Amid declining web traffic and engagement, Cuyahoga County Council has turned to social media as a way to better engage its constituents.

Today’s Cleveland Plain Dealer features “Cuyahoga County Council streams meetings, turns to social media” by Harlan Spector. The article reveals that the Cuyahoga County Council is now on Facebook, has a Twitter account, and offers live video streaming of council meetings.

I also found a county government YouTube channel and separate Facebook.

The Congressional Management Foundation has released a new report about the use of social media on Capitol Hill.

The 16-page document says congressional offices are using social media as a way to monitor public opinion, as a tool to get the word out about lawmakers’ messages and activities, and as another way to communicate with constituents.

The study says younger staffers see more value in the use of social media than older staffers.

You can read the Congressional Management Foundation’s article, “Social Media Used Extensively by Congress,” which was posted today. Here is the pdf of the report.

Darrell West, Vice President and Director of the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies published the following article:  “Ten Ways Social Media Can Improve Campaign Engagement and Reinvigorate American Democracy” on June 28.

In it he reports the findings of a panel discussion regarding how social media can have an effect on American politics , especially concerning campaigns, elections, and civic participation.

You can find video coverage or an audio file of the event at the event’s media page, or you can read some of the tweets from the event.

At a meeting yesterday, the Federal Election Commission discussed Facebook’s request for a waiver from being required to have disclaimer statements revealing who paid for political ads that appear on its social network.

According to the FEC site, “The Commission discussed and voted on two draft Advisory Opinions but did not reach consensus on either draft. In its request, Facebook asked whether its small, character-limited ads qualify for the ‘small items’ or ‘impracticable’ exceptions from the disclaimer requirements of the Act and Commission regulations.”

According to the FEC, an “impracticable exception does not apply to Facebook’s ads” because Facebook determines the size of the ads itself and is not limited in space by the medium. The commission says there are technological solutions for providing the necessary disclaimers. Citing the California Fair Political Practices Commission‘s regulations regarding ads, the FEC said the solution may be found by using “roll-over displays,” placing disclaimers on landing pages, or by “other technological means.”

The Hill reported today on the issue in: “Both parties back Facebook’s request for waiver on campaign ads” by Gautham Nagesh. As the article points out, “Facebook will continue to sell ads to candidates and campaigns and … [c]andidates such as President Obama have already begun running campaign ads on the ubiquitous social network.”

Here is the FEC page with links to the advisory opinion drafts.

The Capitol Club, a lobbyist association in Oregon supplied the funding for the state’s Legislature to supply streaming video of hearings and sessions to mobile devices.

Read about what will now be offered and why the Capitol Club stepped up to help in Govtech.com’s article “Lobbyists Help Oregon Legislature Stream Video to Mobile Devices” by Sarah Rich from June 4.

We are always on the lookout for any news regarding social media as it relates to lobbying, campaign finance, and elections.

Roll Call published an article today about how Bono’s anti-poverty group called ONE campaign has released an app for iPhone users. The app allows anyone with an iPhone to contact their lawmakers and  it gives them a text offering ideas of what to communicate.

Ambreen Ali’s article, “iPhone App Will Help You Lobby,” explores this new facet to the world of lobbying and advocacy.

How do you think social media and mobile technology will affect lobbying and grassroots advocacy? Let us know what you think!

Scott Wong from Politico reports how Twitter is responding to concerns on Capitol Hill that the Twitter accounts of legislators are vulnerable to hacking.

A representative from Twitter is sending them advice on how to keep their accounts secure.

Here is the article called “Twitter e-mails Congress safety tips.”

This week’s Highlighted Site of the Week is the General Services Administration’s Dipity (yes, Dipity), or social timeline, for U.S. Government use of Social Media.

The first entry on the timeline, showing the very beginning of our government’s use of social media, is April 1st, 2002, when the White House Easter Egg Roll was streamed live on the internet. Other landmarks include the announcement that “Ask the White House” was first put online in April 2003, how iTunes first offered presidential speeches in July 2005, Apps for Democracy was launched in October 2008, and Data.gov was inaugurated offering the public 47 databases in May 2009.

What is the latest entry on the timeline? On April 11 the Smithsonian Institution livestreamed Ignite Smithsonian session through UStream. The broadcast was called “Citizen History: Making History with the Masses” and is archived here.

Here is an interesting article by Federal Computer Week. They reference the timeline and ask the question, “Is government adoption of social media slowing down?”

Have a terrific weekend!

Here are a few news items:

• Govtech.com’s Matt Williams writes about the growing group of government workers using iPads and what apps  they like to use in their agencies.

