1. Government-to-Citizen
Communications: Utilising multiple
digital channels effectively
Liz Azyan investigates how government can better communicate
Liz Azyan is an independent
researcher and blogger
and engage with citizens online with limited resources
specialising in government
communication and
engagement online. For more
information, go to
www.lgeoresearch.com
There has been a huge shift in how individuals get More and more government agencies are taking to
their information. The evolution of the Internet and social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook,
the advent of new communication channels such as YouTube, Blogs and Flickr to communicate with
text messaging and social media are playing a big citizens.
role in the daily lives of citizens everywhere.
Later we will explore how the Driving Standards
Agency (DSA) uses automated email alerts to advise
thousands of subscribers to changing content
Government Communication Today
In order to engage with citizens today, it is
published on the its website, DirectGov, Twitter and
important for government to communicate in new
YouTube. This has enabled DSA to reach and engage
ways, keep the message clear, and make
many more citizens and provide better service as a
information easy to get. However, technology is
direct result of better promotion and greater
only an enabler and not the solution. Integration of
awareness of DSA information sources.
While there is an increase in use of social media
the various online tools for access to services and
channels, the most common and visited
information is needed to make the most out of the
communication and engagement method is still the
web. Online tools are an essential precondition for
government website itself. The challenge remains:
engagement, but quantity does not mean quality.
how can government use all the various channels
Active promotion and an integrated approach to
effectively?
managing digital channels is key to effective
communication and engagement.
The rise of the new social web has somewhat
overwhelmed web users with information and is
changing the way they consume it. Today, citizen
engagement calls for a more strategic, simpler and
more manageable approach, so that citizens are
able to consume and benefit from it. The new
socially informed generation also calls for two-way
dialogs as governments are shifting their view of
citizens as consumers, and allowing citizens to
become contributors in the development of
government.
Why online communication is important in local
government. 1 Video
What are the challenges that government
faces when communicating with the public?
How is government currently engaging with
With greater public sector adoption of the various
citizens online? Managing Message Through Multiple Channels.
Governments are increasingly using multiple digital new and emerging digital channels, government
channels to communicate with citizens. Most of and citizens now face the daunting task of finding
them are either using newsletters via email or RSS and cross-referencing relevant information that is
feeds. Some might also use tools such as web-based dispersed across the web. This can quickly become
surveys, text messaging and online polls to engage an impractical task considering communication
with citizens. now takes place through various methods or

2. channels. Government agencies need to ensure media tools because of legal, security, privacy, and
each communication can be translated into internal policy concerns.
improved services, completion of transactions and
increased satisfaction.
Effective communication will lead to better
engagement with citizens and eventually increase
Reasons why public communication
website usage and demand for other lower cost
must be improved
digital channels. Web 2.0 has changed the government
communication landscape
Budgets are Decreasing. Tough budgetary Web 2.0 has revolutionised how the web works.
Whereas in the past, the web would be a portal of
Citizen Expectations are Increasing While
conditions during an economic downturn are
having a knock on effect on demand for services. information, web 2.0 has injected interactivity
Citizens are demanding more services to help them online and changed the way people engage with
in these tough times, leading to an increase in information. Web 2.0 sees web users demanding
demand for information. Today’s government relevant and specific information to come to them
should be looking ever more closely at new regularly. It also gives web users the option of
technologies to reduce costly traditional means of receiving that information through multiple
communication such as mail newsletters and face- channels such as the website, email, text messaging,
to-face services as a result of this increased budget RSS and social media. Some users prefer one
pressure. As budget cuts bite, more human channel over another and others might use multiple
resources will need to be pulled out of the equation. channels in multiple locations based on where they
Governments will have to do more with less and are and what technology is available to them.
