A Lesson from Katrina - It Takes a Leap of Faith

Five years ago, we all sat horrified watching the ravages of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf coast. Seeing so many, many fellow citizens losing everything and facing enormous challenges to get their lives back was powerful motivation to act. And the government web manager community did just that – we came together to help. I’ve told this story before, but it bears repeating…and looking at what happened afterward.

The day after Katrina hit, Bev Godwin (then Director of USA.gov) and Gwynne Kostin (then Web Manager at Homeland Security) got on the phone with their web manager colleagues across government and got us organized to deliver consolidated, coordinated information on our government websites. No one asked them to do this. They didn’t go to their bosses and get permission. None of us did. We instinctively knew if we acted together as a community, doing the right thing, we could succeed. We took a leap of faith.

This post-Katrina effort was a real milestone in government web management – and a model for future strategies – for 3 reasons:

1. Leaders led. They saw a problem, and they jumped to action. They didn’t worry about possible recriminations from bosses. They showed the moxy that all successful leaders must have. They knew the right thing to do, and they did it.
2. The community came together and acted as one. We trusted one another because we knew one another. We had a governance structure – the newly-formed Federal Web Managers Council – in place and ready to operate. And we had the government Web Managers Forum, an extended group of web managers across government and across the nation who had been comparing best practices and sharing problem-solving for 5 years. We had the infrastructure, and it worked.
3. Most important, we looked at our customers as a whole. We, as a cross-government group, talked about the spectrum of needs of the people affected by Katrina: need to find their loved ones…need for housing…need for food and clean water…need for medical assistance…need to volunteer to help. We didn’t need a contractor to do an analysis. We didn’t spend months making sure we covered every esoteric want. We used our common sense and kept to the basics. Then we asked every agency what they could bring to the table in those categories; we chose the best, most useful of those options (we didn’t throw in everything but the kitchen sink); and we formed “lanes” around customer needs, with lane leaders to keep us organized and make sure we didn’t stumble over one another. We listened to our customers – every day - through email, through phone calls, and through government workers on site; and we added to and adapted our content accordingly.

Within hours, all government websites referred Katrina victims and others to information from across government, organized from the customers’ point of view – not by agency. It wasn’t perfect – but it was far better than anything we’d done before.

The Katrina crisis brought out the best in us – we believed in our community. We took risks to do the right thing. A group of government employees bound by common goals - not organizational lines - came together, developed a plan, organized our content around our audiences’ needs, and made incremental improvements based on customer input. A real Gov 2.0 victory.

And then what? Well, we drifted back to our organization-centric ways. Not entirely, to be sure. The Federal Web Managers Council and the USA.gov team continue to urge agencies to work together to organize and consolidate content around customer needs. But without the mandate of a crisis, we faltered. We lost our faith in the power of the community.

Look…I know the federal bureaucracy (heck – government bureaucracy at every level) is an overwhelming force for chunking web content by agency. There is no motivation or reward for agency leaders to sacrifice personal or organization credit for the good of our customers. In fact, the reward system – better jobs, better pay – favors competition, not cooperation. Agency web managers face daunting challenges operating in the culture of organization-centric government, as they try to establish customer-centric service delivery.

But it is not hopeless. We know what to do, and we know how to do it. We proved it in our response to Katrina. When we trust the power of our community – our critical mass - and take risks to do right things to provide the best possible customer service, we can succeed. We don’t need a crisis. We need to take that leap of faith.

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Clearing the Clutter - a Success Story

For years, many of us have worried there is too much content on government websites…that we’ve let the clutter overwhelm the content that our customers really want and use. Well, let me tell you what Sam Gallagher, my friend and former colleague at HUD, has accomplished because this is an honest-to-goodness hoorah success story in “clearing the clutter.”

HUD – mostly Sam – has come up with a terrific strategy for archiving obsolete - but important - web content so that customers (particularly researchers) can still refer to it, but it doesn’t obscure the current stuff.

Several years ago (before I left HUD), Sam proposed setting up a separate website called “archives.hud.gov.” The idea stemmed from concern among top executives that obsolete documents, news releases, reports, and such from prior administrations could be misconstrued as current. It’s a legitimate concern, and Sam’s idea was a great way to deal with it. It took awhile to get off the ground, partly because he needed to work through federal records issues; but Sam now has some great results to report.

In one year, HUD has reduced the number of files on the active site by a whopping 47%! They’ve gone from almost 400,000 files (of all types) to about 210,000. While many of the files removed were graphics files, they’ve reduced the “content” files – HTML, spreadsheets, PDFs, text files, etc. – by 22%. In one year. That’s a huge start on clearing the clutter!

Sam’s strategy is straightforward. A year ago, he established these rules for archiving:

• Move content from previous administrations and their initiatives at the end of their tenure.
• Move dated cyclical material (e.g., funding announcements, grant applications, etc.) at the beginning of the next cycle.
• Move press releases, statistical reports, and other serialized content after one year.
• When a program becomes obsolete, move basic program content. 
• If a page on HUD’s public websites is being deleted, review it to see if it should be archived.

When content is moved to archives, it’s no longer reviewed or updated. The content carries the “archives.hud.gov” masthead; and at the bottom of each document, it says “content archived (and the date).” The archives home page explains that the content is no longer current and that you can review it either through categories (like “funding announcements” or “initiatives”) or by using the archives “search.” Customers can get to the archives from HUD’s home page, under “resources.”

Is there more to do? Sure. Sam estimates that, of those 210,000 files remaining, only about 60,000 (29%) are being used regularly. And, of course, more content gets posted every day.

But gosh, you have to applaud an agency that is addressing the governmentwide content tsunami head on. HUD is making real progress clearing the clutter…and making it easier for customers to find what they want. Well done, HUD. Well done, Sam.

Governance Blues? Build the Blocks

Government websites have been prevalent since 1995. Fifteen years. Yet agencies still have internal struggles over who should “own” the website and web team; and there is no commonly-accepted model for a web governance structure across government. Even agencies with seemingly strong “web governance” have seen it all fall apart when administrations changed. Governance seems to be a common frustration among web managers. I hear it all the time.

Well, you can sit around and wring your hands, feeling powerless and frustrated. Or you can step up, assess the situation, and start putting the blocks in place.

A few years ago, I taught my first course on web governance. I centered it around 5 building blocks that form the foundation of web governance. Since then, I’ve done more thinking and observing and talking to government web managers; and now, I see 7 building blocks – 7 “R’s” - of web governance:

1. Reason: What is the purpose of your website(s)? I left this important “R” out of my first try, and I’ve come to realize this has to start the whole thing. You (and that means the whole agency) have to know why you have a website. Who are your customers? What are you trying to accomplish? And here’s a biggie – what are your overarching priorities, in order? Is it to deliver services? Is it to distribute message (news)? Which comes first? You need that statement of purpose – that “reason” – to guide your decisions and operations. And it needs to be in writing.

