Reach The Public

Hack for MN 2013

By Ben Ortega, Senior Software Engineer at GovDelivery

On June 1st we celebrated the first annual National Day of Civic Hacking, a day dedicated to leveraging technology and open data to improve communities.

Hard at Work Hacking at DevJam in Minneapolis, Open Twin Cities

Not satisfied with a typical single day event, our local civic-minded techies at Open Twin Cities organized Hack for MN, a weekend-long hackathon and competition where more than 100 techies and other interested parties teamed up and spent the weekend planning, brainstorming, and implementing ideas and tools to improve our communities.

Everyone got together Saturday morning at DevJam headquarters in south Minneapolis after having spent the prior days and weeks discussing project ideas on the web. Each project idea was assigned to a table, and after some opening remarks from organizers and local government officials, participants began to self-organize. People flowed from table to table discussing ideas; some projects never quite got off the ground, and others emerged spontaneously from chance meetings and conversations.

Once the afternoon arrived, tech-heavy teams went right to work crunching data and planning applications. Other teams took a service design approach, thinking carefully about big ideas such as technology access or sustainable development and brainstorming about how to better connect communities, and all the different personas, with available resources.

The teams spent most of Saturday afternoon coding and whiteboarding; the sound of collaborations and talk of the best open data sources hummed at lightning speed. Fortunately for us, the DevJam space (a former café) offered plenty of sunlight and open air, which lightened the intense hacking going on. We even got a surprise visit from an ice cream truck, which gave everyone a chance to relax for a bit.

By Sunday afternoon, the crowd had thinned out a bit as teams began to run out of gas, but nine teams powered through and presented their projects, which drew inspiration from a variety of community needs and data sources:

Sustaining Community- methods for crowdsourcing sustainability ratings

A system to find your polling place using SMS

MSP Bus (mspbus.org)- real-time bus departure information

Connect Me Minneapolis, a system for cataloging and discovering community technology assets

Solvabl- a website for tutoring and mentoring high school students interested in developing technical skills

An open Wi-Fi database for community Wi-Fi finding and geolocation use

Data Park- a set of GIS (Geographic Information System) tools for analyzing parking demand created by local businesses

My Bus Stop Totoro- some fun bus stop info visualizations

Code For Neighbors- a localized neighbor directory/alert system

More Hacking at Hack for MN Event, Open Twin Cities

I was honored to serve on the judging panel, especially since we were able to award prizes to every team that made it to the end of the hackathon. Prizes included meetings with local government officials or software entrepreneurs to determine next steps and subscriptions to GIS tools. All participants also received credits towards tech books, cloud computing and consulting services to continue developing their ideas.

All in all, it was great to see to both seasoned and aspiring hackers alike engaged and working together to tap into the potential of open tools and public data. It’s also inspiring to see development on several projects that have continued beyond the hackathon. It was great to represent GovDelivery as a judge and advisor, and I look forward to many years of hackathons to come.

Citizen Engagement, code for neighbors, collaboration, communication, community, connect me minneapolis, content, data, data park, digital, digital government, e-gov, engagement, geographic information system, Gov 2.0, GovDelivery, hack for mn, hackathon, innovation, local government, msp bus, my bus stop totoro, National Day of Civic Hacking, open twin cities, outreach, raise your hand if you want to make a difference, social media, solvabl, sustaining community

Upcoming Webinar: Improving Emergency Communications in Government

Unlike businesses in the private sector, government organizations have an additional challenge. In times of emergencies, such as a natural disaster or criminal threat to the community, getting that message successfully delivered to the right audience, and at the right time, can help save lives. A government agency’s ability to easily connect with community members during times of emergencies is crucial. And if the possibility of saving more lives and communities hinges on your message getting successfully delivered, you want to make sure that you’re using the best tools to accomplish that.

To help you zero in on how to improve your organization’s communications, Adelaide O’Brien, Research Director for IDC Government Insights, will share the latest research on emergency communications for government during an upcoming webinar. Communicating vital information effectively with the public in emergencies is an absolute necessity in gaining and retaining citizen satisfaction, and Adelaide will offer tips and examples of what works.

