10 steps to support open government

10 Ways Your Digital Communication Strategy can Support Open Government

Contact me:

Scott BurnsCEO & co-Founder, GovDelivery, Inc.

[email protected] Ext 303 651-726-7303

GovLoop: http://www.govloop.com/profile/ScottBurns Twitter: http://twitter.com/smburns

Blog: www.reachthepublic.com

www.govdelivery.com

March 2010

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.govloop.com/profile/ScottBurns

http://twitter.com/smburns

http://www.reachthepublic.com/

http://www.govdelivery.com/

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GovDelivery® - World Leader in Email & Digital Subscription Management

Open Government Goals

Transparency

– Work openly

– Get information into the public domain

– Disseminate effectively

Participation

– Make participation possible

– Make it happen on a relevant scale

Collaboration

– Within your agency

– With other agencies

– Outside government

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Are we fighting a fire?

Photo Credit: NOAA

Or, building a foundation?

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Effective Digital CommunicationSupports Effective Open Government

Get the Word Out.

Build a real and permanent audience

– For open data

– For engagement tools

– For reaching across one/any/all channels

Engage

– Reach more people faster

– Deliver information at the relevant time directly to citizen/stakeholder

Personalize

– Get information to people that they want and need

– Track results and interest over time

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Channels overlap, but vary in reach and purpose…

Social Media– Engage with information– Socialize information with friends– get

recommendations– Work together to solve problems

SMS/Text/Mobile– Send/receive geo-specific info– Reach immediately– Connect in personal space

Email– Reach broadest audience through top channel

(80%+ of online time)– Disseminate info to personal destination – Benefit from archive and content flexibility– Use channel accepted / preferred for

institutional communication

Outreach channels drive citizens to engagement

tools, and sometimes tools and channels overlap.

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…so does outreach

EN

GA

GEM

EN

T

Inform(one to many)

Improve govt acquisitions

Collaborate on social media policy

Develop new applications

Collaborate(many to many)

Connect/Consult(one to one)

Submit pic & location of pothole

Provide feedback on policy

Request data sets

Learn of blog entry on distracted driving

Receive link to new video on middle class task force

Find out my bus islate

Receive new H1N1 Guidelines

Find out wage rules updated by DOL

Examples

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Success Metrics for Digital Communication

Qualitative– What is agency mission and does increasing outreach support it?– What is feedback from key stakeholders on how they use the

information you send?– Is the information you are providing of value to the citizen from a

transparency standpoint?

Quantitative – Are you building an audience you can reach effectively?

• Number of people signed up through each channel• Number of critical topics on which you can reach people

– Are your messages effective?• % of users reacting to content you send• Click throughs, opens, comments, votes, etc.

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Idea 1: Drive Usage of Current Tools to Build Audience

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Whatever the channel, choice matters

From: Updates from Agency X To: Updates on H1N1

Seek engagement

From: Click here to comment To: EPA Question of the Week

More ideas for improving metrics: http://tinyurl.com/govd1

Offer choice w/o taking on more work: http://tinyurl.com/gdautomate

Idea 1: Drive Usage of Current Tools to Build Audience

http://tinyurl.com/govd1

http://tinyurl.com/gdautomate

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Idea 2: Build Audience for Open Government Efforts

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Idea 3: Match Channel to Objective

Connect/Consult

Inform

Collaborate

Low High

Likelihood of being best channel

No clear boundaries.

Channels often drive traffic to tools that serve a different

purpose.

Many messages should go out through multiple channels

• Personal importance or mass outreach?

• Geographic?• Urgency?• Public / private?• Ongoing or transient?• Right base of “subscribers”

“followers” “friends”?

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Idea 4: Integrate and Cross Promote Channels

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Last 10 month results for Share This Email at FBI

500 different email bulletins posted to social media

1,618 total “shares”

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HHS streamed Flu.gov email bulletins into a widget to be

easily shared on other websites

Since April 2009:• 500+ installs• 8M+ views• 866K clicks

Email subscription capability incorporated to

build audience for the future

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CDC works with TSA & others to get Flu button in email footers– button promotes

text message signup and 800 number

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From CDC

Integrating Social Media With Email / Wireless Subscriptions

Step 1: Offer Social Media Content as Subscription Option through GovDelivery (be sure to link subscription option to RSS feed on Social Media Website)

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Social Media Integration Overview

Step 2: Publish to either Social Media sites or GovDelivery

Step 3: RSS feeds created, GovDelivery picks up change and sends email to your subscribers – OR – GovDelivery sends email to subscribers and simultaneously posts to social media sites

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Social Media Integration Overview

Email Generated from Parliament YouTube Channel

Email Generated from Parliament Flickr Account

Well over 300,000 clicks tracked by GovDelivery from

government emails in ’09

Traffic is growing rapidly.

