Having a modern, responsive website is a great thing. If your elected official has been wise enough to select GSL Solution's HillTop service to drive their official website, then they've got the best solution in the business working for them already. However, as we all know because we are living in the amazing 21st Century, an elected official's office does not just use one piece of software to accomplish all of its tasks. Rather, we assemble a best-of-breed collection of digital tools that we use to do all that we do. Wouldn't it be great if our tools could talk with each other?
Let's face it, being an elected official is a tough job. In order to accomplish what the people who voted for you want you to do and perhaps get reelected, you are going to have to accomplish a lot of different things. What's interesting about this is that you will not be able to do this by yourself. As they like to say, it's going to take a village. Or rather your entire office staff working together to make things happen. However, that's not going to happen if they aren't communicating with each other. What can you do to make this happen?
Why Elected Officials Need A Responsive Website
Aug 04 2014
Let’s face it: putting together a website for an elected official is hard work. Not only that, but once it’s been created, you are now on the hook to keep it up-to-date. What this means is that your list of things that you need to do just got a little bit longer. Ugg, well as long as you have to do this, it had better be worth it -- that website had better be doing its job. How can you make sure that this is happening?
What Color Is Your Elected Official’s Website?
Jul 28 2014
Let’s face it: if you have been put in charge of creating an effective website for an elected official, then you’ve got a big task on your hands. I’m pretty sure that by now we all understand that for a website to be effective, all of its different parts need to work together as a unified whole. What this means for you is that you’re going to have to get your website colors right.
Getting elected is hard work, staying elected might be even harder. In addition to performing the job that you have effectively been hired to do, at the same time you need to be constantly proving to the people who voted for you that they selected the right person. What this means is that you've got to find ways to become a good communicator and this just isn't easy to do.
Could I Have Your Name Please?
Jul 15 2014
So what’s in a name? It turns out that there is a lot in a name if it is the name of a potential voter who just might be willing to vote to keep you in office. However, all too often elected officials don’t take the time to remember the name of a person that they are talking with. What this means is that it’s going to be very hard to follow-up with them. There has got to be a better way…
Just exactly how much content does your official website contain? If I had to guess, I’d say that the answer was “a lot”. The longer that an elected official is in office, the more material is generated by his or her staff and the website is a natural place for all of this to end up. As you might imagine, this can cause problems when there is simply too much content on your site -- how is anyone going to be able to find anything?
Pity the poor elected official! There they are sitting on top of one of the biggest political events of their time in office and they believe that they have no way to get the word out to the voters who choose to interact with them online. Sure, they've got a great looking website, especially if they’ve selected GSL Solutions’ HillTop service to implement it; however, they just don’t think that they can add anything to it in order to get the word out. Is there any solution to this problem?
So, exactly why do elected officials have websites? Yes, there is a need to be able to inform voters, the press, and other interested parties in what the elected official is currently working on. However, it turns out that having a website that is just a one-way street is not enough -- elected officials need feedback! Asking visitors to your website to provide you with the information that you need in order to understand how they feel about various issues can be challenging because everyone is busy and nobody has time to write a book. This is why forms on websites are so important…
Ugh, press releases - they are a cornerstone of the communication tools that elected officials use to communicate with both the press and voters; however, they can be very time consuming to create and are we really sure if anyone is actually reading them?
You wouldn’t think that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and U.S. military bases would really have a lot in common outside of the fact that they are both part of the U.S. Federal Government. However, that’s where you would be wrong. Both of these types of organizations represent a vast, sprawling operation that performs many functions and serves many customers. Their website has the ability to bring all of these activities together and make it easy tell people what is going on and to help them to find the information that they are looking for. However, in both cases, this simply is not happening…
As a politician, what is the toughest part of your job? I’d be willing to guess that keeping the people who voted for you up-to-date on what is going on in Washington is probably up towards the top of your list. What we are searching for is a way to concisely get our information across to the large number of people who need to hear it. Is it possible that the best way to go about doing this is to use maps?
Politicians who want to stay in office need to understand that some of their biggest supporters may be working in their office and they need to find ways to get their support.
Politicians who want to stay in office need to use phone banks to understand how their voters see current issues and then they need to have a GSL Solutions web site to state their position.
Politicians need to understand that with each issue, there will be a set of stakeholders who have a vested interest in the issue. They need to take the time to identify these stakeholders.
Just How Important Is A Common Political Vision?
May 06 2014
Every politician needs to have a political vision and once it has been created it needs to be communicated to the world using an effective website such as the once created by GSL Solution’s HillTop service.
Politicians who want to get reelected need to create a political strategy and then do an effective job of using a website to communicate it to potential voters.
Do Voters Know How To Get In Touch With You?
Apr 22 2014
Politicians need to take the time to understand how voters might go about getting in touch with them and then they need to implement websites that will make this process simpler and quicker.
The average age of members of Congress is getting older. This means that incumbent politicians need to find ways to connect with voters. The HillTop service can help them do this.
Where Have All Of The Political Websites Gone?
Apr 08 2014
Politics is all about communication, right? When we elect our leaders we do so with a great deal of hope that they are going to be able to carry our voices (along with our hopes, dreams, and desires) off to Washington D.C. However, that’s when the problems start to show up -- what’s the phrase, “out of sight, out of mind?"