Why You Should Love the TSA Blog

“Wow, reading this blog actually makes me think that TSA might know what they’re doing.”

-Infrequent flyer (February 11, 2008)

That’s a post the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) received one month after launching their blog.  Sure, it’s a backhanded compliment but it’s the kind of comment a lot of Federal government and agency blogs might like to receive.

What’s admirable about TSA’s blog is it embodies what many Federal government blogs should aspire to: engage the public, provide helpful & timely information, respond to complaints and promote transparency.

We all have complaints about airplane travel and all the rules — that’s partly why TSA launched their blog a year ago.   They received more than 2,000 comments in the first three days and most posts get 50-100 comments each.  How do they respond to all of these comments (many of which are cranky)?

Very simple:  They moderate all of them.   And they respond.  Here are their rules for the road:

• Develop vetting process for posts
• Moderate all comments
• Allow anonymous commenters
• Don’t delete comments simply because you don’t agree with them

The result is a thoughtful, very responsive and at-times humorous (“we are not in cahoots with the Heat Miser, but snow globes are not permitted in your carry-on luggage”) communications tool.  You may not like what they have to say about upcoming holiday travel but at least they’re giving you timely information and will quickly respond to your legitimate gripe or question.

There are dozens of Federal government department and agency blogs and I’m not proposing they all need to be TSA-like.  In fact,  USA.gov provides a comprehensive list of Federal blogs and nicely lays out the different types out there :  Cabinet-level secretary blogs, experiences of government workers (Library of Congress Blog or EPA’s Greenversations),  blogs to solicit comments about a specific policy or program (FDA’s transparency blog),  or consumer–oriented blogs (Department of Energy’s Energy Savers Blog or CPSC’s Consumer Safety).   And perhaps it’s just to promote transparency or provide helpful information/latest news (HHS’ AIDS.gov).

The trick, though, is providing information that’s helpful and interactive – not a series of press-releases.  Unfortunately, many Federal blogs take on a bureaucratic feel and shy away from embracing public postings, citing concerns with privacy, resources and internal inertia.   And less you think moderating public posting requires an entire team of employees and tons of resources—about 2-3 people moderate TSA’s hundreds of posts.

Webcontent.gov, an online resource for Federal web mangers, gives some great advice:

“More and more web users ….prefer the intimacy of the “me–talking–to–you” in a loosely formatted structure over the stylized and formatted products that we traditionally use in government.  We need to communicate messages in a new style of writing. When you read a blog, it’s clear that a human wrote it. How do we convey official information in the tone of a blog, as individual humans communicating to fellow humans, as opposed to communicating as nameless, faceless “government officials?”

Some may want to consider TSA’s other tips:

• Be authentic & transparent
• Have a sense of humor
• Establish a relationship with readers
• Write to the reader, not the commenter
• Be Responsive
• Capitalize on little victories
• Refrain from tooting thine own horn too much.
• Keep it real – no press releases!
• Admit it when you make a mistake
• Recruit guest bloggers in the agency (Chief Counsel, officers, etc.)
• Thick skin helps
• Take the negative comments in stride – you can learn something

What do you think makes a good Federal blog?  Share your favorite ones with us.  Or if you’re a federal employee, share the challenges and successes of your department/agency’s blog.

Disclaimer:  In 2008, the Ad Council partnered with TSA on a public awareness campaign to better prepare passengers for airport travel & security.  However, our joint effort was unrelated to TSA’s blog, so we can’t take any credit!