Digital side of public sector

posted by Renate - 09:54 19/07/11

E-consultancy’s blog by Alec Cochrane highlighting the main issues related to measures of Government websites and discussion earlier this week with my colleague Graham about outcomes and outputs in a public sector have provoked me to write this blog.

As a representative of the company whose public sector client base is 65%; I have had a chance to observe and work on multiple accounts wanting and needing to implement digital.

I will try to be as careful as possible so I don’t jump into massive generalisations since in many cases we have been blessed to have digitally savvy clients representing public sector and giving us hope that things in the sector are changing in the right direction.

However, there are some common patterns that very often hold public sector practitioners from achieving results or knowing how they have been achieved. I think we need to dig much deeper before we can even start to talk about output and outcome measures.

'Outcomes and outputs' is terminology that public sector is very familiar with (or should be) .Yes, outcomes in a public sector very often will be the main measure indicating the generated benefits from the service work, governing body’s  effectiveness, etc.  However, outputs are the ones that will give rather immediate taste if activity is on the right track. And here I talk about digital.

SMART public sector

This links to a discussion about the clear understanding of the digital strategies and outline of the digital objectives. Quite often (from my experience) there are none or if there are- they won’t be SMART. Yes, yes, yes, not all public sector ‘comms executives’, ‘project managers’, ‘project commissioners’, etc will be familiar with marketing practices. Usually there will be a lack of marketing skills in house. But that’s why it is massively important to learn to think SMART. Reason is simple- you will know what you have achieved, and more important you know what you want to achieve!

The times when public sector practitioners will get a prise for having a website that does “something” are gone. It needs to serve a specific purpose and satisfy client’s/ public’s needs and be efficient solution to a problem.

MEASURABLE public sector

Setting clear objectives will help practitioners to get in the habit of measuring. It is not always easy but believe me, with digital it’s much easier that with street posters! And I don’t see the difference here between private and public sectors. Both must know where their money is going and what return is gained. For private sector that is ROI (return on investment) for public sector that is SROI (social return on investment).

Alec Cochrane was trying to put outcomes measurement in a digital context however; it is not always straight forward and can’t be reviewed with suggested methods. Different projects will have different KPI’s that must be tracked and measured on and off the website.  But the message is clear- measure! Identify your KPI’s for the website, campaign, project and measure!

VISIBLE and SKILLFUL public sector

Last but not least is an issue about visibility and planned marketing strategies. When I did my university dissertation* more than a year ago, I carried out some in-depth research just to see how much attention in public sector is paid to online marketing and promotion via digital channels.  I talked to digital practitioners form McCann Manchester, PushOn and representatives from the public sector just to confirm the issue in the field.

The problem that I found was a lack of both strategic planning and budget allocation for product promotion. If there was a funding pot, all of the money went into the production of the resource. As a result resource was dead in the water because no additional financial support was left to bring the resource to the public’s attention.

So in summary- think strategically. Set clear objectives and allocate marketing budgets because people deserve to know about the great work you’ve done!

Public sector is a challenging arena with lots of resistance, politics, barriers, inertia, and bureaucracy but at the same time it is a changing arena and exciting times are ahead. Exciting times for digital technologies and for practitioners that love the challenge and are willing to change the world for good!

*No publications are available because of the data sensitivity issues.