Foreign Press

So I’m with a bunch of journalists, editors, bloggers and general press people on a tour that encompasses social media, government and diplomacy.

I’ll be writing a few long features, blogs, and columns about the tour, which started in Washington with a visit to the US State Dept. But already, after day one, the majority of the group are extremely impressed with how the US State Dept has embraced Social Media in all its forms. But as with all social media, and indeed the internet in general, it’s difficult to measure the value of what you do.

This is a little strange, given that it’s a lot easier to measure than more traditional types of PR, advertising, radio and so on. And it’s certainly a lot less murky than the value of traditional diplomacy. But we seem to demand more of online measurement, which can only be a good thing.

So for example, the first State Dept YouTube video ony got 2000 views. That seems very few (it’s grown considerably since, of course), but at least it IS measurable. The more weblike, tentacular growth of social media interventions is a not as easy to measure – it’s not just a number – but there are several ways to do it, in relation to government. I’ll elaborate on those in another post. But for now, here’s a group picture, taken at the very podium Hillary Clinton uses to address press briefings.

1. 

   FND says:

   February 26, 2010 at 10:10 pm

   Where are the other representatives of our fairly large continent? Or is this just an arbitrary collection of writers, rather than ones drawn from all over the world?
2. 

   Chris says:

   February 27, 2010 at 4:42 am

   nope, it’s carefully chosen. But there are two groups. This one has three Africans, next week’s one has some more.
   Thirty countries in this group. Interesting to meet them.
   And they’re not only writers – they’re all social media people too.
3. 

   TheBrr says:

   February 28, 2010 at 8:19 am

   carefully chosen eh Chris?
4. 

   Chris says:

   February 28, 2010 at 7:42 pm

   so they tell me.
5. 

   TheBrr says:

   March 1, 2010 at 6:40 pm

   ha, good work man.