Yesterday evening, I saw @Nedra and @IdeaGov exchange a few tweets on the new government liaison position at Twitter and it spurred considerable reflection on my part. Twitter has become an indispensable tool for me while government use has exploded (see a sample list of HHS accounts). In the hope of creating a discussion around this position and potentially framing how it evolves, I decided to put down my thoughts on what I would like to see this individual do. The one caveat being that I have focused the discussion below on non-political uses while Twitter is also clearly interested in political uses of the service. Please spread the word about this post and drop your own ideas in as well - I would really like to see some more discussion around this topic as it could well bleed into how government engages with other services and platforms as well. I was fortunate enough to get a few friends to pitch in (acknowledgements below) but WE need everyone's ideas on this one.

However, before listing specific suggestions, I would like to provide some brief insight into the underlying foundation of behind these ideas. First of all, any discussion of social media and its role and use in the federal government should be solidly grounded in the presidential memo on Transparency & Open Government. Anyone interested in using these tools should be constantly be questioning their ability to further transparency, collaboration and participation. It also goes without saying that use of these tools must mission driven and that citizens must be deriving a tangible benefit at appropriate cost (in terms of time and resources). Finally, Jeffrey Levy's mantra "mission, tool, metrics, teach" is as profound as it gets in four words and is something to live by in era of digital government.

The Top 10 

1. Please engage, in a transparent manner as possible, with the federal, state and local employees that are using these tools to get their input, ideas and concerns. This is a community with no end to thoughtful, innovative leaders (@levyj413, @amandare, @ScottHorvath, @Dan_Munz, @gwynnek, @marlinex,
    @sarahebourne, @bradmblake, @rpringle, @pbroviak, @bgreeves, and @jay_nath to name a just a tiny cross-section) and listening to them will benefit everyone. 
2. Please use your position to help raise awareness about section 508 (accessiblity for people with disabilities) so that EVERYONE can access Twitter. This includes having Twitter throw its weight around, when possible, to get 3rd party services to develop compliant and accessible services and add-ons.
3. Please make sure to devote enough attention to state and local government concerns. Some of the best and most innovative uses of social media are at the local level and I firmly believe that social media is most powerful when it reinforces and enhances existing (in real life) connections.
4. Please make (or work with the Library of Congress to make) an archiving and access tool that would be truly useful for government employees and, in particular, policy makers.
5. Please help establish a quick and transparent process to get "Verified" on government accounts.
6. Please create a public directory (perhaps with some associated metrics) of federal, state and local accounts (h/t to @22frets)
7. Please develop some more robust off-the-shelf metrics to help measure engagement. Facebook Insights would be one model for this and perhaps access could be tied to verified government accounts (h/t to @kayawalton on this one).
8. Please be available when emergencies occur to help government use Twitter in the most effective manner possible. AND publicly post lessons learned, best practices, a related archive of tweets and possibly links to any relevant research on the issue.
9. Please expand your government cases studies beyond the USGS to highlight best practices by school districts, local governments and state agencies, as well as federal agencies (via @adrielhampton).
10. Please partner with the Open311 standard to increase visibility of inter-governmental efforts to create a universal API for access to non-emergency services, and work with law enforcement and emergency services agencies on use of geo-location capabilities for emergency reporting and response (via @adrielhampton).