By John Simpson, Federal Consultant

It’s a given that social media and its wide reach with the public has revolutionized how organizations and companies interact with their stakeholders. Communicating to citizens through channels like Facebook and Twitter allows for a free, easy and more direct connection. Much of the government has embraced social media, working to integrate their communication efforts with these new tools to better reach the public. However, outreach through social media cannot stop with the simple re-posting of press releases or resting on the laurels of a large number of “followers.” As budgets shrink and offices are forced to justify initiatives, wasting or ignoring that opportunity to engage with your audience on a personal level is not an option.

An organization needs to know its community. Why are these people signing up to read your posts and tweets in the first place? Likely it isn’t for only site updates or press releases. Your organization provides a basic service they need to know about, research information related to their major, or resources to help build up their small business. When you send out newsletters, you work to craft articles or emails to a certain group of stakeholders. It should be the same for your tweets and posts. The attention span of someone surfing their Twitter feed through a smart phone won’t have time for an ill-targeted or uninteresting tweet.

Once you understand the needs of your followers, solicit their feedback or comments. Posting general information about upcoming programs, events or blog entries is important, but social media was built as a tool of engagement. Ask for their advice on how to improve a program or how to better serve a need. Take questions on an upcoming tax deadline, inquire what they spent their tax return on or pose trivia questions on national forests. Build relationships with your followers so that they are actually looking for your next post instead of dismissing it after a quick glance. Stakeholder feedback is an invaluable resource for any organization and social media makes it easier than ever to solicit. Some public organizations fear that asking for feedback can only lead down a dark road of criticism and unregulated commentary. Sometimes your biggest critic can turn into your best resource. The Department of Veterans Affairs went so far as hired one of its sharpest critics to become a blogger on their site.

Outreach is a two-way street. Your followers may communicate to you questions or concerns around a recent initiative. Just like the private sector, customer service is crucial to any successful company. You should respond completely, accurately and turn that inquiry into a real connection. If someone tweets your profile a question or places a question on your Facebook page, that is a sign that some of your audience is actually invested in what you’re posting. When Japan was scrambling in mid-2011 to handle the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant, some U.S. west coast residents were concerned if any possible fallout could affect them. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) posted clarifying content and fielded questions on both Twitter and Facebook to answer the questions of concerned citizens and calm those who weren’t necessarily looking for press releases.

Luckily, any public organization looking to expand into social media doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel. An agency can look to the work of other government offices to see what they’re doing to be successful. A nonprofit group, Expert Labs, has created a dashboard measuring the success of federal agencies based on their public engagement on Twitter. Although not a complete picture of an agency’s digital interaction with their stakeholders, the rankings of organizations and offices gives a view of who is regularly asking questions and receiving answers back on Twitter. This dashboard also illustrates that you don’t necessarily need a staggering amount of Followers to effectively communicate to the public. NASA is often listed as one of the most engaging agencies.

Interactions through social media must not be a second thought nor “might as well” automation. Like any communications strategy, there must be an endgame and a method for measuring success. Having 20,000 followers who aren’t truly invested in the information you’re posting means you’re wasting both your resources and your time. Doing something just for the sake of doing it is always a poor plan. Only when you actively interact with your subscribers will you turn Twitter followers into an engaged community.

By Richard Fong, Technical Implementation Consultant

Have you wondered how your organization can step into the mobile world? Do you want to extend your reach and drive more engagement with the general public wherever they can consume your content – whether that’s from a desktop or a mobile device such as a smartphone?

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) stepped more firmly into the mobile device arena, recently announcing an update to their IRS2GO 2.0 app on iOS and Android platforms. This update adds new features to their previous app, such as access to their YouTube channel. In addition, IRS2GO allows app users to enter in their email address to receive “simple, straightforward tips and reminders” from the IRS. This helps extend the IRS’s reach by encouraging app users to also sign up to receive emails from the IRS, specifically from the “Tax Tips” topic. The sign up portion of the app was built using a Subscriber API (application programming interface) within GovDelivery Digital Communication Management (DCM).

This integration isn’t as complicated as it seems. In fact, many GovDelivery clients are already using APIs to help integrate a number of processes. Examples of current API integrations include:

• The State of Michigan is using our API to capture subscribers for their Fall Colors eNewsletter.
• A large Federal agency is using our API to sync their internal grants database with GovDelivery to ensure grantees get the most recent and relevant information.
• San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) sends out email and SMS alerts about elevator service availability on a daily basis via our Send Bulletin API.

