UTAH S SOCIAL MEDIA PORTAL PROJECT: CONNECT.UTAH.GOV

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1 UTAH S SOCIAL MEDIA PORTAL PROJECT: CONNECT.UTAH.GOV Category: Information Communications Technology State of Utah

2 UTAH S SOCIAL MEDIA PORTAL PROJECT: CONNECT.UTAH.GOV B. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Utah.gov is the entry point to over 900 online state government services, as well as a wealth of state, local, and federal government information. Utah s portal is a national leader in technology services and is transforming state government through its unique innovations. In 2008, Utah.gov researched and explored innovative ideas and technologies useful to Utah s citizens. This research culminated in a major transformation to the Utah.gov website and design in The major focus of the transformation was an integration and coordination of Web 2.0 technologies. Utah.gov presented it s Social Media Portal, embracing the use of social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, blogs etc. to provide a more engaging experience for the citizens of Utah through the site connect.utah.gov. Utah.gov has also released new mobile applications, offers geo-ip location aware technology to personalize each user s experience, and offers dozens of other interactive services that make Utah.gov more convenient for Utah s citizens and businesses. C. DESCRIPTION Over the past two years, Utah.gov has researched and explored different ways to connect with its citizens, provide better services, and increase the use of Utah s online portal and associated online services. The State of Utah recognized the need to reach out to citizens who use a growing number of social media and Web 2.0 platforms. However, with so many different approaches to social media from across state and local government, Utah.gov needed to find a way to consolidate information, simplify it and make it easily accessible. The state was able to integrate and standardize on various social media platforms, using the Utah.gov portal as a starting point for citizens who wish to interact with Utah government via any one or all of these platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc. In early 2009, Utah's visitor count had reached a high plateau. The state felt that effective use of Web 2.0 and social media could provide a way to increase the interest in Utah.gov. With hundreds of online services, Utah wanted to get the best return on its investments by ensuring that citizens were using these services. Due to budget constraints, many agencies were also reducing 1

3 personnel and needed to find a way to continue to deliver services and information to a growing number of constituents. Several goals were established with the development of the Social Media Portal: To keep citizens involved and informed To increase the use of Utah's online portal and associated online services To consolidate and organize the various government sponsored social media sites. To enable users to better locate the many Web 2.0 features available, a Social Media Portal was created at connect.utah.gov. Here, citizens can find links to the many social media and mobile portals: Blogs - The State of Utah has over 31 blogs across various agency, legislative, and education sites. To make blogs more accessible, Utah.gov streamlined them in one centralized location. The new blog portal aggregates and categorizes the various blogs. In one view, citizens can see the most recent posts and access any blog of interest. Twitter Feeds - There are over 185 Utah related twitter accounts that are also aggregated and organized so users can follow any number of Utah associated feeds. Recent Twitter feeds are posted on the homepage and average nearly 12 per hour. Photo Galleries - Through the use of Flickr and other photo sharing sites, the connect.utah.gov portal gathers Utah related photos and albums in one convenient location. Users can search through a variety of Utah rich photos and are encouraged to share their own Utah photos on the site as well. Multimedia - Leveraging YouTube, Utah.gov provides an integrated state multimedia portal that is based on a consistent, common media format across all agencies with over 25 channels and hundreds of videos to search through and utilize. Facebook - With over 90 local government and state agency Facebook sites alone to choose from, the composite of Utah related Facebook pages is impressive. The connect portal aggregates Facebook status updates and pages by State Agency, Local Government, Federal Government, Public Education, and Higher Education. There is also a miscellaneous category where all other Utah related entities can be found. Many of these pages have over 25,000 followers that receive updates and notifications almost daily. 2