with fewer people. 2 More citizens now are Over the years, eGovernment has shifted from only
accepting and in many cases prefer email and other publishing information to a more transactional
electronic means as a form of communication. As a platform. But web 2.0 has shifted eGovernment
result, government agencies can be more further by allowing citizens to consume official
forthcoming with their information. government information where, when and how
they want it. 4
The Social Media Challenge. Ever since Obama
won the US election with the help of social media,
governments everywhere have enthusiastically
jumped onto the social media bandwagon without
Government is now a 2-way Street: The “Net
realising that running a campaign is different to
Geners” /Gen Y
running government, where the vision for Don Tapscott, author of Grown Up Digital goes into
technology must be filtered through legislation, great detail in his book on how “net geners” or “Gen
regulations and commonplace bureaucracy. 3 Y” citizens are transforming democracy. The $4
million private research study showed that “net
The same rule applies for governments geners” have developed new ways of thinking,
everywhere, which means, in order for interacting, working and socialising. All of this
governments to effectively use social media, they entails a whole different way of life, which includes
must be more transparent and able to manage a whole new perspective on how government
multiple channels of communication effectively. should work and interact with citizens.
The challenge is gathering those channels into one
meaningful platform or form of delivery that “Net geners” are now entering the government
government will be able to manage easily and workforce and becoming tax-paying citizens. Their
citizens will see as seamless, proactive expectations are pushing government towards
communication. some radical changes in the way they work and
deliver services. They expect the government-
Social media and local governments Video citizen relationship to be a two-way street and
expect to get information on demand. Therefore
The rise of social media also poses another huge government best practices must be transparent and
challenge, which is to bridge the gap up-to-date to ensure the “net geners” citizen
(social/technical) between ‘digital natives’ and ‘the satisfaction is achieved.
rest of us’. And the challenge does not stop there.
Many web managers don’t have access to social
2

3. Don’t make me think! Government Avoidable Contact
Local Authorities are expected to deliver better
Information at My Fingertips
Steve Krug, a web usability guru and author of services online. If a local authority website fails to
“Don’t make me think!” 5 makes some interesting provide the service or information citizens will
points about how we should approach users when naturally migrate towards higher cost information
it comes to the web. Government websites are channels for essential information.
notoriously known to be one of the most
complicated and confusing websites to use or Local authorities must ensure that they
understand. 6 communicate and engage with citizens effectively
through their websites, just as they would do if a
In Canada, New Zealand, and the United States, citizen were to call or be face-to-face with
government web professionals think that their government officials.
websites are organization-centric, confusing, and
complicated. SOCITM estimates the transaction costs per channel
as follows:
UK government websites are "complex to o Face-to-face £8.23
understand and navigate and information useful to o Telephone £3.21
citizens is often hard to find amongst large amounts o Website £0.39
of policy material not relevant to them," according
to a report published by the UK National Audit How to reduce avoidable contact Video
Office in July 2007.
So Krug’s principle of “Don’t make me think” speaks
Go “Green”
volumes when it comes to how government should With the rise in cost of materials and increased
be communicating with citizens. budget cuts, government need to find a way to
make some big savings. By using more and more
Governments work on the basis of keeping citizens digital communication, government will be saving
satisfied by delivering the services and information on traditional communication costs such as paper
they need. Failure to understand their needs can and postage costs. This also benefits governments
lead to dissatisfaction and inability to trust in their efforts to help support climate change and
government. the green agenda.
Encouraging social media uptake Video
So the key to citizen satisfaction through
communication should lie in the fact that How will effective communication have an impact
government communication is delivered through a on government? Video
simple approach that “doesn’t require them to
think”. And this can only be achieved through
methods of communication and engagement that
the majority of average citizens have access to
Finding a simple, low cost solution
which are, email and text messaging. Many argue that email is old-fashioned, other claim
it is already dead and it is not the modern solution
to the issues government faces with communicating
Benefits for governments and citizens and engaging with citizens.
However, looking beyond the challenges, But, we cannot argue with the facts:
government and citizens stand to reap huge • There are 1.4 billion email users. The figure is
opportunities and benefits from effective utilisation predicted to reach 1.9 billion by 2013. 7
of digital channels. Citizens will be more informed • The three largest webmail services attract 190
about public services and lead to the betterment of million unique visitors per month in the US
their own life and their community. alone. Between them, they have over 600
million global users. 8
• 57% of adult US Internet users check or send
Governments on the other hand, will be able to email on a daily basis. 9
target citizens’ specific needs using multiple • In the US over 18.4 million users are
channels of communication and lowering subscribed to receive Government email alerts
communication costs significantly. via the GovDelivery service.
