In the words of organizers: MediaCamp Edmonton is a conference aimed at getting journalists and other storytellers together with technology developers to learn new skills, understand more about each other’s worlds, and find ways to work together, and honestly, it did not disappoint.

With coffee in hand, 100 people settled in for what turned out to be an informative and very motivating day at the World Trade Centre.   

There were two options (Learn it! Or Discuss it!) for every session, kicking the day off with Mack Male-@mastermaq covering Intro to Data, and Brittney Le Blanc- @britl  and Jay Palter- @jaypalter speaking to Self Branding and Online Conversation not only imperative to the Edmonton Social Media scene, but most facets of our lives.  Putting ourselves out there is good, lands us jobs, stories and friends and any Google mentions add to your brand.  Jay shared this well received quote: Personal Brand is what people say about you when you leave the room ~Jeff Bezos.

Todd Babiak @babiak  presented What it Takes to get a Developer’s Story Out: filled with much insight, and resonating with the entire group.  Challenged to be professionally curious, he reminded us that we can only start the story once.

Curating the Story was a hands on lesson on Storify http://storify.com/ and included a Tamara Stecyk- @TamaraStecyk displaying her Storify on Walter Schwabe’s – @fusedlogic Social Media Breakfast #SMBYEG Prezi  and video http://storify.com/TamaraStecyk/edmonton-social-media-breakfast-january-27-2012

Almost as fascinating as the presenters, were the attendees, and networking opportunities were abundant.  Always great to put a face to the twitter handle AND find new tweeps to follow.  Meeting Maureen O’Reilly a Creative Catalyst of http://www.mordirections.com  was a personal highlight of the event.

Missed out on the popular session by Dana DiTomaso- @danaditomaso titled Make Google your Friend AKA Demystifying SEO & Analytics? Do not fear as she will be a guest speaker at BlogWest in March! http://blogwest.ca/

This only touches on what was learned at MediaCamp Edmonton, for a recap check out http://mediacampedmonton.ca/news/  Kudos to the organizers of this fine event!

Bobbi Cullum @RealTurkeyLady

Walter Schwabe, Chief Evolution Officer, fusedlogic Inc.

It was with great anticipation that the first Social Media Breakfast Edmonton of 2012 (SMBYEG) kicked off this morning. With 50 participants in attendance our very own Walter Schwabe-@fusedlogic, Edmonton Social Media Consultant and Digital Strategist was the featured guest speaker. It was fast paced, extremely relevant and in the words of @redneckmommy: a bang up presentation! We learned to not take ourselves too seriously, the importance of monitoring stats, and that Commerce sites that use video sell 45% more. In other words: the value of Social TV.

We also noshed on @PrairieMill ‘s sweet treats, provided by @EdmNextGen and were entertained by @HedgeHodge ’s discussion on sweet tweets.

If you missed this great event, either in person or via live streaming, do not fear, we have Walter’s prezi here for you!

Rapid video content creation – 2 million live and recorded viewer minutes served!

Social media plans for small, medium and large businesses…Please call 780-640-9339 

Please don’t hate us if you missed those great prices…Stay tuned, you just never know what’s coming around the corner. 

Interestingly, this issue touches on a few points I think you’ll find interesting.

1.) Many get excited about the technology first.  This isn’t really a “twitter” issue, despite being the primary social technology platform used for communication in this case.  Evidence within the sentiment of this online discussion state it’s a “moral” issue for many.  ”Do you like drunk driving?  Do you want drunks on the road?  No, then don’t tweet locations.”  Based on retweet evidence within the #yegtraffic and #checkstop hashtags on Twitter, this is the majority sentiment, punctuated by Lindsey Robin.

The response is ghost accounts created simply to tweet #checkstop locations, and snub those who speak out against the practice.  As with different issues in the past, this inevitable pattern persists. 

2.) Another popular but minority sentiment stated, is that since it appears to be acceptable to broadcast photo-radar locations (which are provided in advance to print media by policing services) that it should be acceptable to broadcast checkstop locations.   As always, what you tweet reflects on who you are, and what you stand for.     

Social media etiquette

With respect to protecting your brand and business here’s a tip.  Always remember to provide recognition for someone else’s work if you’re going to reference it or try to benefit from it.  

For example, if we were going to create a video in the hopes of generating awareness for our brand.  Say in this case, a video about this checkstop discussion.  First, we wouldn’t want the message to appear as if we had really been the first ones to recognize a pattern of behaviour, because in reality, it was CTV.  The professional thing to do is to give credit, and reference those who did the original heavy-lifting. 

Credit here is due to CTV Edmonton and Sean Amato for first identifying the discussion and doing a segment on it. (Disclaimer: a segment that I was in)  Anyone who positions themselves as being ahead of the curve on this issue, and doesn’t give CTV recognition for doing the ground work is suspect at best.  Common courtesy and etiquette should always come first.  Not providing credit or recognition says something negative about your brand.  If you see this tactic being used, my recommendation is to stay away.  

Once again, my sincerest thanks to all of those too many to count who retweeted me on the weekend for thanking CTV Edmonton about their efforts to raise awareness of this issue.  I believe this entire issue serves as an important reminder to be responsible in our decisions, whether that’s when consuming alcohol, tweeting or conducting business.      

Clearly a mental lapse, which was brought to Twitter by a since fired employee of New Media Strategies, the agency handling the Chrysler account. The Wall Street Journal reports that Chrysler also cut ties to New Media Strategies in March as a result of the above tweet.  

This is further evidence that in the social web, even though you can delete a tweet, it doesn’t disappear if it’s been retweeted.  Rather, it lives on forever in follow-up blogging by AdWeek in this case, and articles like the ones here and Chrysler’s own response here. 

Appropriate response?

Did Chrysler take the appropriate steps in your mind?  Should they not only have ensured that the employee of New Media Strategies was immediately fired but also end the business relationship with the agency themselves for a single tweet?

If this happened to you, what would you do?

So, picking up where I left off in my last post about not paying for social media profile services.  This is where you pay someone, or a company, to set-up your shiny new Twitter page, Facebook profile or YouTube channel for you.  

Next, look to avoid blindly creating “chit chat” or continuous “self-promotion” as the core of your new content development strategy.  

Here’s the question you should ask “before” you agree to work with any individual or company on your social media presence. 

First, you want to converse with others in the world, digital or otherwise.  Having said that, ask your new “social media guru” what their content plan is for you.  If they answer by saying, “we’re just going to start talking and engaging” put your cheque book away. What they’ve just told you is that not only do they not understand social media strategy deployment, they also don’t understand you, your customers, your culture or your business objectives.  Yet, they intend to announce your brand to the online world and you’ve just paid them to do that.  

Why would you cut corners on your digital strategy?  

The web is filled with case studies of companies who leverage social media in unique ways to grow their businesses, brands, influence and presence.  Yet, for everyone one of those success stories there’s another thousand who hired the lowest quote, and just started babbling on Twitter.  Worse yet, the plan is to beg for followers.

Gaming social media to pump up numbers, pump up perceived influence isn’t valuable, it detracts from your brand, reputation and real world influence.

Has your organization been down the following path?

1.) Start twitter account

2.) Start tweeting about yourself

3.) Not much initial response, so you follow 1000 accounts thinking everyone will automatically follow you back.

4.) You deem your 100 new followers as twitter success

5.) Reality sets in that you’re not gaining any new business from the first 2 weeks on Twitter and abandon the effort.  

Thank goodness you didn’t spend much money on this plan in the first place…but…

6.) You buy twitter followers thinking that somehow this is a win for your organization.

Instead, think of context, think relevancy and think of how you can provide value to your community.  You’ll build a reputation in the right way and for the right reasons.  A reputation built on pure values rather than fake numbers.  This is a marathon not a sprint, lay a strong foundation and be committed to the long-term.      

Ultimately, you have a choice.  

Hire someone who’s adding social media to their list of other services or hire a dedicated digital agency.  Of course, I have an opinion on which way you should go, but it’s your brand, your company and your budget…

Was this post helpful? 

I’ve found that many companies and organizations have their priorities misaligned when it comes to exploring and implementing social media.  In fact, for years now things have changed very little.  

Step one: Company executive says to subordinate “we need to start using social media, get us a quote”.

Step two: Google search, phone call, meeting(s), proposal.

Step three:  Award contract to lowest bid that includes setting up the usual social media profiles, and a training session on how to tweet, update a Facebook status and start a Linkedin group.  Which can all be accomplish in a day for $250.00 per the quote, this can now be supplied by anyone.  If you must pay for it, I recommend that you hire a student for that task.  

Twitter is filled with people who are dying to share their knowledge in this regard, so is Facebook and LinkedIn, which means they carry that urge with them daily in their work lives too.

Businesses who value this type of social media project, and hire companies who market this approach have the same misaligned priorities.  That’s why it works I guess, at least in the beginning.  There’s clearly a market for the cheapest price, lowest value option.  I give you the Dollar Store.  The logic in this approach?  If that’s all the social media experience you have, and someone still values it then I suppose it’s pure capitalism rules at play, plain and simple.  I don’t consider it to be moral but it is capitalistic.   

We’ll do it for FREE!

If your logic is that you don’t care about having a proper social media plan that will focus on moving from “conversation to conversion” and you only want the cheapest quote to set-up your social profiles fast then fusedlogic will do that for FREE!  It’s your choice, your brand, your company, but don’t pay for that service!  

At fusedlogic, we won’t take advantage of people like that.  Now, if you want to learn how to align your business objectives with social media.  Build with the proper integration in mind as part of a digital strategy, then we can address that with a quote. Included will be the “right” social media profiles for your business, established with your direct collaboration.

Whether you consider this blog post to be helpful or not, my hope is that you’ll consider other factors beyond just the technology and the price.  

You don’t have to come to fusedlogic for your digital strategy needs.  However, we are dedicated to the social media and digital strategy space and that has benefits in terms of experience, professionalism, and results.  

After you meet us, you’ll learn more about that key difference, our philosophy to protecting your brand and the value of our services.

Don’t pay someone to set-up your social media profile. (Unless you’re hiring a student.) Give a kid a job.  

Knowing how to set yourself apart from the crowd is critical if you are to succeed in business.  Sometimes, it’s because you roast your own beans in house.  Other times it’s the special rub on the brisket that has been passed down for generations that creates killer bbq. Maybe, as in the case of Double Tree Hotels, it’s the chocolate chip cookie you’re greeted with when you arrive.

Or maybe, you’re one of my favourite companies, Thinkgeek.com  These guys are really unique right down to the cool monkey.  No wonder they’re sold out of their “singing monkey balls” seen here:

Thinkgeek is wonderfully unique and dedicated to their space.  In fact, I’d say they “own” their space of special geek swag.  Nearly 400K followers on Twitter agree with me too.  They do a heckuva job engaging with customers in all of their social media channels.  Simple, happy, geeky effectiveness.

Let us know if you have a favourite niche company that you love. 

In the area of social media however, uniqueness doesn’t always win the day.  In fact, quite the opposite.  For many it’s about their automated content.  There’s an audience who just want the top ten things you can do to make something better.  There are large amounts of twitter users who believe that the best way to use their account is to push other people’s content without creating their own.  Don’t get me wrong, RT’s and links to content are great but not solely.  At least in my opinion.

The flip side is true.  One shouldn’t be so unfocused so as to not be known for something or lose your purpose.    

Whatever your uniqueness is, celebrate it.  As annoying as Bill Zucker is for his use of upper case letters for EVERYTHING he says, he’s managed in his own way to entertain and engage, a tactic that for him is working just fine.  Is he getting more gigs as a result?  A question maybe the Zuck will answer for himself here.  I will say that general brand awareness has definitely increased over the past year or so I’ve been observing.  People love quirky entertainment and Zucker doesn’t take himself seriously and has a lot of fun with his fans.

 Check out the #damnyouzucker hashtag.  

This all started when he was working on a online video project with Kelsey Grammer called The Kelsey Grammer Bill Zucker Comedy Hour.  One of the bits they did was Zucker would steal all the toilet paper on Kelsey and he’s scream….you guessed it – “damn you Zucker!”

For us here at fusedlogic, we don’t steal people’s toilet paper.  That said, we feel we’re unique because of our live video streaming business – fusedlogicTV.  That really sets us apart from other digital agencies in terms of services offered.  Add to that our strict dedication to digital strategy development for years, our great clients, and we’re very different than the other guys. Well I suppose that, and my unique aerodynamics but that’s another story.   

Communicating a clear advantage is often difficult.  Lack of creativity, lack of experience, and in larger companies, the lack of internal processes or champions to support such thinking.  Often though, it’s a lack of guts.  Business people become experts in “the way it’s always been done”.  Now if you’re Coca Cola, then you’ve been taught by your customers to keep Coke’s formula the way it is. However, Coke has been an innovator in countless other ways since the new Coke fiasco.  A pretty tough thing to do in the beverage industry.  

Question of the Day

What sets you apart from the mundane in your industry?

I realize this isn’t a purely social media question, it’s a marketing one.  The social web is the perfect channel to amplify your unique message once you’ve identified it.  As we’ve seen above.

Get it right and people will want to come work for you.  Get it right and customers will want to buy from you.  Get it wrong and nobody will care about you.  You’ll blend in.

Who do you think is highly unique?  Is there a person, business or thing that’s super different?

I’ve been thinking about this today as I listen and watch Jeff Pulver’s 140 Conference in New York or #140confNYC.  However, “humanization” has been on my mind for a while now.  

Do people really want to peer behind the curtains here at fusedlogic?  I know our competitors do, but what about clients?  I know they do too.  How about our audience on fusedlogicTV?  Yes, people love to go behind the scenes…  

Does exposing our corporate culture and soul help our brand?  I think it does but what’s more important is do you?  Why is this important to consider?  Well, because we ARE human.  We do business with other humans, our team is human, our friends, fans, followers….well you get the point.  

I’ve also learned that so many brands resist this openness because of a fear of losing credibility but maybe more importantly their perceived control.  I’ve seen our brand grow in general awareness from our work online and offline, our largest gains are when we show our true selves.    

Who is fusedlogic?

fusedlogic, loves to give back to the community.  We love to innovate.  We work very hard for our clients.  We’re honourable, loyal and love to laugh.  Although sometimes, we need to spend more time socializing than staying in the studio.  That’s probably my fault.  I’m introverted by nature.  You might find that odd seeing as I love to speak publicly.  I’ve probably been more introverted these past few months than at any other time in my life.  Now because the fusedlogic brand is so in tune with who I am as the owner that has had an effect.  

How would you describe us?  What has been your experience with us online or else where?  

Community

What does a “humanized brand” mean to you?  To your company, your customers, your friends?  The social web experience is so much more rich when people are genuine.  Community managers who are good at what they do are just every day people who care, and know how get customers or audience members what they need.  They operate in both the social web, and also offline at networking events and they’re often the most human element to your brand online.   They study human behaviour so that they can anticipate needs and be ready to respond.  

To understand this concept better I recommend this valuable post from Charlene Li of Altimeter Group on Socialgraphics. 

Discuss

We have meetings at work about who we are, and who we want to be, not every day but we do.  This is important in a culture where we’re innovating every day, trying to learn something new and experimenting constantly.  Our last major shift was the launch of fusedlogicTV almost a year ago now.  

What about your team?  Do you truly understand internally what you’re all about?  How do you approach this process?  Is it discussed openly or behind closed doors?  

The more human and real you are, the more return on your social media investment.  That’s been our experience anyway. 

I, along with about 100 volunteers and members of  the City of Leduc’s Council including Mayor Krischke were very fortunate to have the opportunity to hear Ms. Crooks speak.  

I was really inspired by her talk about her life as an elite athlete, and how volunteers played an incredible role throughout her life in sport.  She credits volunteers, and the time they spent helping kids like her turn into a 5-time Olympian and Canadian silver medalist in track and field.

As part of her presentation she showed a video of Dr. Maya Angelou reciting the poem “Amazement Awaits” while we watched images from a number of Olympiads over the years.  After hearing Dr. Angelou speak, I can see why she has been given over 30 honorary degrees.  The word “inspirational” doesn’t do Dr. Angelou or Ms. Crooks justice.  

Watch the video of Dr. Angelou below. 

What a tough act to follow, however, I was fortunate to have a great crowd stick to take in my presentation on how volunteer organizations in Leduc can use social media.  

As is customary for me I like to take pictures of the audiences as part of my presentations and tonight at the Executive Royal Inn in Leduc was no exception.

Having volunteered as a hockey coach, I understand the nature of why people decide to give back to their community in this way.  Countless hours and a ton of work by so many people, I was honoured to speak about social media. 

This was a packed night of information because after my presentation Brent Collingwood from the UofA School of Business was to present on the roles and responsibilities of volunteer boards.  Thank-you Brent for allowing me to take 5 minutes of your time. 

Overall the evening was terrific, I met great people, had a great dinner, and was inspired by the great presenters.  I’d like to thank the City of Leduc for the invitation to speak at their special event.

What about your volunteer organization?  Does it use social media effectively?  If not, feel free to ask a question.  

I started my public speaking career primarily to challenge myself because it scared me.  I did my first business focused presentation approximately 13 years ago, and haven’t look back since.  I constantly look to improve my skills and relish the feedback from audience members.  Especially when I suck, I need to hear it so that I can improve.  That’s part of the business, one should always look to improve, although today’s presentation generally went well.  Despite hearing something negative from an audience member (which is thankfully rare), I love it!  I mean, really love it. 

Today’s presentation on Social TV was unique for three reasons.  One, it’s the first time I’ve presented this particular material on SocialTV, and second, because for the first time I had a public heckler.  Well, atleast my form of a heckler.  During questions, Robert Manolson from the crowd suggested that producing a 5 minute video for a small business owner wasn’t a good thing.  He said it was a “disservice” because we were just handing over the video without any marketing advice, and (essentially leaving the small business owner twisting in the wind) – my words.  

He of course, missed the beginning of the presentation that explained how we would always be willing to help out a business owner in need regarding social media strategies.  How I talked about an integrated approach – “baked in, not bolted on.”  Sure, the price would go up for that advice, depending on what the customer wanted, and that’s business.  The idea is that the customer can choose what level of service they’d like, and we “always” have our clients back!  

Robert rated my presentation on meet-up as not being relevant for the business owner audience in the room.  Well, I believe all businesses should consider social media, video production, and an integrated approach to marketing, while keeping up on new trends like socialTV.  Not sure how that’s not relevant.  You can’t please 100% of the people 100% of the time.  I missed the mark with Robert but it also seemed like he just wanted to banter, sometimes that happens.

I’ve included my presentation to give you a chance to review some of the material I presented and make up your own mind. Robert is certainly entitled to publicly state his opinion at the expense of mine, but I believe the presentation went well and it was relevant.  The feed back I received was very positive and supports my statement, there were several follow-up questions.  I also have a stack of business cards to follow-up on which is always positive and a great litmus test overall.  Thank-you everyone, we certainly look forward to doing business with you.  

Oh yeah, and here’s the third!  I soft launched a new price for fusedlogicTV video production services.  

$199.00 for 5 minutes of studio time.  (some restrictions may apply)  For more information contact us. 780-640-9339 or info@fusedlogic.com 

I’d like to thank everyone who attended my presentation, it was great to have a packed house of enthusiastic business owners.

Here’s the presentation in case you’d like to review it.  Enjoy and please let us know what you think…   

The hope is that you’ll carry the “branded” hashtag and conversation on Twitter well beyond the show air date which often happens. Now those loyal viewers turn themselves into a tribe that turn out to watch more shows and discuss the topic of the moment.

This becomes very interesting when you now want to further justify advertising costs, if you’re CNN, you’ve just drawn that engagement into the equation for advertisers.  

Sure, what transpires is a vast amount of conversations and micro-discussions that can be hard to quantify in terms of direct value. To truly understand the dynamics you have to be embedded in the community and know who the influencers are in order to draw out the impact for a particular brand if there is one.  Most of this impact is passive association and brand awareness.  This can be difficult for people to invest in solely.  Most would rather social media always be a direct marketing environment.  I push out a flyer, therefore my phone rings type of deal.  Social media and indeed, Social TV requires more patience, finesse and understanding.

Brand awareness is ok, positive brand awareness is even better.  At the heart of every purchase should be a feeling of trust.

Interestingly for businesses this is where Social TV is really shining.  Integrating audience into your corporate video work is powerful when you get it right.  For the audience it’s a chance to learn more about the company and ask direct questions.  For the business they get to build rapport with a target audience.  Doing this consistently can open doors, it’s happening for fusedlogicTV and our customers who do this.  

However, you should have a strong social media strategy already, this will make the integration far easier to accomplish.  This shouldn’t happen in a digital vacuum.  

You should strongly consider Social TV for your business or organization and its marketing.  The price of our program has been called “ridiculously cheap.”  Here’s another post with 19 ways you can win with our program so you can learn more.  

Have you ever created a video for your business?

The first question I have is, are you invested in this process or are you absent?  You must invest, and below is a series of ways you’ll need to expend effort, and in some cases budget in order to have any possibility of driving new sales for your business via social media.

For us at fusedlogic, it’s a different story than those really big household brands I mentioned.  We’re not about consumer goods or point of sale items.  The sale of our social media related services primarily happens based on relationships, referrals, awareness too and great customer service.  If we mailed you a flyer stating that fusedlogic is your answer for social media strategies, would we get any business from you?  Maybe, but doubtful since we’re not business to consumer.  Having said that, our client Terry Paranych has done a show on fusedlogicTV and spoke about his “flyer program which nets him huge business results.  Terry understands the need for an integrated unique approach to marketing to consumers.  He understands the value of building relationships in numerous ways, added to things like direct flyer marketing (not really about relationships) is the use of social media – all about relationships and communication.

Social media allows for you to reach out directly to the fusedlogic team, to our clients, and to potentially millions of people in a meaningful way.

Here’s how properly increasing your sphere of influence can increase your sales regardless of what industry you’re in.

1.) Search Engine Optimization – your content if properly positioned will be found by new prospective clients, giving you a shot to start a sales discussion.

2.) Reputation Management – we may have met at a business luncheon, or other networking event, social media allows us to maintain our discussion inbetween face-to-face meetings.  Keeping in touch allows for acquaintances to turn into friends and advocates.  Big difference.  When the time is right, this fact alone will lead to business opportunity.  Chris Brogan’s book Trust Agents speaks in many ways about being that trusted source.  Good book, you should download it.

3.) Realtime Customer Service – rather than wait for hours on a phone line, many companies can improve customer service through options like Twitter.  A great customer service experience here and it’s passed on to multiple networks, screw it up and the same result is true.

4.) Targeting Trends – things happen in a flash in social media, and if you blink you could miss real opportunity.  Being timely and relevant is often critical.  Many people parachute in to Twitter once a day for 2 minutes to push out a tweet and then leave and wonder why their phone isn’t ringing off the hook.

5.) Not a Silver Bullet – sales comes from credibility, value, trust, awareness, rapport, relevancy, convenience and time investment among other things.  Especially, if you’re relatively unknown.  If you’re Google, well that’s different.  Using social media can provide you an opportunity to do all of this work more efficiently, as long as, you commit to it and have a plan.  Be patient!

6.) Content Creation – you know why Terry Paranych will continue to dominate in Real Estate awareness online in his markets?  Even more so since he became our live streaming video client?  Increased content creation relevant to his target audiences.  He’s literally out-gunning his competition.  Add to that his commitment, hard work, listening to customer feedback, learning and of course a budget and you’ve got a recipe for a win.  The Real Estate market in Edmonton was unprepared for Terry to take this next step, he’s changed the game again!  There is no other agent, Re/Max or otherwise certainly in Alberta and possibly beyond with their own series of live weekly streamed shows.  When a consumer goes to do research on the Terry Paranych Team Re/Max Elite, they’ll quickly realize that his marketing plan is more advanced than the others for lots of reasons but especially his live shows.  Ultimately that will translate into new business.  What scares me in a good way is if Terry starts to promote his shows in other areas of his marketing efforts…

7.) Routine – this doesn’t mean “automation” so much as working a plan of what works.  I’m guilty as the next person for not always doing this, as life gets in the way sometimes.  That said, when I can correct my course and get back on track, we see results.  What do I mean by this?  Simple, there are lots of examples of suggested daily routines and Chris Brogan has put out some dandy examples.

