Pitfalls in Government Social Networks Targeted at External Users

Governments are increasingly adding social networking experiences to their external-facing websites as a way to increase user engagement and provide better service. This is happening with broad citizen-services sites, but also focused stakeholder collaboration, and even inter-agency, situations. From my years of experience, I’d like to give you a taste of a few pitfalls of using social computing and networking sites within the Government of Canada, the US Government, as well as multi-lateral agencies like the United Nations.

Adhere to Privacy Guidelines
End-user privacy concerns are paramount for your users but also for your organization in order to avoid any liability issues. Be sure to consult with your legal department ahead of time to discuss the context of the site, and set up your external-facing site with those things in mind. I’ve witnessed several occasions where sites had to be shut down or their capabilities seriously constrained when lawyers were introduced to the site post-launch.

Establish Sound Governance and Terms of Engagement
A best practice for managing an external as well as an internal social networking site is for users to explicitly read and agree to your site’s terms and conditions - similar in approach to those found on popular social networking sites, but dissimilar in their terms and conditions.  These terms and conditions help make sure users are informed about what they can and cannot do when agreeing to be a member and participate in your site. At certain times and locations within your site, you may want to remind them of a few of the important terms and conditions, on an ongoing basis, to ensure compliance.

Here are a few more to get you thinking:

• Managing Feedback - If you are explicitly asking users for ideas, be prepared to do something with the feedback.
• Be Engaging - Don’t forget that in our modern, attention-driven, and competitive environment, rich media and other easy-to-consume formats is often the best way to communicate and engage users.
• Common Look and Feel Standards - Don’t forget that the Government has rules on presentation of content and collaboration to external users – make the common look and feel your friend.

To learn about best practices and the possible pitfalls of your externally-facing social networking site, please join our CEO, JB Holston, for “Government 2.0 Gotchas” during Microsoft's innovation@gov workshop at GTEC 2010 on October 5th at 10am ET where he will discuss the above and more. To register for innovation@gov, please click here: http://bit.ly/cgVIVz.