Civic Summit « Wendy Meadley's @SocialWendy Blog

Posts Tagged Civic Summit

Make no Mistake SXSWi is a Big Deal – the SXSW Panel Picker is Live

August 20, 2009 at 12:41 pm · Filed under Civic Engagement, Cool Colleague Links, Creating Thought Leadership, Digital Identity, Flickr, National Civic Summit, Social Marketing Campaigns, Social Media 3.0, Social Media Content Creation, Social Media Innovator, SxSW, Twitter ·Tagged Aneesh Chopra, Ask Aneesh, Blue Earth Interactive, Citizens League, Civic Summit, CivicSummit09, Content Creation, Dan Wilson, Digital Identity, Eric Raarup, Geo Map, Grammy, Hashtag, Inetium, Interactive, Interactive 2010, microsite, Microsoft, Nate Garvis, National Civic Summit, Panel Picker, pickRpanel, Silverlight, Social Content, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Wendy, SxSW, sxswi, Tweet Jam, Tweetup, Twitter, Wendy Meadley, World Wide Rave

It’s almost like getting to peek at your packages before the Holiday (very PC) this week as the SXSW Panel Picker went live on Monday and we can now see all the great presentations that have been submitted. If you have been busy this week and haven’t gotten there yet, don’t be shocked when you do to see that there are more than 2000! I am not sure what I expected, but as a panel submitter myself, I got bleary-eyed just trying to find my entry through the 70+ pages… pretty exciting times for social media that’s for sure.

So, I was glad that my team had agreed in advance to put together a live example of what our panel experience is really going to be about- that is if we get in

pickRpanel.com goes Live to help National Civic Summit Community Vote for SXSW Panel

In my typical blog post fashion, I thought I would share the strategy so as you experience it, if you are so bold, you truly enjoy it- of course I am only addressing social media and interactive geeks with that last comment.

Our Panel

Creating Brand Engagement with an Integrated Hashtag Campaign

Your vote:

Yes No

Event:

Interactive 2010

Level:

Intermediate

Type:

Panel

Category:

Branding / Marketing / Publicity, Case Study, Government and Technology, Non-Profits, User Generated Content

Organizer:

Wendy Meadley, @SocialWendy

Questions:

What social media activities engage civic imagination and capacity?
How do you create an engaging and effective Twitter/ and other social media hashtag campaign?
What are some fun social media event attractions to really create a National Tweetup?
What does a Tweet Jam promo look like at a Tweetup?
How do you create a promotional hashtag like the Ask Aneesh to promote Aneesh Chopra’s event appearance?
How do you get Target, Best Buy, General Mills and other big brands engaged in social media?
How do you strategize an integrated social content campaign?

Description:

The National Civic Summit (www.nationalcivicsummit.com), presented by Target and the Citizens League, used several innovative social media tactics including an integrated Hashtag Campaign to bolster civic participation. The components of the campaign included a Live National Tweetup with Grammy Award Winning Artist Dan Wilson, and a dedicated Twitter handle and hashtag to engage participants in a Live Webcast of our country’s first Chief Technology Officer, Aneesh Chopra. Our panel will share the campaign strategy highlights, video, photo, and live experiential technology examples to bring to life this creative use of the Hashtag to encourage event and civic participation. See our primary Twitter account for a quick overview @civicsummit09. Social Media Campaign by @SocialWendy.

Our Promotional Microsite

Since social media at its core is all about creating the content and the conversation while being transparent- that is what we decided to create. With our technology partner, Inetium, we created a functional and fun microsite that demonstrates one of the cool technologies that we launched at our National Tweetup. This one is a geo map tool mashup created with Microsoft’s Silverlight technology. Google Maps, and some secret sauce!

Stay tuned for more to come- @SocialWendy

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Grammy Award Musician Dan Wilson gets Social at the National Tweetup

July 29, 2009 at 9:58 am · Filed under Civic Engagement, Cool Colleague Links, Creating Thought Leadership, Social Media 101- Primer & Tools, Social Media 3.0, Social Media Content Creation, Social Media Innovator, Twitter, What's Next? ·Tagged Citizens League, citizenship, civic movement, Civic Summit, Content Creation, Dan Wilson, Event Marketing, Grammy, Musician Dan Wilson, Nate Garvis, National Civic Summit, National Tweetup, Social Content, Social Media, Social Wendy, SocialWendy, Tweetup, Twitter, vimeo

Yes, it seems like everyone is jumping into the social media pool these days, but most not so creatively as Grammy Award winning artist Dan Wilson at the National Civic Summit’s National Tweetup on July 15, 2009 in the Mill City Ruins, Mpls, MN.

