Ohio Models Social Participation & Collaboration in Government

With the goal of demonstrating how a process of public dialogue can lead to a fairer and more practical legislative redistricting of the state, the State of Ohio held the “Ohio Redistricting Competition”, soliciting public plans for the drawing of legislative districts. The competition resulted in fourteen submitted plans that were reviewed under objective criteria, three of which will be considered by the Ohio General Assembly.

The political issue of redistricting is one that is continuously raised. The realistic possibility of empowering one political party over the other through gerrymandering or back-room dealing is a detriment to our democratic society and is difficult to avoid within the legislative body that create them. The state of Ohio is not immune to such highly politicized processes and has its own problems of unequally distributed voting districts that favor one party over another. Beginning in the mid 1970s, Ohioans and organizations such as the League of Women Voters of Ohio and Common Cause Ohio voiced concern with the improprieties of the state’s legislative districts.

To help avoid such polemics within the allocation of voting districts, the Ohio Secretary of State office held a month long competition that allowed regular Ohio citizens to create their own unbiased district map. Through nine months of planning by the League of Women Voters of Ohio, Ohio Citizen Action, Common Cause, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, Former State Representative Joan Lawrence, and State Representative Dan Stewart, the competition set out to produce citizen-made district maps that could be judged and submitted to the Ohio General Assembly for redistricting consideration. With a partnership between the state and ArcGIS software (a product of ESRI), the Ohio Secretary of State’s website was able to offer a free download of the map building software for those who wanted to participate in the competition. By streaming a video tutorial of the software given by the project manager, Dr. Mark Salling of Cleveland State University, through Youtube on the same website, contestants could learn how the ArcGIS program worked.

The Secretary of State’s website formally accepted entries from April 10, 2009 to May 11, 2009 from those who had registered free online for the competition. Based off of requirements of population equality, contiguity, and cooperation with the National Voting Rights Act, a panel of judges, assembled from an independent consulting firm, scored each district entry based on four categories. With a maximum score of 75, each map entry was rated on compactness of the district shapes, maintaining communities of interest, competitiveness created for both political parties, and representational fairness. Those plans not meeting the necessary three requirements were automatically disqualified, while all the plans that scored in the top 25% were considered winners and put up for consideration by the Ohio General Assembly, whose job it is to decide legislative redistricting.

Ohio’s Redistriciting Competition proved to be a great success and out of 14 plans entered, 3 were declared winners on May 18, 2009. Based off of the strict scoring criteria, it was even reported that the worst rated entry was considerably better than the state’s 2000 redistricting model, which had been adopted. While the competition did not attract the widespread news attention it might have desired, it still proved to be worthwhile and highly efficient in creating plausible redistricting plans. The real test of this competition’s success though, will be seen by how much the three winning plans will actually be considered by the state’s General Assembly.

Through this competition it was seen that by fueling the conversation among the public through an innovative and accessible contest, objective legislative recommendations could be made by ordinary citizens. By offering strict guidelines, the free tools contestants could use, and excellent judgment scales, the Ohio Redistricting Plan resulted in three reasonable solutions to one of the most difficult legislative problems in America.

This case study was written in collaboration with Owen Davis and Daniel Honker

Role with the Times

The Internet has forever changed print media. While it seems most social media experts are anxious to call the time of death on the newspaper, we still have a few things to learn from the “old man”.

For several decades now, news delivery has depended on several people, all working toward the goal of distribution of content. Publishers, syndicators, writers, and editors are some of the more important roles in the process. These roles also exist in online news channels.  However, the accessibility of social media by the masses has caused these roles to blur; which is not necessarily a good thing.

To me, print media is like a McDonald’s hamburger – it’s not my favorite, but at least I know what to expect time and again. I’m not so sure what to expect from most social channels. Frankly, I sometimes get tired of sampling dog food while in search of steak. I doubt I’m unusual in this regard.

Does this mean that social media is flawed? To the contrary, social has the potential to be something that print or even traditional online media could never achieve. But social has some growing up to do – beginning with the realization that a cacophony of solo artists does not make for a spectacular show. Great social requires a process where different people come together to fulfill various roles including writing, editing, filtering, distribution, funding and more.

Success in social media is an orchestrated effort. Which role you are best suited to play? Here are some actions to consider:

1. The promise of social media is a personalised experience for the recipient, not a personal soapbox for the messenger. Define the ideal personalized experience for your target audience, and then decide how you best contribute to the experience.
2. Invite and involve others. For example, if you manufacture a great product but are not known as a trusted advisor, instead of trying to become the advisor, invite experts your customers trust to work with you to achieve a common goal.
3. Consider content intermediaries vs. direct communications. Especially if you’re new to social media, leveraging an existing channel may have greater value than attempting to create a new one.
4. If you own a channel, find content partners that can engage your audience and add value to bolster your “ratings”.
5. If you go the content route, consider multiple channels for distribution. Social media channels are smaller and more targeted than most traditional channels. Don’t rely strictly on viral messaging.

Although social media is informal and conversational, end users still have high expectations of businesses and professionals who participate in the space. Make sure your approach delivers the right message in the right place on a consistent basis.

A Bird of a Different Color

Twitter has landed in our backyard and no one is really sure about this strange bird. To some it is a phoenix rising from the ashes of first- and second-generation network communications. Others may compare it to a noisy yardbird that is about to become the victim of a pouncing cat or well-cleaned sliding glass door. Whatever the claim, everyone agrees this bird is different.

