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GovDelivery thanks guest Blogger, Jamie Findlater, for this interesting post.

Posted by: Jamie Findlater, Department of Defense, Community Relations and New Media Team Member

Going Viral: DoD's New Media Tactics for the Troops

 

This year marked the fourth annual Department of Defense America Supports You (ASY) National Freedom Walk in Washington D.C.  The ASY Freedom Walk is an opportunity to reflect on the lives lost on September 11, 2001 at the Pentagon and remember the sacrifices of our veterans past and present.

 

Employing new media tactics to communicate to the public about DoD policy and programs is an important part of the Department of Defense's public affairs mission, and letting folks know about the ASY Freedom Walk is no exception. This year, for the first time, we incorporated viral marketing and new media tactics to increase awareness about the opportunity to walk in the DC area, which led to great walker registration and turn out. We also experimented with new media tactics the day of the event, understanding that these components are an important way to connect with our audiences.  

 

A central part of our new media campaign was the creation of an America Supports You Freedom Walk widget. The widget displayed a countdown to the day of the national walk and tallied the number of local walks being organized around the country. The widget also provided links through which participants could register and spread the word about the event. Milbloggers, military spouse bloggers and online publications could post the widget on their sites. Then, during the ASY Freedom Walk, we enabled participants to send text messages honoring our troops and the lives lost on the day of the event. The messages scrolled through the widget after the event.

 

In terms of viral outreach, we relied largely on cross-promotion from the ASY homefront groups, military support organizations and partner government agencies. GovDelivery sent our viral e-mail to its own subscription lists and partnered us with their other subscribers. Here at DoD, we placed e-mail footers at the bottom of our news articles. Other organizations, including DisabilityInfo.gov and USA.gov, were instrumental in helping us get the word out to their subscribers through similar tactics.

 

The viral outreach campaign also incorporated online video components. The DoD New Media team created a video blog, or "vlog," to share information with communities about opportunities to start local walks in their area. The video was showcased on the DoD "video on demand" Web site, DoD VClips, along with many other DoD videos centering around September 11^th. This year's ASY Freedom walk and recognition of September 11^th was particularly important due to the dedication of the Pentagon Memorial, and viral video was an important part of telling this story. 

 

Overall, thousands of participants participated in the ASY Freedom Walk. This event provided a good opportunity to experiment with viral notification and new media tactics.

We have a host of other new media ideas that we hope to develop as well. At DoD, we are constantly experimenting with new ways of delivering information, realizing that the way the public consumes information is constantly evolving.

GovDelivery invites anyone with interesting government-to-citizen communication issues to discuss to be guest bloggers on reachthepublic.  Please contact product at govdelivery dot com with your ideas.

We've been looking at different Web 2.0 sites and exploring how best clients can use them in conjunction with our system and on their own.

One site I like is Twitter.  Twitter allows an organization or an individual to post a couple of lines about what they are doing at a given moment.  This overlaps with the Facebook "status" update so I thought it wouldn't be worth the effort.  However, now that I've got Twitter working well with Facebook, I can update my status on Twitter and it gets posted everywhere.  Twitter is easier to use and something that can be updated quickly from a cell phone or blackberry.

I don't have any specific ideas yet for interconnections between GovDelivery and Twitter, but in looking around, I did see a lot of Twitter accounts being managed by government agencies and public officials.  Take a look at the GovDelivery Twitter Account and Who We are Following.  You can also take a look at my "young" Twitter account.

Here are just a few:
http://twitter.com/pueblo81009
http://twitter.com/USAgov

NASA has many offices and programs using Twitter.  As usual, they are very advanced in use of Web 2.0 tools.

and lots of public officials:
http://twitter.com/MayorMark
http://twitter.com/MayorRTRybak

Why does this matter?  Any government entity has a lot of information to offer.  Twitter is an easy way to pull forward and call attention to the information that you think might be most interesting or valuable.  I've blogged before on the difference between "give me what I want" content and "give me what you think I need" content. 

Twitter allows an agency to highlight for me the information that I might need and to do it in a simple and interesting way. 

My company, GovDelivery, just completed a Webinar on Web. 2.0 in government where we had 150 attendees.  The quality of the questions was very exciting because it shows how much government Web managers are thinking about how best to use Web 2.0 to meet the needs of the public.

