A blog about government-to-citizen digital communication and engagement, Government 2.0, GovDelivery, and other e-government issues
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Segmentation, analytics & integration: what’s the point?

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

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

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

Segment Your Emails Email segmentation

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

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

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

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

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

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

Connect Existing Applications with Your Email System

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

Analyze For More Targeted Contentanalytics

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

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

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

Integrate Email with Social Mediaintegraing social media

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

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

 

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Severe Weather and Social Media: How effective are you?

September 4th, 2012 | Posted by Mary Yang for GovDelivery in Federal Government | Government 2.0 | Government Success Stories | Local Government | Social Media | State Government | Uncategorized - (2 Comments)

Social media affects our lives in many ways but perhaps none more significantly than when we deal with a crisis. Whether it’s a runaway fire, a buckled highway or a hurricane (Isaac, anyone?), it’s becoming increasingly clear that social tools are an essential component of communications in a time of shared need.

There are many examples where social tools have become the go-to channel for communicating during severe weather situations.

With regard to the most recent severe weather situation, the use of social media to communicate during Hurricane Isaac is a great example. A recent article on NextGov highlights how the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the White House and the National Weather Service (NWS) all used Facebook and Twitter to spread the word about the storm as well as offer tips on how to prepare for the disaster.Fema alerts citzens via twitter

On a local level, the City of Minneapolis has leveraged a number of digital communication tools, from emails to text messages and social media, to alert and respond to residents after a tornado caused major damage to the north side of the city this past spring. E-mail alerts were sent to city subscribers informing them of severe weather and warning non-locals to avoid the area to prevent interference with first responders. Continuous posts were made to the city’s social media channels, such as Facebook. In addition, since the city has a subscriber system that allows residents to identify their zip codes to receive specific update that focus on their precinct, the city was able to quickly tailor alerts to areas that needed information, including directly informing citizens in the affected areas about local rescue and relief efforts.Minneapolis keeps residents informed on facebook

In another part of the country, Kitsap County, Wash., has turned to Twitter and other digital communication outlets to reach residents. In January, Seattle was faced with a major two-day ice storm that grounded planes and left many roads dangerous to travel. A Kitsap County official was stranded in the Sea-Tac airport, which had lost its Internet service. However, the official was able to use his smartphone to access digital communications tools, including social media, and was able to continue sending out timely messages about road closures and other pertinent information. Messages were sent simultaneously to subscribers who had indicated interest in topics such as road reports, inclement weather, front-page news and emergency management, thereby increasing the reach of the message. The salient messages also were posted to Facebook and Twitter, further magnifying the reach of the updates by further spreading to followers’ friends and social groups.

As a result of this proactive “pushing out” of the message, county officials reported that their call center—which generally receives up to 1,800 calls a day during inclement weather—recorded only 310 calls the first day, and 420 the second. After the storm subsided, the county reported a significant increase in both subscribers and social media followers.

TornadoThe importance of using social media and digital communication tools resonated deeply with Steve Ressler, found of GovLoop and resident of Tampa, Fla. After a recent severe weather situation, Steve wrote a blog post about his experiences with a tornado that touched down near his home. {Link to  He and his wife had spent a stormy day watching television at their home as rain poured outside. While they were watching local broadcasts, storm alerts scrolled across the bottom of the screen, but when the two popped in a DVD to watch a different program, they no longer saw those updates.

Instead, he and his wife’s first warning about the tornado in their area came from a text messaging system that the University of South Florida offers for emergency alerts. The couple and their pets took shelter in a bathroom inside the house, and Steve noted that they continued to track the tornado’s progress from there via Twitter. They also found out when the tornado had passed via Twitter. (Hillsborough County, where Tampa is located, offers both an e-mail and text-based emergency alert service for which subscribers can sign up.)

