The Canadian Government Awakens to social media - forget the buzzwords, it’s time for action!

What a week. I must say I haven’t been so excited and engulfed with new public sector social media developments in a while. First of all, I have noticed an influx of articles, reports and network formation in this field. It must have something to do with the “Fall” season and everyone getting back in their game in preparation for what looks to be a landmark year for government service-delivery in a Web 2.0 era.
Here are some things I learned this week:

1. The Federal government has created an official, inter-departmental, cross-functional team of consultants, managers and directors to come up with a Social Media government engagement strategy. While, to many this may sound like just another stagnant bureaucratic, process-focused team that will lead to nothing, I beg to differ.Why? let’s just say I met some of the team members at a presentation I was giving to the Public Service Commission this week and there is nothing stagnant about them. Many come from the private sector and they are interested in obtaining results, FAST. I’m looking forward to hearing and especially seeing more from them soon.
2. I think it’s safe to say that Web 2.0 has now officially passed the “buzz-word” stage in government communications and marketing departments. There are no more blank stares and/or surprised eyes when I mention things like Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogs, etc… during presentations. Most of our clients are aware of the rapidly evolving online landscape, if not through their own use, then through their kids use! It has finally come down to the “action” stage from more than just the early adopters. They want to act now and many are experimenting on their own. Try searching for “Canadian Government” in Facebook and see for yourself)
3. Blogging by program managers and directors working for the government will soon (i.e. 200 be very prevalent. This is not to be confused with the one-way PR “bullshit” that often comes out in press releases, or one-way static HTML senior executive web sites with the word “BLOG” written on them as a title and fake entries sounding like they came out of a constipated robot.
4. Monthly social media community gatherings are popping up in both large and small cities all over the world. For those interested, here in Ottawa we have a meetup group called “Third Tuesday“. The largest social media gathering is still PodCamp Boston (in it’s second year), which has spawned scaled down PodCamp’s all over the world. People are genuinely interested in sharing, collaborating and learning this evolving field together. My prediction is that these general social media conferences/meetings will soon branch off into industry specific groups with very specific shared goals.
5. Finally, interesting articles and reports are coming in from all angles. Here’s some that you can download from my FTP:

• Newsletter from Public Works and Government Service Canada (PWGSC) showing some interesting blog developments.
• For even more inspiration, read about some international government blogging developments as stated in this IBM Government Blogging Report.

Some humour to close off…

Government 2.0 arrives in Ottawa!

I must say I am very impressed with this year’s line-up for GTEC (October 15-17), which is the largest government/technology conference in Canada (held annually in Ottawa). For those unaware, GTEC Week is a “substantive, value-packed learning opportunity strategically developed to meet the current needs of senior executives and policy makers, program delivery managers, technical managers, and professionals from all levels of government” as defined on the official GTEC website.

The focus on Web 2.0 is finally front and centre, where it should be. Hence, this year’s theme: Government 2.0. I have seen the keynote speaker, Don Tapscott, speak on numerous occasions (many of you have probably read his book, Wikinomics) and I must say he never ceases to impress me.

GTEC isn’t the only thing lined up for us here in Ottawa regarding Social Media (and how we can integrate it with the Public Sector). On September 26th, Mitch Joel will be conducting a full-day IAB Canada course on Social Media, which I highly recommend for beginners and experts alike. I unfortunately, will not be attending due to a “March Madness” equivalent September month in terms of due client marketing strategies and reports. Nonetheless, I have committed to a few major out-of-town conferences this year, which I am very excited about. One of them is the unconference entitled “PodCamp Boston 2“, which is the follow up to the original PodCamp (derived from the widely popular BarCamp concept). This is where the Web 2.0 “Who’s Who” from around the world gather to discuss, share and learn about everything having to do with Social Media. It’s a little hike from Ottawa, but my intent is to bring back lots of ideas so that we can organize a smaller-scale version here in Ottawa for people unable to travel for whatever reason (Montreal and Toronto each have their own PodCamps).

I think the whole concept of user-organized “unconferences” is absolutely genius and I would love to start one up here in Ottawa. Especially if it were to focus specifically on applying Web 2.0 concepts to improve service delivery in the Public Sector (a unique niche with lots of opportunity for improvement). Did I mention that these “unconferences” are FREE? If you think quality takes a hit, think again, just look at the list of attendees and proposed sessions for this year’s PodCamp in Boston. Sponsors can take care of food and other amenities. However, at the end of the day, content is king, I couldn’t care less about the hors d’oeuvres , especially if I’m not paying a cent. If you’re interested in helping me start something up here in Ottawa, let me know!