For anyone who attended the webinar or is interested in this topic, I want to point out some useful links:

1. Previous post on Web 2.0  which includes a useful glossary
   
2. Follow-up on Cloud Computing
3. Post on TSA Blog

Also, we have some upcoming webinars on on-demand emailing (cloud computing) and other topics as well as a recorded version of the Government Web 2.0 webinar you can request from us by going to the registration page.

My previous entry was on Web 2.0 in government.  I want to add some fresh links and expand the conversation to cloud computing which some people, in an effort to give the entire world a headache, refer to as "Web 3.0".

Before we talk about Web 2.0+, let me share this glossary of Web 2.0 terms.  I used to go mad trying to understand all of the Web 2.0 / Web 3.0 terms.  Blogs, Wikis, Folksonomies, Mashups, Tags, Tag Clouds, Widgets, Cloud Computing, SaaS, etc.  Like Web 2.0 itself, there is no one in charge of Web 2.0 and the terminology has taken on a life of its own.

While I initially thought Web 2.0 was just for kids (hence all of the annoying terms), I'm a convert now.  Facebook really makes my life better both personally and professionally.  Mashups allow our company to deliver more value than ever to the government, and SaaS companies serve our most critical CRM and Web conferencing needs.

Most importantly, I'm convinced that cloud computing is going to make technology more powerful and cost-effective for government in so many ways that we will look back on 2008 10 years from now and see it as the infancy of e-government.

To that end, I want to add another important link which is this story on cloud computing.

We have over 250 government agencies using our Software as a Service platform here at GovDelivery.  I don't consider use of our hosted, SaaS, platform by itself as cloud computing, but now that the service is becoming more open and allowing other applications to tap into it for limited functions, it really is "service in the cloud."  For us, this means allowing agencies to connect to our "On-Demand Mailer" whenever an agency needs additional mail sending scale for certain applications or needs to send a message to a stakeholder with assured delivery to the inbox, tracking, reporting, etc.

The article referenced above lists these benefits of cloud computing:

• Reduced Cost
• Increased Storage
• Highly Automated
• Flexibility
• Allows IT to Shift Focus  "No longer having to worry about constant server updates and other computing issues"

This list of benefits is literally the Holy Grail of government IT!

The article concludes with the typical security concerns that are always raised when government talks about doing something new.  Here is the good news, it's not all or nothing. 

For example, the On-Demand Mailer service we offer is currently built to handle emails you are already sending out over the public Internet. 

We are not offering the service to the CIA for sending highly-classified emails... that is not something that belongs in the Cloud. 

Still, there are many services that fit well into the Cloud now.  Web 2.0 and cloud computing raise all kinds of security concerns.  Luckily, from the looks of all the blogs, Wikis, mashups, etc. that we see on government sites despite the security concerns raised about Web 2.0 in government, government Web and e-government managers will find the appropriate areas where they can leverage cloud computing without taking unnecessary security risks.

Everyone is talking about and writing about government 2.0 recently.

There was a great write up in FCW with a panel interview that included Bev Godwin from USA.gov and others.

There was another post on Mashable.com that provided an "Insider's Perspective" on government 2.0.

My company, GovDelivery, has made a big push into Web 2.0 in the past year.   We've found a lot of enthusiasm from our clients in a few key areas.

1. Collaboration: Using the Web 2.0 concept of "mashups" to present the citizen with "one stop shopping" for government information.  Another Web 2.0 concept, Software as a Service, SaaS, makes mashups a lot easier.
   
   Example: Use the Get Email Updates link on this DHS page and watch how you are walked through a subscription process that brings together many agencies including some outside DHS. [This is my only example that is "powered by" GovDelivery)
   
   
2. Distribution: Enabling websites, RSS feeds, and email alerts with forwarding and posting capabilities that allow citizens to repost publications and announcements to social networks, tagging sites, blogs, etc.
   
   Examples: Visit www.state.gov and look in the upper right for a simple widget that allows you to repost content or tag it using social networking sites.  Another great example is the FBI Widget Tool.
   
   
3. Aggregation: Bringing together content by using tag clouds and other tagging approaches
   
   Examples:  See right side of NASA homepage; CDC has also experimented with tag clouds.
   
   
4. Blogging: Posting content updates or more colorful blog-style entries and allowing citizens to comment. 
   
   Examples: Local government excels here with more blogs than I could possibly list for Mayor's and elected officials (take a look here).  These officials are embracing Web 2.0 in campaigns and they bring the same concepts into office.  One interesting blog is the DC Summer Intern Blog.
   
