Social Media

Social Media Defined

Once in a while I like to go back to the basics. A while back I wrote a post clarifying the meaning of the word “marketing” and corresponding terms such as social marketing, social media marketing, and social media engagement. The key problem I see now is people using the broad term “social media” whenRead… Read more »

Social Media: Does the 24-Hour Response Rule Apply?

Last week, GovLoop member Julie Jenkins, a Communications Analyst with the Internal Revenue Service, posted a popular forum question in which she declared, “At some point we have to say, enough social media; time for real, live socializing,” and asked: “Where is your social media ceiling?” DorobekINSIDER host Chris Dorobek and I talked about theRead… Read more »

What’s the State of Social Media and Government in 2012?

Last Thursday, I delivered the presentation below for several Federal agency heads at the Chicago Federal Executive Board. I quickly affixed the title, “The State of Social Media in Government,” though I’m not sure that’s an accurate description of the content. Here’s a quick sketch of my outline: How Are Americans Using Social Media? (dataRead… Read more »

Social Media to the Rescue

The last couple of weeks have been tumultuous at different agencies in the US government. For the fourth time in as many months, Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta faced the media last week to state that the “actions of a few do not reflect the character of the US military”. It sounds so much likeRead… Read more »

Value for the Money: What governments need to tell the tax-paying public

Most of us paid our taxes this week, and didn’t grumble too much. But taxpayers may not have had a great sense of satisfaction about it either. By Eric Rabe, Fels Senior Advisor A Pew study last year found that most Americans are “frustrated” with the federal government — a number that has been aboveRead… Read more »

If Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus and MySpace were Aussie states

Many of you are probably aware that Facebook’s active membership is larger than the population of the world’s third largest country, however the numbers are getting too big to relate to Australia. So I’ve taken the idea and compiled a view of Australia by state, including the main social networks used by Aussies as ifRead… Read more »

Help an agency out: spread the word that we want photos taken on Earth Day

Ok, here’s the deal. We at EPA are running several social media engagement projects around Earth Day (April 22), and most are off to a good start. But we’re doing one thing actually on Earth Day itself: trying to capture a moment in time. Specifically, we’re asking people to submit a photo they take onRead… Read more »

Govbytes: Maryland employers banned from requesting Facebook credentials

In a move which adds to the national debate over whether it should be lawful for employers to ask applicants for Facebook passwords — and ends it in Maryland — the state last week became the 1st to ban the practice. Facebook also recently took a stand against employers requiring passwords during the hiring process.Read… Read more »