3

4. Email is not dead. Email is changing.
Many might also argue that email is dying due to
the rise of social networking sites. A study by
Nielsen revealed that social media use makes
people consume email more, not less – particularly
for the highest social media users. 10
In the chart above, we take one view of how email
is used to share information, because this activity is
so central to social media sites. Email is dominant,
even in this regard.
While governments are discovering the benefits of
social media and other engagement tools to
communicate with citizens, email remains
Another study by The Participatory Marketing dominant and is the most accessible and widely
Network (PMN) and the Lubin School of Business’ used way to communicate with citizens.
Interactive and Direct Marketing (IDM) Lab at Pace
University found that Gen Y would be more
reluctant to give up email and text messaging than
social networks. 11
Integrating social media and email
into governments’ web
communications strategy
Another challenge governments face with social
media is deciding where the responsibility lies.
Often enough, the web team will be initially
responsible for creating and dispersing social
media content.
However this common mistake has lead social
media to become a tool instead of a method of
communication. Social media best practices will
show, in order to effectively communicate and
engage with social media, the responsibility must
lie within ‘web’ and communications’. This new
hybrid is essential because social media is no
different to other communication channels like
magazines and newsletters, therefore should be
regarded as an additional channel for
communication and integrated into existing web
Why government should use email as their
and communications strategies. However those
main communication strategy
Based on this recent study by Marketing Sherpa, it strategies must adhere to the rules and principles
seems email is not going anywhere. People still of the web.
prefer to share information using email rather than
sharing it through social media sites.
4

5. Examples of social media as a web
communication tool
Coventry City Council
Coventry City Council has nearly 12,000 fans on its
Facebook fan page. It started to collect a huge
number of fans due to the recent snow
emergencies, where people needed information
quickly about schools closing and opening, grit bins
The Website Redesign Project Blog
and other weather safety information. Since then, Camden Council has also recently launched a blog
the conversation has continued to develop to other detailing the progress of their website redesign
areas of Coventry amongst residents as well as its project. This blog allows readers to ‘retweet’, share
visitors. This is a great example of how a local and ‘like’ any blog posts on Facebook. It also
authority is successfully using social media to features pictures from Flickr, videos from YouTube
connect with a wide spectrum of users and creating and Vimeo, as well as PDF documents from
a community of interest around Coventry. DocStoc. The use of a blog to provide up-to-date
progress for the project has proven to be an
effective method of communicating Camden’s
project. It is also a great resource for other local
authorities to learn from when it comes to website
development, with public sector readers coming
from all over the world.
Camden Council
Marketing
Camden Council has done a great job using its
twitter channel to crowd source ideas for its
outdoor campaign, which was featured in
MarketingWeek. 12
Example of Email as an effective web
communications tool
Driving Standards Agency
Driving Standards Agency (DSA) utilises multiple
communication channels, including social media to
connect with the public. The most effective channel
for communication to-date has been email. DSA has
almost 13,000 subscribers to their email alerts on
5

6. topics ranging from driving training to the Highway What sort of platform will be able to address these
Code. issues, reaching the public more effectively than
current methods?
There are a few criteria’s that need to be fulfilled in
order for a digital communications platform to be
effective. Proactive public communication systems
that provide automated alerts are expected to offer
the following functionality:
1. It must allow website visitors to subscribe to
information of specific interest to them,
creating a personalised portfolio of a
government agency’s information.
DSA email alerts serve as a cross-promotion vehicle 2. The subscribers information can be anywhere
for connecting readers to DSA content on other on the web for example, the government
websites like DirectGov and DSA’s social media website, YouTube, DirectGov, Twitter,
pages. Facebook, Flickr, Blogs etc.
