Social Media for Municipalities

I am starting research for an article I’m writing for Texas Municipal League’s Texas Town and City magazine, on social media for municipalities. There is a dearth of information out there on this subject. Barack Obama’s campaign made great use of social media to spread his message, and as President, he has continued and expanded that use. My research is showing that the federal government is leading the way for local government. The stumbling block for them was that the terms of service (TOS) were unacceptable. So they negotiated new government-wide agreements with Facebook, MySpace, Youtube, and other providers. Read more about this process here. GSA has created a place where gov’t agencies can go to sign up for these apps that now have “federal friendly” terms of service. Go to apps.gov to read more.

Here’s an excellent overview article – the “Yellow Brick Roadmap: Five Examples of Getting Gov 2.0 Done

So, that being said, what about state and local governments? Each state seems to be making its own way. Washington State has a good wiki on “Social Web Handbook for Washington State Local Electeds”. This wiki covers some of the legal questions that should be contemplated such as the issue of elected officials posting on each others’ pages, and records retention guidelines. While each state may have a different response,  this handbook lays out some important considerations for any local elected officials.

If you have found other material along these lines, please drop me a line at carla.pendergraft@gmail.com or simply post a response here on my blog.

 

“Official” title on Google

I got a question recently, “How did you get the Google search engine results page to say, “Welcome to the Official Facebook Page of the…” Good news! I didn’t do anything special other than create a Facebook business page. Facebook automatically inserts this text somewhere where Google then picks it up. As long as you create a Fan page (also called business pages), you’ll get this same moniker!

Cameron Park Zoo

I’m at the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, Texas, working with them to set up their Facebook business page and their Twitter feed. Hopefully you will see a Cameron Park Zoo blog soon as well!

IFEA ‘09

We are at IFEA ‘09 in Indianapolis and learning all about WIKIS!

Downloading YouTube Videos

As a speaker, I’m often asked if I really need that connection to the Internet due to the cost. Usually I’m presenting a PowerPoint, but I often want to play a YouTube video. No connection is needed! Just use the YouTube Downloader, and then convert to whatever format works best for you.

I like the quality I see when I convert it to Windows Media Format. (.wmv)

If you just need to download a YouTube video, use this site:  http://youtubedownload.altervista.org/.  You’ll have to install their software on your machine for it to work.

I have recently used zamzar.com, which is a site you can go to, put in the link to the YouTube video, and they will convert it and email it to you. This is where I’ve gotten the best quality on the YouTube video. The best quality is the Windows Media Format.

I have not had good luck in embedding it directly into PowerPoint 2003 because it seems to stumble and hang up. So what I do is have the video in Windows Media Format on my desktop, and when it comes to the slide where I want to play the video, I click on Screen – Switch Programs, and pull up Windows Media Player. I switch it to full screen mode, and this has given me the best quality to play during a PowerPoint presentation. This way, you don’t have to rely on an internet connection that has difficulty playing a YouTube video smoothly, nor do you have the problems with quality, movie screen size, and skipping that happen when you embed it.

If anyone else has a better solution, please let me know. This has been a frustrating process to try to find the perfect, low cost or free solution for getting the best quality YouTube video for a presentation.

Are You Judging Me?

We are working with a talented Gen Y intern. He has a great and useful saying. When he detects sarcasm as someone is talking to him, he stops and says, “Are you judging me?”

When you think about it, this is something we all do every day. We judge others’ clothing, demeanor, intent, and actions instead of accepting them as they are and where they are. Maybe we should judge less and accept more readily.

How to Embed Twitter Updates in your Website

A client recently asked me, “Carla, I saw a website where they had their most recent Twitter updates running along the right hand side. Can you do this with my website?”

Intrigued by the challenge, I Googled it and found several widgets that claim to do this. I tried them out, but they didn’t all work well in every browser. So I went back to twitter.com to see if they had a solution, and voila! they do. Should have started there!

This is pretty easy to do. Just login at Twitter.com, click on Help, and look for the question, “Can I put my Twitter updates on my blog?” Click on the words “Twitter badge” and follow the instructions. I like the Flash-based one. You can put it on your website, blog, or what have you, as long as you can insert HTML code. It’s similar to embedding a YouTube video.

Steve, thanks for the question! If you would like to look at this in action, go to #mce_temp_url# It’s really smooth.

Busy times

July/August has been a busy time. Finishing up a site for a Waco psychologist, working on another design for an airport, and proposals for a church furniture company and a very talented artist. Launched Shankleville.org.

And starting on presentations for Society of Government Meeting Planners’s August meeting; Texas Municipal League’s October convention, and International Festivals and Events Association September convention.

Just finished up a neat website for a freedmen’s community in E. TX called Shankleville. http://ping.fm/tl7vF

Looking at nixle.com, looks like a neat service for police depts., traffic monitoring for cities.