social media is different from traditional media, such as print, television, and radio because it is not a broadcast medium but a dialogue. We note that these lines are increasingly blurring, as the more traditional media channels increasingly include ways and means of talking to and interacting with viewers and readers.

Internet and social media use in New Zealand

1.7
According to the Department of Internal Affairs, New Zealanders have been enthusiastic adopters of social media. In 2012, 64% of the New Zealand population was using social media of some sort. In Australia, the figure was 62%, and in the United Kingdom it was 48%.

Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks.

– dictionary.com

Our work

1.8
In 2012/13, the theme of our Office’s work programme has been Our future needs – is the public sector ready? The focus is on how public agencies prioritise work, develop necessary capabilities and skills, and use information to identify and address future needs.

1.9
As part of this theme, we have looked at how eight entities – seven public entities and one non-government organisation that receives much of its funding from the Government – are using social media. Public agencies are still developing their use of social media, but we wanted to point to emerging practices or lessons and collate some critical success factors that could be useful to other public entities.

How we did our work

1.10
To find the emerging practices and what entities had learned, we:

• identified a list of about 35 entities that were engaged in some form of social media, met with staff in each of the entities (where appropriate), and reduced the list to eight that could serve as case studies;

• analysed relevant documents and interviewed staff in those eight entities; and

• spoke to communications practitioners in the public sector.

1.11
As part of our work, we also:

• kept a regular blog as our work progressed, sharing some of our findings and our own experiences with learning about social media; and

• decided to report the case studies as posts on our blog.

Social media: Participatory online media that utilizes the group to write and direct content, rather than a read-only media. Allows for direct contact between participants.

– Urban Dictionary

1.12
We reported the case studies as blog posts because it seemed more appropriate, in a review of social media, to do so. A review of social media lends itself to a more informal style of reporting and, fittingly, offered the potential for us to reach a different audience than we normally would.

Senior management survey

1.13
In April 2013, we surveyed chief executives and senior managers in the public sector about social media (our senior management survey). We sent our senior management survey to 210 organisations. We received 150 responses, from 53 chief executives and 97 senior managers.

Social media: Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.

– OxfordDictionaries.com

1.14
The results of our senior management survey are available on our website.

Review of a sample of public entities’ Facebook pages

1.15
In April 2013, we reviewed a sample of public entities’ Facebook pages. We chose a random sample of 78 public entities, checked whether they had a Facebook page, then used a set of criteria to evaluate each one.⁴

1.16
Of the 78 public entities, 65% had a Facebook page under either its own name or a subsidiary name. For example, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) does not have an MBIE Facebook page, but there are several Facebook pages for different functions of MBIE, such as Consumer Affairs.

1.17
The results of our review are also available on our website.

What we did not cover

1.18
We did not try to compare the relative merits, features, or effectiveness of one form of social media with another. We did not form a view on whether social media was more suited to any particular situation than the use of more traditional means of communicating with the public.

1.19
We focused on the public-facing or external use of social media, rather than looking at how entities are using social media internally to communicate or share with their staff.

1.20
To avoid duplicating the efforts of other agencies, we talked to staff of the Department of Internal Affairs, the State Services Commission, Office of the Ombudsman, Office of the Privacy Commissioner, and Association of Local Government Information Management. We also consulted with Dr Miriam Lips, Professor of e-Government in the School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington, and Simon Wright, a member and former Board member of the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2).

Structure of this paper

1.21
In the rest of this paper:

• Part 2 lists the eight case studies we looked at and briefly summarises the main benefits of, and lessons from, their use of social media.

• Part 3 discusses in more detail the success factors that emerged from the eight case studies that might be usefully considered by other public entities using, or thinking of using, social media.

• Part 4 describes some aspects of public sector regulation that apply to social media.

• Appendix 1 provides further details of the theoretical models we used in our work.

• Appendix 2 provides a high-level profile of the respondents to our senior management survey.

2 Department of internal Affairs (2011), Social media in Government: High-level Guidance, Wellington.
See webtoolkit.govt.nz/guides/strategy-and-operations/social-media/high-level-guidance/.

3 See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media (accessed 18 June 2013).

4 The criteria were based on the aspects of good engagement discussed in our blog post, The bird is the word
– see http://blog.oag.govt.nz/social-media-audit/the-bird-is-the-word.

Part 2

About the eight social media case studies

2.1
In choosing eight case studies of social media use, we sought to include a wide range of entities. Our shortlist of eight case studies includes a range of:

• agency sizes – from the Law Commission (which has a budget of about $4.2 million) to the New Zealand Police (which has a budget of about $1.5 billion);

• entity types – from a state sector agency through to a local authority and a district health board; and

• sectors – including local government, health, welfare, justice, culture, and science.

2.2
Figure 1 sets out the entities we looked at, the project or purpose for which social media was used, and a summary of the entity’s view of the lessons learned and benefits gained. It also includes QR codes that link to the blog posts we have published about each case study (see blog.oag.govt.nz).

Figure 1
The eight case studies of social media use

Project | Entity | Main benefits, scale, and lessons

Share an Idea

Christchurch City Council

Main benefits

Had a direct effect in shaping the draft plan for rebuilding the central city. Has also been used in planning for the “Suburban Centre.”

Scale

City-wide consultation, more than 100,000 ideas submitted.

Main lessons

Clear leadership can make difficult things possible. Talk to people using simple and “real” language. Be prepared to have a conversation and listen to people rather than trying to guide them into a response.

Consultation on the New Media Review

Law Commission

Main benefits

Reached a new audience – many people who submitted had not participated in previous consultations. Online contributions increased the quality and quantity of participation.

Scale

Public consultation on whether the legal rights and responsibilities applied to news media should be extended to some digital media publishers.

Main lessons

Be clear about why you want to use social media. You may find new and/or different audiences compared with more traditional forms of consultation. After a successful project, the challenge is to get the organisation to think of social media use as “business as usual” rather than a once-only project.

