A blog about government-to-citizen digital communication and engagement, Government 2.0, GovDelivery, and other e-government issues
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Getting Your Message Heard: When Communication is a Matter of Life or Death

March 27th, 2013 | Posted by Anne Doucot for GovDelivery in Cloud Computing | Community Management/Engagement | Current Affairs | Email Communication | GovDelivery | Government Success Stories | Local Government | Social Media | Software as a Service (SaaS) | State Government | Usability - (0 Comments)

Imagine for a moment that you are in an area that is about to be hit by a hurricane. What would you want to know to prepare? Do you know where the safest place will be? How will you contact other family members if separated? These getting your message heardquestions are extremely important when faced with a disaster. And if you work in the public sector, another important question is: What good is your message if your audience isn’t getting it?

As a government employee, you may have critical information that could potentially save lives before or during an urgent situation, but if your message doesn’t actually get to your intended recipients, the message is useless.

The town of Ocean City, Maryland, quickly realized the importance of this question during the aftermath of Hurricane Irene in 2011. Overall, the storm caused 47 deaths and over $15 billion worth of damage. Despite the myriad of communications being sent out by town staff, Ocean City residents felt they hadn’t received adequate or timely information about the storm.

Ocean City officials listened to their citizens and stakeholders and took action. They began by discussing their current communications system. The town already had a system in place that pushed out email alerts; however, administrators felt that a more flexible system was necessary. They wanted the ability to send messages, especially emergency alerts, via multiple channels, including text messages or SMS. They knew there was a phone alertsmuch more efficient and effective way to communicate emergency and other high priority information to residents.

In July 2012, Ocean City selected and implemented a multichannel, integrated digital communication platform: GovDelivery Digital Communication Management (DCM). Residents are now able to sign up for a wide variety of topics such as Jobs, Council updates and City Wide Alerts.

The system not only allows Ocean City to send out email and text messages, but it has also helped the town dramatically increase its reach.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Ocean City was significantly more prepared, using the system to get the word out about preparation, storm updates and recovery efforts.

“In times of emergencies, it’s critical for the town to have a system in place that allows us to quickly reach out to our residents and stakeholders with information that they need to keep themselves and their properties safe or secure. With Hurricane Sandy, I was glad to know that we were using the same system that FEMA was using to get the word out about the storm,” said Joe Theobald, Emergency Services Director, Ocean City, MD.

Despite Hurricane Sandy’s devastation, Ocean City residents reported being “extremely satisfied” with officials’ communication throughout the storm. To read the full success story, click here.

If you’d like to know more on how to guide the public in preparing for emergency situations, click here to get the FREE E-BOOK, Leveraging Digital Communications in Emergencies.

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Futurism and Government

March 25th, 2013 | Posted by Mary Yang for GovDelivery in Community Management/Engagement | Compelling Content | Current Affairs | GovDelivery | Government 2.0 - (0 Comments)

I know what you’re probably thinking, “What is futurism?” And then your next question is likely, “And what’s that got to do with government?” I’ve been reading a recently published book, Think Like a Futurist: Know What Changes, What Doesn’t, and What’s Next by Cecily Sommers, that explains futurism as the practice of engaging in “new thinking in order to connect today’s pressures with tomorrow’s realities.”

So what’s this got to do with government? Well, it turns out, quite a bit. Government Technology covered a conference where Brian David Johnson, Intel’s director of future casting and resident futurist gave the keynote. The article noted that Johnson stated how “crucial [it will be] for government agencies to think well into the future when planning technology implementations.” Moreover, he is quoted as saying, “…government agencies must prepare for the future of tech by having a vision, and contemplating what humans will be like down the road.”

Especially now, in a time with unprecedented budgetary constraints (re: sequestration), extensive technological advances and broad demographic changes, this kind of forward-looking thinking can help anchor and prepare government organizations to take on tumultuous times.

Sommers_3D book shot.jpg

(www.cecilysommers.com)

And that’s exactly what Cecily Sommers’ book Think Like a Futurist can help you do, whether you’re a government technologist or communications specialist or administrator. In the book, she discusses the “Four Forces of Change” – resources, technology, demographics, and governance – and how understanding each force helps you “get a big-picture perspective on any challenge you may face. Understand how they work together to drive change, and you will be able not only to avert crises but also to uncover ideas and opportunities…along the way.”