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Idea 5: Ask Users What They Want

107,115 emails sent

1,216 responses

I love the CDC e-mails!!!!!!!!!!

I don't have to hunt for information. It comes automatically to me. I am confident that I am aware of the latest information. Continue with this

process. It is great!-R.N. Manager, Occupational Health

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Over 4,900 clicks from outbound email announcement

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Idea 6: In Addition to Shared Missions, Use Free Tools to Find the Right Collaboration Partners

Useful links: www.quantcast.com & www.alexa.com

http://www.quantcast.com/

http://www.alexa.com/

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Idea 7: Collaborate to Build Your Audience

Within signup process for digital subscriptions In social media channels In outbound communications

– Emails– Tweets– Wireless messages

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Example: FDA Email Topic Sign-Up

1 Click on Get email updates link on Enforcement Reports page

Enter email address (password optional)2

Signed up to info. of interest 3

Shown other options4

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Example: Many Federal Agencies Collaborate to Build Audience

Cross Agency Collaboration at a New Level

• Example shown here: FDA promotes content from HHS, NIH, CDC, CMS and USDA FSIS.

• Agencies using GovDelivery can collaborate with any of the >300 government entities on the GovDelivery

• Collaboration can occur within your department or with other related agencies

• Agencies not using GovDelivery can promote each other within emails and other digital communication channels

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Idea 7: Collaborate to Build Your Audience Results: Collaboration Drives Better Outreach

Average New Email Subscribers per Day

Source: GovDelivery subscription growth comparing weekdays before and after use of the collaboration network.

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Idea 8: Ad-Hoc Collaboration– who are you trying to reach and who is reaching them already?

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Idea 9: Collaborate within Government to Improve Government

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Idea 10: Track Success Openly & Effectively

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Idea 10: Track Success Openly & Effectively--Digital Communication Metrics for OGD

Transparency Participation Collaboration # of Topics

Offered (12/31/09)

# Citizens Subscribed (12/31/09)

Subscriptions per Citizen

Messages Sent (’09)

% users that open / click

messages

# of Dept. offices collaborating on

outreach

# of external outreach partners Key partners

Treasury 295 870,454 7.9 176.9M N/A 8+ 6 FCIC, Business.gov, ATF, SEC

DHS 354 696,420 10.7 180.6M 61% 9 10+ Navy, CDC, NWS, DOJ, State

DOL 1,493 593,010 49.7 39.5M 66% 10+ 15+ NLRB, PBGC, Business.gov

DNI,

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Idea 10: Track Success Openly & Effectively--Still More Digital Communication Metrics for OGD

Department of Labor Email Subscribers: 593K Email opens and clicks

– 8.1M trackable views of content delivered by email

– 2M+ link clicks from messages sent

Twitter followers for DOL– DOL: 5,484– Disability.gov: 5,432– GovBenefits: 4,798

Facebook Fans – DOL: 1,245

Department of Homeland Security Email Subscribers: 696K Email opens and clicks in 2009

– 10M+ trackable views of content delivered by email

– 2.3M+ link clicks from messages sent

Twitter Followership– FEMAinFocus: 10,456– TSA Blog: 6,176

Facebook Fans – FEMA: 7,238

What matters most to agency mission and to OGD objectives?

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Recap: 10 Ways Your Digital Communication

Strategy can Support Open Government Idea 1: Drive Usage of Current Tools to Build Audience


Idea 3: Match Channel to Objective



Idea 6: Use Free Tools to Find the Right Collaboration Partners


Idea 8: Embrace Ad-Hoc Collaboration

Idea 9: Collaborate within Government to Improve Government

Idea 10: Track Success Openly & Effectively

Questions?

Contact me:

Scott BurnsCEO & co-Founder, GovDelivery, Inc.

[email protected] Ext 303 651-726-7303

GovLoop: http://www.govloop.com/profile/ScottBurns Twitter: http://twitter.com/smburns

Blog: www.reachthepublic.com

www.govdelivery.com

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.govloop.com/profile/ScottBurns

http://twitter.com/smburns

http://www.reachthepublic.com/

http://www.govdelivery.com/

10 steps to support open government

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