Many private companies (Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, Twitter, etc.) have APIs available to build out an automated integration, and GovDelivery is no different. An API is made up of resources that are available programmatically. With a library of industry standard RESTful APIs that clients can use to make requests to GovDelivery DCM – from creating and assigning subscribers to sending a message – your organization can automate manual processes and free up times and resources.

If you have any questions about how your organization can use APIs or integrate with GovDelivery DCM, contact us at info@govdelivery.com.

By Dave Worsell, Director, Government Solutions, GovDelivery UK

We live in the “Information Age”.  We clamour for information. We want it now in bite-sized, personalised chunks.  We demand it in the format we want, on the device we want, when we want it…often before we even know we want it. More, more, more…

Amazon sees the value in this demand.  They encourage you to subscribe to the things you’re interested in.  They even suggest other items based on your previous purchasing habits.  This allows them to send you highly targeted information based on your personal preferences.  It works.  You value the personal service. You buy more.

The concept is simple and can easily apply to public sector communications.  The public subscribes to services that are important to them.  You give them lots of choice by offering specific topics for subscription so it’s highly personalised.  You deliver timely updates on services, e.g. community events, missed bins, school closures, trading standards alerts, and more.  The public are better informed, more satisfied and self-serve using the cheapest channels.  You save more £££.

Despite the proven benefits of subscriptions to public sector information, I frequently hear reasons why government shouldn’t be offering these types of services.  Here are my thoughts on these top 5 myths.

1) People won’t subscribe to public service updates.

Wrong.   People do sign-up – in the thousands, often at the most unexpected times and to the most unusual or obscure services.

While I was tucking into my Christmas lunch, 154 people across the UK where subscribing to notifications on road closures, highway code updates, missed bins, school closures and HGV vehicle safety information.  Even at Christmas, the public was online, subscribing to information that was useful to them, highlighting that you can’t always predict demand.

The public also subscribe to the most unusual topics.  One small UK local authority has more than 70 residents subscribed to their “Pest Control Fees”.  Who’d have thought it?

2) Our information doesn’t change enough.

That’s the point.  If your information changes on a regular basis, residents know they need to go back regularly and look for changes.  I have a handful of websites I visit every day, come hell or high-water, because new things are posted daily.  Other websites are quickly forgotten.

If your information changes infrequently, subscription services are even more important.  Without a notification to tell residents something has changed how will they know they need to go back for important information about the services they consume?   For example, council tax changes occur, at most, once per year. Yet this topic is still one of the most popular subscription items a local authority can offer.

3) Residents already receive our newsletters.

So? I receive lots of e-newsletters each week.  I don’t read them.

I often wonder if newsletters are developed to feed the creative juices of the author, not the requirements of the reader. They certainly have a role to summarise activities but I question their ability to inform large numbers of residents proactively.

My broadband supplier sends me a colourful monthly e-newsletter which I’ve never read.

Some of the information might be really useful, but I’ll never know because 90% the editorial is completely irrelevant, and I don’t have time to trawl through for the interesting stuff.

My broadband supplier also sends me service updates, electronic bills and payment confirmation.  I read these because they impact me personally.  They get my full attention.

Give people what they need, not what you think they want. Often the two are very different.

4) People won’t like receiving lots of messages.

Wrong. If residents have opted-in to receive updates you aren’t spamming them.

Definition of “spam”: Irrelevant or unsolicited messages sent over the Internet, typically to large numbers of users, for the purposes of advertising, phishing, spreading malware, etc.
- Oxford English Dictionary.

If the information you provide has been requested and provides highly personalised service information, it effectively becomes a “pull” rather than a “push” message.

If you’re still worried, give residents the ability to digest messages by letting them control message frequency themselves, e.g. receive one consolidated message per day or per week.  Importantly, give residents the option to unsubscribe and make it as easy as possible.

Remember, unsubscribe rates for personalised notifications are significantly lower than for e-Newsletters.

5) We use Twitter and Facebook to send out communications already.

Are you really connecting with all your residents and stakeholders on Twitter and Facebook?  Hundreds of millions of people use Twitter and Facebook, but how many of them are connected to you?  Please don’t fall into the trap of thinking that, just because millions of people use these channels, that they will follow you or want become you’re biggest fan.

I see a failure across government, in the UK and abroad, to fully capitalise on the undoubted power of social media.  It’s not for the want of trying; government is desperate to engage with the public.  The problem is the public isn’t so keen to return the favour.

