Management

The SSA Is Using Cat Videos to Promote Digital Services

By tapping into popular Internet trends, the SSA is making a splash with social media.

Jimmy Daly

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Jimmy is a writer and editor who publishes a weekly newsletter. You can find him on Twitter.

The Social Security Administration is joining the new media revolution with a series of cat videos. The videos are promoting the administration's online application for retirement benefits and are making quite a splash online. In fact, social sharing site BuzzFeed has already featured the videos, which are nearing 200,000 cumulative views on YouTube.

In the agency's strategic plan through 2016, the use of social media to connect with retirees is specifically mentioned (PDF download).

Technology is rapidly changing. Internet services and the use of mobile devices and social media continue to increase. We must continue to evaluate new technology to determine if we can implement it to improve our service, increase productivity, or enhance the security and stability of our systems.

As the government continues to move more services online, social and other new media will be key to effective communications. Here's what that looks like today.