Microsoft unveils social media directory for government
Connecting state and local government leaders
Gov2Social is geared to help state and local governments connect with each other to navigate the social media environment.
Microsoft this week announced Gov2Social, a social media directory Web site for state and local governments.
Organized by city/town, county, state and elected officials, the site brings together social media links for government officials and the public. The site is geared to help state and local governments connect with each other to navigate the social media environment and highlight what state and local governments have been doing around social media, as well as enable citizens to track activities and announcements from their state and local governments.
Built on Windows Azure, the new site is part of Microsoft’s Bright Side of Government initiative. Microsoft plans to add best practices and podcasts highlighting state and local government 2.0 initiatives.
Increasing numbers of state and local government agencies are interested in adopting Web 2.0 tools, according to Kristin Bockius, state and local government social media marketing manager at Microsoft.
“We found a significant gap in how state and local governments and their citizens could connect online in a one-stop shop manner,” she said in her blog. “With Gov2Social, state and local governments can share best practices, connect with peers and learn how to implement social networking services.”
The site makes it easier to find agencies and individuals rather than searching multiple sites online, she said. Citizens and officials can add information to the database if a sector or official is not listed.
“In the long term, the success of this site depends on state and local governments adding to the directory,” Bockius told GovLoop. “There are government social media directories out there today, such as govtwit and twittercongress, but this is the first effort we know of that brings both together social media links of all kinds for state and local governments and allows them to be filtered by locale,” she said.
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