Social Media

Beware the Cyber Security House of Horrors!

Ghosts. Ghouls. Zombies. Multi-stakeholder content audits. This Halloween there is no shortage of terrors lurking to keep federal Web managers up all night, and our work is largely done in one of the scariest domains of all: cyberspace. Every moment of every day, a vast system of computers and networks are actively working to support

Jordan Higgins

Oct 30, 2014

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Tokens

Increasingly, we’ve noticed that our agency customers are publishing their highest quality images on social media and within database-driven multimedia galleries on their websites. These sources are curated, contain metadata, and have both thumbnails and full-size images. That’s a big improvement in quality over the images embedded within HTML pages on agencies’ websites. After some

Loren Siebert

Oct 28, 2014

Metrics Round Up

We are all collecting a lot of performance data across our digital properties and DigitalGov University has hosted many events on the collection, reporting and strategizing around metrics. DigitalGov has shared many posts on these topics as well. So we thought it would be great to curate these events and posts for easy reference and

Alycia Piazza

Oct 20, 2014

Content is no longer limited to .gov sites. As mentioned in a recent blog post, Sharing is Caring, Adding Social Media Accounts to Search, DigitalGov Search uses Flickr, Instagram, and YouTube to populate image and video search results. On September 30, 2014, I presented with Justin Herman from the Social Media Community of Practice about: What

Rachel Mundstock

Oct 14, 2014

Trends on Tuesday: Are QR Codes Still Relevant?

Recently, I was designing new outreach materials and needed a way to connect this offline collateral with my agency’s digital content. Using a QR (or Quick Response) code immediately came to mind, followed by the question, “Are QR codes still relevant?” Opinions differ on their utility and I couldn’t find any objective data on how

Treci Johnson

Oct 06, 2014

Multimedia Storytelling in Government: Ghazni Towers Documentation Project

“Content is king” is a generally accepted truth for those of us who produce digital media. But once you have compelling content, how to best present it to your audience becomes the next challenge. In recent years, Web innovators started emphasizing the effectiveness of “digital storytelling,” or content focused on individual, human experiences using compelling

Stephanie Sharpe

Oct 03, 2014

The Federal Register: Improving Visitors’ Search Experience on Agency Websites

The Office of the Federal Register’s mission “informs citizens of their rights and obligations, documents the actions of Federal agencies, and provides a forum for public participation in the democratic process.” As the winner of the Bright Idea Award, FederalRegister.gov is clear and easy to use, but most citizens rarely frequent it. More frequently they

Rachel Mundstock

Sep 24, 2014

Strategy Pivot Yields Results: DigitalGov.Gov Six Months Later

Six months ago, we launched this DigitalGov.gov platform to support federal agencies in delivering 21st century digital services and information to the public. It seems a good time to share some of the thinking that went into the development of the platform, and what we’ve learned so far.

Alycia Piazza

Gwynne Kostin

Sep 12, 2014

Stacking Up the Benefits of Openness

Open government, open source, openness. These words are often used in talking about open data, but we sometimes forget that the root of all of this is an open community. Individuals working together to release government data and put it to use to help their neighbors and reach new personal goals. This sense of community

Jeanne Holm

Sep 10, 2014

Content is no longer limited to your .gov website. Social media accounts also contain a treasure trove of information relevant to your site’s visitors. Keeping that in mind, DigitalGov Search has worked to bring all your content, wherever it is, to your search results. Finding

Rachel Mundstock

Sep 05, 2014

Census Promotes Mobile Apps Front and Center!

Those cutting edge folks over at Census have raised the bar again! Not only do they have three mobile apps that use their own APIs, but now everyone who visits Census.gov is presented with an

Sep 04, 2014

To Learn About reddit, Listen First

Reddit began in 2006 as an online bulletin board. Registered users post links to items on the Internet, start discussions and cast votes that control placement on the site. A simple structure and a live interview forum called AMA, (Ask Me Anything) helped make reddit a

Judith Snyderman

Sep 03, 2014

Help OPM Use SocialGov to Reinvent Fed Recruitment and Recognition

Here at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, we recently announced two exciting new government-wide working group teams with the mission of helping us use social media in ways we haven’t explored before. We’re hoping to recruit federal employees

Jennifer Dorsey

Mark Anthony Dingbaum

Aug 29, 2014

Help the Public Find Your Information, Wherever and However You’ve Published It

As traffic to desktop .gov websites declines, how we publish our content increasingly matters. We need to meet people where they are as they seek information on the Internet. To do so, we need to adjust to the new world of mobile applications, social media, and instant answers provided by search engines. Freeing Content from

Ammie Farraj Feijoo

Aug 26, 2014

White House SocialGov Summit Aims to Improve Open Data Innovation

More than 100 digital engagement and open data managers from across government met with leaders in the private sector startup community August 7 at the White House for a summit on integrating our digital services with public participation to create more

Justin Herman

Aug 19, 2014

Trends on Tuesday: What’s Currently the No. 1 Smartphone in the U.S.?

Do you ever find yourself conducting unofficial smartphone research? Ever since my agency decided to develop a mobile app, I know I do. Luckily, new data from ComScore on the U.S. smartphone subscriber market share can help eliminate the guesswork. Here are a few of the key trends ComScore found in the U.S. smartphone industry

Treci Johnson

Aug 19, 2014

The Power of Email Marketing

If you aren’t currently including email marketing in your digital outreach efforts, you’re missing out.

Nicholas Garlow

Aug 11, 2014

Video Blog: Alison Lemon, FDA

We wanted to learn a little more about the Office of Women’s Health at FDA, where Alison Lemon, the SocialGov Community Knowledge Manager, works. So we sat down with Alison and learned about the interesting social media approach her office has taken, some of the thinking behind their strategy and what she sees as the

Andrea Sigritz

Aug 01, 2014

Why @congressedits Matters for Your Agency

If you haven’t heard about @congressedits yet, it’s a Twitter bot that was recently created to tweet out every anonymous edit made to Wikipedia from Congressional IP addresses. So, anyone editing articles on Wikipedia without logging in, and doing this while on Congressional Internet access, will have those changes tweeted (like this). Some of these

Dominic McDevitt-Parks

Jul 30, 2014

5 Key Points About Government Branding Now

Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking (in my own capacity) before the Council for Inspectors General for Integrity and Efficiency Public Affairs Officers (CIGIE-PAO) task force about branding. The invitation came by way of a colleague I greatly respect. Bridget Serchak is currently Chief of Public Affairs for the Department of Defense Inspector General and

Dannielle Blumenthal

Jul 25, 2014

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