4 RSS Feeds - Utah.gov users can subscribe to over 53 different organized RSS feeds based on a number of topics and issues. RSS feeds are aggregated and readily available to Utah citizens. Mobile Applications - Utah.gov was the first state government to develop and offer free mobile applications. Because 68% of mobile devices to visit Utah.gov are iphone, Utah began with iphone applications, however we have recently moved to a non-native platform using HTML 5.0 with the intent to eventually make all online services mobile. Widgets With the help of Utah.gov widgets, users can get state government delivered directly to their desktop. Information can be customized and, through a simple code, placed on their desktop or website to be updated automatically. Slideshare In 2009, Utah was the first state government to implement a branded Slideshare channel Aside from consolidation of social media efforts across the state, Utah.gov itself is currently utilizing social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The Utah.gov Twitter feed has over 4,271 avid followers with over 3,281 updates, keeping Utahns informed about Utah.gov news and happenings all over the state. Length of Time in Operation The solution has been in place since June 2009 (12 months) D. SIGNIFICANCE TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE OPERATION OF GOVERNMENT Utah's integrated multimedia and collaboration portals significantly add to the overall value of agency efforts and enhance the ability of citizens to find and follow what agencies are doing. Inter-agency collaboration has improved significantly by making it easy to track what other agencies are doing and identify and share best practices. Data-driven solutions have been developed that, when integrated with an immersive design, create a very positive user experience for citizens. Utah agencies have found many creative ways to use social media to interact with citizens. UDOT pushes daily notifications about road closures, accidents, and construction activities. Citizens are able to use this information to make 3

5 driving decisions. TV, radio, and print media follow these feeds to make sure they are communicated the most recent information to the public. Environmental Quality publishes air quality updates to alert the public when levels exceed the standards. Public Safety has produced a media portal that integrates video, RSS, and Twitter information to keep the press informed about traffic incidents, crime, etc. This has enabled the agency PIO to effectively manage what was previously an unmanageable workload. Utah was the first state in the nation to bring this type of technology to both its state agencies and citizens. Through the social media and Web 2.0 services available at connect.utah.gov, the Utah Technical Architecture Review Board has set a standard for all of its state agencies to follow in regards to Social Media. The collaboration tools standard provides guidelines for use of social media at the State of Utah. Agencies are able to utilize these guidelines as a component of agency policy development for sanctioned participation using social media services, or simply as state employee guidelines. State agencies and employees are encouraged to experiment and explore other Web based collaboration tools and make recommendations for additions to the standard. This standard helps Utah.gov to ensure appropriate information assurance, security, and privacy of valuable state and citizen information. The standard is reviewed every six months and continues to be revised and updated as new technologies and social networking tools emerge. Other states are now following in Utah s footsteps to create similar standards and guidelines. E. BENEFIT OF THE PROJECT Utah has seen its citizens become more involved and informed through the help of Utah.gov and the connect.utah.gov social media portal: Over 39,000 citizens are getting Twitter updates via state government Twitter accounts and hundreds of Utah s citizens Tweet daily about information on Utah.gov. The use of Utah's online portal, Utah.gov and associated online services is increasing: The effective use of social media helped Utah achieve an average monthly unique visitor rate of over 1 million visitors in 2009, more than double the average for the primary domains of the surrounding states of Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, and Idaho. While many portals in comparably sized states have seen declines in unique visitor numbers, Utah is again averaging over a million unique visitors in the first three months of The measurable impact of Utah's social media approach has also helped boost online service utilization in 2009 during which time the portal processed over 11 million financial transactions (a record). In 2009, more than 6.4 million job referrals were also done online. 4

6 Various government sponsored social media sites have been consolidated: 185 Utah Twitter accounts aggregated 31 Utah related blogs aggregated Over 173 Facebook accounts aggregated The Utah.gov portal empowers the citizens of Utah to interact with their local government and the social media services available to them give them a new connection and voice with which to interact. Utah.gov benefits over 2.7 million residents in the State of Utah, as well as Utah businesses, government agencies, educators and potentially thousands more outside the state that need to interact with Utah s government and brings them together in one convenient and effective website. 5