A blog about government-to-citizen digital communication and engagement, Government 2.0, GovDelivery, and other e-government issues
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How Government Can Be “Smarter”

November 5th, 2012 | Posted by GovDelivery in E-Government | Email Communication | Federal Government | Government Success Stories | Local Government - (1 Comments)
City of Raleigh Update

By Jennifer Kaplan, Product Marketing Manager, GovDelivery

Thom Rubel Cover SlideIf you work in government, you might agree that one of your main goals is to provide services to the public. Thom Rubel, Vice President of IDC Government Insights, recently spoke at the GovDelivery event in Washington, DC. He mentioned a quote from Dave Bargar at JetBlue, who said “We are a customer service business, we just happen to fly airplanes.” Thom helped us see that this translates to the public sector. “Smart government” consists of organizations that think of themselves as “a customer service business first, we just happen to…{fill in the blank with your mission}.” That’s step 1. Step 2 is getting the public to share that vision for your organization.

The best example of this type of public understanding is a story that was told to me by my friend Cindy. Cindy and her husband Ryan have a 2-year-old daughter Mallory.  They live a few blocks from the closest elementary school, where Mallory will attend kindergarten in a few years. While walking the path to the school, Cindy and Ryan discovered that there was a part of the street that didn’t have a sidewalk. The shoulder of the road transitioned directly into the grass. Cindy and Ryan found this concerning, as they didn’t want Mallory walking so close to the road. They were also worried about distracted drivers coming too close to the grass. Instead of complaining, finding a different route, or moving, Cindy and Ryan took action by engaging with their local government.

The city and county in which they lived both had well-organized websites that made it easy to find local resources and contact information for those responsible for issues of this nature. They were able to contact various city officials by phone and email. They attended relevant public meetings, which were also listed on the website. They were able to schedule a walk around their neighborhood with a county official, as well as a traffic monitoring session with someone from public works.

After all of their efforts to engage local government through various channels, the city inevitably put in a rumble strip, a road safety feature that alerts inattentive drivers to potential danger by causing a vibration throughout the car.  A sidewalk is also slated in the coming years. One small step for Cindy and Ryan. One giant step for the future of their community.

I think we need more people like Cindy and Ryan, who know that government isn’t a monolithic entity, but a collective group of people who also have families, who care about their neighborhoods and who they can engage with to get the help and service they need. However, convincing the public that your organization can be valuable resource to help in these types of situations can be an uphill battle. So, it may be up to your organization to start the conversation.

The great news? Government organizations can help motivate citizens to shift their mentality and take action, ultimately increasing their satisfaction. Digital communication channels are the perfect outlet to take the first step towards stimulating conversation and building a relationship, and I’ve seen a few great examples of this come through my inbox lately.

Wellesley Police Department Notice

The Wellesley Police Department takes a proactive approach to fixing street lighting to ensure safety for trick-or-treaters on Halloween. They hit the nail on the head when the say “the WMLP can only repair the lights they know about.”  They also do a great job of providing various points of contact for reporting street light outages.

City of Raleigh Update

This example from the City of Raleigh, North Carolina does a great job of getting citizens involved. They explain the background and plans for their projects and invite residents to come and provide feedback or concerns. This communication lets citizens know that the city values their feedback and encourages a two-way conversation about these types of projects moving forward.

Petitions Website - The White House

At the Federal level, petitions.whitehouse.gov gives the public an opportunity to petition the current administration to take action on a range of important issues. Citizens can search current petitions or create new ones. This website was created to be a direct channel to connect with government, because they wanted to hear from everyone. If a petition gets enough support, White House staff will review it, ensure it’s sent to the appropriate policy experts, and issue an official response.

The more government takes action to show they value and encourage feedback from citizens in order to improve the services they deliver, the more likely it is that we’ll move the needle on the public’s perception of government. The next Cindy and Ryan might be right around the corner!

 

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Call to Action: Last Minute Sandy Preparation Tips for Government

October 29th, 2012 | Posted by GovDelivery in Community Management/Engagement | Current Affairs | E-Government | Email Communication | Federal Government | Government 2.0 | Local Government | State Government - (0 Comments)

By Jennifer Kaplan, Product Marketing Manager, GovDelivery

We’ve all heard the numbers. 8,000+ flights cancelled. Hundreds of thousands already evacuated. Mass transit shut downs up the Eastern Seaboard.* (stats from CNN)  Up to 60 million people will be affected. Hurricane Sandy, now the largest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic, is here.

