In comparison to the online presence of the majority of government agencies, Energy has taken the best of Web 2.0 and successfully applied that philosophy to the way they present themselves to the public.  The end result is an open and intuitive web site that clearly and powerfully communicates DOE’s mission and the diverse range of vitally important energy projects the agency oversees. Additionally, the use of several social media platforms to connect and engage with DOE, and their urging of the public at large to actively participate, is what truly gives the site its Web 2.0 ethos.

Clear navigation, transparent headings for their sub-pages, plenty of white space and clearly defined information areas (via layout and design) all contribute to the openness and clarity of the site.

The prominent positioning of the blog entry on the Home page and the various social media pathways open to the public to engage with the Department of Energy, especially via Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s Facebook Page, as well as Twitter, You Tube and Flickr accounts, speaks to their willingness to connect with the American public.

Finally, the use of localization and segmentation tools via their “More From Energy” and “I Am” sections, gives any visitor the ability to quickly get to the information they want to access.

All in all, a fantastic site.

1. Unless you are a Hollywood or Television Producer (whose aim is to distribute their long-form content via Hulu or Netflix), short is best. Keep your videos to the 2-5 minute range as most consumers have little patience for anything longer than that. Our fast-paced culture promotes info-snacking and this is especially true of online video.
2. If you are producing videos to promote an idea or product or are fundraising for a social cause, include a call to action. The easiest call to action is one that will drive traffic to your website, so include a URL at the end of the video. And if you are distributing it via YouTube, Vimeo or any of the social networking sites, take the opportunity to include your site’s URL on the text box provided to describe your video.
3. If you are distributing your video via services such as YouTube and Vimeo, protect your intellectual property by including a bug that indicates where the video came from.
4. If you are thinking of using humor in hopes of creating a viral video hit and that its popularity will draw attention to your product, idea or cause, don’t do it on the cheap. Humor is difficult to do well and requires skill and real dollars to pull off. Most successful viral videos used for promotion have been created by large advertising agencies or their online subsidiaries. Additionally, although this is NOT written in stone, most edgy and humorous videos work well for edgy and humorous brands (such as the Axe effect series of videos promoting their line of men’s grooming products).
5. Include measurement in your campaign. The great thing about online video (actually, anything online) is that you can measure its effectiveness. If you are running any sort of campaign, you can keep track of how many people have viewed your videos and consequently, how many viewers visit your site after seeing the video. If things aren’t working as well as you’d hoped, you can always tweak your campaign until you get it right.
6. Contests work well to generate interest in your company, non-profit and government agency but if you ask people to create content on their own (videos about your mission, for example) you’ll have to be prepared to take the good with the bad (most video contests are run by publishing ALL of the videos created and then having your viewers vote on the best ones).
7. Tell a story about your idea, mission or product. Most people don’t want to be lectured or told what to think, they’d rather draw their own conclusions after watching your well-crafted and compelling video.
8. Be cognizant of who will be watching your videos. Obviously, you know who your target audience is and what you want them to do, so a runaway viral hit might not always be the answer…you may just get a lot of people watching your video but very little follow-up. And although by reading most articles you could be led to believe that only 18-24 year olds are interested in watching online video, the 25-54 age group is quickly catching up…especially if you let people share the video via social networking sites like Facebook.

Your ride ahead will be a lot smoother if you keep some of these do’s and don’ts in mind as you embark on the planning and execution of your online video campaign.

Top 5 Social Media Sites:

1. GovTwit — A huge undertaking, this site keeps track of all things government and Twitter.
2. GovLoop — This social media site has over 30,000 government and contracting community members and robust participation.
3. Oh My Gov! — A news site about all things gov that uses a great deal of social media and was recently named an official honoree of the 2010 Webby Awards.
4. WebContent.gov — Guidance on the use of social media in government.
5. Government and Social Media Wiki — Another site (this time a wiki) that provides guidance and robust discussion on government and social media.

Top 5 “Most Followed” on Twitter (from GovTwit):

1. Barack Obama
2. Al Gore
3. Arnold Schwarzenegger
4. The White House
5. NPR Politics

Top 5 “Most Active” on Twitter (from GovTwit):

1. 511 New York
2. Robert Brook
3. Chandra Observatory
4. ShawneePD
5. Nicholas Butler

Okay, so I don’t even know why I’m including this Google video on the list but I guess it’s because THEY included some video of the Chilean miners being rescued (and I’m Chilean American) and besides, it’s a cool video (so enjoy):

This year, however, was the first time I spoke to the general attendees. I sat on a panel called “Effective Food Activism” with social media superstars Kimberly Hartke (WAPF publicist and Hartkeisonline.com blogger), AnnMarie Michaels (Cheeseslave.com blogger, Realfoodmedia.com founder, and Twitter expert), Kelly the Kitchen Kop (blogger), Jenny McGruther (Nourished Kitchen blogger and online e-course developer), and Kari Carlisle (Utah chapter leader and LinkedIn expert).

Left to right: Moderator Kim Hartke, AnnMarie Michaels, Jill Nienhiser, Kelly the Kitchen Kop, Kari Carlisle, Jenny McGruther. Photo by Alex Lewin.

Our goal was to educate attendees on how to harness social media tools to grow Foundation membership and support; mobilize grassroots activism for food causes; and promote local artisanal food, farming, and health enterprises. The audience was an enthusiastic mix of would-be bloggers and entrepreneurs wanting to market their food buying clubs, farms, cottage industries, and alternative health care services through social media.

