You’ve probably seen TV shows and news broadcasts attempt to incorporate Facebook and other forms of social media into their content in all sorts of ways — some successfully, some not so much.

But NBC Philadelphia and social media agency Bradford Media Group, which has regional offices in West Chester, are trying a new way to bring social media to television.

The pair premiered Life Around Home, a new project to create television programming entirely driven by the conversations taking place on the show’s Facebook page last week, according to a press release. The show aired on Philadelphia NBC Nonstop, the station’s 24-hour cable channel, which features some original programing on loop.

The new show is hosted by TV personality and home expert Marie Louise Ludwig. Content is geared toward women and will feature a slew of lifestyle experts who will focus on organic living, DIY Projects, cooking, life celebrations, fitness, fashion and parenting, according to a release.

Here’s a video introduction to the new show:

Councilman Jim Kenney outsources his social strategy. Inquirer file photo

Councilman Jim Kenney’s relationship with Twitter appears to be complicated.

The same Councilman who two years ago threatened to sue Twitter over flash mobs works with digital marketing firm Chatterblast with a $28,800, 12-month contract to manage, among other aspects, his Twitter account.

And it’s become quite the story: from the Daily News to the Associated Press to Fox News, all of which focused on the idea that Kenney was paying a third-party to tweet for him, when everyone else on council uses internal staff.

After the news cycle pumped the story, Kenney and Chatterblast staff told Technically Philly it’s overblown.

“I looked at my staff’s skills and responsibilities, my operating budget, and the demands on my office and determined it would be best to partner with an outside expert firm for social media communications,” said Kenney, 53, in a statement released for Technically Philly, noting that he sought out a Philadelphia-based firm. “Many other council people have communications consultants or in-house staff to handle some of the scope of services provided, in most cases at a much higher cost.”

Instead, as the Daily News first reported, the story has focused on a five-figure contract from Kenney’s legislative budget, the third highest in council, which includes $650,000 in salary for 10 staffers. Kenney says he’s freeing up staff to do other tasks, while getting good value from a local firm.

“We manage an ever-evolving digital strategy for his office which includes Facebook management, Twitter management, influencer outreach, community feedback, audience identification and analysis, monitoring of key issues, constituent communications services, video production and editing and general advisory services as it relates to his digital online footprint,” said a breathless Evan Urbania, one of the cofounders of Chatterblast, the same firm that is leading the Philadelphia Parking Authority online strategy.

No doubt that social strategy is becoming increasingly commonplace in business and government, and, as Kenney points out, the contract is a pittance in regards to a $3.5 billion city budget.

“We are engaged for 12 months, seven-days a week, with five people serving the account and hundreds of hours of service delivered during the course of the contract,” said Urbania, 32, who noted Chatterblast has more than 60 clients. “For perspective, we have many other clients that pay fair prices for our services, sometimes up to four times what was quoted in this article.”

In recent years, an entire industry has developed around social strategy and Kenney, to be sure, is not alone in availing himself of consultants to help him along the social media learning curve. Though the Daily News reports that he is the only Philadelphia council member to do so.

Despite the bluster, the cost isn’t particularly extravagant. What could be of graver concern is that Kenney is paying for Chatterblast’s services out of his legislative budget, not his campaign budget, as the Daily News reports.

But, while a slippery slope is easy to spot, in Kenney’s case, his Twitter account @JimFKenney, for example, is clearly focused on constituent services, and, apparently with Chatterblast’s help, it is robust and fits common social media culture.

So, though some may want a legislator to show forward-thinking by embracing a powerful communication tool, there is likely little difference between outsourcing social strategy and other constituent services.

• Social Media in Law Enforcement [Social Media Today] — A write up on how @PhillyPolice are crowdsourcing safety, an effort we have covered before here.
• #FedValentines [Economix: New York Times] — Earlier this month, you may have seen the meme celebrating Valentine’s Day with economist friendly puns — you should know it began with Wharton’s own Justin Wolfers. More from Wall Street Journal.
• Brewerytown community center’s computer lab goes underused [Philadelphia Neighborhoods]

• Old City’s Larger Than Life Prints has launched another niche site called Artsy Canvas and is seeking more Facebook fans so it can partner with Groupon, which evaluates its partner companies by its social impact among other ways.
• Temple picks online pioneer to lead new journalism network [Inquirer] — Neil Budde
• Media Bureau’s Ben Barnett talks about going tech in NoLibs [Curbed] — The group is selling its NoLibs HQ.
• TED2012: Program Guide [TED] — The national TED talk will feature, among others, Code for America founder Jen Pahlka, who spoke last fall at TEDxPhilly. Watch her presentation there below.