Arms length engagement is often the starting point of a strong relationship.  Let the public subscribe for simple but effective notifications.  Give them what they want, build trust and demonstrate value.  Once you have their trust encourage subscribers to get more involved, provide feedback and converse.

Subscription services can be 300% – 1,100% more effective at engaging residents than social media tools alone.  Use subscriptions and e-mail alerts to drive traffic to the social networks once you’ve established your credentials.

What do you think about these 5 myths? Please leave your thoughts or stories in the comments!

By Steve Ressler, GovLoop Founder

Last week GovLoop, the online knowledge network for government employees, launched a redesign where we redesigned our home page and launched 7 new sub-communities.

The purpose of the change was to increase the overall readability of the site and organization of the site.   We had been hearing from our members over the last 6 months that the site had become overwhelming with more than 15,000 blog posts, 6,000 forums, and 900 groups.  Our members were having a hard time finding relevant discussions and content that they cared about.  Thus, we set out to develop a streamlined home page and 7 focused “hubs” on the site for the topics:

• Acquisition
• Careers
• Communications
• Human resources
• Leadership
• Project management
• Technology

As many of you in government probably know, a project of this magnitude takes energy, time, and consensus. Now that we completed the initial redesign I wanted to give my 5 tips on a website redesign:

1) Put someone in charge – In a website redesign, everyone on the team has opinions. The website is something that affects everyone. Plus, design is a skill that everyone has an opinion about. (People wouldn’t give a developer feedback on their code, but they usually have an opinion based on their design tastes; thus, the phrase “design by committee.”) For your website redesign, put someone in charge who is a good project manager and knows design. For our redesign, we made sure that everyone understood that the project was led by Jeff, who was chosen to lead the project because he is skilled in both design and project management.

2) Communicate, communicate, communicate – One leadership tip is to communicate a message until you are sick of it. Then communicate that message 5x more. This rule is even more true in a redesign. With such a big project, everyone wants to know the latest.  So, make sure you are giving constant updates to the rest of the team.

3) Gather data and feedback – Before starting our redesign, we collected a lot of information on what people wanted on GovLoop.  We spent time analyzing our Google Analytics data to understand what people were currently reading on the site and where they navigated to around the site. We also collected qualitative feedback, from discussion threads on GovLoop to one-on-one discussions. For the past year, every time I was with a GovLoop member, I’d ask them what they liked and didn’t like about GovLoop. All of this information was compiled and helped us make decisions, with the ultimate goal of providing a streamlined process for our users to find the content they wanted more easily. Finally, in addition to the data and feedback, it’s important to remember what your vision for a redesign is, ultimately. For us, it was critical to “grow big, stay small,” so we knew the importance of creating something like sub-communities even if our members didn’t articulate it exactly in those words.

4) Put a time scope on it - We knew we only had 2 months to complete our redesign, from project start to when we needed to go live.  While the time pressure limited us from doing some things we wanted, it also provided a clear deadline which forced us to keep our project in scope.

5) Do it right - We’ve redesigned parts of our site before on GovLoop, but the projects were often piecemeal or run by interns. This time, we made sure to do it right; we partnered with the folks at Forum One who brought in a range of skills (front-end developer, interactive designer, project manager) and pushed us to do the redesign the right way. Small decisions made a big difference, like deciding to take a little more time to use an API instead of an RSS feed to bring in pictures and comments to our communities.  All that little bit of extra effort truly made all the difference.

Have you been a part of a redesign? What are your tips? Have you seen the new GovLoop? What do you think of it?

By Mark Capaldini, GovDelivery

The role of government has evolved over time as citizen needs have changed. Today, government is being called on to do more with less. But with limited resources and a need to focus those resources on critical needs, the role of local government must evolve yet again.

In Governing’s November 2011 edition (p 20), there was an article entitled “Full-Service Government Comes to an End,” by Paul W. Taylor. The article focused on the many requests that come through for government employees to resolve. In particular, he noted that in Longmont, CO, “an internal analysis showed that up to 38% of the police departments calls for service did not need a uniformed officer – they needed a neighbor.”

This is only one example, but it raises a large question: Should government become an “information clearinghouse,” helping citizens find and act on information, as well as be a service provider? Should local government become a significant information and services hub, linking citizens to the most appropriate community resources for their needs?

For many years, government has been a “services provider.” But maybe that role needs to expand to “a services and information provider“? For some issues, precious government resources aren’t the best or most cost-effective solution. Other service providers, including neighbors, community groups, civic organizations, churches, non-profit organizations, etc., may be able to provide faster, better, and less expensive solutions.