President Obama, addressing the public in a statement this morning, said, “Please listen to what your state and local government officials are saying.” Government communicators are already in the midst of getting preparation and evacuation information out to those who need it. We’ve also seen additional tips for the public on television, radio, through news websites and social media. Here are the top things your organization can do right now if your stakeholders are affected.

Expand Your Reach. The more stakeholders receive your message, the more likely it is that they will be safe and prepared.

  • Update Your Website. Right now is the moment where citizens are most engaged with government organization. Make sure it’s as easy as possible for citizens visiting your website and social media pages to find the sign-up area for your communications. The key to success is a prominent position.  Keep it in the upper right or upper left of your page, but be careful not to blend it with other aspects of your website. For a temporary fix, highlight your sign-up area in yellow or orange.
    Ready.gov website
  • Leverage the Media to Promote Communications. In his public address this morning, President Barack Obama directed citizens to Ready.gov to get up-to-date preparation and safety information on Hurricane Sandy. If your organization is briefing or being featured through any media outlets, be sure to promote your communications and the ways citizens can subscribe to get updates via email or text message. It’s also helpful to include the URLs to your resources in any media graphics.
  • Recommend Power Outage Alternatives. If citizens lose cable, broadcast signal and Internet, they can still receive tweets about the storm on their mobile phone — even if they don’t have a Twitter account. Have citizens subscribe to SMS Twitter alerts. Here’s a great article from the Washington Post on how to do this.

Get the Word Out Efficiently. Be sure to send messages through all your communication channels.

  • Get Preparation or Evacuation Information Out NOW. There is still time to recommend precautionary actions that can be taken by stakeholders. Urge those in recommended evacuation areas to leave. Send reminders to conserve cell and computer power. Ensure citizens have a list of necessary items — enough food, water, cash, medicine and flashlights — should they experience a power outage.
    National Hurricane Center website
  • Don’t Have the Resources? Not sure what information to send out? Leverage existing, official content.  FEMA and Ready.gov, in addition to the National Hurricane Center with the National Weather Service are asking government organizations to share content they’re already creating to spread the word.  Instead of reinventing the wheel, your organization can share the information, tools and resources from these sites. Like and share FEMA’s Facebook page posts. Follow and re-tweet @ReadyDotGov tweets.
  • Continue to Send Updates Throughout the Week. Use email, SMS and social media and other channels to keep stakeholders updated. Be sure to use all means (especially SMS and Twitter) as some stakeholders may not have Internet.Ready.gov Twitter feed

Google has also developed a Crisis Map that provides real-time information about where the storm is moving. The interactive map shows Sandy’s trajectory of the entire country, plus the public can subscribe to additional alerts such as evacuation notices, storm warnings, shelter locations and traffic conditions.

Picking Up the Pieces. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, continue to use digital channels to send updates to your stakeholders. Government organizations will need to work together to communicate relief and clean-up efforts, as well as provide additional resources available to the public. Keep an eye on FEMA, Ready.gov, and the National Weather Service for more information.

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Say Goodbye to Press Releases

October 10th, 2012 | Posted by Mary Yang for GovDelivery in Community Management/Engagement | Compelling Content | E-Government | Email Communication | Federal Government | GovDelivery | Government 2.0 - (2 Comments)

Emily Jarvis, Producer for DorobekINSIDER on GovLoop, recently posted a compelling interview with GovDelivery CEO and co-Founder, Scott Burns, on the changing nature of government communications. Here’s an excerpt from her post:

The government has a history of thinking of communication as a one-way press-release oriented type of activity. What we try to do is help people understand that now you need to personalize the experience with the mission of the organization and keep the individual in mind.

In the business world goals are very straightforward when it come to marketing. Make money. It is easy to measure success and failures. For government it’s much more difficult. We need to help clients understand that the objectives are different.

Lot’s of planning is needed up front, that way communication can actually support the mission not just about about getting more Twitter followers.