Be human not a robot!  Engage and support one another.  Respect others, and for goodness sake, do what you say you’ll do.  That is so rare, people will respect you for that alone.  All of this is definitely hard work, but worth it in the end.

I see top executives running for cover, I see political campaign managers cringing at the prospect of having a not so favourable blog written about their particular candidate.  The echos of “see I told you, there’s nothing good about social media.”

The fact is, here in Alberta we’re dealing with really serious issues.  Our economy is only “ok” and not spectacular by any stretch, healthcare is a complete and utter mess, teachers are getting laid off, and the list goes on.  Families are struggling here in Alberta, albeit not as badly as in other parts of Canada and certainly not like the US.  Often you don’t get to know who you’re doing business with until it’s too late.  In politics, it’s really important to understand who we’re dealing with “ahead of time.”  Which is why I offered a special one hour live debate to both Doug Griffiths and Rick Orman.  One person on twitter suggested that Orman was “staying on message” by not answering my direct invitation.  Not sure if that’s true but something to consider.

Some organizations stand up for what’s right, some executives stand for respect and others run and hide.  I took a couple shots last night from Orman supporters, or people who thought I was simply being “whiny.”  Ok, everyone’s entitled to an opinion, if you’re unwilling to take comments, and sometimes criticism, constructive or otherwise, then don’t publish content.

At the time, I felt like Alberta PC Party leadership candidate Rick Orman was snubbing me in particular, I’m not sure that’s ever a good idea when it’s a politician and a voter.  Some people think it’s ok to allow people to walk all over them, that I should “get over myself…”  I forgive people for a show of lack of respect but last night, with Rick Orman, I decided not to.  I’ve had support via DM come in to confirm my impressions from others. But really…does anyone truly care whether Rick Orman insulted me or not?  Well, curiously, the late night crowd did as our analytics would suggest.  Does that mean they’re not going to vote for Rick Orman as a result of my blog post?  I wouldn’t go that far, most people prefaced their comments on Twitter or on the blog by saying…”I’m not a Rick Orman supporter…” so today is another day in the realtime web and we’re all moving on.  Today seems to be about Mar’s thoughts on healthcare in Alberta, more Edmonton Fringe discussion and whatever’s important in your life…

Doug Griffiths to my knowledge is continuing to look for another candidate to debate live on Alberta LIVE.  I think a 1-1 debate with an hour of air time would really be great for Albertans.  Much better than the 30 second sound bites they currently offer.  I hope he finds someone, and yes, if Orman comes back into the picture I’ll consider it. (Not to sound too much as one person commented, a “whiny Rupert Murdoch,” that cracks me up.)

Hey Doug, Gary Mar apparently is going to privatize healthcare or so it’s being reported.  Maybe he’s game…

For all the time you spend online using social media, regardless of whether you’re from Alberta, do you think social media will help to change anything in Alberta regarding the discussion around key issues?  I’d love to hear your opinion, is social media helping to influence your thoughts on the issues below?

1. In Edmonton, is social media in your opinion influencing you and your thoughts regarding the debate about Katz Group’s bid for a downtown arena district?
2. Will social media influence the outcome of either the Alberta PC leadership race or that of the floundering Alberta Liberals?
3. What about things like Bill 50?  I know of some power companies in this province that really want Bill 50 passed and they want it done quietly.  Has social media influenced your thoughts on it in any way?
4. Do you care about the land use legislation as a result of finding out more information about it online?

There are certainly many more issues then the four I’ve listed here, so if you have another issue that ranks high in your world please by all means list it in the comment section, IF you think social media influenced your thoughts about it.

To be clear, I’m not referring the social technologies specifically, rather the on-going discussion, chit chat, pow-wows, debate, stare downs and tweeted zingers you are experiencing or creating within the social web.  This would include Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube and of course blogs comments just like the ones I hope you’ll offer here.  You spend so much time of your life doing this, it would be neat to know where you and others like you think it’s having an effect.  I have an opinion (of course) but I don’t want to influence you one way or another by offering it here.  Please comment and offer your opinion and then ask others what they think.  This issue is on many people’s minds from decision-makers to the every day Joe and Judy.  (My apologies in advance for speaking on behalf of all Joes and Judy’s)

Many in business spend their days talking about social media.  Sure we talk about it too.  We also use it in a very targeted way to build business.  Many people spend all day being “social media rockstars,” building up their own account numbers.  We spend time tending to our relationships, when we can….but we’d never call ourselves “rockstars.”  Thankfully, a lot of the time we’re doing client work, and using the power of social media to drive new opportunities and revenue for them and us.

Using Linkedin, I reached out to some key people in the Alberta Oil and Gas sector.  The ensuing conversation via LinkedIn led to Skype calls and discussions of potential social media and live streaming projects for fusedlogicTV.  Which brings me to my quick trip to Calgary to meet with a few different firms at the Gas and Oil Expo and Conference on the Calgary Stampede grounds.

Steve Zurakowski from Dynamic Vision (shown above on the left) appeared on “A Brilliant Idea Every 60 Seconds” on fusedlogicTV a week ago.

Once again, social media has enabled me to reach out in ways I never could have in the past, it’s an absolutely critical business development tool for fusedlogic.  Building relationships in person is incredibly important, social media opens doors, and draws us closer in between face to face meetings across Alberta and beyond.  Today I met with people from Dubai, China, Calgary, Ft. McMurray and Halifax, all from a simple “inmail” within LinkedIn and within the next week or two we should be announcing a very exciting and major new global project.

After walking around the exhibition and meeting with a couple of clients, I ended up at the Xtreme Hot Oil and Pressure Service tent for a tasty beverage.  Frankly, they had the tunes cranked up after the Expo closed at 5pm.  I like these guy’s style and I was like a moth to a flame.

Due to the fact that this new business relationship isn’t quite signed off on yet, I won’t mention all the folks I met with today. However, in one case, we’ve agreed to announce a new powerful global relationship very soon.  Stay tuned and thank-you for your support…

One of the primary reasons I haven’t committed is available time, or timing of the ask.  Another reason I’ve said no is because my spidey sense suggested that the candidate wasn’t as genuine as I expect, and didn’t follow through with anything they said they’d do. Further, when push came to shove, one or more weren’t truly about change despite the sound bites.  I don’t want to paint a picture that every politician is disingenuous, or likely to mislead about their intentions for change.  That’s certainly not the case, I’m only highlighting the main red flags for me personally that drove my reservations to commit my personal reputation to a candidate.

What is spurring on this post today is no other reason than I happened to see this tweet by Doug Horner, one of the PC leadership hopefuls (shown below, not picking on you Doug, it could have been any candidate doing the same thing, they all have).

This tweet inspired me to quickly review the social activity of many of the politicians/candidates in this province.  My personal opinion is that overall that activity could use some help sprinkled with a little rant here or there.

8 points for politicians on why this isn’t about “ME” it’s about “THEM”:

I’m adopting this image by David Armano to make a point about the impression most politicians are making online in my opinion.  Most state they’re about “grass roots, about change, and doing politics differently.”  However, if we consider the amount of content creation by the “grass roots” about a particular candidate or party the list gets really short, really quickly.  The list of Trolls supporting one party or another, and engaging in attacks is larger than ever.  The smart thing is NOT to engage them, they’re children stomping their feet and looking for attention.  Mature voters see them for what they are.

1.) Be genuine – Most people don’t actually care about all the locations you’ve visited in the past with the exception of your competitors.  If you really want to communicate location, use a geo-location app like foursquare to check into a location, send that to Twitter and Facebook, and leave it at that.  Hint – become the foursquare mayor of these locations around Alberta, and I’ll really be impressed with your outreach efforts.

2.) Engage on the issues – granted twitter is not optimum for this, and a blog is more suitable.  Write 250 word replies to individual Albertans and their key issues from your heart, and then reply on twitter to that citizen.  Don’t like writing?  There’s always short burst videos comprising a video blog (vlog), you can say that same 250 words in 2 minutes, and YouTube is perfect for that because it’s shareable.   This takes time so be focused with your responses to the issues.  Don’t have the time?  BS.  This isn’t a priority because you don’t understand what to do, and how to deploy the multiple technologies for effect.  Frankly, most don’t believe social media will help sway opinions enough to cast a vote.  This little tidbit is good for those who disagree with that statement.  Social media when used correctly builds rapport, it’s not the silver bullet it’s a main component that should be baked in to all campaign activities.  Voters take that into consideration.  Parties who understand behavioural patterns online can really make a lot of headway.  Others…,the dinosaurs, well they’ll tweet to seem envogue, and be doing it blindly, broadcast all about “me” tweets to no real tactical advantage.  Sure, promote things that you’re doing, but also be prepared to engage in debate on policy and solutions and it’s better when citizens promote what you’re doing.

If you’re about “grass roots and change” for real…Set aside an hour a week for a public online debate.  Cover It Live is one example that could be installed on your website, or you can simply be on twitter during a designated hour using your hashtag to answer any questions thrown at you.  Schedule so that people know when they can engage with you.

3.) Use video for citizen responses, questions and engagement.  Mr. Horner, the travelling is impressive, I would have been even more impressed had you provided video footage from each of those stops with people stating why they’ll vote for you.   However, I’d be over the top if any candidate generated a bunch of content by citizens pledging their support voluntarily.  If politicians truly inspire, then the evidence will be there. Granted not all would get in front of a camera but some will.  In today’s digital landscape where the digital divide is still very real, learn to solve these problems, rural folks have a camera phone for a picture or an impromptu video, share life as it happens with Qik.

Coincidently, the most watched live Alberta Live! episode was when I interviewed Danielle Smith, Doug Griffiths is second, Dr. Raj Sherman, and newly elected Alberta Party leader Glenn Taylor are on fusedlogicTV too.  Here’s a hint, albeit a self-serving one.  fusedlogicTV is your very own Web TV Network for hire and Alberta is our strongest province for viewership for obvious reasons.  See any of your competitors airing a regular (unedited) TV show that works live and on-demand?  People are still watching those episodes, the campaigns and parties can promote these episodes at no cost.

4.) Teach citizens and volunteers to share – if campaigns taught citizens how, where to tweet, how to post a twitpic, where to post a picture on Facebook fanpage, a video response to Youtube, a comment on a blog…well you get the picture.  Of course, most campaigns don’t contain this knowledge or focus on it because many don’t believe these technologies will actually have any impact on the vote outcomes.  I have to say based on usage to date, I completely agree.  I’m incredibly uninspired.

5.) Engagement beyond evangelists – true penetration online is demonstrated in the analytics when more than your 4 campaign supporters get online and “create” content about you and what you stand for.  Time is precious, politics is hotly contested and heated debates ensue online so if people blog about you on their own, you’re reaching them.

6.) Lead don’t follow – Quite often, and some parties have more than others, the Trolls come out to play.  Now I could call these appleheads out here but giving these arrogant, self-indulgent, political know it all experts more ink is out of the question.  Anyone following the various political hashtags knows precisely who these boneheads are.  The funny thing is, some of these people actually believe they have credibility when they blog or tweet while they hide behind “just because we have a differing opinion doesn’t make us trolls” mantra.  Yes, actually in my mind it does.  Here’s why.  Leaders don’t build on a foundation of bullshit sniping.  Leaders lead by providing a positive message, solutions and action, by pointing out the positive for citizens not by tearing others down.  Leaders hoist others on their shoulders and carry until exhausted.  If you’re so “right” then lead and prove it rather than being a follower of a negative mob.  If your blog post simply tears others political views down for your self- gratification, then do us all a favour and at least have the guts to call yourself what you are, a political narcissist.   You know another reason why I didn’t run, I didn’t believe I was good enough to take on the important challenges that the citizens would need me to do.  My mind is one of business, and in my heart I can’t stand a system that often has to rip others up to get a job done.  The political system is broken and many supporters of various parties out there are ridiculous and it makes their parties look even more ridiculous.  If these folks ever take a step back to reflect, one out of 10 will be ashamed of their actions.  The others will defend their positions.  Why do you think there are so few “real leaders?”

7.) Data, data, data – it’s all in the data.  Well ok, not all but most of it.  Most campaigns won’t have the resources but Google Alerts are simple email notifications and Google Analytics on your website, Tweetreach for Twitter reach is a real basic start.

8.) Tell your story and that of Albertans – Get beyond the “vote for me for a better future” BS.  What does that mean in real terms for me and my family?  Tell that story, and if you’re a leader you’ll have stories about how you’ve already done this.  This will be about the Albertans and the lives you’ve changed.  Storify combined with Twitter is a great way to do this.  If you search, Edmonton Journal and Storify you can see how they have been using it, most recently to cover the U2 comments by Edmonton residents and others who experienced the concert and used the concert hashtag #u2360edm.

Ultimately, politicians in Alberta don’t capture the stories that affect us all, that we can relate to.  They’re even worse at sharing these stories beyond the podium or stage, and finally, as is evident in the one tweet by Doug Horner listed above but similar examples exist in all political twitter streams, true engagement is next to non-existent.  The expectations of your constituents has changed, it’s not about you, it’s about them, their needs and how you’ll lead this province “with” them, not behind closed doors but out in the open.

Do you have the “most digitally engaged” candidate? Let us know here, share the links to show off the digital footprint and we’ll invite you on to Alberta LIVE!

Leaders are not afraid to lead!

As a result of reading this blog post today, the following tweets by Strathcona County Councillor Roxanne Carr speak for themselves.

Councillor Carr follows up…

CouncillorCarr Roxanne Carr

@TricommStrategy @fusedlogic I am at #fcmhfx conference +would love to connect with residents back home #shpk#strathcoHow is Monday 3pm?

CouncillorCarr Roxanne Carr

Any other polis interested in a poli tweet on line with residents? #strathco #shpk Monday 3 pm?

1 hour ago

CouncillorCarr Roxanne Carr

@fusedlogic Thanks will put it in my blog – would like it open to all interests + topics #shpk #strathco

51 minutes ago

CouncillorCarr Roxanne Carr

@TricommStrategy @fusedlogic like I said any topic: budget, pot holes, Council priorities, even cats….lol …ps cats don’t herd well!!!

24 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

The signs they are a changing.  Secretly, many Strathcona County employees have been chomping at the bit to start Facebook fan pages, YouTube channels, twitter accounts, LinkedIn profiles and blogs.

This is terrific and yes, it’s clearly early days for the County, and it’s exploration of social media.  However, this shows a small cultural shift internally towards what I hope is the foundation of a more digitally engaged Strathcona County community.

How do we get there?  Simple, we connect on and offline.  We hold events like this social media workshop in Council Chambers tonight that I’ve been invited to participate in by Councillor Roxanne Carr.  Thank-you Councillor Carr this is going to be fun.

Keys to building the Strathcona County community online.

1.) Train everyone! If people don’t understand why they should engage online, where the value is for doing so, they won’t.  Proper training will empower people.

2.) Self-organize. Don’t wait for Strathcona County employees to drive this initiative.  Come together offline at regular tweetups and meetups to connect with your community and then follow-up online.  The County employees should look to attend.

3.) Tell stories in your own way.  You may like photography like I do, so you may want to use Flickr as your photo-sharing hub.  Many simply use Facebook for this purpose.  Look at your world from these four primary content areas.

Text:
Micro-blogging http://www.twitter.com
Blogging http://www.wordpress.com
Presentations http://www.slideshare.net
Document collaboration http://docs.google.com/
Bookmarks http://delicious.com

Images:
http://www.flickr.com
http://www.facebook.com
http://picasaweb.google.com/

Video:
http://www.youtube.com
http://www.vimeo.com
http://www.viddler.com/
http://qik.com/

Audio:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com
http://www.podbean.com/

Social Media Sources:
Alltop http://social-media.alltop.com/
Mashable http://mashable.com/
Readwriteweb http://www.readwriteweb.com/
emarketer http://www.emarketer.com/
Techcrunch http://techcrunch.com/
gigaom http://gigaom.com/

And of course, http://www.fusedlogic.com and http://www.fusedlogic.tv

4.) Develop an Open Strathcona County Framework. Open Government is the next step, using social media doesn’t constitute an Open Government.  Collaborative discussions on this should begin right away.  I hate to say it because the word “camp” is so overused, however, “County Camp” should happen and we should invite folks from the Greater Edmonton area to participate. The purpose of such an “unconference” would be to discuss Open Data here in the County, as well as, a framework for process improvements within government based on case studies from here in Alberta and from around the world.

Here’s the prezi that I presented tonight at the Strathcona County tweetup so that everyone can review.  Thanks for all your questions tonight and contributions to the event.  Great job by Thelma Scammell and the entire Strathcona County Communications team, there’s lots of great things ahead.  It was terrific to meet everyone in person and I look forward to the next event.  Special thanks to CrowdMap.com for their great map on the wildfires in Slave Lake.   This prezi was built from this presentation on slideshare.net.

There are a couple of other interesting stories brewing and I’m wondering if they’re making a difference in the hearts and minds of the youth vote.

First, take a look at “vote mobs” being organized across the country at Leadnow.ca.  Students on campuses across Canada are using social media, including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to self-organize and hold rallies in support of getting out the youth vote. This is very cool and there is certainly lots of main stream media evidence to suggest this is catching some steam, just search “vote mob.”

Now here’s an interesting twist on things.  What if this momentum regarding vote mobs suddenly shifted towards the Elections Canada and their recent citing of Section 329 as a reminder to all tweeting Canadians that it’s still on the books as it were.  The Edmonton Journal’s Paula Simons, has written an excellent piece on this a few days ago.

FYI, I’m not advocating civil disobedience and here’s why this scenario is interesting.  We already have significant evidence of self-organization online on the “vote mob” front.  A faction of this movement could ignite civil disobedience online and Elections Canada should at the very least be monitoring the situation online already.  Although I suspect they’re ill equipped to do this effectively.   Also, not a single Canadian needs to tweet any result for Elections Canada to be in a pickle.  US based twitter accounts could of course communicate the results and Elections Canada would be at a loss.  This is why this is so difficult for regulatory agencies. This is the world wide web with a hyper-connected society leveraging technology to it’s potential.  While analog agencies like Elections Canada still try to remain relevant with some of their old legislation.

Frankly, for Elections Canada to prove their point of enforcement of S329, and I’m not a lawyer, but I suspect they’d simply need one person, who has correctly self identified themselves on Twitter, to violate the law as they see it, and bingo they have a case.  I wouldn’t want the hassle or expense of being that person, would you?  This is why in part I believe many will not violate the twitter ban on May 2nd.  Further, I have found evidence of those online who have stated they want to respect the law which is another reason that I believe the majority of twitter users/voters in Canada will not overtly violate this rule.

This should be interesting to watch.  What about you, do you believe people will violate S329 on May 2nd via Twitter or Facebook, vote mob or otherwise?

Inexperience, fear and lacking the will to engage.

Many government administrators and elected officials I’ve spoken to off the record don’t actually want “citizen engagement.”  It’s political suicide to say this publicly, but behind the scenes they’d rather we as citizens simply pay our taxes, get out of their way, and “let us do our jobs.” Until it’s time to vote of course.

Some elected officials exclaim they are “engaging” constituents or residents because they upload a YouTube video that answered a question from a citizen posed via a private email form, as was the case with Premier Stelmach and the Ask Premier Ed program. However, he was only prepared to answer a few select questions and post a few videos over a short period of time.  I would have preferred on-going “real-time” engagement with citizens, however, most politicians and administrators are unwilling to answer questions from citizens live and on camera.

This shouldn’t surprise us as many elected officials are surrounded by “advisors.”  These are the folks who are recommending these placating options to their bosses.  ”Better control of the message, and we’ll look innovative and engaging because we’re using social media.” they’ll say.   Personally, I wouldn’t consider the above initiative as innovative or truly engaging, but it is better than nothing.  Government innovation is often a much more benign interpretation when compared to the private sector, so it can be tough to swallow for many of us.

I’d rather learn about the leader’s ability to lead and think on their feet regarding important issues that mean something to my family and I, rather than the watered down safe answer constructed by someone else behind closed doors.  I don’t care what tier of government we’re talking about in this case, municipal, provincial, or federal.  Will the real leaders step forward please?

Why am I referencing such an old project?  Simple, it’s Q2 2011 and I’ve been reflecting on how far we’ve come in the last couple of years in this regard.

How far have we travelled since this post in 2009?  Has the bureaucratic culture changed?  I’d say not much, if any.  The majority of elected officials, administrators, heads of communication departments are still fearful of change, loss of control, innovation and citizen engagement.  That’s at the core of why it takes 18-24 months to construct a social media policy document.  The official response is, “we need to consult with all departments.” Ok, but does this need to happen over 2 years?  What they’re also doing is learning, about a world they’re not a part of by attending seminars and workshops, and learning is always a good thing.  A seminar or two doesn’t make them experts by any means, but it definitely does provide a foundation, as long as, the sources of information are experienced.

How much does this cost?

Let’s add up the conservative and approximate cost of a government social media policy document.

A team of 2 or 3 government communications employees, holding several meetings over 2 years internally in the comms department – $3,000.

One workshop attended – Add $2,500.

Then involve people from other departments as part of the “stakeholder engagement” meeting process – Add $20,000.

Several revisions of the draft document, unofficial updates to bosses, supervisors, along with official updates to Council or Ministers – Add $15,000.   All calculations used in this example are estimated at $20/hr per government employee for a hyper conservative $40,500 in resource time spent.

Add to that the shear enormity of opportunity lost to improve citizen engagement, government processes and delivery of services across an entire government over 24 months, and the number gets ridiculous.  Government is expensive, not only because it’s big but mostly because it’s inefficient.  And remember, just because we now have the guidelines for the use of social technologies, doesn’t actually mean these departments will know how to be effective or generate results.  They still need to be trained and most will report to someone who has no interest in becoming involved in social media, leading to more frustration for those who really want to make a difference with this new found opportunity.

Citizens need to participate too

Sitting on the couch on election day is irresponsible.  Ignoring elected officials while they govern our lives is irresponsible. Citizen complacency is rampant, so even when a daring government agency actually wants to engage with us and get an honest opinion about their project, only a fraction of the voices come forward, that has to change.

This is our government, they work for us, so get involved.  I realize that most citizens don’t understand how our governments work, what actually happens to our tax dollars, or how to actually engage with their government effectively.  Frankly, we’re a disengaged, cynical bunch.

I think a great start to changing that would be to rather than complain, participate positively.  Self organize in person and online, and ask questions, blog, post videos, tweet, call, email, write the editor, show up for events, and for heaven’s sake – VOTE!

Where’s your Open Government Framework?

We need more Open Government initiatives in Alberta and in Canada, more adoption of Web 2.0 technology, more governments operating as a platform for citizen engagement, more data released…just like what Cook County has just announced regarding their data.

I imagine an Open Strathcona County someday and I wonder where Alberta’s Minister of Open Government is? Way to go British Columbia!

Remember, a set of social media policies doesn’t a strategy make, and a social media strategy doesn’t an Open Government Framework make either.  Unfortunately, it seems, we still have a long way to go.

However, to get all of the government communications employees started with some examples of policies at least.  Here’s a long list of social media policy documents to reference saving you months and months of work, and taxpayer dollars – Socialmediagovernance.com

Do you care about your customers?  Did you care before Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, WordPress, Digg, Hashable?  Of course you did, and you remain concerned about their needs today.

Despite loving your customers, your organization may not be in support of radical innovation or large culture shifts in order to grow. This may be what’s still holding you back from entering and using the social web to your advantage.  This doesn’t have to be a scary move for you and your colleagues.  You just need the right guiding principles and also, you need to understand that customer expectations have and will continue to change.

Can you survive without using social media?  Probably.  However, just as you would be concerned about a new product innovation launched by your competitor, so should you be concerned about how effective their moves are within the social web.  Strategic advantages to further brand credibility and social capital are at stake.  Your competitor may be top of mind because they’ve spent the time and effort to increase their “presence” online.

Are you more adaptable to change than your competitors?

If you’re not already immersed in social media, the answer may be obvious.  There are many organizations in the Edmonton, Alberta region that we speak with who have yet to engage.  After working in this area for 7 years and having personally just surpassed 10,000 hours of experience in the social space, I can’t believe I’m still sending out the same message – time to get on your horse!

Here are some discussion points to start a conversation with your colleagues and customers about social media.

1.) Are we already communicating differently then we did a year ago?  Use of mobile devices are essential to today’s business person.  Is your organization using this device to its full potential?

