360DigitalInfluence

For my last interview about SES Chicago, I spoke with Pauline Ores of IBM’s Market Insights group. She will be busy next week, moderating two panels focused on social media and search marketing. I asked her a few questions about the “Social Media - Measuring the Business Value” track that she’s moderating on Wednesday.

Pauline Ores
Principal Analyst, Social Media Engagement
IBM Market Insights

Q: What is your background, and could you tell me a little about what you do at IBM?

A: As part of IBM’s Corporate Market Insights team, I lead a number of social engagement strategy initiatives and related explorations: metrics, research, organizational resources, and business models. Before coming to IBM, and while at IBM I’ve built a number of online and face-to-face communities. What I find very interesting this time round are the business models these tools now enable, what are often referred to as Web 2.0 business models.

Q:  You will be moderating the session “Social Media - Measuring the Business Value” on Wednesday, 12/10. What are some of the topics you plan on covering during your session?

A: Actually I’m moderating two sessions, this one and another on Social Media Optimization. We have great speakers on both panels. On the Business Value panel - Bill Hunt  will discuss how Search and web analytics can both help shape as well as track social media activity; Rob Key will outline social media research tools, which again can be used to plan as well as measure social media programs, and Brian Halligan will discuss measuring the results of successful ‘inbound marketing’ social media programs.

Q: What metric(s) do you think businesses should focus on when measuring return on investment of social media programs?

A: Social media is designed to serve participants, not feed the marketing funnel, so tactically the challenge is to link what you can measure, often social media activity metrics, such as how many have joined or posted, to business value. Social media and community are long-term programs, so not surprisingly, they offer long-term value beyond the transaction - cost avoidance in terms of support, improved customer satisfaction, etc. Both search and social media are ‘outside ->in’ - in that they focus on market initiated activity - so social and search, only used as a research tool, can help improve the value of traditional marketing programs.

Q: Who do you follow to keep up with trends in social media measurement? Could you share 2-3 sites, blogs, or individuals?

A: Actually I find I get the most out of face-to-face discussions and events like SES - travel isn’t fun and it’s almost a luxury in this economic climate, but given the complexity of the topic, and the fact the entire field is rapidly evolving, this seems to work best. The fact that the industry hasn’t even settled on common definitions for social media terms, doesn’t help - it makes written communication a bit more challenging. You’ll see back and forth posts where it’s obvious each contributor has a different definition in mind.

When it comes to individuals - I have to credit Kevin Ryan for agreeing to start the social media track at SES when I suggested it as a new advisory board member, at that time not everyone saw a connection between search and social media. Bill Hunt, is truly a visionary when it comes to social and search (full disclosure, his firm, GSI/Neo is our search agency). I also want to credit Rob Key for taking the initiative and hosting wonderful informal industry gatherings that bring marketing, consultants, bloggers and even his competitors together to discuss a variety of social media topics.

Q: One year from now, what will have changed with respect to how businesses measure the value of social media?

A: We’ll see greater integration, where social media metrics are incorporated into traditional marketing functions and measurements. I would hope we evolve - in that rather than try to cram social media into the box we call marketing, we allow these new types of interactions between businesses, clients, vendors, partners and prospects to redefine and transform marketing. We’ve gotten better at marketing, we have new media types, but the basic marketing model has remained the same for over a century.

Today I had a chance to catch up with Anne F. Kennedy of Beyond Ink, who’s going to be moderating a panel about global search marketing trends at SES Chicago. Anne’s been a search maven for ten plus years and serves on the Search Engine Strategies advisory board.

Also, for any last-minute attendees, SES Chicago provided me with a discount code to share that’s worth 20% off your registration fee. Enter the code  20SEOPR on the SES Chicago registration page.

Anne F. Kennedy
Managing Partner and Founder
Beyond Ink

 
Q:   You are moderating the “Search Around the World: Europe, Asia/Pacific & Latin America” session on Day One of SES Chicago. What are some of the topics you’ll be covering during this session?

