U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services
370 L'Enfant Promenade, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20447
About Public Relations / Web-Based Tactics
These and other Web-based communications tactics will help you build a strong relationship with the public:
Also called Weblogs, blogs were formerly used as online diaries and are now mainstream. Many for-profit and nonprofit organizations and professionals are using these tools to share their opinions online. A blog is a collection of posts on a particular topic, sometimes written by a single author and sometimes written by multiple authors.
Blogs work best when written in an informal, conversational tone. You could use a blog to share recent developments in child support or to share a first-person story about how you’ve seen child support change a child’s life. Blogs are usually updated frequently and include personal observations or perspectives. As such, they enable readers to make a personal, emotional connection with the blog author, and by association, with the author’s organization.
You can also allow blog readers to leave comments at the bottom of each blog posting. You can in turn respond to those comments, creating an interactive conversation that likewise draws the reader in.
You may also hear the term vlog. These are video blogs that tell their stories through movies rather than words.
E-mail campaigns are an inexpensive, effective way to spread news quickly to a large number of people. While you can use e-mails to communicate any type of information, they shine at delivering time-sensitive information.
You can use them for these and other communications tools:
Another benefit of e-mail is that you can track it. Mass-mailing services use special software that can tell you how many people opened your e-mail and when, which links they clicked, and so forth. For example, you might discover that people click links that discuss classes on child support, but not announcements of new staff. You can use this information to modify your next campaign and improve the chances that people will open your e-mail.
E-mails come in two forms:
One important caution: Send e-mails only to people you know who have agreed to accept e-mail from you. Never buy or share e-mail lists or send an unsolicited mass e-mail. Doing so is against the Federal CAN-SPAM law. If you violate it, you may have to pay large penalties. If you have news that you would like to share with people on a partnering organization’s list, send your e-mail to that organization. Ask them to review the message and, if appropriate, forward it to their list.
Each e-mail you send should also have an “opt-out” link at the bottom so that people can easily unsubscribe from your mailing list. Make sure that you unsubscribe everyone who asks to be taken off your list, and that you do not add those names again at another time.
One way to find out what people are saying about your organization is through Internet monitoring. For a fee, companies that specialize in this area will track mentions of your organization that appear on the Internet.
Depending on your agreement, these services may track news sources as well as blogs, forums, and other online sources that are venues for public discussion. You can receive these clippings daily and use them to gauge public opinion—then respond as necessary.
You may choose to respond either through traditional public relations channels or by posting a response directly to a blog or online discussion board.
A newsfeed, also known as RSS, is a tool that you can put on your Web site so that people can be notified automatically when you post new information to your site. You could use the newsfeed to let reporters know of news releases, for example. The benefit of newsfeeds is that they allow you to distribute information without using e-mail, and thus without the uncertainties of e-mail delivery.
The people who developed your Web site should be able to tell you more about this tool.
Like a virtual neighborhood, online communities are made up of real people who interact by typing to one another. Each person who is a member of the community has a profile page that includes as much personal information as he or she wishes to post, such as name, e-mail address, photo, professional affiliation, interests, etc. These people then can interact with one another by reading each other’s profiles, participating in online discussions, writing blogs, and posting comments to others’ blogs.
Because of the personal nature of child support, other types of communication may be more appropriate for child support clients. However, an online community made up of child support professionals could provide a strong support and networking tool that enables caseworkers to share best practices and ask fellow colleagues for advice online.
Podcasts are audio or audio-and-video files that you can store on a Web site, and that users can download at any time to watch on their computers.
Users also can download the files to an iPod or MP3 player to listen to at a later date. Podcasts are usually integrated with newsfeeds so that each time you release a new podcast, the user can receive it automatically.
A November 2006 survey by the American Speech-Language-Hearing-Association found that U.S. Hispanic adults are more likely than all adults to use iPods and MP3 players:
Podcasts would be a good way to educate people about child support services. You could post either short, public-radio-style pieces illustrating different aspects of seeking or paying child support, or you could create longer seminars.
Search engine marketing is a way to manipulate Web sites so that when someone searches online for your topic, in this case child support, the search returns your Web site as one of the first items. Because most people look at only the first search results rather than scroll through a long list, being near the top of the list ensures that people will find your Web site.
The first step in search engine marketing is to choose keywords that you think people would enter if they were looking for your services—for example, “child support.”
One method is called search engine optimization (SEO). The people who developed your Web site can make changes in the code and/or the content of the site to make the keywords more obvious to search engines.
You can also buy search terms from a search engine so that when someone searches on your keywords, your site will be in the top results. These ads are typically text ads, which people are more likely to notice and use than banner ads.
While initially all the rage with teenagers, these sites are now becoming popular with a much older demographic. In addition, businesses and nonprofits are incorporating social networking sites into their arsenal of marketing tools.
Numerous organizations have created their own “space” on sites such as MySpace and Facebook by adding profiles of their organizations. The beauty of these sites is that they are widely used, and some organizations have enjoyed astounding success with fundraising and petition-signing by becoming part of these sites.
In addition, if you join a social networking site, you can encourage other members to become your “friends.” Then anyone who has a profile on the social networking site can place a link from his or her page to your organization’s page. People who visit your friend’s site then might also visit yours, creating a snowball effect.
Experts suggest that the best approach is to browse through these sites and learn the culture first before jumping in and creating a profile.
Several social networking sites serve the Hispanic market:
A Web site is a relatively inexpensive way to publicize your services, as well as the issue of child support.
Even if the people who use your services do not go online, their friends or family members might. And other organizations that might want to partner with you might find you online, or might go online to learn more about you.
A strong benefit of a Web site is that it costs much less to post information online than to print and mail a brochure, and you can update your online information in a flash.
A simple Web site could provide a public service by carrying the following basic information:
A more-complex site could contain—or link to—additional features:
You may also want to invest in search engine marketing to promote your site.
Elements:
Web sites contain three elements:
You can also create what is called a mirror Web site in Spanish. It would look and function exactly the same as your English Web site, but would be translated into Spanish.
Testing:
To find out how effective your Web site is, test it. During the design phase, you can give people a paper mockup of your site and ask them which buttons they would choose to find a certain piece of information. If your site is already live, do this same exercise by watching people use the site; ask them what they would do to find directions to your office, for example, or ask them if they can tell how your office helps parents.
Repeating this exercise with 8 to 10 people will help you identify which areas of your site work well, and which areas might need restructuring or new button names.
Most companies that host Web sites provide tracking statistics so that you can see how many people have accessed your site—and which pages they visit most frequently.