2.) Are you listening to what customers are saying about you outside of email, letters and phone calls?  Blogs, Twitter, Forums, Facebook are all integral forms of communication for your customers today, are you listening?

3.) How do you say thank-you to your customers?  What forms of appreciation are standard, can you do a better job?

4.) Do you know who your brand advocates are?  In the social web, if you’re effective, you’ll find both people who will defend you when you screw up, and those who will stomp on your guts.

5.) Can you handle criticism?  Most business and government leaders can’t, and fear of this prevents them from using social media.  As if, blocking all social technology from their office PC’s will solve anything.  Their heads are in the sand, and if you work for them, you’re in real trouble career wise.  This isn’t to suggest that one shouldn’t be aware and concerned about being criticized.  These instances are often tremendous learning opportunities, and a time for serious reflection.  This is a mindset issue and one that will haunt those who cannot get beyond it.  People are increasingly losing their jobs over their resistance to change in this regard.

6.) If your presence isn’t felt online, do you really exist in today’s marketplace?  You may consider this a philosophical question.  I don’t.  To date, you’ve built websites or things that seek the attention of your customers.  Without presence and providing a needed solution, this is a difficult approach.  The time to consider building things that your customers seek has been here for a long time and currently you’re out of the game.

Create a balanced strategy to establish a presence, grow your influence, create and nurture new relationships.  That’s what this technology enables on a mass scale, it also enables your competition.

Ultimately, “social” organizations learn how to scale one to one business relationships and conversations, and embrace the world in a new way.  This benefits the organization immensely in the mid-to-long term.

Business is a delicate balancing act to get right.  Many businesses are currently off balance on this issue.   Have you been able to get people at your office to work through their fears related to social media?

My experience thus far has been one of exploration, openness and free wheeling.  Wrap all of that with intense opportunities to learn from and network with others and I end with an exhausted smile on my face each day.  The people have been energizing, refreshing, and open to sharing.  There is no air of unapproachability and I want to thank everyone for being so open to meeting others.  There seems to be an underlying trust that when you meet someone else at the event it’s genuine, this of course is very dependent on the individuals but certainly that’s been my experience thus far.

Gould-Davies from Sapient Nitro stated in their session that “60% of people need to hear something about a company 3 to 5 times before they believe it.”  They claim trust is on the downward trend.  The assumption of trust when one meets someone for the first time online is eroded.  I believe that to be true in many cases.  Gould-Davies defined trust as “confidence in the future, it’s a guess of what is going to happen.  We review the potential of the consequences and if there’s something at risk it becomes much more important.”

Do you have a sense of trust with the people you have met here at SXSWi?  I’ve had no untrustworthy introductions and exchanges to date.  The one poor experience I’ve had was with an Austin Pedicab driver.  I asked how much to go to the Hyatt?  I was told by a different driver in the group that they worked for tips.  Then when I got to my destination at the Hyatt, the driver said, ” I know we didn’t discuss a fair, but typically it’s $20 to go over the bridge.”  I found that incredibly dishonest and opportunistic, either they work for tips or there’s a stated fair.  I can only hope this is not a true indication of all Austin pedicab operators.  See his picture below.

Here are some of my experiences many positive experiences from yesterday and today where I met some great people and learned a lot.

I was on my way to another session when I bumped into Kris Krug – @kk and his significant other Danielle Sipple – @fiercekitty while they were rushing to his session.  Glad we were able to say hi, it’s been awhile since we’ve chatted offline.

Tim O’Reilly and Jason Calacanis had a great chat, it was interesting to hear Tim’s sentiment on is almost obsessive pursuit the “big idea.”  As it turned out due to location, I was the first to step up and shake his hand and say hello.  When it came to taking a quick picture I picked the one guy at sxswi who didn’t know how to work an iPhone camera and he didn’t get the shot. Below is one I shot afterwards.

Here are some of the “ebbs and flows” of sxswi.

Next it was on to a panel on a proposed Social Media User’s Bill of Rights, my thanks to moderator and OpenGov advocate Alex Howard – @digiphile

Working left to right is lawyer and Quora admin @LisaBorodkin, USC Law Prof @JackLerner and tech policy geek @gagnier

The panel was discussion our rights as users of the social web and provided a website to review the proposed bill of rights.  You can vote here: http://snubillofrights.com/ This was a fascinating discussion around what we as “data centers” need to do differently to be better stewards of our own data, as well as, businesses and how they should develop processes that will allow for better privacy, access to our data when we want it and not use in ways we don’t approve of without our approval.  IE: Facebook.

After the sessions at the Hyatt, I bumped into the NYC start-up contingency and while at the Iron Cactus I met Elizabeth Fuller – @jumpingship who’s just started a company with a friend called domainful.net which is designed to allow you to register web domains by SMS texting.  Kind of cool and a very simple concept.  I’ve run into a lot of people from New York and have come across some terrific start-ups and people.  New Yorkers here are much more friendly than their reputation suggests.

After the Iron Cactus, I walked over to the Driskill Hotel, a magnificent historic hotel and awesome networking opportunity. There I met several people, too many to list here but it was great networking.  Then on my walk down 6th street to pick up a shuttle I came across this little staged event.

Please share a sxswi experience regarding trust.

Do you trust the sxswi people that you’ve met?  Is there that gut feeling of credibility or one of mistrust?  That hasn’t been experience, it’s been quite the opposite.

Despite the bad res on the above instagram and the expected long wait time to get the badge all went really smoothly.  Now this was in no small part due to meeting my new found Austin friends.  First up is @JoeyMcGirr, who I first shared a chat with on Twitter prior to heading south.  We agreed to touch base once I got on the ground and set-up a coffee meeting this morning before standing in line for our sxswi badges.  As there was no conference shuttle running today, I was on my own for transpo and Joey immediately volunteered to come pick me up.  Such a cool thing to do, so obviously I had to buy coffee at the very least.  The line-up was great I was able to meet @abbisiler from Arkansas and @laughlinjames from Austin.  Coincidently, James told me about his new start-up mycod.es which launched into public beta yesterday.  The company will allow QR code creators to “redirect” or repurpose existing codes instead of having to generate new ones all the time.

Just before leaving for the ATX Start-up Crawl

While sitting at the Chevy Volt power up centre, I introduced myself to Orian Marx, the head of a new start-up called Siftee out of NYC.  He asked me not to elaborate on what he was doing but did share a private beta experience with me and let me say, I love his Twitter related app.  After that fascinating chat it was time for some @srcasm or Jesse Middleton, another NYC native who’s a part of another supercool start-up called GetMinders.com. GetMinders will help everyone remember their meds and medical needs, this is really well positioned as our population grows older and more tech savvy.  He was actually down at sxswi as part of #hashable’s contingent.  I was quickly introduced to many hashable users including the CEO Mike Yavonditte.  This is what your profile looks like on hashable.  I would describe this as a person to person connection engine, and the top connector is the man in the hat speaking with Mike in the image above.  Josepf Haslam, a very friendly guy, who helped organize a group of us for the ATX Start-up Crawl.

First up was 3-D Porch and moodfish.com, stereowagon.com all working to carve their piece of the net up.

It was nice to also touch base with Michele Price, but you may know her as @prosperitygal on Twitter.  We had a nice chat but as I was checking out the first location on the crawl, she and some others stopped for a bite to eat, we’ve agreed to touch base again later this week.

While on the crawl shuttle, the girl to the left in the picture was taking a picture with her friend, and Amber Osborne (a.k.a. @missdestructo) photobombed these folks.  She’s also a game piece in a local meet-meme.com scanvenger hunt and the photobomb is listed as her superpower.  Indeed!  I’ve set a goal to try to photobomb her during the conference if the opportunity presents itself.  We’ll have to see, she’s a cagey veteran at this…

This is a very large bird’s nest meeting room at Smiley Media, an ad network in the Omni center here in Austin.  Great offices, notice all the smiley stress balls on the floor, they were everywhere.

I had a short stop at Mutual Mobile who are some custom app developers with Google, Audi and others as clients, and then it was off to Gowalla HQ.

I wasn’t able to speak with CEO Josh Williams about our missed chance to have him on my radio show as he was busy with other folks but it was fun to see the offices and meet some of the folks.

My thanks to all the companies who put on a great party during the ATX Start-up Crawl here at South by Southwest Interactive.  That was a terrific first day on the ground here in Austin.

The official day one of the conference and here’s my vantage point at the moment.

So far I’ve met 22 people on my quest to get as close to 200 as I can.  Sorry if I missed you in this post, but I’ll usually really good at following up after a conference.  So if you’re interested in having a conversation or meeting here at sxswi this is me – @fusedlogic. Reach out on twitter…have any great stories or blogs to share about your experience here, I’d love to seem them, leave a comment and a link…

Have you exposed your brand to negative buzz?  Starting with good intentions, have you started a negative firestorm online?

What should you do?  Ignore or engage in a verbal sparring match as many do everyday on Twitter, Facebook and in forums?   Here are a few simple tips to consider when confronted with negativity online.

Assess the situation

Everyone should be listening to the Internet and monitoring channels and communities important to their business.  Look to identify the source, the ignition point or statement that has set things in motion then consider these questions.

• Is the information factually accurate or inaccurate?
• What is the level of credibility of the person, account or organization responsible?
• What platform is the negative activity happening on?
• Does this person, account or organization understand the technology and community they are operating within?
• Is there an ongoing conversation already as a result of the statement for you to research?
• What has been the sentiment of the initial responses to the negative statement?
• Is the discussion growing in size quickly or is it isolated?

What if any social media action should be taken?

Your options here are fairly simple, however, how they’re executed may not be.

MONITOR: This needs to be an ongoing activity for your organization so that you’re not taken by surprise.  This can allow you to assess in near real-time if the issue is progressing and if so how.  Be careful, ignoring issues completely can place you in a position where a conversation between two people on twitter can quickly turn into a firestorm of international media exposure in hours.  Do your assessment quickly and learn to act fast.  Generally, most issues do not reach firestorm stage but the potential is always there.

ENGAGE: You can choose to engage in a sparring match with the individuals and organizations involved.  This is rarely a good idea, you almost always look like a bully.  I experienced this during the airport debate, even if I was looking to offer facts available to me, it was usually still a negative outcome.  Rather than spar, I recommend remaining factual without emotion.  Your detractors will attempt to initiate personal attacks, do your best to not add validity or take it personal whenever possible.

Instead focus on clearing up misconceptions, admitting mistakes quickly and zero in on providing solutions to move ahead with. This is very difficult sometimes as often a mob mentality can ensue, don’t attempt to try to control this conversation, it will only make it worse.  You may however want to nudge the conversation in the right direction and your supporters should look to reinforce that.  No surprise that where this routinely happens includes politics, the environment, and government related communications.

Pre-emptive social media strike

Often there’s an urge to attempt to get your message out before anyone else can generate the story flow on your behalf.  Let’s say mainstream media writes an unflattering story about your brand or you have been misquoted, and it’s on their website.

If you feel compelled to respond, do it on their platform first, in the comments section, where you can most likely put things into context, to expand you may then want to use your own blog or website to follow-up and explain if required.  Resist the urge to jump straight to Twitter where the conversation may not be underway, and jump start it yourself.  This will almost certainly draw out trolling behaviour, and open up the opportunity for facts to be twisted 140 characters at a time, igniting a firestorm which you were trying to avoid in the first place.  One which could last a few hours, days or until someone gets fired.

Not a perfect science

There is definitely an art to this type of communication situation and the above tips are not intended to be perfect.  Continue to provide positive, share-worthy information and support others doing the same.  I’m of the belief that there is definitely an audience for that worth being a part of.

So how does your behaviour on the micro-blogging platform Twitter spread an idea, and how can you learn more about it?  You may have a different opinion but I believe that one needs to examine the pattern details of sharing, influence and technology.

The two-way flow of influence

There has been a lot of political unrest in the middle east, especially Egypt as everyone knows.  Main stream media tells stories which in turn influences our online publishing behaviours, and an idea spreads online.  Conversely, Web 2.o technology enabled digital communities and the individuals who comprise them one at a time become aware of things happening in the world as they participate on the ground as citizen journalists.  Which in turn makes main stream media aware of the story, who then tell forward the story thereby influencing the non-technically savvy and which reaches the coffee shops and boardrooms and away we go.

Back in 2000, when I started fusedlogic this effect as explained above was almost non-existent.  The technology didn’t exist to support this type of sharing cycle.

Micro-tribes of people still shared ideas, thoughts and concerns and looked to influence opinions but it was still done more face to face, via email and rarely but increasingly through static websites.

Why do governments, businesses and organizations need to respect social media?  How do you position a message or specific platform so that many can see it?  There are many principles simultaneously that could be examined, however, today we’ll focus on watching what happens when people get emotional online, which is often the fuel that drives viral responses.

On twitter today I was made aware of a”gephi” graphical representation made by Andre Panisson of how the Egyptian Revolution spread on twitter using the hashtag #jan25, the suspected date of Mubarak’s resignation.  Although preliminary, this shows how an idea or story, (in this case an national uprising) can spread on twitter.  Ultimately this is about patterns of behaviour and influence.  Nothing new for social media explanations really but for those who are working on better understanding this “social media thing” it might help and I really like cool visuals.

Things to watch for.  Pay attention to how micro-tribes form related to key influencers and how others look to spam and don’t end up getting much retweet momentum.  As a single individual, one couldn’t hope to know each one participating in this discussion personally and as a result of a offline relationship.  However, smaller groups carry things forward.

The Egyptian Revolution on Twitter

Obviously this type of impact doesn’t happen with every idea, story, blog post, sales pitch or tweet in general, a revolution within a country is a unique occurrence to say the least.  Most of the time people’s reach online looks something like this truthy project pattern image.

The above image is closer to the reality of your personal network interest level at any given moment.  Maximizing this effect is about allowing others to take ownership of the message or idea and spread that across their sphere of influence.  Corporations and governments typically fear this effect because they want to control what you see, hear and think.  That’s a mistake and is the perfect recipe for a revolution.

THANK-YOU FOR A GREAT 2010!

MacEwan University, NorQuest College, Government of Alberta, City of Edmonton IT Branch and Communications, Parkland County, Aggression MMA, City of Grande Prairie, Randal Clark, Lutheran Church Canada, Alberta Centre for Child, Family and Community Research, Mary Ann Stanway, Health Canada, Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, Dorward and Company, Yardstick Software, crazedCoders, Fluik Entertainment, Edmonton Humane Society, Well and Wise Online, Microsoft Canada.

I’d also like to thank our team for all their hard work. Evan Adnams, Maria J. Politti, Derrick Bradley, David Bates, Sunita Kaul, Michael Kryton and Tracy Schwabe.

See you in 2011!

With that in mind, I have a few questions.

Does this mean that the City of Edmonton knows what to do with the information generated?  Just because of things stated in this post, should someone actually inform Mary Pat Barry?  What happens when “troll like” statements are made by a city employee?Such has been known to happen on Twitter when Andre Darmanin makes disparaging remarks regarding the city he now lives in, and is employed by, and that makes it into a blog post?  Should anyone care?  Of course, there are clear codes of conduct for city employees regarding freedom of speech and personal opinions, political or otherwise.  I also believe that the use of social media by City of Edmonton employees is important, so I’m a clear proponent of using and respecting the power of social.  I’m just wondering about the perception.  How should one interpret the perception of this or any other employee’s conduct online?  Would that even resonate with those monitoring with Radian6?  Would they know what to look for?  That is clearly a very large task.

How far reaching will the information gathered about this post travel?  All the way to city council?  All the way to Mayor Mandel for instance?  If as a city employee you are reading this blog post, and you don’t think it’s important enough to include in your reporting or important enough to include in briefings to the mayor, could you be fired as a result of missing something this important?  Is this important? I’m not a City of Edmonton taxpayer, I live in Strathcona County, does that matter?

I’m curious, what’s the point of monitoring if you don’t intend on taking some level of action based on the information?  That said, let’s assume you will take action.  What action (if any) should be taken?  Who has the power to take that action?  Does the City of Edmonton use social media to respond publicly or ignore this post?  Will ignoring this post only fuel my curiosity, causing me to ask even more questions?  That’s tough to determine.  So then, does one respond here on my blog, and publicly acknowledge this post, giving it recognition?  The safer route may be to ignore it, then again, this entire post is about how the city is listening which would automatically suggest that a response should take place.  Whatever you decide is fine with me.

What about sentiment?

I suppose one or two within city administration might be trying to determine the “sentiment” of this blog post at the moment, an important endeavour to be sure.  Am I being positive, negative or neutral?  But wait, won’t the software take care of that?  Can you truly trust a software solution of any kind to make that determination?  If not, that means that there will need to be many city employees sifting through results, and trying to make that determination.  How much time should be spent going down that rabbit hole?  How much research should one perform on me as the blog post author in order to determine the importance of this blog post, and possible implications if ignored?  Is that time and money well spent?

At what cost?

What of the expense of Radian 6, and how they bill their clients partially based on the number of searches being returned?  If the searchers are not in tune with what’s to be monitored, searching inaccurately could mean substantial cost down the road with very large surprises.  I imagine the City of Edmonton would generate considerable search results across the entire enterprise, and then you have to ask, can one solution be trusted to do the job effectively?

What about influence and/or respect?

Do I have any?  Or am I just a troll taking a pot shot at the city?  Do I have any reach or respect at all?  I suppose that would be determined by who you asked.  This blog gets very little traffic in the grand scheme of things.  It’s possible that no one is reading this blog post at all, except for you. And still, it’s possible that members of the mainstream media are reading it, and will decide to inquire as to the cost of this program to taxpayers after the trial is over.  As they might with any city expenditure, that’s quite routine actually.  What should you do?  Report this to your superiors now?  Across how many departments and supervisors?  There’s nothing like reading a headline in the Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun or hearing about city spending on the 6 o’clock news is there?  Is this money well spent?  I think the activity itself if done correctly is an important one, and yet that’s simply my opinion.

I hope those reading will agree that I’ve asked some important questions here that deserve follow-up and strong consideration. Not only for those within the City of Edmonton, other areas of the public sector but also the private sector as well.

Walter Schwabe speaks with Robert Scoble or Scobleizer as many refer to him as.  Walter asks Robert about LeWeb10, Mozilla, MySpace and many more including his top apps for 2010.  The Internutt talks about “social skills.”

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The Stephen Duckett “cookie” story and healthcare in Alberta lead the way this week.  Walter Schwabe speaks with CTV Edmonton News Director Glenn Kubish about how the story unfolded and the impact social media had on its international reach.

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Walter Schwabe talks about meetup.com and the concept of self-organization with local Edmonton meetup organizers Les Michaelson and Dave Yadlee.  Also, Walter discusses what happened during his shared keynote with Nick Charney at Open Gov West BC in Victoria, British Columbia.  The Internutt speaks about Facebook deactivations and Evan (the appman) Adnams reviews Instagr.am

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Back in 2004, I was intrigued by the “blogosphere,” not a blogger myself at the time I wanted to learn more.  In 2005, I felt I had something to share via a blog, and thus, fusedlogic.blogspot.com was started.  Struggling with finding my blogging voice, and not being a natural writer, I stretched and pushed myself to get better.  Along the way I met other bloggers online, such as Hugh MacLeod, owner of the unique “gapingvoid” blog.  We’ve had exchanges in the past and he was the first to introduce me to Twitter in a manner of speaking.  That aside, Hugh is often rude and abrasive in his approach and that’s exactly how he and his audience like it.  He’s also quite ingenious in the way he’s built his business model – living on his own terms, and being true to who he is, regardless of criticism.  I find these types of stories fascinating, especially those that centre around how daily struggles of business passion turn into business success.  The blogosphere is filled with these stories…your stories have been my personal inspiration over the years to learn more, experiment more, and deploy within the social web on our behalf, and that of our clients. Your stories have formed the foundation for our stories.  We listen, learn and create our own solutions based on our interpretation and input from the outside world, in that way, I think we’re all connected.  It’s this connectedness that drives the social web in many ways, and it’s that connectedness that drives our company.  Everyday we’re striving to be better, everyday we look to perfect our sole purpose for being – social web engagement.

We stand for taking on challenges, we stand for “thinking digital first,” we stand for the best customer service we can possibly provide, we stand for exceeding expectations, we stand for high quality.  We stand for honor and fairness and respect.  We stand for educating ourselves and those around us, we stand for having a plan and for having flexibility in that plan, we stand for change.  We stand for being leaders in our own way.  We understand there’s risk in business, we stand for powering through that risk with knowledge, we stand for overcoming fear.  We stand for “fail forward fast, we stand for learning from our failures.  We stand for all night thinking on a client problem, we stand for “where there’s a will there’s a way.”  We stand for our community, we stand for giving back and for sacrifice, we stand for you and for our clients, we stand for success.

Often it’s clear that you’re not sharing your stories with us here on our blog, rather you’re simply observing us and that’s ok too.  I’d like to inspire you to share what you and your organization stand for, here, or on your blog, on Twitter, wherever it suits you.  Knowing why you do what you do, and what you stand for is important.  We’d really like to hear your story.

We do this work because it inspires us and yet we were passionate before we started.  We do this work because it’s focused in learning about people, communication, speed, collaboration and yes technology too.  We’re a part of a special and ever growing tribe.  A digital tribe, a social tribe, a business tribe, an inspirational and passionate tribe, and we love it.

The Open Gov West BC convener team deserves a lot of credit for selling out the one day conference in Victoria taking place next week on November 10th.  There will be so many great opportunities to learn from terrific speakers throughout the day, and I’m excited that I’ll have an opportunity to play a small role and be a part of all the fun.

I’ll be playing second fiddle during the opening keynote to Nick Charney and Nick Charney’s hair, (isn’t everybody?) and enjoying every minute of the entire experience.  Like previous events such as this, I anticipate meeting great people, sharing great stories, and learning from really smart people.  So in anticipation I’d like to share some survival tips with you.

Survival Tip #1: Be mobile and bring little extension power cords.  Seems obvious but there’s always someone who asks, “Hey do you have a mini usb, my blackberry just died?”  As I stare back at them with my iPhone 4 in hand…Also, watch-out, there will be bloggers in the room and they’ll give you a Gordie Howe elbow to get access to a power outlet later in the day.  Some of the best seats will be near power, and it would be cool as with GovCamp if there were power-bars throughout the venue but you can’t rely on that.

Survival Tip #2: Preparation never hurts.  There are great speakers lined-up for this conference, although not everyone has a blog, here are a few to get you started.  This is not meant to be a complete list, but a jump start.  You can find more links on the speakers on the OGWBC site.

Nick Charney – http://www.cpsrenewal.ca/

David Eaves – http://eaves.ca/

Chris Rasmussen – Interview

Andrea Reimer – http://andreareimer.typepad.com/

Sean Holman – http://www.publiceyeonline.com/

Survival Tip #3: Have a favourite Twitter monitoring app ready and installed with the conference hashtag #ogwbc.  Many will be familiar with Tweetdeck and Canadian offering Hootsuite.  You may also want Twitterfall fired up and to measure the reach of the discussion using hashtags and Twitter accounts, there are many and I like Tweetreach.

Survival Tip #4: Tag everything!  One of the key things that is often missed in sharing content is consistent tagging. Regarding Twitter, the hashtag started for this event by the organizers is #OGWBC of course other important ones would probably include. #opengov #opendata #gov20 #yyj

Survival Tip #5: Buy and bring a flipcam. If you don’t have an iPhone 4 you may want to get a Kodak Zi8, here’s a great video review.  If you have mobile video recording capabilities you can then possibly get a great interview like I was lucky to get at the last OpenGov West in Seattle.

Survival Tip #6: There’s an app for that.  To record audio interviews I like to use Voice Memos and here’s a nice video explanation of working the files into mp3 files from unconverted m4a’s.  Also, great mention of Audacity, I like this program.

Survival Tip #7: Pictures rock. Take a ton of photos and distribute them on Twitter, flickr and Facebook.  Please don’t forget to tag them with #ogwbc at minimum and it’s always nice to get the names of the folks you shoot and ask them for permission if it’s a small group of 4 or less in the shot.

Survival Tip #8: Blog, blog, blog.  Let the community know about your blog, if you don’t have one, there are multiple options based on your level of understanding and commitment.  Here’s a comprehensive blog software review.  Although you may like even simpler solutions such as Tumblr, I haven’t used my tumblr blog in awhile as you can see.  Also great for micro-blogging purposes is posterous, which is great for syndicating content quickly.

