Not Quite Social Networking

The Social Security Administration, for the most part, has been on the cutting edge of government's online technology. It was one of the first federal agencies to launch a Web site (in 1994). And SSA.gov routinely places at the top of the most popular government Web sites as measured by the American Customer Satisfaction Index compiled by the University of Michigan. And in 1997, it became one of the first agencies to provide an interactive application that the public could use to access their personal retirement information, although that project ended up on the front page of USA Today for its lack of privacy protection and scared agency officials from trying anything that was remotely daring online for years.

But SSA may have missed the mark on its foray into posting videos. For example, the agency recently uploaded a video announcing the most popular baby names for 2008. In the piece, babies, one dressed up as Elvis with creepy fake arms holding a guitar and another with disturbingly ice blue eyes, announce the most popular boy's and girl's names that parents chose for their newborns last year. The video seems as if SSA is making a play for that baby-acting-as-adult genre, which the hilarious E-Trade commercials have nailed.

But the presentation and acting aren't really the point. If SSA wanted to get the most mileage out of its videos, why not put them on YouTube or Vimeo? The General Services Administration has made it easier to do so. You have to really dig into the site to find the baby video. Or at least the agency could offer an "email this" link or an embedded link so the public could post the video in blogs or articles. Isn't one of the goals to make videos like these viral so an organization can spread the word? (The stock adviser Web site Motley Fool says the popularity of the E-Trade baby videos has helped the company attract customers.)

If SSA is going to continue to lead the government in the online world, it may want to embrace more social networking tools.