[For example last] year FEMA had 8,000 people participate in online communities. This year that number is already hovering at 20,000 people. The online communities are transforming the way people communicate. It’s no longer a one-way conversation, it’s all about direct collaboration.

DorobekINSIDER_post

To hear the whole interview, see Emily’s original post on GovLoop.

Have a question for Scott? Want to hear more about his thoughts on government communications? He’ll be speaking at a digital communications event in Washington, DC on October 16. You can also hear from leading experts from around the Federal government about leadership development, new technologies, and digital communications best practices. Registration is free, but space is limited. Reserve your seat today.

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Segmentation, analytics & integration: what’s the point?

September 12th, 2012 | Posted by Mary Yang for GovDelivery in Analytics/Data | Email Communication - (0 Comments)

As discussed in a previous post, for anyone who thinks email is dead, you’re in for a surprise. The truth is, email is just being accessed differently these days, with more people using email on smartphones or other mobile devices rather than from a computer. If you haven’t explored options to make your email communications more targeted, you should consider segmenting your distribution lists and running email analytics to find out what content is most compelling for your stakeholders.

For some of you, list segmentation is a step you may not have had time to explore. And you may find that integrating your systems may help increase your productivity. You’ll also want to analyze what people are paying attention to so you can hone your messages even more. Finally, if you’re using social media to communicate, integrating your email with your social media channels will help you be more successful by combining and cross-promoting all your communication channels.

Segment Your Emails Email segmentation

Let’s face it, your organization produces a lot of information covering a variety of topics every day. And while one citizen may be extremely interested in information about road closures or construction, another may only want to know about city parks or how to renew a license.

If you’re wondering what list segmentation involves, think of it this way. When you receive a message that has nothing to do with you or your interests, what happens to that message? You probably delete it without reading it. If you target your communications and send information that people have indicated that have an interest in, it will likely boost your open and click-through rates and instill a higher sense of loyalty with your citizens. You also avoid the likelihood of people opting out of your messages or just marking your communications as spam. Also, your deliverability rate improves, as well as your online reputation. Generally speaking, those who send relevant email messages enjoy lower opt-out rates than those who send email to everyone on their list.

Here are just a few ways for you to think about segmenting your email lists:

  • Demographics (ZIP/postal code, gender, age). If your subscriber lives in one ZIP code, why are you sending her information about activities in another ZIP code? Or if your subscriber is 25 years old, why are you sending him information that pertains to senior citizens? You get the idea. Taking note of demographics can give subscribers the impression that you’re listening to their needs and interests.
  • Behavioral Data. Open and click-through rates, when they joined your list, etc. — that type of information can help you target your messages. The subscribers who open your emails all the time or regularly can be used for A/B testing to help you refine your email messages and content.
  • Recent Subscribers. Recent could be 3-6 months, or it could be since the last campaign you sent a month ago.
  • Inactive Subscribers. Any subscriber who hasn’t opened or clicked on your email over an extended period of time can be deemed “inactive.” Instead of writing them off as a lost cause, think about putting them in their own group and sending them a targeted reactivation campaign in the near future.
  • Preference Surveys/Interest-Based Preferences. Don’t be scared to ask for information you don’t have, such as new interests and updated email addresses. Tell subscribers that it will help you send more relevant emails, and remind them that you will maintain their privacy at all cost.

List segmentation is important in any email system for several different reasons. It is especially critical if you want to truly engage the public in the work that you’re doing. Knowing what people are interested in helps you send more targeted, relevant emails.

Hubspot, a private sector marketing consulting firm, reported that email list segmentation and targeting increased open rates, provided more relevant emails and decreased opt-out rates, as well as many other positive results.

Connect Existing Applications with Your Email System

Another key component to consider is how to connect your applications and systems, as well as your existing content management systems, such as Drupal and WordPress, with your email system. You should find out what sort of APIs (or application programming interfaces) might be available to helpl automate manual actions between your existing applications and databases with the right communications tools.

