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Executive Summary
This paper provides analysis, findings and recommendations to possibly further improve the traditional
modes of communication used by Howard County and Columbia Association. The methods used in our
research includes interviews with media relations specialist from Columbia Association and public
information administrator from Howard county, email interactions with the point of contacts from
Howard County and Columbia Association and studying competitive intelligence from other counties in
US and UK. Results of our analysis show that means of communication for government is changing. The
trend is moving towards digital communication. This paper proposes possible recommendations, which
can be considered by Howard County and Columbia Association in order to ensure effective
communication with the citizens. The analysis conducted as part of this research has limitations in terms
of data availability for Television Viewership. PEG (Public Education and Government TV) viewership
stats are not maintained, this includes GTV, HCC and public access stations.
Keywords: (civic engagement, digital innovation, financial accountability, technology)
Introduction
Technology supports communication between people. However, finding out the appropriate mode of
communication for a particular purpose and organization is a challenge. A reliable communication
platform is vital for the efficient functioning of any organization. Governments today are trying to
overcome the challenge of communicating more efficiently and effectively. Keeping budgetary
constraints in mind, one specific challenge is to integrate emerging technologies and improve the
communication experience along with maximizing the benefits.
With the burgeoning of communication field, keeping up with this exponential rate of growth has become
a challenge. It has also become a necessity to periodically analyze and evaluate the current modes of
communication and look for new ways to improve citizen engagement. Based on the analysis, this paper
also provides some suggestions for the “Traditional Modes of communication” which can be implemented
by the government so as to connect and cultivate stronger relationships with their citizens.
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“For a community to be a healthy local democracy, local understanding of the operation of the
democratic process is important, and effective communication is key to developing that understanding.
Local authority publicity is important to transparency and to localism, as the public needs to know what
their local authority is doing if they are to hold it to account”. (DCLG, 2011)
Background
Howard County with an estimated population of 309,284 is well known for its parks, sports, integrated
library system, education and richness. Columbia Association, a planned community of 10 selfcontained
villages strives to be a community that welcomes diversity, respects the land and fosters the growth of
individuals (About Columbia Association, n.d.)
Both communities use traditional online (streaming TV, enewsletter) and offline (press releases, media
events, television and newspaper) modes of communication to reach out and connect with their residents.
Despite using multiple modes of communication, these counties still face challenges in resident
involvement.
A significant problem for the government is to keep up with the new modes of communication. With an
ethnic makeup of 60% White, 18.6% Black or AfricanAmerican, 6.4% Hispanic or Latino and 16.9%
Asians (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015), government outreach can be considered successful only if diverse
communities can be engaged as partners. Approximately 73% of the residents commute outside the
county for work due to its proximity to Baltimore and Washington Corridor (Daniel Engelberg, 2011)
which while contributing to county’s high median household income of $109,865 (U.S. Census Bureau,
2015) also increases the challenge for the government in connecting with the community.
Methods & Findings
In order to understand the current standing and effectiveness of “Traditional modes of communication” of
Howard County and Columbia Association, multiple methodologies were followed.
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5.1 Site Visit: Howard County and Columbia Association
Initially to start with data collection, a site visit to both Howard County and Columbia Association was
undertaken. Interaction with the tour guide during the site visit aided us to understand the background and
problems faced by the local county government.
5.2 Interviews
An interview was conducted with the Media Relation Specialist from Columbia Association in order to
attain indepth analysis of current and future plan of the county government. Google Analytics for the
County website, viewership and timing for email broadcasting and social media membership stats were
collected from this meeting. Google analytics for the county website showed a steady increase in website
traffic from November 2014 to September 2015, Unique visitors for the website increased from 37,361
during November 2014 to 131,627 unique visitors during September 2015. The dataset for email
broadcasting showed 51,409 email sent during the month of September 2015 out of which 21,077 emails
was opened by the recipients which amount to healthy 40.9% open rate. The Social media membership
stats also showed a steady increase in membership with 8090 followers in Facebook and 2,899 followers
in twitter. The YouTube channel on average gathered 3612 views monthly.
5.3 Survey Results
Previous surveys results about “How people received communication”, for “BikeAbout”, “WalkAlong”
event conducted by Columbia Association and “NotifyMeHoward” system of Howard county were
collected. For “NotifyMeHoward” system, out of 1732 respondents, 1617 people answered that they
received communication via Twitter, Facebook or County Website apart from email. For “BikeAbout”, a
positive trend was observed for Email and County website, whereas a negative trend was noted for
newspapers.
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timings was collected. Apart from “NotifyMeHoward”, no other survey results were available for
analysis.
