Press Release: Government Ready Contest Solution Enables Social Media Community Growth and Engagement
RESTON, VA, March 24 /PRNewswire/ – MetroStar Systems, a leader in full-service information technology (IT) and strategies for new media and social networks, today announced the launch of its new contest platform, Votridea, which is optimized for government use. Votridea fosters innovation by engaging and managing large communities in social networks. The contest platform is designed to foster challenges and capture ideas with proven community management tools.
On March 8, 2010, Federal Chief Performance Officer Jeffrey Zients released a memorandum outlining, “Guidance on the Use of Challenges and Prizes to Promote Open Government“. This memorandum was in direct support of the Obama Administration’s commitment to open government, and how it can help drive innovation and other national priorities. The memorandum states, “The Administration believes that prizes and challenges have a number of potential benefits…they may allow the government to…highlight excellence in a particular domain of human endeavor to motivate, inspire and guide others…[to] further a federal agency’s mission by attracting more interest and attention to a defined program, activity or issue of concern…” Votridea fully complies within these guidelines and the newly released DOD Social Media Policy, allowing agencies to engage and expand their communities.
“MetroStar has proven performance in creating and managing contests to help drive government innovation and grow cultural awareness,” said Ali Reza Manouchehri, Founder and CEO of MetroStar Systems. “We’ve just completed the Department of State’s second ExchangesConnect Video Contest. Participants responded to the theme, ‘Change Your Climate, Change Our World.’ Votridea allows us to utilize our experience and lessons learned to help government drive innovation and public participation, creating the best possible platform and support for our customer.”
The Votridea Contest Platform seamlessly integrates with popular Web 2.0 tools such as Facebook, Twitter and Ning to catalyze rapid and scalable participant growth. The platform is scalable supporting agency communities, allowing agencies to target focus their contest within a small group or extend to a global reach. Votridea offers a Community Management Dashboard that allows even computer novices to manage the quality and quantity of participant contributions. Votridea supports text, photos and video to encourage participation in the selected medium of agency or contestant choice. For additional product information, please contact Johnny Nguyen (jnguyen@metrostarsystems.com) or @metrostarsystem on Twitter.
To learn more about Votridea, please visit http://www.metrostarsystems.com/socialtoolbox/