Analyze For More Targeted Contentanalytics

If you’re pushing out email messages and have no idea who has opened the messages or which content subscribers are paying the most attention to, you should strongly consider reviewing any available reports or analyses. In addition to the need to communicate with subscribers, you also need to measure the effectiveness of your messages. Ideally, you should be able to find out:

  • who opened your messages
  • how many topics each person subscribes to
  • who has clicked through to specific content within your messages
  • which links generate the most activity
  • how much your subscription base has grown over time
  • which messages are being shared

All of this gives you more insight that you can use to create messages that have an even bigger impact with your audience.

Integrate Email with Social Mediaintegraing social media

With the increasing use of APIs and open source platforms, it’s become fairly easy to integrate your email communications with your social media efforts. In working with more than 550 government clients worldwide, we’ve found that government organizations that cross-promote information via email and social media see the greatest effectiveness. For example, if you’re creating new web content or pushing out specific information using email, it also makes sense to package those messages and post to your social media sites. Consider the endless possibility of having your subscribers share your information on their own social media networks, thus increasing your potential reach with the public – and possibly even helping you gain new subscribers.

Are you using any of these tactics currently? Which ones have helped you refine your communications to achieve greater effectiveness or engagement?

 

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Tech-Savvy Senior Citizens on the Rise

July 17th, 2012 | Posted by Mary Yang for GovDelivery in E-Government | Email Communication | Government 2.0 - (4 Comments)

There is a common misconception that senior citizens are not actively using email or are less likely to use technology to communicate. In reality, seniors are tapping into technology more than ever. As more and more seniors integrate the Internet into their daily lives, digital communications is becoming the most efficient way to engage and inform. Studies show that senior citizens are fast adopting email as one of their primary methods of digital interaction and communication. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 87% of senior citizens use email and search engines, while the Nielsen Company found that checking email was the primary online activity for 88.6% of seniors. With these statistics, it is clear government organizations could benefit greatly by reaching out to seniors via email.

Not only are senior citizens becoming more tech-savvy, but their use of digital communications is predicted to increase rapidly. The Nielsen Company found that “in the last five years, the number of seniors actively using the Internet has increased by more than 55 percent, from 11.3 million active users in November 2004 to 17.5 million in November 2009.” Furthermore, the Pew study shows that more than half of the senior citizens — even more than Millenials — are going online visit a government website already to find information relevant to them.

Social networks are also acquiring more senior users with each passing year. The Pew study demonstrates that internet users aged 74+ have experienced the fastest growth in use of social networking sites, which has quadrupled since 2008. Since social media users are significantly more likely to check their email frequently, the rise in social networking among senior citizens signals a further increase in frequent email use.

By 2015, eMarketer forecasts there will be over 26 million senior internet users in the U.S. By 2030, when tech-savvy baby boomers will mature into this demographic, the US Census Bureau predicts nearly one in five Americans will be seniors — a citizen demographic that cannot be ignored.

As a growing number of senior citizens discover the advantages of digital communications, email and social media are quickly becoming their dominant method of exchanging information. Government organizations can greatly benefit from implementing email outreach campaigns and other digital communications efforts to engage and inform the senior citizen demographic. Unlike other forms of more costly communication, such as direct mail or telephone calls, people’s preferences and response to emails can be tracked, allowing you to understand what is most interesting to this demographic so you can send information that is most relevant to them. Instead of waiting for senior citizens to come to your website, how much more impactful could your organization be by proactively sending these citizens the information they are looking for?

Is your government organization reaching out to senior citizens via email and digital communications already? Are you able to filter and segment this population within your database to provide them with the most relelvant information? How are you harnessing digital communications technology to reduce cost and reach more people with information across this growing demographic?

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When’s the perfect time to engage citizens?

July 12th, 2012 | Posted by GovDelivery in E-Government | Email Communication | GovDelivery | Government 2.0 | UK Government - (2 Comments)

By Amish Patel, Client Development Consultant, GovDelivery UK

Many of our clients rely on us to help them implement digital communication best practices, and one of the many questions we get is, “When is the best time to launch and promote citizen engagement services?”

In our minds, there is never a bad time, but in working with more than 500 government organisations worldwide, our experiences have shown that people flood to government websites when there is an emergency or other event that impacts service delivery.  Severe weather is a prime example of a time when citizens visit local government websites and subscribe in the thousands to official sources of information.  In the UK, with recent  floods along the south coast,  West Sussex County Council saw nearly 1,000 residents sign up for service information in a 48-hour period.

