GovDelivery | Reach The Public

What is Community Culture?

Managing an online community can be like being on recess duty at middle school when all the kids are hopped on sugar and have been stuck inside for a week because of rain. Having a set of rules that everyone understands and agrees with beforehand can help restore order when everyone is really excited or a fight is about to break out.

We are human beings having a human experience through technology, and in online communities, we are having the experience together. As human beings we show up to life (and online communities) with our own beliefs, expectations, values and desires. In an online community, the conversations we have and actions we take together become our rituals. Online communities need to be designed and managed with all of this in mind.

Having built, launched, and managed more online communities than I can remember, I’ve learned that the community managers who invest in developing, validating, and managing their community cultures have more productive, fun, and resilient communities.

So what is Community Culture? Here is my take that I have adapted from what I’ve read about culture and my own experience:

Community Culture is the shared set of beliefs, expectations, values, desires and rituals that influence the ways in which individuals, groups, and teams will interact with one another and collaborate to achieve common objectives.

Our clients who run GovDelivery Collaboration for their online communities typically do so to increase the effectiveness and efficiencies of member capacity and to increase awareness and change behaviors of those they influence. As Director of Engagement Services at GovDelivery, my team helps government organizations discover the beliefs, expectations, values, and desires of their community members during the Assessment phase. Then, we infuse the cultural knowledge learned in this phase into the design of engagement flows. In addition, this knowledge is used to customize features that increase the value of member participation, driving ongoing engagement that results in productive, fun and resilient communities.

Below I’ve shared the template we use at GovDelivery as a starting point — feel free to use it. Keep in mind this is meant to serve as a general statement for the community as a whole. I recommend you use this as a part of your community guideline and/or moderation policy. It’s important to remind members of the guidelines periodically and when moderating, point to the guideline to remind them of what is acceptable and unacceptable.

Beliefs: When we are connected, and use common tools to collaborate, we are more effective and efficient at meeting individual, organizational and collective objectives.

Expectations: We contribute what we can about what we know; ask for what we need; keep doing what is working; communicate about what is not working, and when possible, offer suggestions towards the solution.

Values: The spirit in which we take actions:

We are thoughtful, respectful and helpful.
We encourage each other.
We celebrate each other’s accomplishments.
We appreciate the diversity our approaches.

Rituals: The actions we regularly take:

We read and comment on each other’s discussions and blog posts.
We share our best practices and success stories.
We ask for help and help each other out.
We are factual, cite sources, and make it clear when something is our own personal opinion.

Desires: What we have in common that motivates us:

We strive to serve others.
We seek to serve each other.
We choose to learn and empower ourselves.

Common Objectives: What we are working towards together

Objective 1
Objective 2
Objective 3

Another lesson I’ve learned is that I don’t have all the answers and the best place to look first is the community itself. And so I humbly ask you:

Do you have any suggestions of what we should consider adding to this template? Is there anything you don’t agree with?
How in your experiences have you seen beliefs, expectations, values, desires and rituals contribute to or hinder a community’s productivity, fun, or resilience?

Joseph Porcelli, Director
GovDelivery & GovLoop Engagement Services
202-407-7461 @JosephPorcelli

collaboration, community, Community Culture, Community Management, Community Strategy, engagement, government

The Power of One

May 1st, 2012 | Posted by GovDelivery in Email Communication | GovDelivery - (0 Comments)

By Dave Worsell, Director, Government Solutions, GovDelivery UK

I was recently asked to present to the UK Government Digital Service (GDS) for a “Lunch and Learn” session. The purpose of the presentation was to demonstrate the importance of proactive public sector communications and some of the risks and pitfalls when providing proactive communication on a very large scale.

For many Email Service Providers (ESPs) there is strength in numbers. If you’re sending 1 million messages for a major retailer it doesn’t matter if a few go missing or if a few end up in spam filters provided the vast majority do reach their intended audience. After all, the recipient doesn’t really care if they don’t get the latest special offers on wide-screen televisions and provided you sell enough, neither do you.

It’s a very different story if you’re sending safety alerts and public notifications. Every message matters. Ensuring Peter, the local pharmacist, removes a polluted batch of medicines from his shelves might be the only thing that matters to his customers.

A recent study by ReturnPath estimated that as many as 1 in 5 emails don’t reach the intended recipient and this could increase to 1 in 4 as Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and spam filters get more sophisticated. What if Peter’s message is one of those?

