Communications

The man beind Metro’s social media strategy

The Washington City Paper profiles Dan Stessel, chief spokesman for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (DC) and the driving force behind the agency’s new social media strategy. Stessel came to WMATA in May and started tweeting almost immediately. Riders, who had been used to automated service alerts on Twitter and not much else, tookRead… Read more »

People Power: Harnessing Citizen Energy Via Social Media

Last week, I had the opportunity to present for the Maryland Association of Counties (MACO) summer meeting along with Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz. Earlier this year, he announced that Baltimore County would be launching 23 technology initiatives and he shared a bit about their social media efforts to communicate more effectively with citizens onRead… Read more »

Meet shURLy

One little enhancement I’ve made recently to my social media training and crisis communications platform, the Social Simulator, is a domain-specific URL shortener. The idea is, since we’re simulating Twitter and now Facebook in a private environment, we really ought to offer simulation participants the ability to post short, trackable URLs like they would onRead… Read more »

Online Digital Printing – Printing Industry Exchange

A quick “infomercial” for a great service I’ve discovered…digital information meets the traditional offline print industry. A common misconception about printing is that companies that offer offset printing and digital printing services are the same. However, offset printing and digital printing are two very different printing processes. There are fewer restrictions and therefore many moreRead… Read more »

Hundreds Attend AFGE Human Rights Training in Atlanta

AFGE activists from across the nation traveled to Atlanta this week for the annual Human Rights Training (HRT) sponsored by the Women’s and Fair Practices Department. The training included courses on diversity, conflict resolution and social media. Tuesday’s luncheon featured remarks by National Vice President and WFP Department director Augusta Thomas, National President John GageRead… Read more »

How to Find Your Next Job by Giving Away Your Expertise for Free

Previously, we shared in Marketing Yourself for Your Next Career Opportunity, that your job search is very similar to marketing a product. At the recent Online Marketing Summit, Michael Stelzner of “Social Media Examiner” shared how he has grown his business by giving everything away for free. The dynamic growth of “Social Media Examiner” hasRead… Read more »

VA promotes social media use with new policy

BY BOB BREWIN 08/16/2011 The Veterans Affairs Department issued a social media policy Tuesday that “highly encouraged” the use of blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other Web-based media and urged VA employees to interact with the public online. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said the new policy lays the groundwork for interaction with veterans through social media.Read… Read more »

Are You Volunteering to Honor September 11th?

This year, more than 1 million Americans are expected to serve in their communities in honor of 9/11. Service projects will range from food drives and home repairs to neighborhood cleanups and disaster preparation activities. In many areas, volunteers will honor veterans, soldiers, or first responders by collecting donations, assembling care packages, and writing thankRead… Read more »

Weekly Round-up – August 19, 2011

Gadi Ben-Yehuda August is a long and ecclesiastical month. In its second full week, we find: A Time for Reflection. Three good articles about the state of Gov 2.0 across governments came out this week. Alex Howard writes for the Atlantic about social media use by US and other governments, and in O’Reilly Media aboutRead… Read more »

Open source develops the future of downtown Raleigh

Originally published on opensource.com. Can you revitalize a city and attract businesses using open source principles? David Diaz, president and CEO of the Downtown Raleigh Alliance thinks so. In fact, I got a chance to sit down with David to discuss how economic development organizations are interacting with their local and state government, citizens, businesses,Read… Read more »