• The 2011 Federal Media and Marketing Study is out and Govexec.com reports that 54% of management level government workers use Facebook, 34% use YouTube, 18% use LinkedIn, and 9% use Twitter.
• Meredith Shiner in Politico writes about how U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor and U.S. Senator Chuck Shumer are using Twitter to volley their competing messages about.
• The State Column reports that Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker has won the coveted “Shorty” Award for best government Twitter feed. Mayor Booker had to give his acceptance speech in 140 characters or less.

• Daniel Newhauser from Roll Call announced the U.S. House of Representatives will be launching a new website in April. The article says the new site promises to be more “user-friendly … [and will offer] up-to-date information on the home page about committee schedules, the latest votes and information from the Clerk of the House.”
• The Department of Homeland Security is planning a new social media outreach program, according to an article on FiercegovernmentIT.com.

• Govtech.com reported that the state of Oregon has released a new data portal, Data.Oregon.gov. Oregon has become the latest state to offer raw data where the public can take information about things like state contracts, agency salaries, and expenditures. You can create filters, segmented data sets, charts, and maps. Data can also be exported as XML and CSV files for your own API, or as a PDF for easy presentation as is.

For a full list of states offering such a data portal, see the federal parent site Data.gov for an interactive map.

• In another news item, the Des Moines Register wrote a piece about how the Iowa Flood Center at the University of Iowa will be publishing online flood maps to help citizens and city officials throughout the state better prepare for flood disasters.
• Here is an article from the Houston Chronicle reporting that a bill has been proposed in the Texas House to ban city and state public officials from emailing, texting, and posting on the internet while they are “on the clock”.

On March 14, Politico published an  interview of political consultant Joe Trippi.  He speaks about what should be clear to everyone after the 2008 presidential election – social media has changed the rules of engagement in political campaigning.

What will startle many people is his set of predictions: By 2012 or 2016, Trippi sees an end to the two-party domination of presidential elections (thanks to social media) and a level of fund raising that will eclipse what we saw with the Obama campaign. He also sees such funding going to a third-party candidate who is smart enough to use social media in an innovative way. The result could be a great political upset for Democrats and Republicans.

Whatever unfolds in the coming year, the missing piece from the discussion is consideration of the ramifications for campaign finance regulation. In the scenario  Trippi depicts, how will the new issues of advertising on social networks be handled? How will the source of funding be disclosed for a Facebook or Twitter message that is primarily a political advertisement and could social media efforts fall under the category of in-kind contributions?

The developments could complicate state elections, too. We have Maryland’s State Board of Elections and California’s Fair Political Practices Commission as examples of the first efforts at the regulation of political campaigning on the internet. I wonder how many oversight agencies will get out ahead of the issue by the next election?

For the Politico interview, read “Joe Trippi: Social media will kill two-party system” by Mike Zapler.

We have seen many examples of social media being used as a tool to promote a political campaign, now here it is being used as a tool to remove an official from office. Rhode Island’s Governor Lincoln Chafee is the target of a recall effort, and one group is using Facebook to gather support for the effort.

Take a look at the Facebook page with its 123 friends.

For the full story you can read the Providence Journal article “Governor unfazed by Facebook recall move” by Philip Marcelo and Katherine Gregg on March 14.

We keep an ever-watchful eye on any developments in the area of government use of social media. Here are two interesting lists to explore:

A thank you goes out to OhMyGov! for highlighting a new resource by DCI Digital Group called the Digital America Map. This interactive map measures the use of Facebook and Twitter by officials in each state. How did your state do? If you don’t like your state’s ranking, or feel the information needs to be updated because your governor just started a Twitter account and is tweeting up a storm, then send DCI a message on their Twitter account!

Along those lines, Men’s Health Magazine (of all things) published an article a few days ago called “Twitter Towns, USA” ranking “the most socially networked cities” in America. This list is not about government use, but it is still interesting. Washington, D.C. rose to the top position; Atlanta, Georgia came in second place; and Denver, CO was in third. It pains me to tell you Cleveland did not make the top ten. I had to keep scrolling down the page to find out we placed at 51st out of 100.

Jim Sedor, the editor of State and Federal Communications’ News You Can Use, offers this breaking news item. Jeff Cox, a deputy attorney general in Indiana, has been fired for commenting on his Twitter account that police in Wisconsin should use live ammunition to disperse protesters.

For the full story, here is the article by Chris Sikich and Mary Beth Schneider in the Indianapolis Star: “Indiana official fired for remarks on Twitter” from February 24.

Here is a statement from the Attorney General’s Office on Jeff Cox’s online postings and his being fired.