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Web Content Managers Forum Conference Call

Topic: Social Media: Creating a Government–Wide Strategy and Developing Best Practices

A. Agenda

11:00 - 11:05	News and Introductions
11:05 - 11:15	Overview of social media in government: opportunities and challenges -Jeffrey Levy, EPA
11:15 - 11:20	National Academy of Public Administration - Web 2.0 Collaboration Project - Lena Trudeau and Andrew Hannah
11:20 - 11:40	Transportation Security Administration blog "Evolution of Security" - Christopher White, TSA
11:40 - 11:45	Environmental Protection Agency video content - Jeffrey Levy, EPA
11:45 - 12:00	Q&A and wrap up

B. News

Web Manager University will soon announce the list of classes for the Fall semester. We're offering a rare summer class, a full–day hands–on workshop with noted social media guru Shel Holtz on August 6 in Washington, DC. Learn best practices using social media tools, and get an expert's critique of what you're already doing. Details on Webcontent.gov.

C. Overview & Background

Social media tools (blogs, video sharing, podcasts, wikis, etc.) are a hot topic. Most agencies are looking for ways to use these tools to better engage the public and get our content out to where people are on the Web. Government has a lot of unique challenges (legal, security, Section 508, employee access, etc.) and we need to think strategically about how to best use these tools.

We'll discuss what's happening with social media in government; the opportunities and challenges; examples of agencies who've successfully implemented social media tools; and next steps in creating a Social Media task group, coordinating efforts across government, and sharing examples and best practices. We serve best when we work together to coordinate these types of efforts across government.

For more background: primer on social media.

D. Presentations by Guest Speakers

Overview of social media in government: opportunities and challenges

Jeffrey Levy, EPA, member and former co–chair of our Federal Web Managers Council

When talking about social media, we're moving from "what is it" to "how can we use it"? We face unique opportunities and challenges using these tools in government, particularly in the Federal government. The number one obstacle is how we can take advantage of these tools within agencies, under the "Terms of Use" agreements that users are required to agree to before they can access them. Some social media sites present some legal concerns. Federal government cannot be held to a local or state court. Also, some federal agencies are not allowed to accept "free gifts." Some agencies also don't allow their employees access to these sites. Agencies also have security concerns with some of these tools.

Due to these and other issues, federal web managers cannot simply agree to "Terms of Use" on these social media sites on behalf of their agencies. However, there are solutions.

Our Federal Web Managers Council is working to develop government–wide "Terms of Use" with the big players in the social media arena (YouTube, FaceBook, Twitter, etc.)

[Postscript to the Forum call: we're also setting up a Social Media Task Group; look for more info soon on the Listserv about this.]

The most important thing for agencies is to think strategically about how to use social media. First, start by deciding what you NEED – THEN look at the tools to see which one can help you meet that need. Don't start by thinking, "I need a wiki." First, if your agency has a business need to collaborate, perhaps a wiki is the tool to help you meet that business need – but the important thing to remember is to start with your business need, THEN look at the available tools – not the other way around.

As an example, EPA wanted to expand the reach of their communications, and reach a new audience, so they looked to Twitter for help. They plugged their RSS feed into Twitter, and with no advertising quickly got 25 new RSS subscribers. They then put a link to Twitter on their blog, and got 25 more subscribers. They're now reaching people who might otherwise have never visited their website. They had a need to expand their communications, and Twitter was the tool to help them reach that new audience.

National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA)

Web 2.0 Collaboration Project:

Lena Trudeau and Andrew Hannah

NAPA focuses on good management in government. They have a staff of 60, and over 600 fellows with expertise in public administration, including IT, environment, defense, or other disciplines. It's a rigorous process to become a fellow, and federal, state, local and academic organizations are represented. This broad knowledge base helps them get the "big picture," allows them to look across government, and identify trends.

As EPA mentioned, you can't just say "I want a wiki." You need to focus on a business problem, and then look for the best tool to solve that problem. NAPA has initiated a Web 2.0 Collaboration Project to showcase success stories on their website.

To showcase a success story, they ask four questions:

• What business problem are you trying to solve?
• What approach did you use? How did you decide on that approach?
• What was the result? Do you have quantifiable return on investment (ROI)?
• What lessons did you learn, that we could share for the benefit of others

They have 40 projects showcased on their site now. They're conducting research on the case studies to provide successful solutions to common problems and identify best practices that most of these organizations are following. The case studies will be beneficial because agencies can also start to see the kinds of Return on Investment (ROI) that they can expect from implementing social media.