Almost 6,000 subscribers signed up to receive 3. Whenever content changes on any of these
alerts when DSA publishes new content on digital channels, it automatically sends multi-
YouTube. As a result, new DSA videos regularly channel messages alerting them of new or
becomes the most viewed in the YouTube Motoring updated information, encouraging
channel – receiving more hits than the BBC’s subscribers back to the updated content.
popular “Top Gear” programme.
4. Users should be given options for subscribing
Emailed daily digests of DSA twitter updates have to other related government information.
50% more subscribers than DSA have followers Like one-stop shopping, a citizen should be
directly on Twitter. able to easily sign up for additional
government information (for example: the
A recent survey emailed to DSA subscribers Met Office offers topics from the Department
received a 27% completion rate. This would have of Energy & Climate Change, Highways
been impossible through any other channel. Agency, and the Driving Standards Agency
upon signup).
One solution that is gaining considerable
“The use of email to steer individuals to updated
momentum in both the UK and USA is GovDelivery.
content across our many channels has dramatically
GovDelivery allows government to efficiently
increased awareness and usage of important DSA
“Safe driving for life.” – John Ploughman Web Manager at manage multiple communication channels in order
information. This clearly helps us achieve our mission
DSA to proactively communicate with the public. This is
a visualization of how the platform works:
An integrated platform for reaching
the public more effectively
We know email is not dead. We know social media
channels such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube
are used widely and are growing in popularity. We
know governments face challenges to tie these
channels together to ensure a uniform message,
and they need to look for ways to reduce costs.
They need to do more with less.
What is GovDelivery? Video
6

7. Where has GovDelivery been successful? Video This” functionality to allow viewers to post
and share content to more than 35 social
media channels. The agency has delivered
nearly 16 million email notifications to
Example of how it should work almost 60,000 UK residents.
4. Minnesota Department of Health has sent
more than 4.4 million email updates to
Highways Agency uses email and widgets to
nearly 20,000 residents. The Facilities
connect with users
In a recent interview with Helen Rix (Deputy Compliance Section alone has seen annual
Website Manager of Highways Agency (HA) she savings of £9,740.
explains how utilizing an integrated
communication platform has allowed them to take 5. Sonoma County has experienced an
public communications to the next level. In estimated annual decrease of nearly
addition to offering highly personalised email £26,000 in printing and postage costs alone.
alerts, HA uses widgets to go one step further by
removing the requirement for people to come to 6. The City of Sugar Land, Texas Police
the HA website to get the information they need. Department saves over £15,600 annually on
HA acknowledges the problem that most their Crime Prevention print publication
government websites are rarely a destination site since publishing it as an e-newsletter.
for people in the same way that, say, the BBC
website. So with widgets, people never need to
visit the HA website at all. They might have just
seen the HA widget on a friend’s Facebook profile
The benefits measured within 9 – 12 months
or on a local newspaper site and “grab and get” the
information they need. All the information According to the “Better Connected 2010
contained in the widget links back to the HA site
• Channel costs - cost per transaction
Report” survey by SOCITM ; 4.4 million, or
generating significantly more website traffic which 42% of those surveyed, reported that they
otherwise would not have been possible. are not finding, or partly finding the
information they are looking for on a
The benefits of using widgets are easy to quantify council website. This can result in
as they offer targeted communication and creates “avoidable contact” as users try other
proactive access for customer to HA’s content. channels to find the information they are
Customers have the ability to “seed” HA’s content seeking. A shift from face-to-face to website
across the web, proliferating links back to HA, by transactions can create cost savings of up to
using widgets. This particular offering by the HA 95%.
has become immensely popular and its interest
continues to grow daily. Sending notifications through email saves
• Cut Costs.
money on paper (Average single mailing to
3,000 recipients costs £1,693. Same mailing
size sent quarterly averages £6,772) and
staff time used for traditional direct
Examples of effective communications via
mailings.
email with measurable cost savings and
avoidable contact results
1. Oakland County 13
has achieved an Sending communications electronically
• Go “Green”.
estimated ROI of more than £172,000 on saves our forests, cuts transportation
printing and postage alone. 14 emissions and CO2.
