Having trouble convincing your boss that Twitter isn’t a waste of time? Then you might find it interesting to learn that social media evangelists across the U.S. federal government are blasting out Tweets several times a day to their constituents. Here are their suggestions for how to integrate new media tools such as Twitter, Facebook and Flickr into a large, old-fashioned bureaucracy:

1. Identify a business problem you are trying to solve. 
2. Get buy-in from management. 
3. Start small and grow your social media efforts gradually.
4. Keep it simple.
5. Make sure the data you make available on social media applications is relevant.
6. Set aside enough resources for social media efforts.
7. Set expectations on the frequency of your updates and how fast you can respond to questions and comments.
8. Don’t be afraid to replace a legacy media process with a new social media process. 
9. Establish metrics to measure whether your new media approaches are working. 
10. Don’t forget security.

Source: Network World Fusion, April 9, 2009