NASA and the White House lead other public sector organizations when it comes to social media and online strategy, according to a new report from The George Washington University School of Business (GWSB) and digital think tank.

Authored by the dean of GWSB, Doug Guthrie, NYU professor Scott Galloway and team from L2, the report looked at the effectiveness of an organization’s site, digital marketing, social media and mobile platforms.

“Social media and other online strategies are critical tools that public sector organizations use to encourage transparency, engage constituents and serve the public in an era of cost cutting,” said Dean Guthrie.

“Our leaders and public sector organizations need to embrace these powerful new tools.”

Highlights from the report include:

*Social media is increasingly important to driving traffic to organization sites: 69 percent of organizations count Facebook among the top eight sources of referral traffic. Two organizations, People for the American Way and the American Farm Bureau Federation, receive more traffic from Facebook than any other source including Google.

*More than 80 percent of organizations are present on at least one social media platform, 63 percent host a blog and one in five have some presence on mobile platforms.

*There is substantial low hanging fruit around basic digital marketing tactics. Only 18 percent of organizations are purchasing search terms, only 15 percent have mobile sites and nearly one in five organizations still do not allow e-mail opt-in.

“The advent of the social web has fundamentally changed our nation’s public sector organizations,” said Professor Galloway.

“We’re likely to see a transfer in power and influence from organizations that are digitally inept to those who are digitally deft.”