Musician Dan Wilson Gets Social at the National Tweetup

So I have to share the special story surrounding this “music experience” as Dan dubs it, so that you can truly understand the purity of Dan Wilson as an artist of exploration.

Dan Wilson is friends with Nate Garvis who was looking for a unique way to create a fun and meaningful way to raise the awareness of civic engagement across America, and begin a conversation at the National Civic Summit that would transcend the event and promote change.

Musician Dan Wilson uses Twitter to involve National Tweetup Audience

So, Nate shares with Dan that we are having a National Tweetup to celebrate the launch of the National Civic Summit of which Target is the presenting sponsor. As part of the summit, it was Nate’s vision to get people together as soon as they got into town with and connect them with the vibrant civic community in Minnesota. Based on their initial framework, I thought, this is the perfect storm moment to really host a National Tweetup to demystify social media across an entire civic community which could really jumpstart the overall promotion of the civic conversation of the Summit. The NCS core team loved the idea and we started to build the key strategy components to create excitement and campaign sustainability.

Coordinating with Dan, his creative team and management to stream his performance live and create some cool social assets was easy. They were engaged and were looking to support Dan’s concept of a “music experiment” where party attendees would tweet instructions, they would be relayed to Dan and the other musicians, and they would play faster, slower and the like. Okay, one caveat- if you click on the link above, you will here Dan share that he left room to ensure the quality or integrity of what the crowd would hear wouldn’t be bad. This is a good thing.

Fast forward to the night of the event and we have more than 700 civic wonks from across the country gathered to help support positive nonpartisan change in the America and Dan’ s music goes live to literally set the tone for a groovy party vibe. The perfect backdrop to the reunion feel and camaraderie that filled the air. As the Live Stream feed across America (simultaneously with our Civic Voices live feed) Dan’s fans are treated to what they love, classic Dan Wilson presence with a new feel brought directly to their iphone or computer.

When Dan comes back for the second set, he has prepped the crowd and his internet fan audience that the music experiment will begin. Facilitated by his tech crew and ours, the live and virtual audience tweet directions to the band and they adjust the music. It was a goosebump moment for a social media “wonk” like me who saw what may be a new way for social media to be used to create new music and art- in a time when our culture is uber-focused on reality shows and being part of the experience, this just may be a glimpse into what used to look like lighters in the air and the crowd chanting the lyrics (us over 30s have been there;) ).

We have fun footage and sound from the soundboard in addition to the mini clip above, but we will let Dan and his team define how you will experience that socially…

For more about Musician Dan Wilson

Dan Wilson Official Website

Dan Wilson on Twitter

Dan Wilson’s My Space

Dan Wilson National Tweetup Video

Dan Wilson Photos at the National Tweetup

Dan Wilson’s Wikipedia Profile

About Creativity Article- Dan Wilson- Dan Brodnitz

For more on the National Civic Summit

Stay tuned for more social media innovations from the National Civic Summit…

@SocialWendy

Follow me on my National Civic Summit Twitter Page

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Social Media 3.0 – Beyond Blogging

July 25, 2009 at 1:52 pm · Filed under 1, Cool Colleague Links, Creating Thought Leadership, National Civic Summit, Social Marketing Campaigns, Social Media 101- Primer & Tools, Social Media Content Creation, Twitter, What's Next? ·Tagged Civic Summit, Content Creation, David Smith, Jake Brewer, Mobilizer, Nate Garvis, National Civic Summit, Social Content, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Wendy, SocialWendy, Sunlight Foundation, Twitter

Once was the day when bloggers established the Social Media space and dominated the Internet and Twitter- then came Ashton & CNN. Normalization and pop culture have now proliferated the world of social media, and we are innovating in new ways.

It is clear that we are in the next phase of Social Media Innovation- what I would call Social Media 3.0. As I FINALLY got working on my own website in a quick breather between social media centric development projects, I am realizing how far the tactics have evolved in the last year.

