BUDGET HELP IS ON THE WAY

Like most states, Texas is trying to find sources of general revenue to help overcome a projected budget deficit. WCS can’t provide all of the funds Texas projects will be needed to close the deficit, but we can help.

Texas will receive five percent (5%) of the gross revenue from disposal of both Compact and Federal low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) at our facilities. With the Compact facility expected to be operational by the end of the year and the Federal facility expected to be operational by early 2012, the revenue taxes to Texas should start flowing soon.

We estimate that Texas could receive up to $20 million per biennial through the collection of this 5% gross revenue tax on LLRW disposal. That won’t solve the budget deficit, but $20 million is nothing to sneeze at in these economic times. In addition, our facilities will provide a solution for LLRW that needs a place for permanent disposal, without increasing the risks and liabilities to the State.

We are already constructing the facility and have over 100 construction contractors on site. Additionally, we will hire about 60 more permanent employees and have already started posting job openings on our web site at www.wcstexas.com. WCS is doing our share to jump start the local economy and provide additional tax revenue to Texas.

~ Rod Baltzer

Rod Baltzer is President of Waste Control Specialists LLC. This post originally appeared on the Texas Solution blog on February 17, 2011.

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In order to respond to a wide range of rhetorical attacks, WCS has created the Texas Solution Blog, and are utilizing a variety of social media channels to make their case in a transparent manner. During these first weeks of working on the project with them, I've been reinforced in my view that it is absolutely essential to participate on social networks, blog, and do whatever is needed to reach audiences that may have tuned out to traditional media sources.

I have also been reminded just how common it is for opponents of a project like the one in Andrews to use social media to spread rhetoric, hyperbole, ad hominem attacks, and just good old fashioned misinformation in an attempt to sway the public against a project. Attacks on the owner of WCS may feel good, but they are not necessarily relevant to the merits of the project.

The opponents of the WCS project in Andrews, Texas, are just opposed to nuclear energy in general and, therefore, opposed to the disposal facility. It would be so much more honest of them to simply state that.

Instead, they attack the disposal facility, the company working to build it and, as a consequence, the small community that has partnered with them on it. Nowhere in their attacks are there alternative plans for disposal of low-level waste that sits in containers all around us.

Mostly the anti-nuke arguments are inaccurate and mainly based on emotion. Meanwhile, the President of WCS, Rod Baltzer, and the VP for Regulatory Issues, Jeff Skov, are blogging about the facts on the project and the issues surrounding their work. 

Please watch the video below to get a good sense of the community of Andrews, Texas, and their perspective. And please visit the blog, follow them on Twitter, check out their Google Profile, and join them in spreading the facts about low-level waste disposal and its role as a part of a sustainable energy strategy. 

~ Mike Chapman

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U.S. Congressman Mike Conaway (R-TX) visited the Waste Control Specialists' site in Andrews, Texas, earlier this year. WCS is working to provide a safe and environmentally sound disposal solution for low-level waste. For more information, visit their blog, follow them on Twitter, "like" them on Facebook, follow them on Google Buzz, or subscribe to their YouTube channel. 

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Recently, we started working with the great people of Andrews, Texas, on The Texas Solution. 

When Congress passed the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act in 1980, each state became responsible for the disposal of their own LLRW, yet more than two-thirds of all states have no place to dispose of LLRW.

Universities, medical and research centers, and other entities responsible for disposing of LLRW are without an environmentally effective way to do so.

Andrews, Texas, and Waste Control Specialists have taken the lead in finding an environmentally sound Texas Solution and are now blogging about their progress.

Please visit and comment. I know they look forward to hearing from you.

~ Mike Chapman

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Jack Plunkett/ASSOCIATED PRESS

ENLARGE PHOTO

Gov. Rick Perry has been quick to use Twitter to get his message across to potential voters.

Ralph Barrera/AMERICAN-STATESMAN

ENLARGE PHOTO

Bill White uses his iPad, a gift from his wife, to check messages and update social media sites before a meeting with the American-Statesman's editorial board last week.

