This post is a bit of an intro to an upcoming contribution to For Immediate Release that will air on Monday, but I have been giving a lot of thought lately to the role of social media in government from the consumer perspective.

Last month, ForSee Research released their annual survey of government Web sites. The good news? Perception of the usability of government Web sites is on the rise. The bad news? Most still fall behind sites in the private sector.

Like the old “Family Feud,” survey said:

• Citizen satisfaction reaches an all­ time high. Satisfaction with e‐gov rates a 75.2 on the ACSI’s 100‐point scale, the highest aggregate score ever recorded by the E‐Gov Index.
• E­gov that satisfies citizens is still the most efficient and cost­ effective channel. The federal government can save overhead costs related to call centers and localized office locations by meeting citizens’ online needs and expectations. Citizens who are highly satisfied with a federal government website are 86% more likely to use the website as a primary resource (as opposed to other, more costly channels), 79% more likely to recommend the website, and 52% more likely to return to the website.
• Functionality remains the top priority for improving federal government websites, in aggregate. Citizens are looking to federal government websites with expectations for features and functions that are not yet being fully met. Functionality, look and feel, and navigation are the top priority elements for a large proportion of sites. In addition, 88% of the subset of sites that measure citizens’ opinions on their search feature found it to be a top priority element. Improvements to these satisfaction drivers will have the largest impact on overall satisfaction with federal government websites, in aggregate, and therefore could increase a citizen’s likelihood to return to the sites, recommend them, and use them as a primary resource.
• Satisfaction increased for all four measured website function categories, but citizens are most satisfied with e­commerce/transaction government websites, which had a notable quarter‐over‐quarter increase from 77.6 to 81.5 as a category, as did career and recruitment websites. These two categories are the smallest, however, so it is important to note that increases were also measured in the much larger portals/department main sites and information/news categories.
• Satisfaction with e­gov is catching up to satisfaction with the private sector. Aggregate citizen satisfaction with e‐gov still lags behind satisfaction with e‐retail and search engines, but e‐gov outperforms online brokerage and online news. At the individual site level, a larger proportion of e‐gov websites score over 80 than do e‐retail websites. Some sites from the Social Security Administration and from Health and Human Services surpass even those of the private sector stalwarts like Netflix and Amazon.

So why is all of this important?  Two BIG reasons.

1. Even with the health care debate raging in Washington, it is reasonable to think that some form of health care reform will pass.  This will move millions of citizens from private sector Web sites to government Web sites.  We have to keep up;  this will not only be new Web properties, but likely an entirely different way of interacting with the federal government.  Think about the point above of citizens carrying out transactions with the government on the Web”  “Citizens are looking to federal government websites with expectations for features and functions that are not yet being fully met.“
2. We are approaching — or at — retirement for baby boomers.   More than ever, this flood of people will be accessing sites like social security and Medicare with questions (and the good news is that the Social Security Administration ranked #1, #2 and #3 in the survey for some of their micro sites).  There will also be an unprecedented transfer of wealth from the “greatest generation” to their offspring — the largest in American history — in the coming years.  Hello, IRS.gov.

My two cents is that “good enough” is not “good enough.”  If the federal government requires, or offers the option to sign up millions of Americans for services, we have to have the absolute, number one, best-in-class, most usable Web sites.  Period.

Disclaimer:  I am Director of New Media for the Securities and Exchange Commission.  This posting in no way reflects the views of the Chairman, the Commissioners or my colleagues at the SEC.  Or probably of the two people who will read it.

Mark

©2010 intersection of online and offline. All Rights Reserved.

As promised,  here is the fourth post (and third tip) in a series on how to build a first-class online reputation management group or at least one that doesn’t suck.  I am attempting to offer what I think are the keys to success in establishing, promoting or defending your company’s issues or reputation in the online environment.  And we haven’t even gotten to the actual reputation management yet.  You gotta build a house on firm foundation first.

In the last post, I talked about (probably revealing too much pent-up frustration in the process) how I think that it should scare the hell out of management in government, organizations or agencies that your assets walk out the door every night.  You need to do everything possible to keep those valuable assets in place.