Building large scale message delivery capability is very difficult and expensive as our blog post, The deceptive simplicity of pressing send, explains. For this reason, many organisations use ESPs to send messages for them. However, as a government communicator there are some important things you need to know.

ESPs go to great lengths to ensure deliverability rates are as high as possible. They work with the ISPs to manage reputation. It’s important for them that your “sender reputation” is as high as possible. Why? Because, your reputation impacts their sender reputation and this impacts the reputation of all their clients.

In order to maintain reputation scores and highly impressive deliverability rates (99%+) major ESPs provide sophisticated content filters and spam analysis tools and insist you check your messages deliverability score before you can send the message. It’s down to you to make the necessary changes to any message that fails these tests.

What happens when you can’t change the message? What if your message contains keywords that trigger spam filters? For example, the product you’re recalling is a Viagra tablet with a dangerous pollutant or the campaign is about a drug awareness course? What if you can’t re-write a ministerial statement because it fails the spam checks? Even if you could, do you have time when lives are at stake?

Before deciding on which ESP to use take a quick look at their delivery rates but much more importantly how they achieve them. Using message pre-parsers and spam scoring tools is great for ESP reputation management but when you need to get a message out urgently is it what you need?

GovDelivery sends 262 million notifications each year for UK government and this figure is predicted to reach 2 billion in a few years time. However, it’s delivery of one message that matters most. The power of one.

communications, email, GovDelivery, government, outreach, UK Government, UK Government Digital Service

Changing the government IT landscape with CloudStore

On Sunday, February 19, the Government Procurement Service officially launched CloudStore for UK central government and local authorities.

The UK government first proposed the G-Cloud initiative over two years ago with the goal of bringing a wider range of cloud suppliers to the public sector while increasing the flexibility of procurement contracts. The programme wanted to create an online store that public sector organisations could use to find services and supplies without the restriction of lengthy contracts and complex procurement. The system is being modelled after application online stores, similar to the Apple Mac App Store and Android Market, and is currently offering more than 1,700 services from 258 suppliers.

The G-Cloud initiative focuses on the need for public sector organisations to adopt more cloud-based IT services and supplies, which costs less and can be deployed quickly, versus traditional IT hardware and software. To this end, CloudStore is organized by four service genres:

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
Platform as a service (PaaS)
Software as a service (SaaS)
Specialist cloud services

Since last week, UK media have been buzzing with news on the G-Cloud initiative, especially as reports from the Cabinet Office relayed information on the launch of CloudStore. So, what’s the big deal?

The truth is that, while the private sector has long seen the benefits of cloud computing, government is still slow on the uptake. A government employee based in Canada shared his frustrations with the lack of technological advancement in government with a recent blog post on GovLoop. He writes: “In 2012, there are many public servants whose computers simply run Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Office. In many cases we are still running the 2003 version of each piece of software. A majority of the work of the public service is still done by traditional desktop or local server based software and e-mail clients. For much of the public service, the reality faced is one where work is conducted on 5-6 year old desktop tower computers in localized applications using outdated desktop software that stifle collaboration, create version control problems and ultimately cost the government more money to run and administer.” While our personal lives are dominated by mobile technology (iPads and tablets) and cloud-based software like Gmail, those who work in government find that their professional technology environment is simply outdated.

UK Government agencies and organisations are under more pressure than ever to deliver services under increasingly reduced budgets. Moving IT infrastructure and software to cloud-based suppliers can have a significant impact. In fact, in the Guardian’s latest article on the G-Cloud the newspaper quotes Francis Maude, minister for the Cabinet Office, as saying: “By creating a competitive marketplace, the G-Cloud framework will constantly encourage service providers to improve the quality and value of the solutions they offer, reducing the cost to taxpayers and suppliers. And it gives SME suppliers of niche products the same opportunities as bigger organisations supplying services.”

The G-Cloud initiative outlined the UK Government’s belief that cloud computing is a necessary next step in government IT evolution. But the launch of CloudStore provides the framework and foundation for central government and local authorities to begin to reap the benefits of cloud-based software and services. It is a giant step in the right direction.