The difference between Social Marketing and Social Media Marketing

Even though to most marketers the difference is quite clear, now and then, I get asked this question by clients that seem to mistake one for the other. Here are my favorite definitions for both:

Social Marketing

“Social marketing is a process that applies marketing principles and techniques to create, communicate, and deliver value in order to influence target audience behaviors that benefit society (public health, safety, the environment and communities) as well as the target audience.” - Philip Kotler, Nancy Lee and Michael Rothschild (2006)

Example: Running an anti-smoking marketing campaign to improve public health (not to be confused with Corporate Social Responsibility). Social Marketing initiatives are thus mainly undertaken by Government, Non-Profits and Professional Associations.

Social Media Marketing (SMM)

” SMM combines the goals of internet marketing with social media sites such as Digg, Flickr, MySpace, YouTube and many others. The SMM goals will be different for every business or organization, however most will involve some form of viral marketing to build idea or brand awareness, increase visibility, and possibly sell a product or service. SMM may also include online reputation management. Most online communities don’t welcome traditional direct or hard sell techniques so an effective SMM campaign will require more finesse to execute properly. SMM campaigns must be targeted to the community you want to reach with a message that appeals to them. Some common ways of achieving this are with authoritative information, entertainment, humor or controversy.“ -Wikipedia 2007 (how apropos, eh?)

Example: Adidas opening up a shoe store in SecondLife to increase brand awareness amongst users of this popular 3D Virtual World.

Wikipedia also goes on to further explain how Social Media Optimization (SMO) ties in with SMM:

“SMM is related to other online marketing such as Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Viral Marketing, Word of Mouth Marketing, and Social Media Optimization. Many believe SMO takes a passive role in establishing the framework for different social sites to connect themselves. Others feel SMO is taking the principles of SEO and applying them to social websites. SMM takes a more active planned role directing, influencing or suggesting community members create and connect the content.” - Wikipedia 2007

How the two tie in

Clearly there is a huge opportunity for Social Marketing campaigns to employ Social Media Marketing as a means of reaching niche audiences more effectively at significantly reduced costs (hence why I started this blog). When executed properly, SMM can make a tremendous impact on your campaign with a much higher ROI than traditional marketing promotion (Advertising, Personal Selling, Direct Marketing, etc…).

So there you go, clarification at last. Feel free to comment or criticize.

First glimpses of useful Facebook applications

A great article just came out in the Wall Street journal on some of the new applications coming out on Facebook. Here is a list of some interesting new ones that were mentioned along with others that caught my own eye. Note that only the first two are from the public sector.

• Causes - Lets you start and join the causes you care about. Donations to causes can benefit over a million registered 501(c)(3) non-profits.
• Ripple - This is essentially a way of donating to a charity without spending any of your own money. Simply, ad sponsors give money to ripple for any ads viewed. Ripple donates 100% of that money to charity (we hope).
• Neighborhoods -This application uses the founding company’s broker-defined neighborhood system to help Facebook members meet other people who live near them and share local information and photos. It also shows properties for sale in the neighborhood from any of Point2’s broker and agent members, which the company says number about 140,000 in 86 countries.
• MyStyle - Lets Facebook’s fashionistas place on their profile pages pictures of items they like from the retailer’s site, such as Oscar de la Renta dresses.
• Trips - Provides a place where groups can set travel dates, create itineraries and post messages to each other. Less than two weeks ago, SideStep added a search box to its application, which, the company says, now drives 2,000 visits to its site each day — where people can search for airplane tickets, hotels and rental cars. SideStep plans to enhance the application and, eventually, show some targeted ads.
• Visual Bookshelf - Helps Facebook members find new books to read by getting recommendations and reading reviews written by their friends.

Upon first glance, none of these bring anything drastically new to the table. However, what is interesting is that the barriers to entry in developing them were significantly reduced. Why? No proprietary software was needed, promotional costs were drastically reduced and community was formed overnight thanks to the power of social media.

Anyone else know any good ones?

10 Tips for Blogging by Public Sector Executives

I was recently kindly provided with a great research report on Government Blogging authored by David C. Wyld, from the Department of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University.

After reading pretty much the entire 99 page document, I thought one of the most valuable take-aways it offered (in addition to the plethora of great diagrams and statistics) was the section providing the Top 10 tips for public sector executives wishing to start a Blog.

As a result I decided it would be a good idea to post this Top 10 list on my blog , since it is relevant to all of you that work in the Public Sector. While the majority of the report dealt with best practices in the U.S government blogosphere, naturally the same tips apply here in Canada. Again, I want to reiterate that these tips were taken from David C. Wyld’s report (I do not want to take credit for them):

Tip 1: Define yourself and your purpose. In 1992, Ross Perot’s running mate was vice Admiral James Stockdale, a vietnam War hero and former prisoner of war,. At the vice presidential debate, he infamously began with the rhetorical questions: “Who am I? Why am I here?” (Holmes, 2005). While these questions didn’t lead to victory for Stockdale, they can for you. You should, at least mentally but perhaps in your first post, state the reasons you are starting your blog, what you hope to do with it, who you hope will read it, and so on.