Survival Tip #9: Share!  Share your own Open Gov West BC survival tips here or on your own blog.  The more you share before the event, the more people will get to know you and that will make the event itself just that much more friendlier and enjoyable.  Don’t be shy, let us know your content generation and sharing ideas, thoughts and nuggets of efficiency here.

I’m really looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones in Victoria next week.  See you there.  Also, if there is something you’d like to see happen during the keynote, a specific question or topic, and in addition for Nick maybe something related to acrobatics and hair products let us know…

Walter Schwabe speaks with Shawna Randolph, spokesperson from the Edmonton Humane Society about how their nonprofit is using social media such as Twitter and Facebook to communicate more effectively.

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My take on this is I think we need a balanced approach.  In order to keep momentum and reach a place of sustainability, I’ve written recently that we need to focus on citizens or “the individual” as Di Maio writes.  In order to accomplish this I agree with Moore’s sentiment that city, town or department heads must be more pro-active and involved.

That said, if it weren’t for some evangelistic, (some might say maverick) CIO’s in Canada, we’d have even less to cheer about in this country regarding Government 2.0.  Without the initiatives such as Open Data, app contests and Gov 2 events to discuss this topic such as the upcoming Open Gov West BC we wouldn’t have any movement at all I believe.  I disagree that we should “stop all CIO’s” from doing the things that many more today are either doing or planning on doing for a more transparent and efficient government.  Like it or not, technology is a key component in the optimal end result.  I do agree with what I think Moore’s general sentiment is, that administration and elected officials need to “get off their collective duffs” and get on board in support of this new reality.

I call for a balanced, collaborative Open Government approach that includes elected officials, administration, CIO’s, and citizens as the four key pillars of this Open government tactical team.  When one of these stakeholder groups doesn’t buy in, the Government 2.0 four-legged table topples over.  I believe the optimal environment is that all to some degree must be involved.

What do you think?  Do you agree with Andrea Di Maio, is Government 2.0 disappointing you?  Has it lost it’s steam already?  Do you agree with Moore, are CIO’s and technology the last thing we need leading this charge?

The first method I mention is Google Alerts.  Staying in touch with a topic that’s important to you in this way can help you be better informed and positioned ahead of your competitors in business or just keep up with current trends.  Follow this link to set-up one or more alerts.

The second method I speak about with Jacqueline is about Twitter.  Many people would like to know more about Twitter but do not want to join the micro-blogging platform in order to learn.  Although there’s little to be afraid of, I provide a way for you to observe conversations on Twitter without an account.  If you head to search.twitter.com you can search just about anything, and then see what types of things are being said while at the same time identifying the sentiment of those comments as well.  I quickly referenced that Twitter uses something called a “hashtag” to organize conversations.  For example, #yeg represents the majority of conversation related to Edmonton on Twitter.  For more information on hashtags, the searchenginejournal has a pointed post about them.

Now if this segment has peaked your interest and you’d like to know about even more solutions, Mashable.com has a post that outlines “brand monitoring” and offers some more ideas or you can contact us directly and we’d be happy to help you out.

Thank-you very much for watching the segment on ShawTV.  Also mentioned in the interview was “Getting Social with Schwabe,” Canada’s only radio show dedicated to social media.  You can listen to past episodes here on our site, download them on iTunes and listen to upcoming shows airing Saturday mornings at 7am on The Team1260.

Walter Schwabe talks about measurement and the impact social media has on every day users.  This episode includes interviews with Stephanie Hayes and Ryan Hastman as a result of them responding to Walter on Twitter

A special thanks to Dorward and Company.

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Let’s talk about why this is actually quite a positive response to the Gap although it may not feel like it at the moment.  First, if you’ve read “Lovemarks” by Kevin Roberts, you would have learned about something Roberts calls “loyalty beyond all reason.”  One of the examples he offers is the backlash to “new coke.”  Customers are so loyal to the Coke brand that they rebelled against any change to the now “classic” formula.  I believe there is evidence of Gap brand loyalists speaking up within the social web.  The Gap is experiencing what it’s like to have customers, and then by extension, elements of the social web who could probably care less about the brand itself but want to spoof a major brand speak up.  What the Gap should do is understand that if people were indifferent to their brand, little would have been said, the new logo would have been put in place and millions more spent heading down the wrong direction.

People care about the brand enough to write about it, spoof it and chastise it in their own way.  Not a pleasant process I agree and yet there is something positive to take away.  Our family doesn’t shop at the Gap and this logo flop won’t change that, but for brand loyalists, it’s clearly on their mind.  This is not so pretty, most likely unintended but still very valuable form of customer crowd-sourcing and there is lots to learn, not only for the Gap but also your brand as well…(I understand that branding is more than a logo, I feel it’s an emotional reaction by the customer, clearly this new logo generated lots of that).

Next time, maybe the Gap could include their customers in the rebranding process and allow them to have partial ownership.  Not an easy thing to get executives to agree to, especially those who don’t understand or believe in social.  However, I’ll bet there are more than one or two executives at the Gap who are believers in the power of social today as opposed to yesterday.

Would you participate in a re-branding process if a major brand invited the public in?

Watch this video collage of some of the most viral moments online and see if there’s anything there that you’ve spent money on in the content.  I recognize in advance that much of this content is simply private citizen calamity, misfortune and rudeness, so it’s good for a laugh.  The point is, a laugh, and very little else (unless you’re the head of the Diet Coke division).  Just having the numbers, (this video is well over 7 million views) doesn’t always equate to a whole lot unless in this case you attach advertising to this YouTube channel.

As part of this discussion we should remember that most on the Internet still like to “watch” versus “create” content as stated in this recent GIGAOM post.  So then, one could say that viral may still reach and create buzz among this large group of the online community and that may depending on the campaign trickle into financial gain.  For the men out there, when did you last buy an Old Spice product?  The better question might be, have you received an Old Spice product from your wife or girlfriend lately as inspired by over 110 million Old Spice brand views and that of Old Spice Guy, Isaiah Mustafa?  All indications from Neilsen are the numbers are up.  Also, Old Spice didn’t get these numbers from listening to bloggers and “specialists” whose main piece of advice is “just go play and have fun” with social media.  Watch out for that.

I believe that viral is more fleeting than social engagement.  Viral drives the “fad culture” of the net, whereas social engagement strategies look to influence through more meaningful discussion, sway opinion and inspire action as an end result.  Can an organization connect the two?  Absolutely, that’s precisely what Old Spice did.  They provided a balanced approach through multiple channels, including traditional media coverage.

Consider the much talked about “InspiredbyIceland” tourism campaign.  Certainly their iconic dance video went viral and here we are talking about it, and yet, my bags aren’t packed to catch a plane.  So is there value in viral?  Yes on a buzz awareness level there is no doubt, this campaign is getting Iceland talked about months after it launched.  In fact, before this campaign I don’t think I’ve ever spent this much of my time even considering this country.  Still to date, none of my hard earned cash is flowing into the Iceland tourism industry but that’s not to say there hasn’t been some impact.

Visitor numbers jumped 12% last year to around 1.23m people, or about four times Iceland’s population, with German, French and British visitors topping the list, and the trend is set to continue this year.

This research isn’t directly tied to the video campaign but I feel confident in saying that there is a segment of those tourism results that were influenced by the Iceland Tourism Board’s efforts.

There is continued response provided by some of the over 43,000 Facebook fans of the Inspired By Iceland Facebook fan page.  In order to find out the real impact however, one would have to do an analysis of how many of those fans actually hopped a Icelandair jet this year or inspired others to take a volcanic tour.

We should also ask ourselves if this viral campaign has served to increase “trust” in Iceland.  Iceland used to be one of the wealthiest countries in the world based on it’s financial industry.  That was all but erased with the global economic meltdown of 2009.  I’m not sure if dancing icelanders suggests that their banking industry is on the road to recovery but it certainly highlighted that there were deals to be had to visit this beautiful northern landscape.

There’s a business adage that says, “it’s always easier to sell an existing client than try to find a new one.”  Increased tourism equates to increased opportunities for a business relationship in other ways.  Visit on a holiday and possibly meet new people you may end up doing business with later.  That scenario happens every day around the world.  The money doesn’t flow overnight but it flows nonetheless.  Rarely do we see public evidence of this phenomenon at the granular level, rather it’s the stories over lunch that get told of how that deal was done, or this lead was generated.  Still it is possible to draw a correlation from viral video to tourism “krónur” to sustainable economic development but you have to dig and it’s much more than touting simple online traffic numbers.

Viral needs to cross the “fad chasm” and enter engagement before social media can claim victory and as suggested in a post written by Liana Evans on Clickz.com which inspired me to write this one, I believe viral and social media are very different, and should be connected.  Building a campaign with that in mind has a much greater chance of success than simply trying to do the goofiest thing in front of a camera you can think of to garner viewership and drive numbers.

The municipal election extravaganza.  Walter Schwabe talks with 9 different candidates about their use of social media within their campaign for this 2010 election.  What they’re using, how they’re using it, and any impact social media may be having on their ability to generate votes.

Your outsourced CFO is a click away at Dorward and Company.

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So far, and as suspected, social is a key story in this election, and I suspect it will continue as more and more campaigns get their collective heads in the game.

To kick things up a notch, the team and I go into studio tomorrow morning to record Episode 8, which will be a special election edition of “Getting Social with Schwabe” airing this Saturday, September 25, 2010.

Be sure to tune in this Saturday at 7:00am to the Team 1260 or you can listen later by checking here.  Either way you’re not going to want to miss this show…

We provide brand monitoring and intelligence gathering as a service and have had great success matching client outcomes with real-time research and results.

In the case of the municipal election in Edmonton, I’ve been enjoying comparing some snapshots of Tweetreach.com for representing some of the serious contenders in the race for Mayor and I thought you’d like to see them.  Again, this is not the entire picture by a long shot, it’s not even all the candidates running, but fun to review nonetheless.

In no particular order…

Disclaimer:  These totals change moment to moment and there has been more activity from the time these were recorded till the time the post was published…Also, David Dowling and Andrew Lineker are not in this post as there was little data, if they’re upset they can let us know here.

At first, I have to admit that my reaction was “wait a minute…!”  Then I let it sink into my thick skull for a minute.  She was absolutely right.  Do you agree?  Let me go further and explain.  Obviously, I think social media is “potentially” valuable when communicating on behalf of any campaign.  Leilas’ point was that the “potential” wasn’t being realized by any one campaign, and I completely agree.

This was substantiated by my conversations I’ve had with a number of campaigns and candidates.  In one case, as I stated on Getting Social with Schwabe this morning, a campaign manager behind a candidate for Mayor (I won’t say where), stated they didn’t think social media would have any effect whatsoever on your vote.  Well, I suppose if that’s your campaign strategy, you’ll find a way to ensure social media is irrelevant.

“Social influence” is about using social media to influence human beings online.  As the municipal elections progress, I’ve been looking for evidence of social influence strategies.  Difficult considering that this field of candidates is for the most part, relatively new to social media, at least on a mass coordinated deployment basis.  As many know, it’s easy to set-up an account, much more difficult to inspire voters to inspire other voters on and offline.

There are those out in the world who would have you believe that you don’t need to understand Twitter, or any other social technology, “just experiment and play around” they say.  In an election, 30-days is a very short period of time to influence people to vote your way.  Not having any idea as to how to accomplish that, and then venturing out into the social web and asking people for help in normal circumstances might be fine, but during an election, this may lead to demonstrating unpreparedness, and allow competitors to exploit this weakness on how to engage in the middle of an election.  Maybe this is your strategy if you’re a blogger with little to lose.  This unsophisticated approach can put your personal brand, and/or campaign at risk.

Voters could infer that if you’re coming into this election, and you didn’t think social media would play a role, that this would say something about your leadership capabilities.

What kind of things are voters looking for from candidates?  Certainly voters are using social to gather information in general, as was evident in the answers provided to my question on LinkedIn.  So an integrated communications strategy is key.  At some point people are going to want to learn more than your calendar of events 140 characters at a time on Twitter.

Most candidates in the Greater Edmonton Region, this includes surrounding areas like Strathcona County seem to be simply communicating their locations, events attended, and little else.   However, whether this approach is as effective as it could be is up for debate.

For example, does the candidate have “health buddies?”  Or better yet, a cluster of health buddies.  In a recent MIT study that suggests that social networks influence behaviour, in this case related to health issues, researcher Damon Centola, an assistant professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, assigned participants a “health buddy” to measure the effect on whether social networks could influence behaviour on health related issues…and the study suggests that “yes” influence and subsequent action did take place.  The study found that how people were connected had a direct impact on how information flowed, the reach and the rate at which it spread.  This wasn’t solely the number of connections or “buddies,” but also the dynamics of those relationships that influenced actions.

Connections count, but the same amount of quality connections and shared experiences count more.

STUDY: “The rate of adoption in the clustered networks proved to be four times as fast. People were more likely to participate regularly in the health forum if they had more health buddies who registered.”

So my question to candidates in this municipal election is, are you focusing on building “micro-tribes of influencers” who support your position as a result of continued shared experiences?  Or are you simply taking up digital air?  This is now a very short race, those who had an understanding of this going in will ultimately be further ahead on election day.  Those who listen to bloggers who suggest candidates should simply wing it without any real advice or plan do so at their peril.  Voters like “fans” appreciate a real experience with the person of interest over event planning updates.  Voters appreciate real engagement.

Here’s an interesting example of how a political candidate, in this case younger than most running in the Edmonton region managed to build a core of support online that then translated into evangelism, and she states that she won in large part because of it.  She does suggest that meeting people in person, door-knocking was also valuable which demonstrates that shaking hands works too.

Watch a CNN interview to learn how Elise Hall used social media to influence voters to help her win her election for the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

Is your favourite electoral candidate demonstrating a higher level of understanding related to engagement and influence?  List them here, show your support.  As voters we should look for evidence of “political action versus broadcasting content,” if you think your candidate is generating action via influence make a case for it here.  Maybe others will agree with you, and your candidate will end up generating more momentum with people telling two friends or (two thousand) and so on and so on…

Women are influential, but in what ways?  Tamara Plant, Founder and Publisher of MOMMagazine.ca is on the show to speak about her unique brand of Mom focused digital publishing and community building.  The Internutt speaks about how men and women communicate online and Evan Adnams explains the impact of Google Analytics.

We would also like to thank our new show sponsor Dorward and Company Chartered Accountants for their support, they really are great people.  I’ve also learned that this team will act as your outsourced CFO, that’s a very unique service.

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Walter Schwabe talks “Tribes” with Seth Godin, the Internutt explains his version of the “who’s who in social media” and Evan Adnams showcases wordpress as his recommended blogging platform.

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Retail is an incredibly competitive landscape, in this episode Walter Schwabe speaks with Jay Myers, Lead Web Development Engineer out of Best Buy headquarters in Richfield Minnesota about the Semantic technologies he and his team have embedded within BestBuy.com to improve your online shopping experience.  Retailers of all sorts and sizes won’t want to miss this interesting show about how the retail industry is changing as a result of the social web.

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Exploring how associations use social media, Walter Schwabe speaks with Maddie Grant from Social Fish, a social media consulting firm specializing in working with associations.  Also, interviewed is Lina Hoffbauer, Project Coordinator with Alberta Senior Citizens Housing Association.

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“Getting Social With Schwabe”, a radio program focused on social media debuts Saturday, August 7th, on The TEAM 1260 in Edmonton with host, Walter Schwabe, Chief Evolution Officer of fusedlogic

“We wanted to create a program about social media that everyone could relate to — a show that informs, educates and entertains”, says Walter Schwabe, the show’s host.  Guests on the debut show include Chris Moore, Chief Information Officer of the City of Edmonton, and Chris Heuer, founder of the Social Media Club out of San Francisco.  The show will also be archived and streamed from www.fusedlogic.com.

Yardstick Software, a leading provider of online training and testing systems in North America, stepped up to sponsor the first 6 shows, which will air through September. “ We liked the premise and thought that there was a nice fit for Yardstick in the program.  We’re very excited”, says Greg Kurelek, Yardstick’s VP of Sales and Marketing.

For inquiries, please contact Walter Schwabe at radio@fusedlogic.com 780-640-9339

Everyone was pretty good about the little slip-up, although in true social media fashion, there is a tweet explaining the mistake I made and I couldn’t resist and also had to blog about it too.

The Giant is Asleep

In a room of just under 50 professional people, (2) were on Twitter, that’s not entirely unexpected for this industry after my preliminary research.  There were also (2) self-proclaimed bloggers in the room, one of which I found out later was actually a teacher.  That too was lower than expected.  However, I believe that many started putting serious thought into taking some action towards becoming a “social accountant.”  I can extrapolate this from the questions that were asked after my presentation was completed.  Discussions of how to reduce white noise or irrelevant information flow, pilot projects  and where to start, this was a very friendly and engaged group.

Admissions of the beginning of Linkedin profiles and Twitter accounts.  By enlarge, this industry is dormant in terms of social activity.  Certainly with respect to Alberta, we have a long way to go before anyone could state that our regional accountants of any designation are truly invested in social.  My hope is that for one person or organization, yesterday’s presentation was enough inspiration to take action.  I did receive a little feedback from folks which I always appreciate as it helps me improve.  That despite the faux pas mentioned above was quite positive and I feel really good about the experience as well.  We’re all human after all and prone to mistakes, it’s how we learn from those experiences that is the real story.

I want to thank the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Alberta for the chance to speak at their wonderful event at the Jasper Park Lodge and for the wonderful speakers gift too.

The Social Accountant

This association of accountants, many of which I’m sure will be from major centres such as, Edmonton, Red Deer and Calgary but also I suspect from locations all across Alberta.  The Certified General Accountants of Alberta is one of many chapters from across Canada as of the national association.  I’ve been performing some research as I typically do prior to a speaking engagement and I have found some very interesting uses of social media by accountants and accounting firms.  There’s also a large opportunity to mature this usage in many areas which I look to cover in Jasper.  Over all, social media is still a relatively new concept for the majority of this industry of professionals and I’m excited to be presenting some of what I would consider the social media basics, as well as, some advanced concepts that will help those Alberta accountants in the room interested in generating new revenue to get started with social right away.  For example, the opportunity to become a “social accountant,” a term I will define further during my presentation and what that would mean in terms of general awareness for the accounting firm that takes this advice to heart.

Another benefit to this opportunity is that I get to travel out of the Edmonton area and that is welcomed, especially as it falls on a weekend, so I will be taking the opportunity to breath some fresh mountain air and return to Sherwood Park at some point on the weekend.

Also, here’s an article I wrote on “understanding social media” that was published in CGA Magazine in December of 2009.

What will the show be about?

Educating the general public about all things social media will be the primary purpose.  We’ll also delve into closely related topics such as Government 2.0 and other key trends and opportunities that you’re a part of.  The objective is to learn and share about this exciting area of Internet activity.

Let’s talk content

We’d really like to make the show about you and how you engage within the social web, not only here in the Edmonton region but also across Canada and beyond.  So a large amount of the content will be describing and interpreting the things that you do and say while using your favourite social technologies and tools.  All will be recognized as being equal.  Whether you’re a full-time blogger who is also a mom, a photographer who tweets or a business developing cool Web 2.0 apps, doing something interesting within social is all that it would take to be considered for the show.  We’ll focus on the business side of social as well of course.  The do’s and don’t's and everything in between.  There will be technology reviews, interviews and special in studio guests.  We’ll cover recent developments and announcements too.  Your show ideas will play a large part on how things unfold.

We need a name.

What value would a show about social media have if the audience didn’t contribute in the making of it?  So, we’d like to ask you for your help before we even get started.  We need your help with naming the show.  There are a few show name ideas floating around but we would really appreciate your input.

Please offer your ideas and “name that show!“

Important: By submitting or suggesting a show name idea, you agree to let us use the name free and clear without compensation. If we use a show name as submitted by an online audience member then we’d definitely like to thank-you for helping us out by acknowledging you on the first show as the person who submitted the idea.  In particular, I’ll mention your twitter handle, website and blog if you have one too. You’ll get full credit for naming the show on air and the first coffee mug we produce for the show with the new name will be given to you.

Where to submit?

I’d like to suggest that we use futureedmonton.ca then we can track the top 10 name submissions in the comment section based on votes. If you make the top 10, we thought we’d give each of you a special coffee mug from the show (once they’re produced) just for submitting and participating in this exercise.  We can use Twitter for idea exchange and a hashtag for the discussion similar to #yegshow.  I like futureedmonton.ca because it has a simple submission and voting process already built-in which makes it much easier to track ideas.  Your support is greatly appreciated.

Name ideas

Here are a few words to get the ideas flowing regarding the show’s name and we’re completely open to others.  Also, please don’t be offended if one of the submissions isn’t chosen.  We’re all working together on this and there are a few different factors that must be considered.

Thank-you in advance for all your ideas and contributions!  We have to choose the name by this coming Tuesday at 12 noon MST so get your ideas and votes in quick.

The challenge is similar in the private sector.  There are senior vice presidents of marketing and communications who are completely out of touch and working within large organizations.  Fearful of the big, bad, negative, waste of time social web.  Those who are inching towards entering the global digital conversation because the peer pressure walls are closing in on their brand are looking for simple ways to “bolt on” a Facebook fan page here and a Twitter account there to appease everyone.  Well that’s not enough for me.

How to change processes internally is through leadership.

Understanding the current objectives of an organization or government is critical to effectively integrating social into everyday processes while closing the gap between the government and citizens. That said, most leaders act like stubborn, ignorant mules who won’t move an inch no matter how much you pull on the rope.  To those political incumbents and executives I say the following.

“Lead, follow or get the hell out of the way.” – Walter Schwabe, modified from Lee Iacocca.

As senior leadership, you may think you’re leading (conservatively) by resisting the social web.  You’re not, you’re simply acting as a mule. The tone of this post isn’t designed to be a hostile rant, rather a bit of encouragement for those struggling, patient and persistent internal evangelists within your organizations.  I’m really speaking to them.  Rise up people!

As elected officials, you need to look right into the eyes of those administrators who are afraid that citizens will expect social media to be the norm in your government and say, “bollocks!  You’re too late!”  To the administrators, I say this.  One day you’re going to wake up and be working for a Mayor and Council that will stand-up to your stubborn mule like behaviour and if you resist, you’ll be gone.  Don’t think it’s possible?  Pick up Escape Velocity when it’s published and read the story about how one newly elected Alberta mayor did exactly that.  For you, a socially enabled candidate like this mayor, (or as was encouraged last week – someone like me) would be a nightmare.

Municipal election candidates are not exempt, you need to be ready for this Open Government reality as well. Chances are, you are not going to be elected without strong social credentials, nor should you be in my opinion.  To all those government and business leaders without computers on their desks, I’d suggest retirement is looking pretty good right about now.  If you did’t need the hassle of learning new fan-dangled technologies like keyboards, mice and emails on a screen rather than printed off, then Open Government must really be sending you for a loop.  Oh what am I saying, you haven’t heard of the term or the movement in general anyway.  Yup.  Go golfing.

To the rank and file, those of you who have drawn the horrifying images of social technology frustration and social access imprisonment – Rise up!  Create a project that you feel will benefit the government you work for.  Don’t call me scared for using a picture when no one knows who you are, it’s time to “cowboy and cowgirl up!”  Many start anonymous blogs so they can vent and snipe, twitter accounts that criticize their government bosses 140 characters at a time.  Rather, I encourage you to think positively.  Just like the gladiators of old Rome, get the crowd on your side, this includes citizens and colleagues.  Create ways for residents to communicate with your government transparently and out in the open, no matter how simple or small.  Let the complexities of building strong sustainable digital community relationships come later, that’s a discussion for those already in the game.  Am I suggesting you should proceed without a plan?  Quite the opposite, think things through, you’re about to change the world.  Need moral support?  Call us, our lines are open so that you can bark at the moon.

Create a small and simple example of success to build on.  Sometimes that’s a grassroots event, sometimes that’s one single social profile or account.  Be innovative and creative.  Tell real stories and be brave.  If you feel comfortable, create a tactical team to help you but do it!

Go off the grid!