A communications strategy is key in properly relaying important information to your audience. Using the right system can help you build an audience, manage contacts, and send messages quickly- to specific community members when necessary.

Join Adelaide for this webinar, where she will discuss the challenges, strategies and technologies that are shaping these critical communications today.

Featured Speaker: Adelaide O’Brien, Research Director for IDC Government Insights

Date: Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Time: 1:00 pm Central
Cost: Free

This event is open to all government employees and contractors. To register for this complimentary event, click here.

To download Adelaide’s Analyst Connections report on emergency communications for government, visit http://direct.govdelivery.com/IDC-ENS-SM.

Adelaide O'Brien, Citizen Engagement, citizen service, collaboration, communication, community, customer service, digital government, email, emergency communications, engagement, government, IDC Government Insights, improving emergency communications in government, outreach, responsiveness, upcoming webinar

Innovation & Government: Don’t Be Intimidated by the Big “I” Word (Edison Wasn’t)

June 14th, 2013 | Posted by Anne Doucot for GovDelivery in Community Management/Engagement | Compelling Content | Email Communication | Usability - (0 Comments)

As I thought about the subject of these two words thrown together, I thought about different analogies I could use in order to put a fun visual to the idea. One thought that came to mind was imagining that Innovation and Government were high school kids in the hierarchy of popularity. Government might very well be intimidated by Innovation, who seems worldly and magnetic. While Government may be very caring and intelligent with a lot to say, it doesn’t quite know how to communicate efficiently. From Government’s point of view, Innovation appears to be an elusive, more glamorous creature that everyone wants to be like.

Flashing back to reality: government may still have a reputation for being behind when it comes to innovation and technology, but innovation needn’t be intimidating. Innovation often comes in small waves at a time. It begins with a slight change, an observation that eventually turns into action.

The three things that are most essential to achievement are common sense, hard work and stick-to-it-iv-ness….. -Thomas Edison

Innovation comes from many a series of trial and error. Triumph and defeat. Triumph and defeat. Defeat. And more defeat. Pay attention to how your customer is using your “product” per se. Are they using it the way you would expect? Are they doing, or searching for, something that you already offer, but that your organization doesn’t clearly communicate?

The company IDEO understood this idea when they were asked to design a new cap for the Crest Neat Squeeze toothpaste tube. The goal was to design a cap that reduced the leftover toothpaste gunk. They came up with a plan to make a cap that was a pop-on, pop-off design. Both the team and client were excited about this design, but after conducting a focus group with prototypes, they discovered that people kept trying to screw off the caps, getting very frustrated in the process. So they decided to try a one-twist method approach, or “half” of their innovation. The new cap was a hit with Crest and its customers.

If you work in the public sector, your product may be license renewals, passport applications, hunting licenses, or critical information in times of emergencies.

Like with any goal setting structure, attacking your goal head-on might seem intimidating at first. Follow these steps as a starting point.

Look at the big picture. What is your organization’s mission? If you’re not sure, find out. Before you can begin to truly communicate effectively, you need to know where your organization stands and what they stand for.

Who do you want to reach? Do you have particular segments within a certain community that you’d like to reach? Take the time to really think about this one. Drivers between the ages of 18 and 24? Veterans and warfighters? Hunters and fishers? Take a cue from successful advertisers and develop personas of your customer. To use the above example, create one for the driver, the veteran, and the hunter. Read more in GovLoop’s recent blog, “Want to engage online? Put people first.”

Have you already tried reaching citizens via traditional methods, such as through paper mailings or by attempting to keep your website up-to-date, and found that it isn’t reaching the people you want to reach? Something to chew on: 94% of adults are using email for information (Pew Research, 2010) and “43% of email is now opened on a mobile device” (Litmus, Email Analytics, 2012). With these facts, it’s worth exploring the implementation of a comprehensive digital communications platform to maximize your organization’s reach. To find out more about GovDelivery’s Digital Communications Management (DCM), click here.

What do they want? Do the citizens you’re serving want more information on calendar events or news? Do they want the ability to sign up for direct alerts via their email or phones? Add a feature to your website that allows people to sign up for various topics as well as a feature that allows them to give you feedback on what other information or services they would like from you.