This came to mind as I was immersed in developing the National Civic Summit Social Media Strategy & overall marketing plan. What struck me is that as we reach out to the collection of personas that make up the “civic” space there is not only a gamut in their tech-savvi-ness but there is also a significant difference in their approach to getting things done. This is obviously based on which segment they are representing. So, specifically, public/nonprofit, private/business, or government. And, it is based on the size of the organization, smaller usually means grassroots; larger a more operational or ecosystem approach. Lightning bolt! This is much like the bloggers who have been pumping content into the blogosphere… doing the heaving spade work, and now the time is here when the popularity and general acceptance make that grassroots activity in comparison to what can be done with larger corporate entities or foundations- what will become Social Media 3.0.

Minnesota's Civic Leaders prepare for the National Civic Summit

There are some great examples of folks who have innovated in the civic world while using social media like David Smith and his Mobilizer success and Jake Brewer now at the Sunlight Foundation, previously at Energy Action. So, we know it is a good model- so what are the social media tools that can best launch and support a “movement” or a cause within the civic sector?

As always I would go back to the business objectives of what you are trying to accomplish- in this case civic engagement, voice/civic cause amplification, and momentum. Here is where I think the heart of the shift comes from Social Media 2.0 to the new Social Media 3.0.

We know that user generated content is at the core of social marketing… we also know it needs to be interesting so that people will want to consume it- as Nate Garvis would say “a tasty little snack”. So true, and I would share that you combine that with the old adage WIFM (what’s in it for me) and you have the formula for what I am calling Social Media 3.0.

With the National Civic Summit we have the luxury of testing some cool new social marketing tactics and measuring results, as we have a large opt-in database to work with- the MN Civic Community. So, as we generate all our post event social content, we try (and measure) different social tactics to different audience segments and the like. The results are interesting in that the acquisition and conversion numbers are significantly higher than typical marketing formula standards.

The marketer in me pauses as I explore in my mind what that really means… are we really that amazing at social marketing (maybe above average), is the civic world more engaged and active than others (likely, I can’t wait to do some more tactics and testing), or maybe the time is right and in combination with the first two thoughts, we have hit a trifecta. We’ll have to see on that one.

If you look to the work of Jeremiah Owyang, Forrester Research, in his The Future of Social Web report, with his definition of the evolution of the Social Web he shows us beginning an era of Social Colonization. A time when every website is now social, whether it wants to be or not. When people are leaning on their peers opinions (think voting, polling, community activities), and social networks now have the ability to aggregate and share data in ways they never have before.

Now it is making more sense, clearly it is an alignment of many factors social and otherwise that place us in the right place at the right time to capitalize on all the new tools and blend them in ways that haven’t been explored before. Imagine your organic search results and the link web you could truly create by adding new tools into your Social Media 2.0 blog-centric box.

Anyone else out in the Social Media 3.0 wilderness? I would love to chat with you about your own project experiences and share mine. @SocialWendy

Follow me on Twitter

National Civic Summit on Twitter

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Getting Social for Citizenship Amplifies Voices Across America

July 23, 2009 at 9:47 am · Filed under Civic Engagement, Creating Thought Leadership, Flickr, National Civic Summit, Social Marketing Campaigns, Social Media 101- Primer & Tools, Social Media Content Creation, Twitter, You Tube ·Tagged Citizens League, citizenship, civic movement, Civic Summit, David Meerman Scott, Digital Identity, Event Marketing, Mark Ritchie, Social Content, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Wendy, SocialWendy, Tweetup, Twitter, World Wide Rave, You Tube

One week ago today at this moment, my social media team was training volunteer to help National Tweetup guests “Get Social for Citizenship” with Nate Garvis- Target, Sean Kershaw-Citizens League. and Mark Ritchie- MN Secretary of State.

What a fun and amazing night it was in Minneapolis, in the Mill City Museum Ruins. The blend of old and new- of technology, music, and people who gathered to make a difference in America.

National Tweetup kicks off National Civic Summit with Interactive Social Experiences for Attendees

So, why wait to blog about it until a week later? Well, I didn’t wait… as you see when you blend social media and an event, you have a recipe for long hours of editing the event content and memories of it’s attendees. What is challenging about that is that in this day and age is that everyone is used to internet speed of delivery and let me tell you folks- producing worthy content is not a quick process.

The good news is my team is dedicated and talented at it, but I will let you be the judge of that as you see their efforts in our post event social media content release over the next couple weeks. We are also using a larger collection of tools than has been traditionally used which will enhance how these are delivered to you, so instead of the historical simple use of just You Tube and blog posts or forums, we have added some current tools taht allow for more sharing as there are hundreds of people involved in this effort.

