K Street Cafe

Hiring? Two New Apps Simplify Job Postings and Resume Review (ReadWriteWeb)
As organizations grow, innovative ideas and techniques can be helpful in hiring. ReadWriteWeb examines two online programs that can help organizations hit the ground running when it comes to recruiting.

Social Networking Still the #1 Growth Area in Online Marketing (Mashable)
Even as the economy trends downward, small businesses are spending more money on social media this year than ever before.

Gaza War’s New Front: Facebook (Wired)
Though pro-Israel supporters have been winning the online information war over Gaza by dominating the blogosphere and holding a citizens’ press conferences on Twitter, Palestinians sympathizers seem to have established a stronghold on its newest front, Facebook.

WhosTalkin: Social Media Search for a Moment in Time (ReadWriteWeb)
While still not perfect, a new online tool called “WhosTalkin” allows users to find out what’s being said about a specific topic or phrase on top social media sites.

Your video just got 50,000 views on YouTube and 25 blogs picked up your campaign and posted stories on it. What’s it worth?

We are pretty comfortable figuring out how much a one minute story on the evening news is worth in paid advertising, but when it comes to online “hits” the conversion isn’t so obvious. In addition to the size of a website’s audience, we have to figure in, among other things, whether the site has tools to share the content out to the social web and whether or not its audience is likely to do so. It gets a little tricky figuring out what it is worth online.

I Am Progress is hosting its monthly Internet Advocacy Roundtable titled “What’s It Worth” on Thursday, January 15th from 3 PM to 5 PM. (more…)

Government 2.0: How Social Media Could Transform Gov PR (Media Shift)
Dr. Mark Drapeau takes a look at the reasons why government can and should start using social media to move beyond its traditional faceless presence and engage in bi-directional communication with constituents.

10 Mobile Social Networks to Check Out (ReadWriteWeb)
ReadWriteWeb examines 10 new social networking Web sites that have the potential to break into what is becoming an increasingly lucrative market.

Security Issues In Social Media Shouldn’t Put Non-Profits Off Networking Online (Wild Apricot)
A phishing scam on the newly popular social media site Twitter has many organizations taking another look at online security.

Brands Struggled With Social Media in ‘08 (ClickZ)
While it would seem like everyone has success in their social media outreach attempts, 2008 saw a lot of online campaigns that just didn’t cut it.

The K Street Café editors posited this thoughtful question to its contributors this week: How should advocacy organizations adapt to stay relevant in the changing paradigm of constituent engagement with Congress and the Administration that largely removes the need for any sort of intermediary presence?

The idea behind the question is that the government becomes SO transparent and easy to interact with that professional associations, nonprofits, and (gasp!) advocacy vendors become obsolete. My reaction is three-fold: 1) Add value to the raw data of government; 2) Provide expertise for interacting with government online; 3) Continue to use the aggregate power inherent in organizing.

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