Finally, when a “hurricane-level” storm struck the Washington D.C. area, social media and other tools definitely proved their worth. A local news reporter collected information from citizens via both Facebook and Twitter, and then used that information to help report the story. Local Facebook posts from citizens announced their willingness to help others who had lost power during the event. The local power company also provided continuous updates on the process of restoring electricity to affected areas. And finally, a local couple reached out to an area news station via Twitter to say that they had lost power and were in trouble because the loss complicated a pre-existing medical issue. The station re-tweeted the information, and local Stafford County officials responded directly to the couple via Twitter to offer assistance.

It’s clear that the public has come to rely on digital communications, especially social media, to connect and share information. Government communicators should be prepared to leverage these tools to effectively communicate with stakeholders. Although it’s only one component of an effective emergency notification solution (ENS), social media is quickly becoming a critical channel to distribute information to the public.

In addition to the public’s growing tendency to gravitate toward social media in times of crisis, social media channels address some key challenges to effective communication, including enabling mass distribution of messages and, with the proliferation of mobile devices, facilitating communication without the need for power.

Reaching the public through fundamental digital communication tools, like email, and through newer channels, like text messages and social media, is now indispensable in managing times of crisis and in protecting citizens during severe weather and other dangerous situations.

If your government organization would like more advice on overcoming the key barriers to managing an effective ENS and tips for avoiding the pitfalls of putting a solution in place, download this recent white paper titled, “Breaking Down Barriers to Effective Emergency Notifications.”

 

 

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4 Ways Your Organization Can Use Facebook’s New Page Features

August 14th, 2012 | Posted by GovDelivery in E-Government | Government 2.0 | Social Media - (0 Comments)

This summer, Facebook has released several new features for Facebook Pages that allow organizations more control over creating, releasing and managing content and messages. The newest features include scheduled page posts, unpublished page posts, and page admin permissions for third-party apps.

  • Scheduling posts is a feature previously available to Page administrators using third-party solutions, like HootSuite, to create a post and designate a date and time for publication. The new scheduling feature allows post scheduling to be centrally managed within Facebook.
  • “Unpublished Page Posts” are posts released on a limited basis to a target segment of the Page’s audience, such as a specific age demographic.
  • Page admin permissions allow your Page administrator to grant levels of access for managing the Page, which can now be applied to third-party apps.

For government agencies, these new features can be leveraged to connect with citizens on topics they are most interested in and reach them when they are most likely to be online. Here are four specific ways your government org can try out the new Pages features today.

Manage Posts Up to Six Months in Advance

Facebook’s scheduling tool allows you to create and schedule posts for future times between ten minutes from the time of creation up to six months in advance. These posts can later be rescheduled or deleted. Government organizations can take advantage of this feature by strategically creating “inventory” of content ahead of time. Writing and scheduling these posts can be a regular task outside of urgent projects, especially for organizations that work around a “busy season” or a seasonal increase in projects.

The scheduled content can be scheduled and re-scheduled to ensure timely and relevant content is consistently released to citizens, even during times when your communications staff may be strapped for time or content. For example, a post linking to summer safety tips could be created in advance and scheduled for the week after the Fourth of July, when you know most of your staff will be out on vacation. The post could then be rescheduled for another date if additional content becomes available.

Schedule Posts at Times that Maximize Reach of Your Organization’s Message

The ability to schedule Page posts allows you to release a post at the time when you expect the most citizens to be online and looking for the information you are providing. For example, perhaps you have noticed that more users “Like” and comment on your organization’s posts about weekend community events when they are shared on Thursday afternoons, but you usually have time to work on Facebook content on Mondays. You could create and schedule event-related Page posts during Monday mornings, and use Facebook’s features to reschedule or delete the posts as-needed as the weekend approaches.

Run Segmented Message Campaigns with Sponsored “Unpublished Page Posts”

Facebook’s new “Unpublished Page Posts” allow organizations to create posts that, instead of being shared widely and publicly, are shared via the sponsored post feature on Facebook that allows targeting of specific market segments. Organizations willing to pay Facebook’s fee for sponsored posts can now share information with citizens that is tailored to their specific interests, making the organization more approachable to the target audience. For example, your organization could sponsor a post on your area’s fall-time tourist information campaign and “advertise” to individuals who do not live in the area.