Don’t be afraid of a series of trial and error. Some of history’s best innovators seemingly “stumbled” upon an innovation after numerous failures.

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. -Thomas Edison

Want to read more? Here are four great quick reads on innovation.

Citizen Engagement, communication, community, content, digital government, engagement, Facebook, GovDelivery, government, innovation, outreach, responsiveness, social media, technology

3 Ways Peer-to-Peer Services Will Rock Government’s World

Last week, I was able to attend the 2013 Personal Democracy Forum in New York City. This conference and community is about the present and future impact of digital technologies on our democracy. While listening to many of the thought-provoking and passionate presentations, there were a few different ideas that really spoke to me. Here are three that I wanted to share with you:

1) Yelp reviews will drive massive improvements in government customer service.

Luther Lowe, Director of Government Affairs & Business Outreach at Yelp, says that 85% of reviews on Yelp are positive. Yelp is already being used in a widespread manner to review consumer-facing government services. Reviews on your local library, your state’s Driver & Motor Vehicle (DMV) department, Social Security office, libraries, and parks at all levels already exist. This trend should be nurtured. When you visit a local newspaper website or blog, the comments are more than 75% negative or even rancid. On Yelp, users focus on government services rather than policy or politics and are often impressed with the competence and quality of the service providers. By calling attention to the positive and constructive comments, public sector managers can nurture the customer service mindset of citizen-facing staff and help connect staff to the impact of their work.

Check out these awesome Yelp reviews of the DMV (called Driver and Vehicle Services here in Minnesota) near my house.

What your organization can do: Start posting “Find and review us on Yelp” stickers at customer service counters, as many restaurants are doing. Encourage staff to monitor Yelp reviews to learn how users perceive service and to help identify ways to improve service.

Extra tip: Look at the LIVES approach on Yelp as a way to incorporate data government creates on restaurants into online reviews.

Digital outreach: Reflect and respond. You can write short blog entries and send out messages to the public promoting your Yelp reviews, how you’ve reacted to them and encourage residents to provide feedback either directly to your organization or through Yelp.

2) Waze (soon to be acquired by Google) and other travel efficiency services will reduce traffic, saving billions in lost productivity, lowering green house gases, and reducing road construction costs.

Waze provides a mobile app that allows users to “Outsmart traffic, together.” It’s an amazing system that combines route optimization, user reports of traffic and obstacles, location-based analysis of traffic flow, along with many other sources of data to suggest the most efficient way to move from Point A to Point B. Imagine if every user improves commuting efficiency by just 5%. This is a potentially stunning impact.

What your organization can do: Make sure traffic and road construction data is easily accessible to third party services like Waze, either through open data or application programming interfaces (APIs), and encourage the public to embrace these new technologies.

Digital outreach: Consider ways to connect email and SMS alerts to these third party services so that your customers can get alerts directly or within these applications. In addition, consider certifying and promoting traffic services that use government data effectively.

3) Kickstarter will launch thousands of new business ideas yearly.

As someone who has had to run through hundreds of meetings under the old school funding model for new ideas, I truly appreciate Kickstarter. I have watched friends raise money to help launch a new restaurant and a new children’s toy using Kickstarter. Not only does Kickstarter provide much-needed funding, it also provides a direct connection to potential customers rather than the previous models of having a bank or investor make guesses at whether an entrepreneur’s business plan has potential to attract paying customers.

What your organization can do: Add training about crowdfunding to small business courses at the public library and career center to ensure more people know about and can access these opportunities. Consider using crowdfunding to support government projects using government-focused services such as Citizinvestor (see this awesome presentation from founder, Jordan Raynor here).

Digital outreach: Use existing outreach channels such as email, SMS, and social media to promote any nonprofit or government-sponsored crowdfunding projects and look for ways to support and promote local entrepreneurs and artists running Kickstarter projects without picking favorites.

Andrew Rasiej, Founder, and Micah Sifry, co-Founder, of Personal Democracy Forum (PDF) along with many others at PDF, do a brilliant job of bringing together some of the biggest thinkers on these issues, and I’m thankful to have been able to attend the conference. Look for more posts by me on some of the insights gained from this conference. In the meantime, find all PDF videos here, including this awesome presentation on Powered by Us: Architecting Policy for a Connected from Nick Grossman.