Here is a spotlight of the newer tools and the ways we are using them to amplify Civic Voices Across America:

Vimeo- www.vimeo.com We are using Vimeo for consistent video delivery and for transferability of our content. So, more specifically, with hundreds of organizations involved, we have created a reliable serve yourself approach to taking the hours of content we have, breaking it into meaningful message segments and making it available for embedding on websites, blogs, links, tweets, however people want to share our video, it will be delivered in a reliable format at our expense, not theirs, so we maintain quality and the responsibility for the content. This is a must when dealing with large corporate partners on a project.

Vimeo Video Hosting ensures quality delivery and social proliferation

Slideshare- www.slideshare.net There are several presentations that were formally shared as part of the National Civic Summit. Of course, we want these to be evangelized beyond the event so that the organizations that invested their time and talents enjoy the long tail that the internet provides. We are using Slideshare to house them, brand them to our event and deliver them to attendees and anyone else who is interested in civic life in America. So we take the time to fully name them, tag them, and do our “organic search magic” behind the scenes to get the proliferated into cyberspace. Again, organizations can embed theSlideshare player into whatever online presence they have, so this is a win for them as well as they do not need to direct them to our site to share their content, yet they get the credit for the presentation being presented at a premier event. We will of course have links on our sites as well but the focus is on the organizations themselves first, not on our promotion.

Slideshare allows you to store & distribute numerous presentations easily

Flickr- www.flickr.com While Flickr is not a new tool, I find many people don’t maximize it’s opportunity to create groups and communities. We have yet to really build our group, but, as David Meerman Scott would point out, you need to have content worthy of people’s interest, so that is our first step. We hired photographers and videographers to collect visual assets throughout our three day event.

Of note: There is some strategy as to what to collect so that you have good content to work with, I recommend you go back to the business/marketing/client goals of the event and define from there. having a shot list to check off from is a good strategy especially for events as you can’t go back, the moment is simply missed if it isn’t capture.

So, you camp out with your assets immediately after the event and you start organizing, labeling and uploading them to your Flickr account. The key here is to keep in mind how event attendees want to see them, not what you are interested in. Make clear categories so they can sort through them quickly and view the ones they are interested in.

It is also good to support their posting with an email thanking and linking your guests to the collection- on this project we sent our 800+ VIP RSVP list the Flickr photo collection link and within a day we had over 500 new views of our collection. Who doesn’t want to see photos from the event, right?

Facebook- www.facebook.com Again, not a new tool but, we know from what we saw over the last Presidential election process that the civic community wants to be engaged in defining the future of our country. We want that too. That is the core of our National Civic Summit mission, so we have created a place that becomes our community hub for the ongoing conversation to support that happening. Our Facebook Community is open to all, yet again we have our master event invitation and participant lists to include, and we assume they want to be included so we invite them to our Facebook community, this is a natural invitation. We have nearly 600 friend in a weeks period of time who have joined in to continue the conversation of changing America. It is a good start!

Prior to the event we launched a Social Media Training Microsite to support event attendees learning how to use today’s social tools prior to the event.

CivicTraining- www.civictraining.com is our training microsite where we currently have demystifying introductory videos to the eight key social tactics that I believe are core to creating a World Wide Rave in a planful & organized fashion. We have event presentations, video and real life example links that we will continue to add in the coming weeks to bring to life the model of how to use these new social tools to create meaningful civic engagement within and beyond your organization. The first addition will be of Mark Kurtz, Chief Growth Officer and VP New Media- Gage Marketing- his National Civic Summit presentation on using LinkedIn Groups to support & build your organization.

More will be coming on our Group building and post event content venues, but for now we want to get step one in place for the National Civic Summit movement.

This is an exciting time in our country and there are people ready to take part, so let’s continue the conversation, link arms and move forward.

You can join in the National Civic Summit in lots of great ways… our conversation can be heard on Twitter

Follow our Tweeters (of course not just one voice )

@civicsummit09

@civicsummit

@askaneesh

@targettwitizen

@nategarvis

@bethcieslik

@citizensleague

@seankershaw

@socialwendy

@thetylerhayes

@lynnhillen

@nationaltweetup

Join in the Conversation

Our Conversation Hashtags

#civicsummit

#askaneesh

#danwilson

(to follow Dan Wilson- he is @DanWilsonMusic )

#targettwitizen

Our Civic Participation Portal is being built at www.nationalcivicsummit.com

Come Get Social for Citizenship with the National Civic Summit!

