Workshop delivered at the "National Conference of State Legislatures" Super Professional Development Series in Madison, WI on October 10, 2012.

1. Creating a
21st Century
Communications Plan
Facilitators:
Andrew Krzmarzick, GovLoop Community Manager
Don Stanley, Owner of 3Rhino Media / Faculty, UW-Madison

2. Government 1.0
Town Halls Constituent
Meetings
These are still important

3. Government 1.5
Streaming / Updated Websites
Recorded Video
Improved access for more people

4. Government 2.0
Mobile Apps Social Media
Engage them on-the-go

5. "Our children should learn the general
framework of their government…where it
touches their daily lives and where their
influence is exerted on the government.
It must not be a distant thing, someone
else's business, but they must see how
every cog in the wheel of a democracy is
important…for the smooth running of the
entire machine."

6. Our Time Together Today
• Introductions
• 21st Century Communications
• Approaches
• Examples
• Ideas
• Your Challenges
• Your Solutions
• How-To Demos?

7. Introductions
• Name
• State
• Title / Role
• Biggest Challenges

8. The 7 P’s of 21st Century
Communications
Purpose Promote
People Participate
Plan Progress
Produce

9. Purpose
Why do
• What is your mission? you do what
you do?
• What is your passion?
• What are your values?
• What impact stories inspire you?

10. Purpose:
• Mission: “Connect government to improve government”
• Passion: “Helping people do their jobs better”
• Values: Hustle Smart, Creativity, Entrepreneurial, Service, Humility
• Impact Stories: Next page

11. Purpose:
Recently, Facebook stripped our administrator rights from the City
Impact of Ankeny's Facebook page. With it, our custom URL was also
Stories: removed. We can no longer access our Insight's page and we cannot post
as the City of Ankeny on other Facebook pages.
Facebook says that we cannot identify ourselves as the City of
Ankeny because it is their policy that users may not manage pages about
towns, cities or states. Use of "City of" in our name is too generic.
Has anyone else run into this problem with Facebook?
37 comments è Facebook response

12. Purpose:
“My constituents' access to state
government is often through me.
Certainly being a public policy maker
is a big part of that.
But my role is also as an educator,
to help my constituents
feel part of the democratic process.”
- Colorado Legislative Leader, 1996
Source: http://www.ncsl.org/legislatures-elections/trust/communication-between-representatives-and-their-co.aspx

13. People
• Who do you deliver value to?
• What value do you deliver to each?
• What internal resources do you have?
• What external resources can you leverage?

14. People:
Deliver value to:
Type of value: Content and Community

15. People:
Internal resources:
External resources:

16. People: Who Do You Serve?

17. People:
Internal resources: External resources:

19. Plan
Outcomes

20. Plan
What are your (really)?
Comments? Feedback?
Fans? Volunteers?
Retweets? or Actions?
+1’s? People Helped?
Pageviews? Responses?
Phone Calls? Impact Stories?

21. Plan
Never mistake this… …for this!
Feedback?
Volunteers?
Actions?
People Helped?
Responses?
Impact Stories? (Your Purpose!)

22. Plan
Never start here. Start here!
Donations
Volunteers
Subscribers
Evangelists
Stories
(Your Purpose!)

23. Plan
What signify success for you?
For each specific outcome:
• What do you need people to do?
• Why are they going to do it?
• How will you know when an outcome is achieved?
• What points of engagement lead to the outcome?

24. Plan
How will you know when
are achieved?

25. Plan
Where are your stakeholders?
The ones you know?
• Your current websites
• Lists: Events, email, snail mail, cell phone numbers
• Memberships: associations, professional groups
• Social media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
The ones you need to meet?
• Identify primary keywords for search engines – how do you rank?
• Search engines and alerts: news sites, forums, blogs, associations
• Social media / websites: similar organizations, trending topics, etc.

26. Plan:
= Engage and empower 100,000 awesome people
who want to make government better.
Where are they?

27. Plan:

28. Plan:

29. Plan:
http://www.youtube.com/user/LAHouseofReps and http://www.facebook.com/pages/
Louisiana-House-of-Representatives/266297327897?v=wall

30. Produce
What content will you create / share?
• Newsletters? • Photos? • Press Releases?
• Interviews? • Podcasts? • Resources?
• Publications? • Announcements? • Stats/Data?
• Videos? • Stories? • Opinions?
Produce | Reproduce | Repurpose
(Yours and Others!*)
* With attribution, of course

31. Produce
Who is going to create / share it?
Staff? Volunteers? Consultants?
• Senior Leader(s)? • Constituents? • PR Firms?
• Communications? • Students? • Media?
• Frontline? • Fans?
• Interns? • Followers?

