One way to leverage Twitter, beyond the basics of sending messages and engaging in dialogue, is to organize a Town Hall discussion, or Twitter chat.
New guidance on preparing a live chat is now available on HowTo.gov, and we need your agencies to contribute your own policies and experiences to make it complete. So let’s start by identifying the key ingredients to most effectively engage with citizens and make your Twitter Town Hall a success.
Secretary Shaun Donovan of the Department of Housing and Urban Development made his Twitter Town Hall seem easy, but his agency’s Social Media team had learned from experience how to make it a success. Courtesy of HUD.
A Twitter chat is when agencies invite engagement for a scheduled time period during which users can ask questions or find out more information about a topic via Twitter, much like a webinar, but the anchoring component is a pre-designated hashtag (#). The agency then responds to questions using the hashtag, follows-up with a blog post, or uses another digital means of meaningfully responding to the engagements.
The most important steps you can take in organizing a Twitter Town Hall chat are to:
- Set clear expectations for engagement. As in any use of Social Media by government, it is important to clearly define what the expectations and policies of engagement are. Focusing in on one or a set of topics can be more beneficial to the public, as they have a clearer expectation of what they will view for responses. Also, defining a topic, rather than leaving dialogue open-ended, helps allocate meaningful support staff.
- Ensure efficient staff communication, roles and responsibilities. Every Twitter Town Hall needs at least a host, a dedicated policy specialist and a social media manager, but also consider having an official or unofficial co-host on hand to keep dialogue flowing and follow-up more in-depth on questions. However lean or stacked your support staff is this, make sure they are in constant verbal communication –- all eyes will be on Tweets, and any other critical messages may fall through the cracks.
- Follow-up on engagements. Is the purpose of your town hall to end on time, or is it to answer questions from the public? Clearly define where and when all related questions will be answered, like the FAFSA team does in their blog – and remember to always follow through.
- Monitor and report performance. This may not be your first Twitter Town Hall but it certainly won’t be your last engagement with citizens. Be sure to thoroughly measure and report the performance of the event so you can improve your overall Social Media strategy’s effectiveness in improving citizen services and reducing costs.
For best practices, take a look at agencies including the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Student Aid:
HUD started small by organizing a discussion on the Department’s Open Government progress, and applied what they learned for the Strong Cities, Strong Communities Twitter Townhall .
FAFSA is a leading example of following up on engagements and setting clear expectations, illustrated when they note “Can’t make the live session? A summary of #AskFAFSA Office Hours, including the full Q&A, will be posted on Storify and the ED.gov blog following the event.”
The Department of Health and Human Services HealthFinder.gov also has in-depth guidance on how to host a Twitter chat that many agencies have used to share their own guidance. Take a look and see what you can customize for your own agency from this fantastic resource.
The Department of Agriculture’s #AskUSDA Twitter chats are now a monthly feature of the agency, with diverse topic areas already successfully covered under their belt.
The White House conducted the most high-profile Twitter Town Hall so far, with the President personally answering questions.
Every Twitter Town Hall will be different, but if your agency looks at these key ingredients for success, or customizes this sample agenda from HowTo.gov to get you started, your team will be on its way to a citizen engagement success.
Also, don’ t hesitate to ask an agency that has already conducted a Twitter Town Hall to help out. An extra set of eyes from someone who has already been there is always a good thing.
What are best practices in government you see for Twitter chats? Lets us know in the comment section to help build our guidance for agencies.
USDA’s Special Assistant to the Undersecretary Elanor Starmer and others compare Twitter messages between Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan’s iPad and what is displayed on a big screen display using hosting software during a live Twitter chat July 24, 2012. Courtesy of USDA.
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5 comments
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Joy Fulton says:
October 18, 2012 at 1:58 pm (UTC -5 )
NASA holds excellent Tweet ups – http://www.nasa.gov/connect/social/index.html
I sent an email to HQ-social@nasa.gov about their Tweet ups and was lucky enough to have two of NASA’s social media experts give my social media team a presentation on why and how they do their Tweet ups.
Not exactly a Twitter Chat – but certainly worth looking at IMO.
Justin Herman says:
October 19, 2012 at 8:42 am (UTC -5 )
We’re good friends and fans of NASA Social Media over here, Joy, so this info comes as no surprise! Thanks for sharing.
Darius says:
October 12, 2012 at 6:19 am (UTC -5 )
I do not believe the Government should use social networks. It’s seems unprofessional. That includes facebook, and other types of networks. There are official webpages, official updates and etc. On the other hand – a GOvernment in social networks as a “friend” is a good idea.
To sum up with, I would say there should be a limit to public posts in these networks and they should all be pre-approved before posting and be serious.
Gladys Arrisueno says:
October 1, 2012 at 12:09 pm (UTC -5 )
We used Twitter Chats in conjunction with live events as a way to extend our reach, engage a webcast audience, and get real-time feedback. Along with promoting the hashtag prior to the event, we also encourage online participants to tweet their questions during a scheduled Q&A session. A useful tip is to prepare and schedule ready-made tweets to send the day of the event. Using a dashboard like Hootesuite to schedule posts has been helpful. Analytic tools like Tweetreach are great ways to measure reach after a Twitter Chat. We are exploring Storify to archive the Twitter conversation. One challenge is finding ways to continue the conversation/keep the conversation going post-Twitter Chat.
Justin Herman says:
October 1, 2012 at 12:44 pm (UTC -5 )
Thanks Gladys – great to hear National Institute of Standards and Technology is on board. Do they have any examples to share?
What we’re reading | Webtools says:
October 15, 2012 at 12:37 pm (UTC -5 )
[...] Hosting Successful Federal Twitter Chats, [...]