My thoughts on the bilingual issue holding back the use of social media in government

I want to make a few things clear before I write this post today.

First of all, I was born in France, I love Quebec here in Canada, I am a trilingual anglophone, and I have nothing but full support for our country having two official languages. That being said, there are certain exceptions in regards to the bilingual requirement, which I think our Treasury Board should consider.

First and foremost, the whole point of effective use of social media is defeated when blog posts, podcasts, rss feeds, etc…, have to be translated each and every single time something is posted. This renders instant response impossible, and will make government organizations seem out-of-date and behind the loop (not that the perception out there is any better now). The translation departments are backlogged enough as is having to translate every single document that exists within each branch. Government websites (aside from a few exceptions) have become warehouses of useless information because it’s become too much of a hassle to make a change, have it approved, send it to translation, send it to the web guys, etc… you know the drill.

Along comes the Web 2.0 revolution of instant sharing, collaboration, and conversation and what does the government do? First of all the provincial government bans Facebook. Smart move guys! That’ll teach ‘em! (i’m being blatantly sarcastic here ->See my post on that issue). Now the government has put a hold on the use of blogs and participation in online social networks because everything that comes out of the government must be bilingual! So if someone working for the government had a departmental or work blog (as is widely prevalent in the U.S –> see my post on Secretary of State Mike Leavitt), and had to respond to reader comments, they “theoretically” would have to send it to translation and wait days if not weeks before they could post. Does that make a lot of sense to you?

How about the case of a “what’s new” rss feed. The purpose is of course to have feeds delivered instantaneously and automatically to subscribers as they are published in response to daily or weekly activities. By the time it’s sent to translation and approved, the message will be out of date. Further still, the whole point of blogging and social networks is 2-way conversation. How is that possible if there are no responses to the comments that would be coming in from active citizens (as a result of the translation delay)? Aren’t government employees supposed to be serving the public (i.e. “public servants”)?

If you work for the government, you’re probably asking, who has the time for all of this anyway? I hear your pain. Unfortunately your excuse is not valid. There are enough social media tools out there (feed readers, auto blog writers, alerts, etc…) that can drastically streamline and speed up your daily tasks ten-fold! Think of all the time that would be freed up if all employees were taught how to effectively use a feed reader (allowing them to unsubscribe from all their newsletters and reduce email reading time), use internal chats for communication instead of email, use internal social networks for collaboration and project work instead of meetings… the list goes on.

You’re probably thinking that sounds expensive? You’re wrong. It’s pennies compared to the alternatives the government spends money on instead. What is expensive is the cost of not embracing social media and ignoring the social (not just technological) revolution taking place.

What’s the solution?

Create a policy for all social media use in government to be “open” to whatever language someone feels comfortable writing in. If citizens want to comment in French, that’s fine…someone should answer them in French. If they comment in English, answer in English. Create an open platform of bilingualism, not a one-way bilingual communication vehicle. Blogs are not supposed to be press releases or “communication pieces” as the government likes to call them.

Citizens deserve the right to dialogue with the government in a free and open manner. Why keep those channels closed? Why block the vastly superiour communication technologies and networks that your young workforce (and “progressive” older workforce) has grown up with and mastered? I’ve said this before and I will say it again, employees that choose to waste time, will waste time regardless of what restrictions you put on them. Instead of banning social media, why not figure out how to use it to your advantage?

My point here is that the TBO should adapt it’s guidelines and policies on bilingualism with modern best practices. Not ancient Web 1.0 thinking, where the web is seen as a storage of digitized static information where everything needs to be finely polished and reviewed by the communication department.

The one exception to all of this that I see is the use of social media tools to gather information on citizens (e.g Facebook Polls). Here it should be bilingual since time-sensitivity is not necessarily a factor and official research should be conducted in both French and English. The good news is that Facebook will soon be updating some of it’s tools (such as Facebook Polls) for French audiences, so hopefully there will be no more excuses in that regard…

A lot of you may disagree, I want to hear your thoughts, let’s open this one up…

Facebook business tools can be useful for Public Sector marketers!

After all the negative attention Facebook’s Beacon service has been getting lately in terms of privacy issues, I decided to inspect it myself and browse around the remainder of Facebook’s business tools (which have expanded considerably since I last used them a few months ago). In doing so, I came across this great little summary description page of each service, which I have posted up here for your convenience:

I ran a little experimental “Social Ad” and was amazed at just how much targeting I can do. With each targeting criteria I set, Facebook automatically updates the number of people that match those criteria on Facebook. Here’s a sample screenshot of how it works:

Play around with it (you can bail out at any time before you enter your credit card information), see if you can reach a big enough size of your target audience through this channel. The best part is that once you decide to commit, you set the maximum daily budget you want to spend and the bidding price of your ad! (similar to the PPC Google Adwords concept). Remember that even though the number of your audience may appear small and insignificant, it’s the quality that counts (long tail theory).