2. Roles: Who needs to be in your governance structure? I suggest:

• An agency executive – someone who can “trump” all others;
• Program heads – those responsible for the content;
• The Public Affairs or Communications Director – the person responsible for representing the agency with the public;
• The CIO – the person in charge of technology;
• The Director of Contracting/Procurement – the person who makes sure that contractors who provide web content or technology support abide by all federal laws and requirements and agency web policies;
• The Director of Field Operations – the person who ensures that agency field offices support web operations;
• Web Managers – both at the agency level and the sub-agency level;
• New Media Directors – people who are promoting the website(s) and creating other channels for service delivery;
• Web coordinators or reporters – the staff people who create/manage web content within their branches or offices;
• GTRs (Government Technical Representatives) – those who are responsible for managing technical support contracts for the website(s)

You may wonder…do web coordinators and GTRs really have any part in decision-making? Well, yes – I think they do. I think it’s far better to have an inclusive governance structure that encourages people at all levels to offer ideas, raise issues, and solve problems together, than to make it a top-down operation. After all, even in government, websites grew through a bottoms-up grassroots movement. So yes – I think all these people should be at the table.

3. Responsibilities: What does each person in the governance structure do?

4. Relationships: How and when should each person in the governance structure interact?

5. Rules: Policies and procedures (both publication procedures and operating procedures)

6.  Road Map: A strategy, a plan. This is another one of my late “adds.” But the truth is that – like the “Reason” – a governance team absolutely has to start at the same point and go in the same direction. Otherwise, it falls apart. And we’ve seen many examples of that.

7. Review: Evaluation mechanisms. Ways to hold people accountable for following the rules. Ways to measure the performance of the website and make improvements. Management controls to protect the agency (and the public) from fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement.

All of this needs to be in writing.  Governance building blocks aren't real until everyone can see them.

What should these blocks look like? How should you put them together? There are many models. Shape each one to the needs of your agency. Realize that those needs may change over time, and you’ll have to rebuild. Just make sure you have 7 blocks. 

OK – you’re looking at this list and you’re thinking, “Gee, we’re missing some of these blocks.” Well, you probably do have most of them. They may not be pretty, but it’s a place to start.

Document what you have now. You do have some rules, even if they’re just in your head – write them down and publish them. You’re already functioning somehow – write down your current “roles,” “responsibilities,” and “relationships.” Don’t worry that it’s not perfect – just recognize what you have. And tell everyone in your agency. It may flush out disagreements – but that’s good. Then you can solve the problems and move forward.

Next, compare what you have to what you should have. I created a little governance self-assessment that I use in my courses (it’s posted on webcontent.gov). Pinpoint what you’re missing and what needs to be improved. Set priorities. If you can make the fix yourself, do it. If you can’t, raise it to the person who can fix it. And don’t just say to your boss, “hey – we need the contracting officer in our governance structure.” Brief him/her on why that’s important. Then produce the memo for your boss to sign or take to his/her boss. Make it easy to make the fix.

You will run into obstacles. You will see blocks start to crumble. Don’t panic! Rebuild your blocks. Find new ways to make your points. Find new allies to help you spotlight the issues. Find new solutions. Use the web manager community for ideas and support. Critical mass can be convincing.

Here’s the thing. Government web governance is more art than science. Government web managers operate in a political and Political environment; and “the web” – by nature – is constantly evolving and morphing. People change, priorities change, public expectations change, technologies change, and – boom! – what you thought was a perfect governance structure starts to tilt. Don’t let that throw you. Take a look at your blocks. Start rebuilding.

Customers Know Best - It’s Their Results That Count

Have you discovered Anne Holland’s wonderful website, “Which Test Won?” I discovered it through a recent Gerry McGovern article, “It’s Not What People Say – It’s What They Do;” and – of course – I had to play. Each week, Anne posts two side-by-side test sites. She tells you what specific element or words were being tested (which is important because, most times, it’s hard to see what’s different). Then, you get to pick which one you think tested better.

Now, I am a seasoned web manager. I am off the chart in “intuition” on the Myers-Briggs tests. I had a minor in psychology in college and took counseling courses in grad school. I’ve been known to be pretty cocky about my ability to figure out what my customers want on the web. But you know what? I have picked wrong more often than I’ve picked the winner, on these side-by-side tests. The moral of the story? Customers know best. And it’s their results that count.

This week’s test on Anne’s site is especially intriguing to me. This example came from Sony, and it has an interesting twist. They were testing an email promo with a link to a specific page. In one version, the email says, “Save 25% on the Vegas Pro Production Assistant.” It leads to a page with a banner that says, “Never start Vegas Pro with an empty project again!” The other version switched those two. The email said, “Never start Vegas Pro with an empty project again!” It led to a page with the header, “Save 25% on the Vegas Pro Production Assistant.”

I won’t tell you which version won – go make your own guess and see. But I will tell you that this test puts a new spin on “winning.” Because though one version got more opens and clicks, the other version actually generated more sales. Web designers probably were thrilled with that first version. But I guarantee you that Sony is much more interested in that second version. And, as the evidence showed, so were the customers. It’s not enough to drive the traffic to the web page (though that’s certainly important). It’s whether the customer completes the task that matters.

So, what does this mean for government web managers? Very simple. Learn from your customers. Focus on their results. Find out if they can complete the task. It’s not enough to count hits or clicks or page views and think your customers are successful in using your site. It’s not enough to ask their opinions about the site (because – like in house-hunting – what customers say and what they actually do often are not the same). And it sure as heck isn’t enough for you to sit in your office and think you can guess how your customers will behave. What matters is this: what did your customers actually accomplish?  Were your customers successful in completing the task?

I’m not saying this is easy – especially in government. If you’ve got a service like selling stamps or applying for passports or paying taxes – services that start and end online – then you have no excuse. You should be honing in on those start and completion stats, perfecting the wording and steps through usability testing, and interviewing your customers about the experience, routinely. You should know with relative certainty how successful your customers are in completing the task and shoot to improve that percentage.

When your service is offering information or the beginning of a process that has to be completed elsewhere, it’s much more difficult to measure results. But it’s not impossible. Several years ago, HUD had a successful web-based kiosk program that provided information about homebuying, low-rent housing, and services for the homeless. How do I know it was successful? Because we hired a researcher (and honestly, it didn’t cost that much) to watch and interview and follow-up with kiosk users all over the country. We looked at their results. And we found that 74% of the 1,500 kiosk users observed (a statistically significant percentage) actually did something with the information they found. We learned which parts of the kiosk content produced the most/best results – and which didn’t. That was really helpful. That enabled us to make our services better, more focused…and drop those that weren’t being used and were only muddying the waters.

Do you have to go hire a contractor to measure your website results? Of course not, though that certainly is one option. There are many ways to observe your customers and measure their results. The point is: do it.

I love Anne Holland’s “Which Test Won?” website. It’s humbling. Every week, it reminds me that it’s the customers – not me - who know best. And it’s their results that count!