Does this sound too pie-in-the-sky? After reading the book, there are some deeply compelling examples of how futurism applies to the broader call for innovation in government through technology. For instance, she writes about a Bangladeshi man, Iqbal, who brings the mobile phone movement to Bangladesh’s most poor and rural citizens after he realizes how critical communications technology is to increasing productivity “by helping people coordinate their work and resources.” For the rural and poor citizens in Bangladesh, this was a profound advancement in their quality of life and the country’s economic growth. Iqbal didn’t invent the cell phone, but he had the vision to use this technology in a new way to improve the quality of life for thousands of people in his home country. Cecily notes that Iqbal understood that mobile phone technology was here to stay. And he understood the demographics of his country. Those two pieces of knowledge inspired his vision.

This is just one example from the book, which I encourage you to read, but why not hear from Cecily yourself? She will be speaking at our next two Digital Communications Tour stops (Oakland and Denver). We’ll also be giving away her book (quantities are limited) and attendees will have a chance to ask Cecily questions after her keynote.

Come find out how you can think like a futurist. Register for the Oakland stop or the Denver stop today.

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Collaboration is a hot trend for state & local governments

March 19th, 2013 | Posted by Mary Yang for GovDelivery in Community Management/Engagement | Compelling Content | Local Government | Mobile | Social Media | State Government | Tech | Usability - (1 Comments)

For state and local governments, budgets have been cut across the board while technologies have advanced, earth and groupswhich has led to the concept of “shared services.” Shared services, with technologies hosted in the cloud, would allow many state and local governments to combine the use of specific technologies or solutions. Organizations using those services would help contribute to the overall financial cost. It’s easy to see why many state and local officials have begun to explore new collaborative relationships with neighboring public sector entities. Perhaps that’s also why respondents to a GovDelivery survey rated collaboration as the top trend affecting state and local agencies in 2013.

The survey of more than 400 individuals in U.S. state, county and city government found that collaboration with other government organizations as well as citizens tops the list of trends taking center stage in 2013 for their organizations.

This infographic highlights survey findings, and you’ll notice that although collaboration is the clear top trend, customer service is not far behind and mobile government is also considered important. In contrast, big data was considered less impactful to state and local government employees.

Collaboration has always been important for every level of government, according to the white paper that provides full details of the survey findings. The white paper states:

  • County and city governments must work with state and federal agencies to implement programs.
  • Cross-agency collaboration is critical for public safety, law enforcement, public health and other vital services that cross jurisdictions.
  • Streamlining inter-agency collaboration can reduce costs and duplication of effort.

Driving the increased need for better collaboration are:

  • A demand for increased productivity and efficiency with existing budgets.
  • A new generation of individuals entering the work force with collaborative work practices.
  • The increasing use of social and digital media by individuals from every walk of life. Today, an increasing number of citizens want to collaborate with their local government officials on social media or get assistance with services online or via mobile technology using their own devices.

hands world24 percent of survey respondents report their agency is already addressing the need for collaboration. That might be because historically governments have collaborated on providing programs and emergency services. The survey indicates that particularly in county governments, many respondents are not yet making use of social media for collaborative purposes. Within the state and local sectors, city governments have made the greatest strides in using social media to share news and information from their organizations.

Given the upward trend in social media and digital usage by the public sector, one implication of the survey findings is that government officials need to make more use of these media to help them engage with customers as well as to collaborate with each other. For example, programs and communications can be cross-promoted on the websites and within digital technologies of various agencies. Also, government entities can use dedicated communities and channels for inter-agency collaboration.

Download the full white paper to learn more about collaboration, customer service, mobile government and how these top trends overlap.

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Going All Digital: How to Move Paper-Based Transactional Messages Online

March 15th, 2013 | Posted by Mary Yang for GovDelivery in Current Affairs | E-Government | Email Communication | Federal Government | GovDelivery | Government 2.0 | Local Government | Usability | Web/Tech - (0 Comments)

I don’t have to tell you how constrained government budgets are these days. If you work in government, you know the depth of budget cuts and lack of resources – but this doesn’t mean that you stop doing the important work you’ve done before. money computerYou still need to communicate with your citizens and stakeholders about your services, from recycling updates to open park times to tax updates.