By Omar Gallaga, Austin American-Statesman staff

The list of things that Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Bill White, his Democratic opponent in November, disagree upon is long. But on the subject of social media as a tool to reach voters, the candidates are in harmony. Although the campaigns differ in their online tactics, both say they began to buy into social media in a big way early in 2009 and they're each giving it unprecedented time and resources.

Perry and White both use smart phones to keep followers updated via Twitter and Facebook (White has an iPhone, Perry a BlackBerry). Their staffs tote equipment to send videos, photos, status updates, e-mails and blog posts from the road. Sometimes, the messages aren't entirely earth-shattering. On Twitter, Perry posted a photo with teen stars Joe Jonas and Demi Lovato. And a recent Facebook post from White reads: "Andre Johnson does it again for the Texans. Can the Texans go 2-0?"

But the campaigns believe that their efforts — everything from off-the-cuff updates to more substantial efforts such as reactions to news stories, responses to voter questions and online videos — are giving Texans greater access to the candidates and delivering their messages to where the eyeballs are.

"They're both very proficient," said Mike Chapman, a partner in Apogee Campaigns, a nonpartisan consulting firm that's closely following the campaigns. "Texas is getting a good representation on both sides of the aisle in terms of all the latest tools."

To read the full article click here. 

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By Mike Chapman and Bill Leake, Apogee Campaigns

As social media practitioners, we understand how important (and distressingly infrequent) it is for a social media marketing effort to have buy-in from the top. In the case of the Perry for Governor Campaign, you can't go any higher than the incumbent Governor and candidate for re-election himself. 

Two years ago, the Obama campaign dominated the political buzz for its extremely skillful use of social media; especially its prowess in fundraising and event turnout. In actuality, the campaign was running a state-of-the-art traditional political operation that added a social media layer over all of its very well conceived online efforts.

It worked and since neither of Mr. Obama's major opponents - Hillary Clinton and John McCain - did much of anything that is noteworthy in the social media department, the Obama campaign established a well deserved status as a benchmark for how social media should be conducted in future political campaigns.

Politics is not for the faint of heart. In business, the #2 company in a market may be very profitable, with great market share.  In politics, the #2 candidate is unemployed.  Candidates and their teams play to win, as the stakes of losing are cliff-high.

Therefore, two years after the Obama team demonstrated the usefulness of social media, the vast majority of candidates in significant races have heavily adopted social media so as not to miss any opportunities to connect. Among these candidates across the nation, Governor Rick Perry stands out this year in many positive ways for how he is deploying social media

Perry’s campaign is skillfully utilizing all of the major tools of the social media trade and combining them with the latest in campaign GOTV (get out the vote) and media strategies. This in itself is noteworthy, as far too many social media efforts remain silo-ed and are not integrated with other persuasion and activation activities and investments. 

Rick Perry is personally active on Twitter and is available to his friends and followers on multiple online channels. He is creating his own personal connection through new media with his constituents.

For those of us who are passionate about social media's potential to give all consumers (and voters) a voice, this is huge.  If the Governor is updating and reading his own Twitter account, there’s a pretty good chance he’s listening to Texans in a way not ever utilized by a sitting Governor.

Bill White of Houston, Perry’s opponent, is also working to deploy all of the latest and greatest tools of the social media marketing trade, but we haven’t seen evidence that he has fully bought in to the potential of connecting at the very digital grassroots level the way the Governor has.

While it may or may not make a difference in the outcome of the election, we want to recognize Governor Rick Perry for making it possible for average citizens to connect with him through social media and to know what he's thinking outside of the filter of his campaign and the Office of the Governor. 

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It's fascinating to me that so many of the social media enthusiasts I follow are such big fans of Mad Men. The show is extremely well done, but the premise is based on the very thing social media is rebelling against; how very clever ad men manipulated the rest of us into buying what they were selling with the use of advertising even if we didn't really need or want it.

