marketing & social media strategist focused primarily on helping public sector organizations achieve their objectives more efficiently and effectively
international speaker and workshop facilitator on the topics of strategic marketing, modern communications, social media engagement and government 2.0
Public Sector Marketing 2.0 - Fresh insights on government, association, and non-profit marketing in a Web 2.0 world
Every year I attend and/or speak at numerous conferences, events, and seminars related to marketing, communications, social media, technology and government. While they all seem to bring value to the table, certain ones stand out from the crowd. Two of these are taking place within the next month.
I asked a senior government communications employee for their communications objectives the other day. Their response was ” to be on the cover of The Globe & Mail” (our national Canadian newspaper). A few weeks ago another client gave me a similar response: “To have an article written about us in the Ottawa Citizen” (our nation’s capital newspaper). When I asked them about their digital presence, they replied that they already have a website (which by the way, appeared on the 8th Google search result page for the most important key phrase relating to their initiative) .
This is usually the time that I take a deep breath…
Forgetting the fact that news of declining newspaper readership is all over newspapers themselves, I begin to wonder at moments like this if certain communications people have ever read a single magazine/publication/journal/article/blog from their industry. If they did, they would know that a few things have changed.
Let’s focus on the most important item…
People use search engines to find information (92% of the online population here in Canada). In fact, over 2 Billion searches are performed on Google each day. You now have access to tools that can tell you how and when people are searching (e.g. Google Insights for Search).
So what?
Your number one goal should be to ensure that people looking for information regarding your initiative can find you. And not just find your website, but rather find your “digital presence”.
What am I talking about?
If you’re not engaged in the discussion surrounding your initiative on at least one other relevant 2-way channel (i.e. blog, twitter, social network, photo/video sharing site, etc…), then you may as well not be present at all. Being on the cover of Globe & Mail will get you a big hit of traffic on that particular day, however it will quickly fade into oblivion as you have no place to sustain the discussion.
A solid digital presence will ensure that upon searching for relevant keywords, people will notice that your various web properties dominate the first few pages of Google, and thus you will easily be able to funnel in the majority of your target audience.
Need an example? Type my name “Mike Kujawski” into Google. Rather than having only my website show up, you’ll notice that Google brings up my various other web properties such as Slideshare, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube in addition to thousands of places that I have contributed content to. On all of these, I have content relating to my niche. I have also made sure to have at least a few listings on the first page of results for terms such as “government 2.0″, “public sector marketing” and ” social media in government”. The best part is that I can measure the quality of traffic coming in via each search term and closely monitor their actions (using Google Analytics).
This is how you create a sustainable holistic web presence. Why isn’t this a primary goal for everyone involved in communications?
When I first launched the CEPSM social media marketing workshop in April, 2008, I really had no idea that it would garner such a positive response. In fact, we quickly stopped going through the logistical hassle of organizing public workshops since there was more than enough demand for private ones (organizations inviting me in). CEPSM was never meant to be solely in the workshop business, but this way all logistical items were taken care of by the client. However, over the last year, CEPSM has been getting numerous requests from individuals in the public and non-profit sectors to once again offer a social media marketing workshop that is open to the public. Well guess what, we listened.
To solve our logistical dilemma , we decided to partner with an organization that has been conducting workshops successfully for decades, The Centre of Excellence for Communications. Yes, I know it’s ironic that we happen to share similar names, however don’t let that confuse you. The CEC’s core business is workshops, whereas CEPSM’s core business is the consulting side (although training is part of our consulting process). I’ll stop confusing you though. The bottom line is this, on November 25-26, 2009 CEPSM/CEC are jointly launching the 2-day Social Media Strategies for the Public Sector workshop. The intent is to offer this workshop in major cities across Canada for the first year and then see how it evolves from there.
Those of you familiar with my 1-day workshop will notice the switch to 2-days. I wanted to change things up a bit and add a hands-on session where each participant can get their hands dirty by actually using all of the tools I introduce during Day 1. Further still, we will be using a live Google Doc to fill out certain sections of the workbook collaboratively.I like to practice what I preach as much as I possibly can. This is a great opportunity for me to do so.
For those of you interested in receiving this training as part of a University Certificate, be sure to see if our Professional Certificate in Public Sector Marketing course offered through Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business is a right fit for you. I’m really looking forward to being part of the instructional team this year!
Ok then, if you have any questions whatsoever, fire me an email or give me a call. Also, to stay up to date on my speaking schedule visit the Upcoming Speaking Engagements page on my blog. And yes, we will still be offering our private workshops for those interested. This is not meant to replace them.
