Communications

Pip.io comes out of beta, mostly

I wrote about Pip.io at the end of October and I was very impressed with the product in its beta form. If you have not yet read the post, you should. The product, as I wrote about it then, has not changed dramatically in terms of functionality. The team has focused on the underlying platformRead… Read more »

How Should Elected Officials Use Twitter?

My husband loves USA Today (no offense to him or the paper, but it’s mostly because of the colors and graphics). A few weeks ago, he called me at work to ask if I’d seen their story “More governors finding Twitter tweets sweet.” (Background: This is relevant to me since I oversee social media forRead… Read more »

Best Practices: U.S. Coast Guard Uses YouTube to Recruit New Guardians

When I first started exploring social media recruiting, I kept asking myself one question. How do you successfully use YouTube (or any video sharing site) to recruit? Well, I think I have found my answer. I recently ran across the Coast Guard’s YouTube recruitment channel. The channel made its debut in March of 2009 andRead… Read more »

Employee Engagement/Organisational Culture Surveys

Has anyone else observed the phenomena of employee engagement/organisational culture surveys being conducted across organisations by Human Resource/Organisational Development/People areas and then the results being cascaded down through the hierarchy? It’s a bit like drip feeding people information and is, well, disengaging. Wouldn’t it be great if the results of these surveys were anonymised byRead… Read more »

Plain Language Awards

The Center for Plain Language, a 501(c)(3) with headquarters in the DC area, is giving awards for the best plain language documents and websites at a ceremony at the National Press Club on April 29. They’ve just extended their entry deadline to March 1. Entries are free this year. They’ll be giving ClearMark awards inRead… Read more »

EPA Open Strategy & Request for Input

Yesterday, I spoke to Lisa Schlosser, EPA Director of Information Collection, on the recently epa.gov/open and their request for input in their open government plan What excites you most about Open Government? Having the opportunity to reach out to so many members of the environmental community of interest is extremely exciting – we need engagementRead… Read more »

The Google “Buzz” Kill

If you haven’t already heard (and if you haven’t I assume you live under a rock) Google is going to compete with the likes of Facebook and Twitter with the soon to be released “Google Buzz”. Since Google has yet to activate “Buzz” within my Gmail account, I will save my opinions as it relatesRead… Read more »

New times demand a new public servant

So what would a new public servant look like in the States? Last weeks Public Sector Informant published an article by Terry Fewtrell on the implications of the work done by the Gov 2.0 Taskforce. Terry is principal consultant with Yellow Edge Consulting. The article New times demand a new public servant, highlights the fundamentalRead… Read more »

Mecklenburg County eGovernment Strategic Plan

Last week I shared Mecklenburg County’s Social Media Strategy, which is really a document related to our overall eGovernment Strategic Plan. The link to the eGov plan is provided with this blog post, and you are welcome to use any or all of the content. (And, if by chance, we have plaigerized anything, it wasRead… Read more »