We’re in the heat of the political season. The primaries have concluded and the general election races have begun.  A common element across campaigns at all levels is the use of social media to brand the candidate, engage followers and participate in a virtual debate.  A good article was posted today in socialmediatoday.com under the heading Social Media Tips of Politicians.  The author has done a good job in identifying how to participate in social media, some good tips on what to do and what not to do.   Enjoy!

http://socialmediatoday.com/dezguy/702771/social-media-tips-politicians

Yet another insight and opinion on Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality Is Pro-Business

Dustin Jacobsen – Social Media Director at Barkley and I gave this presentation to about 60 people for a Lenexa Chamber of Commerce Lunch and Learn. Enjoy

http://bit.ly/cGGxi9

Also, go to Dustin Jacobsen’s post at http://shakegently.com/2010/04/15/lunch-learn-lenexa-using-social-media-in-your-business/

Lenexa, Kansas – my city, is one of 600 or so cities across the country vying for the Google High Speed Fiber project. Our city staff, community and City Council has been working on this since it was initially announced. To find out more information go to http://www.yeslenexa.com.  Of course we are hopeful that our wonderful demographics, positioning in the Bio Tech, Bio Science, education and IT sectors will make us an attractive candidate for this test.  We’re a city of roughly 33 square miles, 50,000 population with over a 1,000 miles of fiber already in the ground, 20 of those belonging to the City.

Take a look at the following article from Wired.com.  190,000 People and 600 Cities Want Google’s Fast Fiber

Read More http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/03/google-fiber-apply/#ixzz0jO8N3uyX

Cheer for Lenexa Kansas!  I’ll let you know how we fare!

It is somewhat mind-blowing to see the stats in the following video. Enjoy!

This is another official update to the original “Shift Happens” video. This completely new Fall 2009 version includes facts and stats focusing on the changing media landscape, including convergence…

Facebook’s 300 million users collectively spend more than 8 billion minutes on the site each day

These are eye opening statistics about Facebook and their usage as recounted this week  by Facebook’s VP of engineering, Mike Schroepfer.  Also, 1.2 million photos are served on Facebook each second. Wow! See the article
Facebook Users Spend 8 Billion Minutes/Day on the Site from Gigaom.com

Email, stuck in the era of attachments, seems boring compared to services like Google Wave

Very interesting, insightful article on Email versus “the new stuff”.  WSJ: The End of the Email Era

Remember when emails were seen as an informal way to communicate? The shift has occurred now where email is seen as more formal and text, Twitter, and other social media are the informal venue.

Enjoy the article… I did!

-Andy

Stats taken from SocialMediatoday.com http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/110196

According to a new study by Anderson Analytics that involved 5,000 U.S. social media users:

• 61% of social media users are under age 35
• 55% of social media users are female
• 29% of Facebook and LinkedIn users say they could “probably do without” the popular networks
• 35% said they could do without MySpace
• 43% could live without Twitter
• Under 35, people rely on social networks for “fun” and contacting friends
• Older consumers use them to stay in touch with family and friends
• 75%  said Facebook was their most valuable network, 65% who cited MySpace
• 30% said LinkedIn was their most valuable network
• 12%  said Twitter was most valuable
• 32% of male respondents said using social media for business/career contacts was a key benefit, 22% for females

The Anderson report also found an estimated 110 million people in the U.S., 36% of the total population, use social media regularly. Of that group, Facebook dominates with 78 million regular users, followed by MySpace with 67 million, Twitter with 17 million, and LinkedIn with 11 million regular users.

From stateline.org an article talking about politicians at state and federal levels using Twitter to communicate with their constituents. Twitter becomes political tool.  I like the fact that there are some legislative directories that list those legislators who use Twitter and other forms of social networking. I also like the directories like GovTwit.com and TweetCongress. 

Is this a good way for your elected officials to communicate with you?