According to Mashable, Government 2.0 is “any technology that helps citizens or agencies solve problems, either for individuals or the community, and enables government to operate more efficiently or effectively.”

While social media provides great opportunities to connect with the community, spread information and be responsive, it also raises a cautionary flag for governments to develop new policies and procedures. Many governments are apprehensive about incorporating social media due to the possibility of negative backlash. Developing a social media policy and a best practices guideline will ensure that the added-value of using social media is balanced with proper guidance.

According to the Pew Internet Project, surveys in several communities found that people who believe their local government does a good job sharing information are more likely than others to feel satisfied with civic life. Additionally, those who think their government shares information well are more likely to say that average citizens are empowered and can have an impact on government.

Below are a few ways that governments can use social media in a positive way:

Community events
Informing a community about events is a great way to engage with citizens. Local festivals, community days, concerts, charity fundraisers and sports events are all opportunities to engage with local community, so why not extend it online? The government’s social media channels should be a source of information — accessibility is key. Keep citizens informed about upcoming events, help promote local businesses and community partners that are attending, and even live-tweet at the event.

Setting up a blog for an event is a great way to post updates, publish guest lists, speaker lists, and post photos, all in one platform.

Facebook Events is a great way to promote an event by extending the reach across social networks. Once someone has RSVP’d to an event, their attendance is posted to their news feed and profile for all of their friends and followers to see. On Twitter, promote following the event’s Twitter account for event updates and include a unique hashtag for the event so people can easily find relevant information, such as #Van2010 for the Winter Olympics.

Emergency communication
When a city is in lock-down due to inclement weather or other emergency situations and traditional means of communicating are not available, turn to social media to keep your citizens informed. The power of social media to unite a broken city was never more apparent than during Japan’s horrific tsunami in March 2011 – Twitter became the go-to service in emergencies.

Mashable states that, “with the phone systems knocked out, the number of tweets coming from Tokyo were topping 1,200 per minute” less than an hour after the quake. A California student from Japan discovered her family was still alive via a YouTube video that was posted from a local Japanese news station.

From tornadoes and snowstorms, to floods and lightning storms, social media channels can be used for any situation that requires a concerted response. Even the USA Center for Disease Control has a Twitter profile (@CDCEmergency) “to increase the nation’s ability to prepare for and respond to public health emergencies.”

Social media allows for governments to reach a wider audience, ensuring vital messages reach those who need the information the most. Additionally, it allows for timely updates which are crucial in emergency response situations. It is important to remember that social media is two-way communication – sending out information is important, but being quick to respond to the citizens is crucial as well.

Elections and politics
Social media should be seen as a supplementary mode of communication rather than seen as replacing traditional modes of communication. Governments have the opportunity to inform their communities about public hearings, provide information about potential candidates, answer questions and receive feedback from the public, and even host online town halls.

Individual candidates or politicians are also encouraged to form their own social media strategy by integrating various social media channels including Facebook pages, Twitter profiles, and YouTube channels. State Representative Justin Amash used his Facebook page to post explanations of each bill he is voting on, how he is voting, and why.

He also had a separate tab on his page labelled “Contribute” with a direct link to donate to his campaign. This level of interaction increases transparency, and enhances credibility. It is important to remember that social media is two-way communication and responding to citizens is as important as, or even more important than, selling a party’s platform. It is crucial for governments to be open and responsive to the citizens, and even moreso during elections. Transparency is key when engaging and communicating with citizens.

There’s been much talk, recently, about the best ways for marketers to engage members of the Twittersphere. This is understandable given the (more than) considerable growth of the famous microblogging service over the past year and a half. In the scramble to achieve success using this hot new medium, many marketers have lost time and dollars trying to decipher the magical algorithm.

Bloggers, however, remain a mainstay of the intelligent marketer’s arsenal. Here are 4 tips to proactively reach out to bloggers without shooting yourself in the foot, hand or, heaven forbid, the head.

1) Set Clear Goals

Know what you want to accomplish. Exposure for an exciting new product? Awareness about an upcoming event? Re-branding or brand maintenance? This will determine which bloggers you want to reach out to and how you may want to engage them.

Know who you want to reach. What’s your target demographic? Who would benefit from what you have to say or what your company has to offer? Which bloggers are the best fit?

Set measurable targets you want to reach. This is the only way to gauge success. You can then adjust your approach as you learn what works for your brand and, more importantly, what doesn’t. Without setting concrete goals, improvement is nigh impossible.

2) Read their blogs

Spend time familiarizing yourself with the bloggers you’d like to engage: who they are, what they write about, and what their readers are interested in. You want to reach out to the bloggers who will get excited about what you want to say. Authentic excitement will add a roundhouse kick of power to your query.

