If you think you have a lot to overcome in terms of getting off the ground in social media and engaging in conversations about your brand, imagine working in communications at the Internal Revenue Service. It’s a highly regulated, conservative organization that doesn’t exactly have a lot of loyal fans.
But at BlogWell, the IRS’ Jan Deneroff gave us an early, behind-the-scenes look at how the organization is getting things going.
He talked about how the IRS is focusing on helping taxpayers, how it’s using tools such as Twitter and YouTube and how it’s doing it all on a shoestring budget with few staff resources.
A few of Deneroff’s big ideas:
- Direct them back to your home base. Deneroff and his team are using social tools to reach out to those with questions and then direct them back to the website, where they can find comprehensive info.
- Create specific channels for specific audiences on Twitter. The IRS has five official Twitter accounts with specific targets, ranging from general info for taxpayers to news, updates and industry information for professional tax preparers.
- Remember your diverse audiences. The IRS is posting its YouTube videos in multiple languages including Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese – and even sign language.
Watch Deneroff’s case study. Slides are available.
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This is a fantastic blog post that I am happy to share with my accounting colleagues at Kaufman, Rossin & Co. (http://www.kaufmanrossin.com). The Firm hired me just over a year ago as their first social media coordinator, and it's refreshing seeing other professional financial services organizations implementing social media initiatives as well. The IRS has done a great job targeting specific groups of people and I look forward to watching their success grow as social media continues to change.
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