DC Social Media and Advocacy Analysis Report October 20, 2009

Via techPresident, Marc Ross, Christine Stineman, and Chris Lisi of 2ndSix, Tribe Effect and Chris Lisi Communications have just published a report: Social Media and Advocacy Analysis 2009 looking at how 102 Washington-based trade associations and advocacy groups are making use of 14 core social media tools and platforms.

For the analysis, the researchers identified 14 online advocacy tools, websites and grassroots techniques [Advocacy Center, Facebook, MySpace, blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Digg, StumbleUpon, widgets, email signups, badges, SlideShare and Flickr] and over the period of 08/3/09 – 10/2/09, confirmed each category through the organization’s home page and social user accounts. Existence of a tool was scored 1 point; no tool, score zero. Top scorers included the Sierra Club (#1), SEIU (#2), and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, American Wind Energy Institute, Human Rights Campaign and the National Electrical Contractors Association all tied for the #3 ranking.

My first reaction to the report’s methodology brought up a core concept I frequently share with clients: Just because you have a social media tool on your website, it’s meaningless as to whether an organization is or isn’t communicating effectively unless you are actually using that tool on a time-committed basis with a real purpose and agreed-upon ROI measurements tied into the organization’s business plan. Evidently, I’m not alone in that thinking as techPresident later posted in a follow-up: DC Social Media Survey Touches a Nerve.

Having worked at a DC trade association for several years, I was still interested in learning more about  these organizations use of social media. Beyond the reported number of platforms, what were the specific tools organizations are using? Are smaller organizations utilizing social media?

One source I found was the Association Social Media Wiki. A list of 135 organizations ranging from the big-time AARP to the smaller Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants, you can easily find and confirm what these organizations are doing in the social media space. Quick analysis: Large and small organizations are utilizing these platforms, generally using just one tool. Blogs are the most popular followed by wikis and podcasts.

I agree with the report’s findings of trade associations and cause groups still cautiously finding their way through the often puzzling Web 2.0 playing field but I see definite movement and interest on learning more. The recent Buzz 2009 Social Media for Associations was a sold-out success and the attendee list for this week’s TWTRCON DC 09 is showing registrations by many representatives from associations and advocacy groups.

For Gov 2.0, it took a new White House administration to provide the real catalyst for a different kind of communications strategy. Which organizations and individuals will be the catalysts for trade associations and advocacy groups? Stay tuned to this space.

How to Maximize Your Tweets October 8, 2009

While working with clients on their Twitter feeds, I’ve been using these Twitter guidelines that I’ve put together over the last few months. But I’m always looking for new ideas to share, so feel free to add your best Twitter maximization practices in the comments or email me.

Here’s my list:

1. Add your Twitter URL to email sigs and business cards. Link to your Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn etc. profiles. If you have a blog, add a graphic or link asking people to follow you on Twitter.

2. Find the most knowledgable and relevant people in your niche and follow them. Respond to their tweets when possible and if you’re lucky enough to get a response, you may see a surge of new followers.

3. Mix it up. As with blogging, give your Twitter followers a good mix of helpful content as well as slices of your own life. We want nothing more than to connect with each other and giving your followers 140 character bursts of who you are — interests, thoughts, questions, etc. — serves as a powerful connection tool. It’s fine using Twitter to give information about your company but make sure to mix it up with tweets of third-party links and other resources for more reader interest. If you want to find out what your followers are interested in, check out Twittersheep and create a tag cloud from the bios of your network.

4. A great way to get more followers is to promote others. Whether giving them props on their tweet or linking to a choice post on their blog, giving credit to your favorite @username will help get you noticed.

5. Add your feed to We Follow: http://wefollow.com

6. Twit the peak. Post most often to your twitter account during peak browsing hours of your targeted followers. Not sure of the hours, ask yourself when you tend to be online the most. You are more likely to interact with more of your followers online as the same time as yourself, as well as maximizing your tweets’ exposure to more potential followers. Which days of the week do most people tweet? Research shows Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the most popular days.

7. Tweet often. It’s a fine line between too many and not enough but 3-5 a day seems to be a range that works. (According to @timoreilly, the tweet average is 4.22.) The more you tweet, the more opportunities for new followers and search engines to find you. For the time-crunched, try using a client such as HootSuite to schedule your tweets ahead of time to keep up feed momentum.

8. Respond to @Replies. Take the time to respond to replies directed towards you. Whether it’s a RT (retweet) or a general comment or question, respond to as many replies as time permits. Try not to give @replies like “Yes”, “I agree”, “Thank you” which are meaningless to the rest of your followers. Provide some context with your @replies to raise follower engagement.

9. Live-tweet events. Share observations, speaker content, questions, and shout-outs to other attendees. Make sure to add the event’s agreed-upon Twitter hashtag to your tweets to make it easier for others to follow and find you.

9. Ask questions. Whether you’re looking for information on how to do something or curious about what others think about a product, take advantage of Twitters enormous crowd sourcing power and ask your followers for help. Not only will this engage your current followers, but you increase your odds of showing up in http://search.twitter.com where many users go to find relevant tweets.

10. Check out the most popular trends and keywords at What the Trend and Twitscoop: http://www.twitscoop.com

Planet Forward — Viewer Collaboration TV April 2, 2009

A few nights ago, I had an opportunity to attend the first taping of a new PBS series – Planet Forward. Moderated by former CNN special correspondent Frank Sesno, the show’s theme is to promote a discussion about energy and climate change, but in an innovative twist, starts off the discussion in the online community and then goes to broadcast and then eventually back to online for post-show discussion and critique.

