Breakout Room F1/F2 (Combined Session)
Using Your Agency's Web Site to Communicate; Marketing Your Web Site

Brian Friel, Managing Editor, GovExec.com and Government Executive magazine
Cindy O'Connor, Director of Web Marketing and Outreach, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Facilitator: Pat Wood, National Partnership for Reinventing Government Notes/team support: Lee Wexel, Office of Personnel Management

Questions to consider

• How can you most effectively plan and manage your Web site so that it will be integrated into your organization's operations and will support performance of your mission and functions?

• What types of messages and stories can be most effectively communicated through Web sites?

• Who are your target audiences and what techniques and approaches (content, format, graphics, language, length, links) are best for reaching those audiences?

• How do you let your target audiences know about your Web site and encourage them to use it?

• What other organizations can help you reach your target audiences?

• What are the best resources for advice or assistance in making better use of your Web site?

Nyda Budig, Press Officer, Bureau of Consular Affairs, U.S. Department of State
Wallis Doerge, Webmaster, Bureau of Consular Affairs, U.S. Department of State
Patricia Miller, Deputy Director, Office of Public Affairs, U.S. Coast Guard
Discussion Leader: Marjorie Gildenhorn, Director of Treasury Reinvention, U.S. Department of the Treasury
Notes/team support: Elizabeth Soyster, Deputy Director for Public Affairs, Bureau of Consular Affairs, State Department

Questions to Consider

• What are your agency's responsibilities during and after the crisis? What do citizens and media see as your responsibilities?

• Who are the individuals and groups most affected by the crisis? Who are those most interested in the crisis (whether the same or different people)? What elements of the crisis will affect or interest them most?

• What information do those individuals (and media) need to know? What information do they want to know?

• What types of information does your organization have -- and what information do others have -- that can help individuals (and media) better understand, deal with, and respond to the crisis? Who is in the best position to communicate that information?

• What have you found to be effective techniques and approaches for communicating during a crisis (content, timing, amount of information, accessibility, nature of spokesperson, choice of media) in order to get the desired information and perspectives to the target audiences?

• What media work best to communicate each type of information?

• How do individuals and offices in your organization work together to ensure that the important information gets to the target audiences during a crisis?

• What are the best resources for advice or assistance with communicating essential information during a crisis?

Roberta Mayer, Chief of National Outreach Division, Office of Communications and Outreach, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation
Judy Costerman, Assistant Director, National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, Office of National Drug Control Policy
Charles Roggero, Filmmaker, Social Security Administration (Three Emmy Awards)
Bill Goodwill, President, Goodwill Communications, Inc.
Discussion Leader: Sareen Gerson, Chief of Classification and Performance Management, Occupational Health and Safety Administration
Notes/team support: Martha Cashion Abrams, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Questions to consider

• What types of messages and stories are most effectively conveyed using public service announcements, paid advertisements, or free "earned" media coverage?

• What audiences are best reached by each of those approaches?

• What are the most important elements to achieve effective communications using each approach?

• What are the relative costs and benefits of using each approach?

• What strategies and approaches are most likely to be successful in working with media to secure desired exposure?

• Which individuals and offices in the organization need to be involved in developing these outreach communications in order to ensure that they reach the desired audiences and objectives?

• What are the best resources for advice or assistance in effectively developing and using these types of outreach communications?

Maurice McTigue, Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Mercatus Center, George Mason University, and former New Zealand Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister
Regina Downing, Financial Management Service, U.S. Department of Treasury
Carl Metzger, Director, MRJ Government Results Information Center, MRJ Technology Solutions, Fairfax, VA
Discussion Leader: Cynthia Saboe, Seminar Co-Chair and Director of Policy and Planning, Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of State
Notes/team support: Donna Fletcher, National Partnership for Reinventing Government

Questions to Consider

• What is your organization, or government in general, achieving or trying to achieve that citizens and media should know but do not know?

• What are the most effective techniques to communicate the various types of performance information to citizens and media so they can understand the information, place it in context, and respond to it?
  • Financial figures
  • Performance measures
  • Customer satisfaction results

• Who are your most important target audiences? Who needs or wants to know each type of information?

• What strategies (content, graphics, format, length, timing, spokesperson, method of initiating contact) are most effective at attracting and sustaining the attention of media and key audiences to your stories and message about performance?

• What media work best to communicate each type of information?

• What individuals or offices must be involved in developing and disseminating results-oriented communications in order to ensure that the important performance stories and messages reach the appropriate target audiences?

• How can communications strategies be most effectively established and integrated into the organization's operations so that communications functions will support the agency's overall mission and performance?

• What are the best resources for advice or assistance in communicating performance information?

Patricia McGinnis, President, Council for Excellence in Government
Sue Ducat, Director of Communications Projects and Public Affairs, Council for Excellence in Government
Notes/team support: Celeste Bové, Special Assistant, Office of Testing and Research, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, and Secretary of the Board of Leaders, Senior Fellows Program, Council for Excellence in Government

Questions to consider

• What types of stories are journalists looking for that they are not getting? Are they the types of stories that government would like to see reported?

• What types of information do journalists need in order to report government stories more effectively?

• Who has the types of information that would help journalists do a better job of reporting government stories?

• What sources are journalists relying on today for government stories?

• Which individuals or offices in the organization must be involved communicating to media in order to ensure that important stories and messages get out?

• What journalists or media would be most receptive to these types of information and stories?

• Where can you get good advice or assistance in understanding what journalists need from government?

Discussion Leader: Gina Pearson, Communications Lead, Access America for Students, Office of Financial Assistance, U.S. Department of Education
Notes/team support: Pat Gould, Drug Enforcement Administration

Questions to consider

• Who are the target audiences for a guidebook for federal communicators? What types of individuals and positions in government are or should be involved in communicating government stories and messages?

• Who has the information and perspectives those federal communicators would like or need to know?

• What are the best techniques and approaches for communicating that information to the target audiences?

• Who can best compile and communicate that information?

• What individuals and organizations need to be involved or aware of the effort to ensure that it meets its target audiences and objectives?

• How can effective guidance for federal communicators be kept up-to-date, available, and visible to the target audiences?

Kathy Millar, Speechwriter, US Customs Service and National Partnership for Reinventing Government
Discussion Leader: Fern Krauss, Partner, ESTN Communications Group, LLC
Facilitator/Notes/team support: Lynn Kahn, National Partnership for Reinventing Government

Questions to consider

• What are the key types of stories and messages that government should be communicating?

• Who are the most important audiences for those stories and messages?

• Who has the information that you want or need to communicate to citizens and media?

• What tools and strategies are most effective for communicating your stories and messages to your key audiences -- citizens and media?
  • Presentation (graphics, format, length, timing, spokesperson, method of initiating contact)
  • Content of communications
  • Types of contact people or other intermediaries
  • Nature of relationships with media or other intermediaries

• What media work best to communicate each type of information?

• What individuals or offices in the organization should be involved in communications to ensure that the important stories and messages reach the appropriate target audiences?

• How can communications strategies be most effectively established and integrated into your organization's operations so that communications functions will support the agency's overall mission and performance?

• What are the best resources for advice or assistance on tools and strategies for communicating your stories and message more effectively?