APIs, CEO GovDelivery, Citizen Engagement, citizinvestor, communication, community, customer service, engagement, government services, innovation, kickstarter, local government, nick grossman, outreach, responsiveness, Scott Burns, technology, waze, yelp

What’s Next In Digital Communications- Upcoming Webinar

Among the vast majority of choices that are available to us on a recurring daily basis, the idea of choosing “correctly” can seem exhausting and never-ending. “Sushi or that amazing taco salad at that one place around the corner?” “Should I send the kids to public or private school?” “When is the best time to send that email so that I can actually reach a group of 30,000 stakeholders?”

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a little help in making the right decision?

Working as a communications professional in a government organization can be a challenge. With ongoing budget constraints and often seemingly limited digital resources, you may not be quite sure how you can most efficiently and effectively reach specific citizens when you need to. There may be situations where you want to reach a large number of community members, and there may be other situations where you need to reach a specific area that will be affected by a tornado, for example. Particularly in the latter instance, you want to have a system in place that allows your organization to get the necessary information out as quickly as possible, and to as many people who will be affected as possible.

With technology constantly evolving and so many options in social media platforms, you may be wondering, “How can I find what methods will work best for my organization?”

Jennifer Kaplan, Product Marketing Manager of GovDelivery, is hoping to help with tips on what’s next in digital communications, and how you can use technology to leverage resources and data you already have to better communicate with your stakeholders. During this upcoming webinar, she will discuss how you can use social media as a tool kit and the multiple benefits of cross-promotion, with examples from other government organizations who have found ways to effectively use digital communications as a means to save both time and organizational costs.

Featured Speaker: Jennifer Kaplan
Product Marketing Manager, GovDelivery

Date: Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Time: 2:00pm Eastern, 11:00am Pacific
Length: 60 minutes
Cost: Free

Citizen Engagement, communications, digital government, engagement, GovDelivery, Jennifer Kaplan, local government, outreach, responsiveness, social media, technology, what's next in digital communications, when is the best time to send an email

Insights for Government Organizations: Responding to Public Opinion with 2013 Trends

The results of a national survey recently released by the Pew Research Center reveals that favorable approval ratings for state and local government continued this year while opinions of the federal government hit a new low. The survey conducted this March with 1,501 adults from all 50 states resulted in positive ratings across party lines for state and local governments overall, but the lowest percentage ever of favorable opinions for the federal government. Just 28% rated the federal government favorably, down five points from last year’s survey, while 63% had a favorable opinion of local government and 57% looked well on their state government.

The survey provides detailed breakdowns on approval ratings across levels of government, including how a decrease in approval from both Democratic and Republican citizens has hurt public opinion of the federal government. Other ratings centered around the state and local level, where partisan makeup of state government matters but governments get similarly positive ratings across party lines for politically divided state governments. How can government agencies and organizations respond to new information and sometimes-critical public opinion?

Improving public opinion and customer service to citizens at all levels hinges on improving communication and collaboration both within party lines and across them, and within government and externally with the public. The federal government can answer negative feedback by placing a renewed focus on citizen customer service, responsiveness and collaboration. For government organizations at all levels, improving visibility to citizen needs and leveraging new tools and technologies to respond to those opportunities can assist in getting a handle on citizen perception and delivering real-time solutions in today’s world.

While the Pew research sheds light on citizen opinions, a recent GovDelivery survey identifies trends within government including collaboration, customer service, mobile government, big data and cybersecurity at the local, state and federal levels. Over 400 individuals in U.S. state and local government organizations and over 200 individuals in U.S. federal agencies and departments were surveyed, and the results are enlightening for any government organization looking to enhance their work with the public. The top trends that will impact government organizations at every level include mobile government, customer service and collaboration:

Mobile Government and Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD)

For government organizations, mobile access to government information and services has become more important than ever on both internal and external fronts. Internal access to applications and data through employee’s own devices can improve responsiveness to citizen needs and reduce costs to provide devices to government employees. External information distribution through mobile technologies and applications is on the rise, too.