32. Produce
What makes for great content (online)?
1. Variety
2. Short
3. Images
4. Action
5. Milestones
6. Topic du Jour
Credit: http://www.slideshare.net/kanter/networked-ngo-in-india-day-2

33. Produce:
What
makes
Title
for great
content
Image (online)?
Format

34. Produce:
12 minutes
Side Note: Go Big Red!

35. Produce:

36. Produce:
Side Note: Go Cyclones!

37. Produce:

38. Promote
Where are you going to share it?
• Traditional • Social Media • Mobile
▫ Website ▫ Facebook ▫ Text (SMS)
▫ Newsletters ▫ Twitter ▫ Apps
– Email, PDF, Print ▫ Google+
▫ Press Release
▫ LinkedIn
▫ Events
▫ Video Sharing
▫ Niche Networks

39. If Twitter was a country
Population: 140 million
It would be bigger than Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan

40. If Facebook was a country
Population: 1 billion active users
It would be the world’s 3rd largest country
Bigger than North and South America combined

41. If Email Was a Country
It Covers Continents
It would be an empire: 2.9 Billion users

42. Promote: eNewsletters
1 6
4
7
2 5
8
3
9

43. Promote
When are you going to share it?
• Day of Week • Time of Day • Target Dates
▫ Weekdays? ▫ AM or PM? ▫ Events?
▫ Weekends? ▫ Breaks? ▫ Milestones?
• Frequency
▫ Daily (once or many times a day)?
▫ Weekly?

44. Promote:
GovLoop Schedule and Staffing for Social Promotion
Where: Newsletter Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Google+
Daily AM Daily Daily Daily Daily
When: Ad Hoc Varies 8a, 12p, 4p 8a, 12p, 4p 8a, 12p, 4p 8a, 12p, 4p
(Best = T, Th) (Best = T, W) (Best = M) (Best = T, W) (Best = ?)
Rotate Staff /
Who: Fellows
Rotate Fellows
Daily Themes Core Discussions, Discussions,
What: Product Push
Fun, Quotes
Content Content Content

45. Promote:
How are you going to share it?
1. Calls to action are key
• People want to do something
• Tell them what to do!
2. Location, location, location
• Your website
• Social media

46. Being Fantastic on
1. Human voice
2. Effective use of photos
3. Relevant, local information
4. Diverse information
5. Blend of fun and serious
6. Frequent posting
7. Open forum

47. Being Twemendous on
1. Human voice
2. Lots of @s
3. Responsive
4. Blend of fun and serious
5. Timed posting

48. Promote:

49. Promote:

50. Promote:

51. Promote:

52. Promote:

53. Promote:

54. Promote:

55. Participate
Where are you going to engage?
• Traditional • Social Media • Mobile
▫ Website ▫ Facebook ▫ Text (SMS)
▫ Newsletters ▫ Twitter ▫ Apps
– Email, PDF, Print ▫ Google+
▫ Press Release
▫ LinkedIn
▫ Events
▫ Video Sharing
▫ Niche Networks

56. Participate
When are you going to engage?
• Day of Week • Time of Day • Target Dates
▫ Weekdays? ▫ AM or PM? ▫ Events?
▫ Weekends? ▫ Breaks? ▫ Milestones?
• Frequency
▫ Daily (once or many times a day)?
▫ Weekly?

57. Participate:
GovLoop Schedule and Staffing for Engagement
Where: Community Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Google+
Daily Daily Daily
Daily AM
When: Ad Hoc Varies
8a, 12p, 4p Ad Hoc 8a, 12p, 4p 8a, 12p, 4p
(Best = T, W) (Best = T, W) (Best = ?)
Who: Staff / Fellows Rotate Fellows
Comment,
Comments
What: and Sharing
Comment @ Replies Share to Comment
GovLoop