PBS started the ball rolling back in early March with a request to the Planet Forward online community for submissions of questions, ideas, videos, podcasts and even poetry, which were then rated by PBS editors and the online community as most popular and deserving to be included in the show. Winners appear on the show and have an opportunity to debate and pose questions to Sesno and panels of industry experts.

This inaugural show featured Carol Browner, Energy Coordinator for the Obama Admnistration; industry experts L. Hunter Lovins, president of National Capitalism and internationally recognized promoter of sustainable development; Shai Agassi, CEO of Better Place, a company focused on building transportation networks of zero-emission electric vehicles; and Jim Connaughton, Constellation Energy executive vice president, corporate affairs, public and environmental policy and former chairman, White House Environmental Quality for the Bush Administration.

I found the show engaging with its lively mix of average citizens and experts, and extremely informative (for example, I learned the famous DC landmark Ben’s Chili Bowl with a 50s-era menu of cheese fries, shakes and half-smoke sausages uses renewable energy sources to power the restaurant. Cool!)

Planet Forward airs nationally on PBS April 15th. It will be fun to see how this show organically grows when it goes back for online discussion and viewer collaboration after its initial airing.

NBCU’s Mark Lukasiewicz at CES January 12, 2009

At last week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), NBC News Vice President of digital media Mark Lukasiewicz talks to Web Newser about how and why he made the leap from old to new media and how NBCU is gearing up for more web content expansion despite a down economy.

First White House Cabinet blogger and Change.gov news December 6, 2008

I’ve been buried with a big project for a few weeks but now that it’s been delivered — yeah! — I wanted to post a few blasts of presidential transition new media news that have been piling up in my bookmarks folder:

Peter Orzag, tapped by President-elect Obama to head up the Office of Management and Budget, (OMB) did a final goodbye post at his former blog at the Congressional Budget Office, saying of his blogging experience:

“This blog has also been a special treat: it has provided another way of discussing CBO’s work and some of my own views about the policy world.”

OMB doesn’t list any blogs on its site but given the Obama administration’s emphasis on Web 2.0 technologies, it wouldn’t surprise me to see one developed to add another line of communication to the public.

In other transition news, HuffingtonPost reports that Barack Obama will publicize the names and agenda items of the groups that are meeting with its transition team on a new Change.gov site page called: Your Seat at the Table. On this page, online visitors can track meetings, view documents provided to the Transition, and leave comments for the transition team. John Podesta, Obama-Biden Transition Project Co-chair ,described the move in a staff memo: ” Every day, we meet with organizations who present ideas for the Transition and the Administration, both orally and in writing. We want to ensure that we give the American people a ’seat at the table’ and that we receive the benefit of their feedback.”

It will be interesting to see if the Obama team will offer any additional online engagement in the form of updates and comments on what they’re hearing in the public feedback. It’s one thing to solicit discussion of new ideas as they did previously on the issue of health care, but for this new site initiative, will they really talk the engagement talk beyond posting a “Comments for this discussion have closed” message?

Christian Science Monitor: New Model for Newspaper Industry? October 28, 2008

The Christian Science Monitor announced today that it plans major changes in April 2009 that will make it the first newspaper with a national audience to shift from a daily print format to an online publication that is updated continuously each day.

The Monitor’s web site announcement details changes to include enhancing the content on CSMonitor.com

and starting weekly print and daily e-mail editions.

In an industry riddled with large-scale newsroom layoffs and shrinking revenues, no doubt newspaper executives will be closely watching the Monitor’s new publishing model to see how they manage the transition and loss of print advertising revenue. The Monitor may be able to weather the print ad loss better than most newspapers. Monitor editor John Yemma told The New York Times that subscriptions account for about $9 million of The Monitor’s revenue, while print advertising makes up less than $1 million. Web revenue is at $1.3 million.

The Daily Beast October 15, 2008

Tina Brown and Barry Diller’s answer to The Huffington Post and other news aggregators like Drudge — The Daily Beast — makes for slow loading on my iPhone so I’m looking at it on my MacBook. Very magazine slick; lots of luxe looking graphics with an older audience appeal. The Beast hits you right between the eyes on the home page with a dizzying array of story and blog choices, along with a rotating main story billboard to keep things moving. According to Wired, the site plans to remain ad-free for the near future. Will The Daily Beast roar with eyeball traffic? Stay tuned…

Strategy vs. Tactics October 14, 2008

Strategy “is a grand-sounding word, and it is frequently misused by laymen as a synonym for tactics. In fact, strategy has a very different and quite simple meaning that flows from just one short set of questions. Who are we, and what are we ultimately trying to do here? How will we do it, and what resources and means will we employ in doing it? The four answers give rise to one’s strategy. Ideally, one’s tactics will then follow from them – that is, this is who we are, this is the outcome we wish to achieve, this is how we aim to do it, and this is what we will use to do it. But addressing the questions well can be surprisingly difficult, and if the answers are incorrect or incomplete, or the goals listed not reachable, then the consequences can be disastrous.” Thomas Ricks, author of Fiasco

I’ve sat during many a “strategic planning” meeting complete with multiple PowerPoint presentations and flip charts full of “goals” and arrowed diagrams on how to get there, but rarely does it occur to anyone around the table to ask the simple question: “Who are we and why does this business exist?” instead of jumping right into “goals” and then how to “achieve our goals.”

It’s a conversation I have with every client, and when I first ask it, I’m often met with crickets chirping silence. But I can tell you, once a business or individual has put in the sweat equity to reach a complete answer, the tactics we develop are invariably more successful.