A survey by Foresee in 2012 reported that one-third of citizens accessing federal government website are logging in from phones or tablets, and utilizing mobile technology can be critical for communicating time-sensitive messages and alerts. While more than half of GovDelivery’s survey respondents listed mobile/BYOD as a top trend, only 39 percent at the federal level said their agencies were currently addressing the issue. Especially in light of a new mandate from the Digital Government Strategy for federal agencies to enable mobile access to priority customer-facing services, federal government needs to find new ways to engage with both citizens and internal employees to maximize collaboration and improve customer satisfaction.

At the state and local level, organizations face similar challenges in implementing internal mobile access through platforms like BYOD and cloud computing and sharing information with mobile-enabled external channels like SMS and mobile apps. Mobile technologies are being embraced by government employees and citizens at a fast pace, creating opportunities for communication and generating new requirements for processes and policies just as quickly. Getting a handle on mobile and personal devices is becoming a requirement for all types of government organizations that prioritize customer service and collaboration.

Renewed Focus on Citizen Customer Service

As citizens’ perspectives shift on the federal government, the federal organizations have felt the pressure to prioritize quality citizen customer service. Focus around customer service has led to the Digital Government Strategy mandate around improving customer service through digital technologies; however, only half of the surveyed federal government workers reported using social media to communicate with the public. Meanwhile, over 60% county and state employees and almost 80% of city employees are using social media to share information. The federal government can capitalize on this untapped opportunity by turning to social media, SMS, email and apps to deliver integrated communications and customer service in the coming year.

State and local agencies working with lean budgets and close relationships with constituents and taxpayers need to put communication with customers first. Prioritizing customer service through digital channels like social media, email and text messaging facilitates broad communication with citizens and helps these organizations zero in on “low hanging fruit” to improve service levels. All types of government organizations benefit from improvements in collaboration when determining how to best deliver customer service.

Heightened Levels of Collaboration Fueled by Tools and Technology

New digital tools and technologies; increased demand for productivity and efficiency improvements from government organizations; and a new generation of individuals entering the workforce have converged to enable new levels of collaboration in government. Federal government agencies are now driving collaboration both internally with other agencies and externally with citizens through new tools, policies and processes.

Collaboration for local government employees can involve working between local, state and federal organizations to implement programs and drive critical priorities like public safety and public health. While most individuals at the state or local level feel that collaboration is being addressed by their organizations already, there is still room for improvement in utilizing new technologies like social media and other digital channels.

Inter-agency collaboration is expanding to include internal communications, working behind-the-scenes with other agencies and combined efforts on communication with the public. External collaboration is now taking place on social media channels, interactive communities and public forums. To take advantage of many of these new technologies, government organizations need to identify and implement new technologies while establishing policies and processes to manage communication and interactions with the public. These efforts will ultimately enhance and enable broad collaboration with stakeholders in the digital age and help increase customer satisfaction.

The good news for government organizations at every level is that information about citizen concerns and industry trends is more available than ever. The most recent news on public opinion and trends affecting government work reveal that these issues are all tightly related. Implementing mobile solutions for government; focusing technology and social media implementations around customer service; and improving internal, inter-agency, and public collaboration are all part of the solution for government organizations working on initiatives to better serve the public.

To view the complete list of survey categories and rankings and to learn more how the public sector can act on the top trends in government, download GovDelivery’s white papers below:

Top 2013 Trends for Federal Agencies

2013 Trends for State and Local Government

BYOD, collaboration, communication, community, data, digital government, foresee, GovDelivery, innovation, local government, mobile, outreach, Pew Research Center, technology

Insights on Successful Emergency Communication Plans from Adelaide O’Brien, Smart Government Strategies Research Director

In today’s world, government agencies need to leverage digital platforms to provide better customer service to citizens, especially in times of emergency. Organizations with more responsive emergency communications reach the public quickly and effectively during natural disasters and other threats to citizens and property. GovDelivery recently interviewed Adelaide O’Brien, research director of Smart Government Strategies for IDC Government Insights, about the importance of sophisticated emergency communications. Her research on innovative government services delivery gives her deep experience in the strategies agencies can use to develop effective emergency communication plans.

