Highlights from Tuesday Morning at Gov 2.0 Expo
For the past few days, I've been at Gov 2.0 Expo, learning about how governments are using technology to engage with the public and be more transparent. A few tidbits from the Tuesday morning sessions:
Get Your Online Content in Control: Content Strategy for the Public Sector - Meghan Casey
- Audit parts of your website on a rolling basis. (For example, family law in January, February, and March. Then do consumer law in April, May, and June.) Figure out what is there, when it was last updated, and who should be responsible for it.
- Content tasks fall into three categories: maintenance, planned changes, and unexpected changes. Most of your time should be spent on planned changes, then unexpected changes, and the remainder on maintenance. Make certain your strategy reflects this time allocation.
- Fix the low-hanging fruit first. Update links and tweak content. Then re-evaluate and see if you need to entirely revamp the site.
Meghan Casey's company, Brain Traffic, has what looks like a great blog, Brain Traffic Blog, with more useful information on developing and maintaining content strategically.
Creating a Social Media Strategy: The Data Shows Why It's Important - Dan Zarrella
- Ideas don't spread because they are "good."
- You either need to break through the noise or avoid the crowds. To avoid the crowds, look at posting materials on the weekends. (The traffic might be less overall, but your story might get more attention.)
Andy Carvin from NPR did a great job tweeting this session.
- Zarrella: even if only 10% of your audience use social media, they'll still be your most influential users. #g2e (See tweet.)
- Zarrella: in WWII, OSS & MI6 studied how to weaponize rumors. When there's an info void, rumors fill the gap. (See tweet.)
- Zarrella: the higher grade level required to understand title of article, the less it's shared on FB. #g2e (See tweet.)
- Zarrella: asking people to rt actually works. Just don't do it too often. #g2e (See tweet.)
Dan Zarrella also provided interesting lists of the most shareable and the least shareable words on Facebook and the most retweeted and the least retweeted words on Twitter.
Navigating the Maze - Caroline Lawson
I didn't attend this session, but from what I saw on Twitter, I wish that I had.
- Gov 2.0 is not at all about technology, its about reaching citizens where they are - Carolyn Lawson session "Navigating the Maze" #g2e (See tweet.)
- carolyn lawson: sm policy comes down to behaving yourself in public. Same as yesterday #g2e (See tweet.)
- Carolyn Lawson, CA CIO Office: If government is going to use social media, it must be prepared to be more nimble. #g2e #opengov (See tweet.)
I'd argue in that last tweet that "government" could be replaced with "legal aid organization." What do you think? - K
