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Can you name one government agency in the state, scratch that*, the world, that handles issues with open and truthfulness like the Iowa Lottery? Check out this blog post where they talk openly about offsets. Offsets is the process in which a lottery winner who owes the state money has their winnings deducted prior to being paid by the state. By law, the Iowa Lottery is required to withhold those debts from the player’s winnings.
Imagine that conversation, “Hey dude, you won $40,000, but looks like you owe the state $35,000 here’s the difference. Talk about a challenging subject! The Iowa Lottery handles it with ease.
Better yet, ask the Iowa Lottery why they wrote that post. Well, their post says they have received a lot of questions about the issue (persumably by their audience). Listening to your customers is always a good thing.
My admiration for the Iowa Lottery is no secret. When COTY Claire Celsi and I put together a social media strategy for the Iowa Lottery a few years ago I felt like Clark Griswold in a Ferrari. 
This was what I was born to do! The Iowa Lottery was the first state lottery to start using social media so effectively, and I loved being part of the ride. We were doing new things, encouraging a state agency to be honest, relevant and ultimately how to keep it real.
Getting them set up on social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter was the easy part. We needed the Iowa Lottery to love this even more than we did. We needed them to embrace this and did they ever.
Find another state agency with these kind of social media stats:
YouTube: 17,000 plus videos viewed
Twitter: 1,500 plus followers – 2200 plus tweets
Facebook: 1,500 plus fans
I need to be really clear here. Claire Celsi and I were merely tour guides on this adventure. 99.9% of the success of this program is because of the hard work and commitment of the Iowa Lottery.
Mary Neubauer, Vice President of External Relations and the whole crew at the Iowa Lottery have made their blog a must read destination in Iowa social circles. If you think about it, you can’t turn on the t.v. or the radio for an hour and NOT hear the Iowa Lottery. They are everywhere. They have done the same thing with their social media.
Government agencies looking for a marketing leader? Call the Iowa Lottery, or better yet, start following them.
Author: Josh Fleming
www.lessingflynn.com
*P.S. “Scratch that” as in “scratch ticket” pun intended.
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Josh, this is an excellent example of how a client has to take it's own social media presence seriously before a campaign can be successful. I would point to many other great companies in Iowa who have done the same thing, namely: SmartyPig, Mars Cafe, Olde Main, and Lessing Flynn too.
Sure, you can waste tons of time doing social media stuff, but if your company is getting business from social media people, then the time is never wasted.