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Preliminary Results from Voter Registration Partnership with Facebook

The first phase of our partnership with Facebook included Facebook "megaphones" being rolled out in a handful of states with rapidly approaching voter registration deadlines. Facebook's megaphone is a featured box that is displayed at the top of all user's News Feeds. (You may recall seeing these after certain disasters giving users the option to quickly donate to Red Cross or other organizations).

January 26, 2016 Read More

Topics: Marketing

Vote.USA.gov Goes Social to Increase Voter Registration

One of the most important rights of American citizens is the right to vote.This is why we were excited to launch Vote.USA.gov in September 2015, and why we are continuing our efforts to make it simple for Americans to register to vote. Thousands of sites link to USA.gov as the official source of government information and services. Beginning this week, Facebook is reminding its users of state voter registration deadlines and linking prominently to Vote.USA.gov to help users complete the registration process. Users can also share their registration status with friends and family, which can be a powerful tool in influencing others to register.

January 19, 2016 Read More

Topics: Marketing

#SomosSocial: Bilingual Twitter Chats - How to Do Them Effectively

There are 11.7 million + reasons to be on Twitter - the approximate number of Hispanics in the U.S. who are using the platform. And out of those 11.7 million, 43% tweet in English and in Spanish. Hispanics over index their counterparts when it comes to digital technologies and services, but how do you reach them and target your messages via Twitter chats?

December 29, 2015 Read More

Topics: Multilingual

5 Most Popular Search Topics on USA.gov in 2015

Visitors to USA.gov searched for over 10,000 different words or phrases in 2015. Many of these terms are different, but have similar meanings—like jobs and careers. We grouped these terms into categories and sub-categories in order to get a larger view of what people want from the government. The most popular search topics this year were related to:

December 29, 2015 Read More

Topics: Content, Performance and Analytics

Meeting Video Accessibility Standards - A Case Study

Exploring and capturing interesting government careers is at the heart of Kids.gov’s content marketing strategy. Original scripting, curating through our various publishing channels, and promoting become the lifecycle of every video that we create.

December 11, 2015 Read More

Topics: User Experience and Accessibility

Learning How to Build a Better "Front Door" for the Federal Government

Over the last several months, staff from General Service Administration’s USAGov and 18F teams have been talking to Americans around the country about the good, the bad, and the ugly of interacting with their federal government. The goal of the research is to gain a better understanding of how we can build a better "front door" to the federal government by building new digital services and enhancing existing ones.

December 08, 2015 Read More

Topics: User Experience and Accessibility

Transforming How the Government Interacts with the Public

The government, and its services, are complicated to navigate. USAGov is working to change that. Over the years, we’ve evolved from providing information in print and launching a web portal to answering people's questions on social media and embracing content marketing. We serve as a guide to government information and services, and we are doing it in both English and Spanish.

November 17, 2015 Read More

Topics: Multilingual

Historic Tenure Ends After Almost Half Century with the Government

In 1975, Warren Snaider was a few years into his job at GSA’s two-person Federal Information Center in Sacramento, Calif., when he was confronted by a man wearing a suit and tie and obviously carrying a gun. The federal office was located inside the U.S. courthouse and the metal detectors had not yet arrived in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of President Ford.

November 12, 2015 Read More

#SomosSocial: 5 Keys for Government to Reach Hispanics Through Social Media

Hispanics are one of fastest growing demographics in the U.S. But like any demographic, there are important nuances to consider when connecting with this audience. Insight into your audience’s motivations, behavior and preferences is key for anyone trying to engage with the public.  

November 04, 2015 Read More

Sharing Our Work at the UXDC Conference

Earlier this year, we dramatically overhauled both the content and design of USA.gov and GobiernoUSA.gov. On the back end, we moved to a structured content model that allows content to be created once and used everywhere. We also reorganized teams to support all of these changes.

November 03, 2015 Read More

Topics: User Experience and Accessibility

About this Blog

USAGov, Search.gov and Vote.gov work to make it easier for people to find information from their government about the services they need. Follow our journey and help us learn as we go. 

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