This next topic is also near and dear to my heart – something that should be a no-brainer for an agency, a corporation or a government agency:

Tip #3: Give your employees the software, hardware and online tools to be successful.  Don’t ask people to fight with one hand tied behind their backs.

Provided that you have recruited and are doing your best to retain your staff, you need to give them the tools to be effective.  And by “tools,” I mean hardware, software, access to social media tools –  and training.

I can’t tell you how many times I have had to engage in a battle for software, a faster computer, access to social media tools through the firewall, or even back in the day, a LAPTOP so I could actually do work during non-work hours.  So here’s a few bits of advice aimed at the employer:

1. This is an example of hardware, but if your employee wants a Mac (or a better computer), listen to the business case. If you do a lot of audio or video or high-end processing, this is what Macs are made for.  And don’t give me the “support” issue.  There are many businesses that are specifically designed to support Macs in a remote environment.  Sure, I think that Macs are cool, but if you want one, be prepared to make the business case for getting one.
2. Know that BlackBerries cut like a double-edged sword.  We are past the era (whether it’s good or bad) in which only “upper management” got BlackBerries.  It seems that IT and the Powers That Be decided that it was, in fact, a good thing to have employees tethered to the Mother Ship at all hours.  But from the employee perspective, do you really want to be responding to an email at midnight, thus creating the expectation that you will continue to do so?  And management:  do you reserve the right to get ticked off if your employee DOES NOT respond to an important email sent at 10:00 at night until the next day?
3. Software.  Again, if your employee can make a business case why he/she needs a software like Adobe Creative Suite or even an HTML editor to make changes to a site that perhaps got past the coding team, you need to understand that it benefits your business.  It benefits you if your employee has the skills to produce better looking work products like reports, proposals, client deliverables and even good-looking content that you can deploy on the Web.  It’s been my experience that most employees who ask for software want it to do their jobs better.  I can remember editing code by hand in a hotel room in São Paulo for a Web site that had to go live the next morning.  I was able to avoid potential embarrassment by catching the mistakes before it went live.
4. Social media.  Yes, I freaking get it that many, many tweets are about people’s cats.  But that does not mean that ALL tweets are about things that most people don’t care about.  Major companies tweet.  Major news organizations tweet and follow others.  Government agencies tweet.  There is enough “there there” so that you know that Twitter is for real.  And blocking?  Shel Holtz’s excellent “Stop Blocking” effort was, I think, borne out of frustration that so many organizations are unwilling to give their employees access to social media tools that will help them be MORE EFFECTIVE.  Google Wave?  It’s in beta phase, but why the hell do you block it?  Let your employees be intellectually curious to find out if something has a business application, like Shel said in For Immediate Release #498, Google Wave has the potential to be an excellent crisis communications tool.  And if I hear the “employees wasting time” argument one more time, I am going to go postal.  Know what, Mr. CEO?  If you have loser employees who want to waste time like the entire staff of Dundler-Mifflin, they are going to find ways to do it, with or without YouTube.
5. Conferences and training.  This is probably the most contentious one of all, but I point back to my original post that one of the best ways to retain employees is to keep them intellectually challenged.  And that means training and conferences.  Again the employee has to make the business case, but conferences are about more than room service and booze-induced Tweet-ups.  Your employees will learn.  Your employees should stretch their own intellectual capacity by learning from like-minded individuals.  And perhaps equally importantly, he/she will be grateful for the opportunity and trust afforded.

All of this comes down to two things:  productivity and competitive advantage.  And oh – these are things that benefit  organizations.  The right mix of tools help companies do what they do – squeeze every last drop of productivity while structuring payroll in a way to make a profit.  Competitive advantage?  If you are in-house in communication for an organization, perhaps building a WordPress site for the daily news clips will benefit your colleagues and senior management (vs. the 75-page tome that most companies send out) by increasing productivity.  Maybe Adobe Creative Suite will enable you to put together a better looking proposal that will help you win business or a report that will, in one page, catch the eye of a C-Suite person.

Productivity.  Competitive advantage.  Without these things, your highly recruited staff will be fighting with one hand tied behind their backs.  And you WILL, most likely, suck.

Mark

©2010 intersection of online and offline. All Rights Reserved.