A:   We’ve been presenting this panel at every SES this year, including overseas. In it we have given a quick overview of search engine marketing in other countries. For Chicago, we will be covering BRIC, not the kind you build with, but the emerging markets in Brazil (and Latin America) Russia, India and China, as well as established markets in Europe, Japan and Korea. Our focus is always on what it takes to succeed in search in other countries – not always the same factors as the US/UK markets. We will go around the world in 60 minutes, faster than Phineas Fogg, and even a speeding bullet!

Q:   In the U.S., search is such a central part of the online experience for most Internet users. How similar or different are Europe, Asia/Pacific and Latin America?

A:   As different as each individual culture, and that can be significantly different from what we are accustomed to in the US. The principle differences include the acceptance and indeed popularity of paid search results in some countries, as well as the greater use of mobile phones for searches instead of PC’s. One more big difference is Google’s share of market; the most popular Search engine in the US has stiff competition from locally popular media, and in some countries, Yahoo has a larger market share than Google.
Q:   From an organic search and pure visibility perspective, how important is having a presence in social media in Europe, Asia/Pacific and Latin America?

A:  Social media use is on the rise around the world, but almost exclusively for keeping up with friends, family and community. The notion of “having a presence” in a marketing sense, is not fully realized outside the US. So, it would be as important as it is in the US, if it were possible to have it, which it doesn’t appear to be at this time. (Confused? Welcome to the world of global social media marketing!)
Q:   Could you share 3 blogs, communities, Twitter users or Web sites that you follow to stay ahead of trends in International search marketing?

A:   To be honest, there isn’t much out there, which is a situation we hope to change soon. The best information I get comes in the form of original research by local country search marketers, who are on the ground doing search in countries other than the US. These are the people we have brought in for this panel; they all a have direct country experience and will share insights they have gained over the years.
Q:   If you were to define 2-3 key trends that will emerge over the next year with respect to global search marketing, what would they be?

A:   Mobile devices will continue to grow faster than PC’s as search access tools. Each country’s own search engine will retain and increase market dominance (sorry Google!). Paid results will continue to have greater acceptance overseas than among US users.

Search Engine Strategies (SES) is one of my favorite industry conference series, bringing together some of the smartest minds in search as well as tens of thousands of attendees each year.

The SES Chicago event is kicking off one week from today - on Monday, December 8th. Thanks to the help of folks at SES Chicago, I had an opportunity to  create a “SES Chicago Interview Series” with three panelists who’ll be  participating in the social media or measurement-focused panels.  Today, I’m posting my Q&A with Google’s Kristen Nomura who will be participating in a  session on  ”Measuring Success in a 2.0 World.”  If you’re still considering attending, here are a few great posts worth checking out:

SES Chicago 2008 Invitation and Primer
4 Reasons to Go to SES Chicago
Interview: Bruce Clay on SEO Tools
SES Chicago to Spark Discussions on Viral Campaigns, Social Media and Search around the World

Stay tuned later this week for my interviews with Pauline Ores of IBM and Anne Kennedy of Beyond Ink.

KRISTEN NOMURA
Central Region Manager, Search & Analytics
Google

Q: You are participating in the “Measuring Success in a 2.0 World” session on Day One of SES Chicago. With so much focus on measurement and outcomes given the current economy, this is sure to be a popular session. Can you give us a sneak, high-level preview of what you’ll be sharing?

A:   There are five speakers on the panel, so we each have just eight minutes to present before the Q&A session – not much time! Since the attendees of SES are already experts in driving visitors to their sites via search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising, I plan to focus on measuring what visitors do post-click.

I don’t know if we’ll have time to go in-depth on visitor segmentation, but this is one area we’ve been exploring with our clients since the launch of Advanced Segmentation in Google Analytics last month. The fantastic thing about search traffic is that the phrases people use to get to your site can be a great window into visitor intent. It takes a bit of work upfront, but if you really mine the search query data to understand the needs of your visitors, you can start to pinpoint which segments you are serving well, and which ones you are ignoring or under-serving.