“Business as usual” social media

MetService

Main benefits

Weather forecasts available when and where people and organisations need them. Especially important in New Zealand, because the weather is changeable.

Scale

MetService had more than 11,000 followers on Twitter and around 19,000 Facebook “likes”.

Main lessons

Good, basic management practice is all that is needed to mitigate social media risks. Building up use gradually allowed MetService to monitor the resourcing implications. Support from senior leadership is crucial.

Breastfeeding NZ Facebook page

Ministry of Health

Main benefits

Contributed to an increase in breastfeeding rates. Breastfeeding rates improved by 5% in last 10 years. Among Māori and Pacific Island mothers, rates increased by 2% over the last three years.

Scale

Facebook page had almost 16,000 “likes”.

Main lessons

If using external expertise, a good relationship with your contractor is vital. Monitor the use of social media and use this information to direct further action. Use your moderators to seed information to your audience, to keep the conversation going. Don’t be afraid to learn as you go.

Crowdsourcing images

New Zealand Historic Places Trust Pouhere Taonga

Main benefits

The Trust maintains a register of New Zealand’s heritage places. Since 2009, 401 images on Register Online were sourced from a pool of Flickr images. Social media contributed to the increased proportion of entries in the Register with an image (rising from 54% to 90%).

Scale

Five years’ Flickr subscription cost about $120. All of the images were donated, with contributors being credited as the photographer.

Main lessons

Find a balance between the informality of social media and the public service’s legal and process requirements. Crowdsourcing can be a useful way of engaging the community in the entity’s mission, raising awareness, and leveraging small entities’ limited resources.

Recruitment

New Zealand Police

Main benefits

Sought to recruit a workforce more representative of the population. Recruitment target was met and the cost of attracting each recruit was 29% lower than the previous three years’ average cost.

Scale

New Zealand Police needed 600 new recruits, especially women, young people, and people from specific ethnic groups.

Main lessons

Social media can be a more efficient way of doing things. It needs to be a long-term investment. Be true to your audience, be clear about your purpose, and moderate posts to best serve that purpose.

Delivering immunisation and public health messages

Waikato District Health Board

Main benefits

Contributed to containing the spread of a measles outbreak. Raised awareness of other health messages.

Scale

Promoted health messages to social media users among Waikato’s 375,000 people.

Main lessons

Partnering with others can enhance the effect and reach of your message, but you need to ensure that the message is not lost. Not all feedback will be positive, so be resilient and decide how you will deal with this.

Fundraising and awareness raising

National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges Incorporated*

Main benefits

Since Women’s Refuge introduced a social media element to its campaigns in 2011, contributions have been 10-15% higher. Messages to its email address asking for help increased by 25%.

Scale

More than 55,000 Facebook users saw the 2012 campaign message appear on their own page.

Main lessons

Reflect on what went well and what could be done better. Refine the approach as soon as possible. Target service users and key stakeholders using the same communication methods they use.

* The National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges Incorporated (Women’s Refuge) participated voluntarily in this piece of work. Women’s Refuge is not a public entity but a non-government organisation that receives much of its funding from the Government. We invited Women’s Refuge to be included among our case studies because people we spoke to often referred to the approach Women’s Refuge was taking – Women’s Refuge was using social media in ways that other public entities we were talking to had not yet attempted.

Part 3

Success factors that emerge from the eight case studies

3.1
In this Part, we discuss the success factors that emerged when we analysed the eight case studies, which could be useful for public entities considering, or engaged in, using social media.

Summary of the success factors

3.2
As part of our preparation for this work, we researched models of change management and social media practice. In particular, we drew on:

• Kotter’s eight-step process for leading change; and

• Forrester Research’s POST social media model.

3.3
We used these models to help us identify elements of notable practice in the eight case studies and identify the success factors that we talk about in this report. Appendix 1 sets out more information about the Kotter and Forrester Research models.

3.4
Figure 2 lists eight success factors that we identified from the eight case studies.

Figure 2
Success factors that we identified from the eight case studies

Success factor | Descriptor
Leadership | Good leadership means being open to exploring the possibilities of social media and providing a culture for innovation.
Strategy | Social media should be used deliberately and targeted to achieve a clear purpose.
Implementation | People and time are just as important as technology and money.
Risk management | Risks need to be recognised and managed, but do not need to act as a barrier to participation.
Integration | The use of social media needs to be nurtured, then slowly and deliberately brought into the entity’s day-to-day operations.
Adaptation | Entities need to be adaptable and learn as they go.
Measurement | It is not always easy to measure social media’s effect on outcomes, but it is important to know “what success would look like”.
Considered communication | Public entities need to make their “terms of engagement” in social media clear, and consider how social media might require changes in how they communicate.

3.5
The success factors that we have identified are not intended to be definitive, comprehensive, or unique to social media use. Nor are they mutually exclusive. In our view, they are important and should be considered carefully when getting involved in using social media.

3.6
Also, it is important to note when looking at our case studies:

• having some of these success factors should not be interpreted as meaning that the case study featured all of them;

• what worked effectively for one entity and one project or purpose might not work as effectively for another project or purpose; and

• some of the success factors were closely linked to wider good management practices and not specific to the entity’s use of social media.

Leadership

3.7
From our work, we have concluded that leadership plays an important role in successful social media adoption. Wider research also tends to support this view.⁵

3.8
In 2012, Stanford University conducted a survey (the Stanford survey) of executives and board members of North American companies.⁶ The objective was to understand how senior decision-makers view social media, and the extent to which they incorporate it into their business practices. The Stanford survey differed from other social media surveys because the sample included representatives only from the highest levels of the organisations. Stanford’s respondents’ average age was in the mid-50s. Our senior management survey was similar, in that we too targeted the most senior members of organisations.

3.9
We used aspects of the Stanford survey’s approach to analyse the results of our senior management survey. The Stanford survey classified respondents into:

• personal and/or business users of social media;

• active – those who engage in some form of social media activity; and

• inactive – those who do not engage in any social media activity.