As promised,  here is the third post (and second tip) on how to build a first-class online reputation management group. As I have mentioned, this is a series of posts that offer what I think are the keys to success in establishing, promoting or defending your company’s issues or reputation in the online environment.  This post deals with building the best team of people that you can – and keeping them with you for the long term.

I’m working my way towards the good stuff, but without the right people in place, you have no chance of being successful.

In the last post, I focused on how to hire the best minds you can and compensate them according to the value that they bring to the organization.

This post is somewhat related to the last.  Presuming that you have gotten past the seventh layer of hell — that is HR-meddling salary negotiations, now it’s time to think about the following honest conversation that so few agencies have with their employees:

Tip #2: When you hire people, don’t bait the hook with “work-life balance” and then work people to death.  And if they do have to work monstrous hours, compensate them creatively.

I speak from experience here.  In 15 years in the business, I worked for a lot of public relations and public affairs shops.  Like many people, I started out in a small, boutique firm, “made my bones” as Anthony Bourdain would say and then figured out that the best way to ensure a steady salary increase is to job hop about every 3-5 years.  In the process, I suppose that I was fortunate enough to be recruited in my last two jobs, I heard the familiar echoes that very quickly ring hollow:

Our employees are our most valuable asset.

We believe in work-life balance.

If you need to leave work one day for an event at your children’s school no problem.

Yeah, problem.

In retrospect, I am mad at myself for swallowing this steaming pile of bwana and taking the bait.  I actually believed this stuff at the time.  Really?  You mean, that despite the pressure of managing staff, watching their billable hours and worring about mine, I can jet off when I need to without getting the hairy eyeball?

Bullshit.

If there is an agency out there that actually makes good on these promises, feel free to comment, but I have seen a level of either delusion or dishonesty that I discovered the two basic choices:  a) come to peace with the fact that we are automatons who are supposed to bill, bill, bill or b) unfortunately were like me, rage against The Machine and refused to be lied to.

Probably the best experience I ever had with an agency started out as sunshine and chocolate.  Sure, we worked hard, but we never lost sight of the fact that our jobs were stressful enough and that you had to mix in some fun and some breaks. Stress kills and we gotta blow off some steam.  What killed the Golden Goose was that this particular agency went private and senior people got ownership shares.  I don’t care who you are, but if you own a piece of the pie and what ends up in your bank account depends heavily on how much others work, you are going to whip them until they bleed.  So what started as a true collegial environment ended in a nasty divorce.  Because I am pig-headed, I at least wanted the firm to cop to the fact that it was NOT about the individual any more, it was about the Benjamins.  No honesty, no Mark.  So I jumped ship to a competitor and was escorted out of the building the same day.  Thanks for your dedication, Mark.  AMF.

At my next stop, I heard the line about “family friendly,” “flexible work hours, etc.”, but didn’t drink the kool aid.  I was better prepared for the truth:  when push came to shove, it was “shut up and bill.”

So the whole stream of consciousness above informed the following advice that I offer to those within agencies with the power to make a difference:

1. Begin your working relationship with HONESTY.  Tell the truth.  Lies hurt.  And here’s a guide. “Listen, Biff.  I sincerely hope you enjoy your career here.  We’ll help you learn things, hopefully give you the tools and intellectual stimulation that keeps you learning and engaged.  We’ll throw a bonus your way every once in a while.  But never forget that this is ultimately about profit.  This is a business.  No profitability, no jobs.  So my job is to make sure that you bill enough hours (or the people under you do) to turn a profit.  Otherwise, your ass is out the door.  And feel free to engage in as many family-friendly activities as long as you bring your BlackBerry, laptop and company-sponsored umbilical cord in case your clients need you.“
2. Explain to people that they WILL work monstrous hours sometimes — but then tell them how you will compensate them for it.  Many of us have pulled all-nighters (willingly) to make sure that a client is happy and that there is a job well done.  But when you do enough of these, you burn out.  So tell your employee a) that your recognize that he/she will occasionally transcend normal working limits.  But then tell them a) they will HAVE to take the next day off; b) ask them what they need to rejuvenate; c) talk to them about either monetary or other perks that really mean something to them as a reward for going well above the call of duty.  Oh- and if you talk to your employee — really talk — you will learn what they like – and need.  So a $100 gift certificate to the GAP is ok, but $50 dollars in flowers is nicer if your employee likes roses.
3. Finally, be scared as hell. If you manage a staff of smart, dedicated people, know that your business assets walk out the door every day.  And you’d better pray that they return.  So many agencies in which I have worked lose sight of this fact that should scare them straight.  If your top producers are not masochistic, the grass will always be greener somewhere else if you whip them to death or are dishonest.  And this should scare the crap out of you.