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Creating a Culture of Customer Service - “And Would You Like Catsup for Your Fries?”

Last week, a friend told me about a presentation she’d just done for some local elected officials, on making government websites customer-friendly. She said the session had gone really well – they got it. But this is what caught my attention.  She said some of these government officials had never thought about their websites in terms of customer service. They used them as tools for program delivery.  Kind of here it is. One-way. No engagement. Not like the drive-up window at McDonalds, where we not only hear, “How can I serve you,” but also, “And would you like catsup for your fries?”

Are these officials anomalies among government leaders? Nope – I don’t think so. Nor do I think they’re bad because they hadn’t thought about their websites from their customers' point of view. The culture in government traditionally has been, we know best. Not, how can we serve you?  If we want government to deliver great customer service, we’re going to have to create a real culture change.

Some of you may think this is an impossible task – right? Government is too big. Too entrenched.  Well, you know what? Change already is afoot: social media. Look how many agencies are jumping on the social media bandwagon. True, some of them are doing it because it’s cool and honestly don’t have a business case (yet). But there are some who really do get it…who really are using it to listen to and serve customers better.  And they’re out there pushing. They’re risk-takers. They believe in the basic premise of social media - trust the crowd to get it right.

Changing government culture to value the customer – to trust the customer to get it right - is a huge challenge. It’s finding more and better ways to listen to customers and watch how they behave and adjusting our services accordingly. It’s re-thinking how, when, and where we deliver government services and integrating delivery channels so service is consistent. It's humanizing our service delivery.  It’s training employees at all levels to honor and respect our customers and rewarding employees who go that extra mile to give customers the very best experience possible. It’s showing customers we know and care about them by answering their questions before they even ask. “Would you like catsup for your fries?”

So, what next? Well, at the risk of being redundant, we need a Customer Service Summit to map out a government-wide (note I said “government-wide” – not “agency-by- agency” or “silo-by-silo” - because our customers see us as a whole) strategy. But you don’t have to wait for a Summit to start causing change.

To my government web manager friends… With great respect and affection, may I suggest you start by changing your motto from “better websites – better government” to “better websites – better service?” Serving customers better is the goal. I know that’s what you believe…saying it will help others catch the spirit.

To every single government employee... Put up a picture of your mom or your brother or your friend or someone in a magazine, with this caption under it: “I am your customer – can you help me?” Every day, in all you do, imagine that your customers are sitting right there with you. If your customers were in this meeting, what would they say? If your customers were helping you write that memo or complete that assignment, what would they ask?

Pledge to never say, “No, I can’t help you.” Or, “I don’t know.” Or to make customers feel stupid or wrong. Be a role model of customer service for your colleagues. Share what you learn about, and from, your customers. When you get that email or answer a phone call from a customer, take another minute to make sure you’ve really told them everything they need to know just as clearly and concisely as possible. Point out next steps or alternatives. Anticipate their questions. Leave them thinking, “Wow!  My government knows what I want even without my asking.  I'm really getting my money's worth when I pay my taxes.”

“And would you like catsup for your fries?”

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Evolving From Managing Websites to Managing Customer Service

Evolving from Managing Websites to Managing Customer Service

I was delighted to read Web Manager University’s first blog entry on Govloop the other day. Delighted for two reasons – first, that they’re using the widely-read Govloop to advertise the wonderful courses offered through WMU. But I was even more delighted when I read this: “WMU is expanding our training to include all aspects of delivering customer service (including phone, email, print etc).” Yes! Yes! Yes! This is the right thing to do. This is the way we should be evolving. Broaden our focus from managing websites to managing customer service. Focus on the customer – not the delivery mechanism.

Of the 6 customer service standards established by the Federal Web Managers Council in their first white paper, this is the one that is so key: when citizens need government information and services, they should be able to get the same answer whether they use the web, phone, email, live chat, read a brochure, or visit in-person. We’ve got to stop working in silos built around delivery mechanisms (web, phone, publications) and start organizing around customers.

Expanding the scope of WMU (dare we hope it will be re-named “Customer Service University?”) is a great start. I’d still like to see a Customer Services Summit (note that my vernacular has changed from “citizen services” to “customer services”) to come up with a comprehensive, far-reaching strategy to improve government’s customer service. Bring together players across government and across delivery channels…representatives of both the management ranks and the staff who actually interface with customers. Involve customer service experts from outside government. Make it a model of open government by involving citizens…before, after, and during. Stream some or all of the sessions. Take suggestions online.

The outcome should be a strategy for improving the way government, as a whole - not by agency, not within delivery silos – can and will improve the way it communicates with and serves its customers. The Summit should be just the beginning of ongoing gatherings and discussions across government and with customers, so we can monitor progress, make course corrections, and be transparent about what’s going on.

It looks like the folks at GSA and the Federal Web Managers Council (maybe one day the “Federal Customer Service Council?”), which co-sponsors WMU, are thinking big. That’s great. They are providing leadership. Now we need to get more people –inside and outside government – involved. The time is right. We’re building critical mass. The evolution is underway. Let’s see government step it up and really give us some great customer service.

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Want to Be a Web Superstar?

So you want to be a web superstar! Doesn’t everyone? Well, in government, administrations change, priorities change, and technologies change. But the formula for being a web communications superstar – the ones with the great (or greatly improving) websites, the best web organizations, doing the most exciting new things - doesn’t change. Web superstars follow these 5 basic principles:

1.  Put your customers first
How many hundreds of times have we said this…listen to your audience and they will tell you what to put on your website – and where. They’ll even tell you what words to use. Believe it.

Know who your customers are, understand what they want and need, and do everything you can to deliver it to them...how, when and where they can find it and use it. Be their advocate. Fight for doing the right thing for them.

Embrace the customer service standards established by the Federal Web Managers Council, and add your own. Measure them regularly, and make changes accordingly. If your bosses want you to do something you know isn’t right for your customers, don’t just salute and obey – share what you know about your audience; and suggest other ways they can accomplish their goals, while still meeting the needs of your customers.

Listen to your customers every single day. Read their email. Read what they’re saying on Twitter and Facebook. Get out and talk to them. Listen, respect, follow. Customer service - that’s Job One.

2.  Teach and preach
Web superstars are great communicators. They’re both savvy teachers and committed evangelists. Teach your agency what you learn about your customers – what they like and don’t like, what they need and don’t want. Show managers how to use the web to work faster and smarter and serve your customers better. Use social media to teach your audience how to find and use your agency’s services. Use your passion to convince others to try new things and venture into the unknown, to improve public service. Proselytize. Persuade. Inspire. Teach and preach.

3.  Stay organized
You always will have too much to do and too many people to please. That’s the world of government web communications. It’s how you handle it that separates the superstars. You absolutely have to stay organized.

Build your team – those assigned to work with you, those you need to work with you, and those you may want to work with in the future. Put in the time to train them, encourage them, and keep them on track so you’re working together like a well-oiled machine. Publish policies, content guides, and operating procedures so everyone has standard rules to follow. Work with your bosses to establish accountability across the agency.