5.5 Competitive Study
In order to get a competitive perspective, communication modes used by similar counties like
Montgomery County, MD and Spokane, WA was analyzed to identify the best practices followed by other
successful county governments. Surveys and research conducted by Govdelivery, a digital
communications platform exclusively for government, serving over 1000 public sector organizations
around the world was studied and analyzed. Research on best timings to send email newsletter was also
studied to analyze the effectiveness of email as a mode of communication. Recent findings on cable TV
viewership by Business Insider and surveys conducted on the effectiveness of mobile apps versus mobile
website was also studied and summarized. Studies conducted by Center for Digital Government was
analyzed to find the best practices. The 2013 survey cycle conducted by CDG requested participants of
the survey to provide examples of how they used the tools available to them to cater to the needs of their
community.
Recommendation & Solutions
In correspondence with our findings, the resident satisfaction levels today in terms of communication
received are being guided by positive digital experiences. The growing number of digital media and
channels make it hard for the governments to ensure that the needs of the audience are being met. In order
to keep up with the changes in terms of technology as well as user preferences a pilot plan with the below
steps is being proposed.
1. Incorporating Communication Metrics for all the modes of communication
Governments have improved dramatically by focusing on numbers and deriving financial value out of all
investments. Datadriven decision processes have made governments financially accountable which
indirectly influences results and improves the return on investments. Public sector communicators sadly
lack a concrete framework to drive financial value out of their operations. As a county government invests
on their communications they should also be able to measure the impact of their communication to
successfully justify their steps and also identify methods to reduce cost. Citizens are the core of any
communication activity and more informed citizens make a betterengaged society.
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“The marketing function (public and private) has to rigorously justify every penny it spends and
communicators need data to make smarter decisions to save costs. In the past, accountability meant that
the agency just had to take a picture to prove the billboard was there. Now accountability is about ‘who
responded to that advert? Where did they go? Where did we reach them? When are they most alert?
When are they happiest?” (GCS. 2015)
Figure 5.1 shows the ‘logical frame’ model created by (Dominy, G. n.d.) which acts as a framework to
derive the financial value of communication. The framework categorizes communication metrics into four
main categories.
Figure 2. Framework for communication
metrics (Dominy, G. n.d.)
Inputs: Inputs are the information that are carried
out during a communication activity, for example.
Information on county working hours or
information about new meeting or weather alerts.
Outputs: these are typically the medium or modes
through which the communication activity is
carried out and the reach of the information based
on the medium
Outtakes: Outtakes are the change in attitude or
perception as a result of the communication
activity, for example, key message that travelling
is unsafe due to weather an alert communication..
Outcomes: Outcomes are the quantifiable changes
in attitude or opinions. for example eliminating
the need for a phone call to the local authority
which costs $3.51 per phone call or eliminating
the need for facetoface meeting which cost about
$9.00 per meeting due to the communication activity (Azyan, L. 2010).
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Frequent survey has to be conducted to verify the outcomes and mapping it with the audience needs.
Figure 5.2 shows the importance of communication metrics in detailing the success or failure of
communication activity that has been carried out.
Figure 3: Evaluating communication strategy (Harrison & Wholey, 2011)
Example of deriving financial value from communication activity: “South Staffordshire has received
1,822 fewer calls due to the introduction of email alerts. This amounts to a saving of £5,156.26 based on
the SOCITM average call cost of £2.83. This equates to a saving of £1.75 per subscriber for just
telephone calls (based on 2,953 subscribers as of 13/8/15)” (Dominy, G. n.d.)
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2. Improving efficiency of email communication
A Recent survey conducted by Nielsen on email shows the usage of email has increased instead of
decreasing contrary to many beliefs (Gibs, J. 2009). A Recent study conducted by Marketing Sherpa also
shows emails are here to stay (Marketingsherpa, 2013). While governments and organizations are
exploring social media and other engagement tools, email still plays a dominant role in government
communication strategy. Email alerts serves as a cross communication platform for linking readers to
websites, social media platforms and streaming tv.
“Almost 6,000 subscribers signed up to receive alerts when DSA publishes new content on YouTube. As a
result, new DSA videos regularly becomes the most viewed in the YouTube Motoring channel – receiving
more hits than the BBC’s popular “Top Gear” programme” (Azyan, L. 2010)
Surveys conducted by Govdelivery among 1000 public sector organization also shows positive results for
email as citizen engagement platform. Out of 11,641 respondents, 24% claimed as a result of email alert
they have avoided phone calls to local authority while 18% claimed that by being well informed through
email alert they could avoid making a visit to the local authority (Dominy, G. n.d.). 218 people claimed to
have changed their recycling habits as the result of reading a Stay Connected email alert.(Dominy, G. n.d)
Figure 4: Chart showing which medium of communication is integrated with email in various
organization Source (Marketingsherpa, 2013)
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2. 1 Optimizing Email Send Time
The timing of email communication delivery if not more, is important than the content of the email
communication or the visual design of the email communication. The day of the week, time of the day
during which the email communication is carried out has a significant impact on the email viewership,
Currently email’s sent from Columbia association has an open rate of 40.9%, increasing this percentage
by optimizing email send time would increase the efficiency of email as mode of communication.