3.10
We found a statistical relationship between respondents who were classed as active in social media for personal purposes and active in social media for business purposes. Respondents who were active for personal purposes also tended to be active for business purposes. This suggests that respondents who engage in social media for personal reasons have greater understanding of its business potential.

3.11
Our findings about the relationship between personal and business use of social media are consistent with the findings of the Stanford survey. Figure 3 compares our results with the results from the Stanford survey.

Figure 3
Senior management’s personal and business use of social media

| Our survey | Stanford survey
Active business | Inactive business | Active business | Inactive business
Active personal | 76.7% | 23.3% | 74.2% | 25.8%
Inactive personal | 49.1% | 50.9% | 40.6% | 59.4%

Note: Using a Pearson Chi-squared test, we found the relationship between personal and business use to be statistically significant (p = 0.001). The bold figures are used to highlight this relationship.

3.12
Innovation often flows upwards – it is not uncommon for staff at lower levels of an organisation to generate ideas and suggest innovations. However, without engagement and leadership from senior levels, innovation can remain fixed within specific projects, rather than spreading more widely throughout an organisation as part of business as usual. Using social media can be a form of innovation for an entity, so it too needs support from senior staff to make the transition from an idea to business as usual.

3.13
Clear leadership can also help to manage any aversion to the risks of using social media. Leaders need to have a clear vision of how social media, as a form of innovation, can help their organisation achieve its core objectives, and be actively involved in seeing that happen. This is especially important in thinking about social media beyond its communications role and more as an element of business transformation.

3.14
In our senior management survey, 86% of the entities regarded social media as a business opportunity. Of the 86%, almost 60% were either making changes or planning changes to realise the opportunities presented by social media (see Figure 4).

Figure 4
Our survey respondents’ progress in realising business opportunities from social media

3.15
In the Christchurch City Council case study, the challenge was starting a meaningful and sincere conversation with a whole community, only a short time after a significant earthquake and as more earthquakes occurred. The Council’s leadership provided clear messages about the project’s direction and priority. This ensured that staff throughout the organisation knew its importance, which was crucial to successfully meeting the short time frames.

3.16
Senior leaders in the New Zealand Police are committed to social media as an opportunity to do things differently with a range of the Police’s activities. The Police’s successful use of social media for recruitment is partly attributable to the rich stream of content the Police’s other social media activities provide. This is possible only because of the Police’s widespread use of social media as part of its normal business.

3.17
Waikato District Health Board’s use of social media for immunisation and other public health messages has evolved from small beginnings. The District Health Board now considers it “business as usual” to use social media in this way and it is likely that the District Health Board will continue to look for ways to use social media. One of the reasons this is possible is a clear supporting message from the top of the organisation. This creates the trust and the environment that allows people to think creatively.

3.18
At MetService, the senior management team, including the chief executive, use social media in their personal lives. This helped to reduce any “fear of the unknown” and created a supportive environment for using social media. Clear leadership, understanding the opportunities social media offers, and not being frightened to use it, are all factors that help MetService to continue to enhance its online and social media activities.

3.19
The co-chairs of the Women’s Refuge have stated that they see social media as vital for the organisation’s sustainability – the Refuge needs to engage with a younger generation of supporters and potential service users.

Strategy

3.20
Organisations using social media should be able to answer fundamental questions, such as “Why are we using social media?” Having a strategic view of social media will be more effective in the longer term. But the strategy needs to be clear about the objective and justify why the organisation is operating in this medium – it is not wise to use social media simply because other organisations are doing so.

3.21
The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) is an international organisation dedicated to advancing the practice of public participation. It describes five stages of a spectrum of public participation. Each stage increases in impact, involvement, and potential for dialogue over the previous stage. These five stages are:

• informing;

• consulting;

• involving;

• collaborating; and

• empowering.

3.22
Appendix 1 sets out more detail about the five stages’ typical goals, impact on the public, and techniques.

3.23
Using the IAP2’s five stages, Figure 5 shows how the organisations that responded to our senior management survey were using social media. Most were using social media for less sophisticated forms of public participation.

Figure 5
Our survey respondents’ purpose for using social media

3.24
For entities experimenting with social media, using a business case approach can act as a proxy for strategic thinking, if a fully considered strategy is not yet justified. In our view, public entities need to be clear about the benefits and costs of using social media, and describe the value that the activity will add.

3.25
The recruitment campaign run by the New Zealand Police was based on a business case approach and used Forrester Research’s POST model to prepare the overall strategy. This set clear objectives, described what success would look like, and set key performance measures, so the Police would know if the campaign was successful.

Deliberate

3.26
Most of the entities we spoke to as part of our work told us that they thought it would be damaging to their reputation to overstretch themselves on social media and then pull back. They said it was better to start small and expand outwards, but they recognised the risk of using social media to carry out a series of piecemeal and unco-ordinated projects without strategic coherence.

3.27
The social media guidance produced by the Department of Internal Affairs⁷ describes a spectrum of involvement in social media, summarised as moving from passive to active to engaged. A public entity need not make a large-scale commitment when it first starts using social media. It can start with passive involvement, move through to becoming more active, and finally be fully engaged with the target audience.

3.28
Based on our case studies and other work, the optimal approach appears to be “think big, start small” – but always within the context of a clear strategy. The purpose and objectives of using social media need to be clearly understood.

3.29
The Women’s Refuge is thinking big and starting small. It realised that many people in its donor base were older people who were still sending in donations by cheque. Society’s move towards a cheque-less and cash-less future has significant implications for this behaviour, but donating through social media or mobile devices is very new.

3.30
The Women’s Refuge recognised that a future where supporters make widespread use of social media to donate, and vulnerable people use social media to access services, may be some years away. The Women’s Refuge learned that it needs to “take people on a journey”, in distinct steps and one campaign at a time, to attract a more sustainable donor base and reach a new audience of women who might need its services.

Targeted

3.31
Having a strategic view of how social media can be useful to an entity will be more effective in the longer term. The entity must know which audience it is trying to engage with and where it will find them.