Q: What advice would you give a blogger who wants to get smarter about how they measure success against their efforts?

A: The first and most obvious metric is the number of readers your blog attracts. This should be a combination of those who come to the blog and read your content, and those who subscribe via RSS.

The next consideration is reader loyalty. Do they come once and never return? Or do they come back on a regular basis to check out your latest words of wisdom? For this metric, you can simply look at your site analytics and see what portion of each month’s visitors are new vs. returning visitors, or look at visitor loyalty reporting to see how often in a particular time period they’ve come to your blog..

Another critical measure of engagement is how frequently your readers are posting comments. You should aim to grow your comment-to-post ratio over time as a measurement of audience participation. As readers comment, you as the blogger can encourage more dialogue by actively responding to their comments – the conversation should not be just one-way.

Finally, you should look at how much other bloggers are talking about you. Trackbacks to your blog are an excellent indicator of your authority on a topic, and may also lead new readers to discover your content.  

These are just a few high-level ideas for measuring a blog’s success. Google’s Analytics Evangelist, Avinash Kaushik, is an avid blogger and wrote a very comprehensive post on this topic a while back. I’d encourage anybody interested in metrics for blogs to check it out.

Q: If you were to define a key trend that will shape how we measure success over the next year, what will it be?

A: With the economy in a recession, I think the trend will be less about new ways of measurement, and more about making measurement and testing a higher priority.

Advertisers and agencies are being asked to justify their budgets, so I predict we will see budgets shift towards the most quantifiable channels, and towards those that capture prospects who are farthest along in the purchase funnel. Marketers will try to tap their loyal customer base for better efficiency; meanwhile, top-of- the-funnel, awareness-driven efforts will become a lower priority for many.

The upside of this situation is that scarcity breeds creativity. In 2009 I hope to see more advertisers focus on making their websites and marketing efforts more effective through testing and experimentation. Working with Fortune 500 companies in many industries, I have been surprised how few have embraced multivariate or A/B testing, but now is the perfect time to start because even a small percent change in conversion can really boost return on ad spend.  

Through experiments using Google Website Optimizer, we’ve found that seemingly minor changes to a landing page or checkout process can significantly increase conversions. There are several tools out there to assist with multivariate testing, but Website Optimizer is free, so there’s no cost barrier to using it. What better way to make your marketing budget go further?

“I use Twitter to follow key journalists all the time… never to pitch them.” That’s a note my colleague Luca Penati, who heads up our global technology practice, sent me following last week’s Twitter Bootcamp for PR webinar. That, in less than 140 characters, gets to the heart of how Twitter should be used to conduct media relations.

Staying sharp about your area of expertise is one of the foundations to being a smart, successful public relations expert. While it’s true that not everyone and their uncle is atwitter on Twitter (yet), people who we’d categorize as being influential – such as journalists, CEO’s, Congressmen  -  are  active on  Twitter  sharing ideas, exchanging information, and developing new relationships with peers.

Perhaps the greatest beauty of Twitter, from a media relations perspective, is not that you might be able to send a few reporters who ask for it a 140 character pitch (which is a great concept). Rather,  it’s that you can develop a virtual rolodex of experts from within your industry who you can learn from, get to know personally, and connect with when appropriate. If you think about it, in the course of days or weeks, you can establish more expert relationships than would have only been possible across an entire career in the not-so-distant past.

FOLLOW

Whether or not Twitter has been widely adopted yet, the fact that media and influencers are active on Twitter is what’s important. Why wouldn’t you want to know what @stevebaker, @donlemoncnn, @caroliiine, @maddow or @newmediajim are up to?   It’s just going to make you smarter as a public relations professional. True, on occasion you might be exposed to more than you’d care to know, but overall if you pay attention you’ll learn some invaluable insights. Over on  Tech PR Nibbles,  Lexy Klain wrote:

“I (may) find out when people need to go to the bathroom, what they had for breakfast and when they are on the train but on several occasions it can be really useful. You can pick up a lead on a story that a journalist is working on, what topics he/ she covers, when he/ she is going overseas, find out what they think of products they are reviewing and reporting on, what topics light a fire under them and so forth.”

