Posts By Jeffrey Levy

Social Media: Resources for Beginners

I was just asked “should I take this class on social media.” Here’s my somewhat complex answer to what seems like a simple question. Like any new field, learning how to use social media well isn’t a matter of taking one class, but rather of learning a variety of skills and mental models, and thenRead… Read more »

Having a Little Fun with Official Social Media: Old Spice And @EPAgov

Are you familiar with last year’s Old Spice ad campaign? They featured a formed NFL player and were hilarious. Here’s one of my favorites for context: The true social media genius, though, was that they invited people to tweet requests to him, and then they shot short video responses. In each one, he reads theRead… Read more »

Data point: does announcing we’re walking away from a Facebook page invite vandalism?

Over the spring, I saw several discussions, in various social media venues, about whether to announce that you’ll be away from an agency Facebook page if your agency shuts down. The short version of each side is:pro: people don’t expect regular posts or responsescon: since you can’t review comments or posts on FB before theyRead… Read more »

Using the Hourglass to Respond to Questions in a Crisis

Here at EPA, we were quite busy this spring providing information about radiation levels resulting from the earthquake and tsunami that damaged Japanese nuclear reactors. Check out the site! Now we’re thinking about lessons learned, and one thing I came up with was a concept of a question/answer “hourglass,” where we take in questions fromRead… Read more »

When the Tin Standard is Enough: Social Media Engagement vs. Broadcast

As I’ve said before, there are very few absolutes when it comes to social media. Trust me, I’m well aware that the first word in “social media” is “social.” And there’s no question that the gold standard is to fully engage in any platform like Twitter, and that means retweeting, following others, etc. In Facebook,Read… Read more »