How government new media directors can use social media for online engagement

"When I think of a government website, I think of it as a home base," said Cammie Croft, former deputy new media director at the White House and current new media director at the Department of Energy. "It needs to be alive, well and thriving. When you go to other spaces, bring back audience to learn more about you and what you can provide. if you're not doing that well, it makes it hard to go out and engage people."

Where to begin?

Figure out what exists
Croft says that she finds many government sites are hosted on expensive platforms. "You often can save money by going open source," she says. "With those savings, you can invest in content and support for the main site, especially with additional traffic. Offer more transactional value."

Think about how you're communicating in each "digital outpost"
There are differences in style and expectation in each of the remote spaces you're communicating in, says Croft. "On Twitter, there are tweeting best practices. It's the same with Facebook. Running programs on the main government websites that communicate what's unique to those digital outposts you choose."

Find the conversations or platforms that are important
"When I think about outreach, I look to other people's 'digital homes' where they're searching for content, like Yahoo! News, Consumerist or other blogs," says Croft. After you identified those influential outlets, see if government staff or policy makers could contribute guest posts or op-eds that provide a means for engagement.

You can read a longer interview with Croft on building better White House policy through online citizen engagement at O'Reilly Radar.