When there is an emergency you need a reliable, effective way of directly reaching as many residents as possible. The more people you reach the greater the impact your information can have. In addition to the obvious public benefits, effective communications help ease the workload of strained customer service teams.  Proactive, informative alerts are proven to help manage call demand and reduce avoidable contact.

Recent analysis of GovDelivery subscription rates to UK local government clients clearly shows that there is considerably more activity between the months of November and February, and it’s no surprise this period coincides with winter service disruptions.  Interestingly, the majority of new subscribers during this period subscribe to multiple topics of interest, including school closures, missed bins, council tax updates and local events.  Even obscure service areas, such as  Pest Control, get multiple subscribers. A typical resident subscribes to 7 – 10 service notifications before leaving the website, giving your local government organisation multiple future points of engagement.

Derbyshire County Council  captures website visitors’ attention with eye catching sign-up links in key areas.  The result of this is that residents who search for the latest information on winter service disruption can easily sign up to receive future updates and be proactively informed across multiple service areas, maximising direct connections with residents.

It goes without saying that informed citizens make better decisions and are generally much happier.  In these austere times, efficient communications save Government large sums in avoidable contact. Therefore, it’s hard to say there is ever a bad time to increase public engagement and improve communication.

 

 

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Are silos preventing you from achieving concrete channel shift?

May 31st, 2012 | Posted by GovDelivery in E-Government | Email Communication | UK Government - (0 Comments)

By Mark Nicholson, Account Director, GovDelivery UK

My interest was reignited recently on the topic of useful information being virtually untapped (and potentially rendered useless) because certain “islands of information” remain unlinked.  This can be for technical reasons or, in the UK, Data Protection.  Both are a human problem which really should be sorted out because it can save money and lives.  It’s not a far stretch to say that criminals have remained at large because databases are not linked.

Ever since the mid- to late nineties, many integrators said they have the silver bullet to bring these disparate islands of information together.  But have they?  In a recent meeting with a senior officer at a Local Authority, I was told to keep off the subject of data integration because it was a subject that got him angry!

silos

Photo by LEAFLET. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0

These “islands” or “silos”, as they are now often referred, are still very much in evidence and rarely fixed.  In a local authority context, we often talk to clients about bringing silos of email and/or SMS lists together under one system, so that some cross-pollination of services can be promoted.  This is probably easier than the technical challenge of combining a complex database, but it still needs a technical challenge to be overcome, as well as a legal one.

To comply with the Data Protection Act (DPA), doing something like this involves the agreement of a person to opt-in to receive information which interests them.  So for example, a Local Authority Leisure Services team may send an email newsletter with the regular sporty info to thousands of residents (they always generate very large lists) but how can you use this to promote channel shift? Easy, the addition of a link suggesting they also sign-up for receive alerts for Bin collections, School Closures, Inset days, Bad Weather warnings plus lots of other local services.  When your existing contact lists can legitimately be used to deliver other service information, your residents are much less likely to call in and more than likely be pleased to see useful information being delivered by the council.

data protection seal_ukAll you need is a system that manages these lists, cross-promotes services and helps you grow your audience by breaking down that silo mentality.  A Local Authority is promoting their services legitimately and with the best interest of the resident (not up-selling, which goes against a key principle of the Data Protection Act).  This not only achieves significant channel shift but potentially gains much needed revenue, brings greater awareness of all service areas and increases satisfaction.  Take, for example, a resident who books a weekly squash court who might also have two kids and therefore generates a greater volume of household waste. This resident may also want to sign-up and be alerted when a change in bin collections is announced.  With the information delivered directly to them via email or SMS, they won’t need to call and complain or incur costly special collections, and there won’t be any smelly bins.  They’ll also be grateful to receive alerts when their kids’ school has closed due to snow (again, no need to call).  A quick, simple and sensible crossover of data can result in encouraging more residents to use cheaper channels and avoid making calls.  All you need to do is ask permission and cross-promote!

