Rock Creek Roundup (December 2 Edition)

Posted by: Amy Hooker, Director of Online Marketing Dec 02, 2011 0 Comments

NASA launches a mobile app store for employees, a study ranks federal agencies on social media engagement, and President Obama joins Google+, all in this week’s version of the Rock Creek Roundup!

—While NASA has a knack for developing engaging and desirable applications for public use, it has now launched a mobile apps store for agency personnel and contractors to access information from their mobile devices. The store is aimed at providing employees with access to information crucial to their jobs anytime, anywhere. While the Apps@NASA store isn’t open to the public, it shows the level of commitment to embrace technology despite constraints and obstacles. Currently the apps will be able to be access by those using iPhones and Andriod devices. While there are only two apps in the store, NASA expects to have more in the near future.

—As agencies make the move to develop presences on social networks, a study has found that few federal agencies are actually engaging with citizens. The study, Federal Social Media Index, counted how many times the agencies asked for feedback and how much feedback they received. The top ranked agencies were the U.S. Mint, Homeland Security Department, Marine Corps, and National Park Foundation. These agencies averaged the highest response rate for the initial week of the study. Over the first week, agencies asked 231 questions on Twitter with 178 responses for a 77% percent response rate. The goal of the study is to bring the people behind the accounts together, help them learn from current efforts, and inform other agencies about to tackle social media.

—On Wednesday, President Obama officially joined Google+ with a verified account. While the President himself isn’t managing the page, it’s a space to get connected with the 2012 campaign. The new addition to Google+ is an important one for the network as the President has been on social media since 2008 using it to boost his previous campaign and engage with citizens. While the page has yet to receive fanfare similar to his Facebook and Twitter feeds, it’s yet another channel to reach out and access the public.

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Amy Hooker

Director of Online Marketing

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