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This is a guest post by Steven Killeen. Steve is an Alterian Account Manager in the UK with a passion for assisting government in utilizing technology to better meet their constituent’s needs.
New marketing is all about communicating with your audience in a totally personalized way, fully understanding their requirements and delivering relevant content that they want to consume, when they are ready to consume it. It’s also about protecting and enhancing your brand, so that customers, citizens and prospects respect what you do, what you say and who you are. As consumers and citizens, we are bombarded with digital information, which can be a definite turn off rather than a turn on. Getting the balance right requires a well thought out strategy and the right software to make it happen.
Central Government is no different: departments, executive agencies and NDPB’s need to protect their ‘brand’, name, or reputation even. The way Government interacts with its audience and partners now needs to be transparent, or else the consequences are dire. The Internet is changing everything; it is increasing the number of communication channels and the ability to send numerous messages cheaply and quickly. Too much is overkill and too little shows a distinct lack of ideas, caring or competence.
For Government, the need to have a digital engagement strategy started with the adoption of the Internet, but there have been specific reports like the Power of Information Taskforce report and Lord Carter’s interim report on Digital Britain 2009, which have brought digital focus to the fore. Much more recently is the appointment of Martha Lane Fox’s role as Digital Champion, which is going to significantly impact the speed at which Government adopts technology to communicate. That and the gaping hole in funds at HM Treasury means cutting costs but not at the expense of services (pun not intended!).
What do citizens need Government for – information, content, compliance, advice? Do they know where to go? Is data.gov.uk and Directgov working? Why not have systems that forward information to people rather than wait for them to try and find it?
Martha Lane Fox’s great campaign to get people online by 2010 will go a long way to achieving cost savings and will make Government policy ubiquitous. It cannot be achieved without a digital engagement strategy.
Everyone has a voice and is more inclined to use it online. It’s massively exciting times for Government and society in general. People are interacting and engaging on a massive scale, and the opportunities to change the way Government communicates are great.
