I recently took part in Ottawa’s second “Case Study Jam,” (twitter.com/CaseStudyJam) – an open learning and dialogue event for people who work in or care about social media, whether in government, businesses or elsewhere. (more…)
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Archive for February, 2010
Case Study Jam – A few golden rules for using social media
Friday, February 19th, 2010
Engaging with the New Facebook
Friday, February 12th, 2010
Facebook recently launched a new Home Page design and is also planning more changes for how Facebook Applications can engage users. A fairly technical developer roadmap has been published by Facebook but we’ll try to summarize here:
The Bad
With the current round of changes Facebook Applications going to take a hit initially in terms of traditional user engagement tools. Facebook Notifications will be discontinued soon, instead Facebook Applications will be expected to communicate with users via Email or the Application Newsfeed Items. Facebook Invites and Requests will also be moving to the Facebook Inbox and won’t have a prominent screen location.
These changes are consistent with Facebook’s direction of forcing user application engagement into the Facebook Newsfeed/Stream. Given the level of Application spam we’ve seen from Facebook Games and other noisy application this seems to be the correct direction to maintain an engaged user base.
With more and more communication moving to the Facebook Inbox a number of changes are planned to provide better filtering on communication. Facebook has provided the following preview of how Invites will be filtered in the new Inbox:
Profile Changes
Facebook Profile boxes and Extended Profile Information ( rarely used ) will be discontinued but users can still manually add a Tab on their profile for their favourite Facebook Applications. And example of the Facebook Profile Tab, using the Where I’ve been Application:
The Facebook Tab functionality has been available for while but has been widely under used by users. We’re not expecting this to change unless Facebook provides a greater push to educate users to provide tools to make adding a Facebook Tab easier.
The Good
Facebook Application Newsfeed items will be moved to the new Application or Game Bashboards. An example of the Game Dashboard:
The Dashboard will show your activity in applications you’ve used recently. Your Friends recently used Applications will also be displayed, if there privacy settings allow them. A smaller Application Directory will also be included on the Dashboard with popular Applications. One of the most engaging aspects of the Facebook Application Dashboard is the addition of small notification “counters” indicating activity within the Dashboards. This is a similar process to the iPhone and other platforms to provide subtle notice of activity that the user can investigate further.
We’re expecting that the separate Application Dashboard should allow Applications to engage more directly with users and avoid a lot of the noise associated with the Facebook Games. The main unknown is how quickly and how often users will use the Application Dashboards.
Facebook Pages
In this round of updates, the Facebook Pages have received very little in the way of new functionality but maybe the most telling is the lack of change. Facebook Pages can still issue items into the Facebook Newsfeed/Stream and continue to be a very powerful tool to engage Facebook users. Even with the stock functionality of Facebook Page it can very engaging and it can also host Facebook Applications as specialized Tabs for Contests or News Letter information.
Facebook Connect Additions
Facebook continues to add more functionality to Facebook Connect and provide the ability to use Facebook functionality on external sites. Facebook Chat can now be integrated into external websites and instant messaging services. The Facebook Translations engine can also be used on external websites to provide translation functionality similar to what is available inside of Facebook.
Facebook’s roadmap also has commitments to increased support for Facebook Connect through what they are calling the Open Graph API. The intent behind the Open Graph API is to allow external websites to duplicate much of the function of their Facebook Page on their own website. In this way the engagement they have with users can be same inside Facebook or on their own website.
- Colin Smillie -
“Hard Times, Hard Choices”: The power of public deliberation to solve tough problems
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
When people have access to balanced information about an issue and an opportunity to talk-through policy options with others, they are willing to make tough choices and sacrifices to serve the public interest.
If you pay attention to traditional public opinion polls, it’s easy to get depressed about the public’s capacity to play a productive role in its own governance. After all, people just want lower taxes and better services, right?
Wrong.
Surveys only scratch the surface and don’t give people the space to really think about a tough problem or issue facing their community. They only gather knee-jerk or “top of mind” responses.
In stark contrast, a recent public dialogue – the “Hard Times, Hard Choices” project from Michigan – shows the power of deliberation to solve tough problems. This was no survey.
The project brought together a representative sample of over 300 people from across Michigan to recommend directions for the state’s economy and budget. The organizers used a Deliberative Polling approach: the process starts and ends with a poll about key questions, but the interesting part is what happens between these. Participants learn about the issues through balanced briefings, and then think through options in small groups. By comparing people’s opinions in the before and after polls, organizers can literally measure deliberation or informed participation.
Here are a few of the results that I found interesting. You can read the full report here.
People actually recommended increasing their taxes. By the end of public deliberations, support for increasing income tax had gone up from 27% to 45%. Similarly, support or raising sales taxes rose from 37% to 51%.
People also recommended decreasing business taxes. At the end of the process, support for cutting business taxes rose from 40% to 67%. They believed it would stimulate businesses and create jobs.
You can actually see footage from “Hard Times, Hard Choices” here. It’s from a PBS documentary on the project.
- Ellis Westwood -
Toyota, Community & Public Participation
Friday, February 5th, 2010
How the carmaker could be better engaging its community to assess and fix recent safety problems.
Over the past weeks and months, Toyota has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Reports of technical problems with its cars, along with suggestions that it failed to take safety reports seriously, have damaged its brand and relationships that matter most – with its customers. I’m on of those, with a 2007 Prius.
PR professionals have already been lamenting what the see as the carmaker’s slow, confused and unstrategic communications response.
I’ve been thinking about this too, but from a public participation perspective – about how Toyota could be building and engaging its community, especially its loyal base of “true believers”, as it responds to safety concerns.
Here are some of the community-building steps I think they should be considering:
Actively involving their community in assessing the scope of the problem.
Part of Toyota’s woes is the perception that it doesn’t fully understand the scope of safety problems. To really find out, it could use an online story tool where customers could privately submit reports of technical issues, along with their car’s serial number. This could provide Toyota with a rich dataset to analyze and contact information for those most concerned for proactive customer service.
Sending personalized help and advice to individual community members
Right now, owners are worried and are seeking information. But by Toyota’s own admission, callers are experiencing long wait times “on hold” to call centres. Not ideal. A better approach would be to create an online tool where owners could register for information, by providing their model, year of production and email address. Using this contact, Toyota could send people personalized information for their specific car, including whether there is a problem, where clients can go to get it fixed, and what they can do in the meantime.
Hosting local dealership dialogue events
People who purchased their cars from local dealerships may have stronger relationships with these showrooms and individual sales staff than with Toyota head office. The problem right now is that many of these local representatives may be getting their news from TV, just like everybody else. Instead, Toyota could be reaching out to these community members by empowering and encouraging dealers to host in-person events with customers to share experiences, fixes and timelines.
Right now, Toyota’s approach seems old-fashioned and top-down. Already, pundits are predicting severe damage to the brand unless it changes strategy. Hopefully they are using social media to listen for suggestions.
Have other suggestion for Toyota? Share them with us and our @ascentum community!
- Ellis Westwood -
8 Principles for Public Outreach
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
It is never too late to start an outreach campaign, as long as your public participation initiative is still open. In this document we outline eight different principles and strategies for outreach, including the dos and don’ts for each. The principles include pointers on messaging, interactivity, ambassadors, mediums, the rationale, tracking, intentions, and social media.
You can download the latest in our Open Government Directions series here: Eight Principles of Public Outreach.
Posted in Commentary and Opinion, Publications | 1 Comment »