content | Reach The Public

Hack for MN 2013

By Ben Ortega, Senior Software Engineer at GovDelivery

On June 1st we celebrated the first annual National Day of Civic Hacking, a day dedicated to leveraging technology and open data to improve communities.

Hard at Work Hacking at DevJam in Minneapolis, Open Twin Cities

Not satisfied with a typical single day event, our local civic-minded techies at Open Twin Cities organized Hack for MN, a weekend-long hackathon and competition where more than 100 techies and other interested parties teamed up and spent the weekend planning, brainstorming, and implementing ideas and tools to improve our communities.

Everyone got together Saturday morning at DevJam headquarters in south Minneapolis after having spent the prior days and weeks discussing project ideas on the web. Each project idea was assigned to a table, and after some opening remarks from organizers and local government officials, participants began to self-organize. People flowed from table to table discussing ideas; some projects never quite got off the ground, and others emerged spontaneously from chance meetings and conversations.

Once the afternoon arrived, tech-heavy teams went right to work crunching data and planning applications. Other teams took a service design approach, thinking carefully about big ideas such as technology access or sustainable development and brainstorming about how to better connect communities, and all the different personas, with available resources.

The teams spent most of Saturday afternoon coding and whiteboarding; the sound of collaborations and talk of the best open data sources hummed at lightning speed. Fortunately for us, the DevJam space (a former café) offered plenty of sunlight and open air, which lightened the intense hacking going on. We even got a surprise visit from an ice cream truck, which gave everyone a chance to relax for a bit.

By Sunday afternoon, the crowd had thinned out a bit as teams began to run out of gas, but nine teams powered through and presented their projects, which drew inspiration from a variety of community needs and data sources:

Sustaining Community- methods for crowdsourcing sustainability ratings

A system to find your polling place using SMS

MSP Bus (mspbus.org)- real-time bus departure information

Connect Me Minneapolis, a system for cataloging and discovering community technology assets

Solvabl- a website for tutoring and mentoring high school students interested in developing technical skills

An open Wi-Fi database for community Wi-Fi finding and geolocation use

Data Park- a set of GIS (Geographic Information System) tools for analyzing parking demand created by local businesses

My Bus Stop Totoro- some fun bus stop info visualizations

Code For Neighbors- a localized neighbor directory/alert system

More Hacking at Hack for MN Event, Open Twin Cities

I was honored to serve on the judging panel, especially since we were able to award prizes to every team that made it to the end of the hackathon. Prizes included meetings with local government officials or software entrepreneurs to determine next steps and subscriptions to GIS tools. All participants also received credits towards tech books, cloud computing and consulting services to continue developing their ideas.

All in all, it was great to see to both seasoned and aspiring hackers alike engaged and working together to tap into the potential of open tools and public data. It’s also inspiring to see development on several projects that have continued beyond the hackathon. It was great to represent GovDelivery as a judge and advisor, and I look forward to many years of hackathons to come.

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Innovation & Government: Don’t Be Intimidated by the Big “I” Word (Edison Wasn’t)

June 14th, 2013 | Posted by Anne Doucot for GovDelivery in Community Management/Engagement | Compelling Content | Email Communication | Usability - (0 Comments)

As I thought about the subject of these two words thrown together, I thought about different analogies I could use in order to put a fun visual to the idea. One thought that came to mind was imagining that Innovation and Government were high school kids in the hierarchy of popularity. Government might very well be intimidated by Innovation, who seems worldly and magnetic. While Government may be very caring and intelligent with a lot to say, it doesn’t quite know how to communicate efficiently. From Government’s point of view, Innovation appears to be an elusive, more glamorous creature that everyone wants to be like.

Flashing back to reality: government may still have a reputation for being behind when it comes to innovation and technology, but innovation needn’t be intimidating. Innovation often comes in small waves at a time. It begins with a slight change, an observation that eventually turns into action.

The three things that are most essential to achievement are common sense, hard work and stick-to-it-iv-ness….. -Thomas Edison

Innovation comes from many a series of trial and error. Triumph and defeat. Triumph and defeat. Defeat. And more defeat. Pay attention to how your customer is using your “product” per se. Are they using it the way you would expect? Are they doing, or searching for, something that you already offer, but that your organization doesn’t clearly communicate?

The company IDEO understood this idea when they were asked to design a new cap for the Crest Neat Squeeze toothpaste tube. The goal was to design a cap that reduced the leftover toothpaste gunk. They came up with a plan to make a cap that was a pop-on, pop-off design. Both the team and client were excited about this design, but after conducting a focus group with prototypes, they discovered that people kept trying to screw off the caps, getting very frustrated in the process. So they decided to try a one-twist method approach, or “half” of their innovation. The new cap was a hit with Crest and its customers.

If you work in the public sector, your product may be license renewals, passport applications, hunting licenses, or critical information in times of emergencies.

Like with any goal setting structure, attacking your goal head-on might seem intimidating at first. Follow these steps as a starting point.

Look at the big picture. What is your organization’s mission? If you’re not sure, find out. Before you can begin to truly communicate effectively, you need to know where your organization stands and what they stand for.

