People pretty regularly put out calls for position descriptions, skills needed, interview questions, etc. for social media specialists. I suppose some folks have them, but let’s use the power of social media to identify what it takes to lead social media for an agency. Wisdom of the crowd, anyone? For this post, we’ll discuss theRead… Read more »
Today, the following request came from a colleague at another federal agency via the Web Content Managers Forum, the gov’t-only group of 2500+ folks: I need ammunition/stats from other federal agencies regarding the value of social media, specifically in terms of an agency’s obligation to be transparent and to reach and serve ppl where theyRead… Read more »
People ask me all the time how we commit staff time to responding to comments. But it often depends on circumstances, and can change even hour to hour. Your goal is to find a sweet spot between responding to everyone (often poses impossible time demands) and responding to no one (not taking advantage of opportunitiesRead… Read more »
Note: everything I discuss below is from me as a private individual, not representing anything connected to EPA, the federal government, or anyone else.) Have you heard of microfinancing? The basic idea is that by making very small loans to entrepreneurs (like $25) in developing areas, you help them help themselves and contribute to theRead… Read more »
We’re looking for someone with creativity, initiative, and great web coding skills (HTML, CSS, JS). The job listing is open from now until April 7. We’re the team that manages EPA’s home page and many sites, including Earth Day. You might also get involved in emergencies, like our Japan nuclear emergency site. We also manageRead… Read more »
Here’s a discussion from a gov’t web managers listserv. The original question was: should gov’t Facebook pages allow people to post? I want to be very clear: I interpreted this question as being about posts – where they start a whole new item: text, photos, videos, links, etc. I’m emphatically NOT talking about accepting comments.Read… Read more »
My friend Candi Harrison’s latest blog post is well worth reading: http://candioncontent.blogspot.com/2011/02/successful-web-leaders-communicate.html I recommend this not only because I’ve successfully implemented her advice as a leader, but also because it works for me as a manager. I love helping my team succeed, and it’s best when they make that as easy as possible.
We’re under a tight deadline to produce a map similar to the one at Recovery.gov. To be clear, we just need a static image with rollovers that appear as you mouse over a state. Not a Google-like map, not anything fancy or GIS-based. Just an image that will show a little info and then letRead… Read more »
At EPA, we’ve started using regular heat maps to experiment and assess success on our home page. These visual presentations show where people are clicking – hotter colors mean more clicks. Every month, we update our popular topics list based on what people are searching for. We also often try out new features. So weRead… Read more »
So … blogging. Wow. It’s been months. It’s not that I haven’t thought of stuff to write, but rather that I’ve been so busy at work that I’m too tired once I’m home. But today brought two fun things: being in a documentary about open government and then being mentioned on the Washington Post’s siteRead… Read more »