3.32
Our case studies showed evidence of clear and intelligent thinking about the intended audience. The Law Commission consulted on whether the legal rights and responsibilities that applied to news media should be extended to digital media (such as current affairs bloggers and web-only news sites).

3.33
People engaged and involved in digital media were a key audience and the best way to consult with them was clearly through digital media. This approach enhanced the quality of the Law Commission’s final proposals, because it was able to access new insights and it was challenged in a different way to the more traditional submissions.

3.34
The Ministry of Health used Facebook to create and sustain a community of practice for breastfeeding mothers, an activity that can rely on the advice and support of others. Research identified what kind of information women in the Ministry’s target audience might require. Two community managers, who were subject-matter experts and knowledgeable about social media, started the conversations between breastfeeding mothers. By careful monitoring and management, they have kept the conversations going.

3.35
The dynamic nature of the conversation, the knowledge sharing, and the evolving content has kept users coming back to the Breastfeeding NZ Facebook pages, which generates a sense of community. When we prepared this paper, there were about 16,000 users of the pages.

3.36
At the Women’s Refuge, core funding was reducing and the organisation was feeling the effect of demographic change. Its donor base was ageing but more than half of its service users were under 35 years old. The Women’s Refuge set some clear objectives and identified a target audience of younger donors and service users to reach out to.

Implementation

Resourcing

3.37
Using social media need not require complex and expensive technology, compared to other information and communications technology initiatives. However, social media does require attention to human factors and time commitments.

3.38
Careful resource planning for social media is important. Getting involved in social media should not be thought of as a way to deliver “quick wins”. To be meaningful, social media involvement needs to be nurtured and resourcing should be sustainable. A “think big, act small” strategy would accommodate this.

3.39
Resourcing can be more challenging for small organisations, but it can be done. Some of our case study organisations are small. In our view, public entities can manage social media commitments if they recognise their resourcing limitations and plan how they will deal with them. It can be about managing expectations in an open and honest way – for example, social media audiences can sometimes accept that an entity might respond only during business hours, if that has been clearly stated. Public entities also need to consider how resourcing a social media function when it operates as “business as usual” might differ from how it is resourced as a project with a finite time frame.

Skills

3.40
Social media requires some different skills than more traditional communications channels, and public entities might not have access to those skills. External support is one obvious solution. One less obvious solution is to look for the necessary skills among all staff, not just in the communications team. Most organisations will have staff who use social media extensively in their personal lives and there could be some “hidden gems” waiting to be discovered. The senior leadership should not be forgotten, either – depending on the entity’s plans for social media and what it is trying to achieve, there might be a need to build the capability of the senior leadership team in using social media.

3.41
MetService found that it needed to provide only guidance and some individual coaching for those who were blogging, Tweeting, and posting on Facebook. MetService learnt that some staff naturally think and write in ways that are well suited to social media platforms, and looked to involve people with those skills.

Economy and efficiency gains

3.42
Among our case studies, some organisations have used social media to deliver economy and efficiency gains:

• New Zealand Historic Places Trust spent around $120 on five years’ subscriptions to Flickr. From this, the Trust has received around 1300 images, and selected over 400 of them to include in its Register of New Zealand’s treasured heritage places.

• The New Zealand Police’s recruitment campaign reached its target of 600 extra recruits at a cost 29% lower than the previous three-year average. It also reduced the workload of the recruitment staff. Answering candidates' questions in a public forum meant that all candidates saw the answers to all the questions, which reduced the number of duplicate requests to be dealt with.

Risk management

3.43
Social media presents risks, but it also offers opportunities. An organisation can miss those opportunities if it is too risk averse. The best approach is risk management rather than risk avoidance. Organisations need to understand the ways that social media exposes them to risk, identify them, and set up ways to control and monitor them.

3.44
From our senior management survey:

• 67% of respondents regarded social media as a business risk;

• 64% of respondents had put in place a way to mitigate the risk; and

• 48% of respondent organisations had a formal social media policy.

3.45
Some of social media’s characteristics, such as it being immediate, dynamic, and informal, do not lend themselves well to more traditional risk management structures. The social media guidance produced by the Department of Internal Affairs identifies some common organisational risks and describes some appropriate mitigation measures for those risks.

3.46
The Digital Workplace Trends 2013 report, based on international research, advises organisations to:

... define governance based on freedom within a framework … try to place all decisions at the lowest level of accountability, thereby empowering people as much as possible but ensuring that risks are managed. Evaluate carefully what needs to be handled by the ‘center’ and what decisions are better made by other parts of the organisation. This will depend very much on your current organisational dynamics and your vision for the future.⁸

Responding quickly

3.47
Social media often requires a quick response, sometimes in near real-time. Often, that response means communication with service users and the general public. Some of the entities in our case studies show that it is possible to have adequate safeguards that balance risk with the different and dynamic nature of social media.

3.48
For Christchurch City Council, the approach to moderating comments was thought about during the preparations for the Share an Idea campaign, recognising that moderating comments had to be both robust and quick. When implemented, ideas submitted on the website were instantly acknowledged by return email. Moderation was done quickly and comments were uploaded for public display with little delay. The Council felt that this speedy recognition and feedback in a public forum turned the campaign from consultation to more of a conversation. The Council considers that the increases it saw in public engagement and response rates were a result of the quick approach to moderating comments.

3.49
Social media accounts that are not frequently updated or have comments and questions left unanswered can make the account look neglected and unprofessional. During our review of entities’ Facebook pages, we looked for evidence of timeliness. We found that:

• 79% of agencies posted an item to their page at least once a week; and

• 56% of entities responded to posts within 24 hours (we chose 24 hours as a reasonable indication of a quick response, because many entities only monitor their social media accounts during office hours).

Balancing formality and informality

3.50
The New Zealand Historic Places Trust found that an easy balance can be struck between the need for formality, such as copyright laws, and the informality of social media. For example, the Trust sends an electronic letter to image providers seeking their permission to use their images and to credit the images to them. Public responses range from formal letters of reply to a casual “yep”.