Tip 2: Do it yourself! Do not have someone else write your blog. While you may enlist assistance for any technical aspects that you feel uncomfortable with (and with the blogging tools available today, this really should not be an issue), you must be the author to make it authentic and interesting to your audience.

Tip 3: Make a time commitment. Before you begin your blog, know that you must make a personal commitment to have the time available to not only regularly post to your blog, but to read and respond to comments made on it. And if the comment section is managed, you or perhaps a subordinate must make decisions on which comments will be posted on the blog and which will not. You should work blog writing and reading time into your regular schedule, and if you know you will be unavailable for a period of time, invite a guest blogger(s) to fill your virtual shoes. remember, in the blogosphere, 10 days without posts could mean the death of your blog, as readers will be drawn elsewhere in virtual space.

Tip 4: Be regular. While related to the first two tips, the need to regularly post to your blog merits particular attention. In short, if you do not regularly post updated material to your blog—interesting material— whatever readership you have will quickly fade away.

Tip 5: Be generous. If your blog is nothing but an exercise in self-centeredness and self-congratulation (or links to organizations congratulating you), then your readership will tire of it. Use your blog as a platform for your jurisdiction, your staff, your family (to an extent), and so on. Take the opportunity to highlight special people in your district or community, and let your blog be a channel for spotlighting your area, not just yourself. Provide praise, applaud unsung heroes, and point out people in need of special help. In short, do good works with your words.

Tip 6: Have a “hard hide.” You cannot have a thin kin and engage in blogging. You will receive comments that range from the thoughtful and insightful o the unwarranted and the unprintable. You will also surely be praised by some tech-savvy constituents or using a new communications medium, while others will call your office or write a “snail mail” letter to ask what’s wrong with the more established forms of communication.

Tip 7: Spell-check. this almost goes without saying, but it is surprising how many blog posts have spelling and/or grammatical errors. When spotted, such mistakes can generate satirical comments, spawn bad publicity in traditional and non-traditional media, and detract from your message. As the saying goes, “that’s why God made a spell-checker!”

Tip 8: Don’t give too much information. While it is great to be honest and open in your blog, you can do it to the extreme. Let the blog be a window into your thoughts, your work, and your travels, but remember the blunt admonition of the anonymous (2003) author of The Blogger Manifesto, “nobody gives a [expletive] about what you had for breakfast” (n.p.).

Tip 9: Consider multimedia. While you must concentrate on providing timely updates to your blog, making them interesting and well written, having good content is not enough. It is crucial that you have an easy-to-navigate, visually appealing layout to your blog. In today’s environment, there is a ratcheting up of blog standards, and in a short time
it will be almost expected that video and audio elements be included on blogs. While you must learn to walk before your run, you should seek out links to audio/video sources to go multimedia at no cost, then you can begin to consider recording and producing our own audio/video content to offer as posts or podcasts on your blog.

Tip 10: Be a student of blogging. You should make it a regular habit to spend time each day being exposed to blogs other than your own. Find favorite blogs (political and non-political) and subscribe to them using a news reader or aggregator program (using RSS or Atom feeds). With these tools, you can view updates from your favorites in one place, without having to surf to multiple sites. Finally, check out the top-ranked blogs (according to Technorati or ComScore), and use this as an opportunity to benchmark the best of the best.

Feel free to comment and add your own tips!

In my next blog entry I will be rounding up examples of effective Public Sector Marketing Blogs in action. Send links my way if you know any good ones.

SEOmoz - The best one-stop-shop for all your SEO needs!

Over the last few years, the field of search engine optimization has come a very long way. While I do not specialize in the field of SEO, I feel that I have gained a strong knowledge of the subject matter through work on various online marketing strategies and personal interest. One thing I quickly realized, is that you have to be up-to-date and on the cutting-edge at all times due to the constant evolution of search engine algorithms, programming languages, CMS software, social media networks and a multitude of other factors. To stay ahead of the game I subscribe to numerous SEO feeds for the latest news, however I have always been a fan of one-stop-shops. That being said, I never really found an SEO software solution that I really liked, what I did find was SEOmoz.org.