Twitter’s rise has been followed by high drop-off rates. Has a fad taken flight? I don’t think so. I’m hesitant to predict the fate of the current Twitter application, but suffice it to say that its foundation is part of the future of communications. Its evolution will bring it into the mainstream. What is that foundation? According to Twitter, it is announcing what you are doing.

I started out a Twitter skeptic.  The first tweets I received were all mindless announcements like: “Ate too much Mexican for lunch… ready for a nap”. However, my experience has slowly evolved. As I became more critical of whom I chose to follow – people who shared my business interests or lifestyle – the quality of tweets improved. Even some of the people I originally chose to follow have graduated from noisy twits to more interesting tweeters. Subtle changes to tweet style can make a difference, such as: “Ate lunch at Frontera…their chicken tortilla soup is awesome.” This observation has led me to conclude that the best tweets are pronouncements, not personal announcements. Twitter is the official record of these pronouncements.

Despite my “aha” moment, in its current form, Twitter might have a hard time moving beyond the grand social experiment we have made it. Twitter is a disruptive technology, but not unlike the web in the mid-1990s. Back then companies with thousands of customers had a difficult time justifying the expense for a few pageviews each day. Then Google came along and gave the search engine to the masses. It became the killer app that made Internet content accessible. Twitter is still waiting for its killer app. Many developers seek the Holy Grail, and while none has found it yet, the proliferation of Twitter value-add applications is at least moving us in the right direction.

If you’re a marketer you’re probably asking: So what does this mean to me? Well frankly, a lot. To understand Twitter’s potential is to begin to use it effectively. Here are six tips for marketers using Twitter:

1. Twitter is a social record. Check your record, participate in it, respond to criticism, promote positive opinion, and accept transparency. Pay special attention to personalities that broadcast information about your industry or topics of particular interest to your customers.
2. Twitter is a rich data mine which will only become more valuable. Use Twitter data mining tools to assess actions, moods, trends, and influencers.
3. With Twitter, the same rules apply as with posting to other social networks: people prefer information from those they trust – starting with friends and expanding outward (e.g., friends of friends). There is a caveat: follower ≠ friend in the Facebook sense. The followship model is based on perceived value of the broadcaster. In this context, the information tweeted defines the value and trustworthiness of the broadcaster. Personal relationships still trump unknowns. Using individuals who are accessible to represent your brand is a nice alternative.
4. Social networks are perceived as more valuable when the broadcaster considers the receiver or more generally the audience segment as he/she writes. For this reason, a well-defined purpose or mission statement to guide tweeting is important to keeping your audience intact and growing.
5. If you create an account for your business, be ready for questions and requests. As a nice touch Zappos includes contact information in the background to reroute a variety of inquiries to the right channel. However, this does not negate people from commenting to @zappos without viewing their wallpaper. Be prepared to avoid customer service slip-ups by having a response plan.
6. While Twitter is designed as a synchronous tool, think about it as an asynchronous platform too.  Although a vast majority of tweets lose their value on delivery, more people are learning how to qualify web content by republishing links and retweeting. This content is often scanned using search filters after publication, much like custom newspaper headlines. Publish keeping this in mind.

Finally, experiment with Twitter to see what works. For example, test to see if articles or promotions are more likely to get retweeted in your business? Twitter is a low cost sandbox. Now is the time to learn what works for your business, so that when Twitter soars, you do too.

I’m a fan…I think…

Recently I went to Facebook to research one of my favorite restaurant chains. My first task – become a fan. I was surprised when I looked them up to find I was already a fan.  Currently I’m a fan of five brands, but could only remember two without looking. (I also suffer a recall deficit when it comes to the many groups I’ve joined.)

As a user experience consultant who works with marketers, I often find myself defending consumers’ desires to avoid the barrage of unwanted messages and self-serving interactions that marketers dream up in an attempt to gain exposure. So, I’m perplexed that marketers are not doing more with consumers who have given their brand “permission” on Facebook to engage in a conversation. I admit that I’m too overwhelmed by the sheer volume of messages to always notice when my selected brands are on my feed. However, aren’t marketers are supposed to be experts at rising above the noise? While consumers might be missing out on a conversation they willingly started; ultimately, it’s the brand that loses out on the missed opportunity.

From a consumer perspective, what is the opportunity?

1. Engage me. A Facebook fan list is like a mailing list of your top customers – its value is measured by what you do with it. I hate junk mail, but when its mail from a brand I like, I want to check it out. If I like the message, I’ll tell others.
2. Honor my opinion. I don’t expect you to do everything I say, but I do expect you to ask and to respect my response. If all you ever have to offer is a one-sided conversation or a lame deal, I’ll lose interest quickly.
3. Acknowledge my loyalty. Discounts and offers are great, but what is even better is the feeling that my loyalty is reciprocated with added attention. Deals end with the promotion deadline, but relationships are lasting.
4. Make it fun. I’m choosing to spend my free time here. Advice is nice, but it’s the entertainment that keeps me coming back. To be an ongoing presence, you’ve got to be a part of the fun.

Are you a brand whose fan base is left standing at the click of “Become a fan”? If so, your social presence will be relegated to status of a one-time opinion poll. For brands that choose to leverage the power of social networks, the promise is a voice through the voice of the customer. It’s a natural result of giving fans what they really want – something they’ll remember and share.