Social Media

Are You An Outreach Winner?

#Winning. It’s not just Charlie Sheen who can craft a popular tweet. In fact, even you can top Mr. Sheen because your tweets are not just popular – they’re also helpful and informative. Think about it: your engagement can help taxpayers save time, money and resources. And it’s not just about Twitter. Government is gettingRead… Read more »

Social Media in 10 Minutes a Day? 7 Reasons not to be Fooled

Several years ago, when social media was really starting to take off, the idea that an individual or organization could successfully engage in “just minutes a day,” was rampant. Then reality sunk in and people recognized that effective engagement requires time, hard work, and commitment. Finding ways to be more efficient and effective was stillRead… Read more »

Enhancing Your LinkedIn Profile II: 7 More Tasks and 23+ Tips

Recently I published 7 Simple To Dos for Rookies to Enhance Their LinkedIn Profile, the first in a three-part series that offers a “crawl-walk-run” approach to helping folks upgrade their LinkedIn profiles from anemic to impressive and effective. The first post focused on a handful of basic things people should do to make sure theyRead… Read more »

APSC’s current online participation guidance becoming an unwanted and unneeded distraction

There’s been a great deal of scrutiny of the APSC’s revised guidance on social media participation by public servants since it came into effect in early 2012 (coincidentally about the time I left the public service). Initially dubbed by some parts of the media as the ‘Jericho amendments‘ (sorry Greg!), the 2012 guidance has regularlyRead… Read more »

7 Simple To Dos for Rookies to Enhance Their LinkedIn Profile

To some people it may seem rather ridiculous to share this kind of guidance in 2014, but judging from the anemic LinkedIn profiles I view on a daily basis, it’s clear that it’s advice people still need. I know everyone is busy, but if how they represent themselves as professionals is important to them (andRead… Read more »

APSC’s current online participation guidance becoming an unwanted and unneeded distraction

There’s been a great deal of scrutiny of the APSC’s revised guidance on social media participation by public servants since it came into effect in early 2012 (coincidentally about the time I left the public service). Initially dubbed by some parts of the media as the ‘Jericho amendments‘ (sorry Greg!), the 2012 guidance has regularlyRead… Read more »

Social Media Ownership: Recommendations for Employers

Many individuals and organizations continue to struggle with the question of social media ownership, which involves the accounts themselves, individual and page profiles, platform content and posting activity. Most of the related laws and regulations were written long before today’s social technologies were even created, let alone widespread, and there are few legal and businessRead… Read more »

On freelancing

The giant of local government social media at the coalface, Dan Slee, has gone freelance. I’m not sure why I’ve not written up Dan as one of my digital heroes here before, because he certainly is one. He’s the kind of innovator it’s hard to dismiss – someone with deep journalism and government experience, Zen-likeRead… Read more »

Australian public servant wearing Google Goggles banned from departmental offices and warned away from all government buildings

I’ve learnt from a source in a major Australian Government department that a public servant who showed up for work yesterday morning wearing Google Glass was unceremoniously escorted out of the building by security. The public servant was given written correspondence from HR, signed by a senior manager, banning them access to any departmental officesRead… Read more »

What should agencies do when online services change their terms of use?

Governments around the world now rely on social media services to reach and engage citizens, disseminate information, to monitor what people are saying and source intelligence to help address crises. Many businesses also rely on digital channels for revenue and engagement reasons. So what happens when an online service that an organisation uses updates itsRead… Read more »