Adelaide answered questions about how consistent use of government communications systems enables organizations to react quickly and effectively in the face of emergencies. Emergency scenarios provide challenges to government agencies that need to provide timely and key information during times of risk and unpredictable network availability. Without effective communications tools, governments are limited in utilizing their vast resources to benefit citizens. Many emergency notification systems are only used once or twice a year, but need to be available, capable and reliable during those emergencies.

An integrated digital communications system including Web, email, SMS, voice, video and social media support is the best way government agencies can prepare for sharing information and monitoring public response during a crisis. Communication tools like social media and email have the power to extend the reach of official government information and in the case of emergencies, ensure citizen safety and aid in community recovery. Instead of one-way information streams and rapid dissemination of incorrect information typical of traditional communication methods, a multichannel emergency communication approach enables interactivity between the public and official information sources.

To find out more about the latest digital strategy and technology solutions necessary for next-generation government agency emergency communications, read the full interview here.

Adelaide O'Brien, better customer service, communications, community, digital communications system, digital government, emergency communication plans, engagement, GovDelivery, innovative government, mobile, outreach, reach the public, responsive emergency communications, responsiveness, Smart Government Strategies for IDC Government Insights, social media, technology

Don’t Follow Your Passion

May 31st, 2013 | Posted by GovDelivery in Compelling Content | GovLoop | Usability - (0 Comments)

By Steve Ressler, Founder of GovLoop

On a recent trip to the West Coast, I finished an interesting read entitled “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” by Cal Newport.

Cal is an interesting character – a recent MIT PhD graduate, he is an assistant professor at Georgetown University in Computer Science. On the side for years, he’s been a prolific blogger writing about study hacks and ways to increase productivity.

He became well known as he wrote a series of articles for NY Times and CNN on the Passion Fallacy & Why You Shouldn’t Follow Your Passion.

In his book, Cal interviews a number of successful individuals as well as popular career advice literature and provides a pretty interest framework.

Here are 10 of my favorite nuggets from the book:

1) The core idea of this book is simple: To construct work you love, you must first build career capital by mastering rare and valuable skills, and then cash in this capital for the type of traits that define compelling careers. Mission is one of those traits

2) Have a Craftsman mindset – the craftsman mindset, a focus on what value you’re producing in your job, vs the passion mindset, a focus on what value your job offers you.

3) Don’t obsess over discovering your true calling. Instead, master rare and valuable skills. Once you build up the career capital that these skills generate, invest it wisely. Use it to acquire control over what you do and how you do it, and to identify and act on a life-changing mission

5) Focus on deliberate practice – Doing things we know how to do well is enjoyable, and that’s exactly the opposite of what deliberate practice demands…. Deliberate practice is above all an effort of focus and concentration. That is what makes it “deliberate,” as distinct from the mindless playing of scales or hitting of tennis balls that most people engage in.

6) This is what you should experience in your own pursuit of “good.” If you’re not uncomfortable, then you’re probably stuck at an “acceptable level.”

7) A good career mission is similar to a scientific breakthrough—it’s an innovation waiting to be discovered in the adjacent possible of your field. If you want to identify a mission for your working life, therefore, you must first get to the cutting edge—the only place where these missions become visible.

8) Successful individuals behave differently – Rather than believing they have to start with a big idea or plan out a whole project in advance,” he writes, “they make a methodical series of little bets about what might be a good direction

9) There is, however, a problem lurking here: When you look past the feel-good slogans and go deeper into the details of how passionate people like Steve Jobs really got started, or ask scientists about what actually predicts workplace happiness, the issue becomes much more complicated. You begin to find threads of nuance that, once pulled, unravel the tight certainty of the passion hypothesis, eventually leading to an unsettling recognition: “Follow your passion” might just be terrible advice.

10) Don’t follow your passion; rather, let it follow you in your quest to become, in the words of my favorite Steve Martin quote, “so good that they can’t ignore you.”

See the original post on GovLoop.