Who do you want to reach? Do you have particular segments within a certain community that you’d like to reach? Take the time to really think about this one. Drivers between the ages of 18 and 24? Veterans and warfighters? Hunters and fishers? Take a cue from successful advertisers and develop personas of your customer. To use the above example, create one for the driver, the veteran, and the hunter. Read more in GovLoop’s recent blog, “Want to engage online? Put people first.”

Have you already tried reaching citizens via traditional methods, such as through paper mailings or by attempting to keep your website up-to-date, and found that it isn’t reaching the people you want to reach? Something to chew on: 94% of adults are using email for information (Pew Research, 2010) and “43% of email is now opened on a mobile device” (Litmus, Email Analytics, 2012). With these facts, it’s worth exploring the implementation of a comprehensive digital communications platform to maximize your organization’s reach. To find out more about GovDelivery’s Digital Communications Management (DCM), click here.

What do they want? Do the citizens you’re serving want more information on calendar events or news? Do they want the ability to sign up for direct alerts via their email or phones? Add a feature to your website that allows people to sign up for various topics as well as a feature that allows them to give you feedback on what other information or services they would like from you.

Don’t be afraid of a series of trial and error. Some of history’s best innovators seemingly “stumbled” upon an innovation after numerous failures.

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. -Thomas Edison

Want to read more? Here are four great quick reads on innovation.

Citizen Engagement, communication, community, content, digital government, engagement, Facebook, GovDelivery, government, innovation, outreach, responsiveness, social media, technology

Integrating Government Social Media and Email Communications

In previous blogs you’ve heard about how government organizations are embracing digital communication channels – replacing traditional face-to-face and paper-based methods – to share information with citizens and other stakeholders. In fact, Britain’s coalition government announced last month that it would be providing ‘Twitter exclusives’ to journalists to bolster its social media image and help prevent the spread of negative stories. But is Twitter alone the most effective way for the government to communicate with citizens and the media?

Social Media Use = More Email Communication

While Twitter may be an extremely useful tool in relaying updates to a wide group of people instantaneously, it has limitations. The pace at which Twitter updates occur means that updates could disappear from the top position in feeds within seconds, depending on the number of individuals and organizations citizens and media outlets follow. How can government organizations create a more lasting impression? A Nielsen study revealed that social media use actually makes people consume email more, not less – particularly for the highest social media users. That means social media users are looking for information that supplements what they see on Twitter, and email can help meet this need by providing enhanced content.

Multiple Channels – One Message

Instead of relying solely on Twitter, governments should utilize a comprehensive digital communications strategy that incorporates multiple channels to get the word out as quickly and broadly as possible. Email, with its broad user base and ease of accessibility, needs to be a vital component in this comprehensive strategy. Email also delivers the greatest value when it’s part of an integrated platform of communication tools. That means organizations should link outbound email with Twitter and other social media channels to provide a consistent and effective experience. Accordingly, the growth in available social media outlets has only reinforced the importance of email’s role as a reliable and foundational communications channel.

Seamless Communication Vehicles, Multiple Benefits

Implementing an integrated digital communications strategy can provide government organizations with a number of benefits, such as reduced costs and improved delivery to citizens and other stakeholders. Most importantly, by using a variety of communication channels, the public gets the information they want, when they want it and how they want it.

To learn more about how to effectively integrate email with social media, download the following two white papers written by Liz Azyan, an independent researcher and blogger specializing in government communication and online engagement:

The best practices and case studies outlined in these white papers will demonstrate how utilizing a comprehensive set of digital communication solutions will help enhance government interaction with the public – whether citizens or the media.

Britain's coalition, communication, communications, content, email, engagement, Integrating Email in Government Communications, Integrating Social Media in Government Communications, Liz Azyan, multiple channels, Nielsen study, outreach, responsiveness, social media, technology, Twitter, UK Government

2013 Best Practices in Digital Communications- Upcoming Webinar

Keeping up with the latest in digital communication tools and strategies can be a challenge in any organization. As a government communications professional, you probably face additional unique challenges as well. Being able to effectively reach particular groups of people in emergencies, for example, is one situation that can mean the difference between life and death.

How do you keep up? Learning and collaborating with other agencies who are successfully handling some of the same challenges is one way. Recently, we were fortunate to have some of the most innovative and successful government communicators from around the country share their tips on best practices in digital communications at our 2013 Digital Communications Tour.

As a result of the positive response, we’re bringing back some of the most popular panelists, plus a couple new ones, to the last webinar event for the tour on Wednesday. With a open question and answer format, these government communicators will be on hand to answer your questions, from best practices for maximizing direct connections with the public to using communications to drive mission value to what social media strategies have been successful.

“We’re excited to have these government digital communications visionaries share their deep expertise, as well as their most successful tactics for reaching more people than ever before, streamlining complex communications and engaging the public to create lasting value.”
(Scott Burns, CEO and co-founder of GovDelivery)

Date: Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Time: 12:00pm Eastern, 9:00am Pacific
Length: 90 minutes
Cost: Free

This event is open to all government employees and contractors. To register for this complimentary event, click here.

