The twitter brand index grows on a daily basis. One category that holds some personal importance for me are government officials that tweet. Long before I was involved in the Web, public policy and political science garnered my attention. While a bit idealistic, I believe that government officials and administrators hold a special duty: protecting the welfare of its citizens. This simple statement provides for a number of policy decisions: job creation, public safety, education, transportation and more.
Twitter’s user base includes those holding office or seeking election and government offices from every level. Prime examples include the LAFD (http://twitter.com/lafd), Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D-MI)(http://twitter.com/govgranholm) and Jim Inhofe (R-OK) (http://twitter.com/jiminhofe).
Social applications hold tremendous opportunity for government officials and administrators. Blogs & twitter, in particular, offer tools to connect with constiuents in a meaningful manner. How should this be used? In the same way as a commercial organization, as I described in a previous post.
- Emergency services, such as the LAFD, can communicate problems and dangerous situations to subscribers. New York City is testing a system using SMS… why not deploy the swam information over twitter?
- Constiuents write letters and make phone calls, not knowing what happens to the request once it’s been logged. Now, if the same complaint were made on a blog or twitter, the process would be visible and immediate. Evolve beyond PR and spin as tools to address a poor approval rating
- I’ll go a bit out on a limb with this idea: how much money do tourism boards spend on media campaigns to attract visitors? What if a twitter account engaged in promotion campaigns, much like the Zappos CEO?
With next to no cost, I challenge officials to make use of this space. Connect, discover, lead.
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