- The World Wide Web is essential to all public relationships, communication campaigns, and community development
- The web changes the entire dynamic between an organization and its public -- online communication is an ongoing dialogue where the public relations expert must quickly respond to an audience's interests and needs, communicating core principles and messages
- 3-D Model of Internet Communication: community, all-way communication, activists mobilize and talk to each other, social networks
- With social media, the communicator relinquishes nearly all control of the communication platform and environment, allowing her audience to create their own content and conduct a dialogue with the audience the communicator helped to recruit
- The web is not a billboard: it requires communicators to present multiple messages, with interactive components, targeting core audiences, while keeping the core values and principles of the org or effort intact
- The 6 management principles of online communication are:
1. Leadership
2. Internal Leadership
3. Internal input and cooperation
4. Catering to external audiences
5. Connecting to a strategic vision
6. Connection to the off-line world
- PA websites must connect off-line activities with online assets through: directing people to the website with off-line media, direct mail, collect email addresses of interested people; take advantage of grassroots orgs, adjust website based on media interviews
- Communicators' goals are to promote an agenda; increase membership or followers; enhance productivity and efficiency; enhance employee morale; and raise money
- Visitors' goals: to access information; access services; feel invested in a cause and participate in a community
- The five building blocks of a public affairs website are:
1. Audience
2. Content
3. Interactivity
4. Usability
5. Innovations
- Email should be used to provide valuable data or services to a receiver
- It can use viral marketing to spread a message if it includes one of the following elements: humor; connected to a recipient's values; or would reflect well on the recipient who forwards it
- To get e-newsletters read, a communicator should:
1. keep the content subject-oriented, not self-congratulatory
2. build a relationship with the receiver with an email address and unique or helpful subject line
3. keep email short, no more than three screens
4. link to web site
5. provide details not available in off-line media
6. send emails frequently, no more than one month apart
7. strive to provide HTML versions
- Journalists are one of the most important audiences to any public affairs website. Content should be targeted for their particular needs
Lee Ch 4: Government Websites
Better Website, Better Government
- make government info more accessible for citizens
- unprecedented access to information about government from policies and budgets to programs and activities
- helps inform, educate, and interact with stakeholders
- help disseminate important information about programs and policies, increase stakeholder support, and mitigate citizen dissatisfaction
- also can be valuable for communication tools during organizational crises, contingencies, and special events
- can even observe profile of audience members through analytical tools
- 70% of Americans expect to be able to get information or services from a government agency website
- the objective is to improve online interaction between citizens and ultimately, all levels of government
Web Managers Council
- The goal of the council is a threefold:
1. Help the public quickly and easily accomplish its most critical tasks online
2. Improve online content so it's on par with the best content in the world
3. Support and expand the community of government web managers nationwide
- government websites have been translated into many languages such as Spanish, Korean, Mandarin, and dozens of other languages
- the council must make certain that undeserved populations can access critical information on the Internet
Best Practices and Oversight
- find Best PracticesChecklist at WebContent.gov
- should formally evaluate their own websites
- must comply with copyright, trademark, and patent laws and agree to post agency content in the public domain
- areas of confidentiality --> Privacy Act Statement
- must be weary of hackers both domestic and international as well as foreign government
- Obama created the White House Cyber Security Coordinator position
World Affairs on the World Wide Web and the White House online
- website should be intuitive and easy to navigate
- more than just archives: should state who, what, when, where, why of each programs within organizations
- White House.gov serves as a role model and portal to thousands of federal government websites that seek to interact with various stakeholders
- they receive over 100,000 emails daily: each read, screened, categorized by issue
- user friendly for disabled and diverse people: images have tags that allow the disabled to listen in to content using a screen reader. Closed captioning of videos is also available along with written transcripts of the president's speech
- website installation and administration require no programming skills
- technological changes have been helping in growth, sophistication, person-to-person interaction of government websites
Growth of Local Municipal Websites
- local municipal websites: indispensable tools for city managers and other administrators seeking to better serve and connect with local communities
- ex Virginia Beach: online resource direct citizens to where to vote, how to become a foster parent, bid for city projects, request public utility services, pay for parking tickets and property taxes, use e-check services to pay water bills, library, etc.
Lee Ch 7: Web 2.0
Introduction
- Web 2.0 represents a collection of Internet-based tools that enhance communication through openness and interactive capabilities
- people have the added capability of producing content and being engaged in two-way comm
- empower individuals through open dialogue -- peer-to-peer connectivity and comment boxes, etc
- enhance digital democracy and diplomacy efforts
- Gov 2.0 = government use of Web 2.0
- 77% of Americans 18-65 prefer engaging with government online
Government Utilization of 2.0
- Gov't needs to recognize that a majority of citizens are online searching for content
- use of Facebook increased 143% over the past year
- Web 2.0 give the ability to:
- Generate innovative solutions to public policies
- Rank policies, programs, and services as determined by citizens' needs
- Collaborate and generate innovation across levels of government and with citizens to reduce duplicative work, and to improve efficiency and effectiveness of services
- Improve e-government services to simplify online transactions
- Improve governmental transparency by providing accessibility to data and online documents
- Recruit, hire, and retain the best and brightest for agency personnel
--> must know how to deal with negative comments, innacuracy of info, and misrepresentation of news online
Potential Uses of Web 2.0 Platforms
- Poll Everywhere: use to poll citizens on legislation, used by gov't to solicit citizen input through online surveys --> increases government's ability to ascertain citizen needs and opinions, as well as engage a broader range of contituents
- helps people exchange information and find solutions to problems
- Creative Commons: NGO on the web dedicated to providing security through free licensing of open information --> offers free and easy licensing for any user to post and share photos, videos, documents, and more
Barriers to Adoption
The "Old" vs "New"
1) Many gov'ts reluctant to use Web 2.0 due to how they are organized and maintained, their antiquated technology and computers, and fear of technology and the age of the typical gov't employee
Usability and Maintenance
2) fear of possibly receiving negative comments from citizens, or the fear of posting information that may be erroneous and live on the Internet indefinitely
- trouble deciding what to post, how much and how often
3) fear of response time, having to be available 24/7 or having to get back ASAP
- Web 2.0 sometimes misunderstood as a problem more than a medium to a solution
- choose the right platform to get engagement, develop and clear and simple plan that details who is expected to monitor citizen comments, questions, and concerns, and how these should be triaged and routed to the proper department or person
Strategies for Web 2.0 Implementations
- By increasing participation with Web 2.0 platforms, local government can run public outreach campaigns to gain feedback from citizens on a variety of fronts such as community growth planning
- Steps of a Strategy Process:
1) Develop a list of the traditional methods of communication that are already being used by the municipality
- the purpose of this step is to gain a comprehensive view of how the public receives information and interacts with its local government
- then select several social media outlets that are most appropriate
2) Identify social networking websites to create community or municipal profiles
- it's important to designate account settings so that all posts are open to the public for comment
3) Create the RSS feeds across several of the website pages
4) Link the social media profiles together so that once an update is made on one platform, it will replicate across all platforms --> HootSuite
- HootSuite also provides an efficient way for multiple users to access the social media platforms to make social media icons that are chosen to the website homepage
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