2. The Driving Standards Agency (DSA) in the Website content updates trigger the
• Reducing the communication cost.
UK has seen an 83% increase in visitors and automated creation and delivery of
163% increase in video views as a direct personalized email or wireless alerts to
result of email alerts informing subscribers interested citizens.
when new video content is published.
Give citizens the information they want,
• Improve Service to Citizens.
3. Highways Agency leverages social media when they want it.
through dynamic widgets and uses “Share
More subscribers amounts to more
• Increase Website Usage.
7

8. information “pulled” by citizens; this can No meaningful or accessible platform to
increase website usage by 20% to 50%. integrate that information in an up-to-date
•
and timely manner.
Economic downturn causing increased
• Reduce Need for Direct Mail, Phone Calls,
Sending notifications through email reduces demand of government services and
and other Administrative Overhead. •
the cost of government by offering a low- information.
cost and scalable means of reaching the Reducing budgets mean government must
public directly. do more with less.
•
The changing landscape of government
communication due to the emergence of
•
Web 2.0 (keep pace with citizen
expectations).
Communicating with citizens during
The way ‘Gen Y’ thinks, works, interacts and
emergencies
There is no doubt that communication becomes socialise is having an impact on democratic
•
vitally important during emergencies. Government participation online, effectively putting
agencies must be ready to deliver real-time more pressure onto government to
information to ensure public safety. Here are some communicate more effectively online.
best practices: The problem with government websites’
• During the recent spell of cold weather and usability making it hard and confusing for
•
snow in the UK, Met Office experienced an citizens to access services and information.
855% increase in subscribers to severe The social media hype has caused some
weather warnings. government agencies to lose sight of why
•
• The U.S. Department of Health and Human and how they’re using it to communicate
Services (HHS) used the H1N1 news widget, and engage with citizens. Uptake is low
which has reached more than 202,000 causing government staff to disengage with
people from a total of 8,500,000+ views. It citizens and become de-motivated.
has been installed on over 500 individual
web pages.
In order to overcome these challenges, government
must have a proactive public communication, which
includes:
Allowing citizens to customise their
Conclusion
By utilising simple and cost effective Web 2.0
information so it is easier to consume and
methods to communicate and engage with citizens,
•
manage.
government are able to not only save money but
Delivering that information in a timely
cultivate better relationships with citizens as a
manner to encourage trust and confidence
result of more frequent, consistent and measurable
•
in government.
communication.
Giving citizens the opportunity to share,
discuss and collaborate where possible.
Collaborative networks play an important role in
•
how government agencies can work together to
deliver better public service and offer greater value
http://www.govdelivery.com/pdfs/gsa_citizen_engagement_oakland.pdf
to citizens.
http://www.youtube.com/user/GovDelivery#p/u/6/czdXtbOfdQs
1
2
3 http://fcw.com/Articles/2009/05/18/FEAT-Obama-100-days.aspx
4 http://www.govdelivery.com/portals/oakland_webinar/
5 http://www.sensible.com/dmmt.html
6http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2007/nt-2007-10-22-survey-
Overcoming the challenges: proactively government.htm
7 http://www.radicati.com/?p=3237
http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/metrics/email-statistics.htm
engage & re-engage with citizens
8
There are a variety of challenges when it comes to
9 http://www.pewinternet.org/Trend-Data/Online-Activities-Daily.aspx
communicating with citizens. Some of these
10http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/is-social-media-
impacting-how-much-we-email/
challenges have been illustrated in this paper, these http://mashable.com/2009/10/20/gen-y/
include:
11
http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/camden-council-uses-crowd-
• Multiple digital channels overwhelm or
12
sourcing/3007271.article
underwhelm citizens with bits or chunks of
13 http://www.govdelivery.com/pdfs/OaklandCounty_MI_CaseStudy.pdf
http://www.govdelivery.com/pdfs/OaklandCounty_UniqueUses.pdf
information dispersed across multiple
14
channels.
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