New media is changing the way government agencies communicate and engage with citizens, but the path to realizing its potential can be bumpy, said social-media evangelists who spoke during an federally-sponsored web developer conference on April 27.

The good news is that web development is nimble enough to allow experimentation and to quickly reverse efforts that don't work--even if everyone can see the results.

"Sometimes when you fail fast, you just stop," said Jeffrey Levy, director of Environmental Protection Agency web communication. Levy compared the process to building concept cars on the fly with everyone in the world watching.

But the idea of "failing" has also changed and sometimes failing fast can just turn into reacting fast.

"Failures are much smaller and impermanent than they used to be," said Andrew Wilson, web content manager for the Department of Health and Human Services. And responding quickly can turn a critic of the initiative into an advocate.

"Sometimes because we're government people give us a little wiggle room," said USDA's director of new media Amanda Eamich. "They say, 'Oh they're just government. At least they're trying.' And I think we can lean on that."

Scott Horvath, web developer at U.S. Geological Survey agreed that it's okay to take advantage of low expectations. The new media community, especially within the government, is very forgiving, he said. Experimentation, is welcome as long as initiatives are moving in the right direction.

The panel offered several tips for social media within the government:

• Chart the project's success. Building standard metrics around social media is hard. Measuring success depends on an agency's mission and culture--sometimes anecdotal evidence will work, other times its behavior change.
• Look to other agencies. Look at successful social media projects from other agencies. Then, use that example to "sell" the idea to executives.
• Get approved speakers. Involving employees who are on the working level of agency projects will make outreach--whether it's a twitter chat, a blog or a podcast--a richer experience for the audience. Work with public affairs to get a list of approved speakers so that arranging a panel, for example, is a more nimble process.  
• Make employees think twice. Create a social media request form. When employees have an idea for a social media project, ask them to right out their mission, expectations and suggested policies before they leap.
• Learn and teach. Learn from every success and failure, but also create a lessons learned document to teach future social media users. If an employee suggests an all too familiar project that has failed in the past, its helpful to have this documentation.

For more:
- see the Social Media Subcouncil Wiki page

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