Allowing Comments

I wrote to several city council members who blog, asking for tips and advice. I'll be sharing some of that advice. Of all the contents in all the emails, the one paragraph that really turned my head was this one, from Councilwoman Angela Hunt of Dallas. She lives in a city where a council member could probably get a staff person to write the blog, but clearly she writes hers.

This was the advice that struck me:

Don't allow comments. Blogs take a lot of time by themselves, and if you are having to constantly respond to comments, they will eat up all your time. Encourage constituents to email you their thoughts and reply directly to them.

This got me thinking, and I took a look. A lot of council member blogs, particularly those in big cities, don't enable commentary. I'm still going to allow comments on my blog, but after her pithy advice, I won't worry as much about the lack of comments. I do like people to ask questions, but I no longer cherish the illusion that my blog will somehow serve as a sort of town hall.

I'm not alone; most council member blogs don't get a lot of comments. I used to get a fair number from anonymous folks who accused me of trying to destroy the city for whatever reason got them excited. For awhile, I thought that maybe this created some sort of constructive dialogue, but I ended up deciding it just took time. Ever since I required would-be commentators to sign up with their name, I've had hardly any comments. A somewhat sad truth I've noticed is that most of the people who comment to blogs are the people who are in opposition of whatever is stated, and, most important from how I use my time, don't have any real interest in why I support what I support. And they like to be anonymous.

There is a famous, famous cartoon about anonymous blog posters that summarizes what I think of them. Let me tell you right now it is highly highly highly offensive so please do not click on this link if you are offended by obscenities. If you are offended by obscenities and click on this, don't come crying to me. I only post it because it's incredibly true: the Penny Arcade cartoon about anonymous blog posters.

So while I enable comments, I applaud the councilwoman's approach: concentrate on providing information and commentary, and not on trying to hold a town hall on your site when conditions are not right for one.

The Portland Portal to the Future

There's this one room at a historic hotel in Portland that I am coming to associate with the latest and greatest in technology. Funny how location melts into sentiment.

The room is the third floor ballroom at The Governor Hotel. I've been there twice now. In July 2008, I attended the Internet Strategy Forum which opened my eyes to a lot of ways of communicating with customers and constituents. I started more aggressively blogging and trying new things at both my jobs (Comcast and the Lakewood City Council). Some worked, some didn't.

Yesterday I was at another workshop about digital communications, Communicopia, organized by the Portland chapter of the Public Relations Society of America and the Oregon/Columbia chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators.

Once again, speakers discussed cutting-edge techniques to approach and listen to customers through the Internet and digital media.

The changes between July 2008 and May 2009, less than a year apart, are striking. There were far more good case histories yesterday of how companies are using the Internet to bridge gaps with citizens. I'm still contemplating all the changes, not to mention all the case histories, but two things struck me right away.

GOVERNMENT WAS THERE: There was nobody from government at the July 2008 meeting that I can recall. And indeed, most of the folks yesterday were from business. Still, yesterday, even some of the panelists were from government: Sally Ridenour, Oregon Department of Transportation and Jennie Day-Burget, Portland Water Bureau. Case histories were shared such as use of social media by an airport.

That said, I didn't see any other elected officials. Maybe they'll be there in May 2010. But the government examples were solid and show how agencies are trying to use technology for everyone's benefit. These examples are from Portland, of course; but they're growing all over the place in other states including Washington. Anyone in Washington state who is using Twitter should definitely be monitoring the Washington State Department of Transportation.

TWITTER WAS THERE: There were only a few people using Twitter at the July 2008 conference. Yesterday, there were dozens, and in fact the organizers even had a contest related to Twitter.

The discussions have matured. In July, it was all about 'get on board.' Yesterday, several speakers commented that you needed to be targeted and strategic. My favorite speaker, the plain-speaking Jeff Hardison of McClenahan Bruer Communications, compared people under pressure these days to enter "social media" to kids under pressure to drink beer in college: everybody thinks they need to be on Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, or whatever Oprah and Aston Kurcher are using. He and several other speakers pointed that that it makes no sense to spend time on something like Twitter if you don't have customers there.

"Your culture may not have the culture to do this stuff, no matter what people say ... This isn't high school where you're under pressure," Hardison said.

All the discussion got me thinking that all of us can be more strategic in how we communicate. That got me thinking that I need to spend less time on Twitter as a Lakewood City Councilman, because so far I have found all of one Lakewood voter (out of apprx. 13,000 active voters) dialoguing with me. I love my city, but it's not known for early adoption of technology.

And there are more reflections, but that's good for now. Wanted to share thoughts on two interesting days, nine months apart, in a historic Portland ballroom.