Communications Tools

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Steve Cottle on June 7, 2012 at 9:38am

Hi Jillian,

Here are a couple past posts that touch upon a couple of your questions. Good luck!

Web analytics: http://www.govloop.com/profiles/blogs/get-involved-5-types-of-web

You could also check out the web metrics group: www.govloop.com/group/webmetrics

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Permalink Reply by Samuel Lovett on June 7, 2012 at 9:46am

Having an online form builder comes in handy more often than one would expect. A service like wufoo or jotform quickly allows you to request, gather, and process survey information from staff or public.

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Permalink Reply by Vanessa Vogel on June 7, 2012 at 10:25am

Here is a site that gives the 11 best stock photography websites. I personally love Flickr. Good luck!

http://designmodo.com/11-great-stock-photography-stock-photos-websi...

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Permalink Reply by David B. Grinberg on June 8, 2012 at 12:29am

I assume the question is based upon the premise that some of the proposals made would likely be implemented, especially if proven productive and meritorious?  But I'm really surprised that your agency/office would actually be permitted by the "powers that be" to spend any money on new communications tools or products during this period of draconian fiscal austerity Government-wide. If I'm wrong, then many congrats and more "power" to YOU!  The other informative replies provide a number of good places to start.

DBG

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Permalink Reply by Jillian Warren on June 8, 2012 at 8:51am

Thanks, all! I'd love to hear some specific examples of services that your agencies are using, if you'd be willing to share.

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Permalink Reply by Toby Wild on June 13, 2012 at 10:33pm

I work for the Federal Government in Australia, specifically in the Department of Regional Australia.

1. We use the Simplenews module for our Drupal website based newsletters, some other Departments use MailChimp
2. For web analytics, we currently use Google, but want to move towards using Piwik, as it's very similar in features to GA, but all the data can be kept locally
3. And for stock photos, I think the Communication guys prefer WikiCommons image gallery. Our lawyers were fine with it as long as we used the provided image credit in the article.

Hope that helps.

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Permalink Reply by Jillian Warren on June 14, 2012 at 9:29am

Thanks, Toby. That's really helpful! I hadn't actually heard of Piwik, so I'll add that to my list.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Cairns on June 14, 2012 at 12:52pm

HootSuite!

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Permalink Reply by Faye Newsham on June 14, 2012 at 1:20pm

First things first, check with your Point of Contact to see what social media Terms of Service are already in place for your agency: http://www.howto.gov/web-content/resources/tools/terms-of-service-a...

Look this list over before you finalize your list, it will be easier to tell your legal folks it already exists or there are several just like it that could be used.

By the way, don't forget the image resource MorgueFile... free stuff and often good enough for what you need.

GovDelivery is a great tool because it also provides "watched" content on your website ("what's new on that page?"), the ability to notify a user group of something quickly (and report on actually opened items), and RSS built in to the whole thing (plus the ability to connect other social media if needed).

Twitter

Flickr (I've used it for public submission of images contest and as a storage place for rotating image content on a website)

Start with your POC... then your list can be targeted and realistic.

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Permalink Reply by Jillian Warren on June 18, 2012 at 10:01am

Thanks so much, Faye! Great information!

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