As folks in this community know well, more and more people in and around government are using the social media platform Twitter. Twitter allows users to create a community of interest and shared information via “tweets” of 140 characters or less. Government users have created a vibrant and active community using Twitter daily to talk to one another and share government best practices, ideas and news.
Until recently there was no central listing of government related Twitter addresses. So on November 20th my client BearingPoint launched GovTwit, and we’ve been blown away by the hugely positive reception: www.bearingpoint.com/GovTwit
When it launched less than three weeks ago the directory had approximately 150 listings, predominately from the Executive Branch and from the Hill. To date the directory has grown to almost 350, driven by user supplied additions and ongoing research into additional Twitter streams. There have been almost 100 comments to the directory posting, and our GovTwit Twitter stream has almost 300 followers.
The directory is a resource for anyone working in government, reporting on it or looking to get more engaged as a citizen. Currently the directory is broken out in the following manner:
* Agencies and Exec Branch
* The Hill
* State and Local
* Reporters and Publications
* Industry, Academia and Others
* International
The “traditional” media is taking notice:
* Federal Computer Week: http://tinyurl.com/55p4hf
* Washington Technology: http://tinyurl.com/55p4hf
* Government Technology: http://tinyurl.com/6zvtah
* Washington Examiner: http://tinyurl.com/5onnrh
* Washington Biz Journal: http://tinyurl.com/5v4hge
Soon BearingPoint may move GovTwit to its own online home — it launched as a post in the BearingPoint New Thinking blog. They are also looking at ways to add greater functionality to the listings, and retweeting the most interesting content via the GovTwit stream, creating a sort of “best of the best” channel. Right now it’s quite an investment of time just responding to every comment and adding new listings daily.
Whatever GovTwit morphs into, it’s a great example of a company jumping into social media in a manner that adds value and builds community. And for my agency Strategic Communications Group, it’s staying true to our goal of great work for great clients.
GovTwit is an amazing tool…we used it to help grow our twitter following in intelligence/geospatial intelligence world. I recommend checking it out.
GovTwit is a great resource offering many benefits such as:
a quick way to find other govt agencies and employees
a place for people new to Twitter to pick up Tweeple to follow
a concise and impressive list of govt adoption of social media that we can all use to convince others that Web 2.0 at least deserves a look
Thanks Matt and Pam!
just for the clarification, GovTwit seems to have started from what was a wiki page. http://twitter.pbwiki.com/USGovernment
Sure it has grown from then, a lot more names and a lot more use. But am I missing it where the acknowledgment of where the original list came from?
My other comment is to possibly think of a different way to display it. Currently the small font and colors aren’t be best choice for UI.
(Christopher, could you please edit your post to put “http://” in front of the link: http://www.bearingpoint.com/GovTwit ? Browsers think it’s on GovLoop.)
Andrea – thanks for the comment. No doubt the federal wiki was one of address sources GovTwit was constructed from, and I know BearingPoint has communicated with Ari directly. Will pass along UI comment, as noted they are looking to add more functionality and the UI could be part of that.
Sarah — thanks a lot for the URL heads up, change made.
I don’t know how long it has been done, but the link sent me to a “down” website. I will try back later.
Amanda
Amanda — sorry for the WAY late response. Since I wrote that BearingPoint was bought by Deloitte, and the site is located now at http://www.govtwit.com