We all have an interest in government cost-efficiency. When problems or challenges can be resolved faster and better, regardless of who is delivering the service, everyone benefits from a win-win situation.

This, of course, implies an expanded role for government websites – assuming that they can provide the most cost-effective channel for connecting the public to answers and resources. In addition to posting information on the website, subscription alerts, delivered by email, SMS text messages, RSS feeds, and other digital channels, can provide very specific, highly tailored, fast, and inexpensive options for fulfilling the “information clearinghouse” role.  Note that such offerings provide information proactively, not relying solely on Web searches and website visits by the public. In fact, such alerts may increase website visits by providing links that make finding specific information more easy.

Is “service and information provider” a potential new role for government? Would you like to see your local government provide a way to connect with your neighbors and other local residents to help resolve concerns or problems? What do you think of the ideas in the Governing article mentioned above? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

By Jeremy Greene, Director of Product Management, GovDelivery

With the passing of Steve Jobs last month, the blogosphere has been chock-full of commentary around innovation and good product design. As a product guy, I find this fascinating. But as I’ve read through pages of articles highlighting Jobs’ search for “insanely great” product design I started to wonder if any of it is actually applicable to us? Very few of us are making iPads and insanely thin laptops that weigh as much as a paper clip. Where is my opportunity to innovate? Is there an opportunity?

Don’t fret. You can play this game, too. Innovation may be a bit more subtle when you’re working in accounting at a large government agency or as a customer support representative for a small city or county – but it’s possible. And I would argue it’s probably just as important. The word innovation, at its core, means to change. But I’m not advocating making change for the sake of change. There are plenty of ways to make impactful, positive change even when you’re not building consumer electronic goods.

Here are some areas you may want to start with:

Innovative Processes. If you’re doing something because “it’s always been done that way,” you may have found your first opportunity. Even slight modifications to existing process can produce massive improvements. People often get stuck with the concept of innovation because their ideas are too big or too complex. Don’t let scope kill the entire effort. Start with small changes, evaluate their success and repeat. For example, I was recently offered the ability to get government documents from my county electronically instead of via the mail. Small change, but impactful. I no longer need to physically keep track of these documents anymore, which is a huge win for me.

Also, you can seek input from others that live on the edges of existing processes. Sometimes being on the outside looking in can provide additional insight and really help you evaluate possible changes with a fresh set of eyes.

Innovative Customer Experiences. Are there ways you can improve your organizations interactions with your customers? This is an area commonly overlooked when it comes to innovation.  Yet, improving customer support even a little bit can have crazy impactful results. Can you provide your customer with information they need before they know they even need it? Can you put processes in place that allow them to serve themselves – thus, avoiding a phone call and expediting their experience? Anytime a process I am forced to do on an ongoing basis is moved online – I cheer! Can you find new ways to effectively engage customers before there is an issue, building a relationship and the trust needed prior to when a really important issue arises?

How about Innovative Management. If you’re managing a team, you have even more possibilities to positively effect change. Are there ways to structure the work week to better accommodate your employees? Are there changes you can make to team dynamics that can improve certain processes and deliver better results?  Sometimes moving responsibilities around to different individuals on your team will spark creativity and drive innovation, especially if those individuals have expressed to you that they want to take on something more or different from their normal responsibilities and tasks. The great thing about innovative management is that it’s contagious and viral, meaning your team will start to see the value and begin doing similar things themselves.

This is just a start, and a minimal one at that. Take a chance and promote positive change regardless of how big or small that change may be. Just the thought of innovation promotes discussion and that in itself can be tremendously positive.

By Jennifer Kaplan, Client Success Consultant, State & Local

“Public Safety” is typically defined as the prevention of and protection from events that could endanger the safety of the general public from significant danger, injury/harm or damage.  Public safety as a whole is crucial to our well being, and we rely our on our Police Departments to keep us safe. In the past, Police Departments have communicated crucial safety information by posting missing person notices on the back of milk cartons or by posting flyers of crime suspects. However, we are now seeing a shift in the way Police Departments communicate public safety information to citizens. Cutting-edge departments are using email, text, and social media to help solve crimes and proactively alert citizens to local issues. I’d like to take a moment to highlight some of the ways that a few Police Departments across the United States are going digital to get the word out to their residents.

