Beyond  Cats  &  Kardashians  How  to  Build  Meaningful  Online  

Engagement  

What’s  Popular  on  the  Internet?  

•  Kardashains  •  Cats  •  Buzzfeed  /  Huffpost  

What  are  you  serving?  

•  Buffet  of  ice  cream,  you  are  serving  broccoli  •  How  do  you  get  people  to  eat  healthy?  

Hardest  thing  on  internet  

•  Gaining  audience  /  geIng  people  to  care  •  Billion  dollar  skill  •  #1  reason  civic  engagement  (or  any  consumer  internet  site)  dies  is  lack  of  audience  

 

What is

MISSION: “Connect Government to Improve Government”

Solve  government  problems  

Connect  with  peers  

Research  the  latest  trends  

Find  and  contribute    best  practices  

Learn  about  the  latest  solutions  

?  

2 Questions I Think About •  How to Grow GovLoop – Reach & Engage

–  Reach More People (More Active Members) –  Increase Engagement (More Activity) –  Solve more problems every day

My  Last  Year  of  Research  

Studied How Others Increased Audience & Engagement

•  For-profit communities (Dogster, ITToolbox, Sermo, change.org)

•  For-profit vendors (GroupOn, Hubspot, Priceline,) •  Non-profit campaigns (Causes, Charity: Water,

NeighborsForNeighbors) •  Political sector (Presidential and local elections) •  Government (Federal, State, Local)

What  I’ve  Learned  •  It’s REALLY REALLY Hard •  There’s a talent/skill •  There’s a methodology and rigor •  Difference between Doing it and

Doing it Well •  Lots of optimization opportunities •  Hard to be consistent

Getting Started

What  are  your  goals?  

•  Who  is  your  target  audience  realisRcally?  •  How  large  is  your  realisRc  target  audience?  •  Where  is  your  audience  online?  •  Where  are  they  offline?  Online  to  offline  •  Who  are  the  experts/partners  in  space?  •  What  media  outlets  cover  the  space?    

What  is  realisRc?  

•  What  is  the  size  of  current  groups  on  topic?  •  What  is  the  demand  for  informaRon  on  topic?  •  What  have  past  similar  projects  yielded?  •  What  does  success  look  like?  •  90-­‐9-­‐1  rule  •  NASA  always  wins  –  some  issues  more  catchy    

Key  mistakes  

•  UnderesRmate  resources  it  takes  to  community  manage  

•  Failure  to  simplify  the  ask  •  Too  opRmisRc  of  people’s  desires    

What’s  the  topic  /  pain  point?  

Key Tips

Engagement  Funnel  

Awareness

Is  their  Audience  You  Can  Leverage  

ExisRng  email  lists    One-­‐Rme  use  of  email  lists  Big  accounts  in  social  media  to  use  PR  Campaigns  Other  associaRons  People  that  have  incenRve  to  parRcipate  (students,  pracRRoner  in  that  field,  etc)  

OpRmize  for  Search  /  Pain  Point  

Embed  elsewhere  

Cross-­‐Promote  where  Audience  INDUSTRY  

 McDonalds:  

 “Do  you  want    fries  with  that?”  

INDUSTRY:    

Amazon:      

“Customers  who  bought  this  item  also  bought…”  

GOVERNMENT:    

Your  agency:    

“You  may  also  be  interested  in  informaRon  from  these  agencies…”  

Tap  into  ExisRng  Community  

Real  World  /  Simple  

Leverage  Timely  Events  

Build A Relationship

Sign  ‘em  Up  

Simple  Clear  Ask  

Light-­‐Weight  Engagement  

Great  Design  Magers  

Show  Progress  

How  are  you  On-­‐boarding  Users?  

Give  IncenRve  to  Share  

Have  a  Human  Voice  /  Feel  

Framing  QuesRons  +  A/B  Tests  

Keep Engaged/ Go Deeper

Segment  Audience  -­‐  Focus  on  Engaged  

Unlock  Parts  of  site  

Real  IncenRves    

Time  Constrained  Large  Events  

On-­‐going  vs  Once  a  Year  

Hand  to  hand  combat  

Write  members  Call  members  Comment  on  their  walls  Have  advisory  board  calls  Biggest  challenge  emails  

Part  of  a  Movement  /  Swag  

Celebrate  Success  

Regular  Frequency  Across    MulRple  Channels  

•  Facebook  –  1  to  4X  a  day  •  Twiger  –  3  to  10X  a  day  •  Email  –  Range  from  daily,  weekly    **Key  is  consistency  –  actual  numbers  vary  by  agency  and  type  of  content**    

Lessons  from  GovLoop  

•  Consistency  is  key  –  takes  Rme  •  Search  key  •  Levels  of  content  –  broccoli  to  candy  •  Focus  on  what  people  want  –  knowledge  network,  guides,  webinars,  etc  

•  Needs  evolve  over  Rme  –  cohort  effects  •  Promote  where  people  are  &  traffic  is  –  network  referral  

What’s  popular  in  gov’t  sites?  

•  Crime  •  Jobs  •  EducaRon  •  Weather/snow  •  DMV,  licenses,  permits  •  Transit  •  Items  that  affects  people  individually  

Civic  Sites  that  get  lots  of  traffic  

•  MySociety  &  Google  •  Potholes  •  DMV.org  •  Greatschools  

Ways  to  Engage  w/  GovLoop  

Always looking for stories to highlight Free guides & trainings Ask questions, write a blog Always willing to help w/ strategy, development, execution Have students? Have GovLoop fellows

Steve  Ressler  Founder,  GovLoop  steve@GovLoop.com  @GovLoop  

Reach out