2013 Digital Communications Tour, Andrew Hoff, communication, communications, community, content, digital government, engagement, GovDelivery, innovation, Jenna Covey, Jeremy Bertrand, Melissa Jordan, responsiveness, Sara VonBargen, technology, Webinar

Email: The Major League Player

When you are formulating your digital communication strategy, what tools form the foundation for your execution? Social media is most likely the first thought that comes to mind these days. And understandably so; social media, in its many forms, can be a very effective communications tool. However, email remains a key tool, especially in the evolving communications industry.

Jeremy Greene, VP of Product Management at GovDelivery, recently shared these key success factors in digital communication strategies during his “What’s Next In Digital Communications” presentation at our kick-off event of GovDelivery’s 2013 Communications Tour. To find out where the next tour stop is, click here. Here’s a quick summary of some of his main points:

1. Email remains the foundation of digital communications
Of the over 80% of adults who are online, 94% of those adults are leveraging email. These are numbers that are hard to ignore. To further illustrate just how large the email user base truly is, picture this for a moment: if the following communication platforms were countries, Facebook would have a population of 1 billion; Twitter would have a population of 200 million (the size of Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakstan); and email’s population would be a whopping 3.2 billion.

2. Multichannel communications
The main goal is to create content once, and then push it out through all of your communication channels. Chances are, you and your colleagues don’t have time to create new content for each of these channels on a regular basis. This model is often known as the C.O.P.E method (Create Once, Publish Everywhere).

This can be done from either angle as a starting point. In other words, take content from your blog or email newsletter and use the same content in your Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and any other communication channels. Or pull content from your social media feeds and use it to create email newsletters. This is an efficient and effective way to get information to your audience faster and increases the opportunities for your content to be shared within multiple channels.

Jeremy suggests adding an icon option on your website that allows for people to sign up for a weekly digest of all tweets that come out of your organization. He says this “tends to gain a lot of traction” and that “many clients have more recipients on their Twitter email list than they actually have of Twitter followers.” Find out where your target audience is hanging out — which social media channels they are already using — and hone your focus to those.

3. Messaging optimized for mobile
How do your current communication efforts look on a mobile phone? More people are using their phones to check email and surf the web, and this continues to grow as “78% of US email users will also access their emails via mobile by 2017” (Forrester Research, 2012). In fact, “43% of email is now opened on a mobile device” (Litmus, Email Analytics, 2012).

Jeremy emphasizes the importance of “taking the time and due diligence to make sure that the content that you’re creating looks good on a mobile device.” If you aren’t, less than half of your intended audience will see the message on a device that isn’t optimized for mobile use. The take-away here? Take the extra time and really focus on making your digital communications optimized for mobile.

4. Capturing subscribers during key contacts
Jeremy recommends taking an audit of all the customer touch points that you have with your citizens, and try to turn unhappy moments into a positive experience. For example, if someone is unhappy about missing a town meeting, instead of just giving them the next date, ask if they would like to get signed up for email alerts for all future meetings. Use various opportunities to capture subscribers.

Do you know the answer to this question? (Knowing the answer can be a powerful way to find out where you should be focusing your communication strategy.)

“What percentage of my audience within the last 90 days has seen any of my content?”

To find out how you can get this information, if you don’t have it, attend one of our stops on our 2013 Digital Communications Tour. We’re traveling to different cities nationwide to get the word out on best practices & trends in digital communication. Hear from public sector experts, providing insightful perspectives and strategies on government communications, and from your peers in government on their successful tactics and projects. Register today. Space is limited!

Citizen Engagement, communication, community, content, digital government, e-gov, email, engagement, innovation, local government, outreach, social media, technology, Twitter, web 2.0

Digital communicators transform service delivery. We are change agents.

By Kathy Kyle, Digital Communications Consultant, GovDelivery

Among the many topics discussed at this year’s Communications Camp (@commscamp | #commscamp13), the one that resonated most with me was how to best demonstrate the value of digital communications. If we can’t measure our impact as communicators, how can we influence and transform our organisations?

As a former Communications and Marketing Director in both the public and private sector, I found the most traction when I aligned communications performance metrics with customer service outcomes. In my central government agency roles, I ensured our communications approach focused on internal and external customers’ interests. Regardless of whether I was working on an internal communications programme to engage employees or a multi-faceted, externally facing digital campaign to generate support for a new regulation, I measured our success by aligning our communications efforts to our mission and by focusing on shifting my audiences’ activities and behaviours: web impressions, media coverage, social media activity, survey responses, focus group outcomes and anecdotal feedback.