If you register on their site you can enter your own Web 2.0 best practice case study. This is a great opportunity to both promote your good work, and share with others. The website has an "add a case" button, and you need to answer the 4 questions above when you submit.

We will link to this site from WebContent.gov. USA.gov has a library of agencies who are using blogs, podcasts, etc. But the NAPA site goes even further in showing process and results. Lena encourages Forum members to contact her directly with questions: ltrudeau@napawash.org .

"Evolution of Security" blog from TSA

Christopher White, Transportation Security Administration

They've had a big philosophical shift in their agency since 2001. Directly after 9/11, passengers understood the need for extra airport security, and put up with the additional hassles, but as the years have passed, people are less patient. TSA has shifted their focus from "things" (scissors, etc.) to "people." focusing on behavior detection.

TSA launched this blog to address the change in how they were relating to passengers. They wanted to "get passengers back on their side." Passengers are a big part of their security solution. They get about 100 comments per week on the blog from customers, and probably 95% are negative. This is okay, because TSA wants to listen to customers. They especially want to hear not only WHY people are unhappy, but listen and get ideas for how to make the whole process easier. If people understand why TSA does something a certain way, they seem happier to comply. In addition to the public, 3,800 TSA workers a week read the blog.

Many reporters also read the blog, and it's been a wonderful way to get beyond a sound bite, and really explain why something happens. It's also a great way to debunk myths, and "set the record straight." TSA doesn't blog because they want to feel good. They do it to comment on the news of the day, explain why they do the things they do, and push a strategic debate with the public.

When they started, TSA had 5 bloggers ready to respond to comments – and received 7,500 comments in the first 24 hours. Christopher had initially set it up so he received email every time a comment was posted... but quickly turned that feature off.

One of TSAs most popular posts has been their "Hurray for bloggers" post, where they thanked the public for their comments and explained the actions they would take in response. For example, many people complained about inconsistencies in which items were being removed from their bags, so TSA was able to take those comments and immediately ensure screeners in all 450 airports were screening the same way. It showed that the blog is more than a PR mouthpiece. It has helped them connect with customers and "close the circle" to respond to comments.

They've implemented a new feature called "Got feedback?" It will allow user comments to go directly to the customer service rep at 7 airports across the country, so they can respond directly back to the customer.

How did TSA overcome obstacles to launch this? They included their attorneys from the beginning, which was tremendously helpful. Their Chief Counsel is one of their bloggers. Their Administrator, Kip Hawley, has been the driving force behind the blog. Above all, they blog to meet their strategic goals.

Their mantra has been "If you tell us we're stupid, we'll listen." It increases credibility with the public – gives people an opportunity to vent, and to explore the reasons behind what the agency does. If people understand, they're more apt to comply and be part of the solution.

EPA's Multimedia content

Jeffrey Levy, EPA

Jeffrey praised TSA's blog, especially how they accept comments and take quick action to respond, which is really exceptional.

EPA has a multimedia program called "Greenscenes." They're a series of informal, interview format videos. They have someone on staff who used to be a TV reporter, and she chats with an EPA official, talking about a current event or topic, like protecting yourself from getting too much sun. They tie their videos to their existing environmental tips on their website, so the content complements each other.

Video is filmed by the EPA Office of Multimedia, and managed by Public Affairs. They've had EPA officials and "regular staff", as well as special guest speakers – all subject matter experts.

Kay Morrison, Jeffrey's colleague at EPA, heads our Forum video sharing group, which is working on video content best practices to post to WebContent.gov.

E. Questions & Answers

Question – How is TSA promoting and publicizing its blog?

Answer – They've had 62,000 viewers to their blog. The use both traditional and non–traditional ways to get traffic. They promote it by having a prominent button to their blog on TSA.gov, and highlight blog opportunities whenever they do something related to a blog post. They include their blog URL on post–it stickers, soon available in all 450 airports. They've reached out to the top 20 bloggers, and commented on other blogs.

Question – What is considered a "good" amount of traffic to a blog? Is ROI a concern? How do you measure success?

