Social Media for Government Conference in Ottawa

August 4, 2009 • Joseph Thornley • AdvancedLearningInstitute, ALI

Here’s a conference that I’m looking forward to: Social Media for Government, September 29 – October 2 in Ottawa.

I’ve participated in the Advanced Learning Institute’s (ALI) social media conferences for the past two years. And I’ve found that each one is better than the previous one.

The conference producer, Kelly Flynn, listens closely to the conference participants – what they want to learn, which sessions they find most useful, which speakers have the most to offer. And she uses what she gleans to ensure that each conference session reflects the state of the art and the interests of participants.

This autumn, the conference will be packed with expert speakers presenting best practices and experienced managers talking about the social media programs they have implemented and what they have learned from that experience.

Speakers and topics include:

Colin McKay from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner speaking about how organizations must tailor their voices and content to different social media;
Nicholas Charney from Indian Affairs and Northern Development talking about the importance of introducing employees to social media behind the firewall before setting them loose in the wild;
Ralph Mercer of the Canadian Forces Aerospace Warfare Centre describing the change process a hierarchical organization organization goes through in order to adopt social media to its needs;
Jean-Simon Marquis from the Canada School of Public Service on using social media to leverage communities of practice for knowledge sharing inside and organization;
Chantal Wolf and Jennifer Savage explain how the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is using a Wiki and Lotus Connections to build organizational knowledge and how they are measuring ROI;
Adrian Cloete and Tracie Noftle describing how Human Resources and Skills Development Canada developed a “corrective blogging” approach;
Theresa Woolridge and Amy Jarrette mapping out the social media planning process used by Public Safety Canada;
Mike Spear tells how Genome Alberta has build its social media strategy on Facebook and Twitter;
Mark Hudson and Marquis Cote share how the Public Health Agency of Canada used social media to respond to the H1N1 (swine flu) outbreak;
Chris Wightman and Mark Faul discuss how they are making a business case for social media in the City of Ottawa and measuring the ROI of their social media activities;
Michel Savoie and Tim Yull on how RBC, Canada’s largest financial institution, has used social media for drive information sharing and innovation.

It’s a real pleasure to be chairing this edition of the A.L.I. “Social Media for Government Conference” in Ottawa on September 29 – October 2, 2009. I hope you’ll join me at this outstanding opportunity to meet, mix with and learn from some of the leading practitioners of social media for government.

If you’d like more information, download the conference brochure. Or if you’ve already made up your mind to attend, you can register online. (Register this week to get the Early Bird registration rate, discounted $400 off the regular registration fee.)

UPDATE: GET 50% OFF THE REGISTRATION FEE. @kellyflynn just DMed me to let me know that you can get a 50% discount off the conference registration fee if you mention my name when you register. I guess being the Chair of the conference does have some benefits. 🙂 And no, I don’t get any money from this. Just the pleasure of participating in a successful conference full of passionate people who want to learn about social media.

10 Questions: How did I get into PR?

July 21, 2009 • Joseph Thornley • AboutMe

As part of his One on One interview seriesfor PR in Canada, Dave Forde asked me to explain how I got into PR.

My answer: By accident.

I was studying for a Ph.D. in political science when I realized that I was not cut out to be a teacher. Nor was I likely to get one of the scarce political science teaching jobs then available at Canadian universities.

So, I found myself a job on Parliament Hill. Eventually, I moved into the role of Special Assistant to Canada’s Minister of Communications, where I handled the Minister’s relations with the Parliamentary Press Gallery.

I was fascinated by how news was gathered, reworked, and the struggle of people with facts to ensure they made it into news reports. In short, I was hooked. And my career path was determined.

You can watch my complete answer to this question this short video.

How about you? How did you decide on your career?

