Social Media & Government

ENC Senior Manager and Web Practice Leader, Tracy Johnson, was panelist at this month’s DC Social Media Club meeting, focused on Social Media and Government.  Over 100 attendees packed into the basement office of Ogilvy Public Relations in downtown Washington, DC to hear from Tracy and other panelists:  Joanne McGovern or USA.gov, Miguel Gomez of AIDS.gov, and Mike Panetta of Grassroots Enterprises.  Each of the panelists discussed the importance of using social media to communicate with the public and the unique challenges social media presents when working for the Federal government.  Tracy highlighted how ENC has overcome some of these challenges and successfully communicated with the public through the use of twitter, facebook, myspace, blogging, and other tools on behalf of client Business.gov (managed by the U.S. Small Business Administration).

For a full event recap, check out the tweets from Wednesday’s event.

@wamurray: Putting a human face on gov’t is a real key benefit to social media (HHS secretary blog, USA.gov blog)

@wamurray: #SMCDC Miguel Gomez from AIDS.gov spoke about repurposing content (blogs,podcasts); something we’re doing in our social media work w/clients

@creativeblogs: excellent presentation last night at #SMCDC @aidsgov.

@ssoper: RL meets dead tree. saw a presentation at #smcdc last night that mentioned lafd using twitter then read about it in wired today

@ctorgan: Pew resource cited at #smcdc http://www.pewinternet.org/ podcast use (19%) vs mobile access (62%) Demographics v relevant

@mamadouthiam: #smcdc great to see other .gov people take the time and make the effort to improve their agencies (on their own time)!

@digitalsista: facebook is not 508 compliance. if u build the model 2 be compliant in the 1st pl they is 0 cost 2 chng

@JustinHerman: If the gov jumped on every shiny object every agency would have a friendster page – Mike Panetta

@bdgiesen: internal webinars to educate gov employees. Good way to train, make people comfortable w social media

@jacquebrown: They may not be 2.0 thought leaders but they are change agents – equally critical

@tanyachadha: Tracy Johnston of business.gov has some interesting points about getting smll biz owners involved w/ social media #smcdc

@willfleiss: Panetta’s Predictions in 2009: member of congress twittering from the house floor… Yes…congress can tweet…a law passed

@mixtmedia: “we can no longer afford to work at the speed of gov’t” Brian Humphrey from @LAFD via @mikepanetta #SMCDC

@abfdc: Secretary Leavitt’s pandemic flu blog didn’t bring HHS down, points out @jbell99 I created that with @beautifulthangs

@sarahmarchetti: In pre interview with miguel he said the role of a gov social media employee is train staff and respect where they’re at. No judgment

@ssoper: #smcdc govt + web 2.0 is happening quicker than you think

@mamadouthiam: #smcdc aids.gov speaker doing some very good work. Emphasize the importance of educating colleagues

@lyf108: #smcdc miguel gomez from aids.gov is a fabulous speaker

@JustinHerman: One of the biggest lessons: I have the obligation to train and educate my colleagues on blogging and podcasts – AIDS.gov

You can also find all of the SMCDC Tweets on summize.com.