By Tim Hysom on August 12, 2010
Members of Congress and their staff are eager to communicate more effectively with constituents. They come to the Congressional Management Foundation and the Partnership for a More Perfect Union with questions about everything from how to best improve their constituent mail operations, to how to best use social media tools like Twitter or Facebook. Through our new “Ask Us” series, we will attempt to answer those questions for the benefit of not only the asker (whose identity we will carefully guard) but also for anyone else who might have the same question.
Have recommendations or insight of your own to share? Please add your ideas and advice in the comments! Or if you have a question you’d like us to answer, “Ask Us” here.
Q: From a House Chief of Staff: What are the most effective ways to drive traffic to our congressional website?
A: This is a great question and one we’ve received before. Here are a handful of ideas to get you started. While not all of them will fit with every office’s communications strategy, they offer food for thought.
- Constituent Mail P.S.: One of the easiest things to do is make sure that you have a post script at the bottom of all of your outgoing constituent correspondence that says something like: “For more information about the issues that are important to you or to receive assistance with a federal agency, please visit my website at www.house.gov/Doe. There you can also sign up to for my weekly e-mail newsletter that will keep you abreast of what is happening in Washington and in our district/state.” Obviously the same goes for any proactive “499s” you might send out.
- E-mail Signatures: Everyone on staff—particularly district/state staff—should be asked to include an e-mail signature that points to the Congresswoman’s or Senator’s website. Make sure you also give constituents the opportunity to subscribe to the e-mail newsletter. For example:
Mike Smith, Legislative Assistant
Office of Congressman John Doe
Please visit Congressman Doe’s website at www.house.gov/Doe and subscribe to his Washington update at www.house.gov/Doe/Subscribe.
- Social Media Pointbacks: Regardless of whether you are just beginning to dabble in social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), or if you were an early adopter, make sure as many of your Tweets and Facebook posts as is appropriate point constituents back to your website for more information. Here are two Tweets from Congressman Carter and Senator Harkin that do just that:
- Phone Script: Develop a phone script for anyone answering the phone that says something like, “Thanks for your call, I’d be happy to pass that message on to the Congressman. He prefers to respond to constituent communications with a written response and you should hear back from him shortly. In the meantime, however there is a great deal of information on the Congresswoman’s website that you might find helpful. If you haven’t already, you might want to visit the Congresswoman’s official website at www.house.gov/Doe.”
- Include the Website In All of Your Outreach Efforts: Everything the office produces should contain prominent language that points people to the Member’s website as well as how citizens can subscribe to the Member’s e-mail newsletter. Whether it is social media tools like Facebook or Twitter (see a recent post about how one Member is doing this), franked mail pieces, handouts at Open Office Hours, the sign-in sheets in the DC and district/state offices, or postcards the Member hands out at Memorial Day Parades, include information about the website. This cross pollination goes both ways, though. Make sure to add a mechanism to subscribe to newsletters, friend you on Facebook, and follow you on Twitter on (ideally) every page on your website and not just the homepage.
Do you have a question for us? Ask us here.
Tags: Ask Us, constituents, websites
By Collin Burden on July 29, 2010
For congressional offices looking to improve their online communications, one of the biggest challenges can be deciding what information to put on your website, or what’s most important. We find that it can be helpful to think of the website as another district or state office which serves constituents 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. What services do your physical offices provide to constituents? What questions and concerns do they hear? Let the answers to those questions be your guide.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s Silver Mouse winning website illustrates this approach in action. In the section of his website devoted to constituent casework, he includes a list of the most common questions his office receives and links to resources online to answer those questions:
As we’ve mentioned before, with websites you don’t have to re-invent the wheel. Let the examples of others and your real-world experience help guide you!
Tags: casework, constituents, democrats, senate, silver mouse, websites
By Collin Burden on July 23, 2010
For some congressional offices, the default use for new communication avenues is as just another place to post the office’s press releases. We saw it when blogs became popular, and the same has been true with Twitter and social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. But it’s not the most effective use of those resources.
Congressman Frank Wolf’s website won two CMF Mouse Awards, but his site isn’t the only way his office is using the Internet effectively. His Facebook page is a good example of how to do more than repost press releases. It includes:
- A notice of an upcoming jobs fair in the district:
- A welcome page where users can sign up for his e-newsletter.
- Frequent updates including amendments he’s offered to bills, floor speeches, and meetings and events he’s attended, all of which give users insight into the activities and priorities of the Congressman.
To see all of those and more visit Congressman Frank Wolf’s Facebook page.
Tags: facebook, house, republicans, silver mouse, social media
By Tim Hysom on July 2, 2010
Earlier this week at our House training on congressional websites and the Gold Mouse Report, one of the attendees asked what his office—as an award winning office—could do to improve their website and perhaps get a Gold or even the Platinum Mouse Award next time around. I love that question because it shows that an office is not resting on their laurels happy that they won an award. It’s something we get a lot. The best want to be better. Regrettably, we don’t always see that same focus and drive in the offices at the bottom of the list.
The answer to his question is that the highest scoring offices don’t stop at our basic evaluation criteria. They seem to always be trying to innovate beyond what we are looking for in our website evaluations.
One example of this type of innovation is something that Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) is doing. In 2009, the House began requiring offices to post a list of their appropriations requests on their website. There was little in the way of guidance about how that needed to be done, but the most common iteration became a list posted in various formats on Member websites—some much easier to locate than others.