Cal Newport, GovLoop, passion fallacy, so good they can't ignore you, Steve Ressler, ways to increase productivity, why you shouldn't follow your passion

Integrating Government Social Media and Email Communications

In previous blogs you’ve heard about how government organizations are embracing digital communication channels – replacing traditional face-to-face and paper-based methods – to share information with citizens and other stakeholders. In fact, Britain’s coalition government announced last month that it would be providing ‘Twitter exclusives’ to journalists to bolster its social media image and help prevent the spread of negative stories. But is Twitter alone the most effective way for the government to communicate with citizens and the media?

Social Media Use = More Email Communication

While Twitter may be an extremely useful tool in relaying updates to a wide group of people instantaneously, it has limitations. The pace at which Twitter updates occur means that updates could disappear from the top position in feeds within seconds, depending on the number of individuals and organizations citizens and media outlets follow. How can government organizations create a more lasting impression? A Nielsen study revealed that social media use actually makes people consume email more, not less – particularly for the highest social media users. That means social media users are looking for information that supplements what they see on Twitter, and email can help meet this need by providing enhanced content.

Multiple Channels – One Message

Instead of relying solely on Twitter, governments should utilize a comprehensive digital communications strategy that incorporates multiple channels to get the word out as quickly and broadly as possible. Email, with its broad user base and ease of accessibility, needs to be a vital component in this comprehensive strategy. Email also delivers the greatest value when it’s part of an integrated platform of communication tools. That means organizations should link outbound email with Twitter and other social media channels to provide a consistent and effective experience. Accordingly, the growth in available social media outlets has only reinforced the importance of email’s role as a reliable and foundational communications channel.

Seamless Communication Vehicles, Multiple Benefits

Implementing an integrated digital communications strategy can provide government organizations with a number of benefits, such as reduced costs and improved delivery to citizens and other stakeholders. Most importantly, by using a variety of communication channels, the public gets the information they want, when they want it and how they want it.

To learn more about how to effectively integrate email with social media, download the following two white papers written by Liz Azyan, an independent researcher and blogger specializing in government communication and online engagement:

The best practices and case studies outlined in these white papers will demonstrate how utilizing a comprehensive set of digital communication solutions will help enhance government interaction with the public – whether citizens or the media.

Britain's coalition, communication, communications, content, email, engagement, Integrating Email in Government Communications, Integrating Social Media in Government Communications, Liz Azyan, multiple channels, Nielsen study, outreach, responsiveness, social media, technology, Twitter, UK Government

2013 Best Practices in Digital Communications- Upcoming Webinar

Keeping up with the latest in digital communication tools and strategies can be a challenge in any organization. As a government communications professional, you probably face additional unique challenges as well. Being able to effectively reach particular groups of people in emergencies, for example, is one situation that can mean the difference between life and death.

How do you keep up? Learning and collaborating with other agencies who are successfully handling some of the same challenges is one way. Recently, we were fortunate to have some of the most innovative and successful government communicators from around the country share their tips on best practices in digital communications at our 2013 Digital Communications Tour.

As a result of the positive response, we’re bringing back some of the most popular panelists, plus a couple new ones, to the last webinar event for the tour on Wednesday. With a open question and answer format, these government communicators will be on hand to answer your questions, from best practices for maximizing direct connections with the public to using communications to drive mission value to what social media strategies have been successful.

“We’re excited to have these government digital communications visionaries share their deep expertise, as well as their most successful tactics for reaching more people than ever before, streamlining complex communications and engaging the public to create lasting value.”
(Scott Burns, CEO and co-founder of GovDelivery)

Date: Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Time: 12:00pm Eastern, 9:00am Pacific
Length: 90 minutes
Cost: Free

This event is open to all government employees and contractors. To register for this complimentary event, click here.

2013 Digital Communications Tour, Andrew Hoff, communication, communications, community, content, digital government, engagement, GovDelivery, innovation, Jenna Covey, Jeremy Bertrand, Melissa Jordan, responsiveness, Sara VonBargen, technology, Webinar

Upcoming Webinar: Improving Emergency Communications in Government

Insights for Government Organizations: Responding to Public Opinion with 2013 Trends

Don’t Follow Your Passion

2013 Best Practices in Digital Communications- Upcoming Webinar

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