Create Roles and Permissions for Page Admins

Roles and permissions for Page admins are more of a “behind the scenes” feature than those previously mentioned. They allow you to share the responsibility of your agency’s Facebook Page for better engagement and improved content. Given the resources, your organization could enlist resources to manage certain aspects of your Page. For example, an intern could take on the responsibility of managing comments and reporting on insights, while another member of your communications department focuses on creating and scheduling content in order to maximize interaction with the public based on the intern’s feedback. Third-party apps can also be granted limited permissions in order to gain monitoring or content management without giving up too much access.

The new Facebook Page features give government agencies powerful tools for reaching the public and starting meaningful conversations. Has your organization tried out scheduling posts, creating segmented message campaigns, or adding Page Admin roles? We would love to hear all about your experience in the comments!

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Citizen Engagement Tips for National Night Out

August 7th, 2012 | Posted by Jennifer Kaplan in Community Management/Engagement | Local Government | Social Media - (0 Comments)

Today, Tuesday, August 7, 2012  marks the 29th annual National Night Out.  National Night Out (NNO) is a unique group of crime and drug prevention events sponsored National Association of Town Watch (NATW).  The campaign involves citizens, civic groups, businesses, law enforcement agencies, neighborhood organizations and local officials from all 50 states, US territories, Canadian cities and military bases worldwide.

National Night Out 2012

Neighborhoods across the country will be holding block parties tonight as part of NNO, encouraging people to get to know their neighbors and work together to promote cooperative, police/community crime prevention efforts. Last year’s campaign involved more than 15,000 communities worldwide. In all, more than 37 million people participated in NNO events in 2012.

The City of Minneapolis, Minnesota outranked all U.S. cities in NNO participation in 2011 (in the 250,000+ population category). Nearly 1,200 events took place, with over 60,000 citizens attending.  The city, whose participation rate has led the nation for cities of its size, expects another strong showing this year, with over 1,360 registered thus far in 2012. So how do they do it? They’ve shared their tips in hopes that other communities can use the same tactics in years to come!

Build Your Audience

From the crime prevention/community perspective, dwindling resources means increasing outreach to find neighborhood leaders, block captains, and business partners. The City of Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) combats these challenges by leveraging their digital communications lists. The city has been using email alerts to reach residents and business with information on a variety of subjects and topics since 1995.  When asking for an email address, the MPD also inquires about the neighborhood in which the subscriber lives. “Being able to capture where the subscribers live or work, and where they aren’t, helps us know where we need to do our outreach,” says Luther Krueger, Crime Prevention Analyst at the MPD.  This has been especially helpful for the National Night Out events, where the MPD can quickly identify and then engage areas where they need block leaders or additional participants.

Provide Resources and Make it Easy!

County, city or public safety websites should serve as a helpful resource for citizens who want to learn more about how they can be involved. The City of Minneapolis makes it quick and easy for residents and businesses to collect information, engage their community, and have a successful event. Here are just a few examples of the resources they offer:

  1. Event ideas
  2. Tips on how to meet your neighbors
  3. Tips on how to ask businesses for a donation or sponsorship
  4. List of all registered events in case people want to attend, but can’t host
  5. Reminders to keep the lights on
  6. National Night Out promotional flyer templates, in various languages

Incentivize Participation

In many cities and counties, there is a block permit fee to register a location for an outdoor event. The City of Minneapolis waives this fee for early registrants, reducing the need for costs and resources that could be used on the event itself. If communities share resources, the city essentially gives everyone the opportunity to have a free event.  Many county and city websites also tout in-person visits during NNO by officials to provide giveaways or prizes for families, children, and other participants.

Leverage Social Media

NNO is a social event, and social media can be the most powerful promotional tool. Not only can NNO be promoted on a county or city’s Facebook and Twitter pages, but communities and neighborhoods can create their own pages to invite friends and followers. Page and account administrators can post information and updates about the event, and get feedback from attendees on everything from food and games to whether a theme should be involved.  Don’t forget, city and county employees at every level can get the word out.  In the City of Minneapolis, the City Council, Mayor, and Chief of Police all actively promote national night out on social media, in mailings, and at other events.

