Ten Ways To Make Twitter Useful For Government

3. Remember security
Government IT must always take security into account. Even though tweeting is a great way to make the government more accessible, it means nothing when workers are being affected by malware. Tweeting is a communications platform. It shouldn’t provide a back door for data thieves to use to access IT systems and databases.

4. Education is key
When it comes time for workers to start tweeting, IT personnel need to educate government workers on best practices and on security issues that might arise. If they allow workers to set out in the world of Twitter with no guidance, it could spell trouble.

5. Quantity matters
Tweeting once every week won’t be enough. Governments looking to start tweeting need to maintain a regular stream of Twitter updates. At the same time, they shouldn’t go overboard—Twitter users don’t want their streams overrun with government tweets. A good rule of thumb: Stay between three and 10 tweets per day.

6. Quality matters too
Once workers start tweeting, IT should remind them that users don’t want to read tweets that they don’t care about — they want to see tweets that are on-topic. It’s also important to remind staff that they represent the government, so tweets should be grammatically sound. The public wants to know that the people working for them are qualified. That should come across in every tweet.

7. Engage in dialogue
Tweeting will help a government in its PR endeavours, but it can only go so far if workers don’t respond to queries by other users. Did a few followers ask a question? Are they wondering what the last tweet meant? Simply ignoring those questions won’t do anyone any good. They need to be answered.

8. Ensure relevance
Government agencies need to set guidelines for the topics their workers post on Twitter. They should be kept relevant to the work of the government. It’s a simple rule, but it’s extremely important.

9. It’s a work account
Following those lines, it’s important to remind workers that the account they are using isn’t a personal Twitter account. It’s a work account that should be handled professionally. Never should personal discourse become part of the conversation.

10. Some review might be needed
Simply educating employees and giving them some tweeting guidelines probably won’t be enough. From time to time, IT workers will need to review tweets to ensure staffers are following the rules. IT staff should also check to make sure tweets are serving the agency’s objectives. If they don’t, workers should be reminded to keep focused on the agency’s business.

Governments have many ways to communicate with the public. Twitter and the Internet are the latest. Government agencies have to make sure they are using these new communication channels at least as effectively as they are using the long-established ones.