Make time to plan. Publish work plans and monitor implementation. Be ready to make adjustments and trade-offs, as priorities change and opportunities arise. Keep everyone informed about those changes. Balance your workload. If you can’t do what you promised, raise the flag or make changes before it’s too late to succeed at anything. Roll with the punches.  Do your job, help others do theirs, and know the difference.

4.  Insist on plain writing
Government websites (including social media) live and die based on words. Good writing – good service…success. Bad writing – confusion, frustration, wasted time...failure. Use plain language yourself, and insist that everyone who contributes and maintains content on your websites or social media venues uses it, too. Stand up for good writing. Attack bad content. Find it. Test it. Fix it.

5.  Lead
Above all, web superstars are great leaders. They’re visionaries. They look into the future and see new ways to serve citizens. They see new technologies and imagine how they can be used to improve customer service. They’re excited about the destination, and others follow because they want to share that excitement. Web superstars don’t give up when they hit a roadblock…they start looking for ways around it – or a better destination.

Be strategic. Read. Listen. Network. Analyze. Know where you’ve been and where you’re going. Look at the past. What worked? What didn’t? Why? What might work now that couldn’t work before? What successes can you replicate (do not reinvent the wheel!)? Look at what’s happening now – what’s good? What’s bad What can you fix? What should you stop? Look at what’s coming – what are the opportunities? What problems can you avoid?

Be courageous. Show some moxy. Step into those voids. Be decisive. Brief those executives. Write that memo. Risk failure to do the right thing. When you do fail, recognize it and change course. Quickly. Celebrate success – and lavish credit on everyone who helped create it. Stay focused, stay positive. Lead up, lead down, lead sideways. Draw the map for others to follow.

Look at the superstars in the government web community – the people you admire and trust - and you’ll see people who follow these 5 principles. Want to be a web superstar? There it is. Go for it.

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Does Your Website Show Your Commitment to Customer Service, Government Executive?

Great customer service starts right at the top of any organization – private or public. Top executives set the tone and the standards for customer service. When those top executives pay close attention and make customer service a priority, they create happy customers. Happy customers – better business.

Nothing new about that.

But have you thought about this, Government Executives? Do you realize that more of your customers (citizens) seek services and interact with your agency through the web than any other way? Do you know what services those web customers want and use most? Do you know if they can find what they want, understand what they find, and act accordingly? Does your website(s) reflect your commitment to great customer service?

It’s no secret in the government web manager community that the most successful web teams (and, therefore, websites) are those that have strong support from top executives. At HUD, we sailed forward in those early years, establishing a website that provided really good customer service. Why? Largely because the web team was part of the Secretary’s office. The Secretary and his team knew us and trusted us, and we had their complete support. The Secretaries (Cisneros and Cuomo) had a strong commitment to customer service, and it showed on our website.  We got the first Digital Government Award for good citizen service. Citizens started seeing HUD favorably (we were still recovering from scandals) because they could see we cared about serving them.  We learned first-hand that providing great customer service is the best marketing you can do. 

The web team at EPA is enjoying this same kind of bounce right now. Savvy top executives met with EPA web leaders early and often, asking the web leaders for their ideas to improve customer service, listening to them, and supporting them. EPA’s web customer service strategy is leaping ahead of the pack, as a result. When top executives take a personal interest in providing great customer service, everybody wins. And the biggest winners are the customers.

OK - I know you’re extremely busy and you have a lot on your platters, Government Executives. But let me suggest just a few things you can do that could really promote great customer service in your agency:

• Meet with your agency web communication director and new media director regularly. Tell them your customer service standards and your priorities. Ask for their suggestions to help you achieve your priorities, enhance mission achievement, and improve customer service. Ask them to brief you on the goals and priorities of the government web management community, and talk with them about what your agency can do to improve customer service across government.
• Invite your web leaders to your executive staff meetings – let them brief your team on how the web is improving customer service and what they can do to help.
• Make sure your web leaders have the resources and support they need to improve customer service. Be available to break through organizational bottlenecks when your web leaders need support.
• Let your whole agency know that quality customer service through the web is a real priority. Effective service depends on effective communication, so encourage all of your managers and staff to learn and use plain writing for anything that is posted on the web (or delivered to the public in any way).
• Work with your web leaders to evaluate your customers’ satisfaction, through usability testing and surveys. Hold your organization accountable for improvement.

Make sure your website(s) reflects your commitment to great customer service, Government Executive. Everyone knows - great customer service begins at the top.

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Bring On the Plain Writing Act!

It’s looking more and more promising that Congress will pass the Plain Writing Act (S574), the law that so many have championed for so long. The Act passed the House in March by a vote of 386 to 33; and it’s being considered in the Senate now. If it is enacted, get ready, web communicators. The pressure will be on to “fix” all that bad content. Woot! It’s about time!

What’s not to like? The goals of plain language advocates are simple. When people read a government document, form, website - anything in writing - they should be able to:

• Find what they want,
• Understand what they find, and
• Act accordingly.

Aren’t those the goals of every communicator? But government communications fail more often than not.

Better writing, better service.

The Clearmark and Wondermark Awards were presented at the end of April. In case you missed them, the Clearmark Awards recognized really good examples of plain writing. The Wondermark Awards recognized – well, good examples of bad writing. The co-winners of Clearmark Awards in the government web category were the Department of Health and Human Service’s Healthfinder Quick Guide and Gresham, Oregon’s city website. What made them winners? In both cases, the teams did a lot of testing with potential readers. They kept re-working the words until they got it right. Take a look at both sites – I think you’ll see they achieved those 3 important objectives of plain writing.

Sadly, for every well-written web page, there are millions and millions of government web pages written in gobbly-gook. You can reorganize them, reformat them, make them pretty – but if the words aren’t right, it’s still gobbly-gook. You’ve got to get the words right.

The Federal Web Managers Council say it in their recent report, 2010 Progress Report – Putting Citizens First: Transforming Online Government: “Our top goal is to improve online government by writing, editing, and delivering content that is clear, understandable, and engaging. Plain language writing – even more than technology – is critical to help the public easily complete their online tasks.” And last fall, when GSA did a survey asking respondents to choose 3 things that would improve government websites, the number one response (chosen by 62%) was: write in plain language. I know you government communicators get it. You want to do the right thing.  What you lack is the mandate.

S574 says: “The purpose of this Act is to improve the effectiveness and accountability of Federal agencies to the public by promoting clear Government communication that the public can understand and use.” If the Plain Writing Act passes, you've got your mandate. You can say “no” to gobbly-gook. You’ll have powerful justification for more funding to train your writers and to do usability testing to make sure citizens can find, understand, and act on what they read on government websites.

Will it be tough to fix all the problems? Sure. Will there be a cost? Yep. There’s a lot to fix. It will require a thoughtful, long-term, cross-government strategy and careful management. But this is really important. Government has to communicate with its citizens effectively to serve effectively, and we don’t. Desire and good intentions haven’t done the trick. Maybe a law will. Bring it on!