So how do you start following? The first step is creating your own Twitter account. It’s free. And it’s easy. Once you’ve done that, you’ll want to start following both journalists and bloggers from across your industry to find out what they’re working on or really passionate about. Here are  four good ways to find and follow people on Twitter:

1. Search Field: On Twitter.com, click the “Find People” link toward the top right of the page, and then click “Search” for either someone’s name or a location. For example, if you wanted to find people Tweeting from Bethesda, MD, simply type “Bethesda” into the search field.
2. Wiki Lists: There are several wikis that contain lists of journalists and brands which are active on Twitter. These include Media People Using Twitter  and Twitter Packs.
3. Fellow Followers. Looking at the Twitter page of someone you consider influential, check to see who they are following. You can do this by clicking their “Following” link on their profile. There’s a good chance you’ll find others who are passionate about your topic as well.
4. Twitter Search Engines: There are a number of Twitter search engines that are publicly available. Try entering a keyword, name or location  into a tool like Tweet Scan or Summize.

As you begin following people, do not  ask  them to  follow you and don’t sweat having a low number of followers to start out.  In this case, if you build it they  will come:  if you are sharing useful information your list of followers will grow organically. Sarah Evens over at Mashable said in her post  ”How Not To: Build Your Twitter Community“:

“My biggest pet peeve on Twitter is when people ask for more followers. I don’t think anyone has malicious intents, but it doesn’t make any sense to me. You get more followers because you provide great content, are entertaining or someone likes you… Practice good Twitter etiquette and don’t solicit followers for yourself or your friends.”

Lastly, Mike Yanke of the  TopRank Online Marketing Blog drives home the importance of listening first on Twitter:

“A social network, like a party of new friends, has its own wants, needs and - per Odden - its own written and unwritten rules to be followed. Unless time is taken to listen to what those wants, needs and ruless are, and an effort is made to offer something of value based on this information, you will likely be seen as an outsider to the proceedings, unlikely to be involved in any meaningful party conversation, and risk the complete shunning of the group itself.”

CREATE

Complete your profile fully! Accentuate what makes you an expert, and crosslink your Web site(s) or social network profiles to provide context. This is important, because as you begin to follow people they’ll likely visit your Twitter profile. The more you can demonstrate your expertise the more likely they’ll want to follow you, too. Secondly, Tweet useful, relevant information that people would would want to know - such as statistics or links you might hear about at an industry event or press conference. For every Tweet where you’re asking the masses  for something, I think you should  be providing  at least 10 Tweets of useful information.  Put simply: provide value.

ENGAGE

If you’d like  to participate in Twitter to  improve your media  relations skills,  here are four things you  can do:  

1. Build an Insight Network.  Create an insight network by following people who are influential in your area of expertise (see Follow, above). Read as many Tweets as you can. For people who you really care about and are providing value, you might want to consider having their Tweets sent to your mobile device.
2. Provide Value to Others. The golden rule of Twitter. Sharing something personal from time to time is appropriate, but if your purpose is to position yourself as an expert on a topic, you’ll want to make sure at least 80% of your posts are providing value.
3. Twitpitch Only When Asked. Some journalists are opting out of email and asking for pitches to come through via Twitter. As of today, the number of reporters who consider Twitter a pitch-free zone outnumbers these folks. The key thing is to do your research first and know what they prefer.
4. Hashtag All Events. As Kaitlyn Wilkins mentionedin post #4 of this series, Twitter is a great way to cover an event. If you are hosting a press conference, participating in a trade show, or hosting a panel discussion, you will want to designate and promote a hashtag (#) for the event. Reporters can follow the hashtag before, during and after the event to help craft their coverage.

These are just four quick examples that come to mind for someone who’s admittedly not a traditional public relations pro. Knowing what you know about Twitter, what other applications to media relations and public relations do you think are appropriate and possible? Would love to hear your thoughts.

