Promoting Your Challenge/Contest

GovDelivery

If you use GovDelivery to manage your email updates, try these ways to promote the online citizen engagement:

• Create an Open Government category that people can subscribe to
• Place a promotional "footer" about the online challenge/contest at the bottom of any of your outgoing email updates.
• Consider pro–actively sending an email to some/all of your GovDelivery subscribers to invite them to participate in the challenge/contest.
• Promote the challenge/contest to your employees (the OpenGov Directive highlights the need to engage employees).

E-Mail

• Do you have an email list or listserv of stakeholders in your program? Promote the challenge/contest to them.

Blogs

• Use internal and external blogs to encourage participation.
• Be a guest blogger on other trusted blogs (industry blogs, advocacy blogs, state/local government blogs, etc.).
• Once you start getting ideas for the challenges/contests, blog about some of the great ideas that have been submitted and encourage others to participate.

Social Networks

• Use your agency's social media tools to promote the online engagement.
• Use your presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, GovLoop, or the Web Content Managers Forum to promote the online engagement. Add graphics/promotional materials for others to share.
• Share some of the ideas coming in to encourage your audiences to participate.
• Use a hashtag for Twitter (such as #opengov)

User–generated content/sharing sites

• Have any video appropriate for soliciting citizen engagement? Consider putting a call out for ideas via a video that can be posted to YouTube and other video sites.
• Do the same for photos – on Flickr and elsewhere.

Texting

• If you have a mobile texting effort, send a text inviting users to participate in the challenge/contest.

Traditional Media

• Work with your Public Affairs Office to determine if a press release about your efforts is appropriate.
• Promote the challenge/contest to stakeholders and employees through your print and electronic newsletters.