3) Monitor blog mentions

Track blog mentions of campaign or company keywords. Acknowledge bloggers when they make mention of a product, campaign or company and keep a record database of all blog mentions. Observing who’s interested in what you have to say, and why, will help you refine your approach in the future.?� Not only are you getting some great karma kickback by acknowledging a blog mention, but you’ve also established contact and began a professional relationship with them, making it a lot easier and much more personal to approach them in the future. There are numerous free tools that can help you track online mentions, including Google Alerts and SocialMention.com.

4) Engage!

Take note of the type of people you are reaching out to! More often than not, bloggers aren’t passionate about a sole topic or product, but rather are interested in the culture surrounding it. Open the conversation with a talk about something they’re interested in. Or better yet, join a conversation they’re already having.

If your pitch is regional, a great way to engage bloggers and their readers is to promote and sponsor a meet-up. For example, last April, we helped plan a social media launch event for our Chip’s Not Dead Yet Memorial Mile campaign. We invited the best Vancouver bloggers for an evening of drinks and food, and a chance to hear what Chip Wilson had to say about the event and his love for the BC Children’s Hospital. We took the time to value our targeted bloggers, wine and dine them, and introduce them to a prominent Vancouverite with passionate views. The event was a huge success, with three quarters of those present writing articles about the event or the launch, not because we groveled, but because they were genuinely interested.

We realize as many traditional marketers plunge into new social media waters, it’s going to be tempting to take a lot of the traditional tools, such as the media release, with them. We hope these five tips help make the transition easier for marketers and agencies, but if we were to stress one thing, and one thing only, it would be this: Treat bloggers with the same respect as you would treat a journalist and with the same care you would treat your customers, because these new media content providers can truly embody both.

Gerri Elder is a one-woman force in social media. When she’s not busy with her nearly 5-year-old son, Gerri maintains a healthy and active following on Twitter as AbsolutelyTrue, which is also the name of her popular blog, and was briefly the number one Digger last month–one of the few women to have accomplished such a feat. Gerri’s active on Stumbleupon, Reddit, and Mixx. She is also professional writer for a wide array of legal, environmental and urban sites. A tornado of activity, Gerri seems to be everywhere. In fact, she is.

Gerri, what exactly are you doing with social media?

I’m having a blast, networking and feeding my need for current news and events, all at the same time.

How did you get started?

I left my career as a paralegal in 1997 to pursue Web design and development.?� In the early days, it was the Wild West and those who caught on fast could go far.?� Around mid-2002, after working 18 hour days for four years, I needed a break.?� I retired from Web work, took it easy for a while, and then gave birth to my son. When I came back in 2006, the Web had gone 2.0 and I had to reacquaint myself with it.?� I was surprised at how much better it became, and quickly became addicted to the fast pace that social media had to offer.

Some pockets of social media (like Digg) can be downright hostile to women. How do women conquer such sites?
When I worked in the legal field, it was a man’s world and the same was true during the early days of the Internet.?� While there may be some areas of the Web that still refuse to see women as equal players, you only have to look around to see women like Amy Vernon, Rebecca Kelley or Tamar Weinberg kicking ass.?� I think there’s only sexism where you allow it, and successful women just don’t.

You are also a blogger. How do blogging, micro-blogging, and social bookmarking coalesce?

Obviously, things on the Web move very quickly.?� Any medium that is unable to mesh and evolve will not stay relevant.?� Twitter and social bookmarking complement blogging, and blogs stay on the cutting edge by incorporating social media and Twitter plugins into the design.?� So far, so good.?� It doesn’t look like any of them are becoming obsolete just yet.

Why should companies tweet?

Twitter offers businesses the opportunity to interact with customers and clients in a unique way. Companies with sharp marketing and PR talent are able to utilize what Twitter offers without coming across as spammy. It’s a rare social platform that, when used properly, allows companies to reach a broader audience and grab larger marketshare.

For something to go viral, what should happen?

You know viral content when you see it.?� It’s special.?� It’s hilarious, shocking or offers information that has never been seen before.?� If the content isn’t all that, nothing and no one can “make” it go viral.?� When content does have viral quality, it’s about giving it the right introduction.?� Social media takes it from there.

What do you think will be the next big thing in social media?

You can never tell what might be around the corner.?� It’s always exciting to see what’s up and coming and watch it develop.?� Twitter is already huge and growing at an alarming rate.?� However, the fail whale is omnipresent, so it’s hard to say what may happen.?� Other social media sites are busy behind the scenes adding user-friendly features, reinventing themselves and devising plans to eventually make them profitable.?� The only thing that is certain on the Web is change, so we have to wait and see.