Last week I interviewed LTC Gerald Ostlund, Office of the Chief, Army Reserve, Army Reserve Communications, Webmaster and Chief, Social and New Media for Escape Velocity, which I’ve been working on since last year.   He explained that there was some heavy resistance regarding the use of social technologies internally within his organization.  This resistance came from several directions.  The only way to accomplish what he knew he needed to do, what the US Army Reserve needed to do, was to go off the official network.  I’m talking about the official defense intranet.  He works in a place where when I get emails from LTC Ostlund at the end of every subject line it states (UNCLASSIFIED).

LTC Ostlund explained, “we went out and purchased laptops and aircards with our own money.” This was the only way access could be gained so that the work of integrating social into Army Reserve communications could begin.  What was the risk to LTC Ostlund’s career regarding this brave move I wondered, so I asked the question and his response was immediate. “What are they going to do send me to Afghanistan or Iraq?  Been there, done that,” replied LTC Ostlund.  The conversation continued and it wasn’t that LTC Ostlund didn’t consider all the risks to making this move, he and his team just felt so strongly about what needed to be done they took personal initiative despite any potential negative career repercussions.  When compared to working within a hostile theatre of war, I can easily see why this was basically a no-brainer.

Access Granted!

The result of all this effort and perseverance?  A nine month study was just completed to see if allowing access to social networks such as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter would affect operational capacity of the US Defense Department’s networks.  On the basis of this study, access was granted just weeks ago.  Way to go LTC Ostlund, you and your colleagues are an inspiration.

Are you looking for a way to start something interesting in your government, department or business?  Why not run it by us?  What’s the worst that could happen?

What I can speak to is how I personally use Twitter and other social technologies to build targeted, meaningful relationships one at a time.  I’ve seen many people ask whether they should take Empire Avenue seriously.  That’s a fascinating question and one that integrates well into the mention of “influence” and targeted relationships.

There is a key element related to Empire Avenue, which is defined as an “influence stock exchange,” and hot Edmonton start-up, that I find interesting. Response within this new online community is a stock purchase, trade, sale, or vote.  Outside, on say Twitter, it’s stock promotion, discussion about Empire Avenue itself, or simply business as usual.  Is that all?  No.

There’s an underlying motivation to do other things within the social web to in some way garner the attention of potential stock holders.  Even at this early stage of platform development, you can see “communities” forming.  Geographically, the home Edmonton area is quite strong.  California is growing as are other parts of North America.  If we stay within that geographic parameter, then we see interesting interactions happen.  One Edmonton area Empire Avenue stock will look to conspire against another, all in fun of course, to devalue a stock.  This mischief proves that the Empire Avenue brand is capturing “mind space.”

Other behaviours are being impacted as well, for how long this will be sustained is unknown.  I asked the follow question on Twitter:

Has Empire Avenue changed your online behaviours?

There were some interesting responses that demonstrate change and engagement.

Tamara Stecyk (e) TAMARA and Jodine Chase (e) JCHASE both stated they think about blogging more as a result of being on Empire.  Morgan Smith (e) MORGAN stated:

@fusedlogic I tweet more. I ask myself what I offer with my tweets. Asked what makes someone popular on the ‘net?’ A: content.

William Reichard (e) XCUT started his day by saying on Twitter:

“Gotta make a big push, open strong on Monday. #empireave.”  He also followed up on my question above by saying he was “more addicted,” and then promptly bought shares in (e) FUSED and I reciprocated.  Which brings up another great point.  Did I feel compelled to buy shares simply out of obligation or did I see value in his stock?  I saw value because of the conversational exchange we had and if William tends to do that in general, he’s demonstrating an ability to build new relationships and that is what I value within the use of social media.

Travis Tripp (e) ZOD responded to my question like so:

@fusedlogic yes i started 2 blogs and joined twitter…

I know there are many other stories related to Empire Avenue not only within the Edmonton social media community but abroad.  The “YEG” community is becoming well known for being quite active.  In fact, Adriel Hampton (e) ADRIEL in San Francisco has mentioned it in blog posts and on Twitter.  I’ve noticed Adriel start a new posterous blog called Game Mechanics to keep his Empire Avenue thoughts rolling along (there are others too).  SIDEBAR: I recently had to change my opinion that Adriel was a robot since he was live on our show last week.  The robot belief came about because of the sheer amount of content he puts out, the guy is truly a multi-tasker and influencer as he current sits atop the leader board.  One thing he’ll have to work on as an Investigator for the City Attorney’s office in San Francisco is the ability to use Skype while at work for our next show, but I digress.

If you’d like more information on the foundation of Empire Avenue, Alain Saffel has written a nice overview blog post on the subject.  The future for Empire Avenue is to build community.  Many might not be patient enough to wait the short time for that to take hold. I view that as a mistake and like other new communities there is a segment that will dash.  What we’ll see is that those who had some idea of how to provide value online enter and stay on Empire Avenue, others who don’t understand that stay to ride the wave, and still more transient elements come and go.  Regardless, the future looks bright for this highly-talented and entrepreneurial band of coding and business nomads that believe they have something here.  Many including me think the same.

What are your thoughts on the idea of Empire Avenue?  Is it a method for building trust in your brand, corporate or otherwise?  Is it simply the mention of an (e) TICKER name on Twitter that is enough for you to invest or do you perform more indepth research?

There are many advocates for the ‘jump in with both feet and throw caution to the wind’ approach.  ”Just get out there and use it.”  While I believe we need to be brave and bold and take risks.  I also believe that we should be informed and be educated as to the potential impact of our actions. Many understand that along with social communications comes things like unique corporate culture and societal impacts, and when a public organization decides to use social media I believe it should understand these things. Are they barriers to advancement? Should this reality be reasons for doing nothing?  Absolutely not.  Should public organizations or businesses large and small look to stifle evangelists who are using these technologies through the design of policies meant to restrict action entirely?  No.  Often the policy discussion is used as an excuse, an internal power play to stop all activity within the Social Web by a person or department.  I disagree with that approach, but of course, human nature being what it is, often that writing was already on the wall.  I believe effective policy design provides clarity and confidence as to employee conduct.  In fact, in some ways, when properly written, policies should be enablers for how social technologies in this case can and should be used to support the objectives of the organization while protecting the Brand.

The reality is that the law profession as it relates to the use of social technologies often still takes a zero-risk stance.  This is unfortunate, because it means that zero risk is often extended to zero use of social media. We need to help lawyers understand this environment better, bring them into the discussion sooner, and ask them to work with us in a collaborative way so that public organizations and businesses alike can operate within the Social Web and feel a degree of protection.

We as society often do not help ourselves out much in that regard.  Society and the online community has elements that operate as Trolls sniping at people anonymously, why do you think the Edmonton Journal is considering shutting down the anonymous feature.  Too much disrespectful or uninformed commentary.  Breaking security and privacy rules only further serves to empower the zero-risk stance and undermine a free and open Internet.  I guess I’m saying that I’d rather have a public organization be really well-educated and trained on how to work within the Social Web, then have one mistake made early become the impetus (excuse) to shut down everything by those who would rather see us all work with animal dyes on cave walls…

Elected officials should be encouraged to use social media, governments should be more open and transparent. In order for this to happen, we must maintain trust. What does this mean? If your organization is currently void of a social strategy and policies related to the use of social technologies, does that mean that you should not use anything at all? I believe common sense needs to prevail. Through education and informing decision-makers and including them in the process, we should be able to effectively construct strategies and policies in a way that benefits the organization and everyone within it on the fly.

Here are some very simple and broad stroke tips for public organizations.

1. Seek to understand: understand the people in the audience, understand your objectives, understand how you will deploy these technologies, and understand the technologies.
2. Establish interim directives that may develop into formal policies and procedures.
3. Strategies and policies in place provide clarity of operations and act as a guide for action.  They should not be used as an excuse to refrain from deploying social technologies.
4. Match objectives with opportunity and enable.
5. Not everybody’s going to agree with you. When you publicize and amplify your message, people will have an opinion about it. Opinions are not new, how they are amplified within the Social Web is the new variable that everyone should look to understand.  Further, this means your “values” will be challenged,

Does this process need to take months upon months?  I don’t believe so and yet, that does depend on the organization.

Social Media is “too-risky”

During this snap-shot in time, I’ve been told more than once that social media was deemed to be “too-risky,” with a public servant stating over a great lunch – “I know you’re right but that’ll never happen where I work.”  Although the support for that stance is eroding as time passes and solid case-studies in government arise.  Or as one public servant stated to me, as the “old people with canes in control retire,” – not my words…

I’ve witnessed people from government agencies in one instance talk publicly about open government as a necessity, and in a shocking bit of irony, pullback right in front of my eyes from a positive opportunity to promote an already approved message, suggesting it would be “too-risky.”

I’ve listened to and witnessed an organization with multiple billions in assets be stretched so thin they couldn’t contemplate the identified large deficit in their digital communications and the impact it is having on their overall business success.

I was told a variation of an all too familiar story.  One elected official reciting work colleague comments that “they didn’t need to learn anything about social media because their staff handled that.”

The Art of Honesty

I’ve been in sessions and witnessed images hand-drawn by public servants that depict they’re present situation in terms of the use of social media was akin to being in hand-cuffs and in jail.  A further comparison was made between a “horse-drawn wagon” reality as opposed to the required “jet” depicting the level of sophistication in approach, and a top-heavy organization with a major barrier wall between leaders and staff just to name a few.

I’ve been present for exciting announcements of new Open Government projects.  Witnessed a provincial government look to take it’s first few steps towards convincing the internal powers that be social media is something to be embraced, while members within another state confidently they’re pretty much leading the way.  To which I shudder internally about, especially when I compare that statement to what I’ve learned from my time speaking with CTO’s and CIO’s from cities and jurisdictions in the US and other parts of Canada.

Zombies! Really?

I’ve been shown How to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse, which when translated was really a fun representation about how to manage or mitigate potentially negative outcomes related to citizen engagements.  Finally, who can forget my experiences with Microsoft this week? The level of oddity, frustration, arrogance, pure excitement for change, creativity, honesty and innovative ideas while sitting in sharing circles can be summed up as very rich opportunities to learn.  And will be added to fusedlogic’s now 10 year history as of yesterday.

Though someone may have deployed one or more social channels, it certainly doesn’t ensure engagement, even competence.  We’ve got people adding “social something” to their list of unrelated or fringe services.  This was highlighted during a moment of clarity when an employee from a very recognizable organization admitted that despite winning some sort of an award, the reality was she was really disappointed at this organization’s use and internal grasp of social media.  Stating, “we really don’t have a clue.”

The Blind Side

A repetitive point, was that the limiting factor and barrier to real progress within government often lies with the decision-makers.  Who are at risk.  Why?  Many are not directly participating within the social web and yet have approval powers over the use of social technologies within a company, government or department.  I’ve witnessed frustration and fear on the faces of public servants, as well as, on the faces of elected officials much more than joy in this respect.  That despite some spouting confidence.

Finally, in two separate instances over the last 14 or so days, I had the opportunity to talk with people from what we’ll call “two communications groups.” In both instances, there was definite over-confidence. Both of these groups, were in government.  The number one most important point that I can pass on from these conversations is the following.  I believe their confidence, indeed their over-confidence will definitely be their undoing.  Unfortunately, the next PR disaster is always just around the corner and can come from anywhere.  The scary part in this instance is not really the impending firestorm, but that these departments as represented by these few people seem to feel they’re ready.  The level of negative complacency emanating from one public servant related to her “I know it all” attitude caused a shift in energy in many others around her.  Apparently she felt justified because her government has deployed a spattering of social channels and it seemed to me that she was ready to stand on the deck of an aircraft carrier and claim victory.  Which in this case is an appropriate analogy.

After chatting and more importantly listening, major deficits were identified or confirmed.  I probed looking for knowledge of how to deal with certain issues, responses included examples that had little relevance or revealed issues within the hierarchy.  The trap?  That being generally aware social technologies exist seems to provide them comfort and a false sense of security in their ability to operate effectively in the space.  This is the same trend among those who are attempting to position themselves as a resource in the private sector.

What am I really attempting to say?

Over-confident communications personnel PLUS decision-makers (Deputy Ministers, Assistant Deputy Ministers for example) who lack deep understanding of social ecosystems, technologies and Open Government trends EQUALS future headlines of disaster for that government.  The very same can be said for the enterprise equivalent.

I am thankful for these experiences and for the last 10 years.  fusedlogic will continue to guard against over-confidence, while embracing every chance to learn and innovate on behalf of our terrific clients, I hope you will too.

Open Government Framework

As Chris Moore, CIO for the City of Edmonton states, it’s time to “enlarge the circle.”  With that in mind, I’m calling for an Open Alberta.  The Government of Alberta (GOA) needs to begin to put in place an Open Government Framework.  I think that there are many within government who understand that the GOA doesn’t have a monopoly on creating “public value.”  Citizens also have an opportunity, and in my opinion, a responsibility for creating value that positively impacts the quality of life for Albertans and Canadians.

If we take a moment to think about this, Open Government initiatives are a tremendous opportunity to share openly.  To communicate that the government is willing to listen and collaborate with citizens rather than simply appear to placate, which is so often the criticism many in the provincial government hear from Albertans.

Is Open Government risky?

I believe Open Government is only risky to those individuals working (at all levels) within government who would rather see citizens not enter the discussion and thereby affect the way their job is performed.  Unfortunately, these people exist, I know because from time to time I’ve had conversations with them.  You may know an elected official or bureaucrat that believes in this philosophy, claiming this is the way an efficient government works, “we know best and citizens need to butt out,” they’ll say.  This can be the result, when people don’t vote and/or get involved in public debate.

What about privacy?

Open Government doesn’t mean that the Government of Canada should start sharing everyone’s Social Insurance Numbers or personal information on a wiki.  What it does mean, is that data which is already generally available should be properly organized into machine readable formats and offered for use by the private sector or citizens.

Election Issue!

I suggest that during this municipal election year people make the concept of Open Government an election issue.  True, many elected officials have been sitting on the sidelines regarding the use of social media and Web 2.0 technologies.  This is no longer tolerable. Further, if the candidate for your ward, or those going to the top job of mayor know nothing about Open Government, don’t vote for them.  Simple. The same goes for the next provincial election, if your MLA, party of choice has not exhibited the fact that they understand, or the government hasn’t initiated an Open Government Framework by that time, don’t vote for them either.  Open Government isn’t the future, it’s the present.  If you don’t know about it you’re living in the past.  This isn’t about being harsh but direct.

Is it really that important?  Not only is Open Government important, it’s critical.  Critical that our leaders get this concept and move quickly in this direction.  Many have yet to realize that this is the most transformative time in government in our lifetime.  Hold meetings and chat all you want about how your government isn’t performing.  More than talk, Open Government is where the rubber meets the road, it’s transparency, participation and collaboration in action.  Open Government represents citizens and government elbow to elbow working together for a better future.

Can you measure buzz and awareness?

Absolutely, several different ways in fact.  This is where the use of social media is a no-brainer as a starting place.  In the case of the City of Edmonton and the upcoming Open City Workshop (register here space left is limited) my opinion is that increased awareness is critical.  Sharing ideas, listening and educating new audiences as to what Open Data is will be one of many messages I expect to come out of Saturday.  Further, software developers local and non-local alike are no doubt excited to hear about upcoming announcements, the vision in general and how they may play a direct role.

Magnify the effect through sharing

One of the fundamentals of Government 2.0 is participation.  The social web, in particular the government 2.0 segment of the social web is already responding to what the City of Edmonton is doing.  By agreeing to share the live bilingual webcast feed (a first for the City and very progressive by anyone’s standards in government) with anyone who would like to embed the feed on their site, it’s already opened up new communications doors for the City of Edmonton brand.  Not the least of which is GovLoop.com out of Florida.  With over 25000 Gov 2.0 community members having the stream featured on the home page of this site is important for the purposes of building international credibility and awareness for the Open Data movement and the City of Edmonton.

Here is another example on Mashable.com of the buzz potential surrounding what’s happening here.  Evan from our team made sure to mention in the comments what we’re all up to, nicely done Evan.  One never knows who may choose to watch and participate in the online discussion as a result and where that will lead, only time will tell.

Further, the media is also getting into the act and so you can expect to find the feed on one or more major traditional media websites on Saturday too.  In fact, the Edmonton Journal has authorized me to let everyone know that they’re excited to be carrying the feed, it’s so great that they’re participating and helping to spread the word about Open Data.

The bounce

What can we expect short to mid-term out of this effort on behalf of the City’s IT and Communications collaborative efforts?  In politics and other circles it might be called the “bounce.”  I predict that Edmonton area companies, the Alberta and federal governments, more than one post-secondary institution, as well as, countless folks outside the region will definitely see all kinds of opportunity coming out of Saturday.

I also think City Council and administration in Edmonton (and others whom I know are watching closely) will be able to witness first hand just how much the City of Edmonton is quickly moving towards being a strong model for Open Government.  Saturday will prove yet again that working in real-time with citizens can be extremely beneficial and not something to be feared but embraced.  That sharing our plans with the world outside our region is progressive and it too will benefit the local economy and attract new people, business and brand awareness.  The Edmonton area (I’m in Sherwood Park) is a great place to live, work and play.

If you have set out a plan and defined success that’s great and, I wonder if your plan also includes how to build consensus?

Many in Government 2.0 circles talk about the need for increased openness and transparency between government and citizens.   While this is critical as a direction, we should dig deeper and explore what has to happen in order to facilitate such an outcome.   In addition to educating the right people in government and citizens alike as to what an Open Government looks, smells and operates like, we need to address the “power struggle” and cynicism which usually undermines everything.  This battle takes place below the surface and behind closed doors, and can have many faces.

For example, a government I.T. department doesn’t want to allow outside technologies into their network.  They claim security and effective systems administration as the reason.  This does a number of things simultaneously, including the retention of control of a locked down system designed to stifle any innovation left within.  Just ask the Health Canada employees who attempted to tune into a live webcast we did recently where the landing page for the stream was blocked.  Health Canada bosses couldn’t tune in to an event they paid for and no amount of requests sent to I.T. was going to change that reality.  Maybe you live and work in such an environment, where this type of Open Government/Open Organization battle is taking place as we speak.  Building consensus is very difficult and very costly as a result.  Why say yes today when you can drag out the discussion for months, using every excuse possible in order to justify your existence?

Here’s an NYT article on how the US Department of Defense is moving forward with their social media policy.  When you dig below the surface, there is certainly evidence of issues and skeptism.  Despite all of this, the directive has been given and so now comes the actual implementation of the policies.

The combatants do not always include the I.T. command and control group versus the entire organization.  The sabre rattling can also include mid-level executives who have little recourse to prevent change (in their language – more work) in their world than to engage in “passive-aggressive” war games with evangelist colleagues.  They state support publicly for the course ahead while quietly and tactically undermining the project like a nearly silent virus.  Frustrating the hell out of co-workers who have great intentions.  If this is allowed to persist it rips at the very fabric of the corporate culture and good people leave as a result of a few poisonous apples.

Open Government, indeed an open and innovative organization is a result of “open hearts”

For me, in the case above, success is defined in many ways.  Not the least of which includes the early detection of committed open hearts and minds within the organization in question.  You can tell the difference pretty quickly.  People either stand for being innovative and for collaboration or they see fear at every turn.  They either see the possibility of solutions or they see barriers.  Here’s an example, compare the Twitter feed of your favourite elected official to that of Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, New Jersey.  Do you think Mayor Booker would be open to his municipality embracing Government 2.0?  This is a Mayor who replies to direct comments about the clearing of snow on his roads.  That alone is worth remarking about.

When the student is ready the teacher will appear – Chinese proverb

We come across clients all the time who want an hourly rate for a few simple social media solutions, essentially they don’t understand what they’re asking about so they look to limit risk and exposure to the project without stalling it completely.  Consensus is far easier to build on a foundation of respect and rapport and, if they’re ready to learn then great things can happen.  We’re in the social media education business in many ways, and yet, if hearts and minds are closed for business there’s little we can do.

This may sound like I’ve pinned success on warm and fuzzy, vague constructs and in reality that’s not true.  There are metrics to be aware of, objectives to be identified and a strategy to be constructed including which tools to use when and how.  Having said that, building consensus and momentum for change involving Open Data and/or the deployment of social media within government and businesses often takes much more.

Building consensus is about “open hearts and motivated minds” and our experience has shown that you can’t have a successful social media or Open Government result without starting here first.

Yesterday I read “Is Social the new dirty word?” by John Moore out of Boston.  Moore’s post highlighted what I’ve been feeling for nearly a year or more but especially in the last 6-8 months.

I’m concerned with the dramatic “watering down” of the burgeoning industry that my team and I work in full-time.  So I thought I’d reference a point in time and then tell a bit of our story.

For example, I was walking to my truck while at nextMEDIA in Banff, Alberta last summer.  The timing was such that I happened to bump into Kris Krug (@kk) who was outside taking photographs of the beautiful scenery,(here we are).  We had an interesting chat, not only then but later on camera, as the fusedlogic team streamed live interviews from nextMEDIA and Kris was kind enough to stop by.  Kris is a unique character, a non-conformist, and I’ve learned a staunch evangelist for his community, his craft (photography) and the non-use of labels.  I know Kris well enough now from our online exchanges and phone calls to know that he reluctantly refers to himself as a “web strategist” but really, he’s a guy who likes to be a part of the social experience through is crazy skills as a photographer.  He’s also committed to and an integral part of the cool happenings around his community of Vancouver which often includes considerable charity work with the Union Gospel Mission and others.

Here’s the dilemma, not all of us can develop the nomadic persona or lifestyle of a Kris Krug, our clients wouldn’t understand it and it wouldn’t be authentic.  That’s in part, what makes Kris a unique human being and business person, he has real-world experience having started Bryght in 2004 and successfully selling the company in 2007 to Raincity Studios.  That aside, he’s just being himself.  I respect Kris for what he’s accomplished and I suspect countless others do as well.

Having said that, I’ve never asked him directly, but to Kris during that chance meeting at the Banff Springs Hotel I must have appeared to be that outsider guy, that “what gives you the right to be a social media strategist guy?”

Interestingly, Kris said something I’ll never forget after our interview was over.  I thanked him for taking the time to speak on camera and told him I really enjoyed the experience of meeting him.  Kris said, “no problem, you know, it’s interesting we’re all here to talk about social media and you guys are in the room doing it….that’s cool man.”

Here are the “yummy chunks…”

November 2004

This is the night my Web 2.0 journey began. I watched CNN as they pulled commentary off of political blogs for the broadcast.  I found this amazing and started researching the blogosphere.

Many haven’t heard the fusedlogic story so I’m going to go over the last year or so rather than go over every blog post starting in September 2005 from my blogspot blog or since our incorporation in March of 2000.  (Secretly, I’ve been doing some thinking about where fusedlogic has come from and where we’re going, since this coming March will be our 10th anniversary).

Interestingly, I blogged about Twitter in April of 2007 but didn’t join until 2008.

In 2008 we continued to deliver social media work for several small businesses including Edmontonians Magazine, also notable was our project with the Public Affairs Bureau – Government of Alberta.

Crossing into 2009, we worked for ATB Financial, MacEwan School of Business, EEDC, Fringe Theatre Adventures – Industry Canada’s Marquee Tourism Program and we broke all sorts of ground on that project, multiple projects for NorQuest College which are still in play and again a number of small businesses mingled in.  Including our first Pay-Per-View live streaming sporting event with Aggression MMA. (our second PPV event will be tomorrow and it’ll be even bigger). We’re proud to say that our footage from the last event (as with our work tomorrow) will be broadcast on the FIGHT network, as well as, HDNet.

Also in 2009, we took on the digital marketing for Pik’s Revenge, an ambitious indie iPhone game developed by Edmonton’s Fluik Entertainment Ltd. Starting with zero Google search results for “Piks Revenge,” we now have nearly 1500 results and it will continue to grow as we’re expecting a big review from a major US property later this month.  The game was featured on the Apple app store which is not an every day occurrence.  Also, we’re doing something different with Pik as we build out the character a bit in real-life, expect more fun and dare I say “cheesy by design” things on that front soon.

Further, I started writing my book on Government 2.0 in 2009 entitled Escape Velocity, which is due out this spring provided I live up to the expectations of my editor.

In January 2010, we finally launched our iPhone transit application Route 411 and in less than 2 weeks we’ll be posting an update that will dramatically change the user-experience in Edmonton, Vancouver, and Toronto.  All I’m willing to say at this moment is that we’ve integrated York transit data with Toronto and we hope folks out there will appreciate that integration because it wasn’t easy to pull off that’s for sure.