Very generally speaking, the reason social media is now the "new reality" centers largely around our societal need to push back against big media and the hired guns and to have our own voices heard. We're tired of being talked down to and now demand a conversation that includes being listened to. First we stopped believing advertisers and now we doubt journalists. So now, more and more, we look to our peers online to decide what we think, what we'll buy, and who we should vote for.

I think it's safe to project that we will never see the day again where the "Mad Men" model can occur without someone twittering, commenting, texting, or updating their approval, disapproval or unrelated content in conjunction.

The following video, while a few years old now, says better than most blog posts what has happened in the relationship between advertisers and the audience that used to love their work. 

Bring_back_the_love.mp4 Watch on Posterous

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I really like the work that Steve Lunceford has done to create a great online information resource called GovTwit. I like it so much that I "liked" it on Facebook too.

In a nice use of crowd sourcing, Lunceford and his team allow visitors to use the "Recommend Someone" button on GovTwit to request an addition to the directory. If your favorite elected official isn't on the list, add her or him. 

The first amendment right to petition the government is something I care deeply about, so it's really nice to see this new site that enables anyone on the popular social network to gain added access to the people they've entrusted to run their government. 

~ Mike Chapman

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When preparing to write this post, I did what I usually do and "Googled" the keywords I already had in mind for the title tag, or headline. My first choice was "Integrated Communications." The results started with the Wikipedia definition for "Integrated Marketing Communications."

So, like most of the bloggers and social media enthusiasts I know, I stopped and read what the community had to say and how it related to my original concept around integrated communications for public affairs purposes.

It has become generally accepted that traditional advertising models, by themselves, are not as effective as they once were. Unlimited access to the internet combined with multiple forms of communication, an increased emphasis on specialized media, and a shift to a consumer-controlled and retailer-dominated markets for many products and services, among other factors, have forced advertisers to adapt.

What has happened already in the commercial marketing world is beginning to be evident in the public affairs area as well. The Obama for President campaign used every available social network and social media channel available to supplement its traditional campaign, taking a "nothing to lose" approach to their come from behind campaign against Hillary Clinton.

U.S. Senator Scott Brown, the Republican who replaced liberal lion Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, also benefited greatly from online communications conducted on his behalf and initiated by the campaign to win an unlikely victory; making the successful use of integrated communications for political purposes a bipartisan phenomenon. 

According to the creators and editors of this Wikipedia page, "(o)nline marketing channels" associated with integrated marketing communications "include any e-marketing campaigns or programs, from search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click, affiliate, email, banner to latest web related channels for webinar, blog, micro-blogging, RSS, podcast, Internet Radio and Internet TV. Offline marketing channels are traditional print (newspaper, magazine), mail order, public relations, industry relations, billboard, radio, and television." Sounds like a modern day political campaign in 2010, or a well conceived, full-scale public affairs effort in to me. 

Given tighter budgets and the need to find the most effective means of communicating a message available, it's a sure bet that candidates and the interest groups that lobby them will continue to adopt an integrated approach to their communications efforts, utilizing online channels where possible to supplement or replace traditional advertising. Those that do it first and who do it most effectively will certainly reap the rewards. 

~ Mike Chapman

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I've been fortunate during my career in public affairs and politics to have worked with some of the more accomplished connectors and networking experts of our time - elected officials. The skills they use to win elections and pass complicated legislation work equally as well with social media and online social networks.

Social media, social networking, and the social web are evidence of our strong desires as humans to connect and network with each other. Naturally, we're seeing digitally savvy politicians gravitate to these tools and excel in using them.

Success on social networks and on the social web is made possible by being good at these three things, at which successful politicians are masters:

• Authenticity
• Transparency
• Adding Value

What, you might ask, politicians can be authentic and transparent? They can add value? Absolutely, they can be among the best at all three.

