New Home – AllThingsSterling.posterous.com
All Things Sterling has moved to a new home at AllThingsSterling.posterous.com.
Posterous made a lot more sense for me since it’s a lot more user friendly than WordPress.
I’ll keep this WordPress blog up as a sort of testament to my early blogging days.
Introduction to the Contract Profession
- What Does a Contract Professional Do?
- What is Contract Lifecycle Management?
- What is the FAR?
- 4 Top Certifying Organization for Contract Professionals
- Important Skills for Contract Professionals, Part 1
- Important Skills for Contract Professionals, Part 2
- 3 Quick Facts on Compensation for Contract Professionals
- 1 Simple Formula for High Pay in Contracts
- 5 Surefire Ideas for Contract Professionals to Improve Job Hunting
- 2 Paradoxical Job Tips for Contract Professionals
Answer #4: What Are Your Favorite Twitter Tools for Contracts?
I have been conducting crowd-sourced research on a new series called Twitter Made Easy for Contracts. Below are the results, original questions and replies for this specific question. When there were few or no replies, I did the research.
The Results
I did the research on this one since there were no replies. The hyperlink below is a list of tools I find useful.
Toolkit for Procurement Professionals
- Backupify
- Ping.fm
- Tweetdoc
- Tweepler
- HootSuite
Original Question and (Lack of) Replies
Twitter’s strength lies in developers making crazy amounts of useful tools. There are literally thousands of them out there.
Personally, I regularly use Backupify, HootSuite (it’s not software, so I can access it from work), and Tweepler. MentionMap is also growing on me. (It’s a lot of fun and pretty handy.)
My question is this:
What are your favorite Twitter Tools for contracts?
Answer #3: Twitter is Useful for Government Work
I have been conducting crowd-sourced research on a new series called Twitter Made Easy for Contracts. Below are the results, original questions and replies for this specific question. When there were few or no replies, I did the research.
The Results
This post was originally posted as “List Your Acquisition Twitter Profile – there is strength in numbers”. Considering few people responded to it, I answered the reason I think I didn’t get many responses — most government acquisition professionals don’t see the value in Twitter.
This post focuses on using Twitter for government work. Specifically, I’ll give reasons why Twitter is okay to use for government work and tell two stories about how customer service through Twitter helped me.
Twitter is Okay to Use for Gov Work Because…
- Many agencies like the Coast Guard, GSA, and Defense Department encourage social media use like Twitter. (Repository of agency social media policies.)
- There are thousands of government Twitter accounts listed on GovTwit.
- Social media is for every department — not just public relations, IT and customer service. Your employees are your best marketers. Let them share your agency’s knowledge and message.
- Saying only one person can use social media is like saying only one person can use email.
- WebContent.gov has an entire section dedicated to social media. Why do you think it’s doing this?
Two Customer Service Stories Via Twitter
Story #1: The Landlord and Arlington, VA
I thought my old landlord (who will remain anonymous) may have been trying to screw me out of my security deposit. I reached out to @ArlingtonVA, the official Twitter account of Arlington County, for help. I was pointed to tenant resources, tenant law, and told to contact again if the situation deteriorated. Fortunately, the situation turned out alright. Still, it was great customer service. Sure, an email could have done this – but email wasn’t appropriate for something that can be taken care of in less than 140 characters. Quick and easy, just like customer service should be.
swhitehead: @arlingtonva does arlington county have active consumer housing protection division? have already seen this http://ht.ly/1TB5X11:16am, Jun 03 from HootSuite
ArlingtonVA: @swhitehead Hi Sterling: As in Fair Housing Act non-discrimination protection? Can you clarify what kind of consumer housing protection? Tx10:19am, Jun 04 from CoTweet
swhitehead: @ArlingtonVA dealing w/ it in priv negotiaitons right now; will holler if help needed. thank you1:58pm, Jun 04 from HootSuite
ArlingtonVA: @swhitehead I’m sure you’ve read the VA Landlord/Tenant act! Do be in touch if you need help, I’ll try to point you in the right direction.2:17pm, Jun 04 from CoTweet
Story #2: Management Concepts, Inc Helps
I didn’t receive an email from Management Concepts about pre-class work for government acquisition training. I asked why on Twitter, and I received an answer from a Management Concepts employee. Again, this response was better suited for Twitter than an email because the answer took less than 140 characters.
swhitehead: Management Concepts, send late pre-class assignment. work + home email searches show I never got it. happy to show search results as proof.6:05pm, Jun 14 from HootSuite
smartinx: @swhitehead Looks like the email address with your record was training officer’s and not yours. Pre-work emails went to wrong place.2:42pm, Jun 18 from Twitter for iPhone
Original Questions and Replies
How do we get over the fear of Twitter in government acquisitions? By showing government lots of acquisition folks are already doing it — there is strength in numbers.
I’ll go first: my government Twitter account is http://twitter.com/sspsterling (i.e. @SSPsterling).
Here’s a short list of federal acquisition Twitter accounts.
- http://twitter.com/DoD_ESI_Compass
- http://twitter.com/GovNewMedia
- http://twitter.com/GSA_FEDSIM
- http://twitter.com/US_GSAR9
- http://twitter.com/GSA_ITS
- http://twitter.com/CGLIMS
Get over the fear.
List your account below and also put it on GovTwit, a directory for government Twitter profiles (already has 3000+).
Replies to This Discussion
Permalink Reply by Diana L. Boxey on May 27, 2010 at 3:17pmhttp://twitter.com/AcousticsGOV (@AcousticsGOV)
Thank you Sterling!
Permalink Reply by Justin Mosebach on May 28, 2010 at 9:27amhttp://twitter.com/VideoMinutes (@VideoMinutes)
Permalink Reply by Sterling Whitehead on May 28, 2010 at 6:00pm- Delete
Keep on contributing!