We were able to demonstrate the value of digital communications by aligning our strategy and performance metrics with the people we served – both internally and externally. If you are struggling to develop a comprehensive evaluation programme, or just want to demonstrate your value as a communicator, consider the following activities:

Build support internally with leadership and cross-functionally across the organisation.
Drive your audience to online channels for accurate measurement of activities – measure whether you experience fewer calls and in-person visits due to your digital strategy.
Create content once and repurpose it (the COPE model: Create Once, Publish Everywhere)
Use the most effective, inexpensive and targeted communication channels that suit your audience. But don’t just use a social media tool because it is “free” – ensure your audience uses the channel. For example, 3.2 billion people use email, over a billion use Facebook and over 500 million use Twitter (some analysts indicate 140m active users).

Should you care about how many Twitter followers your organisation has? Or “likes” on Facebook? Yes and no. How do you know those followers are really fans? Or even in your target population? It matters more if you reach your intended audience and change their behaviour about government services. According to a study conducted by LGiU, “a Facebook ‘fan’ or Twitter follower doesn’t necessarily capture the connection and lead to a direct, sustainable, two-way relationship with a resident.” I am not suggesting throwing the baby out with the bathwater – instead, focus on your mission (some form of government service) and the people you serve (your customers) and create a bespoke plan to reach them.

There isn’t an exact science to measuring communications success – but there are ways in which we can demonstrate our value. We must shift our role from press release writers to service delivery communicators, and then delivering results that matter to our customers. We are change agents.

Kathy Kyle, Digital Communications Consultant at GovDelivery
kathy.kyle@govdelivery @bonominiyogini

citizen service, communication, community, content, responsiveness, social media, technology, UK Government, web 2.0

What an entrepreneur can teach us about public sector communications

January 18th, 2013 | Posted by Mary Yang for GovDelivery in Compelling Content | Events | Government Success Stories - (1 Comments)

Jeff Freeland Nelson, a local Twin Cities entrepreneur, took hard-earned lessons from his former career in public affairs and service and built his company, Play From Scratch, with a simple mission in mind: raise kids who are creators. Play from Scratch believes that “creative kids become adults who thrive” and seeks to inspire families through open-ended, problem-solving play with sustainable materials.

Government communicators can learn from Jeff’s crossover expertise in the public and non-profit sectors, public leadership, and education that have led to Play From Scratch’s innovative approach to business and playtime. Here’s an overview of the company’s key tenets and how you might be able to take his lessons and turn them into government magic:

1. Find Raw Materials

Play From Scratch encourages families to use recyclable materials like newspaper, boxes, cardboard tubes and tape as raw materials for playing. Communicators in government organizations with limited resources (and who isn’t?) can apply the same mindset. You should identify basic resources and information that may be taken for granted around your department or office. Then tease out creative ways to invigorate and transform that content.

Source: Uploaded by user via :: Play From Scratch /:: on Pinterest

2. Create a Challenge

How do you tease out ways to be more creative? Create a challenge! Creative people are motivated by challenging problems. Play From Scratch drives enthusiasm and inspiration through fresh ideas for kids like a “Go Creative” card game or building giant cardboard structures. Adults can jump start their imagination by adding challenging elements to project initiatives and organizational goals. Putting a goal out there that is bigger than anything ever tried before inspires innovation and motivation.

3. Build Big Ideas

Jeff built a toy company by expanding on the idea that the world is full of exciting challenges and available resources that make solving problems fun. Government communicators with a mindset of “go big or go home” open up a whole new level of opportunity. Highly successful campaigns such as the CDC’s Zombie Apocalypse campaign, which we just talked about in our last post, are brought to life through agencies willing to seek out interesting challenges; looking for ways to build those ideas into something bigger; and identifying what makes the idea resonate and “stick” with the public. This doesn’t mean that you have to max out your limited budget, though. Jeff’s company is built on reusable cardboard, boxes and newspapers — the stuff most people toss out at the end of the day. Don’t underestimate how big you can go using the small stuff. Leverage sparks of creativity by noting out-of-the-box ideas as they come to mind and working in teams to stretch the limit of what is considered possible.

4. Share What You’ve Created

Play From Scratch encourages families to share imaginative experiences with neighbors and friends. Their website offers many channels for sharing online, including using social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube. Their perspective is that sharing what you’ve created with others fuels creativity and only helps people learn from each other. Social media and the web have made sharing efforts and accomplishments easier and more fun than ever. New and existing social channels can be used as a forum to talk about big ideas, what has worked, and what doesn’t work. The knowledge gained from trying something new and asking for public input – whether the idea is successful or not – can only help the next time around.

5. Recycle Raw Materials and Start Over

“Raw” materials don’t have to be brand new. Just like kids playing castle can re-use couch cushions over and over again to build new forts, communicators can break down existing content to digestible pieces. Smaller components broken out from previously created content can be used to brainstorm new ways to use the material. Communicators can use previous successes as a foundation to tackle new challenges, build big ideas from the ground up, and create content that helps you meet your organization’s mission goals in an innovative and engaging way.

Want to hear more? You’re in luck. Jeff will be joining us as the keynote speaker for the Minnesota stop on our Digital Communications Tour.

