Department of Homeland Security

Objective

After being appointed to serve as the Director of Digital Strategy for the Department of Homeland Security for the Biden-Harris Administration and being asked to manage both the DHS and Secretary accounts, I knew that I had two main goals. The first goal was to rebrand the Department of Homeland Security social media presence in a way that reflects the new values of the Biden-Harris Administration and the second was to tell the story of the Department and Department workforce while also engaging Americans in a social media experience that reflected the Administration. This means making sure we are paying attention to what Americans are saying and answering their questions in different engaging social media tactics.

Rebrand

While transitioning to a new Administration it was important that our Department reflected the new values of the new Administration - including the mission and the dedicated public servants that serve out that mission every single day. The #WeAreDHS campaign included a redesign of our social headers and how we communicated the mission online.

Operation Allies Welcome Twitter Chat

In the midst of Operation Allies Welcome, the effort to resettle vulnerable Afghans, I noticed online that a lot of Americans had questions about how the operation was being carried out and what they could do to help. So I came up with the idea of gathering our interagency partners at the State Department, The White House, and The Department of Defense to lead a Twitter chat answering all of the questions that Americans had about the Operation.

Operation #AlliesWelcome Twitter Chat had the goal of raising awareness around the operation and how you could get involved.

With the help from interagency partners and the team we were able to reach ~1.3 million people from the DHS account alone in answering frequently asked questions about the mission and how people can get involved and help. It was an honor to be a part of an Administration that prioritizes engagement and transparency around important missions like this.

Storytelling

Part of rebranding the Department's social media presence was ensuring that we were giving credit where credit is due - to our incredible workforce. At least once a week we shared a story from the ground titled "Workforce Wednesday" where we told the story of an employee who has gone above and beyond in their mission. This increases morale for our followers and our workforce.

We also created "Dogs on Duty" a social media campaign designed to highlight some of our canine workforce at TSA, CBP, and other components. As you can imagine, this content was very popular among our audience and made them feel more connected to the mission.

Graphics

Part of the DHS rebrand was making our graphics lighter - as you can see in the graphics on this page and below, we utilize a lighter blue than historically shown. This is to signify bright changes to come with the new Administration.

Engagement

The last part of my goal was to make our channels more engaging with our followers - this included adding Twitter chats, Trivia, polls, and other activities on our accounts that our users could play around with. We saw an increase in engagement on Instagram utilizing IG reels, Instagram story functions, and posting more than the previous Administrations.