I’ve been told by several Federal clients that their agency prevents them from blogging on behalf of their organization. I can understand why this may be the case: the Government, like most of us, is afraid of what might be said and how they could look to the world. While I definitely understand this concern, we’re encouraging our Government clients to embrace blogging as an opportunity to enhance their agency image, promote and share the expertise of their best and brightest, recruit others with similar interests, and gain valuable public insight.

And we’re not talking about the formal, heavily controlled blogs that we see many agencies putting forth. Rather we’re encouraging our clients to welcome and value the open, honest feedback that is inherent in a Web2.0 environment.

Employees should be encouraged to share expertise on their agency’s blog, on other industry-related blogs, or even on their own personal blogs. Besides the ability to glean valuable feedback from these interactions, employees can demonstrate that Federal employees have unique insights and abilities, which can draw others (including bright recruits) to the agency. Blogging can also be a means to earning praise and public recognition, as well as publishing credit, along with straightforward satisfaction for their efforts — essential to enhancing job satisfaction and retention!

There are downsides, of course. Negative things will be said, but the positives outweigh the negatives, and in today’s increasingly Web2.0-driven society, employees, especially Generation Ys, just expect to communicate in this way.

Of course, we’re biased. We’ve been blogging for awhile (both professionally and personally) and swear by its ability to reinforce one’s online presence and credibility. That said, we’d love to hear from any of you working in the Federal sector; please share your opinion on whether or not you believe blogging would benefit your agency! Don’t worry, we can keep comments anonymous. What are the organizational hurdles keeping you from blogging?

I Googled my own name the other day and was surprised what I discovered. A high school newspaper article I wrote 30 years (!) ago . . . an academic paper, long-lost, that I had gotten published shortly after college . . . geneological charts that gave surprisingly in-depth pictures into how all my relatives for the last hundred years had died(!) . . . and pages and pages of other items.

For better or worse, a lot of things about us are starting to appear on line, and in my opinion it pays to know what Google says about you. After all, whenever I want to find out about someone (a business associate, a business, a client, etc.), I Google them. I generally only look at the first five or ten items on the list to frame a general picture of who this person or business is.

One of the best ways to control what people see about you is to use the new media to your advantage. Joining LinkedIn, for instance, allows you to create a public profile that reflects the way you want yourself to be viewed in business, and your LinkedIn profile is generally one of the first links that come up on Google. If you write a professional blog, those posts, especially if you’re maximizing search engine optimization and getting others to comment, will appear near the top of your list. On-line newspaper articles and frequently visited pages on your website that contain your name will also show up at the top of the Google list.

We do have some control over what people see in their Google searches. Remember that any time your name appears on-line somewhere, Google will generally be able to find it, so it probably pays to consider how to maximize that knowledge to create the appropriate first impression.

Following Marilyn’s post about why she uses Facebook, check out this lengthy article from The New York Times Magazine from Friday. It tells some great stories about how folks are using social networks, but also digs into some anthropological subjects, too. Like can humans actually maintain more than 150 friends at any given time? Is there enough time in the day to keep tabs on 400 Twitter feeds? And maybe the biggest one, WHY would anyone care to amass a huge circle of loosely connected “friends”?  One reason is the power of collective know how:

“Laura Fitton, a social-media consultant who has become a minor celebrity on Twitter — she has more than 5,300 followers — recently discovered to her horror that her accountant had made an error in filing last year’s taxes. She went to Twitter, wrote a tiny note explaining her problem, and within 10 minutes her online audience had provided leads to lawyers and better accountants. Fritton joked to me that she no longer buys anything worth more than $50 without quickly checking it with her Twitter network.”

We’ve been hearing it for years, right? It’s all about who you know. With social networking you can be super connected without leaving your cube.

I was speaking with several Baby Boomer friends this weekend, who asked me, “Why in the world I joined Facebook?” They expressed the same concerns about it as I had before I joined — huge time commitment, a silly trend for young people, an intrusion on privacy, another way to keep you tied to the computer so you’re not interacting personally. Yet they also seemed genuinely concerned that they were being left behind since so many of the people they know are now using this public utility.

I told them that there are many advantages to being part of Facebook. It gives you the opportunity to connect with people you may not have seen or spoken to in years: long lost high school buddies, college friends, business associates, folks you met in passing. It gives you the chance to share pictures, share your ideas, see what other people are up to with their careers, their families, and their projects. It also gives you the opportunity to become part of the new Web 2.0 dynamic, which is an extremely powerful way to connect with the world around you.

I also told them that it’s useful for those in business. It gives you the opportunity to be part of the new information-exchange dynamic . . . allows you to recruit in a meaningful way . . . allows you to connect to others who can answer questions or help in unexpected ways.

I explained also that users have the ability to control what people see and therefore protect privacy and to control how much time they spend (as little or as much as they’re personally comfortable with). Users also have the ability to control who is part of their network.

I told them how my father, a 67-year-old, super-conservative guy who traditionally has found the new media reasonably intimidating, is now using Facebook to communicate with his kids and share photos of his great grandchildren and his hunting and fishing trips. “Your father comes home from walks,” my mother told me recently, “and rushes upstairs to the computer to see what’s new.” I think she and Dad are as surprised about this as I am. As surprised as I am that I enjoy Facebook so much and find it so valuable.

As I explained all this, I discovered that I really couldn’t capture the essence of this Web 2.0 tool or why it’s so intriguing. I think it has to do with how easy it is to really share information and insights with those you care about in a way that was impossible or unheard of in the past. And I think people truly like to share who they are and learn about others that they care about. Until you try it, it’s difficult to realize what you’ve been missing, in an era when we can go for years without seeing or hearing from people who matter to us.