How social media made my life easier this week…

For those of you that didn’t catch my Twitter feed messages, you’re probably not aware that I had a major technological meltdown occur a few days ago. It all started Tuesday afternoon, upon commencing my regular morning “social media sunrise” routine. My laptop loaded as usual, however upon loading any application, it would display the much despised “blue screen of death”. I tried re-booting and starting in safe-mode, repairing my windows installation and booting from factory CD’s, however it would freeze each time.

Now, I should point out that part of me has always been a “techie” by nature and in the past, there have been very few issues with computers (which I usually assemble myself from custom parts) that I couldn’t resolve. I spent hours on this one trying every trick of the trade. To cut a long story short, it turned out to be more serious than I thought (malfunctioning hardware issue- overheated video card that corrupted my system files and most of my hard drive).

The point of this post however, is that even though I was without a laptop, the technological gateway to my work, I managed not to have it impact my work nearly as much as in the past.

Why is that? Answer: social media + public computer with internet access.

Here’s some common social media applications that helped me get through my work week without my own laptop:

• Experts-Exchange :Even though I know quite a bit of technical stuff, I decided to tap into this amazing computer technical support knowledge community. I posted a question about my computer problem and within minutes I had people literally competing to respond to me with the best answer (they get authority/expert points similar to that of LinkedIn). I received some great ideas on how to recover 2.5″ corrupt laptop HD’s that ended up working flawlessly.
• Twitter : This great little micro-blogging platform let me quickly inform regular subscribers to my blogs that I am having some tech issues and will be a little behind in everything I do until further notice.
• Google Bookmarks : Even though I also use other social bookmarking tools such as Del.icio.us for specific purposes, I found the most use out of Google Bookmarks, which loaded up my entire bookmark collection (personal and business). This made my web user interface exactly the same as on my laptop.
• Plaxo: Since my Outlook Calendar files were not backed up, my only resort was looking at my Plaxo account calendar which I had set-up to automatically synchronize with my Outlook calendar. All my meetings and appointments were salvaged.
• Google Reader : I shouldn’t even have to explain this one. Logging into my Google Account and browsing all my RSS feeds made me feel like I wasn’t missing a beat.

I should also add that I spent some time listening to my favorite blogs and podcasts (see my Blog Roll) trying to figure out which laptop to buy now that mine was toast (ordering the part alone would take weeks, which I didn’t have). I finally decided to go with a loaded Dell XPS 1330 based on many direct and indirect recommendations from the online community.

Now I play the waiting game…arrival of my new laptop is scheduled for Decemebr 10th, I’ve been told that Dell usually beats it’s promise by a few days. I hope this will be true in my case as well (RichardatDell, feel free to pull some strings! lol).

Until then, I’m fine using any computer I find, anywhere I am.

Back from PodCamp Boston 2

I just realized that its already mid-week and I still haven’t written about my trip to the PodCamp Social Media “un”confernece in Boston. For those unaware, an unconference is essentially a conference for which the content and presentation topics are organized by the participants using a collaborative wiki (i.e. easily editable website). Think of it as a true democratization of the traditional conference model where speakers have to submit proposals and be chosen by a panel.

Did I mention that unconferences are free?

Those of you that have ever paid $650 to register for a regular conference where the speakers blab about their own company (or about an irrelevant topic) would really appreciate this. If you think quality takes a hit, think again. The calibre of presenters was outstanding. Many of them normally charge thousands of dollars to do the exact same presentations as keynotes (and rightly so! well worth it!). Out of the over 1200 registered participants and 50 speakers, a significant number were well know international Social Media or Marketing gurus, including the likes of CC Chapman, David Meerman Scott, Mitch Joel, Christopher Penn and a whole slew of others.

I thought you might want to have a look at the following PodCamp links as prime examples of how to build true conference ‘interactivity’ before, during, and after your own event. Simple, to the point, and consistently branded throughout various social media tools.

• http://www.PodCampBoston.org/blog - official blog
• http://www.PodCampBoston.org/wiki - this wiki page
• http://www.PodCampBoston.org/twitter - group twitter
• http://www.PodCampBoston.org/backchannel - live chat
• http://www.PodCampBoston.org/guide - PDF guide (also works for /sessions and /schedule)
• http://www.PodCampBoston.org/party - for last minute registrations for the Saturday night social

Be sure to download the PDF guide to the conference and take a look at how simple the layout is, yet extremely informative. I was amazed at how flawless this “un” conference was in general (including the calibre of speakers/presenters) considering it was free and organized by us, the participants.

If you organize any sort of events or conference (regardless of the topic) this sort of model is definitely something to look out for on your radar in terms of your future competition and your own business model development for that matter. Unconferences are growing at a tremendous rate right now worldwide in various industries…don’t ignore them just because they are free!

For those that missed it, speaker presentations have all been recorded (both audio and video) and will be available free of charge on the PodCamp wiki in the next week. If you can’t wait that long, you can go to Blog TV and watch the numerous videos taken LIVE by conference participants (type “podcamp” as the keyword).

Cheers!

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!

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.

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!

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).