As a cloud-based, government-focused communications software supplier, GovDelivery has always felt strongly that cloud computing can increase government efficiency while reducing cost. Thus, it was an honor to be included as a supplier in the G-Cloud catalogue with the launch of CloudStore. With over 500 government clients using GovDelivery software to manage their communications, we witness how impactful cloud-based software is on a daily basis with government organisations. Here are two UK government organisations that are already benefiting from cloud-based software:

Driving Standards Agency (DSA) has seen enormous success in using Digital Communication Management, a cloud-based solution that is scalable, easily implemented and updates regularly to take advantage of emerging technologies. DSA uses this solution to connect to nearly 47,000 citizens currently. For instance, DSA uses this tool to integrate their communications with the most popular social media networks. As other social media channels develop or gain prominence, this cloud-based software can update to include those channels without disrupting DSA’s regular usage. Read their story online.

Norfolk County Council is using the same solution to help manage their digital communications efforts and is now reaching nearly 35,000 residents and stakeholders directly. Norfolk County Council also predicted a savings of £20,000 per annum by publishing electronic committee reports to County Councilors instead of providing printed reports. Norfolk County Council is not only reducing communications costs but also delivering these committee reports more quickly through email, increasing the local authority’s efficiency. Read the story online.

What are your thoughts on the G-Cloud framework and the launch of CloudStore? Please leave your thoughts in the comments!

Cabinet Office, cloud, cloud computing, CloudStore, Driving Standards Agency, DSA, G-Cloud, government, government savings, GovLoop, information technology, innovation, IT, Norfolk County Council, SaaS, technology, UK Gov

APIs and Tax Season

February 16th, 2012 | Posted by GovDelivery in GovDelivery | Government 2.0 | Mobile - (2 Comments)

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.

Android, citizen, citizen service, communications, Gov 2.0, GovDelivery, government, government services, iPhone, IRS, mobile app, outreach, smartphone, social media, taxes, technology, web 2.0

Sift Through Big Data to Find Real Insight

There is a ton of talk today about “big” data. The concept comes from our ever increasing ability to collect, store, and manage larger and larger datasets full of vast amounts of information – customer information, habits, purchasing patterns, social media visits, and so on. Unfortunately, I think many private and public organizations have become much like the Once-ler in Dr. Seuss’ Lorax:

I had to grow bigger so bigger I got. I biggered my factory, I biggered my roads, I biggered the wagons, I biggered the loads…

I biggered my datasets because that is what everyone, everyone needs…

The true test of an organization’s ability to use any data effectively is in the analysis of that data. What can you understand from “big” data and how can it help government organizations achieve greater efficiencies, effectiveness, and engagement with the citizens they serve? I think the answer is in the smaller, localized, actionable gems that you sift out of the ever-growing big data.

GovDelivery recently published the 2011 Federal Digital Communications Report in which we reflect on the breadth and depth of digital communications across governmental agencies. We leveraged big data to highlight actionable information that can provide important insights for government agencies, including what topics were important to citizens.

28% of governmental messages sent out via the GovDelivery platform dealt with Health & Health Care in 2011. It was a critical topic focused on by the national media, and this report shows that all levels of government agencies provided further analyses, clarifications, policies, and follow-up through their digital communications.

Over 25% of governmental messages dealt with Business & Small Business and Jobs & Employment. Again, the economy has been a major focus throughout the world. This has given government organizations the opportunity to get out timely information to help its citizens cope as well as help support increased economic activity by educating and encouraging entrepreneurs and small businesses.
IRS, National Weather Service, FEMA, and USDA had some of the highest shared content across all Federal agencies that use the GovDelivery digital communications solution. This list shows the specific messages from government agencies that citizens felt compelled to share with family and other social networks. It demonstrates immediate mission value for government while also providing agencies with information that can help them tailor their future communications. Many shared important updates and news alerts related to subjects like:

SAMHSA – Facebook’s First-of-a-Kind Service to Help Prevent Suicides

USDA – New Food Icon to help consumers make healthier food choices

USA.gov – Moment of silence in remembrance of 9/11

By identifying some detailed data, we were able to highlight the incredible growth of specific topics that showed growing public interest. The report showed that the SSA’s W-2 News, FEMA’s Updates During Disasters, and AHRQ’s Patient Safety grew the most by number of subscribers over 2011.

The study overall provides remarkable proof that governments are providing relevant, topic based, and insightful information for their citizens. GovDelivery is proud to partner with government organizations to help get the word out about the kind of information that impact all of us.

