This is the second installment of “Build Better Forms,” a series in which we review online government forms and suggest some improvements. As we discussed in our first post, a clear and intuitive form reaps many benefits: lower data processing costs, fewer support requests, higher completion rates, and greater citizen satisfaction. Let’s run through threeRead… Read more »
People are busy and our most important task is to tell a story in a way that people remember. A few, easy numbers make that task a lot easier. … In days of old, we used to have to rely on reporters to find those people, although it’s certainly within our power to help them…. Read more »
Knowing what gets in your way names it. Then you can work around, or through it. Agreeing to disagree when it’s not possible or unnecessary to agree preserves the relationship. Preparing your points with potential objections and probing questions in mind makes you look unfazed by road blocks. Multi-tasking when distractions win out keeps up… Read more »
Although social media can no longer be considered a novelty, many organizations (especially small- and mid-sized groups) are still trying to figure out whether and how to leverage it as part of their marketing, branding, public relations, customer service, and revenue-generating efforts. In conjunction with those determinations, they must also figure out the best approachesRead… Read more »
Virtual trainings are an easy way to up your game in just about any skill. They are often recorded so you can listen to them at your convenience, whenever and wherever you can give them your full attention, whether that’s at home or in the office, on your smartphone or computer. Many trainings are available for freeRead… Read more »
Originally posted on the GovDelivery blog. You have tackled organizational goal setting, audience development, branding, audience acquisition, multi-channel marketing, and next you need to identify areas where you can gain greater awareness and participation to drive value for your organization and the citizens you serve. Audience engagement (and re-engagement) is a leading goal for public-sector communicators. But,Read… Read more »
The words we use in science, engineering or any other technical field aren’t familiar to the general public. So we use them — translate them, as it were — and in the process arguably lose the technical accuracy of the language we use.
Networking gets a bad rap. Most of us imagine standing around in a sea of name tags, awkwardly explaining to the third person in a row what it is you do, or checking your watch while someone bores you to tears with the finer points of their seriously boring job. But networking can actually beRead… Read more »
I’ve recently hit an epiphany: Blogging is not my forte. It’s not that I don’t like writing; it just doesn’t come as naturally as one would hope. But just like the average 20-something in the 21st century, I’ve fantasized about getting paid to write about my life, because let’s face it: like the average 20-somethingRead… Read more »
I had a really great conversation with one of my coworkers the other day about the concept of “plain language” which really got me thinking about writing across all parts of government–local, state, federal… Here in the federal government, we talk about plain language–which is the idea that language should be easy to understand forRead… Read more »