By Lauren Modeen, Manager of Online Strategy, GovLoop

Ever wondered what the biggest online community killer is? I’ve been looking at communities lately of all shapes and sizes. Is it mean bloggers? Spam? Too controversial?

Answer: Not Interesting

So…how do you keep things interesting?

5 Ways to Make Your Community Interesting

1. Invite people passionate about your subject. I get kicks talking about government, food, and running and will enthusiastically contribute to communities focused on this. Others, I may not care about, and will contribute little or nothing. You need fired up instigators, so go find your people.

2. Don’t hide or delete controversial posts. For examples, there was a blog post featured on GovLoop.com during an outdoor rally in the fall on 2010 in Washington DC. On the surface, the post appeared controversial, but in fact presented a rational personal opinion and generated solid discussion. Remember, as long as the discussion is respectful to everyone, there is nothing wrong with things getting a bit hot.

3. Drive the community around something people can get excited about and bond over: either a cause they are working towards, or a geographic commonality.

4. As the community manager keep discussions, blog posts, and new additions fresh and interesting. Don’t let things get stale.

5. Engage people directly so they feel personally invested in the community. Feature posts, discussions, ask direct questions, include specific names in a newsletter, and celebrate recent, personal successes. When people see their name in lights, things look a lot more interesting.

By Jennifer Kaplan, Client Success Consultant, GovDelivery

As summer comes to an end, many of us bid the warm weather farewell by heading to our local state or county fairs to take in what’s left of outdoor entertainment (and fill up on fried food of course!). Fairs across the US draw large crowds throughout the summer, making it a perfect forum for public outreach from state and local government agencies.

The Kitsap County fair in Bremerton, Washington brought in about 35,000 people during its annual 5 day run in late August. This year, the communications department at Kitsap County decided to capitalize on this opportunity to promote the Kitsap County Electronic Communication System (KENS).

Powered by GovDelivery, KENS is a comprehensive electronic solution that takes a single message and delivers it effortlessly to several different platforms. KENS allows residents to sign up for email and text notifications on a host of topics including county news, meetings and agendas, project bidding, employment opportunities, department calendars, sheriff’s office data, election results, inclement weather information, emergency alerts and more. Subscribers can choose how frequently they want to be notified, and they can unsubscribe or add new notifications at any time.

Kitsap County launched the program in June 2011 and has already acquired over 1,300 subscribers. During this year’s fair, the county hosted a special booth allowing residents to sign up for the KENS service. They also handed out magnets and flyers to spread the word. By utilizing this on-site in-person acquisition technique, they were able to make contact with over 500 hundred residents. In addition to collecting new subscribers, Kitsap County was also able to grow their social media audience by getting citizens to “like” their Facebook page. As a result of these awareness efforts, they noticed the number of impressions per posting on Facebook had increased substantially.

“As people find the need for information, we believe the personal interaction, including the delivery of magnets and handouts, will direct them to subscribe and allow them to take advantage of the services offered through our partnership with GovDelivery” says Doug Bear, Public Communications Manager at Kitsap County. “This is just the tip of the iceberg as it relates to this effort” added Bear.

Local government agencies, take note! Fairs and community events can be the optimal situation to reach citizens and engage them with your communication efforts. Kudos to Kitsap County for leveraging this perfect opportunity to promote their new service. Hopefully they treated themselves to a deep friend Snickers bar…

By Lauren Modeen, Manager of Online Strategy, GovLoop

The New York Times Insight Group recently came out with an informative report on the Psychology of Sharing. This report is comprised of lots of insightful statistics and recommendations. One section that stands out in particular to me is the 6 personas of online sharing:

The New York Times study found there are six sharing personas for online fans. Understanding these different types can help you better tap into the motivations of your fans, and in turn, increase the likelihood that your content is shared.

6 Personas:

1. Altruists—Altruists share content out of a desire to be helpful and aspire to be seen as a reliable source of information. Preferred tools: Facebook and email.
2. Careerists—Careerists are well-educated and seek to gain a reputation for bringing value to their networks. They prefer content that is more serious and professional in tone. Preferred tools: LinkedIn and email.
3. Hipsters—Hipsters are younger sharers who have always lived in the “information age.” They use Twitter and Facebook to share cutting-edge and creative content. They share content to build their online identity. Preferred tools: Facebook and Twitter.
4. Boomerangs—Boomerangs seek validation and thrive on the reaction of others to their content, even when it’s negative responses. Preferred tools: Facebook, email, Twitter and blogs, wherever people will engage them.
5. Connectors—Connectors see content sharing as a means of staying connected to others and making plans. They are more relaxed in their sharing patterns. Preferred tools: Facebook and email.
6. Selectives—Selectives are more thoughtful in what they share and with whom they share it. They personalize their sharing and expect responses to their content. Preferred tool: email.

Do you agree with this list? Would you add a 7th category? What type of online sharing persona are you?

(picture source)

Aaron Smith of the Pew Research Center found that 40% of people surveyed go online to find government data!

Aaron Smith from the Pew Research Center discusses why it’s important to engage people in the areas where they already visit.