According to Pivotal Veracity study, 8:00 am to 9:00 am is not the best time to send email alerts
(Abrahams, A. 2009), This fact is also backed up with the logic that most people check their emails at
work and any email that is considered unimportant would be deleted before peoples start their day. The
study also points out that best open rate is when email alerts sent between 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm as people
relax with their inboxes during this period (Abrahams, A. 2009).
Figure 5: A visual representation on the best time to send emails in order to see best results.
When it comes to the day of the week, most studies claim to send emails on Tuesday, Wednesday and
Thursday while Monday proves to be the least preferred day for sending email as many people start their
week on Monday reading important email on their inboxes and any emails that feels unimportant will be
overlooked.
Another study for nonprofit organization by analysts at ConvioTM
also supports the above
arguments. According to this study, the best days to send emails are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and
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Thursdays. However, this study does suggest that sending the emails early morning or midday results in
more number of clicks. (Convio, n.d)
2.2 Optimizing Email Content
The role of Information technology plays an important role in optimizing email content, a welldesigned
communication system not only provides a platform for more uniform and consistent content but also
paves the way for cross marketing and automated email alerts.
Email alerts can summarize content from any of the digital challenges like Twitter, Facebook and
Websites whenever there is a change in content helping people catch up on frequently changing
information and get updated.
Creating optimal subject line (⅓ emails are opened based on email subject line) (Lazauskas, J. 2014)
● Use “Alert”, “New” or “Bulletin” in subject lines.
● Use “Daily” or “Weekly” in subject lines.
● Use calltoaction redirecting to website or social media platform
● Use bigger calltoaction buttons
● Reduce Image size (1second delay in loading images reduces an average 7% drop in conversion)
● Testing different subject lines and repeating the lines that work best by analyzing the open rate.
As per web analytics data gathered from Columbia Association, there was a significant increase in a
number of emails opened in August. The subject line for the monthly newsletter in August was “CA
Monthly Digest September Issue: Fall is Full of Events!”. This catchy subject line resulted in the
opening of 5,379 emails out of total 9,115 sent out. However, in October, the number of emails opened
went down to 3837 emails out of 9,250 emails sent out. The subject line for the October monthly
enewsletter was “CA Monthly Digest: October offers a head start on giving back!”.
3. Responsive mobile website should be the priority followed by mobile apps
38% of Columbia Association’s website traffic for the month of September 2015 originated from mobile
as per the Google Analytics statistics. By the first quarter of 2014, website traffic arising from mobile
devices had jumped to 31% from 23.9% as compared to first quarter of 2013. (Lund, K. 2014) The steady
increase in these numbers is symbolic of the fact that mobile technology is here to stay and grow.
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As of last quarter of 2010, iOS, Android, and BlackBerry are the most important smartphone platforms in
North America, which account for 6.75%, 7.75% and 8.53% of all the mobile phone users. The
approximate cost behind designing, implementing and deploying a brandquality iPhone app is $30,000.
Ensuring coverage across all platforms means triple the cost. (Maxwell, A. 2011)
Table 1.1. depicts the breakdown of the reach and the cost involved for an estimated US population of
234 million.
Channel Cost Reach
Mobile Website $30,000 36.40%
Mobile App (iPhone, Android,
BB)
$90,000 23.04%
Table 1 (Maxwell, A. 2011)
From the above table, the ROI on Mobile Website is more which brings us to a conclusion that Mobile
Website should be given priority over Mobile applications. At the same time, Mobile Applications should
not be overlooked, as communication preferences are different for every individual.
4. Cable TV should not be the primary focus.
According to a recent study by Wall Street research firm Pacific Crest, cable TV subscriptions are falling
off a cliff (Udland, M. 2015). Over the past five years, cable TV subscriptions have decreased by ten
percent. This study estimates that “top eight multichannel video programming distributor saw
subscriptions fall 463,000 in the second quarter, up from a decline of 141,000 in the same quarter last
year”. On the other hand streaming TV companies like Netflix nearly doubled their service to households
from 18 percent to 35 percent. (Udland, M. 2015)
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Figure 6: This figure above plots quarters each year(Xaxis) vs. growth percentage(Yaxis). Blue
line depicts the subscription growth for top eight multichannel video programming distributors.
Yellow line represents the multichannel subscription as percentage of total household.