Register now to join more than 100 of your colleagues from around the state – the event is free for all government employees!

communications, content, engagement, events, GovDelivery, innovation, outreach, responsiveness

Zombies and Buzzwords – Communication Strategy That Gets Inside Your Brain

January 16th, 2013 | Posted by Mary Yang for GovDelivery in Compelling Content | Government 2.0 | Government Success Stories - (0 Comments)

As your organization fills the fresh slate of 2013 with a new communications strategy, consider the issues and topics that make you squirm. Many government agencies struggle year after year with the same topics that are either uncomfortable for the org or are avoided by the public. Citizens shy away from topics that make them nervous, afraid, or even bored, while organizations skirt issues that are difficult to explain or to present in an engaging way.

Misinformation circulated by journalists on the particle physics work performed at the international laboratory CERN suggested that the lab could destabilize and cause apocalyptic reactions without warning (you can see information about the safety of the lab’s particle accelerator here). This has led to widespread misconceptions about the research and a general fear of “radiation” by the public. PhD students working in the lab decided to try and provide education on the public’s long-standing misunderstandings in a new and entertaining way… with a zombie movie.

zombies

Image credit: http://www.decayfilm.com/category/media.html

Researchers with little film-making expertise and a $3,500 budget created a gory flick called “Decay” that takes place in CERN’s real maintenance tunnels. The film showcases brain-eating, undead lab workers in bloody detail but also sneaks in scripted informative snippets on the Large Hadron Collider (the world’s largest particle accelerator), how it functions, safety features of the lab and the “God particle” discovered by CERN researchers. The creators wanted the film to “[appeal] to a wide-ranging, science-savvy audience, as well as to zombie enthusiasts as a new approach to the genre” and took the chance to “do some satirical commentary on various aspects of people’s perceptions of science.” The film sold out its premiere at the University of Manchester, was released for free on YouTube and has been over 400,000 times, and has gained a Twitter following of over 700 users.

CDC also played on the past few years’ zombie trend with their 2011 campaign, “Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse.” CDC director Dr. Ali S. Khan explains, “If you are generally well equipped to deal with a zombie apocalypse you will be prepared for a hurricane, pandemic, earthquake, or terrorist attack.” The initial blog post includes information on how to build an emergency kit, creating an emergency plan with your family, and the services provided by CDC. The post went viral in May 2011 and the increase in traffic crashed the blog website. The campaign has been so successful since its launch that it has been expanded to include lessons plans for educators, t-shirts, posters, and a graphic novella.

These examples of clever campaigns demonstrate the benefit of sharing information with the public with a “wink and a nod” that is accessible and entertaining. Dare your organization to take a hard look at the keywords and themes that have historically been off-limits and confront them in the New Year. Building a communication strategy around them can provide a fresh boost to your organization’s approach and increase public outreach and education in surprising ways.

What is the biggest issue or idea has your organization been avoiding? Share with us in the comments about how your organization takes on tough topics in out-of-the-box ways!

Statistics on page views current as of 1/6/2013.

CDC, communications, community, content, engagement, Gov 2.0, government, innovation, outreach, zombies

Top 10 Most Viewed Blog Posts on Reach the Public

I know 2013 started just over a week ago, but it already feels like it’s been weeks since I celebrated the holidays and New Year’s with my family and friends. I think part of this is jumping back into the work day after some time off, but part of it is probably due to the fact that 2012 “year-end” reviews started weeks ago. (Google posted their Zeitgeist 2012 video a month ago! If you haven’t watched it, take a look and note how many cool events were driven by government organizations like yours.)

So I may be a little late to the game in adding my 2012 “top viewed blog entries” list, but I console myself that it’s only been a week or so. And with the belief that this list contains good reading that’s timeless. For those who may have missed these along the way, here are the top ten most-viewed blog entries on Reach the Public in 2012 and why I think they’re worth revisiting:

In this post, Lauren Modeen, Engagement Strategist extraordinaire, answers a question she received in a Reddit chat: how can you use rewards to motivate your online community?

She highlights four different ways that rewards can spur conversation and keep a community engaged, from simply featuring a member’s activity (whether that’s a discussion, question, or profile) to sending thank you notes or swag.

Why do I think this post is worth revisiting now? As we moved through 2012, it was impossible to ignore the impact of social media in government. Not just because it was a “new” way of amplifying the reach of government communications but also because of the emphasis on social. At the end of the day, people want to be part of a community; they want to interact with others who are interested in things they’re interested in. And government organizations began to understand that creating, developing and managing communities could be one way to truly drive mission value in a way that had never been done before.

Using Rewards to Motivate Your Online Community

This post was written quickly as I sat in a hotel room near GovDelivery UK’s office, up late with jet lag; so please allow me a moment to be a bit proud that it’s in this top ten list.

I logged onto my email to catch up on news in the communications world, and I saw the article on ReadWriteWeb detailing Mark Cuban’s opinion on Facebook. It was a fascinating read to me, mainly because of the very provocative but highly understandable situation Cuban faced with his basketball team (the Dallas Mavericks.) His organization had worked hard to gain Facebook fans, and they’d worked hard to engage that audience over a long period of time. So to come face-to-face with the knowledge that those connections aren’t actually available when you want them — or worse, that you have to pay Facebook to reach them — was jarring. For a government agency, that can mean a matter of life or death when you consider a situation like Hurricane Sandy.

