This is Part Two of our look at how U.S. state governments promote their social media efforts on the official state homepage. 

We split our list of states in two, covering the 15 most populous states in Part One and the rest of the country in this installment.   

Overall, smaller states performed just as well as larger states in our rankings of social media promotion. 

Rhode Island, Utah, Delaware, Colorado and Missouri were the standouts among the less-populous U.S. states in terms of promoting social media on their official homepage.

But 12 states still lagged with minimal to zero social media promotion --- not a reflection of whether these states use social media or not, but certainly a missed opportunity.

Our complete ranking of state social media promotion will be available soon in a special report.

Shorthand: TW = Twitter, FB = Facebook, FLK = Flickr, YT = YouTube, RSS = Really Simple Syndication

The Winners...

Rhode Island — Everything: TW FB FLK YT; RSS; Blogs; plus relative rarity LinkedIn; and access to many of these granted from multiple locations on the homepage.  Our hats are tipped accordingly. 

Utah — TW FB FLK YT; RSS; Mobile; Blogs; and, separately, a prominent promotion of Twitter on their great looking Flash toolbar.

Delaware — TW FB FLK YT; RSS; Blogs; Everything in a very convenient display that lets you see options for each without leaving the homepage.

Colorado — A well designed "media center" gadget on the page, conveniently tuned to a slide showing off the social media, by default.  No accident, we're sure.  Or at least we hope.  TW FB FLK; RSS; Mobile

Missouri — Good one, TW FB FLK YT; RSS; Blogs aplenty

Tennessee — Cordially invites you to "Follow Us": TW FB FLK YT; RSS

Maryland — Funky little collection of buttons for social media sites-click anywhere in the box and it will bring you to a page with a list of many feeds, pages, channels, etc.  TW FB; RSS.  Points docked for not showing that they have Facebook on the homepage.   

Alabama — Unusual placement of buttons across the top, but nothing wrong with that: they're much more visible there than at the bottom of the page, as many state sites have them (including the lauded Rhode Island).   TW YT; RSS; podcasts...but where's King Facebook?

South Carolina — TW FB FLK; RSS; also notably Delicious, the only state or cabinet homepage to include the bookmarking service. 

Arkansas — TW FB FLK YT, plus the web-standard "share" bar (not gov-standard, obviously) with all the requisite choices.  RSS and mobile are found at the bottom.

West Virginia — TW FB FLK; RSS; The tiniest buttons POSSIBLE...but we'll give it to them for having the most important links.

Nebraska — TW FB; RSS; Share-the buttons are cool because by just mousing over them options come up to follow either "Nebraska news" or to choose another agency to follow. Unique among state and cabinet sites.

Idaho — TW FB YT; RSS-passes because of intangibles: the site emphasizes these social media, even though the choices are relatively few among the "Winners" category. 

Getting there...

Maine — FB TW; RSS-would maybe cut it in a smaller competition but this is the big dance. 

North Dakota — TW FB FLK-ditto

Kentucky — TW, FLK, and RSS, but the access is cheekily scattered around the page, and no Facebook? 

New Hampshire — A large "Follow us on Twitter" icon but...nothing else.

Indiana — Just a couple tiny RSS and Mobile site buttons

Vermont — Plenty of options to share, but only RSS and TW for social links

Oklahoma — RSS and Widgets at the bottom of the page.  Clicking the widgets button brings you to the widgets page which involves the biggest deek-out in the contest:  a graphic banner depicts buttons for nearly every big social media site, but the widgets themselves have nothing to do with any of those sites! But that's all one click off the homepage anyway.   

Iowa — RSS only

Louisiana — RSS only

South Dakota — RSS only

FAIL

Wisconsin — Boo

Minnesota — Boo times two for the upper-Midwest

DC — Nothing (not even a state, really)

Wyoming — Nothing

Connecticut — Nada

Oregon — Zilch

Nevada — Nothing

New Mexico — Nothing

Mississippi — Nothing

Hawaii — This is getting tedious

Montana — Nothing

Alaska — Nada

About these rankings:

OhMyGov! reviewed the homepages of U.S. states and ranked them on how well they promote social media on their flagship homepages. Criteria include whether the page has links or buttons to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube or other social media sites. Also, whether there’s an official blog of some kind, and any RSS feeds available. Bonus points went to sites that showcased new or different social media platforms so long as the main players were represented.