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So Now What Are You Gonna Do?

I hope you either attended or tuned into the Government Web and New Media Conference in Washington DC, last week. What a line-up! I sat in my Tucson family room, watching the proceedings streaming live, listening to the fine line-up of speakers; and I marveled that so many terrific people are engaged in improving the way government communicates with and serves its citizens. Major kudos to Sheila Campbell, Rachel Flagg, the Web Manager University team, GSA, and the Federal Web Managers Council for organizing this fine gathering.

And you, web communicator - I hope you came away energized, vindicated, loaded with new ideas, and ready to take on the challenges you face! So…now what are you gonna do?

The biggest challenge of any conference-planner is figuring out how to make sure the attendees take home something they really can use. I know for a fact that the folks planning this conference worried about that. But you know what? The real responsibility for making that leap is yours. I don’t care if you were there in person or if you watched the live stream or just read or watched the sessions afterward. The bottom line is this: what are YOU going to do to improve government service? Every single one of you has to step up and DO SOMETHING to make change happen.

Maybe you had this discussion with your colleagues at the conference and came home with a plan. But just in case you didn’t, here are 5 suggestions:

1. Tell other web communicators in your agency what you learned. Use email. Use your intranet. Call a meeting with all the web managers and web reporters in your organization. Tell them what you learned. Tell them they can watch the tapes online. Tell them about the speakers and what they said. Tell them what you heard in your discussions. Distribute copies of the FWMC’s new paper, “Putting Citizens First – Transforming Online Government, 2010 Progress Report" – and get together to discuss it. Share what you learned. Get others excited.
2. Talk to your bosses. You heard Lisa Welchman. You and your bosses may see things differently, and you’re never going to get on the same page if you don’t talk. Don’t wait to be invited to that meeting. Find a way to create it. Honestly, you might be surprised how open your bosses will be to hearing what you have to say. I never had a boss (or a boss’s boss) turn down my request to brief him/her. So send an email. Call a secretary. Make an appointment. Ask for a half hour. If you can’t get that, send a memo – no more than one page. Now don’t blow this opportunity. Prepare. Write a point paper. Boil down your points to the top 5. Pick things that your boss will care about – big picture stuff. Don't talk process -talk goals and results.  Tell your boss what the agency needs to do to provide better customer service to citizens. Show your boss how these ideas can help your agency achieve its mission better, faster, smarter.
3. Pick 3 things you learned at the conference and do something to implement them at your agency, in the next 6 months. Make them things you can do yourself or with your team. Write them down on a piece of paper, and tape it to your desk. Look at that paper every day and ask yourself, “What did I do today to cause this change?” If you haven’t done anything, do something. Mark October 30, 2010 on your calendar, and make a note on that date to review what you’ve achieved…and then set 3 new goals.
4. Do something to improve your web content. Pick one of your top tasks and see if you can edit that content to make it easier to use. Pick some of your worst-written pages and offer to help the owners re-write them to make them more useful. Bring in a plain language trainer to do a session for all your web contributors. Go to plain language training yourself.  Do some usability testing to help you spot the worst content problems; then fix them. Go through your site and see if you can find 25 or 50 or 100 pages that are obsolete and pull them down (clutter makes it harder for people to find what they want!). Read through your top pages and see if each of them uses key words and is organized to make it easy for search engines to find that content. You’ve got to start somewhere. Start now.
5. Do something to help the web manager community. If you learned nothing else from the conference, I hope you learned that when web communicators join forces, they can cause change. So join a sub-council or working group. Recruit a new member of the Web Managers Forum. Send an email to the Forum listserv, telling them about something that works well in your agency or an idea you have or an issue you’d like to discuss. We serve best when we serve together.

Now that’s not so hard, is it? Come on. You can do this. I don’t care where you are in the organization. Don’t sit back and wait to benefit from the change others are causing. Be part of the effort. Use what you learned at this conference as your springboard.

So what’s it gonna be? What are you gonna do?

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To Citizens, You Are the World

I always get a little nostalgic this time of the year. You see, this coming week, government web communicators (web managers and new media directors) across the country will gather in Washington DC for the annual 2 days of networking, listening to government leaders and web luminaries, and discussing exciting new ventures and directions, courtesy of Web Manager University (GSA) and the Federal Web Managers Council. I used to be among you, and I miss you guys. But that’s not my message here.

My message is this: you folks – you government web communicators – rock! And I hope that - just for a few minutes, while you’re gathered together- you’ll celebrate yourselves and each other and just how much you’ve done to improve the way government serves its customers. To the world you might be one person, but to citizens, you are the world.

Fifteen years ago, government agencies were just putting up their first primitive websites. Now, look what you’ve done. You’ve created vast resources that citizens can use, day and night, 7 days a week - from their homes, their offices, their cell phones – to help their families and themselves, to solve their problems, and to achieve their objectives. You’ve put government services online that citizens never even knew existed, and you’re constantly working to make them easier to find and use. You’ve turned complicated government-ese into information and directions that citizens can understand. You’ve brought government to the people, and now you’re even helping people become part of their government. You’ve put citizens first.

You’ve done all this in spite of a huge workload, ever-increasing (and often competing) demands, insufficient resources, and – sometimes – lack of top level support. You’ve fought to make your agencies deal with citizens from their point of view because you know your audience. You’ve found ways to work together, within your agencies and across agencies, to consolidate content and eliminate duplication and connect the dots, so citizens don’t have to struggle to figure out their often overwhelming government. You understand the importance of great customer service, and you knock yourselves out to deliver. Do you have more to do? Absolutely. But, oh my – look how far you’ve come. You’ve opened a whole new world of government services to citizens.

So as your former colleague, I say, “Bravo! Congratulations! Proceed until apprehended!” If you are attending the Government Web and New Media Conference this week, look around at these amazing, hard-working people and recognize their tremendous contributions and commitment to public service. Celebrate all you’ve achieved, individually and together. If you can’t go to the conference…heck, pat yourself on the back. And follow the proceedings on Twitter (follow @WebManagerU and #govwebcon ).

But more important…as one of the citizens who count on you to open government services to us, I say sincerely, “Thank you so very much, government web communicators.” To us, you are the world.

Keep It Plain!

With the announcement of the Clearmark Plain Language Awards on April 29, this is a good time to trot out some tips on writing “plain” for your web audience.

I don’t care how good your website design is, if the writing is poor – if you don’t communicate with your target audience – your website fails. The most important thing you can do for your agency and your audience is spend time editing, re-writing, and testing your content with your target audience. A lot of time. Regularly.

Think what you’re trying to achieve. You want readers to understand what they read the first time through. And you want them to be able to act – correctly - on what you’ve told them.

So here are 3 practices that will help you succeed.

1.  Keep it simple. “Plain language” is just that – plain. Not fancy. Use simple words that everyone in your audience understands. That just seems so obvious to me, but it’s amazing how many times I read government websites that fail. You guys and your darned jargon.