A progress marker on the road from the old to the new

July 7, 2009 • Joseph Thornley • 76design, recruiting, ThornleyFallis

Over the past five years, I’ve been working to move Thornley Fallis and 76design from a dying traditional PR business model to a new business model more in tune with the disintermediated world of individual voices and communities of interest. A world in which anyone with something to express can have a voice and others who share their interests can find them and develop relationships with them that transcend the restrictions of geography. In short, a world of social software, social media, communities of interest and relationship building.

square What does our new business look like? Well, its draws on a broader range of skills than have traditionally been associated with PR. Yes, we start with our established understanding of communication and design as an enabler. But we add to this an understanding of sociology, group dynamics and organizational design. An understanding of search engines and always-on mobile connections. And an ability to design Web applications to enable people to do the things we are imagining.

It’s one thing to see these new opportunities. But it’s another thing to instill excitement about them in others. And it’s even tougher to get people who are successful in doing things the way they always have done them to open their minds to the likelihood that they may not be able to sustain this over the long term.

So, I was delighted to read how LeeEllen Carroll, a member of our Ottawa team with a background in traditional journalism, described Thornley Fallis and 76design in a posting on the shift+control blog.

[Thornley Fallis and 76design] help clients reach, connect with, and build and sustain positive relationships with their communities through the integrated use of on-line and off-line tactics.

We design the creative, build the innovative, and manage the complicated.

Every member of our firm believes in the power of digital engagement. Everything we do is designed to foster that. We engender mutual respect and trust between our clients and their respective stakeholders and audiences. Our clients are a mix of high-profile corporate brands, bleeding-edge startups, government and associations. For these clients, we go beyond. We don’t leave it at working for and representing them; we believe in them, we brag about them.

Our shop is dynamic, open-minded, eclectic and centrally located. Our style is fresh, friendly, professional and invigorating.

The common thread in all of our efforts is a big idea of what the conversation economy can do for our clients to solve real business challenges and create new business opportunities.

I didn’t write this. I didn’t even know about it until I read it on the blog.

So why am I delighted to read this description? Because LeeEllen has described the new kind of company that will thrive in the era of social media. In her own words. Without any prompting from me.

An organization and its culture cannot be changed by fiat. They can only be changed by common agreement among the people who populate it. To succeed, the people who work at our company must come to share our new vision and see themselves being successful through it.

LeeEllen’s description of the company tells me that the people I work with understand the changes in our business and are embracing them. We are well on our way in the transition from the old model to the new. We’re making progress. And that feels good.

10 Questions with PR in Canada

July 5, 2009 • Joseph Thornley • 10questions, DaveForde, oneonone, PRinCanada

10questions 090705 Dave Forde asked me to answer ten questions for a new series of one on one interviews he’ll be posting on PR in Canada. In looking at the video of my responses, I realized that Dave had prompted me to reflect on things that I’d normally write about in Pro PR. So, over the next while, I’ll post short videos, each with my answer to one of the questions that Dave asked:

How did I get into PR?
What is involved in my role on a daily basis?
What are the biggest change (s) to the PR industry in 2009?
What are some of the challenges I see the PR industry facing today?
How and when did Thornley Fallis embrace social media?
What impact has it had on our business?
Are we currently hiring?
What are some key traits that I look for when hiring?
What impact am I seeing the current economic climate having on the PR industry?
Newspapers and other tradition media have been going through a major shift. What impact does this have on the PR industry?

I know that Dave has asked several other members of the Canadian public relations community to participate in these one on one interviews. So, if you’re interested in knowing more about the people who shape Canada’s PR industry, you may want to subscribe to PR in Canada’s RSS feed.

Disclosure: We're on the Zoompass team

June 15, 2009 • Joseph Thornley • disclosure, EnStream, Zoompass

Thornley Fallis has been engaged to help EnStream launch the Zoompass mobile payment service. (Zoompass users can request and transfer money between one another directly from their smartphones. They can also transfer money directly to a prepaid touchless MasterCard to make purchases.)

zoompasslogo During the launch phase, Kerri Birtch (@kerribirtch), Dave Fleet (@davefleet), and I (@thornley) will be monitoring the online discussions about Zoompass and participating in them through the Zoompass Twitter ID and through posts on the Zoompass blog. We’ll be supporting Zoompass’ Vice President, Aran Hamilton (@aranh) in this effort.