3.51
During its consultation process, the Law Commission was clear about the terms of participation. These terms stated that comments made through blog sites would be treated as official submissions, could be used by the Law Commission, and could form part of any final report.

Moderating posts and responses

3.52
MetService relies on sound management practices. The social media policy states who can blog, Tweet, and post on Facebook. Responsibility for doing so is dispersed, which mitigates the risk and helps with resourcing and timeliness. This internal network assists with checking operational or technical content, which also helps to mitigate risk.

3.53
A network of operational staff in the New Zealand Police is used in the same way, as “subject matter experts”. When operational answers are needed, the question is passed to an appropriate person in the network, who is aware of the need for a timely response.

3.54
For both MetService and the New Zealand Police, the risk of an incorrect answer or poor moderation is mitigated and the resource burden is spread throughout the organisation. This approach is possible only with the support of the wider organisation and senior management.

Integration

3.55
It is not enough to have goals – entities also need to have a longer-term view of the social media “journey” and recognise that introducing and developing social media takes time.

3.56
The New Zealand Police have learnt that building a strong base of followers in year one is an investment that might begin to produce benefits in the longer term. Because the Police are forecasting higher recruitment in 2014 than in 2013, the organisation already has a “pipeline” of engaged social media followers who could, potentially, facilitate a recruitment surge if necessary.

Social media and other communications channels

3.57
Entities told us that social media works best when it is considered alongside other communications channels. Social media can help to amplify messages on other channels, and the other channels can support the messages through social media. In our view, the decision to use social media always needs to be part of the essential communications consideration of audience and purpose. As with all other communication with the public, it requires a strategic approach.

3.58
MetService has spent time gradually building up its expertise in, and use of, social media over several years. MetService extended the use of its existing website by adding a blog in 2007. This allowed forecasters to engage with the public by providing explanations for certain weather conditions.

3.59
In April 2009, MetService started Tweeting weather information and, at the time of writing, had more than 11,000 followers. In early 2011, MetService started using Facebook and, at the time of writing, had around 19,000 “likes”. Facebook allows more interaction with the public, with photographs and comments on the weather, and offers a way for organisations that rely heavily on weather information to connect with MetService.

3.60
MetService has linked all its communications channels, including its website, Twitter account, Facebook page, and weather blogs. The website and social media channels can be accessed through mobile devices, so information is available in real time for people carrying out weather-dependent activities.

3.61
The New Zealand Police also used an integrated approach during its recruitment campaign. Figure 6 sets out how the integrated approach worked.

Figure 6
The New Zealand Police’s integrated approach to recruitment

Channel | What the New Zealand Police provided

Facebook

Status updates featuring real work stories from Police officers.

Links to the Police Commissioner’s regular blog to provide future recruits with an insight into the Police’s operational environment.

Links with reality television shows, such as Ngā Pirihimana Hou on Māori TV, which followed Māori police recruits through the Royal New Zealand Police College. Potential recruits were able to chat with Police role models on Facebook during the broadcast of the show.

Online seminars to begin the recruitment process.

Twitter

Several Police officers around New Zealand regularly Tweet about their work stories on the job. The “Twitter cops” gave potential recruits an insight into different career pathways and life at the Royal New Zealand Police College.

A selection of these stories were re-tweeted by the recruitment project and also featured on the Police recruitment Facebook page.

YouTube and Flickr | A Police recruitment YouTube channel provided video content and a Flickr page provided photographs.

Other media

True Police stories were recreated as street art installations in Wellington, Christchurch, and Auckland, and featured in targeted online, television, and outdoor advertising.

The street art installations were mentioned in television news programmes, blogs, and other social media as the target audience discussed the campaign, which provided further unpaid publicity.

Source: New Zealand Police.

Impact

3.62
Social media can help an entity to connect with new audiences, form communities of practice, and deliver services and messages in new ways. Our case studies illustrate all of these points:

• reaching new audiences – the consultation by the Law Commission and Christchurch City Council;

• establishing communities of practice – the breastfeeding community facilitated by the Ministry of Health and the images provided to the New Zealand Historic Places Trust;

• providing services – the weather forecasts provided by MetService and recruitment activity of the New Zealand Police; and

• delivering messages – immunisation and public health messages by Waikato District Health Board and the campaigns of Women’s Refuge.

3.63
Keeping the quality of content high is an essential factor in maintaining the public’s interest in social media. For a Facebook page, there are recognised techniques for maintaining public interest. Figure 7 shows how frequently the public entities in our review used some of the more common techniques. Less interactive techniques, which reduce the potential for conversations, were more common than other techniques.

Figure 7
Our review of Facebook pages: Prevalence of techniques to maintain audience interest

3.64
These techniques are not mutually exclusive, so any number can be used at the same time on a Facebook page. Figure 8 shows how frequently the entities in our review used multiple techniques. Just over half of the Facebook pages used more than two techniques simultaneously.

Figure 8
Our review of Facebook pages: Frequency of use of multiple techniques to maintain audience interest

Adaptation

3.65
Social media is sometimes best learnt through experience. Generally, our work suggests that senior managers who use social media in their personal lives tend to be more open to its business opportunities. Entities need an approach that allows for experimentation and learning.

3.66
In our view, an approach that facilitates the sharing of knowledge and learning throughout the public sector would be beneficial. Many public entities told us that they did not know how to access any collated and shared learning about social media use in the public sector. Without a mechanism for sharing knowledge and learning, there is a risk of inefficiency because several public entities could make similar mistakes instead of benefiting from each other’s experience.

3.67
Women’s Refuge reflected on its 2011 fundraising and awareness-raising campaign and identified what went well and where it could have improved. It concluded that it needed to reach out to the same audience, but in a less labour-intensive way. These lessons were built into its 2012 campaign.

