If you’ve ever watched the awards ceremonies, they usually save the Best Movie or Best Actor and Actress until the very end…so my colleagues at GovLoop have covered the best of everything in 2010 on GovLoop and beyond…with the exception of blogs and forums. So we thought we’d leave the best for last.
What I find most interesting about these results are that it’s not a list of the most viewed or most commented content on GovLoop…it really is instructive for selecting the types of content and titles you use, the importance of feedback and interaction from the person who posted it and much more. Well, enough of the introduction. On the results:
Top 5 GovLoop Blogs of 2010
Honorable Mention: “I Work for the Government and I Am NOT the Enemy” by Sandy Ressler: No relation to Steve here, but he sure knows how to get people talking. This post really touched a nerve as it elicited 67 comments, mostly people feeling like they are unfairly drawing the ire of citizens. All from Sandy asking: “change this perception of federal employees as the enemy?” Well, as The Washington Post reported today, I think we’re far from changing things, but people offered some excellent ideas and demonstrated the commitment of civil servants to get up every morning and do their best on behalf of their fellow Americans.
5) “I’m Mad As Hell” by Benjamin Strong – Benjamin got really pissed off when his agency decided to block Bit.ly, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. In fact, he said that GovLoop was blocked until “enough people bitched enough about it and the block was removed.” And it led to a great discussion – 55 excellent comments about the value of blocking social media (or not!). By the way, Benjamin wasn’t content to rant and came up with a subsequent post he titled, “The Federal Employee Internet Bill of Rights.”
4) “4 Lessons for Gov Via the Old Spice Guy” by Gwynne Kostin: The magnificent marketing phenomenon has to be one of the top social media stories of the year…and Gwynne was able to ring a few drops of goodness from The Guy’s towel for government. Speed, Planning, Talent and Trust are the keys to replicating this campaign. That, and a double dose of humor, charm and wit. 😉
3) “The Rudest Question: ‘How Much Do You Make?'” For this one, it was my turn to get people riled up. It feels weird to highlight my own post, but I’m really just going by the numbers in Analytics here! The general sentiment from the 50+ comments: Government employees generally don’t mind if the public knows their salary information, but don’t be thinking folks make hundreds of thousands like the Mayor of Bell, CA!
2) “Let’s Work on Columbus Day” by Sterling Whitehead: Number 2 was a simple suggestion – let’s give up a day off so that we can show fellow Americans that public servants are willing to sacrifice. Well, thousands of views and 40 comments later, it ranks in the #2 spot for 2010.
1) Ressler’s “Top 5” Series: From the Top 5 Worst Living Locations to Have a Federal Job to the Top 5 Ways to Tell a Contractor Apart from a Govie, Ressler wrote 20-25 of these posts this past year. As a result, I became convinced that if you put the word “Top” and a number together, you’ve got a winning title for a blog. Couple that with some controversial content and an invitation for people to share their own ideas, and you’ve got a potent combination. Again, strange to include our own stuff, but I thought it was helpful as you’re thinking up content and titles.
Top 5 GovLoop Forums of 2010
Honorable Mention – “Supervisors: What Do You Need to Be An Awesome Boss?” by GovLoop Partner Management Concepts – Like #5 below, looks can be deceiving. Although there weren’t that many comments here, a ton of people took a look at this forum and placed their votes in the polls. All in all, it looks like our supervisors need to learn how to communicate more effectively. Expect more content for leaders, managers and supervisors (and their direct reports!) from us in 2011.
5) “Do Online Social Networks Mirror Real Life Social Networks?” by Bill Brantley – This post didn’t get that many comments, but it got a ton of views…and with good reason! If I had to pick the BEST slideshow of the year for anyone doing anything online, this would be the one. A Google employee pulls back the curtain and shares what they’ve learned about online behavior. Study this slide deck and you will rule the web-based world…well, you’ll be able to see how Google rules the world anyway. 🙂
4) “What’s the Most Annoying Thing That’s Happened to You at Work?” by Stephen Peteritas – So Stephen got his pizza stolen from the fridge one day and he ventured out to the Loop to vent. It was probably an accident, but it’s still pretty darn annoying to have your stomach grumbling only to reach for lunch and find it missing. so he opened up a mini gripe group GovLoop, which seemed to be semi-cathartic for folks. By the way, it wasn’t me!
3) “Vote on $2,500 GL Scholarship!” – Hundreds of you (~400 to be exact) jumped into the fray, casting your vote to help one lucky college student get a scholarship from GovLoop and CampusGov. In the end, Kyle Robisch at the University of Florida was the winner. Thanks again to everyone who helped to make it a down-to-the-wire contest.
2) Sound Off: Your Thoughts on the Pay Freeze by Candace Riddle – Yowsers! This post from just a couple weeks ago ended up getting nearly 160 comments – making it not only one of the most popular posts of the year, but of GovLoop’s two and half year history! People’s perceptions: Meh, it’s not that big of a deal and Congress should take the hit, too. In the end, it really doesn’t do much to make a dent in the debt, and is just a political maneuver. The cities and states are where govies are really hurting.
1) Saturday Night Live’s “Public Employee of the Year Awards” by Steve Radick – In late April, SNL poked fun at public servants by doing a spoof awards show, “honoring” a DMV employee. Predictably, the skit painted government employees as incompetent and lazy. Well, you sounded off on that stereotype – respectfully, I might add. In the end, the most stinging critique was that it just plain wasn’t funny! So you do your jobs, SNL comedians, and we’ll do ours. For the record, you are nowhere near as funny as the 70s, 80s and 90s…