While honesty and openness are not the usual descriptors of politicians as they're generally portrayed by traditional media and some bloggers, I have plenty of first-hand experience witnessing just that. 

The best public officials have no problem being who they really are and letting the voters get to know them. I can produce a long list of elected officials, from both parties, whose constituents would tell you this is the case and do so in very passionate terms.

As far as adding value goes, it is common knowledge among pollsters and other professional political consultants, lobbyists, and high ranking campaign staff that voters have much higher regard for their own elected representatives than the larger group to which they belong. They have this higher opinion of their own political leaders because they add perceived value, that is usually real, to their constituents' lives.

This is a very bipartisan phenomenon and solid proof of the networking and connecting skills of the elected officials who succeed in getting reelected time and again. After all, getting reelected is the key success metric in the profession.

Successful elected officials answer inquiries from their constituents. They solicit input, listen and respond. They frequently take the time to see constituents in person. They study their social networks constantly for insight into important issues. They stay in very close touch with the influencers within their constituencies.

These are all the same skills that will make anyone successful in using online social tools. Essentially, it's a matter of survival - adapting to change. The best public officials will not only adopt new channels of communications, they'll figure out the most effective use for them.

Within our current system, much of the connecting and networking is being utilized for raising campaign contributions and spending the proceeds on traditional media. It's way too early to know what the real impact of social networks, social media and other online communications technologies will be on these areas. Each new election cycle and each new session of Congress, state legislatures, and the range of other elected policy making bodies will reveal new innovations. 

Agree with me or disagree, let's have a conversation; yet another thing that elected officials are expert in doing. 

~ Mike Chapman

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I have made it a top priority to be as connected to my fellow Austinites as possible. And I've worked very hard to contribute to the well being of our interactive community. So it is a real honor to be recognized by the Austin American-Statesman as a member of the Out & About 500 in the Austin community. 

To quote the Statesman, the Out & About 500 "recognizes those among us who are everywhere, all the time, often doing good, weaving the social fabric of Austin." Last year I was listed under the category of media. This year I am listed in the newest category entitled "interactive," created to recognize the shift to social media.

When I first became professionally active in social media, I was still a single dad raising three kids by myself. Utilizing social media and social networking was the most effective way I could find to network and establish a personal brand in Austin. So I worked to master the new media with the help of many of the other people listed in the article.

Several of us who were active in new forms of media formed the Austin Social Media Club. The idea was to bring together the cross section of people utilizing social media to enhance their professional and personal pursuits together in real life; to meet, to share our insights and experiences, and to connect more deeply. 

My inclusion on the Out & About 500 list is really a tribute to the many people who have worked to make the Social Media Club a success.

As a public affairs and communications specialist, social media has been crucial at times when I simply couldn't physically get out to the many events I wanted to attend in person. From a personal perspective, I've been able to be available to my family.

Over time I've been able to supplement my online networking with a healthy agenda of networking in real life. But I could never have covered the many events, driven the miles, and managed to do all the things required of a single, working father without the communications channels we refer to as social media.

If you're considering adding social media to your personal or professional networking and communications efforts, I would be more than happy to share my own experiences with you and offer any advice that might be helpful to you. 

~ Mike Chapman

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During a recent interview I gave on Austin PBS station KLRU, I was asked by Shane Guiter if I thought social media is, as many have said, only a fad. My answer was, and is, that social media is going to be increasingly more important as a part of our personal and professional lives - not less.

While the term ‘social media,’ as a catch phrase for the many new channels we're now using to communicate, engage in online conversations, network, update, comment, tweet, link, rate, review, and research might eventually fade from use, the phenomenon is here to stay. Now, I'm not a technologist or futurist so this is just my opinion as a social media practitioner and enthusiast, but I'm pretty confident I'm right.

In the years that I've been personally involved with educating people and organizations about social media - as a co-founder of the Social Media Club International NGO and as a public affairs and social media consultant - I've seen overwhelming evidence that social media is only growing in importance.

