Understand the strengths and challenges of your social media toolkit
To reach stakeholders and observers, you need to build a social media toolkit. This table helps identify strengths and weaknesses of some popular tools.
Conference Saturdays: When in doubt have cultists attack
What can communicators, community-builders and campaign organizers learn from Dungeons and Dragons? Julien Smith explains.
Secret sauce: How Twitter helped a client in a crisis
I was part of a team hired to help an organization that was dealing with a crisis – a series of cascading reputation issues. Twitter was key to our success.
Changing your relationship with control
Give up control. That’s a refrain I’ve often heard in conversations about the relationship organizations should have with their brand in the age of digital communication. I was reminded of that when I read the story of the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) being heavy-handed in their protection of the [...]
Digital makeover: Thomas Mulcair
Prior to announcing his candidacy for the NDP leadership, he didn’t have a Twitter account. That was something of lore among political observers. In fact, Evan Solomon pursued the issue during his appearance on CBC’s Power and Politics. That’s all changed now. I’m talking about Thomas Mulcair. And today, after performing a digital makeover of [...]
Digital makeover: Jim Karygiannis
Jim Karygiannis was in the news a few weeks ago, promoting the need for speed limiters following a horrific car crash in Toronto believed to be street-racing related. Part of the online attention included a powerful video produced by The Toronto Star which he posted to his YouTube channel. And so, Mr. Karygiannis becomes the subject of [...]
Digital makeover: Lisa Raitt
I wasn’t planning on doing a second digital makeover in the same week. However, this MP has been in the media lately and I figured there was relevance in doing a makeover of this MP now. I’m talking about Labour Minister Lisa Raitt. Ms. Raitt is the MP who had to publicly apologize for referring [...]
Digital makeover: Paul Dewar
This is the first in a new series of posts I’m going to publish. In each, I’ll do an assessment of one politician’s web presence. To be clear, each of these posts will examine and make recommendations for the MP to have a greater impact online. I am not going to redesign their websites. In [...]
There’s plenty of sugar water for everyone
One year ago we enjoyed an incredible week long vacation on Beaver Lake. We had the privilege of using the cottage of a family that had kindly donated its available weeks to Cottage Dreams, a charity called which connects people who have been through cancer treatment with cottages that are vacant for one week periods. It’s simple. [...]
Online communities: what are they?
In the real world, communities have historically formed around geography (e.g. neighbourhood), common interests (e.g. politics) and common situations (e.g. parenthood). The good news is that the digital world is part of the real world. So, online communities similarly form around geography, common interests and common situations. There is a common belief about online communities [...]
Updated Peace, Order and Googleable Government
The Internet community is alive and well. One of the many benefits is the fantastic and productive feedback the online community is willing to share. I received some about Peace, Order and Googleable Government, the report I released yesterday, and have revised the report as a result. The updated version replaces the version already available for [...]
Five suggestions for building community
One of the cornerstones of relationship building is the time and attention afforded for connecting with other individuals. This is true of developing personal and professional relationships. In fact, many people will tell you that the foundation of a marriage is communication; actually taking the time to connect and maintain a strong connection with your [...]
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