Theoretically, the idea of big data for government sounds valuable, but in reality, big data doesn’t provide the insight that helps you communicate better with the public. It is not just about “biggering” your data; it is about leveraging specific data to lead to greater wisdom and insights. If you ever need help seeing the detailed trees through the ever-growing data forest, contact us at GovDelivery.

2011, analytics, citizen, communications, community, content, data, engagement, Gov 2.0, GovDelivery, government, responsiveness, social media, technology, trends

Facebook’s Top 10 for Government

By Mary Yang, Marketing Communications Manager, GovDelivery

At GovDelivery’s October 19^th social media conference in Washington, DC, more than 300 attendees received some valuable tips on Facebook usage by government agencies from Adam Conner, Associate Manager of Public Policy at Facebook.

His engaging, fast-paced and helpful presentation included his top 10 “musts” for governments using Facebook to get their message out. We thought it’d be great to share with those who weren’t able to attend the event. Here’s a summary of those tips:

Speak with an authentic voice. Government agencies and organizations often tend to converse (both in-person and online) in a formal tone. No one actually talks like that anymore, and, more importantly, the average citizen would probably tune out if you did. Social networks, especially Facebook, are designed to be virtual hangouts. If you want to be where your audience is, you need to talk like you belong there.
Deliver your message. Before you post something, think about how your content will appear on Facebook or other social networks. You’ve got one shot at delivering your message, so enhance what you’re posting with a pithy title or headline. Add an appropriate image; be sure to hit on your key messages; and offer a link for more information. Adam noted specifically on this tip that “a click is a bonus,” which is a great point. As long as your message is out there, someone will see it and consume it.
Be timely and informative. Part of being a part of a social network is the immediacy of the channel. Let’s face it: people pay attention to breaking news, because it’s new and different. Providing timely information through Facebook means more people will pay attention.
Comments are here to stay. Many government agencies and organizations ask Facebook if it’s possible to turn off the Comments feature. They’re hesitant about receiving negative feedback or inadvertently breaking the law by having a citizen comment inappropriately on Facebook. But, alas, the Comments function cannot be turned off on Facebook. Adam stated in his presentation, “Facebook doesn’t work without comments.” His point is that Facebook’s Comments feature is integral to the activity within the social network, allowing people to voice their opinion, confirm their interest and show their personality. What you can do is provide a Comments Policy that spells out the commenting behavior that you expect from the public. You can also use a profanity or moderation filter to give you a little more control over the kind of language posted to your updates. Or, as another option, you can turn off your Wall – but then getting your message out becomes much harder.
Multimedia. Use photos and videos to help deliver your message in an impactful way. This doesn’t mean you need to have professional photographers everywhere. You can tap your archives for historical content that is relevant today. For instance, Adam noted that the US National Archives posted a photo of the destruction Hurricane Katrina made on the anniversary of Katrina, while the East Coast was dealing with Hurricane Irene. This was timely, relevant content – even if the photo itself was 6 years old.
Adam Conner, showing the full list of government agency pages on Facebook.
Words can have power, too. Multimedia is a huge part of social media, but don’t forget that words can have power. If the activity or moment calls for a dialogue or discussion, then words are helpful. Adam used an example of US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, and one note he posted denouncing the Syrian regime while answering questions and responding to comments that others had made about his stance on Syria. This generated intense buzz and was an interesting communications vehicle for the ambassador to get his key messages out to the public to generate support and interest.
Use Facebook Insights. Facebook recently revamped their Insights feature, the analytics tool that helps you track your “Likes” over time; interactions with your page; messages with the most impressions and feedback; etc. We also recently blogged about the new and improved Insights tool. Read more on Reach the Public.
Facebook is more than just facebook.com. Facebook isn’t just your agency’s page or the number of likes you have. With the immense growth over the past few years, you can now leverage Facebook on your website via Facebook widgets, mobile integration so you can update your status with a text message, and customizable apps. Adam pointed out San Francisco’s 311 Customer Service Center app, hosted on their Facebook page, as an example. They created an app for Facebook that leveraged their customer service request forms so the citizens of San Francisco could report a pothole to the city on Facebook. The main point: Facebook helps you create interactions and engagement across the web.
Secure your accounts. Adam was insistent on this point and emphasized that October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. His main point was simple: do not use the same password. Do not use the same password for your Facebook account as you would for Twitter or YouTube or your government email address. It’s not secure, and being in government, security is extremely important.
Resources for Government. Adam provided a number of additional resources for government.

