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Government Web Content Managers Forum Monthly Conference Call

Thursday, October 19, 2006
Attendees: Approximately 60 people on the call

News

* Spring Workshop

o We’re planning our next annual conference for the Spring instead of the Fall, to encourage more participation and attendance from outside DC. We’ll let all Forum members know as soon as we have a confirmed date

* Web Managers Best Practice Awards

o We had a very successful awards program this year, with 62 nominations. We’d like to have as many federal websites submit a nomination as possible, so we hope to increase the number of nominations for next year. The next awards program will be part of the Spring 2007 workshop. We plan to open up nominations in early 2007. We got good feedback from the workshop evaluations (including having a shorter awards ceremony), but would like more feedback about the awards program and what we can improve for next year.

* Web Manager University

o Space is still available for Fall classes. Go to Webcontent.gov to read class descriptions and how to register: http://www.firstgov.gov/webcontent/resources
/training/university/wmu_schedule.shtml
o We’re working on the schedule for 2007 and hope to share it with Forum members within the next month or so.
o We’re looking for ways to make training more accessible to folks outside Washington, by offering more virtual training next semester. Our first webinar on Oct. 12, hosted by NASA, was very successful and most attendees were from the field.
o Please contact Sheila Campbell at Sheila.campbell@gsa.gov if you have suggestions for future training topics or if your agency is able to host a future training session or webinar.

* USA Services Partner Meeting

o Karen Trebon of the USA Services Program at GSA reminded Forum members that they’re having their next Partners meeting on Tuesday, October 24 from 1 -3 pm in Washington, DC. They’ll have a guest speaker from the International Customer Management Institute to discuss top trends in customer service. They’ll also award the “Didn’t Duck Award” which goes to an agency who “didn’t duck” when good customer service was required. Check the Listserv for full details about the event.

Conference Call Topic – How to Apply for Awards

Several Forum members were invited to speak about their experiences in applying for awards and tips they have for our community. Below are resources mentioned during the call:

* List of Awards on Webcontent.gov: http://www.firstgov.gov/webcontent/improving/marketing/awards.shtml

* Web Managers Best Practice Awards: http://www.firstgov.gov/webcontent/improving/marketing
/awards best_practice_awards.shtml

* Webby Awards: http://www.webbyawards.com/index.php

* Innovations in American Government Award: http://www.innovationsaward.harvard.edu/Awards_Cycle.cfm

Joe Pagano, Library of Congress

* Applying for awards can be time consuming, but there are real benefits.
* Think of applying for awards as an opportunity for self-examination. Review your accomplishments: did you meet your goals, is your website accomplishing your agency’s mission? Whether you win the award or not, it can be beneficial to go through the process, because it makes you examine your work.
* There can be cost considerations, since there is sometimes an entry fee. Early submissions often save you money, so try to meet those deadlines.
* If you win, you might want to produce internal awards recognizing staff for their work.
* Webby Award has some of the highest entry fees, around $200 per category/entry. If you enter in more than one category, you should budget for more. Deadline is coming up very soon: early entry deadline is October 27.
* Don’t wait until the last minute to apply. You need to prepare ahead of time and have a strategy for applying for awards. Deadlines might change from year to year, so don’t assume you know when each award is due.
* Some awards require that you post a graphic on your site if you win. You need to be sure this isn’t against your agency policies.
* Be sure the reputation of the organization sponsoring the award doesn’t conflict with your agency mission.
* Don’t hesitate to contact the sponsoring organization if you have questions.
* It’s good to involve others as you develop your application. Different perspectives and ideas can enhance your application and really improve your chances of winning.
* Your agency should issue a press release if you win.

