USA.gov Blog

USAGov tries to incorporate unique perspectives into our program from different team members. One way we do this is by working with college students and recent grads on specific projects or through long-term programs. They join the USAGov family and contribute to UX research, social media management, and many other projects. 

When hosting students at your agency, these tips from our own USAGov intern, Jessie Chen can help both students and agencies be successful contributors and managers.

How do people use Facebook and Twitter differently? Do they know which accounts and links in social media posts they can trust? What started as a USAGov study of people’s thoughts about short links in Facebook and Twitter posts taught us more than we were expecting.

Social media is a key part of the USAGov outreach strategy. It helps us share quick and clear information directly with the public. We regularly review our social media channels to see where we’re getting the best return on our investment.

The USAGov Contact Center helps people find information on federal agencies, programs, benefits, services, and more by phone and chat in both English and Spanish. Each month, we do a deep dive to analyze what kind of information users are looking for, so we can learn about them and their needs. 

A good following on social media is fundamental to USAGov’s goal of getting clear and helpful government information to Spanish speakers around the country. To make sure we’re reaching the right people at the right time with valuable content, our team began to rethink our USAGov en Español Twitter strategy.

User data guides what we do at USAGov. Without it, we wouldn’t know what government questions people are searching for. And we wouldn’t know how to design our content to make it easier for people to find and understand the answers.

USAGov receives and responds to questions directly from the public in many ways: through social media, on page surveys on USA.gov and USAGov en Español, and through chats and calls. One powerful tool in the USAGov toolbelt is our interactive voice response (IVR) system in both English and Spanish through the USAGov Contact Center.

During the coronavirus pandemic, government websites are working to make their COVID-19-related content easier for people to find in search engine results. They’re doing it by using SpecialAnnouncement schema.org tags.

Visit this blog post from Digital.gov to get a clear explanation of how these tags work, and find out what USA.gov is learning by using them.

Throughout USAGov’s history, we’ve relied on the expertise of federal agencies to help fulfill our mission of giving the public clear, accurate information about government services and programs. Connecting regularly keeps us up-to-date with agencies’ priorities and activities. We do this in many ways.

Take a look at the Top USA.gov Queries from Google in 2019 and compare.