3.68
The Ministry of Health experimented with different ways to attract new members to its Breastfeeding NZ Facebook community and found competitions to be effective. It also learnt that seeding topics into the Facebook pages kept the conversation going and maintained interest.

3.69
The New Zealand Police reflected on why its initial recruitment campaign was less successful among the Pasifika community compared to other target groups. A lack of related content, such as “Better work stories” featuring Pasifika people, was one possible explanation. The Police modified its approach and exceeded its Pasifika recruitment target by 44% the following year.

3.70
Christchurch City Council used the information from Share an Idea in other ways, such as ideas for temporary developments in the central city and the New Urban Village project (an international design competition).

3.71
New Zealand Historic Places Trust learnt that crowdsourcing is an effective way to tap into the community’s interest in heritage and desire to help, which can supplement the Trust’s limited resources. The Trust is now considering whether there are other opportunities that it can apply this model to.

Measurement

3.72
Evaluating and measuring the effectiveness of social media is an evolving area. Entities will have different ideas about what to measure and how to measure it, depending on their objectives for using social media.

3.73
The results of social media efforts should deliver some form of outcome. In our view, public entities need to know “what success would look like” and have thought about how they will measure their progress towards those objectives. We note that the social media guidance produced by the Department of Internal Affairs includes suggestions about approaches to measurement.

3.74
For some of the entities in our case studies, measurement was easier because there was a direct and tangible output or outcome. For:

• the New Zealand Police, it was the number of police recruits;

• the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, it was the number of Register entries that featured an image;

• Women’s Refuge, it was the result of the fundraising drive and the number of requests for help; and

• Christchurch City Council, it was the number of ideas submitted about the central city rebuild.

Measurement is about outcomes

3.75
Social media is easiest to measure and evaluate when there is a clear outcome to be achieved. Measuring is more difficult when the outcome or output is less tangible, qualitative, or part of a co-ordinated campaign that is difficult to disaggregate. It is still possible to measure the contribution that using social media can make, but it requires entities to give more thought to what success looks like.

3.76
For example, MetService needs to know how well informed people are about the weather and their level of satisfaction with the service that MetService provides. For the Law Commission, success depended on the quality of submissions rather than just the quantity. One rational and insightful submission can be worth more than hundreds of poorly constructed or inaccurate submissions.

Considered communication

3.77
Entities often start with social media by listening to what people are saying about the organisation. MetService described its approach like this:

If people are already talking about the organisation on social media, why wouldn’t we decide to be part of it?

3.78
However, any engagement in social media can reveal discontent that an entity might not have anticipated, or might be more negative than expected. Not all types of social media provide the means to moderate or remove comments; sometimes, moderating or removing challenging comments is not the best course of action. Entities need to recognise this and be prepared for it, which includes actively considering which social media platforms allow a degree of control appropriate to what the entity is trying to achieve, and how negative sentiments will be responded to.

3.79
Three of our case studies encountered negative sentiment:

• The New Zealand Police learned to balance the interests of free expression with the welfare of the people the Police were connecting to through social media. For example, when unfounded, unrelated, or even abusive comments were made through social media, advocates would initially come to Police’s defence. But the advocates were seen to retreat as they became the targets of abusive commentary. This pattern was at odds with the Police’s objective – inspiring and encouraging potential recruits. With that in mind, the moderators of the Police’s social media pages made a policy decision to be less tolerant of abusive comments. The moderators used their discretion to suppress the views of users who repeatedly posted anti-social comments. The Police described the new approach as being “true to your audience”.

• The Law Commission reported some minor negative feedback during its consultation exercise. The Law Commission had been clear about the terms of participation, which included that comments would be moderated.

• Waikato District Health Board’s immunisation campaign attracted comments from some anti-immunisation groups opposed to the District Health Board’s measles message, but the negative sentiment was received through channels other than social media.

3.80
The other four entities in our case studies did not report any significant issues with negative feedback or posts.

Language is different

3.81
The informal nature of social media means a different type of language is required. Writing for the web is different to writing for printed matter. People tend to scan content on the web, hunting for the information they want, rather than reading word by word. Web-friendly content draws on plain English principles: clear and simple language with shorter words, active verbs, and simple sentence structures. The language used in social media is often anonymous, public, and informal.

3.82
These characteristics can present problems for public entities, especially when they have complex information to communicate or must adhere to certain legal requirements. If these matters are not thoughtfully considered, they can prevent the conversation that entities are trying to have with the public.

3.83
Conventions such as Twitter’s 140 character limit are forcing entities to communicate in a shorter, clearer way. MetService uses Twitter to send weather information to its 11,000 followers using no more than 140 characters, so the dialogue is short and effective. MetService has also learnt that people who use social media want to talk about their experiences, so MetService encourages staff to enter the conversation and reveal some of their personality.

3.84
Christchurch City Council learnt that ideas and processes have to be simple to make participation easy. Although there was some initial resistance, it meant simplifying ideas and providing web-friendly content. For example, using what the Council called “real” language, seven complicated planning workstreams were simplified into four colour-coded themes and a single word was chosen to represent each theme:

• Move – for transport issues;

• Market – for work and business;

• Space – for the environment; and

• Life – for homes, leisure, and culture.

3.85
This made it easy for people to understand and get involved in the conversation.

5 See, for example, www.capgemini.com.

6 The Conference Board and the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University.

7 See www.webtoolkit.govt.nz.

8 See www.digital-workplace-trends.com/.

Part 4

Regulation and social media

4.1
During our work, some entities asked questions about specific social media issues. The most frequent questions were about:

• the Department of Internal Affairs’ social media guidance;

• official information requests;

• privacy issues; and

• indemnities.

4.2
To answer some of these questions, we discussed the implications of social media with, and sought advice from, the:

• Department of Internal Affairs;

• Office of the Ombudsman; and

• Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

Department of Internal Affairs’ social media guidance

4.3
The Department of Internal Affairs has an all-of-government strategic leadership role for information communications technology. Part of this role is to help build online capability throughout the public sector.

