New Media

State Guidelines and Best Practices

The Office of the Governor and numerous state agency representatives worked collaboratively to create guidelines to assist agencies currently using social media and to encourage social media use to engage Washington state citizens.

The purpose of this document is to provide guidelines for social media use in Washington state government. State agencies can use these guidelines as a component of agency policy and procedure development as they see fit.

These guidelines are based on the shared experiences of other states, state agencies, industry best practices, and social media research. Given the evolving nature of social media, agency guidelines and policies related to social media should be reviewed and updated periodically as technologies or law develop. Staff should be trained accordingly.

Additional Examples

2009 New Media Workshop Presentations, Handouts and Videos

Below are the presentations, handouts and videos from breakout sessions at the Governor’s New Media Workshop on Sept. 23, 2009. Note: Documents with a file size larger than 1 MB are noted below.

Breakout sessions included:

YouTube: Shoot, cut & post

Presenters: Departments of Social and Health Services, Licensing, and Information Services

Session description: Join presenters from the departments of Social and Health Services, Licensing, and Information Services to hear about each agency’s approach to shooting, editing and posting videos to YouTube. This session will answer questions about why you should incorporate video into your communication planning, how each presenting agency produces and posts videos to YouTube and lessons learned from successful YouTube efforts. Watch the breakout session online.

Download the presentations:

YouTube website links:

The State of Media: An introduction to the new media landscape

Presenters: Edelman

Session description: Join Michael Eggerling and Kyle Mahoney of Edelman to hear about the latest trends in new media and the effect they could have on your agency. This session will answer questions about common new media tools, their uses and the rapid changes they bring to the traditional media industry. Presenters will share examples and best practices from successful new media efforts. Watch the breakout session online.

Download the presentations:

Twitter and FaceBook: Innovative approaches in Washington state government

Presenters: Departments of Natural Resources, Transportation, and Commerce

Session description: Do you wonder how tweeting and social networking can benefit your agency? Learn more about how the departments of Natural Resources, Transportation and Commerce use these tools to talk to and engage their customers. Watch the breakout session online.

Download the presentations:

Twitter & FaceBook website links:

Want to Blog?

Presenters: Offices of the Secretary of State and the Attorney General

Session description: Are you ready to venture into the world of blogging? What kind of blog do you want to launch? What should you consider when blogging? This session will answer these questions and more by showing the Office of the Attorney General’s and the Office of the Secretary of State’s approach blogging, how they launched blogging, what they do to maintain and grow it, and what they’ve learned in the process. Watch the breakout session online.

Download the presentations and handouts:

Blog website links:

New Media Policy: A snapshot of agency approaches to policy development

Presenters: Departments of Information Services, Personnel, and Labor and Industries, and the Office of the Attorney General

Session description: Have you been tasked with developing a new media policy? Learn how different agencies have approached new media policy development, what they incorporated into their policies and what they’ve learned in the process. This session will answer questions about issues you should consider when drafting a new media policy, who should be involved and lessons learned. Watch the breakout session online.

Download the handouts:

Strategies & Tools for Engaging your Stakeholders

Presenters: Departments of Transportation and Social and Health Services, and the Office of the Secretary of State

Session description: How can you better engage your stakeholders? How can you use new media tools to do it? This session will answer these questions and more by featuring outreach strategies from the Departments of Transportation and Social and Health Services, and the Secretary of State, and the tools they use to engage stakeholders. Watch the breakout session online.

Download the presentations and handouts:

Overcoming Barriers: Strategies for managing legal, IT and record retention issues

Presenters: Department of Information Services and Offices of the Secretary of State and the Attorney General

Session description: What should you consider when using new media tools? Use this opportunity to hear from the Department of Information Services, Secretary of State and Attorney General’s Office on risks to consider when using new media tools and approaches for mitigating them. Watch the breakout session online.

Download the presentations and handouts:

Additional Resources

For questions about the New Media Workshop, please e-mail Kris Rietmann, OFM/Governor's Office new media manager.