Ed.Gov Reaches Out To A Tough Crowd
NationalJournal.com's Kevin Friedl writes...
It's never entirely graceful when the behemoths of the federal bureaucracy tiptoe into the online waters. The Department of Education, though, faces a number of challenges that other offices don't, not the least of which is attracting young people to a site ending in ".gov." "The satisfaction someone has with a Web site is based on two things: what they're actually getting from that site, but also their expectations for it," said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results, which polls visitors to government sites. "When you think about their audience profile" at the Education Department, "their audience will have much higher expectations than someone going to a Medicare site or even an IRS site."
Use of government Web sites is most common among those in their mid-30s to mid-60s, according to a report issued in January by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The same report found teens are less likely than adult users to send e-mail, but more likely to instant message; less likely to look for news on the Web, but more likely to get it on social networking sites and blogs. As these young citizens age, some of their habits will change, but their expectations will remain high. That makes today's teens an early indicator for what government agencies will be expected to provide in years to come, and the need to reach them in their preferred medium has made Education something of a pioneer among government agencies, even as it continues to learn how to appeal to young people in a medium full of other options.
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