Evan, I know you are busy but I
wanted to congratulate you for recognizing the need for Twitter to make
inroads in Washington, DC. Your new job posting, looking to hire a Government Liaison, will
be someone’s dream job and give you a lot of bang for the buck.
However, gaining traction at the government level will require time, money, and more than a little patience. While Twitter is a cool tool,
too few people see you as a must have product. Since I have spent time
chatting with folks from the local to the federal level, in the US and
abroad, I wanted to take a minute to share, free of charge, a few
thoughts that I hope will help you,and this initiative,be successful.
Evan, I do know you are very busy, so, without further delay, here are my brief thoughts that I would urge you to consider:
- Deliver a version of Twitter that can run behind the firewall. I know, you hate this idea. However, there are too many private
conversations, conversations that people do not want to see floating
around the internet. You must consider this option. - Make your SMS offerings work everywhere. As I found out in talking to the State Department, SMS is key across Africa and countless other
areas of the world. If Twitter cannot be counted on in these locations
SMS will continue to be the solution. - Provide free education to government agencies, local governments, and politicians. Provide strategies that they can replicate to quickly
use Twitter to deliver value. You want to remove excuses for not using
Twitter. - While starting in Washington, DC, makes sense, do not forget countries like Canada, Australia, UK. These are key battlegrounds for
government 2.0 and you want to be a universal solution. - Reach out to DOTs (Department of Transportation) as these agencies are innovating rapidly, making great strides across the US.
- Jump into the Open311 effort and make Twitter a key part of the solution.
That’s all for now… What? 
Alright, throw one more quarter into the jukebox and I’ll give you a couple of other pieces of advice,
not just related to this new role…. Have a quarter? Cool:
- Buy ExactTarget. Can’t figure out why? You’ll need to put more than a quarter in the jukebox.
- Work with the W3C to…
Oops…. Looks like you’re out of quarters.
Thanks for listening Evan. Good luck with the new role and with your efforts in DC.
Sincerely,
John F Moore
I would also recommend that Twitter read this great post by Andrew Wilson on some of the responsibilities that this new position at Twitter should take under consideration: http://andrewpwilson.posterous.com/top-10-requests-for-the-new-government-liaiso
Definitely agree. I saw Andrew’s piece yesterday afternoon and it contains a lot of good advice. Thanks for pointing that one out Scott, the more we can share our desires with Twitter the better chance we allhave of success.