GovBytes: What is Your Social Media Presence Worth to You?

Social Media, the way you hear people talk about it you’d think it was the end all be all of the business world but is it? It seems like social media is about being there rather than what you do once your there. Once your agency or city has a twitter and a facebook it’s easy to think that the goal is accomplished and quiet frankly that’s what happens 90 percent of the time.

Just like anything else social media excellence doesn’t just happen, it takes time and effort. Sometimes that comes from staff employees, interns or even outside consulting. Social Media consulting is tackled in a recent GovTech article: Will Agencies Pay for Social Media Advice?

There are many issues to sort out — such as usage policies for social media, Web design and back-end system integration. There’s sentiment that many governments may not have enough expertise to make these decisions themselves, especially with an aging workforce that was hired long before “Retweet” was a word.

It’s obvious that the importance of Social Media is preached from the pulpits but are governments (local, state and federal) really putting their money where their mouth is by making a time and money investment?

The question I really want to get at is:

What is your social media presence worth to you? Is it a full time employee? A social media team? An intern? or maybe the help of outside experts? What’s the right amount of blood, sweat a tears to be putting in?