AnnMarie Michaels kicked us off with a brief PowerPoint of the Top Ten Reasons to Use Social Media. Then moderator Kim Hartke asked each of us a few questions to get our best tips for using Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, as well as best practices and beginner’s guidance for blogging. We finished by opening the floor to questions from the audience.

Some of my tips:

1. Consider starting with Facebook as a great beginner’s social media tool that lets you easily share links, images, videos, and text (via Notes) in one place.
2. Use Facebook’s Edit Friends feature to group your Facebook “friends”–who you may not always know personally–to help keep track of how you are connected to them.
3. Determine how much time you can/want to spend on social media and make a social media “to do” list of the top things you want to check on and update in a given computer session. This helps ensure that you keep your content fresh and make the most of your limited time before getting sidetracked by friends’ posts.
4. Keep the purpose and tone of each social media tool in mind:
   • Twitter is great for sharing links to articles your customers may find valuable. Don’t use it only to market yourself; in fact no more than 20% of your tweets should market; the rest should be value-added information for your client base.
   • Facebook can be used for more casual and fun posts, such as trivia and personal stories about life on your farm or happenings in your store.
   • LinkedIn is meant for professional networking and asking and responding to questions. Use the Q&A and discussion areas to establish your expertise in your areas of interest.
   • Flickr is for photos and if you are an avid photographer, can be a good place to keep and share photos, as well as find royalty free photos to illustrate your blog posts.
   • YouTube and Vimeo are for sharing videos. A video channel for your small business or farm might make sense for offering video “tours,” illustrating food preparation techniques, or any “how-to” videos.
   • Blogging is where you can really develop a conversation with readers by posting short commentary and inviting comments and feedback.

The conference was so much fun, incredibly informative with three full days of lectures in several tracks (always so hard to choose who to listen to!), and DELICIOUS as usual, since each meal was lovingly prepared from farm food and artisanal food donations from the membership.

Next year’s conference will be in Dallas, Texas. Get details at westonaprice.org..

Jobs

• OPM has released a new iPad and iPhone app that will make getting a job with the federal government LESS of a job (or at least a bit more entertaining): OPM App

How To Do Web 2.0

• Usability.gov is a site that offers great advice on how to design a website for the end user, in other words, the audience that you’re trying to reach.  Of course, their advice could just as easily apply to a Web 1.0 world but their site really acts and feels like a Web 2.0 site, full of easy-to-grasp advice and techniques.  And the focus, as the name of the website so aptly implies, is to provide techniques on building a website aimed at the end user…not one whose aim is to satisfy the demands of the geeks in the IT department or the one-way conversation that ol’ gov was used to engaging in.  Bravo for that!  Of special note is their blog, which enjoys robust participation from all kinds of web folks working at various federal agencies.

How to Open Up

• We’ve given them big kudos via various of our social media channels already but another nod to a big step forward for Veterans Affairs is definitely worthwhile.  Their recently launched blog, VAntage Point, is worthy of special notice because they have a totally open comment policy AND are inviting guest bloggers to participate.  Their very first blog post has received 239 comments (so far…and counting) and most of them are pretty positive…although you do get some negative and sometimes quirky (I’m being polite) comments as well.  Hey, it’s all part and parcel of being OPEN and I commend the VA for being courageous enough to allow it to happen.  Like the Cluetrain Manifesto says, it’s a conversation, and sometimes it can get a little strained but as long as it’s real, it’s humanizing.

These are just a few of the many examples that can be found (far and wide) of the federal government adopting social media and a social media attitude.  Do you have any other examples you’d like to bring to our attention?

I would definitely recommend reading it as it will give any newbie a good intro and will remind many experts of things they may have forgotten.

Hope you enjoy The Health Communicator’s Social Media Toolkit: “A guide to using social media to improve reach of health messages, increase access to your content, further participation with audiences and advance transparency to improve health communication efforts.”

• Understanding why these initiatives are happening: The White House Open Government Initiative
• A great resource from USA.gov on technology, management, tools, regulations and best practices that will help you revamp your website: WebContent.gov
• Blog Policies (a guide that could be suggested as a template): From GovGab
• The National Academy of Public Administration hosts a Wiki which invites participation from government agencies to discuss policies, best practices and implementation of Web 2.0 initiatives: The Collaboration Project
• Finally, the great flowchart below provides guidance for EPA employees on social network interaction: From the guide Representing EPA Online Using Social Media

View ‘em and peep:

Sorry about the late notice on this one but the G3 Conference is taking place tomorrow (Thursday, October 14) at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC from 9am-6pm.  The conference will deal with the triple theme of Gurus, Growth and Government and is put on by Smart CEO.  Here’s the agenda for the day.  If you can’t attend tomorrow (I know, it’s a little late) despair not, as I’ll be posting some of the juicier info from the conference in the next few days!

The 2010 Adobe Government Assembly Engage America one-day event is taking place on Wednesday, November 3 at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, DC.  As described by them:

“More than talk, agencies are now communicating within their own walls, breaking down silos to interagency collaboration, and engaging with constituents in new ways – with citizens, with soldiers, and with employees. Join the debate defining the line between ensuring a full and open government – by the people, for the people, while still protecting the people. Here’s your chance to engage, innovate, and improve government efficiency.”

If you are interested in open government, I would strongly recommend attending.  The event is free.

For all of you Digital Media, Video and A/V folks, the Government Video Expo 2010 is taking place from November 30 – December 2 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC.  This is a really good place to catch up with all of the latest and greatest video and A/V tools available in our profession, as well as to network with other professionals and take some courses to polish up on the newest trends in our ever evolving field.