By Griff Wigley, on November 13th, 2011
I  attended CityCamp Minnesota (an unconference) yesterday at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs on the U of MN’s West Bank. Longtime colleague Steve Clift was one of the chief organizers.
The broad theme was "Community 2.0" in which participants tried to answer these questions:
- In a world of scarce public resources, how do we take advantage of the 2.0 online, social media, and open source world to help build awesome local communities?
- How can we connect the interested public with 2.0 skills to work with government, community groups, neighborhood associations, local ethnic associations, and more?
- How can our local communities be bold, inclusive, open, accessible, wired and darn right innovative when bottom-up connects with top-down for collaboration?
An attendee named Marc Drummond has blogged a detailed description of how the unconference format worked, including his critique and suggestions. You can see comments from others during and after the conference by viewing the #citycampmn hashtag on Twitter.
 
I was pleased to see GovDelivery CEO Scott Burns in attendance, as I’d not talked to him since my days at gofast.net in the late 90s when his and many other high tech companies were located in the Lowertown Cyber Village in downtown St. Paul.
Scott gave a condensed version of his October 2011 presentation, posted to Slideshare:
When he put up slide 10 that says:
Leverage the trust that this guy has been building up for years
it caught my attention. It’s that word ‘leverage.’ When coaching leaders on their use of social media, I’ve long emphasized the importance of leveraging one’s influence (for example, see my blog posts here, here, here as well as this guest blog post).
But his phrase "leverage the trust" started me thinking about how it applies to leadership. As a leader, your position automatically puts you in a position of influence. But your behavior over time is the only way to build trust, and that, of course, ratchets up your influence.
Scott’s presentation also got me thinking about how this is true for organizations, too—especially government and its relationship to the citizens it serves. The Edina Citizen Engagement project that I’m working on now with the City of Edina could also be seen as a way for the City to build more trust with its citizens through meaningful online engagement. Will it work? And how will City officials leverage it? Stay tuned.
In the meantime, read GovDelivery’s Reach the Public blog and follow Scott on Twitter.
By Griff Wigley, on October 19th, 2011
 Steve Clift, founder and Executive Director, E-Democracy.org has asked me to do a presentation tonight for a class he’s teaching at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs titled Social Media: Engaging Democracy and Communities Online.
He’s asked me to talk about my civic leadership blogging coaching, as well as my current citizen engagement consulting work. I plan to take the class on a web tour while I speak to them about both.
Civic leadership blogging
- July, 2004: UK e-gov delegation visits Northfield
- Feb, 2005: Trip to the UK
- July, 2005: field trip to Northfield for the International Symposium on Local E-Democracy
- Fall, 2005: Guide to Civic Leadership Blogging (U.K. edition) How to use blogs as an effective local leadership tool
- Oct. 2008: UK CivicSurf booklet
- Featured civic leadership bloggers
Citizen Engagement Online
- Northfield.org (since 1994)
- Locally Grown Northfield (since 2006)
- 3,400 blog posts
- 40,700 comments
- Webinar on social media use by local government (Nov. 2010)
- Edina Citizen Engagement (since May, 2011)
By Griff Wigley, on October 17th, 2011
 I installed Google Moderator ("Helping the world find the best input from an audience of any size") last week on the blog site for Edina Citizen Engagement. We’re testing it out as a way to solicit questions from Edina, MN citizens about four projects during the month of October, 2011.
I chose Google Moderator because I think it could help to address some common citizen engagement problems:
- Many people don’t feel comfortable or have the time to ask questions of local government leaders about important issues, whether it’s using email, the phone, or open mic at City Council meetings.
- Many people are reluctant to engage in online discussions
- City leaders can’t easily gauge which questions are most often on the minds of citizens
- City leaders are often faced with having to answer the same questions over and over
I think that the tool provides a simple and inexpensive way to gather and prioritize the questions.
  