Why is this post worth revisiting? It’s a good reminder that direct connections matter, especially in urgent situations. But it’s also good to remember that an integrated communications approach is still the key to ensuring that your government organization’s message is distributed as broadly as possible.

Abandoning Facebook

You’ll notice as you go through the rest of this list how much of these posts cover social media in government. Do you think it’s odd that the second most-viewed post was about abandoning Facebook but other posts in the top ten are about how to leverage or use social media? I think this is indicative of our society’s love/hate relationship with social media.

In this post, we summarize one of the most popular webinars I’ve ever hosted in my professional career (and I’ve hosted a lot of webinars). Our main speaker, Kristy Fifelski, also known as “GovGirl,” detailed her top 8 ways for government to engage citizens with social media – and boy, did we learn how hot a topic that was.

With nearly 1000 registrants, we had to expand our webinar contract (which had been limited to 250 “seats” to 1000 just in case everyone showed up.) And we had to expand our teleconference capability to ensure that everyone who attended could hear us. The experience gave myself and my IT team a mini heart attack – but it was all for a good cause, because this webinar was really amazing.

With concrete examples, in-the-field knowledge and expertise, and a fun presentation, Kristy/GovGirl gave our audience of government communicators key tips and tricks that could be implemented immediately to start using social media in more engaging ways. This is one post definitely worth revisiting.

8 Ways for Government to Engage Citizens with Social Media

Pinterest, another social networking site, launched in beta form in 2010 but didn’t start picking up more traction until mid-2011. By early 2012, it had become, as our post notes, “the hottest thing in social media.” By the end of 2012, the hotness had worn off a bit; but Pinterest remains a solid social networking site, with the most year-over-year growth for social desktop, web and app usage, according to Nielsen’s 2012 Social Media Report.

So take a look at this post on how government organizations can leverage Pinterest. As a site that stresses the social aspect of images, Pinterest can be a powerful storytelling social platform that extends beyond the capabilities of a social network like Twitter. This post reminds you of some ways to leverage this storytelling foundation to generate more interest and provide more value for your stakeholders.

Why Should Government be Interested in Pinterest?

That’s right, folks. The Internet and technology is no longer the sole purview of the young. In this post, we take on the idea that you can’t reach older demographics with digital means. That’s bollocks, as the British would say.

“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.”

If that’s not a prime reason to review your communications strategy and ensure that you’re using your digital communications to reach a broad spectrum of stakeholders, take a look at this post to find out which age group uses digital technology to do what (i.e. to get email, to use a search engine, to look for health information, etc.) The statistics will surprise you!

Tech-Savvy Senior Citizens on the Rise

The title says it all. Here’s a guide to help you with the best practices we’ve found in utilizing digital communications to reach your stakeholders and the public.

The post talks about why the guide is important and some of the strategies used by well-known public sector organizations. In fact, the guide’s been accessed more than 8,500 times since it was released last April.

The guide itself is a pretty deep dive into what works for digital communications, culled from over a decade of work with government organizations worldwide. If you don’t have the time to sit down to read it all, why not download it and try to tackle one tip or trick a week?

Digital Communication Best Practices Guide Now Available

Our friend and professional colleague, Steve Ressler, Founder of GovLoop, allowed us to share his thoughts on internal communications.

In the world of Gov 2.0 and Web 2.0, he tackles the next version of internal communications, drawing on current technologies used to communicate with the public to help facilitate internal communications. For instance, Human Resources could use text messages/SMS to remind employees of form deadlines.

As one of the top ten most popular posts of 2012, I think this post speaks to the need not only to reach the public to drive mission value but to reach our own internal audiences to help ensure that everyone is on the same page and working towards the same big goals.

Internal Communications 2.0

I have to be honest: this was one of my favorite posts from 2012. Why? Because it brought something virtual and often “abstract” or conceptual into something physical that I understood: a shining example of how great communications can be.

In this post, our resident community management expert, Lauren, addresses the question, “How do I design an online community? What’s it supposed to look like?” And her answer is, in my opinion, pretty awesome.

If your government organization has an online community or is even thinking about starting one, take a look at this post. It’s a critical piece to consider when developing a community. Oftentimes, when we think about communities, we consider finding people who are going to be the community managers and hype people; how to keep an online community going; or how to generate discussion – all of which is important. But a clean, easy, and structured online community helps with all of that, and Lauren gives you an easy-to-read road map here.

How to Design an Online Community

Just a few days ago, Joseph Marks posted a short note about content on government websites, noting that most “dot-govs fail on content, not technology.”

That makes this post increasingly relevant. As a communications person myself, the power of content is becoming more and more apparent. It’s what drives connections between an organization and its audience.

In this post, our Digital Marketing Manager/Guru, Mike Bernard, tackles the idea of content marketing for government and provides ten tips that your organization can start using immediately to leverage the power of content to help meet your agency’s goals and drive mission value. From repurposing content to curation to making content easily shareable, these tactics can help you see an uptick in your outreach programs.