   In federal government, for all the discussion and fear around blogging, there are some truly terrific examples (and no disasters that I know of).  DoD sets the standard, but TSA, GovGab, and the Secretary of Transportation are also running exceptional blogs.

In short, for all the discussion about risks, government 2.0 (aka, government's embrace of Web 2.0) is already here.  In many cases, government is further along than private industry in embracing Web 2.0

Sure, some agencies are further along than others, but the progress and momentum is amazing.  Remember, these concepts are all relatively new. 

Additional resources:

• If you're interested in blogging, you must read "Naked Conversations"
  
• The Federal Consulting Group recently hosted a Webinar on Government 2.0 where I participated along with FEMA.  Register for a recorded version of this here
  
• Janice Nall from the CDC discusses their strategy here

If you're interested in this topic, we have another upcoming Webinar on Government 2.0.   

Our webinars are focused on how governments can use our platform to take advantage of some of these concepts, but we've received good feedback that we don't lay the sales pitch on too hard, and anyone is welcome to attend.

Back in June, I posted to this blog in response to a paper out of Princeton that proposed that content structure ought to be the number one priority for governments going online.  The premise is that if content is structured well, then private sector players can re-purpose the content.  The paper states that private parties will do a better job of organizing and distributing content than government.  I feel that the paper undervalues the role played by government Web managers.

FCW has just posted a slightly updated version of my commentary.

There are some other interesting posts related to this topic including one from a terrific anonymous blogger at ".GovWatch."

I heard the news Tuesday morning about California's 5.4 magnitude earthquake and instantly saw coverage on multiple communications channels - web, television, wireless, email, etc.  In today's world, information is instantaneous.  As I continued to read through other news of the day, there was a topic that wasn't a one-time event but a recurring one that we're all too familiar with - the budget crisis many states are currently facing.  In working with many government agencies, I've seen first hand how innovative leaders address the need for improved communication and services, while dealing with budget constraints.  They've done this by investing in solutions that are integrated with or complementary to existing solutions.

A good example of such an agency is the City of Riverside, CA.  The City uses an email alert system to notify its citizens of more than city information and services - it also sends out emergency notifications to the public and to its emergency operations CERT team members. In the case of Tuesday's earthquake, the city used it email alert system to immediately communicate with its 251 CERT members with the most up-to-date earthquake information.  Information included time of earthquake, location, CERT activation status and reminders to stay off cell phones and land lines.

Riverside utilizes its email alert service to update citizens on general topics and services, in addition to emergency related notifications.  Using existing resources like website content, they are able to provide more information and better service to citizens.  You can see the service in action by visiting their website at www.riversideca.gov.

Complaining about the TSA is like complaining about the weather in Minnesota.  Even when things run well, we assume bad things are on the horizon.

TSA is playing a cruel numbers game from a PR perspective.  They must inconvenience a lot of people to capture or deter a small number.  Not an easy job if you are trying to make friends, but they are taking many steps to be more effective.

I have flown around 2 million miles since 1997.  Currently I take 4-6 flights per month (mostly from our corporate headquarters to DC, but occasionally to see clients in the U.K. and business partners around the country).  I have a theory that everyone is a little afraid of flying and that is why we all look for the worst in air travel.  What I find in reality is that security is reliably efficient across the country and that I am much safer in an airport or airplane than I am in a car.

The main reason I'm impressed with TSA is their approach to communication.  They are proactive at getting the word out and incredibly open.

Three examples:
1) The most open blog I've seen where the whole world can comment (and sometimes rant) about the TSA and air travel in general.
2) Every time they have a rule change, they immediately get the word out through any and all channels as well as through incredibly easy to understand (e.g., "3-1-1" for liquids)
3) They use email and RSS alerts to get the word out on new information.  (Full disclosure: my company, GovDelivery, provides the email alerts.)

Finally, they now put up posters saying what they have accomplished over the previous week.  These posters make the public aware of the work TSA is doing to improve security.   When I see what they are accomplishing, I'm more agreeable to taking my shoes off.  Plain and simple: when citizens know that government is getting its job done, we are more cooperative and appreciative. 
 

When we organize websites and determine what kind of content we're going to offer for subscription when communicating by email, there is a common question that needs to be answered.  Do we give people what they want or let them tell us who they are so we can give them what we think they need?

I've been talking with a number of agencies and cities recently about this challenge.

In the email world (where GovDelivery's work is focused), I see two major categories of content.   The problem is that I have a hard time categorizing them.  I'm hoping this blog entry forces me to come up with some labels.

