I had the good fortune to meet Chris Heuer this week as he passed through Washington, DC, on one of many stops during his recent months of international travel to meet with social media leaders around the world. Heuer is the founder of Social Media Club, an organization to share and promote best practices in social media, which is comprised largely of local chapters. In fact, NextGenWeb hosted a recent DC chapter meeting on mobile technology.

Social Media Club is partnering with Forum One Networks to produce an Online Community Unconference on June 10th, 2009, in Mountain View, California.

Potential topics:

* Online Community Metrics
* Enterprise Communities: Hosting the Conversation
* For Beginners: Laying a Solid Foundation for the Best Community
* Security: Best Practices for Community Moderation
* Marketing your Online Community
* Engaging Community Members: Turning Lurkers into Participants
* How to Grow Leaders Within a Community
* The Value of Contests

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NextGenWeb presented the second session in its bi-weekly Hill workshop series, “Social Media for Staffers.”  While our first session focused on the opportunities and the rules around social media, this time we welcomed guest panelists to demonstrate the best online tools for monitoring the vast dialogue.

Republican staff met at the Capitol Hill Club Friday morning for presentations by:
•       Katie Harbath, NextGenWeb
•       Patrick Ruffini, Engage DC
•       Nick Schaper, Office of Rep. John Boehner (OH-8)
•       William Beutler, New Media Strategies

Democratic staff met in the Capitol building later that afternoon for presentations by:
•       Shana Glickfield, NextGenWeb
•       Alan Rosenblatt, Center for American Progress Action Fund
•       Brad Bauman, Office of Rep. Tim Ryan (OH-17)
•       William Beutler, New Media Strategies

Staffers were guided through key definitions, the anatomy of a blog, and how to discover other blogs on their issue or district.   Panelists were unanimous that Technorati, Google Blogs, and TwitterSearch are key search engines for discovering discussion and recommended that staff set up RSS feeds so that updates are easy to track.     See below for a full list of recommended tools and resources.

Alan Rosenblatt presented his new theory of Reverse Advocacy to Democratic staff.   Rosenblatt recognizes that staffers are overwhelmed with emails, many of which are form letters, but nonetheless representative of constituent sentiment.   Rosenblatt proposes that the social web presents an opportunity for even more meaningful engagement with constituents by monitoring and engaging in these online social venues, like Facebook, Twitter and blogs.

Staffers from both sides of the aisle were eager to talk with William Beutler, an expert on Wikipedia.   Beutler warns that although Wikipedia says that anyone can edit the site, it’s not quite that simple.   As staffers are well aware, their Members’ Wikipedia pages are often top search results.     So it’s important for them to monitor the content of the entry.   If something is blatantly libelous or if there is a grammatical error, then it’s okay to edit, but anything that could be considered controversial should be approached more cautiously.   Beutler recommends registering transparently and beginning with the talk section of the entry.

NGW Social Media for Staffers Resources

Tracking Trends
Search: Google Insights- http://www.google.com/insights/search/

Twitter: Twit Scoop- www.twitscoop.com

Twitter: Hashtags- http://hashtags.org/

Blogs: BlogPulse- http://www.blogpulse.com

Facebook: Lexicon- http://www.facebook.com/lexicon/

Content Searches
Blogs: Google Blog search- http://blogsearch.google.com

Blogs: Technorati- http://www.technorati.com

Twitter:   TwitterSearch- http://www.search.twitter.com

Ranking Blogs/Twitterers
Blog: Technorati Authority- www.technorati.com

Twitter: Twitter Grader- http://twitter.grader.com

Twitter: Twitteraholic- http://twitterholic.com/

Twitter: Twitalizer- http://www.twitalyzer.com/twitalyzer/index.asp

Site stats: Compete- www.compete.com

Site stats: Alexa- www.alexa.com

URL Shorteners
TinyURL: www.tinyurl.com

Twurl: http://twurl.cc/

Is.gd: http://is.gd/

Wikipedia
Tutorial: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_tutorial

Hyperlocal Sites: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/13/technology/start-ups/13hyperlocal.html

Everyblock: http://www.everyblock.com

Outside.in: http://www.outside.in

Placeblogger: http://www.placeblogger.com

Patch: http://www.patch.com

Other resources
David Karpf: Stability and Change in the Political Blogosphere in the 2008 election

SocNet for Senior Citizens: Eons- http://www.eons.com

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A featured speaker at Wednesday’s Media Future Now event was John Shea, New Media Director of the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA).   Shea has been with the agency for 10 years and successfully built its new media strategy.

FEMA focused on creating a strong presence on existing platforms like Twitter and Facebook.   They acted early to secure their usernames on as many social media sites as they could, which has allowed them to successfully manage their brand.   They’ve also been careful not to seem too official and therefore inaccessible.

FEMA uses social media to listen to what communities are doing for emergency preparedness and then aggregate those ideas to identify trends and best practices.   They are also using Twitter to strengthen relationships before a disaster, so that trust and open communications are in place before disaster strikes.   Check out blogger Joah Spearman’s recent in-depth look at how FEMA is using Twitter.

As more and more government agencies are embracing social media, FEMA provides a successful model for them to consider.

Media Future Now meets monthly in various locations around Washington, DC.   Check the website to join us at future discussions on the transition to a new media world.

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