“We start to accept that ridiculous language in which citizens are referred to by politicians and administrators as clients.

We’re not clients of government.

We own the government, it’s our government.

There isn’t a single thing of government which we don’t own, how could we be clients ?

And we aren’t buying shoes, we’re talking about the rights of citizens within their own society.

We’re not stakeholders, we’re citizens.”

- John Ralston Saul, speaking at the PLAN 20th Anniversary evening at Christ’s Church Cathedral in Vancouver, November 20, 2009.

John Ralston Saul is an award winning novelist and essayist, and one of Canada’s most outspoken champions of freedom of expression.

His most recent book is called The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World. It’s just the latest in a series of best selling works that have been translated into 22 languages and sold in over 30 countries.  Earlier this year he become the first Canadian to elected president of International PEN, the association of writers devoted to defending freedom of expression.

John is also the patron of PLAN (Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network),  and he was the featured guest speaker at PLAN’s recent 20th Anniversary celebration in Vancouver.

I was asked to record the evening, and you now can hear the John’s keynote on the Tyze.com website, or listen to it here.

Digital content is really a collection of things. More and more, I find myself using them in conjunction with one another, building a series of communications channels that work in different ways, and often reaching different people.

Twitter.

I’m doing quite a lot of work with Twitter now on behalf of clients and on my own websites. I’m using it primarily to:

• augment posts and keep the site active
• build (extend) audience

Twitter messages are short – 140 characters – but can link to longer stories as well.

So, it’s particularly good at sending out quick blasts of info like events, updates, and special offers. It’s also great for posting something that might not warrant a full article, but you still want to mention.

Twitter is really helpful in building your community because of the way it connects a variety of people who might not even know about you (through other people who ‘follow’ your twitter feed).

The short story is, I’m really pleased at how effective it is in spreading the word and building community.

If this is something you’re interested in, let me know and we can talk about how it can serve your goals. Fees are based on time spent creating and sending ‘Tweets’ and managing the Twitter account for you.

You can see my full personal twitter feed at twitter.com/bigsnit and you’ll see a selection of my most recent “tweets” in the right hand sidebar of this page.

Facebook “Pages”

You may have a personal Facebook page, and know how for some people, it’s a key piece in keeping in touch with friends and family.

While Facebook isn’t open to the world in the same way a web page is, the fact that it’s a ‘friend to friend’ community makes it extremely powerful, and its usage continues to grow despite detractors who thought it would become passé.

Now you can have a Facebook page for your business.

The functionality is similar to a personal page.  You show up in Facebook search, and Facebook members can become ‘Fans’ of your page.  It’s also a handy place to list things like events, and of course you can link back to your web page.

LIke the Twitter feeds, I’m now managing Facebook pages and content on behalf of a number of clients. If this is of interest to you, please let me know and we can talk about how it can work for you.

Video

Even though traditional TV viewing numbers are down, I seem to be doing more and more video these days. This isn’t too surprising considering that people still consume a huge amount of video – it’s just that now they are watching it online at places like YouTube and SurfTheChannel.

Authenticity is something consumers value more highly then ever.  Videos give you an opportunity to  tell your company’s story and to bring people ‘behind the scenes’.

They’re also a terrific way to show people ‘how to’ do almost anything.

Email me if you’re interested.

You’ll find an example of a simple “how to” I did recently for BasicGov.com on their home page.

Recent Community Activity

NVOCA: This week I was invited to be part of a group of people sharing ideas with the North Vancouver Office of Cultural Affairs. It’s a fairly serious sounding organization, but in fact, is staffed by a great bunch of people who are working hard to bring the North Shore’s incredible arts community into the limelight. I’m looking forward to seeing how things unfold over the next few months as they start reaching out into the community.

LoCoBC: In October I was one of the presenters at the launch event for LoCo BC. They’re a new network for small and medium businesses in BC. I put together some screencasts of the organizer and one of the main presenters – you’ll find that on the VanGoGreen website.

Just for Fun

I always have a few side projects going on, where I try stuff out and play around.

I firmly believe that ‘doing’ is better than endlessly ‘talking about doing’.

Here’s the latest, called BrainPicker.