In a matter of months, government PIOs all over the country felt more pressure than ever after COVID-19 replaced our sense of normalcy with a constant need to be on, added stress from the financial crisis and exposed racist practices in policing and healthcare, which made national headlines and led to the start of a cultural revolution during an election year. Whew. What a time. Especially for...

Do you have comment overload? During this week’s Government Social Media Chat, we got together virtually to decompress and get some great advice on how to handle comments in, “Keeping up with the Comments! Strategy help for overworked #SocialGov.” Before we jumped in this week, we let everyone know about the Social for Safety Conference coming this September, virtually this...

Words are important. It’s not only what you say, but how you say it. You need to carefully craft your messages with meaningful, clear words with the right tone. During this week’s Government Social Media Chat, we took a look at the best tips & resources for ensuring your messages are written well in, “Find the Right Message: Tips for Words, Tone & Clarity.”

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Contributed blog post by Valerie Walston
Plain Language Editor and Trainer, Write On

If you didn’t know it before COVID-19, you know it now: people process information differently during a crisis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a crisis, people:

• Don’t fully hear information because we can’t juggle multiple facts;
• Can’t remember as...

Many communities are transitioning to virtual events only during the pandemic, and government social media professionals have to find new ways to maintain audiences’ attention, create unique outreach and more. During this week’s Government Social Media Chat, we took a look at how govies are switching (and maintaining) virtual communities in, “Adapting to Virtual for Council...

Your important, complex role as a government social media professional is even more crucial during 2020's difficult conversations. To best support government communicators in the U.S., your hard work and dedication to your communities & each other, the Government Social Media network and COVID-19 SocialGov Hub is now open, and we’re inviting you to be a part at no cost to you.

The...

Contributed blog by Yael Bar-tur, Social Media Consultant

I don’t know one police officer who isn’t filled with a combination of rage, disappointment and embarrassment after watching the video of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Add to that the many protests and injuries to officers and civilians around the country, and it’s enough to leave even the...

Jay Socol, Government Social Media Council Representative 

By now, most of us have transitioned from telling our communities how to stay safe and indoors to telling them how to incrementally resume normal activities.

The same scared, angry, and sometimes irrational voices we came to know a couple of months ago are back, now reacting just as strongly to this next wave of messaging.

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Contributed blog by Mark Weaver, Esq.

The following FAQs come from attorney Mark R. Weaver, a media law partner at a Columbus, Ohio law firm that often represents government agencies in court. He formerly taught media law at The Ohio State University College of Law and is now an adjunct professor at the School of Government at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. This is not legal...