Wendy Meadley

Event & Development Director- National Civic Summit

wendy@nationalcivicsummit.com

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Call for Social Communicators and Journalists- National Civic Summit

June 2, 2009 at 2:34 am · Filed under Civic Engagement, Creating Thought Leadership, Flickr, National Civic Summit, Social Marketing Campaigns, Social Media 101- Primer & Tools, Social Media Content Creation, Twitter, You Tube ·Tagged Citizens League, citizenship, civic movement, Civic Summit, Content Creation, Flickr, Interview, Mark Ritchie, National Civic Summit, New Rules of Marketing & PR, Social Content, Social Marketing, Social Media, SocialWendy, Tweetup, Twitter, You Tube

Social Communicators and Journalists are needed to Amplify Active Citizenship in America at the National Civic Summit

Reply to: Wendy Meadley Development Director- National Civic Summit (see below)

Contact ONLY at: wendy (at) nationalcivicsummit (dot) com

Be a significant part of the Change you want to see in America by providing your talents to support the growth of the Civic Imagination and Civic Capacity of individuals and organizations across our country.

Join an core team of Social Communicators reporting on all the events and civic organizations participating in the National Civic Summit on July 15-17, 2009, Minneapolis, MN.

The goal of the National Civic Summit is to translate the desire for Change in America into Active Citizenship through promoting the Civic Imagination and Civic Capacity of nonpartisan Civic Organizations all over the country. The National Civic Summit could be considered the launching pad for this conversation to begin, the resource toolkit to support the necessary grassroots efforts, and the gathering place where these conversations will be amplified across America through live streaming and a national-scope Tweetup.

Nonpartisan Civic Organizations are encouraged to participate “live” at the National Civic Summit New Era Trade Show and at our National Tweetup & Social Conversation Event for all civically-minded individuals and organizations. The National Civic Summit will provide all access credentials to 6 social media journalists to cover the event across all digital platforms. The individuals will have their Social Media Content spotlighted on our state-of-the-art Civic Participation Portal that will be launched at the National Civic Summit, promoted by our Tweetup Party & National Civic Summit Presenting Sponsor, the Target Corporation. Daily, these communicators will file stories based on interviews, reporting, tweets and video/photo features, which will be redistributed as National Civic Summit content on the Social Voices section of the Civic Participation Program Portal and other digital platforms. Possible assignments include The Connection at the National Civic Summit, the Opening Night Party and National Tweetup sponsored by Target Corporation, a potential traditional Press Conference Party, and interviews will VIP Civic Celebrities.

Communicators will receive a National Civic Summit press pass and a nominal stiped for their civic efforts throughout the event.

Please note: the current website is for event registration and is not the Civic Participation Portal that is in development that will be launched in conjunction with the National Civic Summit. Submissions will be accepted June 2, 2009 until midnight on June 12, 2009. Applicants must be based in the Twin Cities, MN or be willing to fund their own travel expenses there, and have professional journalism experience, currently be a journalism or web design student or work as a social media professional. Each applicant must have demonstrated skill with digital media preferably capturing event or sponsor activation coverage. Submissions must include the following: 1 paragraph (250 words or less) stating why you want to do this; 1 tweet stating why you want to do this ( our hashtag is #civicsummit); a link to your LinkedIn profile or your resume; 1 sample of work – either 1 video, 1 podcast link, a set of photographs or a blog post- we are looking for interviewing skills and creative professionalism (brevity is key here); confirmation that you have at least three of the following (or relevant equivalents): current profiles on Facebook or MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube or a personal blog (include the links).

You can provide your “portfolio” via screen captures or via a directed link to an online presentation tool such as Slideshare or similar- the easier the better. Submissions should be sent to SocialWendy at the following program e-mail: wendy (at) nationalcivicsummit (dot) com.

Selected participants will be notified by June 19, 2009.

Social Communicators & Journalists only.
Recruiters, please don’t contact us.
No phone calls will be accepted about this position.
Please do not use this to solicit the NCS09 event about other services, products or commercial interests- we have our event resources in place.

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It’s a Great Time to be Tweeting if You Know How to Maximize It!