Here’s one that always drove us crazy at HUD: “assisted housing.” What the heck does that mean? Is that another term for “assisted living?” Is that a place where someone will take care of me? When we tested it with our audience, they told us “rental help” made more sense to them. Now how hard was that?

Am I telling you to “dumb it down?” No, I’m telling you to communicate. Do you honestly think your readers run to a dictionary when they hit a word they don’t understand? No. They skip it and hope they’ll figure out what you’re trying to say or they give up and stop reading. So use simple words. Do the work. Figure out how to say it in words your audience understands.

2.  Write conversationally. Use first- and second-person pronouns: “I,” “we,” “us,” “our,” “you.” It drives me crazy when I read on an agency’s website, “the department of xyz announces…” Excuse me. Why are you talking in third person, as if I don’t exist? Talk to ME!

I’m reminded of that Seinfeld episode when the character “Jimmy” talked in third person. “Jimmy’s legs hurt. Jimmy can’t go with you today.” Poor Elaine held an entire conversation with Jimmy, thinking he was talking about another guy in the gym.

Communicating is personal. It’s between you and the reader. So when you write, think about that person who is reading it. Have a conversation – write like you’d talk. You’ll have more success getting your message across.

3.  Eliminate unnecessary words. With all due respect to my mom, who taught high school English for 35 years, here’s the truth: you don’t need to write in complete sentences to communicate a complete thought. As Ginny Redish puts it, “Let go of the words.”

Don’t include words like “that.” We know that we will…

Don’t state the obvious: This website is about… Welcome. On this page you’ll find…

Every word adds to reading time and delays action. People want to act. They want to get the answer and go do it. Make every single word count. If you don’t need it to communicate the message, get rid of it. Edit, edit, edit!

Both plainlanguage.gov and the Center for Plain Language have more tips, examples, and resources. Use them. The Center for Plain Language keeps a list of people who can help you. Ask them. Offer a plain language training session at your agency. Invite everyone who writes or edits your web content routinely.

If we don’t communicate effectively, we don’t serve effectively. Keep it plain!

How Does Your Website Stack Up?

Last week, a county government communications director in Oregon asked me to help her put together a session for their annual state meeting. We agreed that a “show and tell” hour, where attendees volunteer to show their county’s website and let their colleagues tell them what they think, could work well. I offered to do a short checklist to guide the discussion…and maybe to remind – even enlighten – the participants about what’s important on a government website.

So here is my 10-point checklist – the 10 best practices that I look for when I review a government website. How does your government website stack up?

10 Best Practices for Government Websites

See if you can answer “yes” to each of these.

1. Audience immediately can identify what the site is about, who it’s for, what they need to do to complete their tasks. Most-used tasks are featured prominently in the intitial screen so the audience can find them in the first 7 seconds. Note: If you have them buried in a large, rotating “feature” box that takes 30 seconds to cycle through, answer “no.”
2. Content is organized in topics the audience understands. No unnecessary topics.
3. Navigation is easy to find, easy to understand, and easy to use. Navigation is consistent from page to page.
4. Content is formatted for the web reader. Uses headers and sub-headers, bullets, and lists to make it easy to scan and find what you want. Font colors are dark against a light background. Uses a sans serif font to make it easy to read on the screen.
5. Content is organized to make it easy for the audience to complete tasks. Most important information is at the top. Steps are clear. Content is short, to the point, and anticipates questions.
6. Content is written in plain language. Uses words the audience understands and searches for. Content for the general public is written at an elementary reading level. Content is conversational...written in first (“I,” “we,” “us”) and second (“you”) person. Uses active verbs (“start here,” “read this”). Omits unnecessary words (e.g. “welcome,” “our mission is…,” “this website will…”).
7. Links are clear and useful. Link text tells readers what they’ll find (no “click here” or “more”). Content is layered appropriately (not too deep). No broken links.
8. Every graphic is essential to communicate critical information. No gratuitous graphics. No graphics just because they’re “cute” or “cool.” No photos of agency executives on the home page (put them on the “about us” page). Graphics aid skimming – no “eye-stoppers.” (Tip: check download time on a cell phone!)
9. Contact information - mailing address, phone number(s), and email address(es) - is in plain sight. May be linked from “contact us.”
10. Content is clearly current. Date of last review or update or “content current as of…” is in plain sight.

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Take Time to Nurture Your Web Team

At the end of my last course, I asked everyone what one thing they were going to do when they got back to their agencies. One participant surprised me by saying he was going to organize a meeting of all the web managers and major web contributors in the agency and share what he’d learned - something they’d never done before. Wow – really? You’ve never done that? So I asked his classmates if their agencies held regular agency-wide meetings and/or training sessions for the extended web “team.” Most said, “no.”

Gosh folks, this is a must-do! Part of your job as a web manager is to build a strong agency-wide team – a network across organizations that helps you move in the same direction…a group that works together, helps each other, and helps you.

Your “team” isn’t just those people who sit in the agency web manager’s office with you. It’s that broad cadre of people throughout the agency - in Washington DC and across the country - who work on the website routinely…full-time or part-time. It’s the people who compile and write and edit and post and maintain content. They probably don’t report to you in any formal way, but you can’t succeed if they aren’t working with you.

Nurture that team. Get them together – help them get to know one another…help them get to know you.

How? Here are 10 activities that have worked for me:

