Tribe Communication Tools: WhiteHouse.gov

On January 20, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. That same day, Whitehouse.gov was launched. This is actually the third Web 2.0 and community organizing based website the Obama team has created since his nomination to run for President. The first site was MyBarackObama.com to support and organize communities around his Presidential election. Change.gov was created during his transition period from being elected President and sworn into The White House. This page was a place for people to suggest and vote on the 'change' they wanted to see in the government. The final report is compiled and available throughout new Office of Public Engagement. All three sites embody Web 2.0 principles of user engagement, viral outreach, rapid development, and real-time intelligence.

The site reached its height at 5 million+ unique visitors in its first month and has declined since then to around 2 million+ a month. See the graph below.

The target population is all American Citizens. Since the United States largest ethnic or race minority is Hispanic, they have also translated the site to Spanish.

Accessibility is an important issue for the Obama Administration. Their commitment to accessibility for all begins with whitehouse.gov to ensure all functionality and all content is accessible to all Americans. They have included functions such as including 'alt tags' on images to aid users who listen to the content of the site by using a screen reader, text transcripts to accompany audio clips of the President's speeches and remarks, and closed captioning is available on videos.

The main navigation of the website is divided into six main sections. Five of the sections are mainly information heavy, providing the community with detailed information about the projects and history of The White House. The tools that are used throughout the five sections that serve as helpful tools are photos, videos, blogs pulled from social media sites and topic related blogs and news on appropriate pages. The About Us page is the key tool for the website to communicate with American citizens other than the social media tools listed below.

The Briefing Room - The White House provides timely and accurate information about the President's latest events and public statements. Here you'll find photos, video, and blogs, as well as proclamations, executive orders, and press releases.

The Issues - This features Legislation and what is currently in progress and latest bills signed. In this section, each issue has the progress, related blog post and press.

The Administration - Thousands of people work in the West Wing, the East Wing, the Cabinet, and the Executive Office of the President. In this section you can learn more about the people who carry out the priorities of the Obama-Biden Administration.

About the White House - The White House is one of the world's most famous buildings. In this section you can learn more about its art and architecture, the Presidents and First Ladies who have lived there, and how you can take a tour. You can also view and learn more about the President's office, the many state rooms, and the grounds and history of America's most famous home.

Our Government - Learn how America's federal, state, and local governments work to enact the will of the people, and how President Obama and his administration collaborate with the Legislative and Judicial branches to govern the United States.

Contact Us - President Obama is committed to creating the most open and accessible administration in American history. This page has an online form to send questions, comments, concerns, or well-wishes to the President or his staff. They have also listed his address and phone numbers (both regular and hearing impaired).

The Stay Connected section is part of the main side navigation linking to seven main official social networks the White House manages. Each site maintains a similar look and feel as the Whitehouse.gov website.

Facebook - This is a fan page that updates the latest news, blog post and podcast from whitehouse.gov. The 204,000 fans are able to comment on the content, like or share.

Twitter - They send Tweets on the latest information posted to whitehouse.gov sent to directly to their 117,107 friends

Flickr This is a great way to have a real 'inside' look into the life of the White House. People are able to comment on the photographs and use (without manipulation) for personal and editorial use.

MySpace This is the nicest MySpace page I have ever seen. They have 183,413 friends.

YouTube - The videos posted to YouTube channel include weekly addresses, speeches and events, The Inauguration, White House features and White House Press briefings. They have 47,467 subscribers and 1,168,366 channel views

Vimeo - Vimeo does not have as many videos or categories as YouTube, however, contains some different content for viewers. There is a total of 126 videos and 1856 subscribers.

iTunes - Through iTunes, you can subscribe to the audio and video podcasts.

Overall I think this website is very well done. For an organization known for closed and one-way communication in the past, this is a very big step!

When trying to pull videos and images to this Squidoo lens to share, I was unable to add because of heavy copyright infringements. That does hamper the spread of information.

One way to encourage the community to speak up and give feedback through the online form or participate in the social media channels is to highlight the best conversations of the week. This could be a tab on the main navigation or a summary of each week on the blog. Pointing out positive comments or addressing the questions/comments of the week will show the community that you are listening and reward them for their participation.

Gone are the days of the one-way, closed communications. In a Web 2.0 world, where the consumer holds the power through the web and social media tools, companies must adjust to survive. Whitehouse.gov and the addition of the Office of Public Engagement is a great example how one of the largest organizations known for red tape and one-way conversations has made the change. It's all about having conversations with your customers and not at.

What are you doing to engage and listen to your customers?