A recent white paper titled, Cutting the Costs of Paper: Digital Delivery of Government Messages & Statements, may provide another perspective on how to better reach citizens and stakeholders with important, personalized messages while working within constrained budgets. The white paper notes:

Many government agencies are achieving efficiencies through e-government initiatives that move processes and communications online. Yet paper is still an essential part of many communications between agencies and the public. These paper-based processes are often a bottleneck, slowing down essential processes such as payments while increasing costs for handling paper.

Some agencies send high volumes of these transactional messages, which often represent a sizable cost to the agency. The cost of printing and mailing is just the tip of the iceberg. Keeping these business processes on paper creates significant follow-on costs for handling inbound forms or calls. By moving these printed messages to electronic mail, agencies can realize significant cost savings while streamlining business processes and becoming more efficient.

What’s a transactional message? The white paper gives some examples, but it may be easier to start with a private sector example. For instance, if you have a credit card, you can usually set up a recurring email alert to notify you when your balance reaches a certain threshold. I have one of my credit cards set up to send me this kind of email alert; but it doesn’t just tell me that I’ve reached a certain balance, it also tells me exactly what my credit card balance is in the email. And then it gives me the option of clicking on a link to see more information through my credit card portal.

How would this work for government? An easy example would be property tax statements. Usually this information is mailed to the citizen or business, with a paper statement for payment,tms if that’s required. Because of the very specific information contained in the statement, it’s been easier for organizations to collate this information and print it, then mail it. The other option has usually been to implement or install an enterprise system that’s expensive and large to manage. But with advances in technology, especially with application programming interfaces (APIs), this is no longer the case. Legacy financial or citizen relationship management systems can remain intact while APIs do the work of pulling in personalized information and then sending out these transactional messages to their intended recipients. Transactions with government organizations that were generated from paper-based communications can move to an all-electronic process, saving your organization time, money and resources.

The white paper goes into more depth. But why not hear from an expert? GovDelivery’s Technical Product Manager, Tor Flatebo, is discussing this very topic on a live webinar on March 27. The webinar is free, and you can pick Tor’s brain on all the ways transactional messaging can work for your organization. Register today.

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Becoming a Hero to Returning Veterans and Families

March 8th, 2013 | Posted by GovDelivery in Cloud Computing | Community Management/Engagement | Current Affairs | E-Government | Email Communication | Federal Government | GovDelivery | Government 2.0 | Tech | Uncategorized | Usability - (0 Comments)

By Lance Horne, General Manager, GovDelivery Federal Team

Last year, Forbes magazine published an article written by a United States Marine Corp sergeant about what it’s like to return from combat. salut flagWhile warfighters are thrilled to be back, many face the surreal task of returning to the life they knew before combat. They come from an environment of unquestioningly taking orders, living in close quarters with their fellow soldiers, and under the constant stress of combat that few of us can easily relate to. Yet they are expected to come back and instantly integrate.

A number of federal agencies face a daily challenge of re-integrating the military when they do return from combat, and making sure returning warfighters are receiving the benefits they are entitled to. Federal agencies have quickly realized that they need to take their communications game up a notch or two to give these veterans and their families the information they need and deserve post-deployment. This has proved to be a perplexing problem, but there are things that can be done to improve.

Federal agencies feel compelled to deliver communications to warfighters and their families – especially when they come home soldier laptop– in a friendly and reliable manner. However, having the expertise to communicate in such a way is a special skill. And if we look back at what I talked about in my “Reach out …” posting a couple of weeks ago, more effective government-to-citizen (G2C) communications can boost an agency’s image and position it as an essential part of citizens’ lives. So where do agencies turn for help? Well, for starters, they could rely on technology partners to help them set up the means and the recommended communication channels to make talking with returning military and their families much more effective.

In the long run, finding the right technology partner is more cost-effective than trying to develop the systems on your own. For federal agencies, it has become essential to not only clearly and empathically communicate with returning military and their families, but to be able to gather feedback and open a two-way dialogue with them as well. Having an ability to communicate in such ways heightens the overall effectiveness of communications and makes the warfighter and his or her family feel more like they are participating in the process of reacclimating to civilian life and playing a strong role in the process of getting the information they need.

