Washington Policy Brief > Social Media Class to Launch for Federal Agencies

Social Media Class to Launch for Federal Agencies

February 01, 2012

Beginning in February, IBM’s social media director, Gadi Ben-Yehuda, will be teaching a 12-week government-sponsored course in social media for federal agencies. Ben-Yehuda explained in a Nextgov.com article that social media could mean many things for the government – from new ways to incite public input on new policies through Twitter and Facebook to adding new social media customer services components for taxpayers or Social Security recipients.

Nextgov.com reported that officials decided to offer the full-length course based on numerous requests from employees who have attended the General Services Administration’s Web Manager University. Ben-Yehuda said each class session will include focus on class readings about theories of community formation and digital communication, training on how to build a wiki, and writing for social media. Additionally, government industry speakers, Lovisa Williams and Steve Ressler, will present during the courses.

"The government is not monolithic," Ben Yehuda said. "An agency like the State Department is all about engagement . . . Another agency like [the Justice Department] is not about engagement per se, it's about enforcing rules . . . They have such widely divergent goals that necessarily their social media tools are going to be different."

According to the article, Ben-Yehuda wants to teach students how to judge when social media can realistically aid an agency, when it can't, and what the drawbacks are. Ben-Yehuda wants students to understand that social media enables government to interact with citizens on a deeper level than was ever possible before. And with the rise in social media, citizens expect to be able to communicate through multiple different paths.

"More than anything, that's what I want people in the class to start thinking about," he said. "Asking, can we add a social layer to this program? Would it add value at all? Would it help? Then if we do add a social layer, what are the best tools to use? I want to get beyond just talking about Facebook, Flickr and YouTube."

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