YouTube’s vast reach and credibility make it a valuable resource in the world of government social media. The video platform has over two billion monthly active users, and it’s America’s most popular social media site, with 85% of US adults using it.
There’s just one small problem: creating video content for YouTube requires a little more thought than simply rattling off a text-based post. To help you, we’ve rounded up 19 of the best government agencies on YouTube and analyzed what they’re getting right.
1. Transportation Security Administration
Public service announcements are a key component of any government agency’s content strategy, and video can be a highly effective way to share these key messages with your audience.
For instance, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) created a series of videos to alert passengers about the need to carry a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license (or another acceptable form of ID) when flying within the US. Here’s one of the videos:
The TSA created eight variants for this series, each featuring a different “type” of traveler – from a proud dad attending his son’s graduation to a young jet-setter heading for a weekend in New Orleans.
Combined, those videos have close to seven million views, making YouTube a valuable channel for spreading awareness around REAL ID licenses.
2. City of Las Vegas
While platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels popularized short-form video content, signs suggest that longer videos are growing in popularity, especially on YouTube. Indeed, long-form content accounted for 73% of all US YouTube viewing time at the end of October 2024, with the average user spending 8% more time viewing videos of 30+ minutes than at the same point in 2023.
Government agencies are taking advantage of this trend. For example, the City of Las Vegas has created a series of documentaries exploring the history of Las Vegas, spanning the 1920s to the 1970s, with most clocking in at well over an hour.
The Department of the Interior has created a dedicated YouTube playlist to house its weekly news updates, meaning viewers know where to go to learn about the latest developments.
3. US Department of the Interior
Things can move fast in the world of local and federal government. So it might make sense to follow the lead of the US Department of the Interior and launch a weekly roundup of news affecting your agency.
The Department of the Interior has created a dedicated YouTube playlist to house its weekly news updates, meaning viewers know where to go to learn about the latest developments.
4. Bureau of Land Management Oregon & Washington
YouTube isn’t just for entertainment – it’s also for education. Indeed, educational videos are the sixth-most popular content type on YouTube by reach, while tutorial and how-to videos come in seventh.
So sharing plenty of content that helps your audience learn new things makes sense.
The Oregon and Washington Bureau of Land Management does a great job at this. They regularly post videos explaining how nature lovers can get the most out of visiting attractions like the John Day Wild and Scenic River, one of America’s longest free-flowing rivers:
Because if people have a great time at an attraction, they’re more likely to come back. Plus, they’ll tell their loved ones about it, which means even more visitors.
5. US Department of Agriculture
Want to know the secret to effective marketing?
Well, there are a lot. But one thing that should always be front-of-mind when you’re planning future campaigns is the importance of consistency, with research revealing that the most consistent brands are more likely to generate:
- Awareness
- Differentiation
- Fame
- Attitude change
That’s fantastic news, because anyone can be consistent – just find the style that works for you, then stick with it. For instance, the US Department of Agriculture regularly uses a friendly animated format in its YouTube videos, like in this example about starting a career as a federal ethics official.
Or this one explaining the rules federal employees need to know before running for elected office:
This consistency makes the agency’s videos more recognizable, while the animated format helps to make challenging topics seem less intimidating.
6. US Patent & Trademark Office
Videos are far more effective at explaining complex subjects than words alone. So if there’s a common topic your audience struggles to understand, it’s well worth tackling on YouTube.
That’s precisely what the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) does in the following video, which briefly discusses the importance of small-scale innovations in furthering human capabilities – and how patents and trademarks play a key role in this process:
By sharing practical examples – like how the use of polished stones to improve poor vision eventually led to the development of augmented and virtual reality technology – the USPTO makes it easy for audiences to understand the value of its work.
So if those audiences come up with their own groundbreaking invention, they’ll know where to turn for support in protecting their intellectual property.
7. City of Tampa
Ever struggle to fill up your content calendar?