It’s our hope that, working as a team, we’ll be able to be present in the conversation from early in the morning to late at night seven days a week.

If we refer to Zoompass on our own Twitter accounts, we’ll insert “(client)” into the tweet to be sure that the reader, whether they know us or not, is alerted to the fact that we have a relationship with Zoompass.

I’m really excited about being part of the launch. I’ve been playing with Zoompass for a couple months prior to the launch and I think it will add a whole new function to my cellphone.

If you are curious about Zoompass and how you could use it, click over to the Zoompass Website to sign up to try it out. And once you start to use it, follow the Zoompass Twitter stream. If you ask a question or offer a comment there, you can be sure that we’ll respond to it.

Follow the PRSA Counselors Academy Spring Conference

May 30, 2009 • Joseph Thornley • CounselorsAcademy, PRSA

ca2009 Every year in the spring, the members of the PRSA’s Counselors Academy gather in a beastly hot southern resort for the organization’s spring conference. Counselors Academy membership is restricted to principals of PR firms or senior practitioners (at least 10 years consulting experience). So, the conversation is unlike any other gathering I have found.

I’m heading to this year’s conference in Palm Springs (37 degrees today – feels blazing hot to my Canadian skin).

I’ll be tweeting the sessions, as will many other people. We’ll be using the hashtag #CA2009. So, if you’re interested in any of the presenters, search on Twitter for #CA2009.

Among the speakers who I’m looking forward to seeing and tweeting:

Archlight Pacific Theatres Cinerama Dome Robert Stephens, founder of the Geek Squad, on how Geek Squad used reputation to build a strong brand;

Steve McKee, author of When Growth Stalls, talking about how to pull your business out of its recession-induced funk;

Suzanne Bates offering advice on how to motivate people within your organization (This has to be my top priority – how to motivate people when the recession is battering them.)

David Anderson and Jason Baer leading a discussion on launching digital marketing services to extend a PR practice;

Robert Merritt leading a roundtable on how to improve and measure your level of client satisfaction;

Tom Gable talking about how we can manage for results and profits in bad times as well as good times; suzannebates

Monty Hagler and Gary Towning providing their advice on shaping an integrated program in which PR does not get pushed to the side by advertising and marketing;

Janet Tyler leading a session on how to figure out what current clients value and think of your firm and the services you provide;

Michael Lasky talking about how to negotiate client-agency contracts that will work for both sides of the deal;

Brad Schwartzberg and Mark Eber offering their advice on how to grow through mergers and acquisitions.

So, if you’re interested in any of this, you can follow the coverage by searching for #CA2009 on Twitter.

PR Week to end publication of Canadian Newsletter

April 30, 2009 • Joseph Thornley • PRWeek

prweekcanadiannewsletter-090430 Here’s sad news: PR Week will announce Monday that it is shutting down its Canadian Newsletter.

This comes on the heels of PR Week’s announcement that it would take its weekly main publication exclusively online, gate its content and switch its print publication to a monthly magazine format. On top of this, Editor-in-Chief Keith O’Brien earlier this month left PR Week to join a PR firm.

Last year, PR Week established a Canadian Newsletter and Canadian PR Week microsite in order to generate additional Canadian subscribers and advertising. Signs began to emerge in March that this effort was in trouble. First, PR Week announced that it was changing the publishing schedule of the Canadian Newsletter to monthly from semi-monthly. Then, PR Week quietly cancelled plans for a Canadian Roundtable and Thought Leader Breakfast. They had tried without luck to find sponsors to host this both in Vancouver and Toronto. Now, the Canadian Newsletter will be cancelled altogether.