For example, policy makers at the federal level are making strides to expand broadband to every corner of the country for economic development purposes. With unpredictable fuel prices and the need to find second incomes, internet based businesses are proliferating and social networking and media are a natural part of those trends.

Mobile devices, including the iPad and its competitors, will only make social communications adoption online more prevalent and practical. Essentially we have now been given the ability to join in the conversation and not just have to listen to major media. What we’re able to do now is only a glimpse into what will seem simple, routine, and just a part of our everyday lives in the very near future.

If your company or organization is still considering whether or not you should have a strategy around the growth in social networks and the tools that facilitate social media, please ask and we’ll be more than happy to engage in an honest conversation about how your specific organization is or will be impacted now and in the near future.

~ Mike Chapman

Note: Shane Guiter of KLRU is a huge fan of social media. Follow him on Twitter @ShaneGuiter 

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One of the first things I learned when I started working on Capitol Hill as a young Congressional staffer was that I shouldn't put anything in writing unless I wanted to read it on the front page of the Washington Post.

Since being taught that very important lesson, I've been amazed by the number of things smart people have put into writing that were clearly never intended for public consumption and that ended up hurting or ending their careers and hurting friends and family.

Now that we are officially in the age of social media, an age in which digital natives and digital immigrants are busily documenting more and more of their personal and professional lives whether appropriate or not, it's a sure bet that there will be plenty of unintended harm caused by things being written or recorded that would have been better left out of being saved in digital form.

If, on some future date, a critical mass of the population has something on their online record that makes them forgiving of celebrities, politicians and business leaders' foibles, then that could be a good thing and, perhaps, the beginning of the end of so-called "gotcha' journalism." It could be the dawn of a new understanding in media relations as digital natives become a majority of the population.

In the meantime, I would advise a more pragmatic approach: Assume that everything you blog, tweet, comment, record on audio and video - in other words, all content you create for the social web - will live forever, "on the record," and can and will be used for or against you when you least expect it.

I'm not advising that anyone be inauthentic, non-transparent, or to not be who you really are. One of the greatest things about social media is that it allows for self-expression in a way that can be literally shared with the world in real time.

What I am saying is that you should be willing to own every bit of the content you create. So, think before you tweet, publish, post, etc. You might be able to go back and delete or edit, but don't count on it.

Click here for a story in the Washington Post on career ending or damaging gaffes or watch the video mashup below. 

Just be sure you don't "accidentally" commit your own while innocently expressing yourself on social media channels.

~ Mike Chapman

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Recently representatives of SMC Austin participated in a pledge drive for the Austin based PBS station KLRU. KLRU has, among many other notable achievements, successfully hosted Austin City Limits since 1976; making it a cornerstone of the Austin and PBS communities.

Click here to see the photo stream.

Led by Betsy Gerdeman and Shane Guiter, KLRU is very active on social media channels including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, FlickR and many other of the social networks, incorporating them into their development and overall communications strategies. David J. Neff and Aaron Bramley of Ridgewood Communications and both active members of Social Media Club are working with them on a variety of areas. 

For me personally, it's great to be able to add to the physical community in which I live by tapping into the many communities I belong to online. I could never have learned as much as I have about social media without my participation in the Social Media Club. As you can see from the FlickR photo, we don't take ourselves too seriously, but we are right in the middle of the evolution of media that is social.

Please follow this link to read today's KLRU blog post about last night.

~ Mike Chapman

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"Austin social media mavens bring expertise to political consulting"  

The Austin Business Journal featured us this week in a story outlining where we are early in the development of our new company. Subscribers to the ABJ can read the full story here or by clicking on the title above. The complete story for non-subscribers can be found on the ABJ Entrepreneur site. 

A special thank you to Sandra Zaragosa for writing a great story and to Nick Simonite for making us look better in the photo than we do in real life.

