Census plans online campaigns for 2010

The Census Bureau is moving slowly and reluctantly toward the online world for 2010. Although it has no plans to let people file their responses online this year, it plans to reach out to various population groups in online campaigns to get responses.

The Census is expected to begin using an online response system in 2020, but that is still 10 years away and 300 million responses too late for the current head count. This time around, the Census is planning to use the online "medium" to convince different groups to fill out their forms and mail them in.

One group targeted online is described as single and mobile, having just entered the work force for the first time. Census has developed an online social media strategy to reach them. The bureau has also produced videos to post on YouTube and other interactive media.

"What's great about social networking is that we just need to create a basic skin and a page, and it takes on a life of its own," Timothy Queenan, executive director of the digital business strategy for Draftfcb, tells nextgov.com. Draftfcb is an advertising agency network that worked with other partner agencies to develop paid media plans to advertise the census.

Census is also posting an online chart that the public can monitor showing the percentage of residents in a neighborhood that have returned their census form on a daily basis.

For more on Census plans:
- see this nextgov.com article

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