Updated 2/9/12: The MyHeartMap Challenge will run for six weeks beginning Jan 31 through March 13, 2012. Applications to participate in the challenge are now open to the public. The application was developed by GIS firm Azavea.

Automated external defibrillators are life-saving devices located in buildings and public spaces like fire extinguishers across the country. But no one really knows where they are in any broader way.

With the MyHeartMap Challenge, launching this week, a team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania is hoping to crowdsource the location of every AED in Philadelphia and raise awareness about the tools, as Technically Philly previously reported.

Here’s how the challenge will work: interested participants should register at the MyHeartMap site and download the contest app to a smartphone. If you find an AED, take a picture of it. The app will geotag the photo for the Penn researchers who plan to use the information to create a database and comprehensive map of all the AED’s stashed throughout Philadelphia county.

There may be as many as 5,000 AEDs tucked into nooks and crannies around the city, reports the Inquirer. The winner — whoever finds the most — stands to collect $10,000, but smaller prizes will also be awarded.

According to Penn Medicine, you don’t need a medical degree to use one of the devices: “Used in conjunction with CPR, AEDs are an important part of the “chain of survival” needed to save cardiac arrest victims. Even people with no medical training can easily take those steps to help, since many AEDs provide audio instructions that talk users through the process of performing CPR.”

The Penn Researchers are starting the challenge in Philadelphia, but if the contest is successful, they have plans to make the contest and ultimately, their database, national.

From the release:

“Philadelphia is home to a vibrant medical community, some of the nation’s top institutions of higher education, and is a growing hub for new technology development. The MyHeartMap Challenge brings all those elements together to improve the health of our people,” said Donald F. Schwarz, MD, MPH, Health Commissioner and Deputy Mayor for Health and Opportunity for the City of Philadelphia. “The city has a rich tradition of innovation, and we have what it takes to lead the nation in this new form of lifesaving community engagement.”

To download the app and participate, visit the MyHeartMap Challenge website, follow them on Twitter, or visit the Facebook page.

To learn more about the Penn’s AED research check out the Penn Medicine News Release.

Evan Kalish

For much of its 220 year history, the U.S. Postal Service was something of a technology company: speeding communication and commerce through innovation, says postal geek Evan Kalish.

Today, in batch machines that can process 40,000 pieces of mail per hour, some 95 percent of handwritten addresses are properly dispatched by OCR technology, the 25 year old student in Penn’s master of urban spatial analytics program.

“[The machines work] from the ZIP code first, then to the address and select the proper street from the limited number of options available, tagging them with the bar codes that you can see on the bottom of first-class letters you receive. Human operators resolve the rest of the addresses remotely,” said Kalish, who lives in University City. “With Delivery Point Sequencing, another machine properly sort the mail for dozens of carriers in proper delivery order, based on their routes, with just two passes of the mail through the system.”

From today to the first ‘fully automated post office‘ back to the pneumatic mail tubes of the past, Kalish, a native of Queens, N.Y., has discovered new corners of the world’s original modern national postal system while writing his popular Going Postal blog, which has been profiled by Time magazine, the Washington Post, BBC and NPR.

All the stories use young Kalish as something of a juxtaposition for growing news of inevitable cutbacks at the U.S. Postal Service. While no doubt an important issue to Kalish, he says the best he can do is grow interest in what remains an impressive organization.

The blog kicked off in September 2010 as a way to share photos and stories about the postal service with other devotees of the historic agency, says Kalish, who did his undergrad work at Brown University.

The first effort followed a cross-country road trip but has grown from there.

“My newer entries have also been more in-depth, and shares the broader experience and anecdotes of rolling into any given town, as opposed to just showing a photograph of its post office.  I think it’s more relatable and I’ve gotten positive feedback with respect to my unique telling of my postal visits,” he said.