Also, we’re celebrating a big week as we’ve closed a few new deals including a project with Health Canada and Alberta’s Centre for Child, Family and Community Research.  There’s much more to say about February and March but I’ll leave it there for now.

My point with all of this is simple, credibility in this game (as with all business and life) is paramount.  If Kris had asked for background in Banff I would have at least been able to provide names and brands as above where we have taken projects from concept to metrics. Granted, the brands are not global brands like Coke or Virgin, but to us and our clients, they are successful examples of digital planning and deployment experiences and it’s a story we’re very proud of and not even close to finishing.

Interview with the Mayor of Hinton, Alberta – Glenn Taylor

I first met Glenn on Twitter, when he put a link out asking for feedback on a housing report for the Town of Hinton.  I replied asking if he and his administration had considered using a wiki for policy feedback from citizens?  He replied, “No, but I’ll pass it along.”  Then becoming Facebook friends and continuing our discussion, we found out that he was presenting at the ALI Social Media for Government conference.  This gave me an opportunity to meet Glenn in person for the first time.  Glenn was presenting a fire-side chat (no PPT slides) with Ken Chapman of Cambridge Strategies about the Grande Alberta Economic Region (GAER).  The story is interesting in terms of how this particular region has been impacted by many different issues.  The Mountain Pine Beetle for example has had a devastating effect.  After the conference we agreed to follow-up and today’s interview was our next step.

WS: Why become an elected official?

GT: “That started in the sandbox, I was learning about the political process in grade 5 which was when I became class president.  After school I was involved in unions and activism.  For me, it has always been a sense of representing other’s concerns that’s interested me. Union politics turned out to be too limiting, contractual negotiations etc – a narrow lens of looking at the world.

The opportunity to represent citizens’ concerns to administration is what I found fascinating and why I really love governing at the municipal level.  You can discuss something at Council and the next day be having a cup of coffee over the fence with a neighbour fielding questions about the decision.  That has translated into what is currently my 3rd term on council and 2nd term as Mayor.  We’ve focused on shaping the community identity.  We’re an industrial town, and yet, as a community realize that we have a responsibility to give back to the land.”

During the ALI conference, Glenn described his initial response to Ken Chapman’s suggestion that he start using social media as resistive.  ”I don’t have time for this,” he stated while speaking at the ALI conference this week.   However, what I don’t think Glenn bargained for is how persistent Ken Chapman can be and so @mayorhinton is now active on Twitter.  Also during that presentation he revealed that others on his Town Council are on Facebook now, although they’re not as active as they could be and more Twitter accounts have been set-up recently too.

WS: What resistance if any has there been from your colleagues on Council, administration or the region?

GT: “Well I would start with the traditionalists being afraid to engage, the silent majority if you will.  They’re asking, how can we control the message?  What’s motivating that fear are examples like what’s happening with elements associated with Rockyview County Council generating a facebook group.  Basically fixating on the negative.

We (government) can’t be superficial, can’t just listen and continue to do the same thing.  We need to take action.  However, within administration there can be fear that change will bring about more work.  Fear about change of the status quo.  At the provincial level there’s a tendency to consult with citizens through town halls so that it can be stated folks were consulted and then do what was planned anyway.  As the community changes, we need to bring that message back from the citizens to the government.  In a municipal government it’s truly the citizens issues being presented to the government and that’s my favourite part.  The challenge becomes then, how do we get those issues to the administrative team…for change in process?”

Glenn didn’t name the group but I found this one called Stop the Madness in Springbank! which seems to be against development.

WS: How do you see social media impacting your region economically?

GT: “Well number one – you need to make decisions with good information which means you have to gather good information first.  Being open to listening is key and understanding the challenges.  How do we tap into that knowledge?  Traditional invitations to discuss the issue and also connecting people online through various channels.  Flexibility has to be present in our approach so that we can reach as many citizens as possible.  In fact, we’re hosting a workshop on social media to help folks understand the tools better.”

WS: What challenges lie ahead for you and your community?

GT: “We’re really at the beginning stages of engaging the citizens.  I believe that we’re ahead of the curve and that’s a source of pride for us. However, there can be a disconnect between administration and council that sometimes exists and that will be something we have to work on.”

WS: What advice would you give to other elected officials?

GT: “Build the business case, not I have a dream, rather it’s what I have learned. It’s way easier to to operate in reactionism rather than finding the path.  I’d say it’s important to be proactive rather than reactive.  For example at our GAER Board meetings we now start with blue sky sessions and ask what’s on the horizon?  What are you hearing in your communities?  Is it a priority, do we need to spend time working on it…that means that key issues have a chance to help us set our course at the beginning.”

“Leaders get the behaviours that they themselves exhibit and tolerate.”  - Larry Bossidy, Author of Execution: The discipline of getting things done.

And with that in mind, I’ll leave you with the same question that Glenn has posted on Facebook and like other elected officials I’ve come across (but unfortunately not all), he cares about the answers you give…

GT: What does community mean to you?

I’m writing this post feverishly about a statement that Glenn mentioned.  We’re not taking the top down approach, but “bottom-up social engagement governance.”  Glenn was referring to how they’re getting the word out and the consultative process involved using social media.  This is a REALLY COOL!!! This is the kind of grass roots movement that you need to pay attention to and participate in.  I’m going to update this post later and include links because I’ve got to grab the mic from Ken and Glenn, this chat should have been last and we could have spent hours listening, at least I could have.

As I listened to the various speakers today, listed here. I found each one very interesting in their own way.  Jas Darrah from the City of Edmonton provided some key insights into how he helped the City get started with the “SMAC” or Social Media Advisory Council down the social path.  Jacob George from the City of Calgary, enlightened us about the overall digital footprint the city has and how quickly they respond to issues that arise.  Also, Jacob used prezi and we’re big prezi fans too, so extra points for that.

I found our break-out blitz session to be most interesting as that’s when the audience was given a chance to contribute by telling a social media story other than their own as I encouraged them to meet someone new.  Fear, still reigns supreme as the number one issue, time-management and capacity where also near the top of the list. However, trying to convince the “old guard” back at the office that this is the way to go is frustration that it seems everyone is feeling.  Should you work in government and for someone who is actually a proponent of open government, you don’t know how lucky you are.

Nathan Freed and Manon Abud did an excellent job of explaining the issues, processes and opportunities behind Inspiring Education.  A terrific Government of Alberta, Alberta Education initiative.  Kudos to Minister Dave Hancock for supporting such a project.  Now if we can just remove some more road blocks for Nathan, I bet we’d see even more from this project.

Other highlights include Troy Wason explaining to the crowd all about the ups and downs of being a assigned with getting the social media word out on behalf of the Alberta Government Caucus only to be shown the door as a result of doing his job “too well.”

And then ending the day on a pleasant note with Diane Begin from NAIT’s communications department who explained all the great things they’re doing over there involving the social web.  All and all a wonderful day.

I was just on Twitter and Nick Charney wrote the following. “Thinking of writing a blog post called Rethink, Retool or Retire, but I think it’s too edgy.”  To which I replied, “why not be a guest blogger on our site, I don’t think it’s too edgy.”  In fact, I think it’s bang on.  This sentiment also reminds me of a Lee Iacocca saying, “lead, follow or get out of the way.”  Ultimately, this is really what we’re exploring at this conference, you can actually see the wheels turn as participants look for ways to convince colleagues back home that “Web2 and Gov2 have happened and they need to be prepared and involved.”

Tomorrow is another action packed day and I’m just as excited to be a part of it with this wonderful group.  Especially since I’ve got a surprise or two cooked up for everyone…

Thanks to all the organizations who participated:

Service Canada
Alberta Agriculture & Rural Dev.
Alberta Environment
Alberta Energy/information Tech.
Town of High River, AB
Metrolinx Ulistic Inc.
Royal Alberta Museum
Alberta Education
Red Deer County, Alberta
City of Red Deer, Alberta
Alberta Geological Society
National Energy Board
Edmonton International Airport
APEGGA
Govt. of the Northwest Territories
Town of High River, AB
AB School Empl. Benefit Plan
Strathcona County, AB
Alberta Utilities Commission
Alberta Education
Government of Alberta Office of the Auditor General
City of Fort Saskatchewan
WMS Communications
City of Kelowna, BC

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS: Monday, January 25, 2010

9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

MORNING PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP

Social Media 101: How To Connect With Your Citizens And Colleagues Using The Latest Technologies
The world is all a buzz with social media, however there are significant hurdles that many leaders today still face with getting online and creating a buzz. How can you connect with your citizens and colleagues using social media? The Internet is all about connecting both technically and socially. How are you overcoming this challenge of connecting with your citizens and colleagues? Many of us look at the Internet and see a confusing mess of computers, laptops, and mobile phones while some of us look at the Internet and see a mesh of connected people, resources, companies and individuals. How are you seeing your place in social media?
Social media and networking has primarily been used as a tool to keep in touch with those external to our organizations, however many leading corporations also incorporate these techniques internally across departments and throughout the enterprise. In this workshop, you will hear how you can start using these tools internally with your teams, across your organization and also as a mechanism to share important information in an expedient manner.
After attending this workshop, you will walk away with new knowledge in 5 main areas to help you better understand how to use social media internally and externally. Specifically, we will take a hands-on approach on how to:

• Integrate social media into your organization
• Leverage social media to keep in touch with employees, team members and clients
• Design a blog – with tips and tricks to share your thoughts with those around you
• Write your message clearly and concisely
• Apply delivery mechanisms and alerts to notify you when new items are posted
• Use social networking to connect with your organization and audience

You will also leave with a solid foundation of understanding what the basic social media tools are and how to use them.

WORKSHOP LEADERS: Stuart R. Crawford is Vice President Business Development at Bulletproof InfoTech. Stuart has shared this information across the globe with IT Professionals, Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs who crave to understand how they can leverage these tools to increase the awareness of their work, educate those around them and share information with their communities.
David West is the founding partner of Ulistic Inc., a progressive internet consultancy. His teams have developed hundreds of websites over the past dozen years. David began working with Internet technologies initially as a freelance website programmer. He later formed a full service website design and development company in Calgary, Alberta.

12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Afternoon break/lunch on your own.

1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
AFTERNOON PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP B

A Step-By-Step Process For Successfully Building And Implementing A Social Media Strategy

In this workshop, we will discover why it is so critical for your organization to have a strong social media strategy. Key insights that will accelerate your learning curve and help you avoid the mistakes others have made will be addressed. This live-fire exercise is best experienced when you come prepared with your mobile phones and laptops, ready to go online.
The workshop is broken into three segments. This interactive session will help you lay the foundation for your own social media strategy, and give you a step-by-step process for:

• Gathering social media intelligence
• Leveraging and building a social media strategy
• Implementing a social media strategy effectively

This fast-paced and entertaining session will give you some of the practical tools and ideas necessary to bring your organization up to speed in the world of social media.

WORKSHOP LEADER: Walter Schwabe is a seasoned presenter and speaker. He is proudly Métis and has been helping entrepreneurs generate and implement rare ideas for over 9 years now as the Chief Evolution Officer of his social media strategy firm, fusedlogic inc. In addition to working with numerous small and medium sized organizations, Walter has worked with such organizations as Apple, Dell, AMD, Capital Health, Government of Alberta, MacEwan School of Business, Nortel, North American Construction Group and the Business Development Bank of Canada.

AGENDA ~ Day One, Tuesday, January 26, 2010

8:00   Registration & Continental Breakfast

8:30      Chairperson’s Welcome, Opening Remarks And Presentation:

Capitalizing On Social Media: How An Organization Of Any Size Can Use Social Media To Generate Engagement And Be Successful

Walter Schwabe, fusedlogic inc.

9:35   Break-Out Blitz!  Share Your Challenges And Begin To Brainstorm Solutions

10:05 Morning Refreshment, Networking Break & Exhibit Time

10:35     Moving Towards Government 2.0: Using Gradual And Deliberate Steps To Gain

Management Acceptance And Citizen Engagement

Jas Darrah, City of Edmonton, Alberta

11:25     Making Sense Of Social Media: 12 Things To Learn About How To Communicate With Your Audience – Your Friends, Fans And Followers

Jacob George, City of Calgary, Alberta

12:15 Lunch On Your Own – But Not Alone!

Join a small group of your colleagues for lunch with an informal discussion facilitated

by one of our expert speakers.  Please sign up at the registration table.

1:45   Enriching Your Public Engagement Initiatives Through A Variety Of Social Media Tools

Nathan Freed, Alberta Education and Manon Abud, Ascentum, Inc.

2:35   Afternoon Refreshment, Networking Break & Exhibit Time

2:50   Cracking The Internal Culture:  How To Use Social Media As a Catalyst For Internal Change

Troy M. Wason, WMS Communications

(former Sr. Communications Officer–Social Media, Alberta Government Caucus)

3:40      How To Integrate Social Media With Traditional Media Relations To Maximize Communication Results

Diane Bégin, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT)

4:30   Close of Day One

4:45   Networking Reception – Please Join Us!

6:30      Dine Around – Sign up at the registration table for dinner with a group of your colleagues.

AGENDA ~ Day Two, Wednesday, January 27, 2010

8:00   Continental Breakfast, Networking & Exhibit Time

8:30   Chairperson’s Opening Of Day Two

Walter Schwabe, fusedlogic inc.

8:40   Using Social Media To Initiate Change In Government: It Starts With You

Kelly Rusk, MediaMiser

9:30   Morning Refreshment, Networking Break & Exhibit Time

10:00     How To Drive Higher Participation In Online Community Forums For More Effective Community Management

Dr. Crispin Butteriss, Bang the Table Pty. Ltd.

10:50     Monitoring Social Media: Knowing When And How To Take Action While Getting The Most Out Of Your Budget

Aaron Wrixon, Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario

11:40 Lunch On Your Own – But Not Alone!

Join a small group of your colleagues for lunch with an informal discussion facilitated by one of our expert speakers.  Please sign up at the registration table.

1:10   Group Exercise – Let’s Communicate and Collaborate!

1:50      The Social Media Toolbox: How To Choose The Right Tool For Your Communications Strategy And For Your Dollar

Mike Spear, Genome Alberta

2:40   Afternoon Refreshment, Networking Break & Exhibit Time

2:55   Using Social Media To Transform A Regional Economy

Glenn Taylor, Grande Alberta Economic Region & Town of Hinton, Alberta and K.J. (Ken) Chapman, Cambridge Strategies Inc.

3:45      Eight Ways To Engage Your Audience By Integrating Social Media Into Your Organization’s Website

Gisela Hippolt-Squair, Alberta Geological Survey, Energy Resources Conservation Board

4:35   Chairperson’s Recap:  Key Takeaways And What To Do When You Get Back To The Office

4:45       Close Of General Sessions

Thursday, January 28 (if applicable) in Mayfair:

– Continental Breakfast will be provided at 8:00 a.m. for the morning workshop attendees.

– Morning Post-Conference Workshop C, Managing Through The Power Shift Of This New Information Age And Convincing Your Senior Leaders Why Now Is The Time To Get Involved, begins at 8:30 a.m. & ends at 11:30 a.m.

– Afternoon Break/Lunch On Your Own from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

– Afternoon Post-Conference Workshop D, Practicing Social Media In The Real World: A Campaign In Action, begins at 12:30 p.m. & ends at 3:30 p.m.

Post Conference Workshops:

January 28, 2010 INTERACTIVE WORKSHOPS

8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
MORNING POST-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP C

Managing Through The Power Shift Of This New Information Age And Convincing Your Senior Leaders Why Now Is The Time To Get Involved
Information is power and the power over information has shifted from those who control traditional media and professional message makers and manipulators to individuals who use social media.
Social media will continue to change the roles, relationships and even the responsibilities of bureaucracies, public policy advisors and how they advise policy makers in the political process of law making in our representative democratic models. How will this power shift affect your organization? What if your senior leaders don’t want to engage in using social media?
In this session, we will greater explore tools you can use to achieve social media buy-in within your organization:

• Social media literacy skills and tools that bureaucracies will have to learn and learn quickly
• How bureaucracies can keep up with social media to do their jobs effectively
• How you can manage through the information shift in your organization
• Strategies on how to approach and convince your senior leaders that now is the time to begin using social media

WORKSHOP LEADER: K.J. (Ken) Chapman Lawyer, Principal and Founder of Cambridge Strategies Inc. (www.cambridgestrategies.com) an Alberta based public policy design development and deployment consultancy. He has been an active Blogger (www.ken-chapman.blogspot.com) for three years and a political and public policy commentator and critic on mainstream media for decades and engaged in social media for many months.

11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Afternoon break/lunch on your own.

12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
AFTERNOON POST-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP D

Practicing Social Media In The Real World: A Campaign In Action
Now that you have learned about all the social media tools and services that are at your disposal, it is finally time to put them into practice.
This workshop will guide you on how to:

• Set up a social media campaign from start to finish
• Pick the right social media tool for your campaign
• Track the conversation once you’ve gotten started
• Measure the ROI for your campaign
• Mitigate potential problems that can arise
• Prepare for a follow-up campaign

Additionally, we will also explore some real social media campaigns. What was done well? What could have been done better? You will leave with a better understanding of how to go from theory in the classroom to engaging citizens on the Internet.

WORKSHOP LEADER: Mack D. Male, President, CEO of Paramagnus Developments Inc., is a software developer, entrepreneur, and social media guy. Always up-to-date on the latest trends and technologies, Mack loves sharing what he learns with others. He’s particularly passionate about his hometown, Edmonton, and does his best to expose everything it has to offer, through his blog, Twitter account, and many other online tools and services. Mack was named one of Edmonton’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2009 for his work in helping to build Edmonton’s online communities.

Tim O’Reilly describes “Gov 2.0″ as government operating as a platform. This is a terrific description of what is currently evolving within many a legislative ecosystem.   I’ve been a long-time, vocal advocate both on this blog and in public presentations for an open and engaging government.  In particular I’ve focused my thoughts on our provincial government here in Alberta.  Imagine the Government of Alberta as an open collaborative platform where citizens get to contribute directly in the outcomes that affect us all.  We live in the greatest province, jurisdiction and country in the world.  I believe all three tiers of our government structure need to be on that leading-edge as well.

Think Gov2

I wonder just how many within government are spending time contemplating what Gov2 is and how it will impact their work within government?  If you’re not doing this, you should be.

Whether you’re a rural town or urban city council, a provincial Cabinet Minister, MLA back-bencher or MP, you must spend time learning about this.  Stopping the rural brain drain takes more than a Facebook fan page and an events calendar.  Want to get inside the heads of the locals regarding a new policy?  Gov2 is where it’s at.  Traction is being gained all over the world in this area, and the amount of success being gained is substantial.  Are you so upset with your present government that you’ve started a new party?  Gov2 holds a lot of promise if you can integrate it quickly into your processes.  For a party that is gaining momentum, establishing social media channels is great but not nearly enough.  Your policy platform must include Gov2.  Opposition parties should be racing to understand the finer elements of Gov2 and how it impacts citizen engagement should they ever want to lead in their jurisdiction.  Want to get elected in your next election and have a spectacular campaign?  Well, you already know what the answer is…

Attend this conference

If you fit in any of the above scenarios, then you should look to attend the upcoming Advanced Learning Institute conference (ALI) in January, taking place in Edmonton, Alberta.  The line-up of speakers is great and I anticipate learning a tremendous amount from all the great stories and examples that will be presented during the four day conference.

Further, I’m really looking forward to this conference for a number of other reasons.  As Chair of the conference I’ll have more responsibilities than my normal role as a single presenter which I’m so excited about I’m shaking in my space boots.  I’m also excited at the prospect of getting to meet all the new presenters and conference goers coming into Edmonton to learn more about social media and Gov2.

I’ve heard from Kelly Flynn with ALI that the registrations are coming in very well for this conference which is terrific and it’s great for the Edmonton region to be hosting such an important conference.  Here’s the agenda that the folks who attend from all over Alberta, Canada and the US will enjoy.

Now I’m off to continue working on my presentation material for the conference, I have high expectations of myself as I know all the presenters do.  See you next year in less than 30 days, this conference will be an excellent way to kick 2010 off.

One of the things I’ve always taken exception to is the comment that social media is “free.”  You’ll see some content in the video below about Gary Vanyerchuk and “$0 dollars invested in Twitter to generate 1800 customers.”  Social media is not free, this is a gross generalization.  Vaynerchuk continues to state that social media is free throughout his book Crush It as well, and regardless of his success (which is substantial) he is sending the message that simply because the tool itself requires no registration fee to use, all social media is free and essentially has no value.  Wrong!

“There’s nothing stock about a stock car.” – Harry Hogg

He’s not coming straight out and saying social media has no value but to the untrained eye that could be how it is interpreted.  I certainly agree that on average the investment in social media marketing is considerably lower than traditional methods of marketing, but free and of little value?

Is the key to massive social media success simply just working 16 hour days on free software?  According to Vaynerchuk, yes and he explains the importance of what to spend those 16 hours on.  He advocates relentlessly building your personal brand, something I completely agree with. Ultimately, many social media tools may be free to use but the time invested and experience on how to apply them in a coordinated way is very valuable. In the case of Vaynerchuk and many others, it’s worth millions.

His main message is “listen” to the Internet and your customers, answer all your emails and comments and treat your customers like gold.  Sound advice AND it’s nothing new.  Having said that, many still do not do this because it’s too much work.  Vanyerchuk is proving that his simple, in your face style and showing up every day is and does work.  Is he passionate? Yes.  Is he relentless?  You bet.  Is it hard work? Absolutely!

As for his book Crush It, I found it a very easy read, entertaining in a few places and there are a few good tips.  Would I call it revolutionary or mind blowing? No.  Vaynerchuk’s mantra is simple, he considers much about the use of social media to be about showing up, sweating and being passionate as you do it.  With that I agree but in reality it’s not free.

As for the socialnomics video.

Eric Qualman has released a new social media centric video on Youtube, this man loves his stats and I think you’ll appreciate them as well.  I originally found the link to this video on Twitter via Mike Street (@streetforce1)

Mike’s link sent me to LitmanLive, a blog which provides a bit of a break-down of the stats within the video itself, it’s below for your viewing pleasure.

By the way, if you haven’t played this iPhone game called Pik’s Revenge yet, you’re missing out.  Speaking of “sweat,” we’re working with Edmonton’s Fluik Entertainment on this cool project, I thought I would throw this in too…

First thing’s first. What is foursquare?

That’s an excellent question!

As stated on foursquare.com:

Think: 50% friend-finder, 30% social cityguide, 20% nightlife game.  We wanted to build something that not only helps you keep up with your friends, but exposes you to new things and challenges you to explore cities in different ways.

foursquare.com home page

Think twitter, but instead of answering the question ‘What are you doing?’ and writing in 140 characters what you’re up to, foursquare lets people know where you are when you ‘check-in’ to any location you specify and vice versa. Now, you may be asking how secure is this app? It’s as secure as you want it to be. If you don’t want people to know where you are, you simply don’t check-in. For instance, you may not want people to know where your house is, so you don’t have to check-in when you are home. Some people choose to check-in at a location within their neighbourhood, rather than use their actual address. However, an important part of social media is being transparent. And it may be seen as misleading to check-in at a location when you aren’t actually there, regardless of how close you happen to be.

What makes a social media app valuable is how mobile it is. Foursquare is offered on the iPhone, of course. And can be accessed via a mobile web browser for devices without an app. According to foursquare.com, Blackberry and Palm Pre apps are in the works. Foursquare can also be accessed online where additional features can be used, but the whole point of the app is to be mobile.

So, how is foursquare a valuable app for tourism and hospitality in Alberta?

Well, obviously it only works if the tourists use foursquare and the mobile app. Given that those two things are in place, tourists can locate information about any city in Alberta that they are visiting. Provided that foursquare has the city listed in their system. Right now that’s not the case, but it’s getting there. Say someone from the US is visiting family living in Edmonton. They want to go out for dinner, but they don’t know any of the local restaurants. Using foursquare, they can use ‘Nearby Tips’ that lists comments from other users giving, well, tips about restaurants and businesses they’ve visited (As seen in the picture to the right). The great thing about this feature is that you don’t have to be ‘friends’ with anyone in the particular city. It’s just a list from all foursquare users in that location.