58. Participate:

59. Participate:
Invited: 1,500
Going: 51
Maybe: 27
Total: ~5%
Comments = 44
Participants = 15
Total = 1%

60. Progress
How are you doing?
• Statistics • Stories Focus on
▫ Opens/Clicks ▫ Impact Actionable
▫ Views/Visits ▫ Change Information
▫ Likes/RTs ▫ Actions
▫ Referral Sources
▫ Sharing 1. Test
▫ Sign-Ups 2. Learn
▫ $$$ 3. Iterate

61. Progress
How are you checking? How often?
• Google Analytics and Alerts • Real-time
• Trackur, Radian 6, Other? • Daily
• Facebook Insights? • Weekly
• Bit.ly? • Monthly
• Google Alerts?
• Hootsuite

62. Progress

63. Progress
Where can we improve?
• Mission focus?
• Project Scope?
• More / better outcomes?
• Stakeholder engagement?
• Engagement points?
• Engagement vehicles?
• Monitoring systems?

64. Progress
Testing to increase action likelihood:
• Recommend changes to landing pages and action funnels
• Launch the test, wait, analyze
• If it works, double down; If not, try again (or stop)
Feedback systems and methods:
• A-B element testing, funnel path, offers and incentives
• Friends, co-workers, clients, partners
• SurveyMonkey / SurveyGizmo

65. Progress
Building effective campaign pages:
• More bullseye: focus on the outcome
• An effective page: has what I need, tells me how to get it / why
it’s good, gives me a reason to take action, feels safe and easy
• Headlines: speak to user’s primary interest
• Calls to action: roughly same place on every page
• Contact information: should be on every page
• Contextual calls to action: top and bottom of every page
• ALWAYS BE IMPROVING!

66. Campaigns
1. Set short deadlines - adds a sense of urgency;
2. Create an ongoing sense of community.
3. Humanize: let constituents see other people they
are helping and the progress that is being made.
4. Maintain a sense of humor.
5. Measure engagement as well as your ultimate goal.

67. Campaigns
1. Win-Win: Members for us,
$$ for them
2. Friendly Competition:
Mobilize their supporters to
get most clicks
3. Short Deadline: only 10 days
4. Made it Easy: Special blog
posts, custom URLs
http://bit.ly/govloopgivesygl
http://bit.ly/govloopgivestofew

68. Progress:
Community: Monthly reports along a spectrum:
• Discover (New Visits)
• Consume (Return Visitors)
• Search (New Members)
• Commit (Top Pages)
• Participate (Comments, etc.)
• Contribute (Blogs, Forums)
• Lead (Profile Views)
• Evangelize (Referral Source)
Newsletter: Weekly Reports on Opens (Subject Line)
and Clicks (Content / Placement)
Social Media: Weekly Reports on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+
Source: http://www.devex.com/en/news/add-value-listen-inspire-samaritan-s-purse-social/76145

69. The 7 P’s of World-Changing,
Digital Engagement
Purpose Promote
People Participate
Plan Progress
Produce
Now it’s your turn!

70. Activity: Step 1 (5-10 minutes)
At your tables or in groups of 3-4:
• Identify a common communications challenge
• Turn it into a scenario:
There is new legislation on education reform being
proposed and we have to educate the public about it.
Not only that, we want to get their opinions in a
constructive way, avoiding partisan language.
Now it’s your turn!

71. Activity: Step 2 (15 minutes)
Give your scenario to another table / group:
• Use the handout to walk through the 21st Century
Communications Approach.
• Fill it out as completely as you can
• Prepare a briefing to the large group
Now it’s your turn!

72. Activity: Step 3
• Report Out
• Large Group Feedback and Ideas
Now it’s your turn!

73. What Other Challenges Do You Face?
Any Tools That You’d Like to Learn?

74. Online community of
government colleagues
helping each other
to do their jobs better.
Mission: “Connect government to improve government”
~60,000 Members

75. “Knowledge Network”
1. Learn from each other online.

76. “Knowledge Network”
2. Learn from each other in person.

77. “Knowledge
Network”
3. Learn from each other one-on-one.

78. “Knowledge Network”
4. Learn from experts via webinars.

79. “Knowledge Network”
5. Learn from experts via podcasts.

80. “Knowledge Network”
6. Learn from experts / each other via guides.

81. “Knowledge Network”
Partners With:
7. Teach citizens that government works.

82. Andrew@GovLoop.com
LinkedIn.com/in/AndrewKrzmarzick
202-352-1806
@krazykriz