While his post office trekking has taken him across the country, it has also helped him get to know Philadelphia better, by visiting 45 21 offices in the city’s neighborhoods.

“There were three post offices that I had to visit because I knew they were likely to close: the Adams Avenue, Girard Avenue, and Wissonoming stations.  Those were all discontinued April this year,” he said. “Two offices I’ve enjoyed a lot in Philadelphia are Spring Garden on North 7th Street and Southwark at 925 Dickinson. Both are historic buildings constructed during the 1930s as part of Roosevelt’s WPA program, and each features a great interior mural. This is how the government kept artists working during the Depression.”

Kalish lobbied the Postal Service to donate a unique sign from the Wissinoming office to the Post Mark Collectors Club museum in Bellevue Museum and adds that Manayunk’s is unique for featuring a street level parking garage beneath the post office.

I have never seen that before or since,” he said, but, of course, being in Philadelphia, it’s hard to top the B. Free Franklin Post Office in Old City that was the nation’s first.

“Overall, my favorite post office, at least in terms of architecture, is that of Greenville, PA.  Its sheer grandeur, combined with unique materials and fantastic architectural details, make it a true standout,” Kalish says. “It’s tough to pick a general favorite since I’m fortunate to have had great postal experiences all across the country.”

Events this week: a meta meetup, crowd-sourcing social media and get help with your business.

Technically Philly Groups – The first Tuesday of every month, many of the area’s user groups get together for one “super” meeting. Sample the best of our region’s user groups this Tuesday at the Municipal Service Building. 6:00 p.m. Tuesday. Center City.

Crowdsourcing Change: Applying the Social Web to Some Important Philly Projects – NetTuesday kicks off 2012 with its Crowdsourcing Change program where presenters solicit feedback from attendees on how they could use the social web more effectively. Presenting this week: GPTMC, PhillyEcoCity, Protecting Our Waters. 6:00 p.m. Tuesday. Center City. RSVP.

Corzo Center business strategy open office hours – Does what it says on the tin: bring your business questions to the folks at the Corzo Center for some free advice from folks who have been there. If you work in Center City, we suggest stopping by after work on your way home. 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. Center City. INFO.

Center City memorial services are scheduled Sunday for Ilya Zhitomirskiy, the co-founder of the much-hyped Facebook killer Diaspora*.

Coverage by the New York Times and Gawker recount the unsettling possibility that the apparent suicide could have been precipitated by, at least in part, the hype around the more secure, community-driven social network that had thus far failed to have any real traction. Though Zhitomirskiy’s death happened in San Francisco, the Inquirer dutifully reminds us that the Moscow-born New York University dropout spent part of his childhood in Lower Merion and graduated from that high school.

Officially, suicide and other details have not been confirmed, though multiple reports are pointing in that direction.

As the Inquirer reports: “The memorial service for Zhitomirskiy will take place at 3 p.m. Sunday, November 20, at the First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut Street.”

Photos courtesy of the City of Philadelphia. Photo Credits: Mitchell Leff

It’s been a year since the City of Philadelphia hired Desiree Peterkin Bell as Director of Communications and Strategic Partnerships.

In that time, we’ve seen a more proactive approach to social media across Philadelphia city agencies, and even outside of it, like this week’s announcement that the Philadelphia Parking Authority would pursue an aggressive social media strategy.

When Technically Philly interviewed Mayor Michael Nutter last fall, social media was barely a blip on his radar.

Since Peterkin Bell took the helm of the office and began pushing the City toward social media engagement, Mayor Nutter has taken to Twitter, growing from 300 followers a year ago to more than 18,000.

That count doesn’t yet match the brand of Newark Mayor Corey Booker, Peterkin Bell’s employer from 2006 to Fall 2010, tweeted:

Though her early career impact will likely be attributed to her social media chops, don’t call Peterkin Bell — who earns a $150,000 salary from the City and lives in a home on South Broad Street, the Avenue of the Arts — platform dependent. In New York City, she worked under Mayor Bloomberg as Senior Director of Government Affairs for the New York’s marketing development corporation, working with brands like General Motors and Universal Studios to sell city assets for marketing purposes. She now uses that experience to persuade national media organizations to recognize Philadelphia’s assets as a continually growing and prosperous city.