A real example can be found at Central Bedfordshire Council.  It has about 10,000 residents subscribing to an average of 7 topics, each informing them of specific and granular information that is important to them (typically bin collections and school closures).  The council kick-started its proactive alerting service, “Central Bedfordshire Updates,” with an import of a huge list of email addresses from Adult Learning, Libraries and other services.  By bringing them all under one roof and cross-promoting, their residents now receive alerts from several different topics that they have asked to receive information on, which delivers channel shift.  The council calculate that as many as 100 calls per day to their call centre have been avoided!

For us at GovDelivery, breaking these silos this has become a very a hot topic and has revealed itself as a major way to jump-start a Channel Shift initiative. In fact, we recently published a white paper on Channel Shift by Dr. Gerald Power. Download it here.

Have you found other ways to deliver sustainable channel shift? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below.

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3 Not-So-Obvious Email Tips for Government to Effectively Reach Citizens

May 24th, 2012 | Posted by Lauren Modeen for GovDelivery in Email Communication | Social Media - (1 Comments)

I’d venture to say that for most of us working in or with government, the more people we can reach effectively, the better off we are. Here are three not-so-obvious ways to do this. For additional best practices like this, be sure to download our newly released guide: Public Sector Digital Management Communication: The Critical Role of Email. And for real-time tips we invite you to join our upcoming Public Sector Communication Best Practices webinar on June 7. Reserve your complimentary seat now!

1. Capture Subscribers at Exciting or Critical Times

One of the best times to capture subscribers is during an exciting or critical time for your organization. For example, in early 2012, Seattle experienced four straight days of snow and ice. Citizens in King County poured onto the county’s metro transit home page to get the critical information they needed about the storm. The takeaway? At a time where there is a huge increase of citizens on your site, make sure you seize the opportunity to sign up as many as you can. Once you are connected to them, you can proactively communicate in the future.

How about a baby Wild Black Bear just born in a den in Maine? While this exciting event was happening, the Wildlife Research Foundation live-streamed the event. As excited users came to their page to view the live-streaming, the Foundation encouraged visitors to subscribe to their bulletins.

2. Drive Sign-ups through Your Social Channels by Just Asking

Sometimes we get so caught up in thinking of the perfect tweet, Facebook post, or subject line, we forget that sometimes the easiest way to ask citizens to subscribe to emails is simply to just remind them and ask. Check out this very simple but effective tweet sent out by Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton.

Oh, and when trying to spread your message even further, it’s not a bad idea to add to your (tweet) — “Please Retweet.” While there is some debate around this in terms of data versus “gut,” this Hubspot data does point to the fact that “Please retweet” is the 11th most retweetable word.

3. Hook Your Subscribers Where They Are

When considering where to place subscription sign-up links on your website, always remember to review your website analytics first. For the pages that have the most popular and vital content – place your sign-up link on that page, in the top left. Take a look at the great example of a sign-up box on the LouisvilleKy.gov site below.

 

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Email Communications for Government in the Era of Social Media

May 15th, 2012 | Posted by Mary Yang for GovDelivery in E-Government | Email Communication | Government 2.0 | Social Media - (3 Comments)

It’s hard to dispute that 2011 was the year of social media. The average number of tweets on Twitter rose from 50 million to 140 million. LinkedIn set records as the largest Internet IPO since Google. And over half of Facebook’s 845 million users logged in daily. Some headlines even claimed that “email is dead.”

But the truth is, even in the midst of a social media revolution, email communications is more important than ever. In the private sector, email marketing continues to provide a relatively high ROI, with an expected $44.25 average return on a dollar by the end of 2011 according to the Direct Marketing Association. A majority of companies expect to increase their email marketing budget this year, and for many companies, email delivers more traffic to their website than any other traffic source. And while you don’t work in the private sector, your goal to communicate your organization’s message is similar.

Email remains and will remain popular as a source to receive information that’s easily searchable. Plus, email works across platforms – a user on Gmail can send a message to Hotmail or Yahoo Mail. In contrast, content on social media may remain more isolated with no universal sharing or searching.