The other great thing about this app for tourism and hospitality is that once it gets more popular, there will be more entries from tourists themselves. So, it won’t just be content from the locals, but also tips and reviews from people who visit the city. Now, this means good and bad reviews. But this gives Alberta Tourism and the hospitality industry an indication of what tourists honestly think of some local tourists destinations, including restaurants, in real-time. This will give them essential info about what tourists want to see more of, what they don’t like so much, etc. Of course, some things will be out of the industries control. If the food is bad at a particular restaurant, there is little Alberta Tourism can do about that. But other concerns/issues may become obvious, and provide insight into changes that can be made. After all, it’s their job to ensure people want to visit Alberta, and have such an enjoyable time they wish to return, and recommend it to others! Every tool that is available to the consumer that provides information on the products and services to tourism/hospitality stakeholders is valuable. The technology is there. Foursquare enables some interesting real-time interaction between consumers, and the tourism and hospitality industries. It’s like a real-time comment card and a repository of comsumer behaviours. So we recommend that the stakeholders within the tourism and hospitality industry become very familiar with this application and it’s advantages.

We started this prototype process by inviting college students to participate and in fact a few did. Because of ongoing discussions, we haven’t put any resources behind marketing the project, as we were waiting for a more opportune time to move forward. After the soft launch on Twitter we were notified in less than an hour that Premier Stelmach’s staff were actively searching for answers as to who was behind the site. After it was determined through our communications that our intent was not malicious we had asked if there may be an opportunity to discuss the future of the site and the potential of having Premier Stelmach’s direct participation. Those meetings have not as of yet happened.

In the meantime, so that Albertans have a better understanding of the differences in functionality and approach between dearpremier.ca and Ask Premier Ed we’ve prepared a brief comparison of models below.

Further Examples of Communication Models:

Ask the President

Open for Questions (Official WhiteHouse.gov page)

Prime Minister Harper’s Facebook Page

Today’s organizations should realize that assigning the responsibility of social media to an intern does a few things that are not necessarily great for their brand.

1.) Puts front-line communications of the brand message in the hands of the inexperienced.  If you wouldn’t position your intern to pitch your biggest client in a lead capacity, don’t put a mass communications tool(s) in their hands either.

2.) Puts inexperienced intern in a position where they may be forced to make a critical “judgement call” decision publicly and in real-time.

In both cases, serious damage could be done to the brand “when” the situation is mishandled.  Often it’s a matter of time, not if but when.

Here’s another perspective.  Assign a value to your brand. Once you’ve estimated the financial value of your brand – $10M, $100 million dollars, measure that against how old your company is.  Then realize that it can all be negatively and dramatically impacted with an ill-advised tweet, video, blog post or photograph.

Sure many executives today are social media rookies, however, they should know what’s critical to communicate about their businesses and they have the authority that comes with their positions to back it up. In many cases the simple fact that the executive is the one communicating builds credibility, credibility that could lead to business.

Social media is not a place for interns to learn about your business via real-time interactions with your customers.

Your top line executives cannot afford to be “too busy.”  The world is a different place today for business and organizations, if your CEO, VP Marketing, VP Communications are not prepared to operate in this space to some degree and they’re not prepared to learn more about social media, your organization is at a severe disadvantage.

How would you like to wake up one morning as the CEO of a publicly traded company to find out your stock “allegedly” lost $180 million dollars in value?  The result of a song that went viral on Youtube.  You didn’t see it coming because you were “too busy.”

The above blog post link refers to the “cost of inaction,” I would offer an alternative to that – “cost of ignorance” could actually be proved in many cases.  Ignoring the implications of social media on your business model and its frontline communications or subsequently handing this important aspect of business communications to an intern is in my opinion foolish.

With the increase in aggregation solutions and cross-integration of popular channels, social media will become even easier to manage.  Effective management of social media channels comes from education and understanding how to use them first.

Our work and experience suggests that many brands struggle with understanding the dynamics of how consumers might interact with them via social media ahead of time.  That lack of a social media calibrated plan then leaves them to find this out publicly while they put their brand at risk.  If crowd-sourcing was the plan from the start that’s one thing.  Evidence present within the project itself would demonstrate key elements had been considered prior to launch.  However, the truth is typically the brand is ends up with an unintended result and it’s not always positive.  Evidence that the brand was not properly prepared internally to address changes in consumer digital behaviours and left unchecked could continue to produce poor results.  Here are a couple of links of public social media failures many of which you may already be aware of.

Social media campaign failures:

- A list of well known failures on thoughtpick

- Another great one by Jeremiah Owyang.

It could be said, the social web is not about brands so much as it is about the “individual.”

That is simultaneously it’s power and also the pitfall for brands operating within it.  Has social media impacted how the consumer interacts with brands?  The short answer is yes!  In my continuing research to learn more about this issue I found a great study which I’d like to share with you…

2009 Digital Brand Experience Study by Razorfish is very interesting. Here is an excerpt:

- 65% of consumers report having a digital experience with a brand that either positively or negatively changed their opinion about a brand.  Of that group, a nearly unanimous 97% say that their digital experience influenced whether or not they eventually purchased a product or service from that brand.

Razorfish concludes – Digital is not only a place to build a brand: it can also make it or break it.

This study suggests that consumers will hold a digital dialogue with a brand especially if there’s a deal at the end of it.  These interactions online should further be supported by the ability to personally interact when requested.  Your brand must have personality, a human side if you will.  Why is that important?  Because “connected consumers are now the new mainstream.”

I hope you found today’s post helpful and the study itself as interesting as I did.  If you have thoughts about this or would like to express something about your own digital brand experience I’d love to hear about it.

We are clearly defining our digital lives through our participation or in many cases lack thereof.  There is evidence to suggest that this trend is shifting.  For example, Premier Stelmach’s statement about using social media to communicate more directly with Albertans because of the perceived media slant to his government’s message.

I would suggest that it’s a rare government who would publicly state that they’re getting “fair and unbiased” representation within the mainstream media.  Let’s be honest folks, that simply doesn’t happen across the board, the door swings both ways on that point.

Pressure created by way of participation.

I believe the primary driving force behind the shift in communications approach by the Stelmach government is directly due to pressure created by every day Albertans outside of the media.  Pressure created by way of participation.  You’ve demonstrated that the social web is a communications tool and a place for dialogue on what the provincial government is doing.  You’ve demonstrated that in the absence of direct and personal government input, you will still discuss and hold them accountable publicly. This online debate demonstrates that you the citizen, own the government and ultimately control the message.  This pressure to change also exists internally from evangelists doing their part to influence from within, which to date has been a tough, frustrating job to be sure.  Citizens have proven their resilience and that cannot stop.

There is also evidence that more municipal governments and related organizations are embracing citizen participation via open data projects.  Actually they have been for sometime now as demonstrated by the following initiatives.  Washington DC in November of 2008, Toronto, Vancouver , Boston, even a non-profit in New Orleans is helping that city out.  Having said all that, one of the real visionary municipal leaders in the open data game in addition to San Francisco has clearly been the City of Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Leveraging Technical Expertise Locally

Chris J. Moore, the City of Edmonton’s CIO has been steadily learning from these examples.  He’s also been engaging outside of his own IT department with developers in Washington DC, as well as, the Edmonton I.T. community.  The latest example of this is the Leveraging Technical Expertise Locally pilot project.  Edmonton’s concept of a developer contest although narrowly focused on one solution is not entirely dissimilar to that of New York City’s NYCBigApps competition coinciding with the launch of the NYC Data Mine.

Citizen participation is driving open data projects in many cities and at all levels of government around the world.  Including of course the United States government, and here’s an interesting post by David Eaves comparing the US and Canada on the open data issue.  New Zealand should also be listed here for their work.

Through your participation you are influencing the future, pressuring bureaucrats to engage, holding politicians accountable publicly and driving innovation.

User participation creates:

1.  Participation creates a deeper connection between the organization and the audience.

2.  Participation creates opportunities to listen, learn and exchange ideas.  The futureedmonton.ca futurecalgary.ca sites are examples of this.

3.  Participation creates co-ownership of the brand, organization and/or message and that co-ownership results in influence.

How to influence a government or organization?

1. Start with one person who organizes an informal core group of evangelists.  Internally or externally, at first it doesn’t matter.

2. Be a source of statistics, information and opinion.

3. Formalize and self-organize, staying connected online, along with offline meetings.

4. Create a mandate for action.

5. Take focused and consistent action online as content publishers.

6. Internal evangelists should look for external like minded individuals to create discussion with.  External groups should look to identify internal supporters, steering committees or executives and invite them to participate.

7. All parties involved should capture the discussion digitally where ever possible.

8. Sharing the discussion with as many folks as possible through the use of social media channels will help build momentum.

There are many different characters and organizations in this massive theatrical play we call the social web.  Below is a fun, tongue-in-cheek look at some of these audience types.

Here’s a few main categories of how organizations break down where social media is concerned:

Totally oblivious – these living in the stone age, status-quo critters are asleep at the wheel and heading for the ditch.  You mention “facebook” and they stare back at you as if you’ve just said something in original Klingon.

Frady cats – believers that the risk of leveraging social media is so high, it’ll be catastrophic and all perceived barriers are impossible to overcome.  They’d rather just stick to the “prudent” traditional course of action.  The order of the day is to remain void of any innovation or change in process until such time as all the competitive advantage is sucked dry out of the opportunity.  All of which makes their unimaginative brain trust jump for joy, exclaiming that being last to the party means zero risk.

The cynic – they’ve heard it all before and they’ve seen it all before. There’s nothing, not a single thing new here to learn.  Social media is old hat, you’re just selling to customers afterall.  They believe the newspaper delivered every day is actually the perfect portable content delivery device.

Today’s expert – this group has taken in a presentation, workshop or attended a conference.  They’ve loaded Ubertwitter on their blackberry and  launched a blog.  They now profess to explain the virtues of social media to anyone who’ll listen.  They know just enough to be dangerous and produce little of value beyond pleasantries and idle digital chit chat.  Real world experience delivering social media within their organization or anywhere else equals zero.  That said, if someone was to say otherwise they wouldn’t stop them and that’s because they know enough buzz words that the “totally oblivious” see them as the social media second-coming.

Innovators – these guys push limits, they are looking for one thing – separation from the competitive pack and see the social web as one key way to achieve their goals.  They recognize that true innovation is a collaborative effort and love the mass-collaboration possibilities within the real-time web.  They’re not afraid to take action, commit budget and resouces.  Making mistakes will happen and they celebrate failure as a chance to learn.  These dynamic people move fast and expect everyone except their competitors to keep up.  However, they’re smart enough to realize that competitors will eventually follow too which just fuels their fire even more.

Cautious learners – this group sees some potential within social media and are open to learning more about it.  Unsure as to specifically how they may engage they intend to take their time to observe, study, listen and learn.  This suits them just fine as things move slow in their culture.  They are in no hurry regardless of the potential upside and frankly should they engage in social media it would be like an experience driver behind the wheel of a Model T racing a F1 Ferrari.

Quiet observer – organizations here are keeping themselves informed within the social web and participating only to the point of having a presence.  They produce little if any content and hardly if ever respond publicly.  There is no clear plan or strategy to emerge from this state and despite accumulating vast amounts of data they have no idea how that knowledge may be turned into a competitive advantage.

Digitally-engaged – this digital citizen uses multiple online technologies, not for the benefit of the organization, rather it’s all about them, their interests, opinions, ego and life.  Should you interact with them you simply provide them with more validation and perceived credibility.

Rogue evangelist – receiving little to no support they branch off on their own skirting the parameters of their job, hoping not to offend the decision-makers.  Looking to generate some small social media win via their efforts in the hopes of one day getting the call to launch a well-funded campaign with increased responsibility.

The committed – this organization sees opportunity and they’ve decided to ensure they take advantage.  The proper planning and implementation is their goal and they are ready to move.  A common sense and progressive business style comes to the table with them from the very beginning.

The groupie – this person or organization hopes to draw attention to themselves by attaching their brand to an individual or audience type they feel will make them look the most savvy by association.  Having no history in the industry and not interested in learning or really driving business results, their perfect day includes being attacked by the social media paparazzi.

Johnny come lately – Yesterday they sold something else, today they sell social media marketing.  A few changes to the website list of services and they’re all set.  Sticking with the technology and adding a profile here and a group there, these guys sell the rest of the enterprise or industry a bill of goods that they know what to do and how to do it.

Non-believer – Facebook is a fad, there’s no way to prove any of it works and this is simply a matter of media hype.

Genuine – Always striving to be a trusted source in their particular industry, continually learning and experimenting.  This group recognizes that there is no such thing as an expert in social media yet, only people striving to keep up and make sense of it all.  Not out for a quick buck this is where sound business building and top customer service meet a new level of human dialogue and potential for growth.

If you’d like to add another category please feel free to leave a comment and join the fun.

US Department of Health and Human Services

The US Department of Health and Human Services is the department responsible for communicating information about the H1N1 flu virus. The department has recognized the need to communicate within the social web so they have their own dedicated social web team.

Beyond that, they’re listening and taking action as required.

Yesterday on twitter I mentioned that I appreciated the positioning of information and the URL of “flu.gov.”  Today Andrew Wilson, a member of the HHS new media team responded and thanked me for spreading the word.  Please keep in mind this all happened on a Halloween weekend.

Clearly it’s one thing to monitor online discussion and another to have a dedicated team of responders who are community building and socially managing relationships.  President Obama has put his trust in his administration to communicate necessary information and those decision-makers are in turn putting their trust in front-line communicators with a “funded mandate” to communicate directly and in this case “internationally.”  Pretty cool if you ask me and there is evidence of this model deployed throughout the US government. The HHS site is listed below.

http://www.newmedia.hhs.gov/about.html

Here’s a short list related to the US H1N1 online infrastructure:

http://www.flu.gov/

http://twitter.com/flugov

http://www.facebook.com/H1N1flu

The facebook fan page listed above was updated on this past Friday with up-to-date flu vaccine supply status information.  I would consider this a positive example of a government agency working and operating effectively within the real-time web.  Could they do more?  Sure but clearly there’s a willingness and a plan.

The GOA is by enlarge, sticking with a standard broadcast model to mass-communications.

Especially but not solely surrounding the delivery of  H1N1 related information.  There is definitely a segment of any jurisdiction’s population that responds to the approach of traditional media and mail out brochures.

Back in Alberta, yesterday we were provided a press conference by Alberta Health Services on Halloween.  One hour prior to broadcast as per Simon Ostler of Global Edmonton TV on Twitter to inform us of the clinics being shut-down and a refocusing of resources towards high-risk patients.  No other official approach online within the real-time web directly from the government could be found.  (If you find something let me know here so we can get the word out.)

Evidence suggests that the premier’s office ensures that whenever possible Mr. Stelmach is not in a position to personally interact with the general public in any way online unless it’s a one-way broadcast approach.  That is the prudent approach used to limit exposure, limit interaction and allow a team who’s experience clearly resides outside of the real-time web to remain in control.

Top of mind penetration

Yesterday I posed an informal challenge on Twitter:

Quick test – without using google can someone tell me the URL for GOA #h1n1 info in #AB off the top of your head? No cheating. #ableg

The result: Not one person was able to come up with the GOA’s website address for H1N1 information off the top of their head.  The process of effectively and regularly informing Albertans via a multi-channel process probably isn’t getting through.  I’m focusing in on the open dialogue and communication that should be happening in-between press conferences?  In the most recent 5 posts there’s nothing H1N1 related on the “Your Alberta” blog for example.

The GOA might suggest that the basic information Albertans need is already provided by them and they would be right.  Here it is: http://www.health.alberta.ca/

Something I like is that if you look around the site, it’s fairly easy to navigate and there is some great information there and some direct commentary by Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer.

I cannot directly attribute the facebook group listed below to the GOA, I believe it is an Alberta Health Services effort and I know Todd Herron from his work related to Alberta Wellnet so I believe this group to be credible.  Despite that, Herron hasn’t updated the group since Oct 28th and we’ve had a fair amount change since then.

Public Health Alerts

Ultimately what I’m finding and others may agree or disagree, is that there’s a fragmented approach, a continued lack of social strategy, that in itself is a basic flaw in the overall GOA communications strategy.

My recommendation

The GOA should have a dedicated and top-notch social web enabled communications team distributing this important information in real-time via multiple channels supporting all key stakeholders through their efforts.

Here’s the problem, governments operate with all sorts of political agendas.  Certain folks are threatened and want to justify and protect their jobs. This is often done by controlling the message internally and keeping activity within the limits of their skill-sets.  This is rampant throughout all levels of government bureaucracies.  IT departments want control, consistency and get territorial over their particular area.  Many get bogged down in auditing processes that act as barriers to progress.  Public relations wants to direct and control messaging via their department and the social web represents a chaotic eco-system.  Ministers want control over the message and activities of their portfolio which can directly conflict with government effectiveness and its ability to deliver services to you and I.

A shift in thinking is required

This quick and dirty comparison is really talking about the difference between the US government’s online strategy involving a recognized need to manage the online relationship with the general public in a social web context.  That compared to the GOA’s less socially inspired approach which has a near zero commitment in this area when compared to what is possible across the entire government.  The US has a sustainable social web relationship management strategy for communicating in the real-time web.  The GOA is content to continue to leverage the traditional public relations model with a couple of isolated efforts on behalf of brave insiders.

Frankly, it’s not much of a stretch to think that this blog post might not sit well with Mr. Stelmach, Ron Glen, Tom Olsen and the rest of his team within the premier’s office.  Despite that fact I want to be very clear, my team and I are here to help this province and our fellow Albertans by leveraging our skills in this area.  Some will attempt to twist these words as adversarial or negative – that’s not my intent. Rather the point is to simply communicate information that could be of help.

My personal goal is to give at least $5 in Food Bank donations every week until December 15, 2009.  For me, that’s the price of a Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks.   I’m lucky enough that I have that option in my life — that I have the discretionary income to spend on luxuries like fancy coffees from Starbucks.  Maybe for you that’s riding your bike to work rather than spending $5 in gas to get there.  Maybe that’s one less drink at the bar on a Friday night.  Maybe you borrow that book from the library, rather than buy a brand new one (and it saves paper too!)

Donating!

While $5 doesn’t seem like much to some of us, for many it’s the difference between life and death.    Reading the statistic that every six seconds a child dies from hunger or related causes reminds me that I have a choice.  And my choice is to make a difference.   So we invite you to make a difference with the rest of the world. The fusedlogic “Thanks a Million” campaign isn’t really about us as a company at all, it’s about the community –worldwide – and how if we all work together, we will make a difference in the lives of millions around the world.

We are looking for local ambassadors — those who are excited about giving back in their communities and who want to lead the way and gather donations, documenting the journey by snapping pictures.  By posting the photos online at www.thanksamillion.ca you join a worldwide initiative to see change take place.  Or you can tweet the picture on Twitter and tag it with #1MPics or #thanksamillion and we’ll add it to the page. This project is meant to inspire hope, to show that you aren’t alone in your desire to help others, but that millions around the world hold that same dream, that same passion for change.

Are you interested in getting involved?   Email us at kelly@fusedlogic.com or genoa@fusedlogic.com or leave us a comment.  I love feedback and I look forward to starting conversations with you and with others around the world.

Disclosure: fusedlogic was paid and I was asked to provide an opinion to Edmonton Economic Development Corporation - EEDC on a few items including the concept of Edmontonstories.ca before it launched.

Those who have not delivered complex solutions for large organizations within the social web think social media is “free,” it is not.

What should be stated clearly is that Edmontonstories.ca was NOT originally designed as a social media solution.

Despite having links to social media which were added just prior to public launch and much development post launch. Edmontonstories.ca is itself not about wide open two-way conversation and engagement with citizens.  Rather, the site is about broadcasting your stories after moderation or after having been written by internal staff.  That content is hand-picked and supported by other polished stories of “notable” Edmontonians.

Like all cities, there are many negative Edmonton stories too.

All of which will never see the light of day on Edmontonstories.ca.  The primary focus of this site has always been to have “you” communicate Edmonton’s quality of life to other jurisdictions for the purposes of relocation and tourism. “Your stories” are intended as “peer influence” to entice people around to world to come here. Yes Edmontonians are an audience type on the list but not the primary concern for this project.  Supporting that position in EEDC’s last quarterly report, Ron Gilbertson suggests emphasis on international reach when referencing the site’s performance.

$730,000 of the budget was mostly videographers shooting the 60 stories at launch. Standard rate is $1500 – $2500 per finished minute of video. The balance of the project budget broadly went to website development and project management which was extensive when you consider that the City of Edmonton and EEDC were involved on the administration side of this project along with other agencies.  This fact is partially reflected in the $1 million dollar maintenance request for next year and people who are charging rates higher than our own for things they don’t specialize in.

I agree that I was shocked to learn of the budget size but only when compared to what was originally delivered.  The website in my opinion is well designed by YellowPencil, ParCom and others for what it is.  The problem I have is that they were paid these amounts for a site that has been touted as a social media solution from the beginning.  Just adding a link or two on the home page just before launch doesn’t constitute a social media solution.  These companies are from what I understand reputable for standard marketing and web design solutions and have done work for the City of Edmonton before.  There is a common misconception in the marketplace today, slap a twitter link on a site and suddenly everyone’s social media savvy.  The overall budget is not the issue for me, rather the general execution, labelling and results to some degree which are not terrible, just not $1.4 million dollars spectacular in my opinion. There are many attached to the project regarding accountability on that point and I suspect this discussion isn’t going away.

It takes real guts!

The fact is this is an inevitable result, it takes real guts for municipalities and large organizations to mix it up within the social web along side average citizens who don’t play by the same rules and who criticize as often as many do.  Not every municipality is ready for this reality politically, culturally or even resource support wise for a real social media engagement solution.  Raising another point that clients such as these are not by nature always the easiest to work with simply because of culture and organizational structure and protocol.

That said, if you’re talking strictly “brand awareness” and compared purchasing traditional media in several outside jurisdictions similar to that of the Alberta Brand’s $25 million dollar project (not all cash there went to ads in foreign jurisdictions) you can see why Mayor Mandel would consider Edmontonstories.ca a bargain.

To some degree this is the end result of large city departments and organizations having one trusted opinion on a solution they originally didn’t understand while attempting to transition in their own bureaucratic and cultural way into our realm of social media while still playing it safe.

The City and EEDC have to be concerned with every single move they make, it makes government agencies skiddish, it naturally raises the cost of projects like this simply due to consultation and ultimately they reach for the safe solution.  A standard broadcast website that delivers moderated messages with some distribution reach through a few social media channels.  Edmontonstories.ca is actually quite forward thinking if you understand the politically charged environment from which it came from.

More with less budget.

Those folks who are claiming publicly online that they could have done more with less budget.  I first ask you to reflect on your personal experience in DELIVERING complex social media engagement solutions for large organizations.  Then leverage your experience specifically in this area to analyze all moving parts and elements that are not a Facebook profile, Twitter account, Youtube video or blog and then give your head a shake.

Is this project more expensive than it should be for what it is?  I’d say yes, to what degree I cannot say as I was not on the inside of the planning process and therefore do not know where I would have made changes.  Edmontonstories.ca was way outside the comfort zone for many and yet it was still launched.  Is it a detriment to the Edmonton community as is, no, ultimately I think it benefits the community and does communicate a “quality of life” message.  Could this project be managed more cost effectively?  Without having a look at the specific project plan but based on experience with only my agency on the inside to deliver services, I’d say yes.  Do many have high opinions on how magnificent their so-called social media knowledge is?  That much is clear.

The fact that anyone is participating at all on this project is a win.  Not because it is terrible idea, it’s not, but rather because the overwhelming majority of people online are observers not direct content generating participants.  To get people to tell personal stories in such an official way is an accomplishment.

Ultimately, I say God speed to the City of Edmonton and EEDC for being their brand of brave. Which is a story unto itself.

