Sites like isitdoneyet.gov which provide
consumers with proper meat cooking temperatures and tips are
becoming more prevalent as government officials have begun to
realize just how effective social media marketing tactics can
be.

“When you begin to work with government people on the
client side, you learn just how passionately they care about the
issues, and the limitations that they have.” Brian Herder,
president and executive creative director of Russell Herder, a
Minneapolis based firm specializing in government to public
marketing for state and local government agencies told
DMNews.com.

Some of the biggest obstacles to any government sponsored
commercial marketing campaigns include accountability and ROI,
both of which can be measured more easily when they are
Internet-based. While traditional commercial marketing
campaigns, which are television and ad-based, have been proven
to be effective, the role of the Internet in the lives of the
American public means that online advertising reaches a greater
audience than most traditional types.

Alan Minton, VP at Track Marketing, an Alexandria, VA based firm
specializing in work with federal agencies including the EPA,
the SSA, or Social Security Administration and The Department of
Justice, believes that direct marketing within these campaigns
is the key to their success.

“It’s not enough to say `we put out 20,000 brochures’
anymore,” says Minton. “The OMB (Office of
Management and Budget) requires measurements and agencies are
forced to show real outcomes.”

In addition to isitdoneyet.com, other successful government
sponsored campaigns to emply social media tactics include the
Minnesota Department of Health Teen Education Campaign, and the
Healthy Eating Campaign sponsored by the CDC.

A bill that would require the government to monitor who does and
does not have access to the Internet was approved today by
Congress.

This legislation represents the feelings of many policymakers,
like Senate sponsor Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, who feel that the
federal government has a responsibility to ensure that Americans
can access the Internet.

Under the terms of the bill, the FCC will be required to conduct
consumer use surveys of broadband use in urban, suburban, and
rural areas, as well as in large and small business markets. The
Census bureau will also be required to include questions about
Internet use on its surveys.

Supporters of the bill hope that it will help to explain why the
United States is behind many other developed countries in terms
of widespread Internet usage.