Ask Us: How Do We Drive Constituents To Our Website?

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Members of Congress and their staff are eager to communicate more effectively with constituents. They come to the Congressional Management Foundation and the Partnership for a More Perfect Union with questions about everything from how to best improve their constituent mail operations, to how to best use social media tools like Twitter or Facebook. Through our new 'Ask Us' series, we will attempt to answer those questions for the benefit of not only the asker (whose identity we will carefully guard) but also for anyone else who might have the same question.

Have recommendations or insight of your own to share? Please add your ideas and advice in the comments!

Q: From a House Chief of Staff: What are the most effective ways to drive traffic to our congressional website?

A: This is a great question and one we've received before. Here are a handful of ideas to get you started. While not all of them will fit with every office's communications strategy, they offer food for thought.

  1. Constituent Mail P.S.: One of the easiest things to do is make sure that you have a post script at the bottom of all of your outgoing constituent correspondence that says something like: "For more information about the issues that are important to you or to receive assistance with a federal agency, please visit my website at www.house.gov/Doe. There you can also sign up to for my weekly e-mail newsletter that will keep you abreast of what is happening in Washington and in our district/state.' Obviously the same goes for any proactive '499s' you might send out.
  2. E-mail Signatures: Everyone on staff - particularly district/state staff - should be asked to include an e-mail signature that points to the Congresswoman's or Senator's website. Make sure you also give constituents the opportunity to subscribe to the e-mail newsletter. For example:

Mike Smith, Legislative AssistantOffice of Congressman John DoePlease visit Congressman Doe's website at www.house.gov/Doe and subscribe to his Washington update at www.house.gov/Doe/Subscribe.

  1. Social Media Pointbacks: Regardless of whether you are just beginning to dabble in social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), or if you were an early adopter, make sure as many of your Tweets and Facebook posts as is appropriate point constituents back to your website for more information. Here are two Tweets from Congressman Carter and Senator Harkin that do just that:

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  1. Phone Script: Develop a phone script for anyone answering the phone that says something like, 'Thanks for your call, I'd be happy to pass that message on to the Congressman. He prefers to respond to constituent communications with a written response and you should hear back from him shortly. In the meantime, however there is a great deal of information on the Congresswoman's website that you might find helpful. If you haven't already, you might want to visit the Congresswoman's official website at www.house.gov/Doe.'
  2. Include the Website In All of Your Outreach Efforts: Everything the office produces should contain prominent language that points people to the Member's website as well as how citizens can subscribe to the Member's e-mail newsletter. Whether it is social media tools like Facebook or Twitter, franked mail pieces, handouts at Open Office Hours, the sign-in sheets in the DC and district/state offices, or postcards the Member hands out at Memorial Day Parades, include information about the website. This cross pollination goes both ways, though. Make sure to add a mechanism to subscribe to newsletters, friend you on Facebook, and follow you on Twitter on (ideally) every page on your website and not just the homepage.

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