Sept 27th Update: I had a nice chat with our client Jenifer Christenson, Executive Director, External Relations at EEDC.  This was after she had read my blog post regarding EdmontonStories.  She asked me to clarify publicly my “disclosure”of our work together due to the possibility of misinterpretation.  I’ve read it again and agree it could be misinterpreted.  Despite this fact Jenifer said she liked the post and appreciated it.  Jenifer is a great client so why wouldn’t I oblige, especially since I agree.

fusedlogic was referred to EEDC and we were indeed paid to consult for EEDC. In particular, I was asked by Jenifer for my opinion on items surrounding the future of EEDC’s social media strategy.  That discussion covered many areas, issues and ideas.  As part of the foundation for our discussion, an existing project was discussed and EdmontonStories.ca came up.  Jenifer thought it important to bring up EdmontonStories to ensure that no new ideas would overlap this existing project already in production.  Having said that, it’s important to note that fusedlogic was brought in to talk about how the future might unfold in terms of EEDC’s social media strategy.  Our meeting did take place prior to the launch of EdmontonStories.ca but in no way was our meeting called to deal specifically and solely about EdmontonStories.ca.

As a blogger I have been asked to change my blog post or provide clarification in the past.  I rarely if ever do that when the motivation is that the person is unhappy with my perspective.  However, that’s not what’s happening here.  I’m simply working with my client to ensure that people who read it don’t try to twist my words to a negative effect due to the vagueness in my writing, which there clearly was in this case.  As my original blog post states, there are many moving parts in this project and clear communication is key.  I thank Jenifer Christenson for her input and just as EEDC is proud to work with the City of Edmonton, we’re proud to have worked with EEDC and look forward to the future.

Oprah seems to be doing her best to embrace the social web in her own celebrity way and yet many staunch online purists reject celebrities like Oprah because of their media power and international reach.  Oprah’s flash mob reportedly attracted 21000 plus people, that is impressive and yet I wonder.  Is that the largest amount possible for a flash mob?  Does it take a celebrity like Oprah to provide that kind of clout?  I’d say yes, in this world there are cynics, haters and the uninspired, as a result people are not as trusting.  Motivation to help others or freely join in has been tempered by a feeling of self-preservation and let the other guy do it, Oprah’s recognizable credibility is what makes the difference.

Frankly, I wouldn’t necessarily call this a “true” flash mob.  I’m not at all trying to take away from the fun energy that Oprah’s event produced, rather, just communicate that true flash mobs as I understand them are spontaneous micro-tribes generated by the people with little to no real preparation or plan.  This was inspired by a celebrity owned organization, choreographed, practiced and then deployed.  Certainly the effect was impressive but not exactly a raw groundswell.  Does anyone care?  I don’t think so.

My only reason for pointing this out is to demonstrate how mainstream celebrities are continuing to integrate these social media elements into their world and the evolution that comes along with it.  I believe this continued integration will raise the mass-adoption rate of social media to the next level.  Sure Robert Scoble, Leo Laporte and others have social web street cred and yet their reach into mainstream circles and overall house-hold name power is next to zero when compared to that of Oprah.

There is a convergence of the media savvy and Internet savvy, some are going kicking and screaming into this reality and others are embracing it.  Regardless of where you stand.  Oprah has entered social media and it seems she’s here to stay.

Now compare Oprah’s flash mob to that of the T-Mobile “Life is for sharing” advertising focused flash mob series and in most cases you’ll find a very different feel.  Sure, there are still elements that have clearly been choreographed and yet in several of these ads, T-Mobile has taken special care to leave the fringes of their effort untouched in the hopes that average unsuspecting citizens will spontaneously join in the fun.  In fact, I’ve found the reactions of the average citizens to be the most fun part of the experience.

T-Mobile – Liverpool Street Station.

Both approaches are highly successful and show slightly different approaches to mastering the concept of a flash mob.  I like them both for different reasons.  Now I sit and wonder when Edmonton will have it’s first serious flash mob?

Socializing Brand You!

• What is “brand you?”
• What is the value of engaging in social media?
• Required “brand you” skills.
• How Twitter is a “brand you” amplification machine.
• Understanding and leveraging “micro-tribes.”
• Integrating social media into business processes.

I look forward to meeting more MacEwan students and faculty at this event and will look to provide as much value in my presentation as I possibly can.  I’m expecting some great questions from the audience and as always I’ll be referring to live Internet case studies and examples.  Also, no seat is safe in the house, I’ll be inviting direct audience participation and could call on anyone at anytime…

See you all next week…

Social media should support business process, too often social media is an orphaned concept that gets little respect within the top decision-making ranks.  This fragmented environment means that social media activities have little chance of supporting the overall enterprise and established business processes.  This is a common and in my opinion, a large mistake.

Most often social media projects are set-up in the I.T. department and a marketing executive launches a single campaign once all the accounts are set-up.  The media buy gets the lion’s share of marketing funds and the social media campaign is at a disadvantage to begin with.  If the executive or executive team isn’t prepared to commit to a deeper process integration long-term, that organization’s social media efforts will be less effective as a result.

An effective deployment of social media means a weaving of skills and brand objectives within an evolving corporate culture.  However, companies such as Zappos are rare.  Like anything in business, social media can come with risks, with every tweet a brand can be put at risk if the organization is operating without a clearly defined mandate.  This risk can be too much to handle for many organizations.  A recent example is described in this Brian Solis post about the NFL’s recent ban on tweets before, during and after games.

This “culture of sharing” if properly embraced can produce measurable and sustainable impacts within a marketplace, especially if employee teams become “cross-functional” and empowered where social media skills are concerned.  The real elements behind that success reside with the ability of the corporation’s culture to evolve. Can the business integrate, adapt and evolve existing processes to include social media?  Is there a management willingness to do this?  The question I hear most often in this discussion is related to “value.”

Here are some examples of companies generating share-holder value from delivering customer value within the social web.  Dell suggests $3 million dollars in one Information Week report from this Twitter account. http://twitter.com/dellOutlet

Here’s a great post by Jeremiah Owyang on how HP integrates social media into business processes.

Regardless of where your organization is in the above discussion, typically it all starts with someone inside who is a champion for the idea of adopting social media.  If you are that champion, stay strong.  You’re about to be up against some very strong “don’t rock the boat, we don’t understand it, it’s too risky” type resistance.  Start with education, it’s the key to moving forward.

Twitter, Facebook and other social media are already impacting your organization.

Social media is about the social dynamics and the amplification of human behaviors, rather than the technology used. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other platforms have cultural variations but ultimately “human nature is human nature.”  Pay close attention and strive to understand such statements as, “human-web, citizen-web, crowd-sourcing,” which demonstrate that people are at the centre of it all.

With this fact in mind, it’s a safe bet that many of your employees are already engaged in various social web activities.  Your organization may block access to these technologies at work and yet privately, employees are talking about how they “hate work, can’t wait to leave work” via a mobile device, “love their work but hate their boss” or worse.  On the flip-side there are also folks who love their job, company and customers.  Probably most importantly, your customers are also out there talking about your brand, at least you should hope they are.  Either way, having your organization sitting on the sidelines with its “head in the sand” is the last option that should be exercised.

Only the brave shall pass.

In this “frady cat, uneducated” scenario I’ve seen play out more times than I care to count, decision-makers are typically the barriers to moving forward successfully.  Often, managers think social media is a waste of time and honestly, there is some truth to that point-of-view.  That’s correct, I just said that social media can be a waste of time.  If time is purely spent on self-gratification and entertainment with little to no engagement in meaningful discussions or learning about issues, trends within your industry, that’s time wasted.  Tagging photos on Facebook and offering “dude you were so wasted last night,” doesn’t constitute the kind of relationship building most managers appreciate.  Having said all of this, scheduling endless meetings over coffee, or having long phone conversations without a point can also waste time, however, that activity can be made to appear productive.  In the end, the sales numbers don’t lie and everyone pays the piper eventually.

The social web can be a tough transition for managers, there’s a sense of control loss.  Especially for those who are not about listening to customers.  I’m not an advocate for shutting all access down.  A clear policy and accountability behind the use of these powerful tools and platforms should be designed and implemented.  Imagine an organization of 5000 people or more all engaging positively in building brand loyalty…I suggest providing direction, education and creative solutions as a healthier alternative.  By the way, this is the same flat-organization success that induces cold sweats among the “coast and collect a pay-check” managers in your midst, you can see them coming a mile away.  We lose business opportunities when matched up against these folks.  The social web represents a shift in business model and cultural philosophy that many want to avoid at all costs.

Your customers demand increased access

Organizational leaders should realize that many customers have learned to voice and amplify their opinions, especially when things go wrong.

This evolution means re-examining how your organization addresses customer relations.  Savvy orgs will claim that (theoretically,) every employee is now responsible for the customer experience, (as it should be.)  If this is true, that philosophy needs to translate online, managers following an effective social media strategy should learn how to cultivate internal evangelists and teach them to take the lead in terms of community management.

Prepare for the psychological and cultural impact

Participation within social media will definitely impact the psyche of your organization. Participation takes commitment and the bravery to push through these changes and we’ve found that this is the toughest thing for organizations to do.  When was the last time you invited clients to sit down and offer their advice on how you could be better?  When was the last time this event took place publicly for all to see?

If unprepared for this environment, social media can expose short-comings, insecurities, ineffective processes and dated marketing strategies.

Frankly you should probably ask yourself if your organization actually does anything of interest?  “If your organizational tree fell in the forest would anybody care?”  Are you irrelevant?  If so, your company has larger issues at hand, like looking for a new leader.  The social web can be tough and if you commit to it properly, it can also be extremely profitable and one of your most powerful tools.  The question is, are you up to the task?

When was the last time the number of “impressions” your ad campaign generated also told you how many conversations about your brand were happening in real-time?

When was the last time “frequency” explained how many times a customer mentioned your brand, product or service to others and the sentiment of that comment?

When was the last time the above information actually told you “why” people were buying your stuff?  Or why they didn’t buy?

The truth is, most organizations despite the decline are still spending large dollars in the traditional advertising space and are justifying these expenditures on metrics that are estimates in many cases.  Then those same executives look at social media investments with risk in their eyes, a lack of understanding and claiming there’s no way to measure.

Top executives claim there’s no budget for social media.

What they’re really saying is “we don’t understand.”  Then they provide a media buyer with $250,000.00 or more to go fire away at the big three, print, television, radio for a 90 day campaign.  Why?  Not because it’s necessarily the right answer but because it’s what they understand and the safe move.  Now in this recovering economy there are shifts in these patterns to be sure.  Much of the traditional ad industry is feeling the effects.

Every once and a while, I come across an executive who has thought the above questions through and has realized that the ability to hold conversations, build rapport, inspire action directly on a mass scale or one on one and track all of those activities is definitely appealing. “Welcome to the social web.”

Social media metrics do exist, they’re just different.

Social media is word-of-mouth advertising ON FIRE!  You have to change how you look at measuring things.  Measuring conversations is a hands on job.  You can’t just tally up the traffic numbers and say we won.  You have to dig deeper than that and it is possible to do so.

A strong online campaign will demonstrate “engagement” levels that will include a number of things.

My definition of social media “impressions” would constitute the number of times elements of your campaign get mentioned across blogs, articles, comments, video, images, mass-media, micro-sharing platforms, social networks.  This information would also include, “sentiment and influence within micro-tribes.”

Beyond just eyes seeing the message, many other things can be identified.  Did your message move or inspire further actions or discussion publicly online?  If it did, this can almost certainly be tracked.

What was the sentiment of action taken?  Are citizens blogging about your message, brand, product or service positively or negatively?  If they explain their position and why they feel the way they do that can be identified.  Did they spoof your television ad on Youtube?  Did they create a twitter hashtag and engage others on Twitter?

The interaction and what can learned within the social dynamics identified can help your organization understand your customer and their relationships or “social networks” better.  That understanding can lead to emotional engagements, emotional engagements can lead to influence and influence leads to action.  The social web is where you need to commit your resources long-term and you need to do it, yesterday.

Where’s the value?

The value is in the human connections and relationships generated between your brand and your customer.  Those connections properly nurtured will build loyalty and loyalty means repeat business and influencing new business.  The social web is the perfect environment for this.  That’s where the value is.  This doesn’t happen overnight and it isn’t easy.  However, the ability to amplify a message is immense and shouldn’t be ignored.  The problem isn’t with the social web, the problem is with current organizational mind-sets and it’s time for a change.  If you truly understood the social web, you’d never call it a fad.

• The Social Web Isn’t Just for the Young Anymore (gigaom.com)
• Forrester: Social networking grows up (infoworld.com)

How can social media help make the world a better place today?

I’d like to suggest that we all give back to society in some small way.  A simple act of kindness done today.  Reach out to your network with that inspirational message and maybe like the above image suggests we can expand our impact through working together and generate a happy result.

I’ve supported the charitable http://www.Kiva.org as my way to accomplish this goal today.

I’ve been a member on Kiva for sometime now.  To further increase the impact of my loan in a general way, I’m hoping to inspire others to do the same.  You can help someone across the globe for as little as $25.00.  For me, helping makes me feel good and I’m sure it will for you too and the Kiva process is simple and effective.  These are not donations but loans to struggling business people in developing countries.  Why not help them grow their business and by the way, I’ve experienced a 100% repay rate.

Kiva.org is a terrific program and yet there are many others out there, let us know by commenting on how you like to help.

How many people can we reach and help together?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Elizabeth Butalid : Philippines (kiva.org)
• How to Become an Outrageous Giver (lifehack.org)
• Lolita Legones : Philippines (kiva.org)
• Abinbola Fela : Nigeria (kiva.org)
• Vu Thi Thanh : Viet Nam (kiva.org

I’m also extremely grateful for my business life.  Many know that fusedlogic has grown over this past year and has had the opportunity to work with several really terrific clients, we’re a long way from the one person operation I started in 2000.  Beyond being grateful for the business, the people on the team are the true engine and I’m very grateful for their hard work and commitment.  Paul Ney, Evan Adnams, Genoa Adnams, Troy Wason, Debra Ward, work tirelessly to do their best for our clients and it shows in the social media work we do.

This week in particular, I’m grateful for all of the people who supported the Edmonton International Fringe Festival.

Notables were John Wilson (@SirThinks) who wrote a great blog post and along with several others, @cyclopsphoto, @pixelens, @livingsanctuary to name a few, took copious amounts of photographs these last 10 days to visually document our Fringe in their own way on flickr for the world to see.  By the way, thanks to them the Edmonton Fringe now has the largest Fringe related flickr group with over 1300 images all telling a story about Edmonton and the Fringe.  This is just one of the terrific things we were able to accomplish with the help of the community, not to mention the amazing ticket sales this year topping over 90,000.  The way these #yegphotographers provided their perspective was terrific and it was really cool to be a part of.  Also, I feel like I know these folks a lot better as a result of that experience which I’m grateful for. Thank-you for all of your support.

Earlier today I was reading Chris Brogan’s blog post Take 10 Minutes – Meet a Trust Agent.

I began to reflect on the various people and relationships out in the world that I have had an opportunity to cultivate and wondered what it took in my mind to be a Trust Agent?  Below are 10 in the Edmonton area that I’d like to mention.

Social media is about conversations and relationships.  Beyond that, the most important key to social media is a person’s ability to “build and maintain trust.”  Trust is critical in all areas of life, but especially online within chosen networks or micro-tribe(s).  The Edmonton region is a bustling micro-tribe and if you spend any amount of time online with Edmonton on your mind, you’ll no doubt recognize these people below identified by their Twitter handle below and in no particular order.  They all stand out as Trust Agents in my mind for one reason or another.

@ZoomJer, is a local Realtor.  Jerry is also a rock solid member of society.  He goes out of his way to create opportunities to help and support others.  In particular his #yegicecream events for @RLPShelterFdn are a big hit.  Jerry protects those he respects and holds accountable in his own way those who step out of line.  I first met Jerry when he attended one of my seminars well over a year ago and he and I maintain our conversation regularly.  Jerry is a “Zoom” family man first, strong digital citizen second, all of which makes his real estate business thrive as a result.  A true example of what Chris Brogan calls a “Trust Agent.”

@KenChapman46 is one of the most politically active digital citizens I know on the planet Earth.  Beyond politics and policy, Ken is a proponent for justice and equality.  You will always know where you stand with Ken as you’re measured based on your actions.  When it comes to politics, Ken understands how it affects our community and holds those accountable for their statements, actions or inaction as the case may be.  I have found Ken to be a loyal, trust-worthy person, who’s friendship I appreciate.  If you want to know what’s going on in politics days before it happens? Ken is your man.  That’s not to say he speaks out of turn, rather that his blog and predictions are typically accurate or not far off the mark.

@ChrisLabossiere is a local businessman, one of the founders of ProTraining.com he is an active digital citizen.  Chris was recently voted onto the board of one of our clients, Edmonton Economic Development Corporation and through that appointment he’s continually looking for ways to make Edmonton better.  My experience working with him on Change Camp and other ventures has taught me that Chris isn’t shy when it comes to sharing his opinion, and thank-goodness because he’s usually bang on in his assessment of the situation.  Sometimes he takes too many shots at himself, but Chris is a stand-up guy.  Frankly Chris, you should make a run for city council.

@Out_Inc is empowerment personified.  Shauna keeps herself very busy with her successful marketing company Out Enterprises Inc., and we almost had a chance to work together on a project.  I look forward to the day when a project comes along that makes sense for us to collaborate on.  Beyond her work life what makes Shauna a “trust agent” in my mind is her endless source positive energy and giving spirit.  Shauna is well known for coordinating with ZoomJer on charitable events and that sets her apart.  Not everyone steps up to organize and inspire others to give, Shauna does it often and she does it well.

@jdarrah is a digital gentleman among citizens, the fact that he believes strongly in building a enviable quality of life for others to enjoy in his community through his work at the City of Edmonton (#yeg) and privately is just one of the character traits that sets him apart.  I’ve come to know Jason better through our work on Change Camp and he’s top notch.  A smart and diplomatic voice in any room is in part what makes Jason a trust agent.

@bingofuel is one of Edmonton’s unique characters.  Always fun and unexpected, Adam blogs, helps run the very successful OilersNation and works with the Dub5 crew.  As if that wasn’t enough he recently started the unusual podcast, the Unknown Studio with @Scottybomb.  Mr. Fuel is pure digital citizen and a proponent of Edmonton through and through.  He’s searching for your pride Edmonton and he’s not going to stop until he finds it.

@livingsanctuary is a quiet, yet powerful voice for her micro-tribe via the community paper Boyle-McCauley News.  Paula readily lends her voice in support of issues, events and causes that need her help.  A proponent of equality, justice and humanity, Paula is a trusted source of positive energy.  I must admit that I have not spent time off line getting to know Paula and yet her activities online make her stand out in a positive way.  Thank-you Paula for your support.

@CaryWilliams is a key member of Edmonton’s NextGen group.  I first met Cary in person at Michael Janz’s IDEAfest, I called him “Astroboy” all day (ask him why) and our conversation continues to grow from there.  I interviewed Cary regarding NextGen and social media for my column in the Edmontonians Magazine, unfortunately it was replaced by a request from the publisher to cover another story.  Sorry Cary, maybe we can try that again in the future.  Cary is a “trust agent” because he believes in community roots, he believes in innovation and he believes in the empowerment of Gen Y.

@mastermaq is all about Edmonton, if there’s news to be had about the city, he’s all over it and likes to break the news first.  Due to his many media appearances, Mack is one of Edmonton’s most recognized digital citizens and he keeps everyone well informed about Edmonton via his blog.  He’s also not afraid to take a stand or offer his opinion, as we witnessed during the Edmonton City Centre Airport debate.  Another reason why you’ll recognize Mack is because it seems that he is at every social event happening around town, those he isn’t organizing himself that is.  Mack, you’re also someone who I think should run for city council.

@GriffMLA is about the truth, about being honorable and a voice for others.  Having had a few opportunities to meet with Doug and learn more about Doug and what it’s like to be an MLA, it’s clear to me that not only would I personally not want the job.  I also admire those who step-up, in the same way I admire goaltenders in hockey, they have to be just a little “off” to want to have players wire pucks at their head.  Doug is a very dedicated family man and digital Albertan, it’s clear he loves this province and offers a sound voice in the chaotic world of Alberta politics.

Edmonton’s online community has many folks who may be considered Trust Agents.

This is not a list made to the exclusion of others, you’re just as cool on this list as you are off it.  The true purpose was to take Chris Brogan’s lead and help identify certain meaningful traits in others that I have met online.  Too often people are given too much credit because they know something about the technology.  Chris Brogan along with Julien Smith’s work on Trust Agents is a game-changing look at how people and trust are the real power components behind social media.

Another personal motivation for this list was so that I express my gratitude and start a conversation by recognizing in a small way the good work that others in the community are doing and how that influences every day life for the rest of us.

Still think Social Media is a fad? WATCH THIS: http://bit.ly/4DLpNK #socialmedia #revolution

Now I certainly don’t think social media is a fad, however, curious I still clicked to read or in this case “watch” the content on the other end of the link.

Below is what I found and I loved it.  Love the information, pace, structure and delivery of the work by Erik Qualman of socialnomics fame…enjoy!  Qualman has put a lot of work into this video and I just felt compelled to share it with everyone.

Of course, the social media numbers in the video are in a constant state of flux.  However, this fast paced piece of work captures the key points that people and businesses who don’t believe social media is a serious opportunity should come to grips with.  One of the wonderful things about social media is the ability to share and Erik Qualman has put considerable effort into this video.  We all get to observe, learn and participate in the social web and this is evidence of that.  Any business that doesn’t see value here is crazy, plain and simple.  ”Keep learning my friends.”

Chris, I respect that you are “NOT a follower,” great blog post regarding Twitter!

Having said that, hopefully you are a “listener.” Frankly, that’s where the real benefits start within social media. There are rich trends that exist about the Edmonton community and throughout social media in general, Twitter as a source is certainly no exception.

I also respect the fact that you understand what is important for you in terms of sustaining your high-level of job performance and the associated expected level of audience engagement.  If the blog is the best tool for you to communicate with your audience based on research and experience, then stick with it.  Go with what works for you.  I strongly recommend that you don’t just engage in every new technology or in this case 3 yr old technology that comes along simply because others in your office have their own views.  Certainly you’ve communicated Twitter wouldn’t be sustainable given your schedule.  However, if that were your only issue I would offer that it’s perfectly fine to keep your tweet volume to just a few per day as long as they offer some value.  Yes, there are others with a tweet volume that suggests they are not accomplishing much else, possibly even within your own ranks.  I know personally my tweet volume fluctuates depending of what’s happening around me at that point-in-time and is also dependent on my objectives.

There is a larger issue here beyond your use of Twitter.

Frankly, this kind of situation happens frequently within organizations that don’t actually have a concise plan for operating within the social web.  I’m sure you’ll agree trial by error isn’t always the preferred way to go.  Unfortunately many organizations start down this path because one person convinces another internally to “join the conversation” and management is ill-equipped to handle the implications.  This often ends up with a public airing of this uncertainty online, just like iNews880 is doing via your blog post as we speak.   In this case, your audience is not only seeing an internal conflicting discussion regarding the “effective” use of social web tools such as Twitter being evident in your office, we also see the larger issue related to a lack of clarity from an organizational stand point. There doesn’t seem to be unification regarding how social media should support your business model.  Regardless of whether that’s true, the perception is a bit chaotic.

“We are what we share!” Twitter is like a cocktail party, standing in a corner and not talking to anyone would seem odd, possibly rude.

Back to your personal position on Twitter, if you’re not prepared to communicate with the folks throughout the day in 140 character bursts and your employer has no clear direction or internal policy on this activity, then best to avoid crawling into the birdhouse. You are 100% correct that there are elements on Twitter that are not about building rapport and relationships in real-time, one of the coolest things about the Twitter platform, but rather spam related exploitation in one form or another. I support your position that these “micro-tribes” within the Twitter and social media community-at-large are shall we say, less than desirable. Twitter is an acquired taste as far as social media options go and it is a game-changer, not a fad.   Much of our connected society is extremely impatient. Twitter is a real-time “statusphere,” that allows those with narcissistic tendencies to communicate at will about anything and attempt to be first doing it – breaking news!  I admit I operate within that environment too.  Follow me here.  In some cases, those who didn’t have a voice at work suddenly do on Twitter and they can express it “quickly and often.”  That element you seem to grasp well, that’s also why the “statusphere” concept like Twitter and the recently acquired $50 million dollar friendfeed are not “fads” that will go away anytime soon.

Sleep well knowing that at least with respect to Twitter you’ve stopped to look at the business implications (albeit your own) of using the tool first rather than simply trying to look like the one of the cool kids.  Stay strong Chris, good on ya mate!