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GovDelivery

Social Media for Government Communications

February 14, 2012

[happy valentine’s day]

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Your Presenters

Lauren ModeenDigital StrategistEngagement Services

@exilauren

Joseph PorcelliDirectorEngagement Services

@josephporcelli

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How To: Build An Audience, Improve Your Citizen Engagement, and Meet Your Mission Objectives

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1.) The Engagement Funnel

2.) Your 15 Point Mission Objective Checklist

3.) Helpful Resources

3 Things You’ll Learn Today:

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Hypothesis• Historically, Government not very

good at building audience and engagement…

• Haven’t focused resources (time, staff, money, training)

• Revenue is not the bottom line for government; it is in the private sector. Instead, mission delivery is bottom line for government.

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• Government’s mission is to serve all its citizens

• Cost of mis-information

• Cost of citizen inaction

• Attack on brand – agency trust

• And above all not fully meeting YOUR MISSION OBJECTIVES

But Engagement Matters A LOT

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• How do we reach a large number of relevant

stakeholders?

• How do we build mutually beneficial

relationships with them?

• How do we provide them with clear, timely,

actionable information that is valuable?

ABOVE ALL:

• How do we get them to TAKE

MEANINGFUL ACTION with our

information and work in partnership

with us?

So…We Constantly Ask Ourselves…

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Mission Objectives

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Question: How Move Through Funnel?Answer: Increase Audience and Engagement…

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How increase audience and engagement?

Preparation Checklist*1. Identify2. Define Success3. Logistics4. Experts & Partners5. Segment6. Enlist7. Cross-promotion8. Educate9. Empower10. Energize11. Enforce12. Measure13. Adapt14. Collaborate15. Celebrate16. Share

*Why is this so darn important?The more prepared you are, the more effectively and efficiently you’ll move through the funnel.

More engagement = more value/service/mission objectives

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1: Identify

What problem are you trying to solve?• What impacts matter most to my agency and the public?• What are the specific outcomes I am looking for?• What are realistic contributions that communication can make to

the outcomes?

15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

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What is Success:• Size of audience?• Quality of engagement?• Press/accolades looking for• Define your goals and metrics!

15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 152: Define Success

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Logistical questions to ask yourself:• What is the time frame? Time to launch? • Is it a campaign? Is it on-going?• How does it tie into or complement our other

initiatives?• What is our budget / staff resources?• What technology(ies) should we use?• What data do we have?• What have we or other learned in the past?

15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 153: Logistics

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4: Experts + Partners 15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Who are the experts/partners?• Who are the experts on the topic?• Who are/could be your

connectors?• Who are/could be your partners?• What is our ask of them?• What’s in it for them - How can we

incentivize them?

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Why to segment?• Figure out who is who, and where• Reach these people specifically• Give them what matters most• Repeat, and increase participation

5: Segment 15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

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15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 156: Enlist

Enlist Your People:• Who are our stakeholders?• Where is the target audience currently?• What would compel them to sign up?• How can we get them to sign-up?• What have we done in past?

Capture people where they are…get people to sign up!

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Cross-promote:• Re-tweet, Share, Send-on-behalf• Participate in the GovDelivery Network• Find partners and work with them• Work with other agencies who can share ROI

7: Cross Promotion 15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

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How do you help them learn?• Make your content easy to find• Sticky (so come back)• Make it fun!

8: Educate 15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

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How do you get them to own it?• Ask them for feedback!• Include their feedback• Allow them to use their own voice• Invite them to co-lead/facilitate/organize

9: Empower 15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

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10: Energize

How do you keep them energized?• Ask lots of questions/what they want, and if yes, delivery more• Use weekly issues/themes• Ensure latest/most interesting activity above the fold • Highlight people’s accomplishments• Do stuff together in person: don’t only know people by their avatars

15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

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11: Enforce

How do you get them to play nice?• What is working?• What type of content popular?• What type of frequency popular?• What are our key problems?

Tip = Tons of resources on policies: www.data.govloop.com

15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

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Questions to Ask:• What is working?• What type of content popular?• What type of frequency popular• What are our key problems?• Weekly/Monthly Analytics Reports

Free: - Google Analytics - Facebook Insights - Tweet Reach

Cost: - Radian6 - Viral Heat - PageLever

Most Useful Tools?

12: Measure 15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

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How do you keep them coming back?• Experiment, iterate, and evolve • Don’t recreate wheel - emulate examples by your peers• Falling down is a way to remember how to get back up• Give them what is most interesting/vital for them

13: Adapt 15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

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How do you get them to collaborate?• Encourage collaboration around something they really care about• Make it easy to join• Provide positive reinforcement

14: Collaborate 15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

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Importance of celebrating:• Shared sense of ownership/pride• Makes the content/community sticky• Moves users to leadership phase• Drives awareness• People love to celebrate/rally around something

15: Celebrate 15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

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Why share:• We are highly influenced by what our peers

do – sharing works• Sharing exponentially expands our reach

and potential to reach new audiences

16: Share 15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

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What Really Matters?

1 Million Followers?

ORSaving a life through a successful flu campaign?

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Which Analytic Tools Most Useful?

Free:

• Google Analytics• Facebook Insights• Social Mention• Twitter grader• TweetReach

Cost:

• Viral Heat• PageLever• Radian6• Authority Labs• PostRank

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Useful Tool Ecosystem

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More Tools to Rock Your Communication

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What are Your Challenges?

Pick our brains…

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Joseph PorcelliDirector, Engagement Services

GovDelivery

Twitter @josephporcelli

Lauren ModeenEngagement Strategist

GovDelivery

Twitter @exilauren

THANK YOU!

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Photo Credits

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