Social media creates an open means of conversation between different government agencies and provides the government with new ways of reaching the public; it is an evolution in the democratization of government. Through social media, collaborators are able to create, organize, share and edit web content.

The Obama Administration has made a point of increasing government transparency. Unfortunately, the demands of the new stimulus package, restricting government regulations and policies, no standardization or understanding of how to leverage social media and technology, make utilizing the social web challenging. This causes a latency of government agencies to accept and benefit from social media.

Yet, there is a growing understanding that these tools are important. Unfortunately, shiny object syndrome – incorporating Web 2.0 tools to be modern, rather than for their purpose of increasing collaboration – is prevalent. What is needed is focused, pragmatic strategy within individual government agencies and standardization across them.

With two wars and concerns about the economy, Americans are engaged with government activity. The government has an opportunity to lead a conversation, collaborate and receive valuable feedback, and increase SEO; aspects the government is currently missing out on. Moreover, the government has the opportunity to use social media because it already has the data, and the tools to disseminate it are already available.

Time for implementation is now. Patrick Gavin of the Politico writes, “In Washington, the social networking and microblogging service is quickly becoming part of the daily media diet…” The Obama team demonstrated the power of these tools progressing towards his election; as President Obama is creating new offices and making technology appointments. Blogger Kimberly Hatch says it well: a National Chief Technology Officer “would most definitely enable Obama to intelligently craft many of the solutions to the issues he has been talking about, such as healthcare, climate change, energy independence, government 2.0, etc.”

The current Gov 2.0 environment

Shiny object syndrome

In an effort to be hip the government is moving towards implementing shiny objects without focused strategies. This may be because most social media case studies come from the private sector.

There are a number of examples of the government using gadgets, without focused strategy or purpose. For example, USA.gov has posted a Government Gadget Gallery with widgets that can be embedded into social web locations and emails. These widgets provide ways of offering thanks to the troops, and receiving environmental, family, and health news. One prominent example, the Center from Disease Control, offers 10 different widgets including a Flu Update and a Data and Statistics widget. These widgets help the CDC to pass on the latest news to health providers and the public.

Moreover, according to Socialfeds blog, the government is becoming more involved with social networking sites. “More than 150 million people around the world are now actively using Facebook and almost half of them are using Facebook every day…Now many government agencies are deploying their own version of this popular social networking site to share information and connect with niche communities.” Some examples include:

• ExchangesConnect: The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, US Department of State’s social network connecting people looking for information on other cultures and abroad exchange programs. Launched in October 2008, the social network exceeds 7,600 members.
• Goddard Space Flight Center:  Similar to Facebook, NASA’s internal social network for its employees connects individuals allowing collaboration based on expertise and personal interests. This social network has grown from NASA’s Twitter success with the @MarsPhoenix.
• A-Space: Requiring a security clearance, this internal social network allows 16 intelligence agencies to share useful information, organize and collaborate.
• GovLoop.com: Steve Ressler’s is the founder of both GovLoop and co-founder of Young Government Leaders. Through both of these networks, he has demonstrated social media’s use to organize and collaborate with federal employees that are not sponsored by particular agencies.

The government is also taking part in video sharing, photo sharing and podcasting. This is a particularly useful tactic because the government has a significant supply of multimedia available. Unfortunately, quality is an issue, as is organizing content. One example of not organizing content is that the government doesn’t utilize iTunes’ government category.

However, the Virginia.gov’s YouTube presence, and both state and federal governments posting photos are good examples of utilizing these tactics. Additionally, multimedia is used both internally, as demonstrated by NASA, and externally, demonstrated by the Environmental Protection Agency. Moreover, nongovernmental media outlets such as the YouTube Blog are offering new channels for increased government transparency.

Blogging is also being undertaken by both local and federal governments and elected officials. Blogging is important because it helps with SEO and disseminates information to new audiences. There are points of consideration, however.  Does an agency have the blogging talent and commitment, content generation issues, and content management necessary for a successful blog?

More people are receiving their information from social media sources, and developing relationships with top influencers is imperative. Therefore, regardless of the blogging decision, it is important to implement a comprehensive and lasting blogger outreach campaign. For more insights into government blogging, visit the Webcontent.gov website.

Peter Corbett on Technosailor blog believes that the value of social media “lies beyond creating the next Facebook or Twitter.” Rather, the value is in “…mobile applications for making citizens safer in their cities, and… apps that help our governments track their permits and procurements better.” However, moving to this next level takes strategy and willingness for the government to creatively use these technologies in new ways.