However, Rep. Pingree took it a step further by posting a short YouTube video of each organizations’ request for government funding. Her website provides links to dozens of these videos where the requesting organization makes its case for earmarked federal dollars, each approximately three minutes long. The requests are open for all of her constituents to see, in addition to information and background about the requestor. In fact, the public is invited to comment on the videos, thus allowing citizens a more direct way to participate in what had been a pretty obscure process. Congresswoman Pingree has committed to take all of this information into consideration before making her final appropriations requests. Here is an example:
When we asked the Congresswoman why she took this approach, she said, “I think the appropriations process still needs a lot of work to restore the public’s faith in how these decisions are made. I want to make it as transparent as possible while still doing everything I can to support the good work being done in our communities. Federal investments present a powerful opportunity to create jobs and spur economic development in Maine.”
That’s the key to innovation, always ask the question, “How could we do this differently to increase our efficiency, the public’s trust, or serve our constituents better?”
Visit Rep. Pingree’s Appropriations Page
Watch the Congresswoman on MSNBC Discussing the Project
Tags: democrats, grassroots, transparency, websites
By Collin Burden on June 28, 2010
Today we conducted training programs for House and Senate congressional staff on “Lessons from the 111th Congress Gold Mouse Project”. Attendees looked at examples of successful websites, learned how to immediately improve their websites and received advice and insight from a panel of staff from award-winning congressional offices.
If you missed it, download the presentation handouts here: Gold-Mouse-Training-handouts (PDF) (9.3 MB).
Tags: gold mouse, social media, transparency, websites
By Collin Burden on June 21, 2010
The Partnership for a More Perfect Union presents “Inside the Hill”, a web series that allows you to hear directly from Members and staff how technology is changing the way Congress works. It is produced by Fleishman-Hillard.
In the second installment, “What Makes an Award Winning Website”, congressional staff discuss what it takes to create and maintain an effective and useful website.
Tags: bronze mouse, democrats, gold mouse, platinum mouse, republicans, silver mouse, websites
By Collin Burden on June 17, 2010
Did your office website win a Mouse Award this year?
Looking for ways to use technology to make your job easier while serving your constituents better?
Join your colleagues for a staff only program on best practices for Hill websites:
Monday, June 28
House Staff: 10:00 to 11:30 am in the Cannon Caucus Room
Senate Staff: 2:00 to 3:30 pm in **Room Changed to: SVC 208/9**
To register, e-mail RSVP(at)cmfweb(dot)org or call (202)546-0100.
What You Will Learn:
- 10 things you can do immediately to improve your site’s score;
- Ways to get the rest of your staff involved with maintaining the site;
- Options for meeting constituents’ needs online;
- How to prevent your site from becoming dated and stale; and
- Advice and insight from award-winning staffers.
Who Should Attend:
This staff only program is intended for any staffer interested in learning how to develop and maintain a gold-standard congressional website, will provide detailed information about the 111th Congress Gold Mouse Project and this year’s Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze Mouse Award winners.
Tags: gold mouse, social media, transparency, websites
By Collin Burden on June 4, 2010
This is the first post in our series on “building a better website.”
After the initial excitement of the Mouse Award announcement wears off, congressional offices (even the award winners!) have one question: How do we make our website better?
For award winners to stay on top, they need stay on the cutting edge. Many award winners have already launched new sites and unveiled new features in an effort to continually improve their presence on the web and the way they connect with constituents.
For the rest of you, improvement is more straightforward (but not necessarily easier). Steal from the best! Look to the award winners for ideas and inspiration. The number and variety of award winners is a testament to the fact that there is not one single path to a successful website. It’s all about what serves your office and your constituents best. You can pick and choose. If you like the way the press section works at a Bronze Mouse award winner’s site, but the issues section of a Gold winner, use both!
There’s no need to re-create the wheel—just mold existing sites and structures to fit your particular circumstances and goals.
Here are some links to get you started:
Tags: gold mouse, social media, transparency, websites
By Nicole Folk Cooper on April 29, 2010
Website Grades Were Sent to Offices Today
This afternoon, we sent e-mails to Chiefs of Staff and Staff Directors notifying them of their office’s website grade in the 111th Congress evaluations. Don’t worry — these grades are confidential and are not provided to anyone but the office itself.
Naturally, we’ve been fielding numerous calls and e-mails from staff all over the Hill. Some are pleasantly surprised by their performance — others not so much.
But no matter where you fall on the grade spectrum, we have some good news for everyone:
- There is plenty of time to improve your site before the 112th Congress evaluations.
- Anyone, and we mean ANYONE, can win a Mouse Award by following the lead of the best sites.
- And, for those offices wanting to know more than their overall score, you can purchase detailed Website Report Cards that provide grades for each of the major categories that sites were evaluated on.
We hope that you receive this information in the spirit it’s given. Our mission is to help you communicate more effectively online. Just don’t shoot the messenger.
Tags: gold mouse, websites
With an estimated 70% of American adults online, Members of Congress should have good websites that effectively communicate with and serve citizens. Since 1998, we have assessed the quality of congressional sites to identify best and innovative practices that can be more widely adopted by House and Senate offices. 
Members of Congress and their staff are eager to communicate more effectively with constituents. They come to the Congressional Management Foundation and the Partnership for a More Perfect Union with questions about everything from how to best improve their constituent mail operations, to how to best use social media tools like Twitter or Facebook. Through our new “Ask Us” series, we will attempt to answer those questions for the benefit of not only the asker (whose identity we will carefully guard) but also for anyone else who might have the same question.
