Web 2.0 technology is becoming ubiquitous and the development community is finally catching up, albeit slowly. It is not until recently that the US government development arm (USAID) has realized that it too needs to jump on the bandwagon of social networking and web 2.0 technology to market its brands, projects, and mission. But like anything else with the US government, USAID is miles behind. It’s true that you can google USAID and find a website for each country it operates in, but its also true that the quality and accessibility of the website is leaps and bounds behind the private sector. It’s also true that some USAID programs have facebook sites and Youtube videos posted online, but they are not easily searchable, key words aren’t embedded, and the metadata is weak. USAID needs to be more aggressive and effective in its use of web 2.0 technology to make its results known. Young adults are more open to the idea of using taxpayer money to provide assistance overseas . Young adults are also the largest market currently using web 2.0 on a regular basis. In my opinion, USAID has a critical opportunity right now to make its better known, gather more support for funding, and share its message with a huge audience for a relatively low price tag. Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, Flickr, Delicious, Myspace, Foursquare, Twitter, etc. are tools that the US government needs to learn to use in much the same form as Word, Excel, Outlook, and email. Why? Because the old rules of marketing, PR, and branding no longer apply in this new global technological economy/society. You can no longer solely rely on press releases, TV ads, radio spots, and billboards to connect with a targeted audience. USAID needs to better communicate impact and the only way to do that effectively in todays day and age is to use web 2.0 technology.
USAID communication officers from the US Embassies around the world recently met at a conference in Washington DC to discuss how to better communicate the impact USAID is achieving in projects overseas. The outcome of the conference was to begin paving the way to use web 2.0 to market its USAID programs. But how? no one had any real answers. In my opinion, Director Shah needs to do three things: 1) appoint someone to develop a manual to give projects guidelines on how to use web 2.0 to communicate success. As of now, there is no standard and no good examples that are widely disseminated. The ADS completely ignores that new media technology exists! Second thing that should happen —each project needs to have a requirement for a communication specialist either in the RFA or the RFP. This key component of project staff is too often overlooked and communication is too often an after-thought. And finally, USAID should launch a huge web 2.0 campaign to garner the support of young adults and new media users. The benefits of such a campaign are enormous but the window of opportunity is closing fast…
