What are the best practices for federal agencies maintaining a presence on numerous social media platforms? And more importantly, how satisfied are
citizens who are interacting with these agencies online with their
social experience?
A new report (Registration Req'd) by ForeSee, in
conjunction with the American Customer Satisfaction Index, addresses these questions. The findings should be of interest to
anyone looking to improve an agency's web and social media performance.
Fifteen executive level federal agencies were included in the
study, all of which maintain active Facebook, Twitter, and
YouTube accounts. In its report, ForeSee examines how the agencies use social media to connect with citizens, as well as how they
promote their social outreach on their main department websites.
Almost half of the departments had multiple accounts on a single social media platform. The Department of Education, for example, has 11 unique Twitter feeds and 10 Facebook pages,
with each one focusing on a single specific area of Ed policy. This
is increasingly the M.O. for government agencies who are embracing social media well beyond the token fan page.
The ForeSee study dives deeper into what they present as best
practices for government agencies using social media. Some may sound obvious (e.g. use
official logos), but among the recommendations are a few that agencies have neglected to do in the past. For agencies on YouTube, the study authors
suggest "using playlists to organize videos thematically will help visitors to
locate content of interest more easily." On Facebook, they call out that 11 of 15 agencies have
failed to provide a tab exclusively dedicated to comment policies, something they view
as a best practice. "Organizations should use a separate tab on the profile page
for comment policies," they contend.
Government communicators will generally be happy with the quarterly results of the ACSI customer satisfaction report. Surveys
were sent out to over 270,000 customers in the third quarter of 2011 alone, and overall citizen satisfaction with government websites held basically steady at
75.5 on ACSI's scale of 100. Respondents describing
themselves as "highly satisfied" mentioned that they were "more likely to use a
federal website as a primary channel for interaction with the government."
Citizens graded the agency websites on seven key criteria:
functionality, online transparency, search capabilities, navigation, look and
feel, content, and site performance. (A solid list, if you ask us.)
The entire report is good reading for anyone running a
government online communications shop, as it identifies what the average
citizen is looking for in a federal website and the best ways agencies can
attain those standards. The challenge for government agencies in the last
decade was successfully transitioning to web and social media platforms while
maintaining a high level of service; the challenge in the next decade will be
expanding the depth and breadth of these initiatives, or else risk alienating
the citizens they are obligated to serve.