By Lauren Modeen, Manager of Online Strategy, GovLoop

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We all know that government agencies are constantly under pressure to make their conversations with constituents measurable, and results-based to justify the investment. One stand-out action the city of New York is doing to keep this at the forefront of importance is driving an advisory board of SMART members (the Social Media Advisory and Research Taskforce). Under the leadership of Rachel Sterne, the City's first Chief Digital Officer at NYC Digital, the committee acts as a "consulting body for agencies making the digital transition, providing feedback and streamlining social media strategy and policy. They're also highlighting best practices, and planning to hold crash courses and workshops for communication managers" (source).

From NYC Digital's website:

"SMART is New York City's Social Media Advisory and Research Taskforce. This body consists of 15 members elected every six months by social media managers across the city. SMART members are responsible for helping to manage citywide social media feeds such as Facebook and Twitter (@nycgov), providing recommendations on social media tools and strategies, assisting emerging City agencies on social media, evaluating new social media platforms, updating social media guidelines and policies, and liasing with technology and legal authorities in the City."

As you can see from their list of advisory board members, NYC Digital's SMART dream team is made up of members from NYC agencies — the NYC Department of Education, the Mayor's Office, their 311, the Office of Emergency Management — as an example. Since it is crucial in social media to speak the language of your constituents, having members that understand what citizens need and want helps you made bigger strides.

Recommendation 1: take a page out of the NYC Digital book, and get taskforcing! Get your most literate folks, and get conversing/guiding/winning.

Recommendation 2: not only get your task force in order, but create a website to outline your digital mission, social media properties, apps, advisory board members…and anything else you would add! Social Media is just an advanced form of conversing with your constituents — so get your best ideas rolling, best metrics in place, train your people, and take your citizens to the next level of digital connectedness.

Interested in more about NYC Digital? Check out the blog here.

By Kristie Wilson, Marketing Coordinator, GovDelivery

It’s the time of the year when all the back to school specials are out; a nice reminder that summer is coming to an end. With fall fast approaching, it means that the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Ready Campaign is preparing for their National Preparedness Month (NPM).

Founded in 2004, NPM is a month long campaign that occurs every September. This year FEMA
  Photo source: Jack Duval 

partnered up with Citizen Corps and the Ad Council to launch a new collaboration platform. This platform makes it easy to join and become a coalition member, which means it’s easier to involve yourself with the campaign. Coalition members help out by hosting events, spreading the word in articles, newsletters, blogs, emails or social media, and involving the community in the efforts.

This September marks 10 years since our country was turned upside down with the attacks of September 11^th. Since then it has been more important than ever to make sure we are prepared for any kind of disaster. The 10^th anniversary was the inspiration for this year’s theme: “A time to remember. A time to prepare.”  Being prepared improves the ability to respond and recover from such disasters.

There is no better time to get involved. Help remember the victims of September 11^th by helping the nation become more prepared. It is also important to remember that being prepared is not limited to only September.

To learn more:

• Join the campaign by visiting their website: www.ready.gov/community
• FEMA, the Ready Campaign, and Citizen Corps webinar presentation on this years campaign: National Preparedness Month (NPM) 2011 Webinar
• FEMA press release: FEMA Encourages Americans To Participate In September’s National Preparedness Month

Aaron Smith from the Pew Research Center finds that minority populations overwhelmingly find it valuable for government to engage with the public using social media.

Aaron Smith from the Pew Research Center discusses research on how people are interacting with the government online.

Over 1/3 of the population (those using the web) has interacted with the government online…Are you prepared to communicate with them?

By Lauren Modeen, Manager of Online Strategy, GovLoop

This past 4th of July, the Fox News Political twitter account had some premature fireworks go off, and they weren't a good display. If you didn't hear about the story, you can check it out here. If you want the cliff notes version, a group hacked into their site, and sent out some very disturbing tweets about President Obama. See below:

(source = NYTimes)

According to the NYTimes article, "the six messages were removed around noon on Monday, about 10 hours after being posted, but not before attracting a flurry of attention."

In our real-time world, 10 hours with live tweets such as this is more like 10 days. Argh! If you are the Twitter administrator for your organization, here are five ways you can ready yourself for a potential hack, and what actions to take if it actually happens.

1. Above all, realize Twitter for your organization is not a M – F, 9 – 5 operation. Twitter lives and breathes 365 days/24 hours. Even after you punch out, you have to keep an eye on what is going on. In the time of a hack, every minute counts and every minute lost can damage your brand.

2. As the administrator for your Twitter account, don't be the sole holder of the keys to your Twitter kingdom. Have a backup. Additionally, make sure you communicate within your organization that your are the administrator, and who your backup is. A hack is not the time for people to be running around chasing you down.

3. Familiarize yourself now with Twitter's processes for dealing with a hack so you aren't trying to figure things out when under fire. Here's what to do if you can still log-in to your account, what to do if you can't log-in, and what to do if you don't have access to the account's registered email. If you still can't get access to your account, you can reach out to Twitter's help center.

4. If a hack happens, and you can access your account, delete all fake tweets, and have a plan in place for responding to the public. DON'T just ignore what happened and go into hiding. Show how responsive and proactive you are by being transparent, apologetic, and answer any questions from followers up front. In the end, how you handle the crisis will speak reams about your communication and follow-through abilities.

5. Finally, learn straight up from the mistakes of others: How Not to Handle a Crisis: 5 Lessons From the Fox News Twitter Hack

*Something easy to watch out for: as the administrator, if you receive an email saying your Twitter log-in has changed, and you are aware no one else has the log-in, check it out immediately.