This website could not be any easier to use. They offer a plethora of FREE tools for quick SEO audits, keyword research and web visibility analysis. While I realize they are not perfect and are a far cry from an in-depth SEO expert analysis, these tools are a great time-saving aid for beginners and experts alike. In fact, I gained so much time efficiencies using these tools that I decided to give their Premium Membership a test-run to gain access to some of their more advanced tools. I love them even more! Most of you however, will be perfectly content with the FREE tools offered to everyone. Try them out on your organization’s website to see how you rank and what areas you can improve on!

Why is this important to marketers?

I shouldn’t really have to answer this for you. No matter how good you are and what your reputation is offline, an online presence has become mandatory for success. It has become increasingly difficult to break out of the clutter, hence why SEO has become a standard practice for many organizations. For those of you that cannot afford an expert for whatever reason or simply have a small project of your own, I think SEOmoz is a great place to start.

Facebook “profile search” now open to the public and soon to all major search enignes!

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Individual Facebook profiles will now appear in search results.

What does this mean to you?

If you have your own Facebook profile, then you can piggy back on the high search visibility of the “www.facebook.com” domain to control your personal online brand. If I type my name into Google right now, my blog entires and LinkedIn profile dominate the results (other than the other Mike Kujawski who purchased www.mikekujawski.com years ago to make a C-class website with pics of himself, his dog, and his wife–he appears #1). Now my Facebook profile will be joining these results. So make sure your profile pics are accurate and up to date; and get ready for an onslaught of people requesting to add you as friends!

Viral “Social Marketing” Online Games

Often, upon meeting clients trying to promote a particular social marketing cause, I am asked to provide specific examples of engaging “viral” online campaigns. The first thing that usually comes to my mind is the use of simple online games (usually created in Flash) such as the one used in the Darfur is Dying campaign. Put simply, this is a web-based, viral video game that provides a window into the experience of the 2.5 million refugees in the Darfur region of Sudan. It is designed to raise awareness of the genocide taking place in Darfur and empower college students (the target audience in this case) to help stop the crisis. Interestingly enough, this game has garnered the attention not only of students, but of older adults as well. Why? Because online “social marketing” games are designed to be simple, fun and ENGAGING. It’s that engagement that allows the message to really be heard. See for yourself.

There are numerous other examples of using online games for Social Marketing purposes that I can think of, here are a few off the top of my head:

• Homeless: It’s no game
• Planet Green Game
• The Redistricting Game
• Karma Tyoon
• PeaceMaker

Have fun and don’t forget to send them to your friends!

Crucial Podcasts for anyone interested in Social Media Marketing

Someone recently asked me if I have a favorite Marketing/Social Media Podcast. I thought about it for a second and realized that I can’t say I do. Each one I listen to adds something unique. I have set them up to automatically download the latest episode as soon as it comes out. How do I find the time to listen to all of them? Easy. I listen to them on my way to and from work, as well as at the gym on my iPod. Here are my Top 8:

• Across the Sound
• Canadian Podcast Buffet
• The Client Side
• For Immediate Release
• Inside PR
• Managing the Gray
• Six Pixels of Separation
• Internet Marketing Voodoo

You can easily subscribe to these and listen to them for FREE by downloading iTunes and searching for them in the Podcast Directory (note: you DO NOT need an iPod or MP3 player to listen to them).

Canada and U.S seriously lagging in average broadband speed

This study was just released this week. Canada and the U.S are way behind the top dogs in terms of average broadband speed. To many individuals, this might come as a surprise and should act as a wake up call.

Consider this excerpt:

“In the first three years of the Bush administration, the United States dropped from 4th to 13th place in global rankings of broadband Internet usage. Today, most U.S. homes can access only “basic” broadband, among the slowest, most expensive, and least reliable in the developed world, and the United States has fallen even further behind in mobile-phone-based Internet access. The lag is arguably the result of the current administration’s failure to make a priority of developing these networks. In fact, the United States is the only industrialized state without an explicit national policy for promoting broadband. ” -ForeignAffairs.org

Here in Canada, (as you can see in the chart above), we’re not much better off at all. The West cannot afford to fall behind like this for much longer. Faster broadband leads not only to benefits for us marketers (i.e. a wider variety of information sharing possibilities and multi sensory media usage to get our messages across), but more importantly, towards a more educated and informed society as a whole.

So what’s stopping us? –>Lack of Fibre Optic cable infrastructure.

How did Japan do it in just 5 years? (note that in 2001, Japan was well behind the U.S and Canada). –>The government got the private sector involved, it gave subsidies and grants to telecom start-ups and most importantly, it saw the benefit and potential of ultra high-speed broadband.

So what do you think? Does the Canadian government dedicate enough resources towards broadband? Should our tax money be used? What would our society be like if everyone had fiber-optic ultra high-speed connections? When will we get there? I’m curious to hear your thoughts…

For more information on the e-Japan strategy and the incredible results, be sure to read this article.