Are Government Contractors Using Social Media too?

Are Government Contractors Using Social Media too?

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Are Government Contractors Using Social Media too?

business advisory business advisory

By: Chris Whitehead

Abstract:

The world of social media has exploded exponentially in recent years, and had a profound effect on how business entities traditionally communicate and share information amongst one another. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are three of the major platforms that are typically recognized in the blink of an eye, but they are more geared towards meeting the needs of the typical consumer. What about for government contractors? According to a survey conducted by Market Connections Inc last year, nearly eighty-seven percent of federal contractor employees are using some sort of social media application at home or at work. Furthermore, fifty-nine percent of the individuals surveyed said that their companies are using social mediums to maintain effective customer relationship management; fifty-nine percent for marketing purposes; forty-eight percent to generate prospective client opportunities; forty-two percent for recruiting; and forty-one percent for collaboration. However, forty-six percent of those polled noted that they often have a difficult time identifying what social media channels are even out there. This article will look at two of the major ones: GovWin and GovLoop.

GovWin is a free online networking platform developed and owned by time and billing software provider Deltek, Inc. It allows government contractors the opportunity to network and strengthen their business opportunities by creating a unique individual profile. Tags can be added to the profile to make it easily searchable to others who are part of GovWin as well. If additional detailed information about your business needs to be added to the profile, the team at GovWin can even validate that by providing instant verification of your business credentials that will make your presence genuine among the members. It has an area to track potential customer leads, view links between fellow business partners and customers, and examine revenue forecasting information, competitive assessments, and post award debriefs. It has the storage capabilities of an entire corporate document library. It even offers the functionality of allowing Microsoft Outlook to be synced in with your personal network, as meeting requests, appointments, emails, and voice mail messages can be viewed directly on the profile. Subscription alerts can be set up to let you know when specific items of interest to you are posted to the online community. Major government contractors, such as Lockheed Martin and Serco, have even created groups on the site that can be joined. Jeff White of GovWin noted that these entities anticipate distributing over eight billion dollars in business to those they identify through GovWin. For more information, please visit http://www.deltek.com.

GovWin is a free online networking platform developed and owned by time and billing software provider Deltek, Inc. It allows government contractors the opportunity to network and strengthen their business opportunities by creating a unique individual profile.

GovLoop is another social media application suitably designed for government employees and contractors. Known as the “Facebook” for government contractors, it was founded in May 2008 by Stephen A. Ressler, a former employee at the United States Department of Homeland Security. As of August 2010, it had over 32,000 members. It parallels Facebook in a variety of ways, as profiles can be created, “friends” can be added through accepting friend requests, photographs and videos can be posted, and groups can be joined. As of May 2010, there were more than 700 discussion groups and more than 5,400 blog posts that provide advice and solutions to business problems. There is the ability to add RSS feeds and listen to a couple weekly podcasts. GovLoop has even considered expanding its services internationally to Israel, Netherlands, Brazil, and Australia.
In addition to GovWin and GovLoop, there is The Federal Contractor Network that parallels LinkedIn, and also GovTwit that parallels Twitter. These are only some of the many social media opportunities available to government contractors.

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