How should Government agencies utilize sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Digg and StumbleUpon. Identifying best and worst practices in the application of social media is a work in progress of course, as communities develop, grow and change.  It’s best to start out with the basics that will hold true regardless of these changes:

Social Media Best Practices:

• Start with a plan, not tactics.  Research and build a Social Media Roadmap involving: Audience, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Tools/Technology and Metrics.
• “It’s all about giving” – Successful social media programs involve listening and participation. That participation centers around giving value before expecting anything in return.
• Commit resources & time to be successful or you may very well fail. It’s important to forecast labor hours, who, what, when, how and where with the intention of succeeding, not just experimenting. If a social media effort is successful, scalability will be an even bigger issue if you don’t plan for it. Hiring a social media community manager is becoming an important role that must be filled.
• Be transparent with intentions & your identity or you may alienate the very audiences you’re trying to connect with.  Objectives, strategy and doing your homework about a community should make it pretty obvious what types of messages are appropriate.  Being transparent about intentions might come in the form of stating a purpose:  ”XYZ Agency has created this Facebook page to help the public understand our role in communicating health and safety issues that may threaten the public welfare ”.
• Understand, you do not control the message.  Old habits die hard and there’s a tendency to want to treat social media participation like advertising where the ability to control messaging is the norm. Once information or media is available on the social web, people will inevitably mash it up, stretch it, pull it and reshape it according to their interests.

Welcome participation, feedback and co-creation. As comfort levels rise with social web participation, agencies will see opportunities to encourage participation with communications. Developing relationships and community within social communities on the web can facilitate buy in and provide invaluable feedback.