Conclusion
Communicating with the citizens is the primary responsibility of the government. New forms of
communication are unfolding exponentially. Thereby making it essential for the county government to
understand the technology behind them and the potential it offers in order to make communication more
effective. Being up to date with the new technologies and trends enables the creation of a community
where information can be shared in a more convenient manner, at a quicker pace, with lower cost and
better coverage. Each mode of communication is equally important to cater to various sections of the
population. Our paper evaluates multiple modes of communication and the findings imply that digital
communication leads to better public engagement.
In tune with the current market trends, a pilot plan has been proposed under Recommendations and
Solutions section with the following main objectives:
● Incorporating Communication Metrics for all the modes of communication.
● Improving efficiency of email communication.
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● Responsive mobile website should be the priority followed by mobile apps.
● Cable TV should not be the primary focus.
This plan should be carried out for four weeks and the results should be reviewed. As per the findings the
management should revisit and revise the plan. After achieving favorable results, the final plan should be
drafted and implemented. The Return On Investment of implementation of this plan will be quantifiable
outcomes and wellinformed citizens.
(Word Count: 2908 )
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References
1. DCLG. (2011). Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity Explanatory
Memorandum
Retrieved from: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/
file/5671/1840982.pdf
Date Accessed: 12/02/2015
2. U.S. Census Bureau. (2015). U.S. Census Bureau, State and County QuickFacts: Howard
County, M.D.
Retrieved from: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/24/24027.html
Date Accessed: 11/15/2015
3. Daniel Engelberg. (n.d). An Introduction to Howard County, Maryland. Technical Report.
Retrieved from: https://myelms.umd.edu/courses/1153899/files/folder/PALS%2520Resources
?preview=39501048
Date Accessed: 09/15/2015
4. About Columbia Association. (n.d.).
Retrieved from: http://columbiaassociation.org/aboutus/aboutcolumbiaassociation
Date Accessed: 09/15/2015
5. GCS. (2015). The Future of Public Service Communications: Report and Findings, page 15.
Retrieved from: https://gcn.civilservice.gov.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2015/07/6.1048_
CabinetOffice_commsfuturedocument_v2_print_web.pdf
Date Accessed: 12/02/2015
6. Guy Dominy. (n.d). Measuring the financial value of a subscriber. GovDelivery
Retrieved from: http://www.govdelivery.com/pdfs/guide_MTVofSubscribers.pdf
Date Accessed: 12/03/2015
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7. Will Harrison & Neil Wholey. (2011). Evaluating Your Communication Tools, What
Works,What Doesn’t? The Westminster Model.
Retrieved from: http://www3.westminster.gov.uk/Newdocstores/publications_store/
communications/evaluating_your_comms_aw_lr1319206316.pdf
Date Accessed: 12/02/2015
8. Jon Gibs. (2009). “is social media impacting how much we email?” Nielsen
Retrieved from: http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2009/issocialmediaimpacting
howmuchweemail.html
Date Accessed: 12/1/2015
9. Marketingsherpa. (2013). The 2013 Email Marketing Benchmark Report.
Retrieved from: https://www.marketingsherpa.com/data/public/reports/benchmarkreports/
EXCERPTBMR2013EmailMarketing.pdf
Date Accessed: 12/3/2015
10. Liz Azyan. (2010). GovernmentToCitizen Communications Using Multiple Digital Channels
Effectively.
Retrieved from: http://www.scribd.com/doc/32362140/GovernmentToCitizen
CommunicationsUsingMultipleDigitalChannelsEffectively#scribd
Date Accessed: 12/4/2015
11. Andrew Abrahams. (2009). Delivery Timing of Communications Pivotal in any Email Marketing
Campaign.
Retrieved from: http://www.ovrdrv.com/deliverytimingofcommunications
pivotalinanyemailmarketingcampaign/
Date Accessed: 12/2/2015
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BikeAbout 2008
Where did you hear about the BikeAbout?
● Newspaper 43
● Word of Mouth 41
● Past Participant 67
● CA Website 18
● Other
○ Scouts – 4
○ Email – 2
○ Athletic Club (poster) – 1
○ Supreme Sports Club – 3
○ Local blog 1
○ Community newsletter 1
○ Columbia Archives 2
○ Long Reach newsletter 1
○ Dorsey’s search newsletter 1
○ Flier sent in mail 1
● Unanswered – 9
BikeAbout 2009
Where did you hear about the BikeAbout?
● Newspaper 29
● Word of Mouth 33
● Past Participant 51
● CA Website 11
● Other
● Other
○ email about bike clinic
○ email 2
○ supreme sports club
○ in complex (gym)
○ poster supreme sports
○ signs at gyms