4.4
One of the Department’s approaches to building capability is through releasing all-of-government guidance and providing advice on the best online practices.

Social media guidance

4.5
With increasing expectations about the quality and effectiveness of online service delivery, the Department has improved and extended the resources it provides to entities. In late 2011, the Department issued guidance that aims to help organisations plan and implement social media.

4.6
The guidance is intended to encourage best practice in social media use by government agencies, provide useful templates and tools for planning, and give an overview of the strengths, weaknesses, benefits, and risks of this important and rapidly growing medium.

4.7
The guidance consists of four elements, each with a specific purpose and audience. These are:

• High-level guidance – aimed at helping senior management think about the strategic issues of using social media, such as benefits, risk, and resourcing. It also includes business case templates.

• Hands-on Toolbox – aimed at providing tools (such as draft policies) to help practitioners set up social media. It also provides an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the different types of social media.

• How to Handle a Mishap – aimed at advising entities on how to deal with potential issues arising from social media use, for example, dealing with abuse.

• A Case Study – shows how the Ministry of Health uses Facebook to support breastfeeding women. It provides information on, for example, resourcing, performance metrics, and realised benefits.

4.8
The Gartner Group, a global information technology research advisory company, endorsed the Department’s high-level guidance and the hands-on toolbox as the:

… best government social media guidelines so far … [They] provide very down-to-earth, actionable decision frameworks ... [with] enough information [for staff] to formulate their own decisions about whether and how to venture into social media ... these are must reads for any public sector organization.⁹

How the guidance is being used

4.9
Some of the public entities we spoke to were using the guidance to improve their social media capability. The entities were using it in different ways, such as:

• for its intended purpose – the guidance has been useful when public entities are thinking about, or just beginning to use, social media;

• in place of internal policy – using the guidance as interim policy while they prepare their own policy and procedures; and

• supporting existing social media use – some entities that have been using social media for some time are using the guidance to validate what they are already doing.

4.10
Some entities thought the guidance was more helpful for organisations starting their social media use, and of less value to more experienced users of social media.

Stakeholder feedback

4.11
Our senior management survey asked a question about the level of awareness of the Department’s social media guidance. The high-level guidance document is intended to be useful to managers and leadership teams, so we were interested in the level of awareness. Figure 9 shows that only 28% of respondents were aware of the guidance.

Figure 9
Awareness of the high-level guidance for using social media among our survey respondents

4.12
Before we carried out our survey, some entities told us that they thought the Department had not promoted the guidance well enough. In our view, there is scope to increase the level of awareness of the guidance among senior managers in the public sector. The Department told us that it is taking steps to increase the awareness of its guidance.

4.13
In our survey, we also asked senior managers about their opinion of the effectiveness of the Department’s leadership of social media throughout the public sector. Figure 10 shows that 13% of respondents thought that the Department provided effective leadership of social media.

Figure 10
Our survey respondents’ level of agreement with statement that the Department of Internal Affairs provides effective leadership of social media

4.14
The results suggest that more visible leadership is needed, which could encourage more widespread and effective use of social media in the public sector.

Official information requests through social media

4.15
Under the Official Information Act 1982 and the Local Government Official Information Management Act 1987, official information requests can be made through any communications channel.

4.16
Therefore, public entities must respond to official information requests made through social media if they have a social media account. A request for official information made through Facebook should be treated in the same way as a request made in an email or by letter.

Responding to requests for official information

4.17
There are some complexities posed by social media that public entities need to be aware of when responding to requests under the Official Information Act:

• Entities must respond within 20 working days from the point when the entity is satisfied that the requester meets the eligibility requirements. However, eligibility might not always be clear from, for example, a Tweet or Facebook post.

• An entity might find it difficult to provide the requested information through the same channel by which the request was made. For example, there might be privacy issues or physical limitations, such as character limits. In these instances, the entity should ask the requester for a postal or email address that it can use to deliver the information.

Privacy issues

4.18
Figure 11 sets out some information from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner about the use of social media.

Figure 11
Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s comments on different social media considerations

Consideration | Comments

Social media is about interaction so you need to think about how that interaction will take place.

One of social media’s key strengths is its ability to reach people directly and to talk with them, not at them.

It is important that entities set the terms for the discussion from the beginning.

Questions for entities:

•Do you want to encourage people to interact with you publicly or privately?

•If you have a complaints function, what would happen if someone tried to lodge a complaint with you on (for example) your Facebook page – they’d be sharing their own personal information, and potentially other people’s. How would you manage that risk?

•Can you vet posts before they get published?

•What comment moderation policies do you have, and can you be sure your staff adhere to them?

Who will monitor what others post in response to your agency?

Staff members should be made aware of potential privacy concerns and watch for them. Staff need to know what is acceptable and what is not, and have the authority to deal with problems quickly.

Without close moderation, the entity may not respond quickly enough for your audience or to manage your risks.

Questions for entities:

•Have you got someone with the time and the ability to manage your social networking account successfully?

•Are your communications staff knowledgeable enough to handle any complaints that you receive through your site?

•Do they know who to report a problem to – for example, if someone uses your social networking account to alert your agency to a privacy breach?

•Is input from staff disciplines other than communications needed to help deal with the kind of things your social networking activity is likely to generate?

Using social media means you get information about the people who interact with your accounts.

Listening is a key part of using social media, so entities need to listen to what people are saying about them and to them.

Entities are likely to be interested in who their followers are and what motivates them. But entities don’t need to monitor everything their followers are doing.

People can choose to share information with entities through their posts, but their social media profile also holds personal information. People might not realise that personal information is available to entities that they follow.

Searching through the personal profiles of people who “liked” the entity’s page, or who follow the entity’s Twitter account, to try and establish demographics could be an issue.

Entities need to:

•Be clear about their objectives, that is, what do they want to do, before they start.

•Develop and publish a privacy policy for their account, and ensure that it is implemented as intended.

•Be clear why they are collecting information rather than just because it is possible. To collect detailed analytical data, entities should inform social media users of their intention to collect this.