Martin Kwapinski, Firstgov.gov

* This may sound like common sense, but you first need to be sure that your site is worthy of an award. If you’re going through a transition (like a redesign), you may want to wait until afterwards to apply and then highlight your improvements.
* In applying for awards, mention that you follow federal requirements and web best practices. Go to the list of best practices on Webcontent.gov and assess how your site is following them
* Is winning an award important to your organization? If so, you must plan for it, and make someone responsible to research and budget for awards. Ask other people in your organization if they’ve heard of any awards and check them out to see if your site might qualify.
* Keep old applications, and build on them to help you apply for new awards. But if you re-use old applications, make sure you do a thorough review to make sure you’ve tailored your nomination to the current, specific award.
* Be aware that there are awards out there that almost any website can get, if they pay for them. Use your judgment and be aware of the quality of the award. For example, does everyone automatically win something, whether they deserve it or not? Does the award recognize flashy design rather than good content? Here’s a good article from Gerry McGovern, a noted web content expert, on this subject, that is worth thinking about: http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2006/nt-2006-10-16-awards.htm
* Awards can give you external validation, but be careful about the awards to which you apply. Make sure they will reflect well on your agency.
* Innovations in Government Awards – these are considered the “Oscars” for government, from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. The awards are for any government projects or ideas that make a real difference, including websites. They have a very good website: http://www.innovationsaward.harvard.edu/Awards_Cycle.cfm . It tells you exactly what they are looking for, makes it much easier to figure out if you qualify, and how to apply. Their advice can help you apply for any award.
* FirstGov.gov won the Innovations award in 2003. Winners receive 100K. The award money is held by the Council for Excellence in Government and can be used to celebrate the award, market your website, etc.
* Create a page on your site that shows the awards you’ve won. This could be a link from your “About Us” page.
* Some awards are for special types of websites, or about particular topics. Research if there are any that relate specifically to your special niche. Check around in your field (e.g. environment, health, science, etc.).
* When you apply for an award, do your research and find out what they want. Look at previous winners, read their applications, contact them to find out what they did that was successful.
* Have someone subscribe to “alerts” about your agency (such as Google Alerts). Some newspapers and magazine give out awards like “site of the week.” You might win one of these awards and not know it, unless it’s announced in the news.
* If you don’t win, don’t give up. Try again the next year.
* Don’t forget about awards for websites in other languages. For example, if you have a Spanish-language website, there’s a very prestigious award called Arroba De Oro: http://www.arrobadeoro.com . The FirstGov en Español site has applied for this award.
* If you have to travel somewhere to accept an award, consider that in your planning and budget. If it’s far away and you can’t send someone from your team, see if you have a contact in that city that you could send in your place (for example, someone from a partner organization).

Kit Fuller, US Geological Survey

* Kit talked about his experience as a judge for the 2006 Web Managers Best Practice Awards and what the judges were looking for when they reviewed nominations and selected finalists.
* The most important guidance is to follow directions – not just for the Best Practice awards, but for any award.
* It sounds like common sense, but a good number of applications didn’t follow directions. For example, sites that went over the 100-word limit on their nominations lost points after initial scoring.
* The judges and award program organizers realize that the 100 word limit made it difficult for sites to fully describe their accomplishments. We may increase it to 200 words for next year’s awards.
* Make sure your descriptions directly address the specific criteria: content and interactivity; design, usability, accessibility; evaluation and metrics; wildcard.
* Accessibility was a factor. Judges viewed sites with different browsers and access speeds to make sure the highlighted features worked for a broad audience. For example, users shouldn’t need additional software (e.g., Flash) to view the website (or an alternate version should be offered).
* Judges also looked at consistency across the site: does it look the same and work the same throughout?
* Be sure your content includes dates to indicate when it was last updated. And follow best practices.

Q & A

Q: If you have to pay a fee, how do you justify it and what budget category do you place that expense?

A: The justification is for increased publicity. It depends on the agency, but awards would usually be budgeted under marketing.

Q: Does winning an award increase visitor traffic?

A: It’s hard to say. At Library of Congress, they haven’t noticed any appreciable increase. But the awards still may have brought some new people to the site that might not have visited otherwise.

Q: Do satisfaction scores increase after winning an award?

A: Again, we haven’t seen any specific evidence, but it hasn’t been tracked that closely. Winning awards is something that makes the web team and senior managers feel proud about their work. That can be a good way to motivate people to continue to do good work.

Q: In your application, how do you describe your successes in web metrics and evaluation?

A: That is one of the most difficult things to do. Since you must be very brief in most applications, you can’t show a lot of metrics, graphs, or user comments. The best thing to do is to track your accomplishments as you go through the year, so you have a running record of the good things you’ve done. This will make writing the nomination much easier.

Q: Do you set goals at the beginning of the year, and keep track as you go along?

A: No, but that’s a great idea. Being able to say, “we set our goals at having a customer satisfaction score of X and we exceeded it by X,” would be a powerful statement to include in a nomination form.

Q: We’d like to see how we were rated by the judges in the Web Content Managers Awards. Can we see the ratings?

A: Yes, we can share that information with all the people who submitted a nomination This will help applicants see which areas they may want to improve for next time. We don’t have extensive comments from judges, but we can share the ratings and will encourage judges to take notes for next year’s awards. Nicole Burton, who coordinated the awards, will send out scores to everyone as soon as we can.

Q: How can we improve our applications for the next Web Managers Best Practice Awards?

A: Remember judges will extensively review your site – not just read the nomination. So give “background” about the site so judges know the level of effort and accomplishment “behind the scenes,” in addition to what they’ll see for themselves. For example, cite specific analytics, customer satisfaction scores, usability testing, web team training, moving paper processes to electronic, examples of great customer service, etc. Be truthful about your accomplishments and don’t embellish.

Next Forum Call and Reminders

* Next month’s call is on Thursday, November 16, from 11 am – 12 pm EST. If you have suggestions for the agenda, please contact Sheila Campbell at Sheila.campbell@gsa.gov.

* Don’t forget to check the schedule for Web Manager University and sign up for a class this Fall.

 

Page Updated or Reviewed: October 24, 2006