How to Build an Audience, Increase Your Citizen Engagement, and Meet Your Mission Objectives

1

GovDelivery

Social Media for Government Communications

February 14, 2012

[happy valentine’s day]

2

Your Presenters

Lauren ModeenDigital StrategistEngagement Services

@exilauren

Joseph PorcelliDirectorEngagement Services

@josephporcelli

3

How To: Build An Audience, Improve Your Citizen Engagement, and Meet Your Mission Objectives

4

1.) The Engagement Funnel

2.) Your 15 Point Mission Objective Checklist

3.) Helpful Resources

3 Things You’ll Learn Today:

5

Hypothesis• Historically, Government not very

good at building audience and engagement…

• Haven’t focused resources (time, staff, money, training)

• Revenue is not the bottom line for government; it is in the private sector. Instead, mission delivery is bottom line for government.

6

• Government’s mission is to serve all its citizens

• Cost of mis-information

• Cost of citizen inaction

• Attack on brand – agency trust

• And above all not fully meeting YOUR MISSION OBJECTIVES

But Engagement Matters A LOT

7

• How do we reach a large number of relevant

stakeholders?

• How do we build mutually beneficial

relationships with them?

• How do we provide them with clear, timely,

actionable information that is valuable?

ABOVE ALL:

• How do we get them to TAKE

MEANINGFUL ACTION with our

information and work in partnership

with us?

So…We Constantly Ask Ourselves…

8

Mission Objectives

9

Question: How Move Through Funnel?Answer: Increase Audience and Engagement…

10

How increase audience and engagement?

Preparation Checklist*1. Identify2. Define Success3. Logistics4. Experts & Partners5. Segment6. Enlist7. Cross-promotion8. Educate9. Empower10. Energize11. Enforce12. Measure13. Adapt14. Collaborate15. Celebrate16. Share

*Why is this so darn important?The more prepared you are, the more effectively and efficiently you’ll move through the funnel.

More engagement = more value/service/mission objectives

11

1: Identify

What problem are you trying to solve?• What impacts matter most to my agency and the public?• What are the specific outcomes I am looking for?• What are realistic contributions that communication can make to

the outcomes?

15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

12

What is Success:• Size of audience?• Quality of engagement?• Press/accolades looking for• Define your goals and metrics!

15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 152: Define Success

13

Logistical questions to ask yourself:• What is the time frame? Time to launch? • Is it a campaign? Is it on-going?• How does it tie into or complement our other

initiatives?• What is our budget / staff resources?• What technology(ies) should we use?• What data do we have?• What have we or other learned in the past?

15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 153: Logistics

14

4: Experts + Partners 15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Who are the experts/partners?• Who are the experts on the topic?• Who are/could be your

connectors?• Who are/could be your partners?• What is our ask of them?• What’s in it for them - How can we

incentivize them?

15

Why to segment?• Figure out who is who, and where• Reach these people specifically• Give them what matters most• Repeat, and increase participation

5: Segment 15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

16

15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 156: Enlist

Enlist Your People:• Who are our stakeholders?• Where is the target audience currently?• What would compel them to sign up?• How can we get them to sign-up?• What have we done in past?

Capture people where they are…get people to sign up!

17

Cross-promote:• Re-tweet, Share, Send-on-behalf• Participate in the GovDelivery Network• Find partners and work with them• Work with other agencies who can share ROI

7: Cross Promotion 15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

18

How do you help them learn?• Make your content easy to find• Sticky (so come back)• Make it fun!

8: Educate 15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

19

How do you get them to own it?• Ask them for feedback!• Include their feedback• Allow them to use their own voice• Invite them to co-lead/facilitate/organize

9: Empower 15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

20

10: Energize

How do you keep them energized?• Ask lots of questions/what they want, and if yes, delivery more• Use weekly issues/themes• Ensure latest/most interesting activity above the fold • Highlight people’s accomplishments• Do stuff together in person: don’t only know people by their avatars

15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

21

11: Enforce

How do you get them to play nice?• What is working?• What type of content popular?• What type of frequency popular?• What are our key problems?

Tip = Tons of resources on policies: www.data.govloop.com

15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

22

Questions to Ask:• What is working?• What type of content popular?• What type of frequency popular• What are our key problems?• Weekly/Monthly Analytics Reports

Free: - Google Analytics - Facebook Insights - Tweet Reach

Cost: - Radian6 - Viral Heat - PageLever

Most Useful Tools?

12: Measure 15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

23

How do you keep them coming back?• Experiment, iterate, and evolve • Don’t recreate wheel - emulate examples by your peers• Falling down is a way to remember how to get back up• Give them what is most interesting/vital for them

13: Adapt 15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

24

How do you get them to collaborate?• Encourage collaboration around something they really care about• Make it easy to join• Provide positive reinforcement

14: Collaborate 15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

25

Importance of celebrating:• Shared sense of ownership/pride• Makes the content/community sticky• Moves users to leadership phase• Drives awareness• People love to celebrate/rally around something

15: Celebrate 15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

26

Why share:• We are highly influenced by what our peers

do – sharing works• Sharing exponentially expands our reach

and potential to reach new audiences

16: Share 15 Point Check List- - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

27

What Really Matters?

1 Million Followers?

ORSaving a life through a successful flu campaign?

28

Which Analytic Tools Most Useful?

Free:

• Google Analytics• Facebook Insights• Social Mention• Twitter grader• TweetReach

Cost:

• Viral Heat• PageLever• Radian6• Authority Labs• PostRank

29

Useful Tool Ecosystem

30

More Tools to Rock Your Communication

31

What are Your Challenges?

Pick our brains…

32

Joseph PorcelliDirector, Engagement Services

GovDelivery

Twitter @josephporcelli

Lauren ModeenEngagement Strategist

GovDelivery

Twitter @exilauren

THANK YOU!

33

Photo Credits

•

Picture 1Picture 2Picture 3 Picture 4Picture 5Picture 6Picture 7Picture 8Picture 9Picture 10Picture 11Picture 12Picture 13Picture 14Picture 15Picture 16Picture 17