One such example of how effective communications can benefit warfighters comes from Washington state, where some war veterans were enrolled in Medicaid but not taking advantage of federal benefits. The state informed them of this discrepancy, and the vets were moved off Medicaid and onto federal programs, saving the state $30 million since 2004.man looking at clouds laptop

Once you have a steady stream of feedback from the audience you’re communicating with, what do you do with all of that data? As described in my last blog, “Taking an Entrepreneurial Jump on the Cloud“, agencies are starting to move to cloud computing to access and store data. Using traditional technology to wrestle meaning out of the information at your disposal is challenging.

New technology that you can coordinate through cloud computing will allow you to query gigantic data sets so you could find out where subscriber growth is, and when people are most interested in specific information.

If your agency is responsible for communicating with returning warfighters and their families, what has your experience been like? What success have you had? What could you have done better?

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We Interrupt This Broadcast – 4 Lessons from Tampa Water Boil Notice

March 1st, 2013 | Posted by GovDelivery in Community Management/Engagement | E-Government | Local Government | Mobile | Social Media - (0 Comments)

By Steve Ressler, Mr. GovLoop

This Friday and Saturday, there was a 48-hour boil notice for water in my area (City of Tampa).  Pretty simple- you were not allowed to drink tap water without boiling it first- otherwise there might be health issues.  It affected 600,000 individuals in the area plus the trickle-down affects of restaurants, coffee shops, laundromats.
And as a father of a newborn, it’s one of those items that makes you glad you heard about it as it affects everything- water the breast-feeding mother is drinking, water we are sterilizing his bottles with, and the water we are washing his clothes in.

Which got me thinking – what if we didn’t hear about the notice?  And how do we make sure we touch and notify all citizens in times of emergencies?  Here’s my 4 lessons:

cell phones1) We Interrupt This Broadcast – Everyone knows the common refrain “we interrupt this broadcast” which usually occurs if there is a major emergency (or plan).  This began with the concept that interrupting TV was the best way to reach the masses – now the answer is super simple.  ”We Interrupt this Text Message” – in times of emergencies.  I think it’d be great to send a mass text message to all cell phones GPS located in an area.  Technology is already there (& looks like Weather Service is already planning to do it).

2) Audience Matters – On the local news, the TV announcer mentioned City of Tampa had 12,000 signed up for emergency alerts out of 600,000 individuals.  That’s about 2%.  Not enough – that’s why it is so important to increase sign-ups during non-emergency times so you can reach more than 2% of folks in times of emergencies.

3) Relationships / PR Still Matter – Personally I heard about the water issue via AOL’s Patch local service.  My wife heard about it via a community listserve, and the information was also relayed by the university where she teaches to all her students.  And it was front-page news from the major daily papers to free weekly.  In times of emergencies, these channels still matter and you need to have these relationships (press, big institutions, employers, services and shelters, etc).

ScreenShot20130225at8.43.13AM4) Social Media matters – I’d give City of Tampa a B- job on social media.  My wife kept on wanting to know if the ban had been lifted or if there had been any “new” news.  I periodically checked Twitter but it seemed the City was only updating once every few hours.  22 Tweets over 3 days – it’s not a terrible number, but in time of emergency I would have hoped for a lot more (even if it is repeating the same information).

Have you been in an emergency lately?  How did your city react?

 

See the original post on GovLoop.

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How to Reach 400% More Audience

February 11th, 2013 | Posted by Mary Yang for GovDelivery in E-Government | Email Communication | Government 2.0 | Government Success Stories | State Government - (1 Comments)

Michigan_DNR_logo

This post was revised to include updated information on the webinar.

As a government communications professional, being able to reach your stakeholders is possibly the most important part of executing your responsibilities. If you need to send out communications to a specific group of people, being able to reach them is critical. It doesn’t matter what how well-written your communications are if they aren’t read.

So how do you increase your reach? Some recent posts can give you a tip or two: Let it snow! and Are you sitting on a pot of gold? But why not hear directly from a government agency that increased its outreach by 400%, growing their digital communication subscriber list from under 240,000 stakeholders to nearly 1 million.