During last Wednesday’s Social Media Club of D.C.’s panel discussion about government and social media, we heard from four  experts who are leading social media initiatives within or on behalf of government agencies.

Each shared three insights, or lessons learned, that would be of use to others within government who are evaluating how best to get started in social media. Before the discussion got underway, we interviewed each panelist and asked them what they’d be sharing. Below are each of their interviews, along with quick highlights of their main points.

MIGUEL GOMEZ, AIDS.gov

1. Remember Your Target Audience!  Think about what your audience wants, and remember that you’re an expert on whatever topic you’re writing about.

2.  Embrace Training.  Be proactive about training your colleagues and leadership, and respect whatever level they’re at currently.  Bring them up to speed on relevant social media trends and tools.

3. Constantly Evaluate. Ask your colleagues and readers for input to evaluate how successful your initiatives are. Think about whether what you’re doing is making your life easier, whether you’re serving others.

JOANNE MCGOVERN, USA.gov

1. It’s Where the People Are. Get to understand social media because it’s where the people are. Much like the reason the Post Office is downtown, the government should be engaged in social media because it’s where people are and they can bring the most benefit.

2. Your Comfort Level Will Grow. The more you get involved in social media and try new things, the more comfortable you and your agency will be with Web 2.0.

3. Conversation May Lead to Program Improvements. Open up to the conversation that’s happening. The TSA Blog is a great example because they took comments from travellers to improve security at airports.

MIKE PANETTA, Grassroots Enterprises & U.S. Shadow Representative for D.C.

1. Make Smart Choices. With technology and tools  evolving so quickly, it’s best not to jump on every latest trend - but to pay attention to best practices that have been proven effective.

2.  Regulations Will Change to Allow for More Experimentation. Over time, we will begin to see changes that allow agencies to experiment with more Web 2.0 tools and technologies.

3.  Create a Strategy First. Know what your goal is for participating in social media. Know what your goals are, who your audiences are, and then develop a plan to get there that’s based on strategy.

TRACY JOHNSON, Business.gov & ENC Marketing

1. Live By Example. Use examples of what other agencies are doing to make your case. (Here’s a good list of government blogs).

2. Conversation’s Already Happening. No need to fear, since there’s already conversation happening about your agency. By participating, you have an opportunity to provide your point of view.

3. Test Now Before it Gets Mandated. In coming years, we’ll see agencies not only using social media but mandating that it be part of certain programs or outreach activities.

Last night the Ogilvy 360 Degree Digital Influence team hosted the October meeting of the Social Media Club of D.C.  The focus of this month’s meeting was Social Media and Government, and we heard insights from four insiders who are participating in social media for or on behalf of government agencies.

We’ve uploaded photos from last night’s event to the Ogilvy Flickr gallery, and will be sharing video interviews and an in-depth summary of the discussion from last night’s event here on the 360 Digital Influence blog. In the mean time, there were many people tweeting from the event - so we wanted to share several interesting posts from last night:

@wamurray: Putting a human face on gov’t is a real key benefit to social media (HHS secretary blog, USA.gov blog)

@wamurray: #SMCDC Miguel Gomez from AIDS.gov spoke about repurposing content (blogs,podcasts); something we’re doing in our social media work w/clients

@creativeblogs: excellent presentation last night at #SMCDC @aidsgov.

@ssoper: RL meets dead tree. saw a presentation at #smcdc last night that mentioned lafd using twitter then read about it in wired today

@ctorgan: Pew resource cited at #smcdc http://www.pewinternet.org/ podcast use (19%) vs mobile access (62%) Demographics v relevant

@mamadouthiam: #smcdc great to see other .gov people take the time and make the effort to improve their agencies (on their own time)!