Answer – There's not really one good answer. For TSA, their blog is in the Technorati top ten thousand, which they consider good, having only been online for seven months. The biggest ROI is that their phone calls have cut down considerably. This is especially the case when they do a "myth-buster" posting that clarifies misconceptions about common issues at TSA. The key is to measure against your goals. Technorati will tell you how many blogs link to you, and where people are coming from. You also need to see if you're getting people you're not reaching in other ways, which could be one of your goals.

Pure numbers and data are not the only thing to look at – but rather what are you trying to measure, what are your goals? Are people visiting your blog that might not otherwise visit your agency website? How often does the blog get mentioned in other arenas? One goal of the TSA blog is trying to influence the policy discussion, to get the "facts" out there. To do that, you need to look at who's talking about you, or linking to you.

If you're able to cut down on phone calls/emails because you answered the question in a blog, that is a homerun – especially if your blog post is mentioned in other arenas (CNN etc.). It's a great way to put a human face on government.

At EPA, their blog tries to educate the public, because most people don't know how broadly EPA touches their lives. They have started asking a "question of the week" which has gotten a tremendous response. They plan to analyze all questions that get over 100 answers, evaluate responses, and post a follow–up to show they are listening, and responding.

For the USA.gov blog, GovGab, they pay attention to how many views their posts get. Even if people don't comment, they can see how many people are reading. The goal is to generate discussion and comments.

Question – How do you comply with Section 508 in your blogs?

Answer – Some early pictures on the TSA blog were not tagged, but they now tag every picture they post. They started doing windows media videos, but Apple uses couldn't see them, so they now post video to YouTube and link there. It's something agencies need to stay focused on.

Question – How are you making conversations easy to follow? Scrolling through a huge number of comments is tough. Is there a way to make them easier to scan and parse, to increase participation?

Answer – Blogger & wordpress are the two main free blog hosting services. With integration of communications becoming more convergent, we see a paradigm shift in how we consume information and how business gets done. We need to take a strategic look at how to use tools and integrate them.

Question – If you ask questions on a blog, does this fall under OMB rules for information collection? At least one agency is being told by their lawyers that they can't collect feedback from their blog without OMB approval.

Answer – TSA worked with their Office of Chief Counsel, and the answer was that as long as they don't "survey" people, they don't need to get OMB clearance (which is typically required under the Paperwork Reduction Act). They're not using the blog to survey the public.

Question – How did you get this project off the ground?

Answer – The single biggest reason TSA has a blog is that their Administrator wants it and supports it. Support from leadership is critical.

Question – What challenges have TSA & EPA had integrating this blog content with all the other information the agency disseminates?

Answer – A blog is just a tool. You have content, and you use social media to disseminate it in different ways. For Earth Month, EPA created a whole series of things that were all online, like "tip of the day," with an option for email subscriptions; also did some podcasts with a banner and a widget. They basically combined web 1.0 and web 2.0 tools to get the word out.

USA.gov also distributes content over multiple channels (RSS, widgets, email alerts, blog, etc.). Web2.0 tools just give us different ways to communicate.

Question – Many agencies are not allowed to accept or use "free" tools (including things like the surveymonkey software)

Answer – EPA is not allowed to accept free gifts, but there are solutions. At EPA, they've worked with their Office of General Counsel to negotiate a "gratuituous service agreement" which says a company will never come back to the agency with a bill – it's always a free service. The company is getting intangible business in return. Other agencies have done this too. For example when USA.gov was first launched, their search engine was a gift, and GSA implemented a "gratuituous service agreement" in order to use that gift on their site.

All these Web 2.0 tools can be used, but Web Managers need to work with their legal, IT security, records officers, and procurement colleagues. There are good reasons why these rules exist, so we need to work with others in our agencies to cover all our bases.

Jeffrey has provided a sample "gratuitous services agreement" (attached) that other agencies can use.

F. Wrap–up

No call in May because of the annual conference.

Next call: August 19, 2008 11 eastern, 8 pacific.

For future calls:

• Let us know if you have a topic on which you'd like to speak. We have lots of smart folks in our community, doing lots of innovative things, so this is your chance to share what you are doing, get feedback from your peers, and help your colleagues across government to deliver better online service to the public.

• If you don't want to speak, but have an idea for a topic that you want to learn more about, send your suggestions to Sheila and Rachel.

 

Page Updated or Reviewed: July 31, 2008