ST. PAUL, Minn., May 1, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GovDelivery, the leading provider of government-to-citizen communications solutions, will host a free webinar titled "The Rise of Social Government" on Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. EST. The webinar will feature Eric Rabe, Senior Advisor, Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania, who will present promising practices collected from a recent survey of cities around the country as well as in-depth interviews with government administrators about their use of social media. Rabe will be joined by Katherine Parker and Lauren Hansen Flaschen, authors of the soon-to-be-released Fels social media in government report.
"About five years ago, social media began as a communications and marketing tool for government," said Rabe. "Today, the application of social media in government has grown exponentially in popularity and scope. Government organizations are harnessing social media to improve public engagement, solicit policy feedback, strengthen emergency response, establish greater transparency – and much more. The result of which has been the creation of a new paradigm of citizen interaction with officials and public affairs."
This webinar, developed for those interested in learning more about public sector use of social media, will present practices from the upcoming report, "The Rise of Social Government," which is based on a University of Pennsylvania's Fels Institute of Government survey. Leveraging Rabe's knowledge of social media, government, and technology, coupled with GovDelivery's experience helping optimize citizen-to-consumer communications for more than 500 government agencies, this hour-long webinar will reveal top technologies that local governments are using, case studies for implementation, as well as recommendations for improving content and monitoring social media engagement. The event will conclude with a Q&A session with Rabe following his presentation.
"GovDelivery was created to help government agencies maximize direct connections with the citizens," said Scott Burns, CEO at GovDelivery. "The public's access to digital communications coupled with its expectations of increased access to information from all levels of government has radically changed how government needs to communicate. We're thrilled to partner with Eric Rabe and renowned Fels Institute to help share best practices in effectively leveraging social media to drive mission-critical results like increasing reach within the public and further engaging citizens with content including news, services and alerts or emergency broadcasts."
This webinar will be the first in a two-part series exploring the implementation of social media in local government. To register for the webinar please click on this link: http://bit.ly/GDFelsWeb_PR.
About Eric Rabe
Eric Rabe is an expert in corporate communications and management strategies. He has decades of experience as both a journalist and a senior corporate communications executive. Rabe also brings long experience and expertise in strategic planning, issue management, change management and crisis management interfacing with executives at the most senior level.
Most recently, Rabe led Verizon's media relations and corporate communications teams. As a crisis manager, Rabe led the Verizon communications response team after the 9/11 attacks destroyed much of the Verizon telecommunications infrastructure in lower Manhattan. He served as the company's chief spokesperson on labor-management issues and during a protracted strike. Over his career, Rabe managed hundreds of regulatory and legal issues in the public policy environment at the national and state government levels.
Rabe is a Senior Advisor at the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his MS degree from the University of Pennsylvania in Organizational Dynamics with specialties in global organization studies, change studies and leadership.
About the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania
The Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania is committed to advancing the quality of public leadership. It accomplishes its mission by offering focused, practical educational programs that prepare students for public sector work; providing research and consulting services that improve the performance of organizations that serve the public; and bridging the worlds of practice and possibility through conferences, lectures, and discussions about public issues and public problem-solving. For more information, please visit www.fels.upenn.edu
About GovDelivery
GovDelivery, the leading provider of government-to-citizen communication solutions, helps government maximize direct connections with the public while reducing communications cost. More than 450 government organizations worldwide, including more than half of major U.S. federal agencies, as well as state, county, and city governments in the U.S., and local authorities and central government agencies in the United Kingdom, use GovDelivery to optimize their effectiveness, efficiency, and engagement in communications with the public. GovDelivery is a partner company of ICG (Nasdaq:ICGE). For more information, visit http://www.govdelivery.com.
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