Category Archives: Blogging
Posted in Blogging | Codes & Regulations | Current Events | Information Technology | Politics | Social Media by Brad Breneisen (Graphic Design) on January 20, 2012
As many of you may have noticed, January 18th was Internet Blackout Day in an unbelievably successful attempt for many of the web’s heaviest hitters to show their strong disapproval of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). As companies like Google, Wikipedia, and WordPress “blacked out” their content and urged users to endorse their opposition to the bill, SOPA and PIPA’s sponsors started to run for the hills, but the lawmakers haven’t backed down – even as the amount of endorsements against the bills allegedly shut down congress’ switchboards and melted their servers.
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Posted in Blogging | Codes & Regulations | Communication | Communities | Leadership | Municipal Services | Social Media by Jim Fisher (Site Engineering) on June 1, 2011
In my previous blog post, I touched on the importance and timing of public participation. Another critical element is the method. Public meetings offer face-to-face interactions, as well as an environment that allows for instantaneous “logrolling” as ideas and explanations are bantered back and forth. More and more, media such as Facebook and Twitter are being utilized by municipalities as ways to increase public participation in the policy-making process. While this certainly offers additional means for citizens to make their feelings known, especially when their schedules don’t allow for attendance at public meetings, caution must be exercised.
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Posted in Blogging | Client Service | Communication | Innovative Solutions | Marketing | Social Media | Sustainable Design by Brad Breneisen (Graphic Design) on November 10, 2010
Photo: © Fred Fokkelman
The term “branding” – as it refers to an expression of a corporate identity or visual persona – comes from the practice of branding cattle. Branding often starts with research in order to develop a logo and then progresses to various other supporting visual elements or applications. Branding is often dismissed from a budget as an unnecessary expense. This is an understandable misunderstanding of the process and benefits of good branding.
Branding is an investment, and when done right it can pay off big time, not just in attracting attention from your target market and making a strong impression, but also in streamlining the design decisions that employees make every day (often without even recognizing them). The intention is not to be complicated or contrived but simple, supportive, and effective in order to create and maintain a recognizable and beneficial visual presence with your audience.
Things like templates and brand guides are not some fascist attempt to restrict the individual’s creativity, but rather a way to relieve employees from the burden of making small and/or repetitive design decisions everyday that would inevitably contribute to overhead costs and an inconsistent visual identity for the company. The most widely-experienced visual-design processes throughout the company should be understood and addressed during the branding process.
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Posted in Blogging | Communication | Current Events | Initiatives | Social Media by Keith Kuzio (CEO) on October 8, 2010
Photo: Keith “keeps it real” by taking a few pies to the face for the United Way
When I was approached by our marketing team to become an LDG blogger, I agreed, but not without a momentary cringe of nervous trepidation. You see, I consider myself an old school engineer, not a modern age social networker. My introduction to computer technology occurred in the last millennium, nearly thirty years ago, long before the PC or wireless 4G networks. Back then, I fondly remember pounding out “brute force” FORTRAN programming on punch cards in the basement of Packard Lab at Lehigh University. The concept of social networking at E-school back in the 80s could easily have been defined as idle conversation among engineers while waiting for the data center technician to run key-punched batch files through the mainframe computer’s card reader.
So what topics could I, a CEO who’s yet to send his first text message, come up with that would be inviting and interesting to readers who are fully engaging technology in all aspects of their lives? After pondering this question for a few days, it struck me that I will be most successful with blog topics if I apply the same advice that I share with my kids on an almost daily basis.
What is that advice? Keep it real. Every time one of my kids heads out of the house or car to socialize with friends or peers, I tell them to “keep it real.” Over time and through parental discourse with them, the kids have learned the deeper meaning in this simple phrase, and that is – be comfortable in your own skin, be true to your values, and don’t let anyone pressure you into doing something you’re not comfortable doing – no matter what. When our kids’ friends come to the house to hang out, I also share the same message with them. Somehow this message has resonated with them. How do I know? I now frequently get the chance for a good chuckle when a young person sees me in public and shouts out, “Are you keeping it real, Papa Kuz?” even before I have a chance to ask them the same question.
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Posted in Blogging | Communication | Information Technology | Networking | Social Media | Sustainable Design by Steve Muller (Client Development Representative) on October 6, 2010
Image: © Dr. Granovetter & The American Journal of Sociology 1973, Volume 78, Issue 6
Have you ever wondered why social media has taken off the way it has? Why websites like Facebook and LinkedIn have gained tremendous popularity and now have tens of millions and even hundreds of millions of users? And if you’re engaged in social media, how could you make the most of it? Part of the answer can be found in a social network theory first proposed by Dr. Mark Granovetter in the 1970s. Understanding Granovetter’s work can be quite helpful in growing a network of contacts with some intentionality.
Dr. Granovetter researched economic sociology and developed a theory on the spread of information in social networks. That is the backbone of his paper “The Strength of Weak Ties” (1973), and helps shed light on why current social networks grow and spread so naturally.
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