Content Marketing – Government Style

If you’re remotely interested in government technology, you probably already know the acronym “APIs”. It was hard to miss Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel’s tweet about it.

That’s why I think this post was one of the most-viewed from 2012. In 2013, I’d be surprised if APIs weren’t a continuing hot topic. The integrations available with this technology make it a critical component of the Federal Digital Government Strategy, but even more than that, it allows connections in ways that make government more efficient. What’s not to love?

In this post, Richard Fong, a (master) Technical Implementation Consultant, discusses his work in helping the US National Weather Service (NWS) implement APIs to help get the word out with tsunami warnings. Their API integration with their digital communications tool allows NWS to send out tsunami warning communications more quickly than ever before, helping to save lives in situations where seconds really matter.

It’s a good post to end the list, too, because it’s a great reminder of the crucially important work that government organizations do and how critical communications are in helping organizations meet their mission in serving the public.

National Weather Service Using APIs for Tsunami Alerts

So that’s our top ten list of most-viewed blog entries on Reach the Public. Was there one that you found especially insightful that I’ve missed here? Did you find these posts useful? Let me know in the comments!

APIs, collaboration, communications, community, content, data, digital government, e-gov, email, engagement, Facebook, Gov 2.0, government, GovLoop, outreach, Pinterest, social media, Steve Ressler, technology

Content Marketing – Government Style

October 26th, 2012 | Posted by Mike Bernard for GovDelivery in Compelling Content | E-Government - (1 Comments)

On October 16, 2012, GovDelivery hosted our Annual Federal Digital Communications Event in Washington D.C. Our CEO Scott Burns discussed the need for government organizations to adopt methods used by private sector marketers in order to dramatically increase the number of people being reached. Some assume the best way of doing this is to push your message out to as many channels as possible. That’s an important step, but it’s only half of the picture. Promoting your messages to email, SMS, Twitter, Facebook, etc. isn’t very helpful if it only goes to an audience of 50 people. Fortunately, we’ve developed several tools to help our clients build massive audiences such as the GovDelivery Network and following the best practices in our best practices guide.

I think a great way to complement these tools is for government communications professionals to take Scott’s advice and adopt the principles employed by “Content Marketers.”

Content Marketing has been one of the hottest topics in the business marketing world for the past few years. Copyblogger defines Content Marketing like this, “Creating and sharing valuable free content to attract and convert prospects into customers, and customers into repeat buyers. The type of content you share is closely related to what you sell; in other words, you’re educating people so that they know, like, and trust you enough to do business with you.”

But, what does this have to do with government? You’re not looking for prospects or customers. You’re probably not selling anything.

You might not be directly selling anything but are trying to obtain “customers” for your information? Of course. Creating compelling content attracts people to come to you for information. Once they are there, you can get them to subscribe to future information, follow you on social media, and share your content with their friends.

Here are my Top 10 tips on how the government can adopt the principles of Content Marketing:

Re-purpose existing content
The great thing about working for government is that you are sitting on treasure trove of content. It just takes a little bit of creativity to think about ways you re-use it. For example, say you work for the Department of Transportation. Have you thought about bundling up pictures of your big trucks, stats about the vehicles and stories from the workers who operate them into a downloadable, tablet friendly, eBook? Parents could download it and share it with their kids to learn about the great work you are doing. I know my son would love that!Or maybe you’re a taxing authority and you put out a document on important changes to the tax code. What if you shot a video of one of your policy experts asking them to explain the changes? Then put the video up on YouTube or Vimeo so people can watch a video as well reading the document. Maybe you also make it into a slide presentation and put it on Slideshare?Or let’s say you are in the parks department for your city. Why not create a “Colors of Fall” or “Animals You Can Find in the Park” board on Pinterest or Flickr? Maybe you ask people to submit their favorite memories of a certain park and highlight those stories in your next newsletter? The point is great content is all around. You just need to find ways to re-purpose it in multiple mediums so the maximum number of people can find it.
Post where your audience is
Too often we adopt a lopsided “field of dreams” mentality. We think, “If we build it they WILL come…” – but don’t expect that they will all take the same road as you to get there! You do want people to make their way back to your key digital properties (i.e. website, blog, etc.), but you need to direct traffic using every possible way you can. Host your Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter images on your site so people are driving back to your own site. When you post that slide deck on Slideshare, make sure your final slide tells them where they can go to get more of your great content. Same with YouTube and Vimeo. Put email sign-up boxes on your social media properties and popular pages to ensure that you’re capturing people who are interested in your content – even if they aren’t on your website.Once you figure out how to re-purpose your content, get it out to as many channels as possible and begin directing traffic back to your main destinations (website, blog, Facebook, etc.)
Curate, Curate, Curate
Sometimes it’s hard to come up with new content all the time. And, nowadays, people have information overload. So help yourself and your audience out by serving as a curator from time-to-time. People love a “Top 10 list” of the “Best” blogs or books or articles or experts or…fill in the blank. This works especially well at the end of a quarter, end of the year or around major events like holidays or sporting events.Who wouldn’t want to read a list of the “Top 10 Healthy Thanksgiving Recipes” by the USDA a week before Turkey Day? I would check that out. What about “The Governor’s Top Ten Local Bloggers”? Sounds good to me. How about the “5 Must Read Government Tech Blogs for Anyone in IT”? That’s something that would be compelling.If that’s too much effort, why not let a site like Paper.li do the curating for you? Set it up, plug in the relevant topics and people, and let it curate for you. Simple and easy.The point is you don’t always have to invent new stuff. People love it when you can make things simple for them. The bonus is this solidifies your organization’s status as an official expert, so people will keep coming back for more of your expertise.
Write in easy to understand language
Let’s be honest, it’s easy to get buried in technical jargon, acronyms and legalese when we communicate. Unless you are communicating with a highly technical audience or a small group of people in the know, tone down the language. I suggest shooting for a middle school reading level – think USA Today, not Wall Street Journal. Not sure how readable your content is? Check this out for help.
Make your content easy to share
If you aren’t giving people the option to easily share your content, in every possible medium you can, you are making things very difficult for yourself.Take a look at the footer of every email The National Science Foundation sends out