Remind Your Participants!

Many police departments plan NNO weeks, or even months, in advance. To ensure the date is highlighted on citizens’ calendars, be sure to send them a few friendly reminders.  The City of Minneapolis sent various email alerts and social media posts reminding participants to register their event as well as directed them to check out all of the great resources on the website.

Minneapolis_NNO_tweet

Get Out There!

The point of National Night Out is to unite communities and public safety for the purposes of crime prevention. Showing up and participating at local NNO events increases trust and transparency and allows officials to continue educating citizens about safety while providing essential crime prevention information. City employees should hit the streets; meet business owners and residents; and bring back details on successful events that can be leveraged by communities the following year.

Follow Up

Just because National Night Out ends on August 8th,doesn’t mean community engagement should cease. NNO is an amazing opportunity to make relationships with participants who can be contacted to be crime prevention block leaders or community representatives throughout the rest of the year. Don’t miss out on the chance to build and solidify those connections. Krueger reminds us: “An organized community, partnering with police, solves problems more quickly, and with more sustainable crime reduction, than either partner acting without the other.”

For more information, or to find out how you can get involved, check out the National Night Out 2012 website.

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How New Media and Government are combating HIV/AIDS

August 2nd, 2012 | Posted by GovDelivery in Compelling Content | E-Government | Federal Government | Government 2.0 | Government Success Stories | Integration | Mobile - (0 Comments)

By John Simpson, Federal Consultant

As some government agencies labor for ways to adopt the White House’s Digital Government Strategy, many have already been working towards the goal of delivering crucial government information to those who most need it and inventing more than just a mandatory response to another Executive Order. A powerful example of the innovative use of government data is AIDS.gov’s prevention and service provider locator.

With different agencies often having separate programs designed to assist the same community, information is scattered across multiple websites and can be difficult for the public to find, especially if they don’t know where to look. AIDS.gov has developed an easy online tool to cut through the forest of government domains and provide one place for the public to see official available treatment options in their area. This tool pulls information from:

  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) testing resource database
  • Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) database on housing resources for people living with HIV
  • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) database on substance abuse treatment and mental health resources
  • Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) treatment centers

After entering your address or zip code, this locator populates a Google map of the user’s neighboring area and shows available resources for those with HIV/AIDS. Much like Yelp or other location-based searches, a user can filter their search based on their desired results or click on any location to be shown additional details and contact information.

Although advancements in medicine and science are fundamental in stemming the spread of HIV/AIDS, the government’s active engagement with the public and use of innovative tools to spread awareness of publicly available resources can be just as crucial in combating this epidemic and working towards an AIDS-free generation. By allowing a user to easily see all of the available government resources and programs through one simple tool, AIDS.gov cuts through the sometimes confusing assortment of government websites and quickly connects stakeholders with as many publicly available resources as possible. With only few keystrokes, the public is connected to information on vital resources and local treatment centers through a single interface. The easier it is for those in need to find treatment, the easier it is to combat the spread and symptoms of HIV/AIDS.

AIDS.gov’s site also uses a responsive design framework, allowing for the site to be fully accessed on a laptop, tablet or smart phone and automatically adjusting to fit the respective screen. AIDS.gov is one of the first full-scale federal websites using this framework and brings online solutions to the public no matter what device they’re using at the time without the additional work needed to build a mobile site. This framework embodies the mission of the Digital Government Strategy of allowing public access to government information “anywhere, anytime on any device.”

Yet, the potential opportunities for the government to combat HIV/AIDS go beyond the digital dissemination of information. New media offers unique opportunities to combat the stigmas around HIV/AIDS by allowing agencies to directly engage the public, offer those living with the condition to share their stories online, allow for interaction with others in their community, and educate the public by leveraging tools that many of Americans now use as second-nature.

