Apr 27, 2014 | Items of Note, Lessons Learned, Member Activities
The following letter was sent to NIOA President Charlie Warner. It is reproduced by permission.
Subject: Membership to NIOA Extremely Beneficial
April 17, 2014
Dear NIOA,
Many folks think that NIOA is an organization just for those working in Public Safety. I’m here to say otherwise. I’ve worked for the Waste Management Division with the City of Portsmouth for 13 years. During that time the media has come knocking many times. I’ve answered questions pertaining to refuse fees, code changes, or services provided.
The reason I joined NIOA originally was because of the weather. Hurricane Isabel hit our area in 2003, leaving us with much debris to dispose of. Hurricanes are pretty rare for our area. Information about our division was being posted and it was coming from other departments, not ours. Our citizens consider trash and bulk collection a serious matter and someone needed to speak on behalf of our division with the right information. I attended my first NIOA conference in 2004. Since that time, I’ve developed good relationships with our Communications and Marketing Department and our local media.
These relationships proved very beneficial last year when we began a curbside recycling program. I sent out press releases and the media helped promote our program. Articles appeared in the newspaper, stories on our local TV news stations, and interviews on our city cable channel. Social media also played a role in getting the information out. Curbside recycling began on August 19 and a TV news crew even followed one of our new recycling trucks along the route.
Our program has been extremely successful. We expected a 20% participation rate, but we’ve seen over 50% participation each month. Instead of paying $125 per ton to have our trash burned, we are recycling instead. Recycling makes sense environmentally and economically. I’m certain the media, and establishing a relationship with them early on, helped play a role in our successful recycling program.
I’m grateful for the training I’ve received from NIOA. It’s helped tremendously this past year. Folks shouldn’t think NIOA is for emergency services employees only; it’s also beneficial for those who really do talk “trash” for a living.
Sincerely,
Donna Corbus
Recycling Coordinator
City of Portsmouth
Department of General Services
Portsmouth, VA
Nov 22, 2010 | Items of Note, Lessons Learned, NIOA Conference
Tammy L. Chatman, NIOA Region 5 Director, has shared the Powerpoint presentation that she delivered at the August 2010 NIOA Conference in Clearwater. The presentation, “Twitter, Facebook, Yammer, Blogging: What’s Your Policy?” addresses the need for developing a social media policy within your agency.
You can download this document:
Twitter, Facebook, Yammer, Blogging: What’s Your Policy?
May 3, 2010 | Lessons Learned, Past President's Insights, Training Resources
From time to time, I’d like to share content and information that I think might help NIOA members with their communication efforts.
Recently, the Hobson and Holtz Report (ForImmediateRelease.biz) podcast provided audio of Katie Delahaye Paine’s presentation at the Sixth Annual New Communications Forum. This was held in San Mateo, California April 20-23, 2010.
The audio is a bit rough in places, but the content may be very helpful to you as you try to determine your time, effectiveness, investment and the cost of using social media.
You can download the FIR podcast (mp3, 21.9Mb, 54:47)
Download a copy of Paine’s Powerpoint presentation.
Many thanks to Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson for their work in providing communicators with information such as this.
More about Katie Delahaye Paine, as provided on the podcast website:
Katie Delahaye Paine is the founder and CEO of KDPaine & Partners LLC, a New Hampshire based research consultancy that provides measurement and accountability for corporations, non-profits and government agencies world wide. Her book, “Measuring Public Relationships: the Data-Driven Communicator’s Guide to Success” was published in December 2007. Paine is the publisher of KDPaine’s Measurement Blog and The Measurement Standard, the first blog and the first newsletter for marketing and communications professionals dedicated entirely to measurement and accountability. Prior to launching KDPaine & Partners in 2002, Paine was the founder and president of The Delahaye Group, which she sold to Medialink in 1999.
For the past two decades, Paine has been providing marketers and communications professionals the tools, data and information to help them make better business decisions. She and her firms have read and analyzed millions of news articles, blogs, newsgroup postings and internal communications and have conducted hundreds of thousands of interviews in the relentless pursuit of quantitative and qualitative measures of her client’s marketing success. She works with some of the world’s most admired companies and organizations including Raytheon, MADD National, and Juniper Networks. Most recently, her endeavors have been focused on social media measurement as well as providing cost effective measurement programs for non-profits, universities, small businesses and government agencies.
Katie’s full biography is available from the KDPaine & Partners website.