Enough of the Oprah-style confessions.  Bottom line is that the best way to have continued success for your agency is to realize that it depends heavily upon the happiness of your staff.  If they are happy, they will produce.  If they produce, you’ll make your precious numbers.

Period.  Full stop.

Mark

©2010 intersection of online and offline. All Rights Reserved.

As promised,  here is the second post (and first tip) on how to build a first-class online reputation management group. As I have mentioned, this is a series of posts that offer what I think are the keys to success in establishing, promoting or defending your company’s issues or reputation in the online environment.  And doing so within the corporate or agency environment.   So here goes, dear readers:

Tip #1 Hire the best minds you can, regardless of age – and pay them what they deserve.

This one is a personal irritation for me.  I spent 15 years in the agency world, and as I ascended the corporate ladder, I assumed a greater role in the hiring process.  My ascension, however, rarely coincided with the sole ability to determine compensation.  Recession aside, I cannot tell you how many times I argued with upper management about the compensation package for potential recruits who were top-notch people.  It’s hard enough to find a stellar candidate, but then the dance begins.  And you can bet your bottom dollar that your competitors are in the dance too.

The following conversation was one that I had years ago that was my first slap-in-the-face moment when it came to fighting the fight for top-notch talent.

MARK: Candidate XYZ is outstanding.  The best I have seen in a long time.  Why can’t we go higher on the salary?  Or get more creative in the compensation?

HR LUDDITE: Mark, we did a survey of all of the agencies in our space and we determined that our salaries fall right in the industry average.

MARK: If we pay the industry average, how can we expect anything but AVERAGE EMPLOYEES??!?!?

HR LUDDITE: “[sputter, stammer] Well…well…”  What she was really thinking:  “F**K YOU, MARK.”

Writer’s note:  stupid should hurt.

The conversation above was real (except for what I imagine the HR person was thinking, but I bet it was close), but it makes the point that if you want top-notch people, you have to pay top-notch salaries.  Period.  Full stop. I get that we are in a recession and profit margins are shrinking, so if you can’t pay top dollar, why not:

• Give regular, merit bonuses for excellent work?
• Offer working from home whenever your person needs it?
• Give him/her every other Friday off?
• Or get REALLY creative?   I once managed to convince upper management that it was time to reward people by showing that we not only appreciated them, but understood them as people.  So one woman got a full-day spa treatment, one got a trip and a pass for an industry expo, one got a plane ticket home ot Puerto Rico, etc.

You get my point.  If your people have made money for you and worked above and beyond, then compensate them in ways that go above and beyond AND show an understanding of what they are likely to value most.

There are a zillion ways to get creative in compensation, but the bottom line is that if you want more than average, you have to compensate in more than average fashion.  Period.

Coming Up:

1. Hire the best minds you can, regardless of age – and pay them what they deserve.
2. When you hire people, don’t bait the hook with “work-life balance” and then work people to death.  And if they do have to work monstrous hours, compensate them creatively.
3. Give them the software, hardware and online tools to be successful.  Don’t ask people to fight with one hand tied behind their backs.
4. Encourage intellectual curiosity in your staff.  Push reading and conferences so that their minds are fresh and challenged.
5. When it comes to your client(s), select the right mix of tools that enables them to really — REALLY — monitoring the company/client’s online reputation.  This means print news, online news, trade pubs, blogs, Twitter, TV, radio and attack sites.  You must look at everything.
6. When you are doing the monitoring, pick the right people to assess the opportunity or threat.  That means knowing that venues really matter, the potential viral nature of the information, and most importantly, how to calibrate your response to the threat or opportunity presented. And oh — they have to have an excellent understanding of the subject matter.  So junior staff here, folks.
7. When you find a threat that is serious, use ALL of the tools at your disposal.  That could be full-blown Web sites, dark Web sites that can be activated quickly, blogs, Tweets, third-party online and offline recruitment and activation as well as — yes, this is controversial — opposition research and, if necessary, opposition depositioning. That’s right, if you are getting attacked, attack back.
8. Look at social media like learning a language.  The more that your staff (and you) know, the more that you will not know.  This is where #4 comes in handy – if you and others are reading and listening to smart people, you will have a sense of what to be looking at for the future.
9. Given all of the tools in #8, do not be afraid to take the gloves off.  If the threat is so serious that it could unfairly bring down your business or client, make sure everyone understands whats at stake;  and what you should be doing about it.  If the threat is so serious that people are going DEFCON 5, make sure that
10. Be a thought leader – if you do all of the above well, you are likely smart as hell.  Engage in online conversations with others that a) further your learning and b) further your reputation.
11. BONUS:  Rinse, lather, repeat.