@digitalsista: facebook is not 508 compliance. if u build the model 2 be compliant in the 1st pl they is 0 cost 2 chng

@JustinHerman: If the gov jumped on every shiny object every agency would have a friendster page - Mike Panetta

@bdgiesen: internal webinars to educate gov employees. Good way to train, make people comfortable w social media

@jacquebrown: They may not be 2.0 thought leaders but they are change agents - equally critical

@tanyachadha: Tracy Johnston of business.gov has some interesting points about getting smll biz owners involved w/ social media #smcdc

@willfleiss: Panetta’s Predictions in 2009: member of congress twittering from the house floor… Yes…congress can tweet…a law passed

@mixtmedia: “we can no longer afford to work at the speed of gov’t” Brian Humphrey from @LAFD via @mikepanetta #SMCDC

@abfdc: Secretary Leavitt’s pandemic flu blog didn’t bring HHS down, points out @jbell99 I created that with @beautifulthangs

@sarahmarchetti: In pre interview with miguel he said the role of a gov social media employee is train staff and respect where they’re at. No judgment

@ssoper: #smcdc govt + web 2.0 is happening quicker than you think

@mamadouthiam: #smcdc aids.gov speaker doing some very good work. Emphasize the importance of educating colleagues

@lyf108: #smcdc miguel gomez from aids.gov is a fabulous speaker

@JustinHerman: One of the biggest lessons: I have the obligation to train and educate my colleagues on blogging and podcasts - AIDS.gov

You can also find all of the SMCDC  Tweets on summize.com.

Ogilvy is hosting the October meeting of the Social Media Club of Washington, D.C., next week.

We have organized a panel discussion about Web 2.0 and government - and we’ll hear from people who are actively evangelizing social media within federal agencies today.  

If you are developing digital strategy within or for government agencies, this will be a great event to attend! Space is limited, but you can RSVP by emailing me at brian.giesen@ogilvypr.com  if you are interested.

Government Web 2.0:
Real Life Lessons Learned & What Lies Ahead

Join us for a networking event and panel discussion about the state of social media in government. You will hear from experts who are blogging or evangelizing Web 2.0 now inside government agencies. Each will share three lessons learned, and offer one prediction about what lies ahead for social media and government in 2009.

PANELISTS

John Bell (moderator)
Managing Director, Ogilvy 360o Digital Influence
http://blog.ogilvypr.com/

Miguel Gomez
Director, AIDS.gov
http://blog.aids.gov

Joanne McGovern
Web Content Manager, USA.gov
http://www.govgab.gov

Mike Panetta
Vice President, Grassroots Enterprises
http://www.mikepanetta.com

Tracy Johnson
Senior Manager, ENC
http://www.business.gov

LOCATION

Wednesday, October 22, 2008
6:00 – 8:00PM

Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence

1111 19th Street NW #10
Washington, D.C.RSVP: brian.giesen@ogilvypr.com    

Sure, you could announce your  vice president the usual way. In the backyard of your runningmate’s home, overlooking some scenic inspiring vista with giant satellite trucks from major networks idling out front. That’d be easy.

The problem, though, is that by the time the mainstream media assembles at the site of your announcement someone will have leaked the “event” and we’ll know who it is hours before you take the stage (who’s not going to notice giant satellite trucks idling outfront someone’s home in say Richmond, Indianapolis or Nebraska?). By the time you make your announcement, it’s old news. Yawn. Where’s the surprise in that?

Everything about this presidential race is “different” and the way you choose to announce your running mate should follow suit. Surprise and delight us. Tell your family of supporters first. In short, make it personal. Then roll out your announcement the old fashioned way through a joint appearance, press release, and paddleboat journey down the Mississippi. Here’s a few ways you could do it differently:

1. Countdown to Change Clock. Register a domain like BaracksChoice.com (it’s available!) that features nothing but a countdown clock that ticks down to the hour or day of your announcement. You could offer widgetized versions that your supporters can plug into their Facebook pages, blogs and Web sites. All across the Web - tick tock, tick tock. At the appointed hour, the clock comes down and up goes streaming live video of you making your big announcement. Sure, we’ll know when it’s going to happen - you just need to keep the “who” a surprise.

2. A Tuesday Tweet. With our collective attention span, you need to communicate your joint message and rationale in 140 characters or less, anyway.  Or we’re not going to get it. You have 50,000 highly networked Americans following you  on twitter.com/barackobama, so surprise us in the middle of the day. Do it on a Tuesday or Wednesday, when Internet use is highest.

