8:00 a.m.
Continental Breakfast & Networking

8:30 a.m.
Chairperson's Opening Of Day Two

Steve Ressler, President and Founder
GOVLOOP

8:40 a.m.

Twitter: Getting Your Information Out Further And Faster – Why It's So Much More Than Telling People What You Had For Breakfast

On January 30th, 2008, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) jumped into the blogosphere with the Evolution of Security Blog. Since then, TSA’s social media team has strived to lead the way in innovative and transparent communications with the public. With over 450 airports nationwide and 2 million passengers traveling through TSA checkpoints daily, communication with travelers is mission critical. Whether it's explaining procedures, dispelling myths, or putting out fires, the use of social media has allowed TSA to reach a wider audience while gaining a positive reputation for openness with the public.

TSA added Twitter to its social media arsenal in April of 2008. Twitter is the current social media buzzword. Most of the uniformed brush Twitter off as a novelty application used to tell your friends and family about what you had for breakfast or your fear of squirrels, but it is so much more than that. When used properly, it can be the extra boost you need to get your information further and faster than your blog alone is taking it.

• Twitterterms – Learn about twitter terms such as tweet, retweet,
  follow, hash marks, etc.
• Twittertools – Measure your activity, get eyewitness on the ground reports
  and more - - all with the use of free Twitter applications
• Twittertips – Improve your tweets and Twitter pages by following some simple tips
• Twittertalk – Learn how to keep your message nice and tight while still attracting attention from your readers and other potential followers
• Twittertangles – What not to do in Twitterland
• Twittertales – Hear about some of the success stories TSA has had with Twitter

Curtis "Bob" Burns – Blogger, Office of Strategic Communications & Public Affairs
TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

10:00 a.m.

Using Social Media To Increase Awareness Of Your Organization’s Efforts, Engage Many Publics, Share Resources And Lift The Level Of Shared Knowledge

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the world's largest funding organization for biomedical research and supports that research in more than 3,000 institutions in all 50 states, the territories, and more than 90 countries around the world (www.nih.gov). Within NIH, there are 27 Institutes and Centers, such as the National Cancer Institute, The National Human Genome Research Institute, the Center for Research Resources (http://www.nih.gov/icd/). An important component of the NIH is its own intramural research program. The Office of Communications and Public Liaison in the Office of the Director of NIH has been working through a variety of platforms, considering issues of security and privacy, working with extramural institutions and the intramural program as well as other agencies in HHS and across the government to make careful choices about the most effective uses of social media.

• Holding the first USA-based NIH Wikipedia Academy in conjunction with the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikipedia volunteers
• Engaging an internal organization's employees using social media approaches and working toward permissions and acceptances and recommendations
• Collaboration with other agencies on salmonella outbreaks and sharing information with researchers and workers in Haiti
• Reformulating your purpose and mission using language that will resonate with your target audiences

• How to engage, select, and gain acceptance for social media particularly in a government setting
• The advantages of employing collaborative web-based platforms (such as wikis, blogs, and threaded discussions) to facilitate communication across large organizations

Marin P. Allen, Ph.D., Deputy Associate Director and Director of Public Information
Office of Communications and Public Liaison
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH

10:50 a.m.

Communicating In The Cloud: Using Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Feeds To Better Communicate With Employees And Customers

At the Missouri River Regional Library, many different social networks are used for promotion and communication. Since most social networks use Really Simple Syndication (RSS) in some way, the Library has discovered that reusing the RSS feeds that they provide can make for effective communication with both employees and customers.

In this presentation, we'll discuss the ways to pull information and communication - both from your organization and from your organization's "friends" - from social networks like Facebook, Flickr and Twitter, and reuse it.

• Where to go to get RSS
• What options there are to redisplay that RSS (including a brief discussion of how to combine and manipulate those RSS feeds, for free)
• How to create partnerships in your community to get information out to your citizens so that they can join in the conversation and make their voices heard
• The benefits, and drawbacks, to creating an open forum in the Web 2.0 world

You'll walk away with tips to increase the range of your "voice" in the community - - ways to make more people aware of what you offer and ways to let them talk back to you, using Web 2.0 and social media services.