State & Local governments. Facebook provides an amended set of terms for State & Local government pages. View them here.
Security with DTM-09-026. The Department of Defense (DoD) outlines their policy and guidelines for the effective use of social networking. This DTM applies to all agencies within the DoD. If Facebook is blocked for your agency, this will tell you why.
Archiving capabilities. There isn’t an archiving tool within Facebook, but Adam offered up two options: Backupify, which backs up and restores data from popular online services (Google Apps, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), and Nextpoint, which develops “cloud-based technology for legal and compliance needs.”
Interagency cooperation. Government agencies and organizations should remember that interagency cooperation on social networks can reap great rewards. Like with the unique GovDelivery Network, which allows different agencies and organizations to cross-promote their content and subscriptions to broaden their reach, interagency cooperation on social networks can help your agency increase its effectiveness.

Such great takeaways, don’t you think? What’s new and what are you already doing with your organization’s presence on Facebook? Are these tips helpful? Let us know what you think in the comments!

You can download Adam’s presentation from Slideshare. And stay tuned. We’re hoping to get some videos from Adam’s presentation up soon!

adam conner, citizen, communications, engagement, Facebook, Gov 2.0, government, outreach, social media, technology, web 2.0

Why face-to-face events about digital communications are important

September 19th, 2011 | Posted by Mary Yang for GovDelivery in Federal Government | GovDelivery | Government 2.0 | Social Media - (0 Comments)

By Mary Yang, Marketing Communications Manager, GovDelivery

With increased budget pressures and constraints on our schedules with expanding workloads, finding time to attend a face-to-face event is difficult. Not that there are many face-to-face events anymore: studies show that 60% of US marketers are planning to increase their spend on virtual events while 42% plan to decrease their spend around physical events and conferences.

That’s unfortunate.

While we live and work in a digital world, there is a definite need for face-to-face events that promote interaction, collaboration and networking. In fact, Facebook’s own Mark Zuckerberg believes that.

In David Kirkpatrick’s The Facebook Effect, he recounts this very idea: “Popular though it may be, Facebook was never intended as a substitute for face-to-face communication…it has always been explicitly conceived and engineered by Zuckerberg and colleagues as a tool to enhance your relationships with the people you know in the flesh – your real-world friends, acquaintances, classmates, or co-workers.”

The idea is so simple but revelatory when I think of how social media has drastically changed the way most of the world communicates. Maybe that’s why Facebook has been winning the social media wars to date: because, at its core, it has not forgotten that people are friends with people and that people do business with people – not a social networking site.

Social media has become essential to our everyday lives, but only because it helps us extend our face-to-face relationships. That’s something to remember when crafting your social media strategy.

Want to learn more? GovDelivery is hosting a free, face-to-face seminar for government empolyees and contractors in Washington, DC on October 19 around social media and its role in digital communications. Bonus: our keynote speaker will be David Kirkpatrick!

5 things to consider when developing your communications plan.

July 8th, 2011 | Posted by GovDelivery in Email Communication | GovDelivery | Software as a Service (SaaS) - (0 Comments)

By Mike Bernard, Digital Marketing Specialist

For the last few weeks I have been slowly building a deck on my house. Since I’ve never built a deck before, I did a lot of research, gathered all my materials, looked into regulations, drew up plans and got down to the hard work of getting the deck built.

I’m nearly finished and the process got me thinking about communications (full disclosure, I’m always thinking about how to communicate better!). I think organizations oftentimes approach their communication strategy the way I approached my deck – a vision of what the end product will look like, but not really certain about how to get there.

Here are 5 things to help you develop a communications plan that removes the uncertainty of how you will accomplish your vision:

1) What types of information do your stakeholders want? Brainstorm the types of information you think is most important to people (don’t forget to take what you are hearing from your customer service staff into account). Don’t let your brainstorming be limited to what you already have; allow room for “What if…” questions. You never know, that off-the-wall idea someone had might end up being your most popular item.