Experimentation:

Heeding Obama’s call for transparency, government agencies are attempting to better utilize the internet. NextGov recently analyzed government agency websites and came up with five benchmarks for other agencies to consider. The five selected websites “don’t all make use of the latest and greatest in Web 2.0 technology, and that…can be a good thing.” The researches primary takeaway is significant:

Each of the agencies responsible for these sites paid careful attention to what their users wanted to see and do online. While technology changes rapidly, striving to meet the needs of the public will always be the foundation for any great government Web site.

NextGov’s selected sites include:

• NASA – NASA’s interactive features include microsites, flash applications, and it allows commenting on news stories. Captivating readers with photos, Brian Dunbar, internet services managers, says, “We highlight this material, repackage it, and show it to people in a way they that might not be expected.” NASA also utilizes external social media including mission pages on traditional social networks. In particular a 10-minute YouTube video of the Intentional Space Station has received over 50,000 views.
• Library of Congress – The LOC offers a particularly strong example of how interacting directly with the public is useful. Partnering with Flickr, the Library’s archives are available to the online public for comment and tagging. As a result, more than 500 records have been updated because of insights provided by the public. Moreover, the Library offers intuitive searches and several ways to push content out to the public through widgets and by producing syndicated content.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – The CDC uses social media on a relatively minor level, but with success. Its Health-e-Cards electronic notes offer messages about living a healthy lifestyle. This campaign has successfully driven recipients to CDC.gov for additional information.
• Social Security Administration – The social security administration offers a video and accompanied text that demonstrates how to use the website. This video shows users where to locate important information.
• Transportation Security Administration – TSA has embraced social media unlike any other government agency, offering the public the ability to interact with the agency. For example, the agency blog, headed by the well known personality Blogger Bob Burns, “demystifies the security process” with short, precise messaging. In its first three days, the blog received 2,000 comments and the blog is now managed 24/7.

TSA has changed policies and procedures based on feedback, received over 150 media hits from the blog, and used the blog for workforce training purposes. Lastly, a partnering with the Ad Council, TSA’s Public engagement campaign generated over 43 million impressions. The TSA blogs success demonstrates that a public two-way conversation gives TSA a personality. It also demonstrates that even if there is negative commenting, the public has the ability to assist one another and provides feedback to the agency.

Bev Godwin and the WebContent.gov community highlight additional examples including: how the Peace Corps provides personal accounts on its Volunteer Journal; how top officials such as the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Mike Leavitt, are promoting themselves and their agencies; and how GovGab provides general and useful information to the public.

Local Governments are also utilizing the social web

Experiments on the social web are happening at all levels of the government. For example, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine’s initiative, stimulus.virginia.gov, makes proposed spending for the stimulus package transparent. In its infancy it has already generated 1,861 public suggestions. Moreover, the San Diego Mayor is using social media to gain insights from the public on how to resolve the city’s budget crisis. Posting some of the suggestions online, the mayor hopes to engage a “civic dialogue.”

(Image: Babel 2.0 from Off the Edge)

Using social media for developing national conversations

The Environmental Protection Agency is using social media to reach out to a national audience and develop a National Dialogue on Access to Environmental Information. Blogger Christopher Dorobeck says, like Virtual Alabama, the EPA’s platform offers a useful way for the public to access existing data. The EPA’s National Dialogue pilot found that “when asked and presented with a clear value exchange, citizens and stakeholders are eager to engage in the process of governance.” On a budget of less than $10,000, the pilot generated “4,413 visits from 2,835 unique visitors, with 420 of those—nearly 15%—going on to create an account on the Dialogue site.” Benefits included:

• Producing a large number of useful ideas and created dialogue where participants discussed each others ideas and answered questions. This helps relieve the burden from individual leaders, government officials and agencies.
• The findings also noted that “no civic engagement used in isolation, online or otherwise, can deduce consensus where none existed previously.”
• The program took only 6 weeks to create.

Another trend occurring is the creation of mashable content. Chris Bachmann blogs, “The Government is very good at collecting a ton of raw data and putting it into a manageable format. However, the raw data streams are often hard to get for those outside of that particular project.” Making this content available to the public would allow 3rd parties to generate new ideas and create added transparency. Providing a hypothetical of how this could benefit the government and the public, Chris suggests that a 3rd party could create “an app that correlates census data with unemployment rates for instance.”