3. Live YouTube Event. Make your selection live via streaming video on the Web, using the  Barack Obama YouTube channel. While broadband access is a whole other issue the next president should address, more and more Americans access the Web through high speed connections, making this option a real possibility. In fact, you could take a $110 flip cam and start shooting clips beginning on the morning of your announcement. Tell us today’s the day. And let us experience it with you.

4. Social Press Release. You probably have millions of email addresses from Americans from every corner of the country. You could create an email announcement that contains a short letter from you and your running mate, and links to “social” content that your supporters could spread virally online - video clips on YouTube, imagery, downloadable banners and badges, widgets and more. Maybe talk John Kerry and Al Gore into forwarding your message on your behalf to their lists.

5. The Facebook Option. Ok, I probably should have listed this one first. There are more than 1.2 million supporters who have joined the Barack Obama Facebook group. You could easily make your announcement any number of ways through Facebook - by sending a message on Facebook to all of your group members, by posting a video announcing your running mate, by posting a joint photo, or by writing on your own wall.

Those are just a few suggestions of how you could introduce your vice president in a more direct way. And I should say that we’re a non-partisan bunch here on the 360 Digital Influence blog, and John McCain could use any one of these ideas. It’s just that McCain’s social media footprint is much smaller (Obama Facebook supporters = 1.2 million, McCain’s = 180,000), so Obama made the better example for this post.

What other ways could one of the nominees introduce us to his running mate, digitally?

You can now register for a free Webinar that my colleague Kaitlyn Wilkins and I will be giving next week. It’s the second of a two-part series sponsored by BurrellesLuce on how to plan, execute and measure a social media program.

In this follow-up to part one, which covered planning, we will provide five insights that can help your program generate stronger results. We will give you five tools, ideas and resources that you can use. Plus, we will share three important KPIs to track and measure the business impact of social media programs.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 1:00-2:00 p.m. EDT

PANELISTS:

Debbie Friez, Senior Vice President, BurrellesLuce
Brian Giesen, Senior Digital Strategist, 360 ° Digital Influence
Kaitlyn Wilkins, Digital Strategist, 360 ° Digital Influence

Register online today, or call 888.208.3229. Hope you can join!

Lincoln believed that the definition of democracy was “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Today, with the help of social media, we can add “with the people” to that definition.

Particularly within the last six months, more and more federal government officials and agencies are blogging and using other forms of social media to communicate directly with the public. Most are posting multiple times per week - if not daily - and publishing comments that meet criteria defined in published commenting policies.

What’s particularly impressive is the range of federal officials who have embraced social media as a way for having a direct discussion with the public. From Cabinet Secretaries to communications directors and program managers, these officials are sharing first-hand their passion for public service and the differences they are making in the lives of everyday Americans. One Congressman from Texas – U.S. Representative John Culberson – made headlines recently for becoming a prolific Twitter user.

How are they doing it?   With respect to federal government blogs, here are some of the trends that I’m seeing emerge in terms of the common formats that are emerging and widely used:

#1:   THE “OFFICIAL” BLOG: A government blog written by a single government official, such as Department of Health and Human Service Secretary Mike Leavitt’s blog. The “Official Blog” tends to tell the story of a specific government agency, or a single official’s point of view and experiences.

#2:   GROUP BLOGS: Government blogs written by a team of people who work within a specific federal government agency or department are quite common. This is the most common format. Having a group of people contribute allows for a variety of viewpoints and spreads responsibility for contributing beyond a single person. A great example is GSA’s GovGab, which is written by seven bloggers who post about government services that are making a difference in the everyday lives of Americans but might not otherwise get noticed.

#3:   PUBLIC CAMPAIGN BLOGS: Education is a core function of most government agencies and public communication campaigns are often a vehicle for educating the public. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Big Read Blog provides updates on the NEA’s Big Read Initiative. Over time, I would expect to see more and more federal government blogs to share information about campaign events, learnings and to track overall progress.