There is more than can be achieved besides providing better customer service or sending press releases through Twitter. New media can help break down walls of fear or ignorance that can’t be done through traditional methods of communication. The evolution of outreach through blogs, social media, online collaboration solutions, and community organizing websites can help eliminate the spread of HIV/AIDS and unlock life-saving resources to the public. When the government works together to better engage the public using new media, as AIDS.gov has done, lives can be saved and made better. During the recent International AIDS Conference, one of the speakers stated that the public and the government shouldn’t “be afraid to connect. And when you connect, don’t be afraid to engage. And when you engage, don’t be afraid to make a difference.”

 

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Email Communications for Government in the Era of Social Media

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

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

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Top 7 Ways to Engage Event Participants Online & Offline

April 26th, 2012 | Posted by GovDelivery in Uncategorized - (1 Comments)

If you’ve coordinated an event, you know the typical challenges. What are the topics you’ll cover? How do you keep participants informed and involved before and after the event? How do you increase participation? How do you build momentum for an event that’s months away?

With restrained budgets and more pressure to justify attending an event, the criteria for a successful event is higher now than ever before. You not only need to meet registration numbers but you also need to boost engagement and create a community for event organizers and attendees, especially when participants are geographically dispersed. With new technologies, this helps strengthen the collaboration and knowledge-sharing that occurs at the actual event and encourages the same collaboration in an online space.

Here are some tips to help you engage your stakeholders before and after the main event:

1) Know what participants want: Determining event content can be a challenge in terms of hitting the mark with your participants. So why not open up a discussion forum and let people share their thoughts and ideas for content before the event is held? There are a number of online tools that will allow you to collaborate with registrants around sessions and topics.

2) Make it easy for participants to “own” the event: Gather feedback from participants that lets them feel they are helping to contribute meaningful direction or content for the event. Also, give participants the opportunity to invite friends or colleagues that they believe might be interested. Many times, people are eager to be involved, but time limitations prohibit them from fully participating. Offer an easy way for participants to check in on the newest event updates or online conversations when it’s convenient for them. This will help participants feel involved and, in turn, see your event as successful.

3) Send lots of reminders: Amazingly, people sign up to attend events and then either forget or have something else come up last minute that they might be interested in. If you send frequent reminders — letting people know about new speakers, downloadable materials prior to the event, and other information – it helps boost your overall attendance.

4) Make it easy for participants to engage — however they want: Let people contribute on a level that’s meaningful to them, either by giving them the option of uploading photos, videos or even letting them share “My event experience” diary entries on a common site. Also, the easier all of this is, the more likely people will participate.

5) Leverage one event to help you with other events: Maybe you’re planning for one yearly event, but have other activities or events that are related. An event collaboration tool will allow you to export email addresses of attendees so they can be invited to related events and activities.

6) Involve everyone in the community early on: Gathering feedback from interested parties early in the event planning process helps boost attendance and let participants feel that they’re playing an active role.

7) Utilize social media: You need to not only work close through traditional communication channels, but also through social media such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to engage with your participants.

At the end of the day, communication is key. As with any program or initiative you have, the success of your event is based on the communication, and inviting interested stakeholders to join an online community prior to the event is just one way to keep communication lines open and lively. No matter tools what you use to communicate with your event participants, one of your goals for event success should be driving online and offline engagement that drive real value for your stakeholders.

What do you think? Do you have any tips or experience for engaging participants more deeply in events?

Also, if you’re interested in learning more about how GovDelivery can help you be more collaborative, give us a call or email us at info@govdelivery.com.

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Free Twitter Guide!

April 13th, 2012 | Posted by Mike Bernard for GovDelivery in Social Media - (0 Comments)

Recently, Twitter released a very nice 20 page guide for using Twitter for small business. While the title references small business, the tips they give are completely relevant for government.

