Communication

Explaining the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to consumers outside the beltway can sometimes be like translating a foreign language. Health reform and health insurance exchanges can be tricky. An authoritative, credible online resource for this information is vital for state governments to provide their populations.

The book Humanize makes the case for innovating the way we lead and manage our organizations. It suggests that last century’s mechanical models of management have become outdated in today’s more social world, and our challenge now is to create more human organizations that are more open, trustworthy, generative, and courageous. These are the very same elements that made social media a success.

For me, the best thing to do when you get stuck is to pull a group of people together into a brainstorming session with some clear guidance and rules.

A recent survey showed that 35 percent of mobile workers check their email before doing anything else, including getting dressed or eating breakfast. Is your email newsletter dressed for success?

Here at Forum One, we love helping organizations make real progress on some of the world’s most pressing issues - education, poverty, the environment, global health, and international development to name just a few. More often than not, a key to making that progress is connecting the thinkers, doers, influencers, and decision makers that have a stake in the world, and the initiative to change it.

That’s why we love Drupal Commons. It’s a collaboration toolkit that’s ready made and based on proven online community best practices. Commons lets us spend our brain-cycles creating and sustaining the right conversations, cultivating participation, and moving the real work of NGOs forward - not just writing the code to support them.

Ramadan is traditionally a time for Muslim families to come together, enjoy one another's company, and reconnect. With the exponential diffusion of mobile in the Middle East, technology played a much larger role in this year's annual festivities. Muslims used mobile technology to share greetings with friends, make plans, and experience a "virtual Ramadan."  Companies took advantage of mobile alerts to market products and reconnect with customers for the season in real-time. Different "Apps" and SMS services also played a role, providing reminders for daily fast break times, direction on which direction people should pray or Qibla, and information on how to donate money to different charities.

After nearly 10 years since it's formal inception, most of us in the web strategy world are really starting to understand the critical role that content strategy plays in the overall success of any web communications plan. From web redesigns to social media marketing, content strategy holds the key to your organization's ability to grab your audience's attention, connect with them in a meaningful way, and mobilize them to take action on your behalf.