Robin Hastings, Information Systems Coordinator
MISSOURI RIVER REGIONAL LIBRARY

Join a group of your colleagues for lunch with an informal discussion facilitated by one of our expert speakers. Take this opportunity to join others in a small, interactive group setting to network and brainstorm solutions to your most pressing social media concerns.

1:10 p.m.

Group Exercise: Brainstorm Solutions And New Ideas You Can Use

You asked for it, you got it! Interact and discuss solutions to your social media challenges with your fellow attendees and our experienced speakers. You will leave with new tools and hands-on experience and ideas for more successfully applying best practices to your own social media initiatives.

1:55 p.m.

Strategic Use Of Social Media In The Response To H1N1 - - Engaging, Monitoring, Disseminating

From the beginning of the H1N1 event, social media has been a part of the coordinated strategy for communication, education, and information dissemination at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This event intensified the need to make credible CDC health information available when, where, and how users want it, and to utilize non-traditional channels to do so.

During this presentation, we will discuss how CDC selected critical social media channels and developed outreach tools for flu. We’ll review the approaches used for the response, including the development of widgets, eCards, and graphic buttons, and the use of Twitter, Facebook, mobile technology, and blogger outreach. The presentation will also cover social media monitoring during a public health event and the use of web metrics for tracking and evaluation.

• Strategies for integrating social media into traditional media efforts
• Creative ways to repurpose information in social media spaces
• Ways to monitor social media channels

This beneficial case study is a "can’t-miss" for anyone interested in lessons learned around implementing a social media strategy.

Holli Seitz, Interactive Media Communication Coordinator, Division of eHealth Marketing National Center for Health Marketing
CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC)

2:45 p.m.

Afternoon Refreshment & Networking Break

3:00 p.m.

How To Communicate Via Social Media With A Minimal Budget And Reduced Staff

"We don't have time for that." A common misconception about launching a robust government social media program is that it will take too much time to add new information to yet another new set of tools - - especially when you're dealing with reduced staff. But when your operating budget is cut and traditional means of communication are not funded (ex. newsletters), social media is one of the free technologies that you would be remiss to discount. Time is not such an important factor as you may have thought.

• Methods for setting up your government blog and website integration
• Time-savers such as pushing blog entries to your other social networks via RSS, and exploring the new trend of content management systems with built-in social media integration
• Pitfalls to be aware of – and tips on how to avoid them

Kristy Fifelski, Web Services Program Manager
CITY OF RENO, NEVADA

3:50 p.m.

Using Wikis As A Collaborative Training Tool To
Build And Sustain Community

The Training and Organizational Development (TOD) branch of Texas Parks and Wildlife has embraced the idea that online social networking and collaborative tools can help further develop the knowledge, skills and abilities of its employees while reducing costs for employees seeking refresh training in key management courses. The agency has embarked on several blended learning programs, including the use of wikis to create communities for sharing ideas, called Communities of Practice. Such communities are specific to a course topic and include only graduates of the course. As such, the supportive atmosphere and common experience allows the community to open threaded discussions, review current literature, ask questions of other employees at their level, and continue to receive feedback from the course trainers.

• Understanding what a wiki is and how it can be used
• Various uses for wikis and determining their suitability
• Defining communities of practice
• Exploring wiki design and options to consider
• Implementing a wiki into your organization’s culture
• Lessons learned about using wikis in training and other areas of a government agency

Chris Victoria, Training and Organizational Development Specialist
TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT

4:40 p.m.
Chairperson's Recap:
Key Takeaways And What To Do When You Get Back To The Office

We'll recap the highlights of the past two days and ask you to share key insights and next steps with the group.

Steve Ressler, President and Founder
GOVLOOP