Twitter breaks their guide up into 3 chapters:

  1. Get started
  2. Engage your audience
  3. Amplify your impact

In the “Get Started” section they provide a great primer on how to use Twitter. This includes a set of definitions so you can learn the Twitter lingo. So, if you don’t know what a “hashtag” or “retweet” is, you can look to this section for help. This section also includes best practices for setting up and optimizing your profile so people can easily find and begin interacting with you.

In the “Engage your audience” section, Twitter provides some great tips for interaction with your audience. They suggest:

  • Following people and learn from how others use Twitter.
  • Be yourself – develop your own voice and don’t be afraid to communicate as you would talk face-to-face with someone.
  • Give them something more – don’t forget pictures and links to great content you discover.
  • Respond to people who contact you.
  • Tweet often – maybe even set up a schedule for the types of content you will Tweet on specific days.
  • Share, share, share – your tweets don’t always have to be about you. Share the great work other people are doing as well.

They wrap the guide up with tips on promoting your Twitter username, getting more followers, partnering with others and measuring your impact.

Don’t let the title fool you. If you are curious about using Twitter for your organization, don’t hesitate to pick up this free guide.

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New Facebook Timeline is Coming Your Way: Are You Ready?

March 29th, 2012 | Posted by Lauren Modeen for GovDelivery in E-Government | Federal Government | Government 2.0 | Local Government | Social Media | State Government - (1 Comments)

The New Facebook Timeline is coming your way on March 30, whether you are ready or not. Here are 7 tips to keep in mind so you can put your best engagement foot forward!

1) Cover Image: as you’ve probably seen by now, the most drastic change to the new Facebook timeline format is the new “cover” photo. This landscape image will span across the top of your organization’s page and will provide a great way to visually represent what is most important to you, what best describes you, or highlight an ongoing campaign. This image will look best when it is a high quality image 851-by-315 pixels. Something important to keep in mind is that this cover image can not be an advertisement. Specifically, it may not contain your contact information (URL, email, street address), calls to action or references to Facebook features or actions, such as “Like” or “Share.” See IIIB for all the details in Facebook’s Page Terms.

2) Profile Picture: what was your previous profile picture will automatically default to your new profile picture, only this time it will be in the bottom left of your cover image. To make sure your profile picture renders best, format your image (most likely your logo) to 180-by-180 pixels.

3) Tabs (apps). What happens to my Apps, you ask? Ahh, yes, no need to worry. Your Apps will now become Tabs, and they will be located directly under your cover image. Here you will see your Photos, Videos, Notes, Likes, and Events (if you selected all of these to show previously). You can’t custom edit these Tabs (although there are ways to get around this which I am happy to explain if you are interested offline), although you can move their placement. To do this:

  • Look all the way to the right of your Tabs.
  • Find the little down arrow button and click this to expand the view of your Tabs.
  • Now hover over the Tab you wish to move and click the little edit pencil when it appears.
  • When it appears, look for the “switch position with” and then click on the Tab you’d like to switch this Tab with.
  • You should now be all set.

Quick tip: you can have up to 12 total tabs.

Interestingly, you can create Custom Tabs for your other Apps that have automatically migrated over. To create a custom Tab:

  • Hover over the Tab like in the instructions above, and wait for the little edit pencil to appear.
  • When the pencil appears, click on it and look for the drop-down that says: Edit Settings. The Edit Settings box will pop up.
  • From here you can Remove the app, add a Custom Tab Image, or set a Custom Tab Name.
  • Start by adding your call to action words as the Custom Tab Name, and click Save. To change the image, click Change next to the Custom Tab Image and when the browser pops up, search for your image.

Quick Tip: Tabs are 111 x 74 pixels. Facebook will format any other image to fit this, and it won’t look as clean.

I think the new Tabs functionality is one of the best ways you can use the new format to best promote your brand and engage with users. Check out the U.S. Army for example. It has 8 total Tabs, and some amazing custom tabs including a “Heritage” Tab that currently features Women in the U.S. Army, and a Nation Gives Thanks widget. Depending on your mission objectives, the sky is the limit to how creative you can be. Check out Guess clothing. They have a “Sign up” tab that allows users to sign up with one click on this page.