Here it goes:

1) "Give me what I want" content is content that the user finds on your website and determines is of value.  The user says to you that she wants to know when a certain type or category of information is updated.  Examples of this might include: "Diabetes Publications"  "Updates to Park Hours"  "City Council Minutes" "Federal Reserve Board Rulings" or "Tax-related Press Releases"

2) "Give me what you think I need" content is content where the user self identifies as being interested in a certain issue or as having certain characteristics.  The user says to the content creator, "Please send me whatever you think will be useful to me."

The best example of this type of information is an e-newsletter.  (A recent favorite for me that is this one targeted at e-government professionals:  http://www.usa.gov/dotgovbuzz.html).  The IRS e-newsletter for Tax Professionals is another good example.

Another example would be where a local government, like San Bernardino County, CA gathers zip code or neighborhood from subscribers and then sends messages to those subscribers on any topic affecting that zip code.   We see this type of approach used for emergencies where it's hard for users to know ahead of time what the issue will be.  The user wants to say to the content creator, "Look, I live in this particular area.  If you ever think I need to know about something, please use your judgment about what to send me."

Both of these types of content play an important role.  We recommend to clients that they offer as many "Give me what I want" options as possible and limit "Give me what you think I need" content to where there is a clear stakeholder group that you think will trust you to create targeted content of interest.  The "Give me what you think I need" content takes more effort and requires that your audience trust your judgment (a diabetic might want to read the "top ten health tips" from the NIH, but not from a pharmaceutical company).  This type of content allows you to help the user filter through the vast amount of content on your website to see what you as the content creator or manager thinks matters most.

If you use the proper cross-promotional techniques, offering both types of content has another benefit: You will actually get more people signed up to all of your updates.  Why?  Because just like shoppers on e-commerce sites are open to buying related products when cross-promotion occurs at the right time, citizens looking for content are open to signing up for different types of content during the initial subscription process. 

A user who signs up for the "Monthly City Newsletter" might also sign up for updates on Park Hours and City Budget Announcements.  A user who signs up for Mens Health Publications from the CDC might also sign-up for the Obesity Prevention Newsletter.

I've spent nearly 10 years working with public sector organizations and one question comes up over and over again particularly at the more senior levels of government: 

How can we be more _________  (fill in the blank with agile, results-oriented, customer-driven, efficient, or any other adjective out of the MBA vocabulary) like the private sector?

The reason this question makes a lot of sense to anyone coming out of the private sector was best explained by former Secretary of Treasury, Robert Rubin who arrived at the Treasury directly from his leadership role at Goldman Sachs:

"Most people I've known in the private sector are just much too accustomed to linear processes where they're clear decision makers and they make a decision and things more or less then happen.  In government, the decisions you make very often are much less direct in their effect."  - Robert Rubin

Source: Leadership in Government: An Interview with Robert E. Rubin from the McKinsey Quarterly, July 2007

Understanding the difference between public and private sector decision making is fundamental to allowing the tension between public sector best practice and private sector best practice to drive good public sector decisions.

For example, my focus at GovDelivery is on working with our city, county, state, and federal government clients to help adapt best practice communication practices from the private sector into the public sector environment.  In the private sector, communication has a linear and measurable objective which is typically summarized by two words: Get sales. 

We have seen more than 20 innovative companies gain prominence in the private sector by offering different kinds of electronic communication products/platforms.  Where these products excel is in allowing marketers to target distinct groups of customers and potential customers based on demographics, buying behavior, and previous online actions.  In the public sector, this kind of targeting is too time consuming and presents real concerns about discrimination and privacy.  However, by helping our clients understand the benefits of a personalized message, we've worked with them to devise ways to offer the public much more choice in what they receive. 

This doesn't lead to more sales (because our clients generally don't sell anything), but it leads to outstanding and measurable results in other areas such as dramatically more citizens signing up for content updates (what we refer to as "more subscribers") due to higher level of personalization.

There are many more examples of this phenomenon.  What I enjoy about working in the public sector is that there are so many constituencies and considerations that the work we do is complex and often non-linear.  We have to be creative in how we learn from our colleagues operating in the private sector and adapt what they do well (drive towards clear goals) to our more complex environment. 

If you work in government now and this is frustrating to you, you might be one of the people Secretary Rubin was referring to who would be better off in the private sector.  Don't worry though, if you make that leap, we'll be watching what you do and adapting it, as best we can, where we think it can help do the public good.