1. Do some training. Maybe you have a new technology to show. Maybe you have new social media policies to share. Or maybe you just want to go over the procedures for maintaining content. Get creative with your training. Do it yourself, or have one of the team members do it. Or maybe bring in outside talent. At HUD, we hired Gerry McGovern to do a one-day workshop on writing great web content - our web team loved it. But you don’t have to look outside government. Use your peers in other agencies. Nicole Burton at GSA is terrific at teaching usability principles. The folks who manage Plainlanguage.gov often are available to do training. And the social media sub-council of the Federal Web Managers Council has a number of speakers who can talk about social media best practices. Use them.
2. Solve problems together. Lay out some of the issues you’re facing and break into work groups to come up with solutions. Involve them in implementation.
3. Identify new directions. Break into brainstorming groups and come up with ideas for new or improved ways to serve customers through your website(s).
4. Take a field trip. We started taking the HUD web managers on field trips whenever we got them together. We always met in one of HUD’s field offices (it’s really good to get the web team away from Washington DC), and we’d use part of one day to visit some of the projects HUD funds in that city. There’s nothing like actually being in public housing and talking with residents and managers to see the agency’s work from the eyes of the customers.
5. Do content reviews. Have everyone come with one or two pages that are giving them trouble. Go over your writing standards (if you don’t have any, here’s an example from HUD). Then pick 4-5 of the problem pages, have everyone rate them individually, and then put them in groups of three and have them come up with a joint review, including suggestions for improvement. Whenever we did this as a group, we always saw lightbulbs go on. And we always improved the pages we reviewed.
6. Do show and tell. Pick some of your star performers and let them show and tell about a page or something they’ve done to improve web communications. Always encourage your team to share best practices.
7. Do a focus group. Ask some of your colleagues to invite family or friends (people who don’t really know your business) to come in for an informal focus group. You don’t have to hire someone to facilitate – just do it yourself. Pick a few pages of your website (or social media sites) and ask for feedback. Keep it easy and relaxed. After your guests leave, discuss what you saw and heard; and create a “to do” list.
8. Do usability testing. There is absolutely nothing more instructive than watching people try to complete tasks on your website. This can be a terrific thing to do in your web team meetings. Again, ask colleagues to invite family or friends to volunteer for some informal usability testing. 3-4 should do it. Have them come at intervals of 30 minutes or so because you’ll test them individually. Come up with two or three scenarios typical of the kinds of things citizens might do on your website (at HUD we used things like: pretend you want to buy a home but you don’t have money for a downpayment. See if there are programs that could help you). Then ask them to sit down at a computer and complete the task, while team members watch. I guarantee you – you’ll learn something from it. Usability.gov has lots more tips on doing scenario tests.
9. Brief them on the goals of the governmentwide web manager community. We serve best when we serve together, and your web team needs to know where the broader web community is headed. Invite a member of the Federal Web Managers Council to speak to your group or have a discussion about the FWMC White Papers. Get them thinking about how they fit into the bigger picture and what they can do to help.
10. Eat together, play together. There is nothing better for team-building than eating together and playing together. Do brown bag lunches or go to meals together. Set up web trivia contests or do other team games to break the ice. Make sure you stir up the group – don’t let them just sit with people they know. The goal is to build relationships so you strengthen the network.

We did routine “team” meetings at HUD for years, bringing together web managers and coordinators from across the country. EPA also gathers its “team” routinely – and very successfully. The point is: do it!

Face time builds trust among team members. Conference calls and wikis are great; but every now and then, get your folks together, in the same room. Provide some structure, and give them time to get to know one another – forge personal relationships. People leave these meetings feeling they’re part of something important. They get out of their silos and see customer service from a broader perspective.

Take time to nurture your web team. The benefits are huge.

Does Your Website Say “We Care?”

When citizens come to your website, what’s the first message they get? Is it, “we care about YOU, and we’re going to make sure you can do what you want?” Or is it, “first let me tell you about me?”

I read two interesting articles this week about how important it is to show your customers you care. First, I happened on Christina Gagnier’s blog piece: "Government must give a ***k:  a lesson from @GaryVee."  She supports social media evangelist Gary Vaynerchuk’s assertion that the most important thing government can do is show that it cares about its citizens (its customers). It’s not just letting people report potholes online – it’s doing something about it. It’s not just offering technology tools to engage – it’s acting on those ideas and showing citizens that their opinions and ideas and concerns matter. Gagnier says, “It is not the power of technology, but the power of caring. People are simply tired of having information and agendas broadcast at them.” They want to see some evidence that you’ve listened – that you care.

Then came Gerry McGovern’s weekly post, “Web design: clarity is more important than persuasion.” Gerry makes such an important point. “The customer remains invisible to most web teams and that is the single greatest reason so many websites underperform. Understanding, relating to and developing empathy for your customer is one of the greatest drivers of clarity in communication and design…get to truly know your customers and you are on the road to clarity.”

The power of listening to your customers is a frequent theme in my blog. If you listen to them, they will tell you what to put on your website. But listening is only the first part of the equation. You have to honor what your audience tells you and show them you care by acting accordingly.

Gerry points out recent market research that says you have 7 seconds to hook your reader. In that time, they decide if this site has anything for them and if it’s worth staying. Seven seconds is not much time. It means you’d better know what they came for. You’d better put it right there - front and center - so they can find it.

And – and pay attention here, web managers, because this is where the real “caring” shows – you’d better make sure that they can actually use that service - complete that task - quickly AND see success (the submitted form, the right answer to the question, the checklist they can print and use, the updates they can follow on Twitter…). What results do your customers expect? How can you show them those results? It’s not just being able to report the pothole – it’s seeing it filled.

So what does your website say in the first 7 seconds? Does it say to your customers, “I care about you!”

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Past Is Prologue – Learn From Web History

Shakespeare had it right. What came before has a bearing on what comes next. That holds true with the web, too.

I’ve been thinking a lot about web history lately. You see, I’m a little nostalgic this month. HUD’s website just turned 15; and as head nurturer for its first 10 years, I’ve been looking back, marveling at how far we’ve come…thinking about what we learned along the way…and wondering how our past will shape the future. So if you’ll bear with me (I know this is long and self-indulgent), I’ll share a little of HUD’s web history. Maybe you’ll recognize some of the lessons we learned.

Here is hud.gov’s baby picture. Actually, I wasn’t the birth mother. HUD’s technology office (no CIO yet) put this site together and posted it in March 1995. Primitive – yes. But hey, we were on the web!

I took over as HUD’s “webmaster” (we changed to “Web Manager” a couple of years later, a title coined by a Harvard “web manager”) in April 1995. It was just me and a team of 3 tech contractors, plus the IT contract manager. One of those contractors was Sam Gallagher, and I hired him a couple of years later (eventually, he got my job!).

In the interest of space, I’m going to use links to the rest of these examples. But gosh, I hope you look at them. It’s part of the fun!

HUD home page version 4

A year - and two interim versions (lesson: the public hates it when you make big changes too often) later - we debuted our first award-winner. Yeah – I know. It looks pretty hokey now. But at the time, the praise was resounding. We were going for a warmer, friendlier face of government. We changed our website name to “Homes and Communities” to show this site was about what citizens want/need - not about HUD (little known fact – that title came from an idea that Henry Cisneros and Andrew Cuomo had floated to change HUD’s name). And we added a section called, “You, the Citizen,” to help people figure out what they could do on our website. Even then – with relatively few pages – citizens needed help knowing where to start.

Yippee! - we started earning some “awards” (in those days, it was a pretty big deal to get USA Today’s or Yahoo’s “Site of the Week”). The real benefit of awards? HUD managers wanted a piece of that action, and I got more cooperation. But most important, citizens liked what we were doing. They loved this new, friendlier government. They liked that we were using words they could understand and organizing content in ways that made sense to them. How do I know? In those days, I handled all the email that came in through the site. Thousands of emails. One of the best ways to listen to your audience.

Mistakes. That cool little ticker tape right below the graphic started eating memory on people’s computers, making them slower and slower. Lessons: just because you CAN do something, doesn’t mean you SHOULD. And being “cool” is never a good reason to do something on a government website. Learn a little, do a little, learn a little, do a little…

HUD home page version 6

In 1998, new HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo was installing a fresh look for HUD; and our website followed suit. We went lean, clean, and contemporary. I loved the look. Unfortunately, it was our least successful design. We went too lean and clean. People had to drill down too many levels to get what they wanted. Lesson: masthead navigation doesn’t work well - people assume it’s advertising and ignore it. When we moved those nav links down into the topics list…zoom! Page views shot way up. Learn a little, do a little.