The City of Minneapolis

The City of Minneapolis, MN allows subscribers to sign up for crime prevention information and crime alerts by precinct. The map pictured here serves as a resource for residents who don’t know which precinct they fall within. Not only does the Minneapolis PD send geo-targeted emails to alert local residents of recent crime trends in their area, but they include preventative steps that citizens can take in order to avoid dangerous situations.  For example, one of the precincts recently experienced a spike in residential garage burglaries. The Minneapolis PD sent an email alerting residents of the issue, and also provided tips such as locking all doors at night and taking some time to document the serial numbers of any valuables that have numbers on them.  Many of the victims weren’t aware that when electronics or larger items are stolen, providing serial numbers of stolen items to the responding officers is a necessary part of the recovery process.

The City of Louisville

The City of Louisville’s Police Department uses email to send images and/or footage from unsolved crimes such as convenience store robberies to see if anyone has additional information around the identity or whereabouts of suspects. By soliciting the help of citizens and offering the opportunity for recipients to share the email content with their social networks, Louisville PD is able to expand the reach of their efforts and organically disseminate the message to more users, increasing the likelihood that they will come closer to finding their perpetrator.

Wellesley Police Department

While a majority of the public sector is still navigating how to incorporate social media into their messaging plan, many government agencies are embracing it’s power as a communication tool. The Wellesley Police Department sends email and text alerts, but also supplements their communications with posts to their Facebook page. In September of this year, Wellesley PD got the word out to as many citizens as possible about a missing child. Not only they did they proactively alert citizens via email of their search, but they posted to their Facebook page as well:

As a result of the outreach efforts, the child was located within minutes:

While many Police Departments have implemented and found value from communicating through email and text messages, social media outlets simply provide another channel to reach more citizens to ensure that crucial safety information is heard. In Wellesley’s case, social media only serves to enhance their overall program. In the digital age, I’m happy to see that public safety groups are using these methods to keep us safe and informed.

By Dave Worsell, Director of Government Solutions, GovDelivery UK

In July I presented at the SOCITM Building Perfect Council Websites 11 (BPCW11) in London on the topic
of Channel Shift.  The presentation was entitled “Is Developing Channels more Important than Promoting Shift?”  Although the event was aimed primarily at Local Government, many of the concepts I presented are relevant to both Central and Government clients so I thought it worth sharing.

Developing online services has been a top priority for all levels of Government.  The potential cost savings of encouraging the public to self-serve online are well documented which is why the “Digital by Default” agenda is moving ahead at full steam.  However, I believe that many public bodies don’t realise the full potential that the shift to digital offers, primarily because they are failing to engage with their audience.

Developing these cool new digital channels is only part of the solution.  Promoting channels to encourage shift and foster engagement is a vital component, something many public bodies frequently overlook.

I have drawn together the following tips from the successes of innovative GovDelivery clients who use effective promotion to boost subscribers and deliver that “elusive” channel shift.

1. Promotion is as important as developing channels.  Ensure your project has the necessary resources to promote your efforts otherwise the considerable development effort is often wasted.
2. Promote online and offline.  Use every available means to promote the service especially as those people most in need of shifting use the most expensive channels.  Why not promote on your answer phone message, telephone helpdesk and in all printed material/newsletters?
3. Take every available opportunity to engage.  Ensure subscription options and sign-up links are clear and concise.  Use bright logos to draw attention and place links and sign-up boxes well above the fold on as many web pages as possible.
4. Explain the benefits of engaging with you.  Ensure subscriber benefits are made crystal clear. The benefits of any service you offer must appeal to your audience and their needs (not yours).
5. Brand the service.  Who wants to sign-up to receive boring “Email Newsletters”? Branding your service, e.g. “News Direct – News direct to you, when you want it” is simple and a much more effective way to increase subscriber numbers.
6. React quickly to events.  Events, e.g. snow fall, present an unbeatable opportunity to engage with your users.  Ensure you maximise subscriber opportunities whenever something unusual occurs.  For example, why not change your home page to engage your large new found audience?
7. Integrate digital with offline channels.  Your back office systems should enable you to capture electronic contact details at every opportunity (privacy policy allowing).  Use these details to initiate the shift online and sell the benefits to your audience.
8. Provide support for multiple digital channels.  Your audience uses different channels for different activities.  To reach the widest possible audience you need to support as many of these channels as possible.  Email, SMS, Facebook and Twitter are the most popular respectively.
9. Produce a promotion plan and review it monthly.  Things change, channels change, user requirements change, channel shift targets change.  Make sure your promotion plans reflect this.
10. Don’t stop promoting.  Never be satisfied with the subscriber figures you have.  You can always do better.  Continuous promotion and innovation will help you achieve greatness.

How are you increasing your promotion? Have you been successful? Please share your story in our comments section.