Social Media

Live Tweeting Government Events – DOs and DON’Ts

In this time of tight travel budgets, not everyone can make it to every event or conference they’d like to attend. Luckily, Twitter has made it easier to share events through live tweeting. Live tweeting is using Twitter

Sara Harris Smith

Dec 20, 2013

Facebook News Feed Algorithm Update: What You Need to Know

Facebook announced they are refining their algorithm this week to better identify and promote quality news content. This can and will affect your strategic performance, but what exactly makes “quality” content and how can your agency ensure they are on the winning side of this adjustment? We talked with Facebook about the changes, and the bottom

Justin Herman

Dec 19, 2013

Eventbrite Now Available for Federal Use

Does your agency host events, organize meet-ups, or provide training and professional development? Then Eventbrite can help you manage the process more easily and efficiently. Eventbrite is the latest tool with a federal-compatible Terms of Service. Eventbrite is an online ticketing service that allows event organizers to plan, set up registration or ticket sales

Betsy Steele

Dec 19, 2013

Empowering Forest Service Scientific Experts to Educate the World Using Live Video

In July 2013, U.S. Forest Service fisheries biologist Pete Schneider launched a YouTube Live video event from the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center in Alaska. The goal of the project was to not only deliver a reliable 2-month long, 24/7, live video stream where an international audience could witness spawning Sockeye salmon, hungry Dolly Varden, cunning

Donavan Albert

Nov 26, 2013

Twitter Best Practices for Government

Best practices and success stories to help government leverage the power of Twitter

Lisa Nelson

Nov 25, 2013

Great Customer Experience through Open Dialogue

While we think about the audience, we don’t often map out the experience we want them to have when using our services. This is critical information for the design. In other cases, we may not have the data to analyze existing customers’

Martha Dorris

Nov 20, 2013

Next SocialGov Summit: Challenge and Prize Competitions

A public prize spurred Charles Lindbergh to fly across the Atlantic, and this week social media managers across government will help a new generation of prize competitions take flight. These sessions aren’t just for social media managers who have held a challenge or are

Justin Herman

Nov 19, 2013

More users are now accessing social media via mobile than on desktops. People are checking email or using social networks during their commute, in line at the grocery store, or waiting at the doctor’s

Lisa Wilcox

Nov 05, 2013

Creative Challenge Contests

Multimedia, Photo, Poster, Design Challenge and prize competitions are one path that federal agencies take to drive innovation and solve mission-centric problems—whether technical, scientific, or creative. Creative competitions include multimedia, photo, poster, and design competitions. Here you’ll find tips on running a creative challenge, resources, examples, and information about online platforms you can use to

Karen Trebon

Oct 31, 2013

Trends on Tuesday: Let’s Talk Connected Devices

Mobile Future recently released this infographic about the proliferation of connected devices. Among the key data points: Today, there are 10 billion connected devices. By 2020, data from connected devices will more than double all global Internet traffic in 2012. Traffic

Lisa Gelobter

Oct 22, 2013

PEW Report: Trends in Digital News

A report by the PEW Research Center, 12 trends for shaping digital news, looks at how the internet and digital devices are changing news consumption habits. While half of all Americans still prefer to get their news from

Lisa Nelson

Oct 18, 2013

Hosting Successful Federal Twitter Chats

One way to leverage Twitter, beyond the basics of sending messages and engaging in dialogue, is to organize a Town Hall discussion, or Twitter chat. New guidance on preparing a live chat is now available, and we need your agencies to contribute your own policies

Justin Herman

Oct 17, 2013

Twitter Chat Guidance for Federal Agencies

A Twitter town hall, or Twitter chat, is an event where agencies invite public engagement for a scheduled time period during which users can ask questions or find out more information about a topic via Twitter, much like a webinar. The questions are tagged

Justin Herman

Oct 16, 2013

Best Week Ever in #SocialGov: 2

(This is the second installment of an ongoing series charting the programs, events and people that make the emerging field of social media and data in government From where I sit, I think we just had a great week in #socialgov. From a sold-out international forum that demonstrated how we can use free tools to

Justin Herman

Sep 30, 2013

Tackling PII in Electronic Data

As non-lawyers peering into the legal world, be advised this post is not official legal advice from the Office of General Counsel. These are our impressions and what we took away from the Legal Learning Series session Social Media – Privacy, Records and Litigation.

Tim Lowden

Sep 23, 2013

Privacy Policies, Terms of Service, and PIAs! Oh My!

Guest post by Cheryl Hackley who works in the Office of Public Affairs at the Federal Trade Commission. From my early days of using email, sites like MySpace, and later getting my first smartphone, it was a common practice for me to

Cheryl Hackley

Sep 20, 2013

Best Week in SocialGov Ever: 1

(This is the first installment of an ongoing series charting the programs, events and people that make the emerging field of social media and data in government an exciting place to serve the public. Agencies are encouraged to submit their own stories for this travelogue of digital innovation.) From where I sit, I think we

Justin Herman

Sep 18, 2013

A sure way to drive employees crazy is to never share what executives discuss or decide until a new mandate lands on the organization’s collective head. While senior leaders should expect some privacy in decision-making and debate, they should also expect to openly hold themselves accountable and to make sure their employees know where the

David Hebert

Sep 10, 2013

Better Performance and Metric Downloads Now Available From Go.USA.gov

A few weeks ago, the Go.USA.gov URL shortener introduced several new features to improve the user experience. Go.USA.gov now offers users faster speeds and downloadable metric information about their links. The service, which launched in 2009, gives government agencies the ability to provide trustworthy shortened links to their audience. Just

Michelle Chronister

Sep 04, 2013

SocialGov Summit Diagnoses Viral Gov

Agencies discuss how to make social media programs more sharable and engaging.

Justin Herman

Aug 13, 2013

News and Events on Social Media