Client: Monarchist Association of Lisbon
Brief: An interactive institutional website that would bring members closer.

URL: http://www.reallisboa.pt/

We just launched this website, which was a very interesting project. We had never worked with an NGO with these characteristics (political, but non-partisan; civic, but non-ideological) so getting a message of political neutrality across, without loosing out in motivation and clear-cut objectives for the website was a very good challenge.

Site includes: custom-made payment gateway (using the Portuguese Multibanco (ATM) system); e-commerce functions; search engine optimisation; blog and social web linking and embedding; beside all institutional sections.

Lately I’ve been involved in a project called “Constitution 2.0″, an idea that sprouted out of the team at the web democracy department of the Institute for Portuguese Democracy in Lisbon.

The question we posed ourselves was «what if everyone could contribute to a collaborative, ever-changeing constitution for Portugal?». Pretty challenging and quite counterintuitive. However we believe it will still reflect the fundamental bases for the country that people envisage.

This is going to be a web democracy experiment which is already gaining momentum: a wiki has been created and the interactive twitter-inclusive debate is scheduled for the 11th of July in central Lisbon.

I’ll post closer to the event with the latest info and also after.

Have you heard of anything similar in your contry? Please share your comments below.

This is the complete Us Now film from Banyak Films on Vimeo.

I just watched this film and highly recommend it. It’s quite illustrative of how government 2.0 and web 2.0 civic activities are shaping and how early adopters are creating new methods for mass collaboration.

This applies to NGOs, companies, governments. Even a football club became managed by its fans through a 2.0 platform, and what difference that made.

What did you think of this film? Is it a Utopia or can these changes really be implemented successfully?

Corporate blogging is not a new concept.

It certainly is nothing out of this world to make happen. You just need to know which model adapts to your situation and, why not, innovate a little.

If you haven’t started to blog in your company, as a CEO or as C-level executive, or if you are Marketing Director or even in HR, consider the following.

Main Types of Corporate Blogs:

Internal CEO / C-Level Blogs

Great to keep teams aware of where they stand in the greater scheme of things, comunicate the corporate vision and update the entire company of new partnerships or initiatives.

It also helps to personalise internal communication and give a sense of approachability otherwise potentially “distant” people in the company.

External CEO / C-Level Blogs

Have you considered how useful it would be to all your stakeholders if you had a direct, informal or sem-informal link to them, telling them your vision for the company and how you intend to deliver it?

External leader’s blogs are a great solution for this.

You could also consider collaborative blogs: either for the whole management team or even for all employees to tell the world how it is to work in your organisation.

Community Websites: Products, Issues or Market Segments

Either to compensate for certain PR issues (for instance a factory with a poor environmentally-friendly perception) or to promote certain areas of business, more and more companies are choosing to start online communities. This can be done around products or product-lines, where you can learn what your customers are looking for and whether they are experiencing problems getting it. It can also be around issues: the environment, for example, for that particular factory. Or you could direct it at specific market segments: why not create a community for the retired if they are really your market? You could communicate, share and learn from them.

Finally, if you want your company to be perceived as an innovator, then it’s best to take the lead, right?

If you are not blogging yet, as a small business or as a Fortune 500 company, Rex New Media can most definitely help you find your way.

All online publications have to address the issue of exactly how “social” they are. The old broadcasting format is quickly crumbling with traditional media’s ad revenue and readership decreasing in favour of the Internet.

Online publications, whether they have a print version or not, must evaluate what type of community they want to foster around them and exactly how they are using, if at all, the new media available to them: social networks, blogs, etc.

Creating a social media strategy is essential in today’s reality and online publications are no exception.

I suggest three self-evaluation questions: Are you bloggable? Are you sociable? Are you a community, or simply a repository of information?

Nielsen has just launched a new report showing that social networks are now more popular than e-mail!

One of the findings was that 66.8% of internet users use these communities compared to 65.1% that use e-mail.

It was also concluded that two-thirds of people have increased the time they spend on social networks, especially on Facebook, which has increased by 566% the time spent on its website by users.

The logical tendency for people to want to use their mobile phone for social networking is also becoming a reality, with 1.96 million people visiting these sites in the UK via their phones or handheld devices, 401,000 in Spain and 773,000 in France, for example.

You can read the whole report here (pdf)

More info on: http://www.iwomc.com/

Nielsen has just published this info on Tweeter. Mobile users are up, while it seems that young people are not that keen on tweeting… Found that surprising?

Source: http://www.nielsen-online.com/blog/2009/03/20/keep-on-tweetn/

The Online Publishers Association has this presentation on the importance of local ads in online publications.

• Visitors to local media sites –online newspapers, TV and magazines -are more likely than visitors to other sites to take action after seeing local ads: from making purchases to visiting sites and stores

• Local media sites attract valuable audiences who spend more money online than visitors to other local sites

• Local newspaper and TV sites lead all others in advertising trust

• Local content sites attract a high number of influencers –the first person others come to for local recommendations