And on their landing pages

Guess what, the majority of the articles they post on Twitter and Facebook have easy sharing options built in. The NSF is doing everything they can to promote the viewing and sharing of their content.And on their landing pages
Take some risks
This is a tough one for many organizations. How do you push the envelope without going too far? I think some great questions to ask yourself when creating edgy content are: Is this going to offend anyone? Is this going to make us look stupid? Is this actually funny? If you can answer No, No, Yes then you are probably safe. The best example of taking risks I can think of is the CDC Zombie Apocalypse blog post. They took a risk and it’s probably generated the most buzz out of anything they’ve ever done. And, it has legs too. Recently Yahoo! ran an Associated Press story about this blog post a year and a half after it debuted. How’s that for traction?So, maybe you aren’t ready to start warning people about the dangers of the undead, but you can still take risks. Try creating a YouTube channel and post those videos you make with your webcam. Post those pics of your employees enjoying a ball game or a picnic or a concert. Start small and see how it goes. This is the concept of taking “Little Bets” author Peter Sims talks about.
Make it look good
Marshall McLuhan famously coined the expression, “The medium is the message.” If your content is visually boring, dated, or is all text with no images, it portrays that the information isn’t very important. Spend a little bit of time with layout and design. This goes for you website, blog and anything else you direct the public to. Design a nice header for your email templates. Create a custom background for your Twitter account. Use a contemporary design with your blog. Make up a nice template to use for slide decks and PDFs. Always remember – If you can explain something with an image rather than text, go with the image. If you can demonstrate something better with video than an image, go with the video. And, clip art and animated GIF’s are not acceptable in any form!Getting the design right can often mean the difference between no one reading your content and having it go viral!
Stories over statistics
Joseph Kony had been brutally terrorizing people in Uganda for 20 years, but before the Kony: 2012 video started sweeping the web earlier this year, you’d probably never heard of him. I hadn’t. Was he off the radar? Did we know nothing about the horrible things Joseph Kony was doing? No, not really. There were all kinds of available about him: 10,000 children abducted and turned into child soldiers. 1.5 million people displaced because of the fighting. Tens of thousands killed in the conflict. Sadly, those things didn’t move people. The stats didn’t connect with people on an emotional level. It wasn’t until the filmmakers with Invisible Children created their Kony 2012 video that the world took notice. Over 92 million people watched that video.Why?Because it took the statistics people had known about for years and used them to tell a very compelling story. The data was always there — it just took some creative people to tell it in a way that moved people to action. Try to find ways of telling 1) the story behind the data or 2) what all the data means….it makes for much more interesting content.
Ask!
Ask coworkers for help. Ask for creative ideas. Ask where are places your content should be hanging out. Ask people to be guest bloggers. Ask if you can republish other people’s content. Ask people you admire for advice about getting better. Ask your boss if you can try something new as an experiment. Ask if you can go to a seminar or event or conference that will inspire your creativity. Ask if you can buy a book to give you a better understanding. Be bold. Ask!
Make it fun
Always remember your main goal; you are trying to get people to engage with your content, sign up to get additional information from you and keep coming back in the future. If everything you put out is safe, boring to read, boring to look at, in outdated mediums and doesn’t move me, most people won’t be back. Try to always think about how you can make things interesting for your audience. Also, finding new and exciting ways of getting your material in front of the eyes of the public should be fun for you. Sort of like those choose-your-own-adventure books you read when you were a kid. “I wonder what will happen if I go this direction.” Don’t stress yourself out with this. Take it slow. Bite off small pieces at a time and get creative. You can build up to bigger and better things with time.

There you have it. My Top 10 Tips for thinking more like a business marketer in order to build your audience and reach more people than you’ve ever done before.

What things did I miss? Give us your additional tips below.

communications, content, digital, e-gov, email, engagement, Gov 2.0, govd12, government, outreach, responsiveness, technology

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