#4:   PERIODIC BLOGS: These include government blogs that are focused around a single issue and are often confined to specific timeframe, such as 4-6 weeks. The Pandemic Flu Leadership Blog, coordinated by Ogilvy PR on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services, is a good example of this format. Other examples include blogs that chronicle foreign trips or events.

#5:   THIRD PARTY BLOGS: This format involves guest posting on other third-party blogs. This can also be an attractive option for government officials who cannot contribute consistently to a blog over the long-term.   Examples of this type of blogging include The Hill’s Congress Blog, where Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle post regularly.

35 Government Blog and Social Media Examples

Here is a collection of 35 links to federal government blogs and social media sites where officials are using social media to have a more direct relationship with their constituencies. They include the following:

GSA
GovGab
http://blog.usa.gov

AIDS.gov
AIDS.gov Blog
http://blog.aids.gov

CBO
Director’s Blog
http://cboblog.cbo.gov

CDC
NIOSH Blog
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/blog

CDC
Health Marketing Musings
http://www.cdc.gov/HealthMarketing/blog.htm

Department of Defense
ASY Live
http://asylive.blogspot.com

Department of Defense
The Military Health System Blog
http://www.health.mil/mhsblog

Department of Health & Human Services
Secretary Mike Leavitt’s Blog
http://secretarysblog.hhs.gov

Department of Health & Human Services
National African HIV/AIDS Initiative (NAHI) Blog
http://www.omhrc.gov/templates/content.aspx?ID=5661

Department of Homeland Security
Leadership Journal
http://www.dhs.gov/journal/leadership

Department of State
Dipnote
http://blogs.state.gov

Department of Transportation  
Welcome to the Fast Lane
http://fastlane.dot.gov

Environmental Protection Agency
Greenversations
http://blog.epa.gov/blog

Eye Level
Smithsonian American Art Museum
http://eyelevel.si.edu

FBI
FBI This Week (iTunes Channel)
http://www.fbi.gov/thisweek/archive/radarchive.htm  

Library of Congress
Library of Congress Blog
http://www.loc.gov/blog

Millenium Challenge Corporation
CEO Blog
http://www.mcc.gov/blog/ceo

NOAA
National Hurricane Center RSS Feeds
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutrss.shtml  

NASA
Wayne Hale’s Blog
http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/waynehalesblog

NASA
Goddard CIO Blog
http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/Goddard%20CIO%20Blog

National Endowment for the Arts
The Big Read Blog
http://www.nea.gov/bigreadblog

National Parks Foundation
National Parks Blog
http://blog.nationalparks.org

ONDCP
Pushing Back
http://pushingback.com/cs/blogs/pushing_back

Peace Corps
Volunteer Journals
http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=learn.whatlike.voljournal

Rep. Jack Kingston
Representative Kingston’s Blog
http://kingston.house.gov/Blog

Speaker Pelosi
The Gavel
http://speaker.house.gov/blog

U.S. Department of State
State Video Channel
whttp://www.youtube.com/user/statevideo

The Hill
Congress Blog
http://blog.thehill.com

TSA
Evolution of Security
http://www.tsa.gov/blog

U.S. Department of Agriculture
InfoFarm: The NAL Blog
http://weblogs.nal.usda.gov/infofarm

U.S. Navy
CIO Blog
http://www.doncio.navy.mil/Blog.aspx

U.S. Park Service
Mount Raineer Volunteers Blog
http://rainiervolunteers.blogspot.com

U.S. Representative John Culberson
Twitter Profile
http://twitter.com/johnculberson

U.S. Senator Tom Harkin
Flickr Gallery
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8686609@N05

US Army Combined Arms Center
Blog Library
http://usacac.army.mil/BLOG

Walter Reed Medical Center
Commanders Blog
http://blogs.wramc.amedd.army.mil/Hospital/default.aspx

This is just a start.  Are there other good examples?    What are the benefits and barriers with respect to blogging on behalf of a government agency?   Would love to hear your thoughts!