Mark

©2010 intersection of online and offline. All Rights Reserved.

I have owed all of you some of that irascible, original thinking and BlogWorld Expo really got me thinking –it’s time to get off my ass and offer up some original thinking. BWE 09 was the spark that made me realize that I owe you guys some decent, hopefully useful, thinking.

Fret no more, my friends, for I am going to try to offer you my purported keys to the kingdom in terms of getting what we want — and what is right for just about any organization that gives a damn about their reputation.  GOOD ONLINE REPUTATION MANAGEMENT.  And I have said it until I am blue in the face, but the seeds of a company’s reputation are sown in the online environment and harvested in the offline world.  Sure, pitch the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal, but your chances of success are a lot higher in the online environment.

So what am I talking about?  I am composing an entire series of posts: “Top Ten Tips on How to Build a First-Rate Online Public Affairs Offering – Or At Least One that Doesn’t Suck.“  I will post the first one tomorrow, but expect upcoming posts that offer what I think are the keys to success in establishing, promoting or defending your company’s issues or reputation in the online environment.  And doing so within the corporate or agency environment.   So here goes, dear readers:

My Top Ten Tips:

1. Hire the best minds you can, regardless of age – and pay them what they deserve.
2. When you hire people, don’t bait the hook with “work-life balance” and then work people to death.  And if they do have to work monstrous hours, compensate them creatively.
3. Give them the software, hardware and online tools to be successful.  Don’t ask people to fight with one hand tied behind their backs.
4. Encourage intellectual curiosity in your staff.  Push reading and conferences so that their minds are fresh and challenged.
5. When it comes to your client(s), select the right mix of tools that enables them to really — REALLY — monitoring the company/client’s online reputation.  This means print news, online news, trade pubs, blogs, Twitter, TV, radio and attack sites.  You must look at everything.
6. When you are doing the monitoring, pick the right people to assess the opportunity or threat.  That means knowing that venues really matter, the potential viral nature of the information, and most importantly, how to calibrate your response to the threat or opportunity presented. And oh — they have to have an excellent understanding of the subject matter.  So junior staff here, folks.
7. When you find a threat that is serious, use ALL of the tools at your disposal.  That could be full-blown Web sites, dark Web sites that can be activated quickly, blogs, Tweets, third-party online and offline recruitment and activation as well as — yes, this is controversial — opposition research and, if necessary, opposition depositioning. That’s right, if you are getting attacked, attack back.
8. Look at social media like learning a language.  The more that your staff (and you) know, the more that you will not know.  This is where #4 comes in handy – if you and others are reading and listening to smart people, you will have a sense of what to be looking at for the future.
9. Given all of the tools in #8, do not be afraid to take the gloves off.  If the threat is so serious that it could unfairly bring down your business or client, make sure everyone understands whats at stake;  and what you should be doing about it.  If the threat is so serious that people are going DEFCON 5, make sure that you CAN go to DEFCON 5.
10. Be a thought leader – if you do all of the above well, you are likely smart as hell.  Engage in online conversations with others that a) further your learning and b) further your reputation.
11. BONUS:  Rinse, lather, repeat.

I hope that all of you enjoy reading this series as much as I am writing it.

Mark

©2010 intersection of online and offline. All Rights Reserved.