Communications

Measuring Your Social Media Efforts In Government – How To Assess What Works And What Doesn’t Work

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Foursquare. These are all tools necessary in this day and age to reach your audience, but just having them and putting messages out is no longer enough. As new social media tools become the “hot item” while the ones you’re just getting used to are phased out; the balancing act ofRead… Read more »

SEC Allowing You To Tweet Financial Disclosures – Plus the DorobekINSIDER’s 7 Stories

On GovLoop Insights’ DorobekINSIDER: Do you want to work in the foreign service? The State Department has launched a mobile application to help. The app gives prospective Foreign Service officers a taste of what could be in store for them. Click here for the full recap. But up front: If you still don’t take socialRead… Read more »

Want to work for the State Department – There’s an App for that!

Do you want to work in the foreign service? The State Department has launched a mobile application to help. The app gives prospective Foreign Service officers a taste of what could be in store for them. Terry Davidson is the Recruitment and Outreach Division Chief at the State Department. He told Chris Dorobek on theRead… Read more »

Jargon Costs DC City Gov $30k

Do you know the difference between a “vote center” and a “polling place”? The DC Board of Elections assumed that residents understood the distinction, and that voters wouldn’t be confused by their confusing postcard. This postcard on the upcoming special election read: One Judiciary Square is the only vote center open for this election. LikeRead… Read more »

The joy of plain text

These days, I write pretty much everything in plain text. This is driven by two main things: Annoyance Paranoia How I write pretty much anything of any length (blog posts, reports, proposals, longer emails) is to write them in a text editor – I’ve settled on WriteRoom – using the Markdown markup language. I thenRead… Read more »

Zip Into the Future

In 1963, the ZIP Code was introduced by the U.S. Postal Service as a means to deliver mail faster and cheaper. Fifty years later, this system has grown to provide unforeseen benefits as an infrastructure that enables commerce and organizes information. However, the ZIP Code was not universally accepted at the onset. To overcome skepticismRead… Read more »

How do you become a CIO? – Insights from outgoing NASA CIO Linda Cureton

Frequent DorobekINSIDER Live guest and federal rockstar Linda Cureton is retiring on Wednesday. It is a sad day for government. But before she sails off we wanted to pick her brain on how she had such a successful career? And get her insights on how you can chart a similar journey? Cureton was appointed asRead… Read more »

Vine – Coming Soon to an Agency Near You

Federal agencies will soon be able to utilize Vine for their mobile social media strategies. Vine is a free mobile app, owned by Twitter, that allows users to record six second long videos with their iPhones and iPads and then easily share it to Twitter or other social media platforms. Yesterday, the General Services AdministrationRead… Read more »

How To Alienate Your Colleagues on A Locally Elected Board or Council

During a fantastic career in local and municipal government I had the privilege to work with hundreds of wonderful men and women; local residents who stepped up to the plate to serve in a public office. They gave their time, devoted their energies and shared their wisdom to help make their Townships, Villages, Cities orRead… Read more »