by Rafael Lemaitre, Deputy Press Secretary for the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy

Three years ago, the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy became the first Federal agency to launch a blog.  We created the blog, called Pushing Back, with the intention of making it a central source of timely news and analysis for journalists and citizens seeking a steady flow of content about national efforts that “push back” against the illegal drug problem.

While most Federal agencies have lagged in recognizing the value of social media, we’ve quickly realized that blogs, RSS feeds, folksonomies, and wikis are not fads.  After all, millions of Americans are already using these tools on their own to shape opinions and engage in conversations with each other.  We knew that if we didn’t adapt to this new environment we would quickly lose our ability as Federal officials to be effective influencers and communicators of critical public policy information.  That’s why we made the decision to jump into the blogosphere and add social media as a crucial component of our PR strategy. So what does our blog help us accomplish?

Pushing Back gives us a way to bypass the filter of the news media and talk directly to the American people

Blogs can let anyone – including public institutions – have their own printing press.   When we have an important story or issue that MSM outlets decline to cover because they think it’s not “news,” we publish it on our blog and tag the content it to make it easy to find. 

Just as importantly, our blog allows us to respond to critical or inaccurate reporting about Federal drug policies.  A couple examples:

• When a major national newspaper refused to publish our response to a critical and misleading story about the potential for legalizing opium poppy in Afghanistan, we chose to post it on our blog instead.  As a result, the post became one of our most linked-to entries and was viewed over 2,600 times.
• When an NGO group opposed to U.S. drug policies got their math wrong and cherry picked data to attack a report we released on cocaine disruptions, we posted our own analysis of their report.  We then referred reporters covering the story to our blog post.  This kept everyone honest through a transparent account of the methodology behind our report.  The Washington Post’s online story about the controversy even linked back to our blog, giving their readers a chance to see our side of the story.

Pushing Back lets us narrowcast information to niche groups who help us amplify our messages on the ground

As the authors of Cluetrain Manifesto have noted, the Internet allows people to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed.  To help that phenomenon along, we’ve made an RSS feed from our blog available to every Federal grant recipient of our Drug Free Communities support program.  The feed - which we’ve billed as the “ONDCP Prevention Newswire” - instantaneously cross-posts Federal information about drug prevention efforts from our blog on Federal grant recipient’s Web sites as well.

This tool has made it easier for local citizens on the front lines of preventing drug use among young people to get a hold of new intelligence and supporting information we have about emerging drug threats.  In turn, these groups help us spread and amplify our public messaging on the drug issue.

Already, over a dozen of these local anti-drug coalitions have taken advantage of the tool (click here for an example).  Three of these community groups have also become top referrers to our blog, increasing our traffic and Google PageRank on certain drug-related issues.

These drug prevention groups are just one of the many niche information consumers we work with whose needs can best be met by the blogging format.  Blogging helps us share information with these audiences in a way that interjects personality and context, instead of relying on press releases or fact sheets intended for general audiences.

Pushing Back lets us share information about a complicated public policy issue in a human voice

Federal agencies sit on mountains of useful knowledge.  While government-issued reports and publications serve a critical purpose, we also know that they’re not always very user-friendly.  Where do you find credible information if you’re a high school student writing a report about meth?  What if you’re a community activist seeking to find a quick overview of the latest research on marijuana so that you can oppose efforts to legalize marijuana in your state?  By frequently posting and tagging information in language most people can understand, we increase the chances of getting our knowledge in the hands of people who can use it most effectively.

If traffic to our blog is any indication, we’ve done tremendously well.  Over the past year alone, we’ve received an average over 300,000 hits and over 100,000 page views per month.  We’re also encouraged by the fact a handful of other Federal agencies have followed our lead by starting their own blogs.  These include the Department of Homeland Security’s “Leadership Journal” and the Department of State’s “Dipnote.”

The success we’ve had with our blog has encouraged us to expand into other areas of social media.  In September of last year, I also posted some of our video content on YouTube, thereby making our agency the first in government to start using the video sharing service for public outreach.  This effort led to a substantial amount of media coverage.

Clearly, social media has a future in helping Americans connect with their government.  Call it government 2.0.