HUD home page version 8

In November 1999, we launched another design…still clean, but not quite so lean. People reacted well to the white space. But we made one big mistake. See that center box: “Community News?” Most people come to HUD’s site to find out how to buy a home, how to buy a HUD home, or how to get low-rent housing. But we decided - being smarter (?) than our audience - that they should know all the good things happening in their communities as a result of HUD programs. So we smacked them in the face with that big box. Did they read it? Nope. They complained about it (why do you try to divert our attention from what we came to do? It’s annoying). Oh, some practitioners and advocates read it. But we didn’t achieve our aim. Problem was that we couldn’t make it go away. The Public Affairs folks liked it. Eventually, that box started featuring more about HUD than about communities. Audience wants don’t always win out. Just a reality. Learn a little, do a little.

HUD home page version 9

My final major redesign as HUD’s web manager went live on Inauguration Day, 2001. I guessed correctly that a new Secretary would want a new look on his administration’s website (I got a call from his top aide the next week, thanking me). So we rolled out “Big Red.” Our aims this time were to cut layers and improve our wording of topics and links. We did many, many focus groups, looking at those elements. We also circled back to that 1996 “You, the Citizen” idea by introducing “At Your Service.” We did something right because our email dropped dramatically – people were finding what they wanted.

In 2002, we added “state pages” to HUD’s site. Our “local HUD office” sites were good, but the content was inconsistent. We listened to our audience who repeatedly told us, “yes, we want to learn how to buy a home…but what we really want is to learn to buy a home in Texas.” Or New York. Or wherever they lived or wanted to live. So, with our 10 new regional HUD web managers, we created a page of state, county, and city resources for each state. We were careful not to duplicate what was already on the “national” site, but to supplement it. And we made sure that every state had the same information – because every citizen deserved to be treated equally. Those pages went up in September 2002; and from their very first month, they were among the top 2 or 3 sections on the website. Bullseye! Learn a little, do a little…

I retired, and life went on. Last year, the current version of HUD’s website went up. I like the contemporary look. The “I want to” section gets citizens to the things they really come to the website for…buy a home, find rental help…in the spirit of “You, the Citizen” and “At Your Service.” Don’t like the big scrolling “hero” box at the top (but you know that if you’ve read my previous blogs about that design device). But the beat goes on…learn a little, do a little…

History is important. It helps you avoid potholes you’ve hit before. It helps you shape your strategy for the future. Have you documented the history of your website? Do you remember why you (or your predecessors) made those choices and changes? Does your agency know? Do your colleagues know (so they can learn from your hits and misses)? Does the public know (let the sunshine in!)? Past is prologue. Learn from web history.

Related Link
HUD’s Web History

Use Your Best Resources to Engage Citizens – Your Employees

I am up to my ears judging Clearmark Plain Language Award entries, but I just had to raise my head to comment on Andrea DiMaio’s latest blog piece, “How To Love Government 2.0 and Be A Contrarian at the Same Time.” I so agree with him that we can’t just rely on technology to engage citizens in their government. We have to put our money where our mouths are – invest our best resources to make this successful.

And what are our best resources? Or, who? Government employees. Everywhere.

I haven’t heard one single word about using that huge untapped resource – government employees working in “the field.” We have thousands of government employees working in large, medium, and small government offices in every big city and many small towns across this country. They are members of the communities where they live. They have family, friends, and neighbors all around them. If you did nothing more than ask each field office – big or small – to hold one “listening session,” you could take a huge step toward finding out what citizens want, need, and suggest.

Tell your field staff to invite their family and friends, give them an agenda, and trust them to do the right thing. They won't let you down. And citizens will start to believe that their federal government isn’t just a bunch of faceless Washington bureaucrats (sorry – but that is what many think). They will know it’s their neighbors and friends – people they know…people who understand their issues, concerns…and ideas. That’s how to open up government. Bring the government to the people and the people will engage.

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Turn Your "News" Into Services We Can Use

Here’s one of the top stories on the U.S. Department of Labor website today:

DOL announces $2.5 million grant to continue to aid Maine workers impacted by Base Realignment and Closure actions [03/01/2010]

It links to the full 200 word press release that ends in a link to a DOL page about National Security Grants. What if, instead of that wording, you read this:

Attention Maine residents! Have you been laid off because your military base was downsized or closed? If so, your state Department of Labor can help. We’ve just given them additional funds to provide job counseling, training, and placement services to citizens who have lost their jobs because Maine’s military bases downsized or closed. To find out how you can take advantage of these services, contact the Maine Department of Labor (with an appropriate link directly to the place where citizens actually can apply for this service – or at least get more information about how to apply).

Short. Sweet. Conversational. Immediately identifies the audience that will care about this news, so the rest of us don’t have to waste our time (and there’s nothing that makes us madder at you than when you waste our time). Quickly summarizes what services are available, and gets us right to the appropriate contact point, in about 60 words. Oh, and it still credits US DOL for the funding. It turns a traditional press release into a service that citizens actually can use. It puts the needs of citizens first, while still giving the agency brownie points. Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it? So why don’t most government agencies take the time to turn their “news” into something we can use?

Last fall, I did a workshop for some public affairs officers at state agencies; and one thing I told them (that they didn’t much like to hear) is that press releases do not make good web content. Not on front pages of government websites. Not on Facebook pages. Not as Tweets. The audience for press releases is the press – not the general public. The general public turns off when it reads something that starts out, “Governor X announced…” or “Secretary Y went to…” They turn off when they see big “hero” photos of appointed officials cutting ribbons or making speeches. When people come to government websites, they’re looking for something that can help them – personally. And they want to know how to get that “thing” as fast as possible. So just take the time to re-write your press release into something we can use.

Oh, and here’s one more tip: show us the money (thank you, Jerry McGuire!). If you want a thumbnail sketch of what citizens are looking for on federal government websites, just visit “What’s On Americans’ Minds” on USA.gov. Check out that section on “pages the public visits most” on the website. See a trend? Yep. Money. How to make money. How to save money. How to get money. How to get more with your money. How to keep your money. This is not rocket science. So if you really want to grab the public’s attention, tell us what you’ve got that can “show us the money.”

I know this isn’t how most public affairs officers have been trained. And I know they face pressure from bosses who want to look good, personally…bosses who like those traditional press releases. But think about it (and explain it to your bosses) this way – if you want people to remember you, give them something they want or need. Put their needs above your needs, and they will remember you.

I always love the “Miracle on 34th Street” analogy. Remember how Macy’s Santa sends the little boy’s mom to Gimbels to get that special toy, even though Macy’s does carry something similar? The camera pans to Thelma Ritter (the mom), and she says something like, “Well, what do you know? Macy’s is putting the spirit of Christmas ahead of profits. I never much liked shopping at Macy’s before, but I will now.”

Turn your news into something we can use. We’ll get better service, and we WILL remember you.

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