At the heart of her role, she’s coordinating a centralized communications strategy that includes interface with national media, the city’s public access television channel, and making sure that no matter the citizen and no matter the message, the city is working to reach them.

After the jump, Peterkin Bell shares her experience in New York and Newark, the extent of her role as Communications Director, and where she think the city’s communications strategy is headed.

Having been in New York and then Newark, why Philadelphia?

I am slowly working my way through Amtrak. Kidding. [Newark] was an amazing experience and I had a chance to do a lot of stuff that wasn’t being done in other cities, but I was looking to do something different. I went to Swarthmore College as an undergraduate, where I met my husband. I always loved it here. I created a list of options [when considering leaving Newark] because my husband could be anywhere in the country because he has his own company. Philadelphia kept coming up on everything: arts and culture, integrity, government and responsiveness. Great Mayor, great nightlife, great place to raise a family.

What do you mean when you say you created things that weren’t being done in other cities?

In Newark, the challenge there was to break through traditional media clutter. I say clutter in a very respectful way, but the only attention we were getting was negative. A shooting was easy to get above-the-fold. If we were opening a fatherhood center or creating an earned income tax credits — pitching great stories — those were not highlighted nearly as much. We latched on to social media. It became a fundamental shift in how we as a city communicated. It helped define the city’s brand, helped define Booker’s brand. I saw that cities can be incubators of change. Philly has the best of those worlds: a strong engaged tech community and a government wanting to innovate and redefine the communications paradigm.

What are your core responsibilities as Director of Communications and Strategic Partnerships?

Traditionally, I oversee the press office, working hand-in-hand with our press secretary Mark McDonald. He does defense, I do offense. He’s an amazing asset because he’s been on the other side asking the hard questions. I do a lot of the un-traditional, social media and civic engagement. On the strategic partnerships side, I also think outside of the box about how we are creating communications mediums between citizens and government, working on things like the Department of Public Safety’s iPledge campaign. Philadelphia was able to get Education Nation to focus on the city. Chris Matthews did [Hardball] live here and Andrea Mitchell of Education Nation did the same. Those are un-traditional ways of communicating our messages and progress made in the city. It was sitting down with those folks, having a conversation first about why they needed to bring this to the city.

What are your priorities?

My priorities are to engage, educate and innovate. Sometimes it’s a video, sometimes it’s a press conference, sometimes it’s a Facebook message, sometimes it’s an event and sometimes it’s all of the above. As for innovation, no other Mayor in the country has partnered with a local broadcast station to do an unrehearsed, full-hour to take questions from every medium imaginable. But the majority of my time is spent around national media. I don’t want people to just see me as the social media conversation.

What have you been changing about the Mayor’s communication strategy?

What’s important to note is that the City didn’t have a communications director for two years. Absent of that, you had people creating communications on their own, to their credit. What you didn’t have was someone centrally located understanding how they were doing that. How many email newsletters exist in the city? How many Twitter accounts? Is there coordination among all of the press officers? It’s not necessarily changed, it’s just more open internally.

Second is trying to understand what tools exist: Channel 64, social media, Phila.gov, collateral materials throughout. Understanding what those things are and how they match with how people define accomplishments. It’s first gathering it, communicating it, and being very clear about those things.

So, how many Twitter accounts does the City have?

We’re still trying to find out. There’s definitely more than 12. In the process of finding out, I’ve also tried to let folks know that if we’re going to use this tool as a medium, how do we best use it? Often times, people started them because they knew it was a good thing to do, they just didn’t have a strategy behind it. Didn’t have a message they were trying to convey. Part of it was bringing in people from Twitter and Facebook to explain how best to use these tools.

Have you turned agencies or staff on to Twitter? Was it a hard sell?

A great example is Hurricane Irene. When you had FEMA telling folks to use social media to communicate, that’s when people said “this can be used in emergency situations if needed to communicate with masses.” But I always say that social media is a tool in a toolbox. It shouldn’t lead your strategy, but it’s part of your strategy, including a press release, press conference, a conversation with reporters. People receive information differently. Even in a digital age, there are folks who still prefer that you to give them a collateral piece of information or knock on their door.

