White House crowdsourcing effort to understand their audiences’ social media needs

Posted byInes MergelPosted inBarack Obama, Blogs I read, crowdsourcing, Facebook, Government 2.0, Open Government Initiative, social media, Twitter, Web 2.0

The White House has recently asked its Facebook fans and Twitter followers to provide feedback on their social media activities. As an example, Twitter users were asked to fill out a short survey (see article in InformationWeek).

https://twitter.com/#!/whitehouse/status/77422988332498944

After reviewing the feedback, the White House published what they extracted from their fans and followers in a blog post. The GSA New Media Twitter account states that the most surprising finding was that half of the White House followers on Twitter are +50 years old (although the number does not indicate the follower age group, but reflects the age of the respondents only):

https://twitter.com/#!/GovNewMedia/status/80288588260065281

Here are the main findings:

Here are a few interesting things we’ve learned:

* 50% of Facebook survey respondents were over the age of 50, with another 35% between 35 and 49. Our Twitter audience is younger, with only 32% of respondents over the age of 50. A combined 62% are over the age of 35.

* 62% reported visiting our Facebook page at least once a week. However, 93% say they read tweets from us at least once a week.

* A much larger percentage of our Twitter survey respondents are active on Facebook (80% of Twitter followers use Facebook weekly) than our Facebook respondents reported being active on Twitter (30% of Facebook fans use Twitter weekly).

* Over 50% of respondents from both surveys reported never using Flickr, LinkedIn and social bookmarking sites (such as Digg, Reddit, and Delicious).

* 64% said that the frequency of our Facebook posts is “About Right,” with 31% wanting more, and only 5% saying that it’s “Too Much.”

* 61% of the Twitter survey respondents report that the frequency of posting is “About Right,” with an additional 35% saying it’s “Not Enough,” and only 4% saying that it’s “Too Much.”

* Over 56% share White House Facebook posts on a monthly basis and 78% have shared at least once. However, only 35% of responders report retweeting @Whitehouse on at least a monthly basis, with only 58% having retweeted us at least once.

* The top requested content includes news-oriented posts (Breaking News, the latest news from the Administration), interactive posts (ways to engage with Administration officials, announcement of live streams, quotes from major speeches as they happen) and the Photo of the Day.

White House Facebook page
White House Twitter account

Published by Ines Mergel

I am Full Professor of Public Administration at the Department of Politics and Public Administration at University of Konstanz, Germany, a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration in Washington, DC, and a Schmidt Futures Fellow working on a platform called "Teaching Public Service in the Digital Age". Previously, I served as Associate Professor (with tenure) at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, NY, and as a postdoc at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, MA. In my research, I focus on the transformation of work practices in the public sector and the adoption and diffusion of digital service innovations in government organizations.

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