I don’t have a catchy name for any of this yet so for this month it’s just October Q&A. I’ve created an FAQ page, as well as a Google Moderator how-to video/screencast.
When we’ve collected the prioritized questions, we’ll select a time and method for city leaders to provide answers online, either via:
- a live online event (chat, webinar, teleconference)
- a recorded audio or video session
- a written/text response
I’m learning my way into this and so I expect to make mistakes and improve. I’m also assuming that it’ll take a while for Edina citizens to find out about this and get comfortable using it.
By Griff Wigley, on September 23rd, 2011
I got together with Curtis Johnson and Jay Walljasper for lunch at Muffuletta’s in St. Paul last week. I spent much of the 90s at Utne Reader when Jay was editor and I was the new media guy. I’ve been doing blog-related projects for Curt and his Citistates colleagues since 2004, where Jay is one of the associates.
The occasion? We’ll be working together with the Detroit Revitalization Fellows Program at Wayne St. University, funded in part by the Kresge Foundation. The program is:
… designed to attract, develop and retain promising young professionals who will help lead the economic revitalization and development of Detroit. This talent pool is being cultivated in order to build the capacity of public, for-profit, nonprofit and quasi-public organizations, including Detroit’s anchor institutions.
We’re doing this project under the Citiscope umbrella, a Citistates Group project. I’ll provide more details in the next few weeks as our work gets going.
By Griff Wigley, on September 12th, 2011
  
I attended the 2011 MN Blogger Conference Saturday at Allina Commons (administrative headquarters for Allina Hospitals and Clinics) in the Midtown Exchange in Minneapolis. Everything about the conference was terrific. Props to the main organizers Arik Hanson and Melissa (Missy) Berggren.
  
Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing and editor/blogger at MarketingBlog.com (that domain name redirects to toprankblog.com) gave the keynote: Blogs to Riches: A Journey from Blogging Luddite to Successful Business. Alternate title on his cover slide: 5 Lessons Learned from 7+ Years of Blogging.
(I happened to meet Lee just before his presentation when he saw me taking photos with my Sony NEX-3. He said something to effect of "I loved that camera until a wave in Hawaii took it away from me." I told him new versions were due soon, ie, the NEX-5N and the NEX-7.)
 Lee’s a terrific presenter. I was delighted to hear him stressing the importance of having your blog be the centerpiece of one’s content marketing strategy, and not just your social media strategy.
I don’t have a link to his presentation but slide #15 from this recent Social Media and SEO Slideshare presentation of his is similar to what he used on Saturday.
The break-out sessions I attended were all very good:
  
Unbelievably, the conference was free, including lunch and parking, thanks to the sponsors, TopRank Online Marketing, Allina, and KARE 11.
By Griff Wigley, on August 5th, 2011
I’ve been getting to know members of the Edina City Council recently, talking with them by phone and meeting with some of them. My main goal is to update them about what Edina City Manager Scott Neal and I have in mind for Edina Citizen Engagement and getting their ideas for what we might do this fall and how to involve them.
  
Late last month I met with Council member Mary Brindle, Mayor Jim Hovland, and Council Member Joni Bennett. I also had a chance to chat with Council members Josh Sprague and Ann Swenson at a recent Council work session. See the Edina Council bios page for more about them.
By Griff Wigley, on July 7th, 2011
In this week’s Edina Sun Current, reporter Katie Mintz has an article about the Edina Citizen Engagement titled Edina launches website for public input.
 "I’m excited to see what [the website] will yield because I know Edina has a pretty active online community. People want to interact that way," [City Manager Scott] Neal said.
He said citizen engagement is important to the Edina City Council, and the website adds a new dimension to the conversation. It is not intended to replace actual meetings. The city paid about $2,500 for development of the site from the communications budget, Neal said.
"I would be horrified if a city said enough of these face-to-face public hearings, but for a lot of people that’s difficult to fit in their schedule and it can be intimidating," said Griff Wigley of Wigley & Associates, who built and is moderating the website.
Wigley coaches businesses, nonprofits and governments on the art of leadership blogging and the use of other social media technologies. He said the tools give residents a convenient, intimate and fresh look at issues.
By Griff Wigley, on June 30th, 2011
 Yesterday I moderated a one-hour live chat with Edina City Manager Scott Neal about all things related to the economic development of Southdale Center, part of our Edina Citizen Engagement project.
I used CoverItLive to host the chat and it worked well. The only glitch was that I couldn’t get a photo of Scott to appear with his comments.
We had 21 different people attend over the course of the hour, with up to a dozen at any one time. Seven people submitted questions and comments.
This was our first online event. I blogged the rationale for it here. Scott blogged about it here.
By Griff Wigley, on June 20th, 2011
In addition to the Southdale Center Economic Development project, Edina Citizen Engagement has two additional blogsites. One is focused on the Edina 2012 Budget and the other on the development of the Edina Grandview District.
 