What lessons about civic engagement have you learned, having handled social media side?

It’s a great democratization of content and influence. It allows everyday people to share what motivates and inspires them. It also allows them to be content creators, create a news cycle and influence policy. Knowing that exists and being a part of it means that we’re creating a direct line of engagement between government and that constituent.

You were an integral part of starting Newark’s public access cable station — how are you hoping to improve Philadelphia’s?

Channel 64 is a priority. In Newark, we literally built the TV studio. The great thing about Philadelphia is that the TV station exists here already. There are some smaller changes. We’re trying to post a lot more public service messages and we’re going to be announcing soon some new show ideas, focusing on ways to make it not just stodgy, but entertaining as well. The other thing that we’ve done is try to not just focus on just the Mayor’s press conferences in City Hall. There’s a lot of press conferences that are outside the city’s walls. It’s also helpful to change the backdrop.

A year in to this job, what have been your successes?

I wouldn’t count successes, I’d say progress. There’s still a lot of progress to be made. One was establishing the importance of this role. Second is getting people to also understand that social media can be a helpful way to communicate with constituencies. In order to support civic participation, a strategy is needed. Third is getting people to focus on Philadelphia who probably haven’t before, everyone from the Esquires of the world, the Washington Posts of the world, making sure our stories and our initiatives and our progress here in the city, from this administration, are highlighted as well. I’m learning new things every day.

What is the future for you? What do you aspire to? Are you interested in a federal role?

The action is on the municipal government level. I’ve had opportunity to work for the federal government. I’m more committed to cities, which are more apt to everyday change. Real impact is in cities.

Following quiet structural changes at the Philadelphia Parking Authority, the oft-criticized state-run agency announced today a transparency-driven social media campaign.

After news this month of staff sensitivity training and staff restructuring around customer service, the PPA will launch outreach efforts through Facebook, Twitter, QR codes and other tools.

Find the PPA on Twitter @PhilaParking and on Facebook here.

Tossing out an estimated 1.7 million tickets a year and forking over $99.6 million to the city and school district, according to a press release, hasn’t always earned the love of residents and visitors alike. The agency is famously the subject of the A&E reality show ‘Parking Wars,’ suggesting a divide between parkers and enforcers.

“While solving problems and addressing customer issues will be a major thrust, we will also use Facebook and Twitter to keep the public informed about parking emergencies during inclement weather – special holiday parking
discounts – parking at the airport during holiday rushes, as well as residential parking issues in our neighborhoods,” PPA Executive Director Vince Fenerty said in a press release. “Facebook and Twitter will help us better educate the public about parking regulations in the city, as well as our signage.”

The PPA strategy has been led by ChatterBlast Media, a Center City-based social media consulting firm. Evan Urbania and Matt Ray of Chatterblast worked with new PPA Customer Service Director Sue Cornell to develop the communications plan, according to the press release.

“The PPA will utilize online tools and social media platforms to allow users to get the information they need quickly and have access to support using new technologies and tools,” said Urbania.

Urbania says the technical components include:

• “A highly customized Facebook page with easy to access links and frequently used resources on the PPA website and throughout the web.”
• “A customer support system called Get Satisfaction integrated into Facebook, which allows for community-based support and access to PPA resources for questions, problems and praise.”
• “Involver applications integrated into Facebook to allow for interactive promotions, information sharing and a professional backend to manage everything.”
• “A blog added to the current PPA website to share informational resources and content quickly with the online customer community.”
• “A team-based channel management solution called Spredfast which allows for internal and external team members to schedule content, respond to issues and track progress from one dashboard.”

“We’re moving forward and using the latest online communications tools and strategies to encourage interaction with our customers and improve our overall customer service,” said Customer Service Director Cornell

Google Offers, a competitor for Groupon and Living Social from the search engine giant, has launched in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh today, according to a press release.

The move puts Google Offers in 15 cities with plans for 25 more in coming months. The initiative beta launched in Portland, Oregon in June.

The first offer in Philadelphia — to be found at  google.com/offers — is for the Marathon Grill. Future offerings include ones for Southwest staple turned Old City cheesesteak shop Campo’s.