One solution is to create more recurring content series. That way, when you start a new month or quarter, you can instantly plug in a bunch of posts. Even if they’re just placeholders, they can guide your creative thinking.
The City of Tampa gets it right with its road safety-themed series, What in the Road is That?
In these videos, the agency tackles common issues like bicycle safety and how to navigate roundabouts correctly.
Not only is this content super valuable for motorists, but it’s also relatively quick and easy to create. And because there are so many road safety issues to discuss, this topic can keep the city’s content calendar topped up for months.
8. Federal Trade Commission
Two-thirds of Americans have experienced a financial scam or fraud in their lifetime, according to research from Bankrate. That’s a lot, but the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is trying to lower this proportion by sharing regular scam awareness content on its YouTube channel:
By educating audiences about the common signs that someone is trying to steal their money and/or personal information, the FTC helps them avoid being scammed.
We particularly like how the above video includes clear calls to action prompting viewers to share the video with their loved ones and visit the FTC’s website to learn more, because you can’t explain everything in a four-minute video.
9. American Battle Monuments Commission
The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) is one of many government agencies that have embraced one of YouTube’s most recent additions, YouTube Shorts.
Like Reels and TikTok, YouTube Shorts is a short-form video platform, with a maximum content length of three minutes.
As with other short-form platforms, Shorts is all about the algorithm, so it’s best used for timely, trend-driven content. For instance, the ABMC used it to share a bunch of World War II-related content in the run-up to the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day.
While we haven’t seen many brands or agencies adopt dedicated YouTube Shorts strategies (yet), there’s a clear benefit to cross-posting videos across Shorts, Reels, and TikTok – because the more channels you use, the more eyes you’ll reach.
10. NASA
To some extent, there’s little point in analyzing NASA’s content strategy: it’s a cool, world-famous agency engaged in groundbreaking work that many people find extremely exciting. It can publish almost anything and still get tens of thousands of views.
However, there’s still plenty to learn here. In particular, NASA highlights the effectiveness of live video in reaching and engaging audiences.
We know how effective live streams can be on any platform. Indeed, research shows that live-streamed video is the third-most popular social media format worldwide, behind only music videos and comedy/meme/viral video content.
While NASA has the resources to live-stream 24/7, your approach needn’t be quite so full-on. Instead, dip your toe into live video by broadcasting timely events like press announcements and on-the-scene footage.
11. South Metro Fire Rescue
South Metro Fire Rescue is one of the best examples of how first responders can leverage YouTube to engage audiences, racking up 206,000 subscribers and over 47 million views since joining the platform in 2016.
The agency demonstrates the power of creating people-centric video content. Its two most popular posts — representing over five million combined views — are “day in the life” videos focusing on individuals in specific roles.
Not only does this content allow South Metro Fire Rescue to reach new audiences and educate them on its mission, but it also helps humanize the agency by spotlighting real firefighters and dispatchers.
12. Pasco Sheriff’s Office
YouTube is a comparatively recent addition to the toolkits of many marketers in the world of social media for government. Pasco Sheriff’s Office is something of a YouTube veteran, having joined the platform in 2010 — publishing more than 300 videos and generating 7.5+ million views.
Like South Metro Fire Rescue, the agency has seen a lot of success with “day in the life” content.
However, its most popular post, with over three million views at the time of writing, is a short (30-second) advice piece detailing the steps vehicle owners should take to mitigate the risk of car theft:
This video illustrates the benefits of focusing on a single, concise message. Offering straightforward takeaways makes your content more actionable and helpful, making it more shareable.
13. US Consumer Product Safety Commission
The mission of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is to protect Americans from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products.
Getting it right relies on communicating serious messages in a concise, easy-to-understand way. It’s telling, therefore, that most of the agency’s content clocks in at under one minute, while many of its videos are 30 seconds or shorter.
How does the agency succeed in relaying important — often life-or-death — messages in such a brief timespan? In part, by combining visual elements with short, text-based instructions:
Much like the Pasco Sheriff’s Office, the CPSC demonstrates the value of focusing on a single, simple message in each video, making its content more impactful and memorable.
14. FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is one of the most popular government agencies on YouTube, with over 270,000 subscribers and over 77 million views.
Despite being a massive agency with a vast budget, the FBI demonstrates how to make your marketing resources go further by creating content that works across multiple channels.
For instance, it produces a podcast series called Inside the FBI, which discusses issues ranging from common scams to the use of forensic science at crime scenes. As well as making this content available through all the popular podcasting platforms, the FBI repurposes each episode into a video and posts it on YouTube:
Each video features the same backdrop, accompanied by the podcast audio and subtitles. This setup makes it comparatively simple to produce (after all, the podcasts already exist), yet these videos regularly generate thousands of views.
15. Pierce County Sheriff’s Department
Pierce County Sheriff’s Department is another agency that recognizes the benefits of YouTube as a platform for humanizing its employees and their vital roles.
The department regularly shares ride-along videos that help followers get to know individual officers and better understand the work of a local police department.
These videos follow a repeatable format: a short introduction, a brief speech to the camera featuring the officer in question, and footage showing them out and about in the community.
This is a key learning for any government social media marketers yet to leap onto YouTube: don’t try to reinvent the wheel with every video. Develop one or two themes and templates, then stick with them over time, helping you build a consistent voice and style your audience recognizes.
16. US Small Business Administration
Let’s be honest: it might not be immediately evident to the average person what your agency actually does. YouTube is an excellent platform for setting the record straight, with 86% of US viewers saying they often visit the website to “learn new things.”
The US Small Business Administration clearly understands the value of YouTube as an educational platform for its audience. To date, its most popular piece of YouTube content is an English-language explainer video that discusses the agency’s founding mission and how it helps with everything from writing a business plan to providing resources detailing how to export products to international markets:
The best thing about this sort of evergreen content is that you can promote it repeatedly because it’s always relevant. In this way, a single video asset can have an extremely long lifespan, far greater than the average text-based social media post.
17. US National Archives
We get it: video content can be a real challenge for government social media marketers with limited resources. Indeed, among organizations that don’t currently use video in their marketing strategies, “lack of time” is the #2 reason.
However, the National Archives demonstrates that it’s perfectly possible to build a successful video content marketing strategy almost entirely reliant on recycling old content.
Most of the agency’s most popular videos are old and were often recorded decades ago. But it works, with its historic content regularly notching up thousands of views.
Of course, you likely don’t have access to as much old video footage as the National Archives. Still, this approach demonstrates that recycled content can work when you get creative in its presentation.
18. National Science Foundation
One of the biggest challenges in the world of government on social media is finding a way to communicate complex topics in layperson’s terms. This is a particular problem for an agency like the National Science Foundation (NSF), which deals with niche topic areas that the average viewer will have little (or no) prior understanding of.
If people don’t understand your work, it’s unlikely they’ll see the value of your agency.
The NSF takes the time to break down more advanced subjects in simple, accessible terms. For instance, it produced a short video series that explained the principles of Newton’s laws of motion using football as an example:
There’s a clear lesson here: if the thing you do is hard to understand, it’s your job to discuss it in terms that anyone can figure out.
19. Environmental Protection Agency
For many government agencies, social media marketing is predominantly seen as a way to spread their message to new audiences and demonstrate their value.
But it’s also an effective tool for attracting talent to join your agency. That’s particularly true of video marketing. Indeed, research shows that:
- 88% of talent professionals that video in their recruitment strategies say it generates more responses from passive candidates
- 78% believe it has helped increase the quality of applications
The Environmental Protection Agency realizes this. It regularly publishes videos designed to encourage viewers to consider a career with the organization by highlighting its mission to combat the effects of climate change.
Given YouTube’s unparalleled popularity among younger audiences, it’s the perfect platform for connecting with your next generation of employees.
Want to learn more about how government agencies, large and small, use social media to spread their message and reach a wider audience? Check out our next government social media conference!