4) Your Designated Landing Page is Now Gone. Something very important to note is that you can no longer drive users to any landing page except specifically the Timeline page. That doesn’t mean, however, a custom landing page you created previously is gone forever. Instead, it is now a custom Tab most likely called “Welcome.” Check out the City of Marietta, Georgia’s page for example. Before the Timeline format, they had a custom landing page asking users to “Like” their page and sign-up for e-mail updates, Subscribe to receive news from City Hall, events and emergency alerts by e-mail or cell phone (SO SMART). This still exists, it is just moved.

The possibilities to be creative with Tabs are really endless. Check out this page by Yoga Relief – - and look closely at their Tabs. See the big arrow Tab that says “Like Yoga Relief.” Click on that and you are taken to a new page with a giant arrow that asks you to click “like.” Again, very smart. I will stop there with the examples so this post doesn’t become a dissertation. The bottom line is you can be SUPER CREATIVE with Facebook Tabs, so I highly recommend you do.

5) Pin Your Most Important Content for 7 Days! Since the word “pin” is becoming ever more popular these days [cough Pinterest, cough], Facebook is jumping on the bandwagon. Now you can “pin” a post to the top of your page and it will remain there for 7 days. All the nitty gritty details can be found here regarding exactly how to do this.

6) Your Fans Can Privately Message Your Organization. With the new format, a fan can now send a message privately to the organization (if it is enabled). However, interestingly, Organizations can only RESPOND to a private message sent by a fan. Also, to note: this functionality is optional. How do you turn this feature off or on? There is a place in your Admin control panel where you can turn this off and not allow fans to message you. If you think your organization can adequately respond to fan messages, definitely turn it on. If you don’t have the bandwidth, my recommendation is to turn off so you don’t appear to be unresponsive. Here’s a quick post that outlines how to control this message functionality.

7) Last But Not Least – Real-time Insights! If you monitored a Facebook page before the new format, you know you often had to wait typically at least two days to get any feedback on metrics. Now, the wait time is between 5-10 minutes. Check out this TechCrunch article that outlines everything. In short, this makes me very, very happy. It’s actionable data that you can start using right away to influence your next post, and you can’t go wrong with immediate feedback.

 

 


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8 Ways for Government to Engage Citizens with Social Media

March 6th, 2012 | Posted by Mary Yang for GovDelivery in E-Government | Government 2.0 | Government Success Stories | Social Media - (1 Comments)

Last week, Kristy Fifelski, known as “GovGirl”, shared tips and tools for government organizations looking to take their social media efforts to the next level in a GovDelivery-sponsored webinar titled “You’re On Social Media…Now What?”. The upbeat presentation provided useful ideas beyond the simple how-to’s of setting up a social media presence, offering actionable tactics for government organizations looking to expand social media efforts to reach new audiences, better connect with existing audiences, and create real value through content that citizens care about.

Key takeaways for the audience included ways to engage citizens to get views, likes and comments, how to respond to negative users and downbeat comments, and tips for successful ongoing management of government social media. For those unable to join us for the event, here is a countdown of the top eight ways government can give their social media presence a boost.

8 ) Review social media policies. It is never too late to draft your organization’s social media policy, and if you have previously created one, it is a good idea to update your policy to help clarify best practices in using new or updated social media tools. Be sure the policy identifies who is authorized to post and when they should be posting information. Clear up any vague terms around who is authorized and responsible for creating content and how they should identify themselves on social media platforms, including on their own accounts. Do not forget about staff and elected officials that represent your agency. Those that feel comfortable with social media may not be aware of the need to align their social media presence with your agency’s online image. Within your policy, clear terms can help protect your agency, inform users of your social media channels about acceptable use, and invoke your ethics policy within your social media policy.