Chances are if you are a company, you have an online presence – even if you’re not the one that has created it. Consumers are alive and active online and are, in all likelihood, talking about your company.? Companies need to be proactive in managing their online presence and a vital component of this is an interactive PR campaign.

Interactive PR is the use of online tools and technologies like: search engines, social bookmarking, new media relations, and blogging, to disseminate information about your company online. Allowing you to communicate directly with the general public, consumers, and potential prospects.

The following are key elements of any successful interactive PR campaign:

• Promotion of content through social networking sites

To launch a successful social networking site campaign, you need to have something to promote on these sites – social media content.? This content can take any number of formats, including but not limited to; videos, photos, and blog posts.

What content gets read is no longer decided by an editor, social networking sites, including news sharing sites, democratically allow users to choose which news stories will make it to the popular pages and get in front of readers eyeballs. Aside from the initial traffic that you receive from hitting the front page of these sites, there are other benefits, including: increased subscribers and highly targeted valuable inbound links.

If you get an article, picture, blog post etc to the front page of digg or the other news sharing sites, you can expect to get well over 40,000 unique visitors.? Having your social media content succeed at one social networking site, greatly increases the chances that it will become popular on the other sites – multiplying the effects of the campaign.

• Blogger Outreach

An integral component of any interactive PR campaign is to get influential bloggers to talk about your product or service.? A blogger outreach campaign will connect you to leading relevant bloggers in your niche to have them review your product honestly in their blog.? The 3 main benefits of a blogger outreach campaign are: branding and WOM review from a thought leader in your industry; targeted relevant traffic to your site from the blogs; and natural inbound links that will help with your sites search engine rankings.

• Corporate Blog Integration and Podcasting

In the open and transparent age of social media, blogs and podcasts are vital for reputation management and consumers have come to expect them. Companies and brands should consider employing blogs and podcasts to create open and honest dialogue.

Proper blog integration, distribution, and strategy is vital to the success of any corporate blogging initiative.? Any blog that spins the truth will be found out – in a world of social media, transparency is the only option.? The proper implementation of a blogging and podcasting strategy for your company company blog is vital to ensure that your company is aware of and follows corporate blog conventions.? Without a proper strategy in place, companies may be better off not blogging at all and will end up missing out on all of the benefits derived from a corporate blog.

• Online Media Center

Once you have driven traffic to your website and have started to create an online community around your brand, you need to ensure ease of coverage from both traditional and online news sources.? Building an online media center on your site that provides these writers with ease of access to your marketing and brand collateral.? You need to ensure it is as easy as possible for people to cover you as possible.? The harder you make it for them to get collateral to insert into their coverage, the less likely it is that they will cover you.

• Social Media Monitoring and Brand Management

Your brand no longer lives in a corporate environment where you can control your message; everyone with a stake in your brand now controls the message. Your brand lives everywhere online, from blogs and forums to twitter and youtube.

Monitoring your brand across all online channels to determine where your brand conversations are taking place and their tone is critical when undergoing an interactive PR campaign.? This reporting will allow you to make strategic decisions with your online and offline marketing and advertising initiatives and provide you with a real time snapshot of your current brand landscape.

With this information, you can: adjust, on the go, your online marketing initiatives to capitalize on or respond to customer feedback; evaluate the effectiveness of both online and offline advertising initiatives with greater accuracy allowing for better targeted campaigns in the future; and deal with situations as they occur online, increasing brand loyalty.

* This blog post is part of Invoke’s participation in the 2008 Vancouver Blogathon for Charity

One thing that this blogathon has made very clear, the hardest part of writing is getting the initial inspiration to pick up your pen and put it to paper (or fingers to keyboards). I’ve always known that inspiration is very important in my writing – from University papers before through to blog posts today.

Once a topic has inspired me, I find myself writing away like a mad woman on a mission. I tend to get hyper focused and can write brilliant articles in very short order. I have always been like this and imagine that I always will be. The best topics are ones that have me fired up and steaming. These posts in particular come to mind: The Problem with Allergy Medicine: Inflated Drug Efficacy and Permission Marketing: How Not to Piss off Your Target Market. As you can see with these articles, I was fired up on the topic I was speaking too and it shows in my posts.

On the other hand, when I’ve not been inspired to write, but need to get something out, it feels like I sit in front of my keyboard for ages staring blankly at the screen. There are millions of things that I can write about, but formulating my initial thesis/topic is the hardest part. Even when I do get around to taping my fingers on the keyboard, it is obvious (at least to me) in my writing that it was forced – like this post. It lacks that certain something that makes writing compelling. I feel a bit like a fraud and am waiting for someone to call me out on it.

This brings me to the point of my post, where do you draw your inspiration from? This isn’t just limited to writing, but everything that we do in our lives. What makes you get up everyday, get ready, and walk out of your front door?