May 24, 2009 at 5:22 am · Filed under Civic Engagement, Cool Colleague Links, National Civic Summit, Social Marketing Campaigns, Social Media 101- Primer & Tools, Social Media Content Creation, Twitter ·Tagged bit.ly, citizenship, Civic Summit, Hashtag, New Rules of Marketing & PR, Obama, Obama Administration, Obama Transparency, Social Content, Social Marketing, Social Media, SocialWendy, Sunlight Foundation, Transparency, Transparency2.0, Twitter, World Wide Rave

A Little Twitter Hashtag Test with the Obama Transparency Initiative

White House- Home of The Obama Administration

By the time everyone gets back from a long Memorial Day Weekend, Twitterholics will be long into more that double the 15 pages of #transparency hashtags since last night when I posted the Sunlight Foundation email passed along to me for social evangelism. Okay, I know I should be taking a break and relaxing, but in fairness I just finished cribbage pairs and my Dad and I lost 1-2 and now by the fire with the loons in the background (a typical Minnesotan up at the cabin), so, I checked in on my transparency hashtag test. Yes, I know, let it go… again, I am an admitted twitterholic in that I am loving the study of the zeitgeist of it all-not that I spend hours tweeting, actually I have a ten minute (or so) rule a day- truth be told.

Enough said, let me share what I did because I am pretty confident it will interesting to the other twitterholics and emerging twitter types out there.

Sunlight Foundation the Transparency Watchdogs

Quick Backstory:

The Obama Administration has a stimulus package that includes LOTS of money for projects in America to get us back on track (okay a simplified version).

Obama and his Change team used social media & marketing as a core component of their overall marketing strategy and now everyone is studying the campaign for its elements of success.

The Obama Administration is requesting input on how to ensure Americans, yes, the citizens of this country want to see what is happening with the spending of these funds.

In my opinion this is a good thing- that is seeing what is being spend and where it is being spent.

The Sunlight Foundation is a leading civic organization who has been a great watchdog on Washington surrounding a number of keycivic issues, check out their website to see their work or visit with them at the upcoming National Civic Summit.

Ellen at the Sunlight Foundation sent out an email to her colleagues and it was forwarded to me.

Let the social fun begin.

My Next Steps

(This is typically the moment when a prospective client of mine says “huh” or something similar as the true “business conversation” on Twitter still is new to most participants).

SocialWendy defines Twitter Conversation Definitions

Twitter (in general) is like being at your local association gathering- when you enter, you put on your nametag- this is your Twitter Handle and it should be your own name (or your business name) so people can find you when they are looking for you in the room. You can refer to it in any correspondence like this @JoeSmith and let folks know your new phone number and “dial tone”.

Identify Your Conversation with a Hashtag

It looks like this #transparency and #obama #transparency and #transparency2.0 as it is emerging in the traditional media this weekend. This is like saying that in a small group at a party- we are talking about the Obam Transparency story in the news. As you can see, you may create your own tag to establish a conversation, but others may be doing something similar in a slightly different way, so you have to look external and actively search if you are looking to lead or create a conversation-you will need to watch the dominant industry tweeters to see what they are sharing, and where they are directing their followers.

Link to Reference Sites and People Whos are Doing the Work aka Should get the Credit

The Sunlight Foundation is the organization that is mounting the information collection effort, so I want to get as many people to know about their effort and get them to engage in the information sharing. This needs to be one click easy or the response rate will go down and there will be less collective information for them to share with the Obama administration.

Use a bit.ly

This is where creating your bitly comes in. A bitly is like a tinyurl in that when you copy and paste a long url into the bitly shortening tool, you come out with a shorter url that doesn’ take all your 140 characters on Twitter. I personally like to customize the bitly with what the clickthrough delivers to the end user so the user experience is a good one. Additionally, it supports your search tactics. Also, bit.ly offers the ability to track the performance of the link. So, when you are working with clients who are customizing their twitter conversations in business efforts, you have measurable dimensions to share.

My Test was to Track #transparency & #obama #transparency

My assumption was that the transparency hashtag conversation would be more than double the more defined conversation. One Day in (approximately) there is only one additional page of the double hashtag and I am 15 pages back in the search on the transparency hashtag. Clearly more than I anticipate which is a strong demonstration that many people who tweet want to participate in the relevant conversations “at the association event”, but many have only the most basic knowledge.

My conclusion, for the sake of this blog post, is that we as colleagues need to contiune to share our knowledge about creative and productive ways we are using this emerging social tool.

Also, check out Information Week’s 5.11.09 Edition as they now term this conversation Transparency2.0, so of course I added that hashtag conversation tonight.

