Comments on: Twitter In Government Agencies: Best Practices http://www.socialgovernment.com/2009/02/16/twitter-in-government-agencies-best-practices/ Turning Government into Government 2.0 Sat, 20 Feb 2010 19:16:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Ethan Klapper http://www.socialgovernment.com/2009/02/16/twitter-in-government-agencies-best-practices/comment-page-1/#comment-2835 Ethan Klapper Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:06:45 +0000 http://www.socialgovernment.com/?p=105#comment-2835 Fixed! Fixed!

]]> By: Steve Lunceford http://www.socialgovernment.com/2009/02/16/twitter-in-government-agencies-best-practices/comment-page-1/#comment-2834 Steve Lunceford Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:05:10 +0000 http://www.socialgovernment.com/?p=105#comment-2834 Ethan, I was re-reading this today and realized the GovTwit url points to the old site. Any way to point it to http://GovTwit.com? Ethan, I was re-reading this today and realized the GovTwit url points to the old site. Any way to point it to http://GovTwit.com?

]]> By: Barb Chamberlain http://www.socialgovernment.com/2009/02/16/twitter-in-government-agencies-best-practices/comment-page-1/#comment-38 Barb Chamberlain Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:02:20 +0000 http://www.socialgovernment.com/?p=105#comment-38 I manage the @WSUSpokane account for my campus of Washington State University, and believe we're generally following all these practices. I've been evangelizing on Twitter to my colleagues and we have quite a few university accounts now; I'll point this out as a resource to them. A few more thoughts, some for internal accountability and management as well as user interactions: - Track results to show others who don't yet "get" Twitter. I'm using low-end free tools (twurl to create trackable links, with results dumped into a spreadsheet--yes, I should probably do some research and find something easier but this works for now). I can thus demonstrate how many sets of eyeballs I drew to our content, as well as to shared content I RT'd from others. I also look occasionally at our rankings on twittergrader, twinfluence, and a wiki that lists higher ed accounts. It's not science, but it gives me some sense of whether we're improving/expanding our presence. - Use tools as necessary to keep up a consistent presence. I use tweetlater to tee up messages to go out on a regular basis highlighting events and news. That way even if I have a busy day, the account is providing information. Then whenever I have time, I jump on, read recent tweets, RT a few things, and engage in conversation. The mix of the two keeps the account real, without being a total time suck. This isn't an automated feed; I'm thinking about what to put out. We don't yet have a blog, and when we do I'll maintain that personal touch for tweets that provide a link to it. - Promote the account; otherwise, you're a tree falling in a forest with no one listening. We have a presence on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. I use each space to increase awareness of the others, as well as on-campus tools such as our email faculty/staff newsletter and a big-screen monitor in the student center. If we're going to put time into these spaces for communication, we need to have people there with whom to engage. For Twitter in particular, I can't assume that our students are there yet, so I'm promoting the service as well as our presence there. - Use it to make info on your web content more accessible and relevant. Not rocket science (we're not NASA :D), but easily overlooked. We have all this web content and from inside, we know where to find things because we look at it every day. Pointing out relevant pages is user-friendly and drives/draws web traffic--another metric to demonstrate the value. @BarbChamberlain @WSUSpokane I manage the @WSUSpokane account for my campus of Washington State University, and believe we’re generally following all these practices. I’ve been evangelizing on Twitter to my colleagues and we have quite a few university accounts now; I’ll point this out as a resource to them.
A few more thoughts, some for internal accountability and management as well as user interactions:
- Track results to show others who don’t yet “get” Twitter.
I’m using low-end free tools (twurl to create trackable links, with results dumped into a spreadsheet–yes, I should probably do some research and find something easier but this works for now). I can thus demonstrate how many sets of eyeballs I drew to our content, as well as to shared content I RT’d from others.
I also look occasionally at our rankings on twittergrader, twinfluence, and a wiki that lists higher ed accounts. It’s not science, but it gives me some sense of whether we’re improving/expanding our presence.
- Use tools as necessary to keep up a consistent presence.
I use tweetlater to tee up messages to go out on a regular basis highlighting events and news. That way even if I have a busy day, the account is providing information.
Then whenever I have time, I jump on, read recent tweets, RT a few things, and engage in conversation. The mix of the two keeps the account real, without being a total time suck.
This isn’t an automated feed; I’m thinking about what to put out. We don’t yet have a blog, and when we do I’ll maintain that personal touch for tweets that provide a link to it.
- Promote the account; otherwise, you’re a tree falling in a forest with no one listening.
We have a presence on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. I use each space to increase awareness of the others, as well as on-campus tools such as our email faculty/staff newsletter and a big-screen monitor in the student center.
If we’re going to put time into these spaces for communication, we need to have people there with whom to engage. For Twitter in particular, I can’t assume that our students are there yet, so I’m promoting the service as well as our presence there.
- Use it to make info on your web content more accessible and relevant.
Not rocket science (we’re not NASA :D ), but easily overlooked. We have all this web content and from inside, we know where to find things because we look at it every day. Pointing out relevant pages is user-friendly and drives/draws web traffic–another metric to demonstrate the value.
@BarbChamberlain
@WSUSpokane

]]> By: Jeffrey Levy http://www.socialgovernment.com/2009/02/16/twitter-in-government-agencies-best-practices/comment-page-1/#comment-34 Jeffrey Levy Fri, 13 Mar 2009 01:21:26 +0000 http://www.socialgovernment.com/?p=105#comment-34 @greenversations is an interesting case. We started the feed last May as an experiment. Generally, I agree with you that the best use of any social media tool is to be, well, social. However, at least as of today, more than 1500 people follow @greenversations. So many people do find value even in an RSS feed. Remember that all of these tools take staff time. So to us, it looks like 1500 people approve of even the minimal effort of setting up twitterfeed. But we're looking at how and whether to "personify" Twitter accounts. Stay tuned! @greenversations is an interesting case. We started the feed last May as an experiment. Generally, I agree with you that the best use of any social media tool is to be, well, social. However, at least as of today, more than 1500 people follow @greenversations. So many people do find value even in an RSS feed.

Remember that all of these tools take staff time. So to us, it looks like 1500 people approve of even the minimal effort of setting up twitterfeed.

But we’re looking at how and whether to “personify” Twitter accounts. Stay tuned!

]]> By: US Dept of Labor, Office of Public Affairs http://www.socialgovernment.com/2009/02/16/twitter-in-government-agencies-best-practices/comment-page-1/#comment-9 US Dept of Labor, Office of Public Affairs Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:46:22 +0000 http://www.socialgovernment.com/?p=105#comment-9 Great information. Thank you Great information. Thank you

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