OVERVIEW: Communicating with stakeholders is a never-ending battle for records managers—getting people to listen often feels like shouting into the void. When you’re faced with a void as big as Texas, you need a powerful tool to grab people’s attention. To that end, the Records Management Assistance Unit at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission has been running a successful records management blog, The Texas Record, for over a decade. Our staff is faced with the challenge of providing information to all state agencies and local governments in Texas—from Amarillo to Brownsville and El Paso to Beaumont. Our blog is one of our most successful and beloved connection tools, helping us keep records management on the minds and in the hearts of Texas government employees.
The Texas Record reaches thousands of visitors each month. For example, between January and June 2022, the blog saw a low of 6,455 monthly pageviews and a high of 8,550 monthly pageviews. Occasionally the blog has received recognition beyond Texas, such as when two Texas Record blog posts were featured in the ICRM monthly newsletter in December 2023. Anecdotally, our blog has garnered quite the following and we often hear that it’s a favorite tool among government employees, helping them stay engaged and inspired about records management. In an age of fast-moving social media, blogs are arguably relics of an older time. So, what makes The Texas Record enduringly successful?
In this session I will treat The Texas Record as a case study and explore some answers to that question. Some topics for discussion will be: pros and cons of blogs as compared to other types of communication tools, Texas Record blog data, content strategies, outreach strategies, ongoing challenges we face in writing and maintaining the blog, and—what I believe gives our blog it’s je ne sais quoi—the lighthearted, silly-yet-professional tone.
Our blog can be found online here: https://www.tsl.texas.gov/slrm/blog/ After learning about what makes The Texas Record successful, NAGARA members will be inspired to improve their own government's online presence and outreach tools. They will also understand some challenges that occur when interacting with the public online and maintaining an internet presence.
GARA CERTIFICATE CORE COMPETENCY AREAS: "Records and Information Management Basics" OR "Advocacy and Outreach"
TARGET AUDIENCE: Federal, State/Tribal, Local, Public Institutions of Higher Learning
FOCUS AREAS: Records Management, Technology/Tools
PRESENTER: Katherine Hoffman, Government Information Analyst, Texas State Library and Archives Commission