Tomorrow, Christine Schwerin, Marketing Account Manager for the Michigan State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) sat down with us and offered up best practices, lessons learned, and tips on how to increase your communications reach. View the webinar recording on our website.

Still, for many, outreach is just the beginning. Engagement and customer satisfaction is often the elusive “true” goal. In reality, you’re competing with other communications (from businesses and friends and family). How do you increase engagement and customer satisfaction despite all the other things competing for your audience’s attention? You have to deliver information that is pertinent and resonates with your stakeholders. To that end, Christine is going to share how their communications strategy and execution has led to a 95% satisfaction rate with the DNR’s digital communications.

Webinar details

Topic: Best practices & successes from Michigan Department of Natural Resources

Duration: 1 hour

View the webinar online now.

 

 

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How to Get Citizens to Dig Each Other Out After a Snow Storm

February 8th, 2013 | Posted by Joseph Porcelli for GovDelivery in Community Management/Engagement | Current Affairs | Government 2.0 | Social Media - (0 Comments)

On December 26, 2010, a #snowpocalypse dumped a ton of snow in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. As a result of the storm, something very cool happened in Newark. Mayor Booker’s (@CoryBooker) constituents began tweeting requests for help with shoveling at their homes. He responded by taking action, and surprised many when he began digging people out. What was even cooler was the fact that others started showing up at the requested addresses to help him. Reading this story gave me an idea.

I wondered if I could coordinate a crew of my own neighbors to go out and shovel others in need. I also wanted to solve the bottleneck Mayor Booker created by having to physically be at every location that needed to be shoveled out. Consequently, in 2010, I launched the first pilot of what is now called #SnowCrew in Boston. It was successful in getting both shoveling requests and volunteers, but the process was directly dependent on me handling the requests and directing crews to locations. I was proud but not satisfied.

I wanted to see if I could create a system that did not require the intense facilitation required to plot shoveling requests and coordinate volunteer teams. It turned out that this could be accomplished using SeeClickFix.com, which was implemented in 2011. It worked and required much less coordination. I still needed to work on getting the word out and provide support to those who could not plot their own needs, but it took me about 80% less time.

Fast forward to present day. Beginning this morning, Boston is expecting a “historic blizzard” with up to 3 feet of snow.  Yesterday I re-activated #SnowCrew and already elderly, disabled, and sick neighbors have begun posting their shoveling assistance requests.

Here’s how it works:

Neighbors who need shoveling assistance can go to the website NeighborsForNeighbors.org (a social network for Bostonians that I founded) and click on the page entitled SnowCrew. Neighbors can add assistance requests, notifying nearby users on SeeClickFix that a neighbor needs help. I also tweet out new requests using the hashtag #snowcrew. It works, and it’s awesome!

snowcrew

While we’ve been able to prove this works on the neighborhood level, this storm (called #NEMO) will provide an opportunity to see what can happen at the city level. Wish me luck.

I hope my post sparks your interest and expands what you think is possible using technology that is readily available to any organization or citizen.

What problems do you envision that could be solved utilizing this kind of technology to empower citizens in partnership with government?

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Rethinking The Typical Office Of Public Affairs

February 4th, 2013 | Posted by Mary Yang for GovDelivery in Compelling Content | Current Affairs | Government 2.0 - (0 Comments)

Dannielle Blumenthal, Communications Director, Bureau for Management at USAID recently posted this entry to GovLoop:

Download from Slideshare here, or see below. It’s pretty self-explanatory, given my general approach to communications, but please ask me any questions you might have. Obviously the main difference is the word “engagement” – it’s all about the interaction. – Dannielle Blumenthal

Rethink Public Affairs

If you look at the post on GovLoop, Danielle states in the comments: “The point is to de-emphasize the public relations function and amplify the information provision function. Also the broader goal is interagency cooperation and collaboration where possible.” I think this is key to understanding her vision for a “revised” public affairs office — one focused not just on providing information but on ensuring that the public or an agency’s stakeholders are engaging with that information. That engagement is what drives real value for the “consumer” (literally, the person consuming that information) and public sector organizations (which are focused on driving mission results.)

What do you think? Leave a comment, and we’ll share with Dannielle!

 

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