Here’s the bit.ly I created & posted on Twitter to direct people to this blog post http://bit.ly/Maximize_Your_Tweets

SocialWendy

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Mark Ritchie Interview Series on The National Civic Summit

May 23, 2009 at 2:32 am · Filed under Civic Engagement, Creating Thought Leadership, National Civic Summit, Social Marketing Campaigns, Social Media 101- Primer & Tools, Social Media Content Creation, What's Next?, You Tube ·Tagged Cause Marketing, Citizens League, citizenship, civic movement, Civic Summit, Content Creation, Event Marketing, Mark Ritchie, National Civic Summit, Social Content, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Wendy, SocialWendy, Thought Leadership, You Tube

Content Strategy for Events can be FUN!

Today I interviewed MN Secretary of State Mark Ritchie as part of our content strategy for the National Civic Summit this July 15-17, 2009 in Minneapolis, MN. This is my second interview with Mark and I will have several more over the coming weeks to take the key messages about the event and the campaign into individual “campaign soundbites” so they can be translated across several social media venues.

I already “biz love” interviewing Mark because he is an expert at message creation. Specifically, I can share with him what we are hoping to convey and minutes later you’ll see a polished and friendly translation on the screen. I can tell you after prepping celebrities and business leaders for media sessions and red carpet, few are this skillful.

Today’s interview is what I would consider an outtake kind of interview, with the audience being able to see the true personalities behind the messaging. I could’ve chosen to repackage or polish this, but in viewing it, I felt it was a great translation of the natural excitement around this project. The team is truly engaged and candid with one another- a great combination to build a successful campaign and support grassroots civic initiative engagement across America. So have a laugh with us- it is the beginning of a long weekend after all!

Stay tuned for more from Mark Ritchie, for Nate Garvis, VP of Government Affairs- Target Corporation, and Sean Kershaw, Executive Director of the Citizens League. I am looking forward to my social on the street chats with all of them- each are great communicators with unique styles.

Watch our social content strategy as it unfolds, and see it in its entirety at the National Civic Summit when we culminate the campaign with a National Tweetup Party sponsored by Target, and it will be part of our Civic Resource Toolkit so we can share our Case Study with civic organizations across the country. Social Marketing is still very new, and using it in conjunction with event & cause messaging it like I tell my social marketing colleagues “living on the edge of the wilderness.”

Thanks for your “social time”

@SocialWendy

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Mark Ritchie Interview about the National Civic Summit

May 16, 2009 at 3:38 am · Filed under Social Marketing Campaigns, Social Media Content Creation, Twitter, You Tube ·Tagged Citizens League, citizenship, civic movement, Civic Summit, Grassroots, Hilton, Mark Ritchie, Mill City Museum, National Civic Summit, Social Wendy, SocialWendy, Target, Target Corporation

Grassroots Civic Movements in America will come together

in Minneapolis July 15-17, 2009

As we build the National Civic Summit, it is really exciting how many great civic organizations are busy changing America on a grassroots level.

The goal of the summit is to educate the public and policymakers about the importance of service learning, character education for citizenship, civic education, and engagement in our democracy. Over 150 organizations dedicated to civic engagement, education and involvement will gather to learn, connect and engage with one another using both traditional methods of networking as well as new media tools such as user-generated content social networking sites, and an online civic toolkit. For more information about the civic summit, please reference the enclosed materials or visit www.nationalcivicsummit.com.

Mark Ritchie- Minnesota Secretary of State

Hear the message directly from Mark Ritchie

As part of the National Civic Summit, the Target Corporation will host a National Tweetup and Opening Night Party at Mill City Museum. Lots of cool details yet to come. In the meantime our team is starting to Tweet to share the news about the summit and the great organizations coming together to build it and participate in the event and in changing America.

The National Civic Summit is a collaboration between Mark Ritchie and the Citizens League.

Our hashtag is #civicsummit and you can follow both our civicsummit & civicsummit09 twitter feeds. www.twitter.com/civicsummit09

Stay tuned for more video from Mark Ritchie and the other key civic leaders involved in building the National Civic Summit.

Keep getting social-

SocialWendy

www.socialwendy.com

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Social Communicators and Journalists are needed to Amplify Active Citizenship in America at the National Civic Summit

A Little Twitter Hashtag Test with the Obama Transparency Initiative

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Grassroots Civic Movements in America will come together

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