For government organizations, the smart response to the changing face of digital communications is to recognize that while social media will not result in the “death of email” anytime soon, it has certainly changed the way people use it. Your organization must adapt to the new ways your audience seeks out, consumes and responds to online content. Key trends in email and social media that will impact your organization’s communications efforts include:

  • Social media users are significantly more likely to frequently check their email. What are you doing to encourage your social media followers to subscribe to your emails, and vice versa? How are you targeting your communications for this group of users?
  • Younger users are leaving web-based email but simultaneously driving the growth of email usage on smart phones and tablets. How are you updating your communications to reach mobile users?
  • Email will continue to be popular with users who appreciate predictability and reliability. Consider what your audience expects from your communication outreach campaigns and preserve the elements that work.

What is your government organization trying to accomplish with their digital communications efforts? Reach a wider audience? Keep citizens informed? Consider the topics that will spark interest with your readers, how readers will be most likely to respond, and what delivery method will provide messages that are both relevant and timely. Will your message be best received through email, social media or both?

For more information on why government organizations should consider an integrated email and social media marketing approach, check out all of GovDelivery’s blog posts on email communication and social media.

What is your agency doing to strengthen email communications in the social media era?

 

 

Inspiration for blog post from “Why Social Shouldn’t Scare Email Marketers“.

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Digital Communication Best Practices Guide Now Available

May 10th, 2012 | Posted by Mary Yang for GovDelivery in E-Government | Email Communication | Government 2.0 - (1 Comments)

GovDelivery just released a new guide – Public Sector Digital Communication Management Best Practices: The Critical Role of Email – that details tips and strategies culled from more than 500 state, local, federal and international government organizations. Government Technology recently ran an article with some strategies from this guide.

With all the buzz around social media, why is this guide focused on email? The PEW Internet and American Life Project’s recent survey of internet usage showed that 92% of adult online users using email. It’s clear that email is the central hub of online communication. With this knowledge, it’s critical for government communicators to incorporate email as the cornerstone of any communication strategy or outreach effort.

Pew Internet chart

The guide provides public sector employees with more than 20 pages of comprehensive best practices around digital communications and email, and it’s broken up into three main sections:

  • Effectiveness: building the largest possible base by leveraging existing contact lists and promoting sign-up options across organization websites and partners
  • Efficiency: streamlining and automating complex communications across email, SMS/text messaging and social media
  • Engagement: driving users to online and offline activities that create the most value for the public and the organization, ultimately creating mission value and changing behaviors that will create an immediate or, in some cases, lasting impact

The guide showcases examples from all levels of government – from Louisville, KY to King County, WA to the White House and Driving Standards Agency (UK) – to give you a clear idea of how your peers are implementing some of these digital communication best practices.

Here are a few of the tips that I found most interesting:

Effectiveness: Use Social Media to Get More Subscribers and Launch Email Outreach into Social Media

This may seem counter-intuitive but how many citizens know that your city, county, state, department or federal agency has a Facebook page? Or a Twitter feed? Or a blog? By leveraging social media to promote your email subscription services and vice versa, you reach a substantially larger audience.

Remember, it isn’t about communicating through a single channel. You want to push your information out as broadly as possible to reach as many people as you can.

Efficiency: Automatically Send Email Content to SMS and Social Media Channels

With the brilliance of technology these days, you should be able to automate your communication channels so you aren’t manually posting in several different channels.

This means that you should look for a platform or solution that allows you to create an email update and have that update post directly to social media channels or sent via SMS/text message at the same time.

Engagement: Content Best Practices – Provide a Clear Call to Action

In the business-to-consumer or business-to-business world, it’s easy to have a clear call to action: “buy this new product” or “download this coupon.” In the public sector, this hasn’t been as widely followed. But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be. This is definitely one of those best practices from the private sector that the public sector can adapt and adopt.

When a reader takes an action from your email newsletter, that is true engagement. And for the public sector, engagement helps drive mission value. For example, in the Midwest, an email update that alerts citizens to snow emergencies and urges them to move their cars off the street so their cars don’t get towed provides a clear call to action that benefits everyone and provides immediate and long-lasting value.

These are just three tips from the guide that I found useful. For more tips, download the full guide at http://direct.govdelivery.com/email-guide.

Does your government organization utilize any communication strategies or tactics that have been highly successful? I’d love to hear them. Share your best practices in the comments.

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