7) Repeat and reinforce staff training. Sit down with your staff and review training beyond basic procedures and be sure to include elected officials. Employees will need a regular review of best practices – train early, and train often. Teach employees how to engage using social media beyond using automated tools. Relying on automation to deploy content can alienate citizens and make your content boring. Having a “conversation quality” to your tweets and posts encourages your audience to interact and add to the dialogue. You can create this quality by directing employees to create custom content and reply to users that get involved in the conversation.

regulations.gov tweets

Automated social media results in repetitive, unrelatable content

 versus

regulations.gov

Staff-generated content invites citizens into the conversation

 

6) Expand to new channels. Beyond Facebook and Twitter, have you thought about Google+, Quora or Pinterest? Google+ is relatively new but is quickly becoming a more viable tool for engaging with a new and expanding audience with the addition of brand pages. Quora is a social question-and-answer tool that can allow your organization to pose questions and receive answers from citizens. The answers can be ranked and voted up or down, allowing your agency to “crowd source” solutions. You may not connect with the bulk of your constituents, but it can be an interesting way to get a new perspective on the public’s viewpoint. Pinterest is a visual social tool that allows users to share images that interest them, which can be useful for your organization if you have a highly visual story to tell.

5) Integrate – EVERYWHERE! Include icons and links to your social platforms on organization websites, emails and digital communications. Twitter provides tools that allow you to share your Twitter account and feeds right on your website and even allows you to set up widgets for others to use and share your feeds on their websites and blogs.

multi-tweet visual

How the State of California integrates multiple Twitter feeds on its website

Include links to all of your accounts – Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn – and cross-reference each of these platforms across your multiple accounts. For example, write about your Facebook on your Twitter, and write about your Twitter on your LinkedIn page. Encourage visitors to “like” related agencies and their social media accounts, too!

social media cross-links

Include cross-links to social media accounts across your website

4) Incorporate mainstream references. Including things that citizens enjoy, relate to and are paying attention to will enhance citizen connection and interaction with government social media. Tying pop culture references like movies and TV shows to your content can direct new users to your content in an entertaining way. The CDC blog used the popularity of zombies to promote disaster preparedness awareness, and received so much attention that the website crashed!

3) Solve real problems that people are frustrated about. The so-called “Negative Nelly” draws attention to a problem that they feel is being ignored. Your social media response creates an opportunity to personally addressing citizen frustrations, change perception on public administration and public service, and create a real return on investment in government social media efforts. For example, a tweet from a citizen frustrated about construction affecting their family business exposes an opportunity to form a win-win plan to redirect traffic to their establishment. Use your social media platforms to acknowledge the information you receive from citizens and follow up when you investigate the issue. Residents will be surprised when you are actually able to solve their problem and may even share the good experience with your agency over the same social media channel they used for the initial complaint!

City of Reno Twitter feed

City of Reno Uses Twitter to Respond to Real Citizen Concerns

2) Plan for emergencies. Social media is incredibly important in emergency situations because it offers an outlet for real-time, instant communication with the public. Develop and document a social media approach in case of emergencies, and practice the procedure before a real emergency happens. Government webmasters and managers in charge of social media channels should have a seat in Emergency Operation Centers to integrate communication efforts with other government functions and be a direct part of the response effort. Government-run social media can broadcast corrections to misinformation, create an official hashtag to distinguish information on the emergency situation, and respond to social media users sharing out-of-date information.

1) Celebrate success! Management and officials need to be informed and understand the value of social media. Demonstrate real problems you have solved using social media (see tip #3) and how social media has positively affected the public’s perception of your department, no matter how small the success. Forwarding positive feedback to department heads or individuals in charge of department-wide communication is a great way to share the impact of social media interactions. Help public officials see that allocating resources to social media is a good decision and creates real solutions in the community.

If you have enjoyed these tips and want to find out more, check out Kristy’s website for more information. If you’d like to be notified of upcoming GovDelivery events or webinars, let us know at info@govdelivery.com. Also, you can view the webinar recording online and download the slide deck from Kristy’s presentation on SlideShare.

Have you applied any of these strategies to enhance your organization’s social media presence? What will be your next step to further leverage your social media efforts? Let us know what you think or celebrate your most recent social media success in the comments!

 

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