Source: Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

Granting indemnities

4.19
Many social media sites require users to accept terms and conditions under which they are required to indemnify the site owner against improper use of the site (such as posting material that is defamatory or infringes privacy laws). Terms and conditions on Internet sites are generally offered on a “take it or leave it” basis. This means there is little (if any) opportunity for users to negotiate the scope of indemnity provisions. Agreeing to indemnify someone can be risky – depending on the context and the wording of the indemnity agreement, the liability that an entity agrees to could be unlimited.

4.20
Current legislation prohibits government departments from giving indemnities, unless:

• the type of indemnity is specifically permitted by the relevant Act; and

• it appears to the department that giving the indemnity is “necessary or expedient in the public interest”.

How to deal with indemnities

4.21
The social media guidance produced by the Department of Internal Affairs states that indemnities should be granted by an entity’s chief executive or their expressly nominated delegate.

4.22
When deciding whether to agree to the terms and conditions of use on a social media site, the chief executive or their delegate must:

• consider the risks posed by any indemnity provisions before agreeing to them; and

• be satisfied that it is necessary or expedient in the public interest to agree to them.

9 Gartner Group, see http://blogs.gartner.com.

Appendix 1

Theoretical models we refer to in our work

To help identify the social media success factors that we talk about in this paper, we drew on models of change management and social media practice. In particular, we used the:

• eight-step process for leading change by Dr John Kotter; and

• POST social media model by Forrester Research.

Kotter’s eight-step process for leading change

Dr John P Kotter is internationally known as an expert in leadership and business transformation. Dr Kotter summarises successful change in eight basic steps:

• establishing a sense of urgency;

• creating the guiding coalition;

• developing a change vision;

• communicating the vision for “buy-in”;

• empowering broad-based action;

• generating short-term wins;

• never letting up; and

• incorporating changes into the culture.

Forrester Research’s POST social media model

Forrester Research is a global research and professional advisory firm. It aims to guide leaders in business technology, marketing and strategy, and the technology industry.

For social media, the POST acronym stands for:

• People – first identify the audience and their social media behavioural traits. Who are these people conversing with and what is their aptitude for using social technologies?

• Objectives – like other strategies, social media requires a clearly defined purpose. What kind of conversations should be facilitated and what does success look like?

• Strategy – how will the organisation prepare, what needs to be done, and who needs to be involved both internally and externally? What are the possible barriers to overcome in order to achieve the objectives?

• Technology – which technology is appropriate for the audience, the objectives, and the strategy?

Forrester Research believes there is a risk that social media strategy can become a list of technologies to be deployed, in the belief that this will achieve the goal. Its preferred approach is to determine which target audience uses which social media channel, to gain an understanding of “who” is “where”. Entities should then use the social media strategy to plan how to reach those people.

International Association for Public Participation

The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) is an international organisation dedicated to advancing the practice of public participation. It was founded in 1990 in response to a rising global interest in public participation. The following table sets out the IAP2’s spectrum of public participation.

Inform | Consult | Involve | Collaborate | Empower
Increasing level of public impact
Public participation goal
To provide the public with balanced and objective information to assist them in understanding the problem, alternatives, opportunities, and/or solutions. | To obtain public feedback on analysis, alternatives, and/or decisions. | To work directly with the public throughout the process to ensure that public concerns and aspirations are consistently understood and considered. | To partner with the public in each aspect of the decision including the development of alternatives and the identification of the preferred solution. | To place final decision-making in the hands of the public.
Promise to the public
We will keep you informed. | We will keep you informed, listen to and acknowledge concerns and aspirations, and provide feedback on how public input influenced the decision. | We will work with you to ensure that your concerns and aspirations are directly reflected in the alternatives developed and provide feedback on how public input influenced the decision. | We will look to you for advice and innovation in formulating solutions and incorporate your advice and recom-mendations into the decisions to the maximum extent possible. | We will implement what you decide.
Example techniques

Fact sheets

Web sites

Open houses

Public comment

Focus groups

Surveys

Public meetings

Workshops

Deliberative polling

Citizen advisory committees

Consensus building

Participatory decision-making

Citizen juries

Ballots

Delegated decision

Source: International Association for Public Participation.

Appendix 2

About the respondents to our senior management survey

The following table sets out some high-level collated information about the respondents to our senior management survey and the size and type of public entities that they manage.

| Category | Respondents
All | Only level 1 managers
Age | 25-34 years | 4.0% | 0.0%
35-44 years | 22.0% | 9.4%
45-54 years | 42.0% | 45.3%
55-64 years | 27.3% | 37.7%
65+ years | 4.7% | 7.5%
Gender | Male | 58.7% | 67.9%
Female | 41.3% | 32.1%
Management level | Level 1 (for example, Chief executive/Director-General) | 35.3% | 100.0%
Level 2 (for example, Deputy Chief Executive/Deputy Director-General) | 64.7% | 0.0%
Sector | Public service department | 16.7% | 9.4%
Non-public service department | 2.0% | 3.8%
Crown entity – District health board | 10.0% | 11.3%
Crown entity – Other | 28.0% | 26.4%
State-owned enterprise | 7.3% | 5.7%
Local government | 33.3% | 39.6%
Other | 2.7% | 3.8%
Organisation size ($m of expenditure) | Less than $50m | 40.0% | 43.4%
$50m – $100m | 19.3% | 18.9%
$101m – $250m | 15.3% | 20.8%
$251m – $500m | 7.3% | 0.0%
$501m – $999m | 9.3% | 15.1%
$1bn – $5bn | 6.0% | 1.9%
More than $5bn | 2.7% | 0.0%
Organisation size (number of staff) | Less than 100 | 26.7% | 34.0%
100 – 250 | 22.0% | 24.5%
251 – 500 | 17.3% | 11.3%
501 – 1000 | 10.7% | 11.3%
1001 – 5000 | 15.3% | 13.2%
More than 5000 | 8.0% | 5.7%