Apogee Campaigns is non-partisan and is focused on winning social media campaigns for our clients and is not involved with any political party or candidate. Apogee Campaigns provide consultation to entities who are interested in using social media to affect public policy and to promote public relations and public affairs programs. We utilize state-of-the-art online technologies and adhere to the very best practices associated with social media and search engine marketing.  

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Recently when conducting a webinar on social media for the National Federation of Independent Business, I was asked a question about hiring a social media consultant and it reminded me of some thoughts I've wanted to share.

It stands to reason that the combination of a severe recession combined with an explosion of new communications channels and online social networks would generate a land rush of people calling themselves social media consultants. Given that there are very loose definitions of exactly what a "social media consultant" is or does, and that there are fairly loose industry standards of conduct and no specific government regulations to guide you, a little research is in order.

The first recommendation I make to any organization, company or individual looking to hire someone to help them with develop and implement a social media strategy is to remember the profession, like social media, is in its infancy. There are, however, a number of professionals who've anticipated the current trends and have prepared for them and are knowledgeable on how the new online tools and technologies fit into the overall communications, public relations, marketing, customer relations, public affairs, and many other aspects of business and lifestyle pursuits that have been directly and indirectly impacted by social media.

Put differently, there are a number of professionals who can deliver a solid set of services and then those who are learning on the job and have excelled at building long lists of followers and friends on some of the more popular social networks and are willing to charge you for the privilege of them being affiliated with you. 

The public relations industry is populated with firms who are paying lip service to social media now that everyone's talking about them, and then there are those who've helped lead the way to a more open communications model for businesses, employees and customers alike.

There are some extremely qualified professionals who have excelled in other areas of communications, public affairs, marketing and, like the public relations firms that "get it" have spent some serious time learning about integration of new and traditional methods. The industry will shake out and there will eventually be some pretty good referral systems in place to find out who is more qualified than others to do what they're claiming they can do in their proposals.

For now, I would advise asking if the social media firm you're looking at has affiliations with either the Social Media Club or the Word of Mouth Marketing Association or at least are familiar with them.

I'm very happy to talk with anyone offline or on to help you navigate your way. And, yes, Apogee Campaigns is available for hire and I'll be perfectly happy to talk with you about whether we might fit your needs as well or if I should refer to you someone with a different expertise or cost structure.

~ Mike Chapman

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Kiplinger, the well respected print & digital publication, just released their July 2010 issue, and in it, validated one of the core assumptions undergirding Apogee Campaigns. 

In this article, Austin is singled out as NUMBER ONE on the top ten list of "best cities for the next decade."   We've been growing Apogee Campaigns since early this year based on the premise that the combination of Austin and Digital Advocacy (at the national level) makes for a powerful brew.  Though, in may respects, we're brand new, we've had terrific market validation and a number of new clients that realize what our combination of talent, dedication, and value can provide for them as they navigate the digital and social waters.

Almost as refreshing as seeing our home town as #1 in Kiplinger is seeing the home town of many of our clients, and our next office location, showing up as #3 on the "best cities" list.  Yes, Washington DC gets great Kudos from Kiplinger as a safe bet for business and wealth creation.

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The mission of Apogee Campaigns centers around providing consulting services to clients that utilize proven techniques, powerful online tools and technologies. Bill Leake and I both are very active on online social networks and agree that social media and social networking are areas that require actual "hands on" experience in order to really know what works and what doesn't work. You can find us both on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and on a number of other social networks under our own names and now on a number of the more popular sites as "Apogee Campaigns."

Apogee Campaigns can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz and SlideShare for now with more to come. We advise our clients to keep their social media footprint reasonable and we're following that same advice and will expand as we grow. Please join us where ever you like to hang out online and let's compare notes on public affairs and other topics that we're working on or any other subject that you are interested in discussing. 

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Above is an image of the latest version of our Slideshare presentation.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please comment below or reach out to us on Twitter @ApogeeCampaigns, our Facebook Page, or directly by email ApogeeCampaigns@gmail.com.

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