2) What’s the best medium for distributing the information? There are two points to this question. 1) What is the best way to get the information out? In some cases it can be done through email or monthly newsletters – in other cases, text messages, RSS feeds, podcasts or social media might be a better way to go. Try to determine what the people in your area will be most comfortable with. 2) How will your staff get information out in an efficient and effective way? You need to find systems that are simple, direct, and fast – with a minimal number of hurdles to overcome. It should also easily integrate with existing systems so you don’t create communication hang up silos. Remember: Simplify, simplify, simplify! The more difficult a system is to use, the greater headache it will cause for the people who have to administer it.

3) How will you inspire and energize staff to take communication to the next level? This is where you can really start to have fun. Encourage staff to create content that is user-friendly, human, and personal. Move internal information, experiences, learning, ideas, direction, and feedback equally well in all directions — up, down, and across the organization. A free flow of information will help everyone problem solve and inspire new, innovative ways of doing things.

4) How will you measure success? This is something that is too often left until after a project is completed. Knowing what outcomes you are looking to achieve from the get-go will help define what results to look for and how you will make improvements to achieve your goals. Are you looking to increase website traffic? Do you want to grow the number of subscribers to your monthly newsletter? Are you interested more in broad coverage so you hit everyone, or depth that provides the people who care with exactly what they are looking for? Do you want to try to capture people’s information so you can connect with them in the future? How will you determine what message delivering mediums are working and what are not? Once you figure out what you want to measure, make sure you are monitoring the metrics that will allow you to know if you are being successful.

5) How will take what you are measuring and adapt in order to get better? You need to have a plan for how you make improvements to what you are doing. If you’ve tested something for 3 months and there has been no improvement, try a different approach. If you don’t adapt, based on what your measurements are showing, you will never get better.

Creating a well developed strategy, before implementing it, can help you realize your communications goals.

Dealing with negative feedback in social media

By Lauren Modeen, Digital Strategist, GovDelivery Professional Services

Regardless of whether you are representing yourself, an agency, a company, a non-profit, or a campaign online, you will most likely encounter negative digital feedback. While you cannot control what the world puts in front of you, you can control how you respond. In fact, how you do so might say more about your character than when you are just humming along. Below are some examples and tips for Facebook and Twitter, but they also apply to other social media networks:

Twitter

1. When you read content directed at you that immediately raises your inner flag (i.e. it is negative), simply re-read it. Avoid jumping to unnecessary conclusions too early.

2. After you read it the second time, if it is in fact, negative, or unproductively critical, take a deep breath, step away from it for a few minutes, and then respond. No impulsive, angry thrashing out! Keep your cool.

3. If the person appears to be legitimate (see point C below), calmly analyze the tweet and respond in a constructive, non-threatening manner. If the person continues to engage (as long as it is not profane or otherwise abusive), continue to briefly interact with them until they give up.

Posts to block:

A. Those containing profane language

B. Those attacking anyone personally

C. Those that appear to be a spam account (can usually tell by the content of their tweets, 0 or < 10 followers, no profile image)

D. Anything else that appears to be completely inappropriate

Facebook

Follow the same three steps as above. Also, consider adding a Facebook policy to your page. Here is an example:

Sample Member Conduct Policy

[Name of organization] on Facebook is moderated. That means all comments will be reviewed before posting. In addition, [Name of organization] expects that participants will treat each other with respect. [Name of organization] on Facebook will not post comments that contain vulgar or abusive language; personal attacks of any kind; or offensive terms that target specific ethnic or racial groups. [Name of organization] on Facebook will not post comments that are spam, are clearly “off topic” or that promote services or products. Comments that make unsupported accusations will also be subject to review.

Any references to commercial entities, products, services, or other nongovernmental organizations or individuals that remain on the site are provided solely for the information of individuals using [Name of organization] on Facebook.

Here is a summary of the guidelines we abide by:

The use of vulgar, offensive, threatening or harassing language is prohibited. Public comments should be limited to comments related to the topic. [Name of organization] on Facebook is not the proper place to express opinions or beliefs not directly related to that topic.

[Name of organization] on Facebook is not open to comments promoting or opposing any person campaigning for election to a political office or promoting or opposing any ballot proposition. [Name of organization] on Facebook is not open to the promotion or advertisement of a business or commercial transaction.

Have you dealt with negative feedback on Facebook or Twitter? How about in comments on your organization’s blog? How do you deal with this?

communication, digital, Facebook, feedback, GovDelivery, government, social media, Twitter

What is Community Culture?

The Power of One

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