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Monday, July 18, 2011

West Virginia has a Summit on Digital Government?



I just found out that West Virginia has an Information Technology Summit… and one of the topics for this year’s session is on digital government and new technologies. First off, I cannot figure out how I did not know about this. Secondly, you better believe I will be there. Thirdly, this Summit needs much better publicity.


From what I can tell by the website, the Summit has ZERO social media applications, which is a huge flaw in my eyes, (and honestly, probably why I didn’t know about it).


In addition to the topics listed above, additional topics for the Summit include; innovation, leadership in challenging times, cloud solutions, and cost savings. But… why isn’t mobile government listed? And I must ask, can someone be more specific? Innovation seems a little vague to me.


After finding this out, I can’t help but wonder… based on my politically social background and involvement in Leadership Kanawha Valley and Leadership West Virginia, would I qualify to be a speaker?

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

The Importance of Viral Influencers



One item on my To Do list this week is to update my media database, something anyone who works with the media and/or brand reputation management should do at least quarterly, if not monthly. Besides traditional media, I have a column for blogs, blog authors, Twitter accounts for national, West Virginia, and tri-state media… but this time I’ve decided to add a new column per media market: Influencers.


Ever since Klout has come about, I feel it’s critical for any business, political campaign, etc… to identify those people on social networks whose opinions/tweets/Facebook posts engage and influence others.


Haven’t heard of Klout? It measures one individual’s influence across the online social-sphere. According to CrunchBase, “Klout allows users to track the impact of their opinions, links and recommendations across your social graph. Data is collected about the content users create, how people interact with that content and the size and composition of their networks. Klout identifies influencers and provides tools for influencers to monitor their influence.”


What kind of influencer am I? According to Klout, I’m a Broadcaster, which means “You broadcast great content that spreads like wildfire. You are an essential information source in your industry. You have a large and diverse audience that values your content.” (Thanks for the ego-boost this morning, Klout!)


Why is this important? Viral is the number one source of message dissemination, be it negative or positive, in today’s media ecosystem. And where does viral start? Social networking sites. Where can viral turn into a frenzy and spin out of control? Social networking sites. Therefore it’s extremely important to identify influencers in each media market. Depending on what content a business, campaign, or individual puts out, an influencer might take the information and put out contrasting content. If that business does not respond, they become less reputable over a short period of time. Even more alarming, if the message is not controlled, a brand, business, candidate, etc… can be discredited almost completely.


And just in case you were wondering… how influential is Klout? See for yourself.