Communications

Best Practices: U.S. Coast Guard Uses YouTube to Recruit New Guardians

When I first started exploring social media recruiting, I kept asking myself one question. How do you successfully use YouTube (or any video sharing site) to recruit? Well, I think I have found my answer. I recently ran across the Coast Guard’s YouTube recruitment channel. The channel made its debut in March of 2009 andRead… Read more »

Employee Engagement/Organisational Culture Surveys

Has anyone else observed the phenomena of employee engagement/organisational culture surveys being conducted across organisations by Human Resource/Organisational Development/People areas and then the results being cascaded down through the hierarchy? It’s a bit like drip feeding people information and is, well, disengaging. Wouldn’t it be great if the results of these surveys were anonymised byRead… Read more »

Plain Language Awards

The Center for Plain Language, a 501(c)(3) with headquarters in the DC area, is giving awards for the best plain language documents and websites at a ceremony at the National Press Club on April 29. They’ve just extended their entry deadline to March 1. Entries are free this year. They’ll be giving ClearMark awards inRead… Read more »

EPA Open Strategy & Request for Input

Yesterday, I spoke to Lisa Schlosser, EPA Director of Information Collection, on the recently epa.gov/open and their request for input in their open government plan What excites you most about Open Government? Having the opportunity to reach out to so many members of the environmental community of interest is extremely exciting – we need engagementRead… Read more »

The Google “Buzz” Kill

If you haven’t already heard (and if you haven’t I assume you live under a rock) Google is going to compete with the likes of Facebook and Twitter with the soon to be released “Google Buzz”. Since Google has yet to activate “Buzz” within my Gmail account, I will save my opinions as it relatesRead… Read more »

New times demand a new public servant

So what would a new public servant look like in the States? Last weeks Public Sector Informant published an article by Terry Fewtrell on the implications of the work done by the Gov 2.0 Taskforce. Terry is principal consultant with Yellow Edge Consulting. The article New times demand a new public servant, highlights the fundamentalRead… Read more »

Mecklenburg County eGovernment Strategic Plan

Last week I shared Mecklenburg County’s Social Media Strategy, which is really a document related to our overall eGovernment Strategic Plan. The link to the eGov plan is provided with this blog post, and you are welcome to use any or all of the content. (And, if by chance, we have plaigerized anything, it wasRead… Read more »

The New USAJobs – Great Customer Service!

And the award for Best Customer Service goes to…USAJobs! Finally – a federal agency (the Office of Personnel Management) that really, really listened to its audience and gave us what we want. Plain. Simple. To the point. The new USAJobs website looks like Google. It’s a stripped-down version of its former self (which really wasn’tRead… Read more »

Best Practice – CDC Social Media Tools Guidelines

CDC Social Media Tools Guidelines & Best Practices The use of social media tools is a powerful channel to reach target audiences with strategic, effective and user-centric health interventions. To assist in the planning, development and implementation of social media activities, the following guidelines have been developed to provide critical information on lessons learned, bestRead… Read more »