These are tough times. I wish the folks at PR Week well and hope that they make it through to the other side of the recession.

What would you charge for public relations services?

March 5, 2009 • Joseph Thornley • business, fees, publicrelations

istock_000000752057xsmall I received an email through the CCPRF Website from a new public relations practitioner asking how he should charge for his services. I’d like to share his email and my response.

The question:

I’m an up and coming media/PR consultant. I was in the media industry for 13 years and now I’m looking to develop my own consulting business. …

Recently, I acquired my first client. I’ll be paid on a per project basis. The client wants me to work on a social networking website campaign I suggested. Basically, I’ll be putting together this small business’ Facebook and Twitter pages. I’m trying to figure out how much I can charge this business. Should I go with a per hour rate? If so, how much? Or a flat rate? If so, how much? I’m also trying to determine how long it will take to build traffic and interest to these social networking pages. I’m guessing it’ll take 4 to 5 months for any substantial growth. This company is looking at this campaign as a new way to attract interest to its website/store.

I’d appreciate any thoughts as to how much I can charge.

My answer:

What you charge depends on the overhead you must carry (your needs), the value to the client (what you should charge), the budget of the client (what you may only be able to charge.) Bottom line, I’d start by asking for a fee equal to what I think the project will be worth the the client based on anticipated results. Then, if they cannot afford this, you can decide whether to negotiate an acceptable fee.

Your thoughts:

How would you answer this question? What’s the right way to charge for public relations services?

Cross-posted from the CCPRF:

This is cross-posted from the Canadian Council of Public Relations Firms‘ Weblog. I’m this year’s Chair of the CCPRF. And while the posts there are not as frequent as I would like, I think it’s worthwhile subscribing to it’s feed. When posts do appear, they’re usually authored by a CEO of a Canadian PR firm. It’s a unique aggregation of content.

Deciding who to follow on Twitter

February 18, 2009 • Joseph Thornley • community, Twitter

I’ve been using Twitter more and more over the past year. Especially at conferences like those run by the Advanced Learning Institute, Canadian Institute, and OpenDialogue, as well as Third Tuesday Toronto and Third Tuesday Ottawa.

I’ve replaced live blogging with live tweeting. It’s very satisfying – connecting me directly with other attendees and people who care about the same subject.

The more I’ve put into Twitter, the more I’ve received back. At the same time, the number of people following me has increased. And the pace at which new followers are added has increased.

This presents a problem.

I set up my Twitter profile to notify me via Gmail of each new follower. When someone follows me, I visit their Twitter profile to see if they share my interests. I follow people who write about things that interest me or who have blogs in their profiles or stand out in some other way. As I’ve done this review, I’ve found myself following about 1 in 4 of the people who follow me.

Why don’t I follow more people?

Well I don’t use Twitter as a publishing platform. Instead, I use it as a “town square” – a way to connect with my “community of interest.” And to really connect, I need to keep the number of people I follow in the hundreds, not the thousands. (That’s not a criticism. I admire anyone who can attract more than 60,000 twitter followers. But that’s an audience, not a community.)

Recently, the pace at which my new Twitter followers has been increasing has been greater than my ability to check out everyone’s profile. (I realized this when the number of my pending Gmail emails exceeded 900!) So, I’ve settled on a new way to decide who to follow.

Instead of visiting every follower’s profile (which at the rate of 20 -30 new followers a day takes over an hour), I’ve decided to watch for new people who either retweet one of my tweets or respond to me with an @thornley.

I’m doing this in the belief that these people who actively engage with my content are more interested in me. And these are the people who I should be checking out and probably following.

What do you think? Is this a reasonable strategy for identifying people to follow in Twitter? What approach do you use?

UPDATE: Jay Goldman offered some great advice on how he decides who to follow in Twitter. I missed this in my Google Search. Sorry Jay.

Kelly Rusk also had a post about what she looks for when deciding who to follow on Twitter.