In some ways, the new government social media guidelines came at just the right time, giving us a hook to promote what we do within the Digital team. The digital champions are already a key part of that, as are social media surgeries that we have started to make a regular feature. We should really have called them social media coffee mornings, as we’ve situated them in the neutral territory of an internal coffee shop (goodness knows what the staff there will make of us if they get too popular).

It’s been a really interesting mix of people so far – asking incisive and insightful questions about how they can get started on particular platforms, how they can use social media for work, and indeed for personal use. One of the interesting aspects of one surgery was the presence of two of our more experienced champions. They added an extra layer of context, and were able to share their enthusiasm and experience too. The buzz was infectious and so had an added bonus in refreshing my own motivation.

So from that perspective alone, it’s an experiment I’d encourage others to repeat. Along with our surgeries we’re hosting a Digital Day next week – where we hope to showcase some of the great digital talent around the department – we’re uncovering some really interesting examples of how people are using social media in their lives outside of work. We also want to help and encourage others to get started in new territory – to do something new online. Tim has blogged about the rationale for the day here, but hopefully an extra benefit will be that it’ll do something to sell digital in ways that are relevant to individuals, so addressing some of how we get to different attitudinal groups.