Hidden Canadian Government Gems

I’ve mentioned this before and I’ll mention it again, certain government departments are full of great hidden online products/tools that few people know of. Those outside of government walls may find it hard to believe, but it’s true. Some departments have been told to keep a low-profile on their offering for political reasons, others don’t yet realize just how much value they could potentially bring to audiences beyond their existing niche. In other cases still, it’s the complete lack of a well thought out marketing strategy that is to blame.

This will soon change. It’s becoming harder and harder to remain invisible. Believe it or not, we are slowly moving into the early adopter phase of Government 2.0 here in Canada. A demand for increased transparency, collaboration across multiple stakeholders, and a wide variety of new channels for participation with Canadian citizens, are all bringing to light some of these existing little gems, and rapidly giving birth to new ones. We’re still a far cry away from U.S initiatives such as data.gov and apps.gov, however here are three great Canadian online products/tools that I’ve stumbled upon through my consulting:

Working in Canada Tool – A government mash-up tool that allows you to search for an occupation that you’re interested in and receive up-to-date, accurate information from a wide variety of integrated databases. It puts certain private sector fee-based tools to shame. It was initially developed for skilled immigrants looking to work in Canada. Once you try it out yourself you’ll realize that it’s useful for much more than that.

Termium Plus – An incredible translation tool initially only used by government departments internally. It’s now available to the public. Try typing in a word in English and see just how thorough it is.

GC Surplus Auction – If you think you can find great things to buy on e-Bay, take a look a this Canadian Federal Government auction website. I just found a 2003 Yamaha ATV with a starting bid of $100.

There are plenty more of course. And they will only get better, especially as they begin to transition into stand-alone mobile applications. What I’m curious about though is what you’ve come across lately? Whether you’re a public servant, consultant, or citizen, there’s bound to be an online government tool that impressed you.

The state of social media in the Canadian federal government

In the spirit of community and social media, I have decided to post up a revised version of my presentation from Podcamp Montreal on SlideShare. It is highly visual in nature and is not really meant to act as a stand alone document, however some of you may find it useful. The topic of this presentation was “Social Media & Canadian Government Usage Examples”. I focused mainly on the Canadian federal government due to limited presentation time and the sheer amount of content to cover. I have embedded it below. Feel free to skip through my intro or browse through it in the 17.6 seconds I always present it in.  Otherwise it looks like a ridiculous self-promotion, which it is not meant to be (it was a personal branding experiment). Enjoy!

Online advertising expected to take-up 18% of marketing budgets within 5 years.

Realistic or too optimistic? What do you think? Should we expect the same in Canada?

“NEW YORK — After years of interactive advertising being dominated by search and display advertising and e-mail programs, new outlets and more sophisticated marketers portend more diverse spending in years to come, according to a new study.

Forrester Research, like nearly all ad-spending forecasts, projects marketers will shift budgets online at a quick pace in the next five years. By 2012, it expects the market will hit $61.3 billion, up from $18.4 billion in 2007. In five years, Forrester expects interactive spending to account for 18% of marketing budgets.

Forrester sees much higher spending growth in newer areas. It expects buying in the “emerging channels” category (in-game advertising, social networks, mobile) to grow from $1 billion to $10.6 billion in 2012, when it will make up 17% of all spending. Online video is set to grow from $471 million in 2007 to $7.2 billion in 2012, accounting for 12% of online marketing spending.” - Brian Morrissey , Brandweek

You can read the full article here…

It’s kind of hard to believe, especially when my province (Ontario) just spent 6 million dollars on completely ineffective 30-second commercial spots for the provincial elections/referendum. When will the government learn to stop letting ad agencies decide which marketing communications activities they should be engaging in? Until the ad agency compensation structure is changed, every ad agency will convince you that you need a TV spot. I mean common! $6 million! for what? Just imagine what that kind of budget could have accomplished if it was put towards a social media strategy.

I am bold enough to say that for 1/100th of that budget given to me personally, I could have given Elections Ontario a significantly better result. Oh well, at least we can celebrate “Family Day” now…