What is particularly interesting about this post, from a public sector communicators perspective, is the comments that it attracted. As we move to deploy social media tools in the .govt.nz namespace, we are likely to see the same range of reaction that is displayed in microcosm on this blog post.

There are (as of today) only 28 comments on the post and I recommend that you read them all. They provide a fascinating insight into the convergence of social media and a (much-loved) public sector web environment – hence a good indication of some of what is in store for the first agencies to use these tools or channels.

Obviously, they veer from the enthusiatic:

If find these a boon, if only because I have the one set of bookmarked articles on both home and work computers and in the case of del.icio.us on my mobile phone too.
Ged

…to the outraged:

I think this is awful! At what other time has the BBC put other sites logos anywhere on their site aside from when they feature in the story? Is this a groundbreaker? They mention the New York Times and Washington Post having the same system – er, well they are commercial sites carrying paid for advertisements. The joy of the BBC is the lack of this, and I believe thats what we are paying for through the license fee.

Stop polluting our site and get them off!
Richard Turnbull

Through the gamut of, at times, emotive reactions, there are a couple of comments that really stand out as warnings for public sector organizations (aside from the above execration about advertisements). The comment about Newsvine, in particular, is a salutary one:

We at Newsvine were very disappointed to see that a button for the site was not included. Newsvine is a very high-traffic site and, if I’m not mistaken, it sends a lot of visitors to the BBC site.
Alice

Alice has a good point. Public sector organisations have to be very careful about the companies that they (are being seen to) endorse by including them on their pages. In this case, it is simply not practical to include them all, but there are tools that allow the user to choose which bookmarking service they would like to use. The final comment points to a good example.

Where decisions do need to be made about which services to include on the page, then these should be informed by pre-existing relationships. If Newsvine is sending a lot of traffic to the BBC, then in the spirit of participation, the BBC should reciprocate: that is the point of social media.

In other words, the criteria for inclusion should be similarly based on a social media-grounded assessment. How do they fit with your shared audience? It should be a complementary relationship:

My only concern is the choice of bookmarks presented – if you visit Reddit, it’s seems primarily concerned with off-beat political news. And Digg is more concerned with niche tech stories, in my opinion.

It therefore gives the impression that the BBC selected a few social book marking sites on the basis of these sites being popular, rather than because they actually have any real connection with BBC news coverage.
Brian Turner

Conclusion

Public sector communicators should not really be surprised by the range and intensity of the reactions here. It is the environment we work in. What I found interesting about these comments is two things.

One, the extremes are balanced by some very thoughtful and helpful suggestions (this could just reflect the sort of people who read the Beeb’s editorial blogs), in any event, that is extremely encouraging.

Two, there is a lesson about how you deploy social media. It is not a case of just using the technology; you need to understand how the whole (eco)system works and that, particularly in the public sector, is not an easy task.