Stateways

“It’s a cost saving opportunity to streamline our capabilities with the rest of our functionality online and offer new and better ways to enhance customer service.” — Bruce Ireland, IT Manager, Iowa ABD manually input the orders into the new system. Even so, the increase in efficiency and reduction in expenditures is well worth the investment. “At the end of the day it’s a cost-saving opportunity to streamline our capabilities with the rest of our func- tionality online,” Ireland says, “and offer new and better ways to enhance our customer service.” E Socializing with Customers veryone at the Oregon Liquor Control Commission has a series of icons below their email signature. Some are widely recognizable as the logos of Facebook and Twitter, but the commis- sion also emphasizes its work on other social media sites like YouTube, Flickr, and Blogger. Any information the commission releases is posted to its website and often reiterated across its social media presence instantly to reach as wide an audience as possible. The most effective tool for releasing news, changes to the law, or new rules for stakeholders is an email ser- “There’s no cost for using social media sites. It's quick and easy to send messages to our entire audience.” — Joy Evensen, Public Information Specialist, Oregon LCC vice called gov.delivery. The LCC offers the service through its website. Consumers and retailers can sign up for automatic updates whenever something new is post- ed about any of 57 different topics they subscribe to. They receive that information automatically to their email address or cellphone. For the communications team at the LCC, sending information digitally is more efficient and effective than using traditional media. “There’s no cost for using social media sites, and while we pay for the email subscription service, the cost is minimal compared to the printing cost of mailing new rules out to everyone,” says Joy Evensen, the commis- sion’s Public Information Specialist. “It’s quick and easy to send messages to our entire audience.” Evensen also receives reports that show her how many updates were sent out and how many were opened, allowing her to judge the effectiveness of their messaging campaigns and utilize different channels if necessary. “We try to use all these different forms of commu- nication so they support the same message,” says Christie Scott, Public Affairs Specialist at the LCC. “It might be the same information, but we write differently for each site and each audience.” Originally, they saw the benefits that private busi- nesses and nonprofits were seeing from using social media and decided that the trend fit with their state gov- ernment’s push to be more transparent. They also saw the opportunity to bypass the print media and bring the LCC’s message directly to consumers. “Traditional media don’t pick up the kinds of stories that are important to our stakeholders,” Scott says. “They target a wide audience, whereas we have a specif- ic target that we want to get information to.” Sites like Twitter and Facebook also offer the added benefit of real-time conversation. Consumers can ask questions and receive answers in real time, offering a level of personalized service that doesn’t require addi- tional staffing or resources. “We’re already crafting these messages, so why not streamline everything and put it on Twitter or blog about it?” Evensen asks. “We’re able to clear up a lot of myths about control states like how we function and what our role is. There’s a lot of misinformation out there and this lets us tackle it in a different way.” T 40 Virtual Certification and Training raining is an important component of any con- trol state operation, but poses logistical and budgetary challenges. Centralized classroom training not only takes servers and retail workers away from the floor, it causes scheduling nightmares and StateWays  www.stateways.com  March/April 2011

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Editor's Note
• Dateline
• Spotlight on Minnesota
• Growth Brands
• Logging On
• Scotch
• Mixing It Up
• Ad Index