I spoke to the Grandview District Steering Committee last week about how the site could be used for citizen engagement.
By Griff Wigley, on May 9th, 2011
  
I stopped by Edina City Hall last week to meet with Edina City Manager Scott Neal about the Edina Citizen Engagement project.
The first citizen engagement project will be focused on Southdale Center’s economic development.
 Simon Property Group, Inc., owner of Southdale Center, has requested economic development assistance for the mall from the City of Edina, so the project aims to:
- Provide information to the public about the issue
- Provide a variety of ways for Edina citizens to engage with city staff, city council members, community leaders, and each other about the issue
The blogsite for Southdale Center Economic Development is now up. Follow the updates via its RSS feed, the Edina Citizen Engagement enewsletter, and Twitter.
By Griff Wigley, on April 20th, 2011
 I’m going to be working with the City of Edina, Minnesota on a project called Edina Citizen Engagement. The city is seeking to engage its citizens with a variety of online tools that help decision makers to address specific, near-term issues.
Edina City Manager and blogger Scott Neal is leading the effort.
The tools will vary, depending on what kind of decision needs to be made. These online tools will complement face-to-face meetings in ways that continually build civic and social capital. It’s my belief that the better Edina’s citizens and leaders get at citizen engagement, the greater the sense of community.
You can follow the Edina Citizen Engagement project via the blog’s RSS feed, the Edina Citizen Engagement enewsletter, and Twitter.
By Griff Wigley, on March 17th, 2011
I hosted a roundtable discussion this morning at the MASA/MASE 2011 spring conference, The Art & Science of Leadership (PDF) at the Northland Inn in Brooklyn Park, MN.
Using social media for leadership: A discussion about how blogs, Twitter, YouTube and other social media technologies can be used to leverage one’s influence as a leader.
I got to meet some of the other MASA staff (besides Charlie!):
 
L to R: Jeanna Quinn, Charlie Kyte, Aimee Ranallo, Deb Larson
By Griff Wigley, on March 14th, 2011
 My conversations and work with fellow Northfielder Charlie Kyte, Executive Director of the Minnesota School Administrators Association (MASA) and Voice of MN Education blogger, have led to discussions about a course in leadership blogging/social media for members of MASA, MESPA, MASSP, and MASE.
Those are Minnesota-based associations of K12 school leaders: superintendents, principals, and other education program managers.
We had planned to offer the course this spring but that’s now been pushed back to fall.
By Griff Wigley, on February 25th, 2011
I’ve revamped the WordPress for Noobs course introduction screencast. When I created the first one, the course didn’t exist. Since we’re at the end of Week 7 of the course as I write this, I’m now able to take people behind the scenes to show how the course actually works.
By Griff Wigley, on February 2nd, 2011
A year ago, Debbie Weil asked the rhetorical question on her blog, Is Corporate Blogging the Hub of Social Media Marketing? She now has a free ebook available with the answers coming from a wide spectrum of social media gurus and organizations: Why Your Blog Is Your Social Media Hub.
After reading the answers, my beliefs are confirmed:
- The pages on your organization’s website should tell visitors the basics about your people, products, and services.
- Your organization blog should include ongoing stories related to your people, products, and services.
- Your social media outposts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc) should then be used to help distribute your site and blog content, as well to engage with others.
- If you’re a leader, your blog can include your thinking about the important issues your organization faces, as well as a place where, at least some of the time, people can interact with you.
Weil’s introduction:
 I was asking whether Twitter supplants a corporate or organizational blog because it’s so much easier and faster. I was asking whether you need a corporate blog if you have a Facebook fan page. I was asking whether it’s worth the effort for organizations large and small to devote the time and resources to maintaining an effective blog.
In fact I’m asking whether the word blog isn’t outdated. A blog can be defined as a next-generation, interactive Web site. Maybe we’re just talking about a new kind of social corporate site. I asked everyone to be as contrarian as he or she wished in answering the question. I received many provocative answers. Following are some of the most useful.
|
|
|
attended CityCamp Minnesota (an unconference) yesterday at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs on the U of MN’s West Bank. Longtime colleague Steve Clift was one of the chief organizers.
