Is the White House REALLY listening on LinkedIn?

Hugh Macken • Mar 01, 2010

Valerie Jarrett has her work cut out for her. Early last week the Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement at The White House, did two things she should be applauded for doing:  She (1) started a discussion topic on Linkedin in the official White House Group (which is […] The post Is the White House REALLY listening on LinkedIn? appeared first on VMR. Is the White House REALLY listening on LinkedIn? was first posted on February 28, 2010 at 9:09 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Breakfast with Barack

Valerie Jarrett has her work cut out for her.

Early last week the Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement at The White House, did two things she should be applauded for doing:  She (1) started a discussion topic on Linkedin in the official White House Group (which is open to any of the 60+ million members of Linkedin) on behalf of President Obama and (2) promised to report back  by week’s end with a reply to all of the responses.

She will rightly receive some flack for not making good on the latter promise  if she does not do so by this evening. But I, for one, think we should give her a few days leeway, at least this time. After all, the number of responses – over 1,240 from a rapidly expanding White House group that numbers over 31,000 – is probably among the highest number of responses per hour for any post on linkedin.  Only one hour had passed from the time Ms. Garrett posted the topic to when I decided to contribute my two cents. But in that hour, I was stunned to see over 200 responses had already been offered.

Linkedin, under the steady leadership of Co-Founder Reid Hoffman and the behind-the-scenes legwork by Director of Communications Kay Luo, seems to have finally arrived on the US political scene. Pols will no longer be able to ignore its importance.  Indeed, the professional networking site will likely have a key place at the Gov 2.0 “table” first set by William (Bill) Eggers , made popular by Tim O’Reilly last year and now becoming increasingly popular elsewhere across the social web thanks to online business leaders like Luo and political figures like Garrett who have been hard at work behind the scenes.

So what exactly was the topic of discussion boldly begun by Ms. Garrett, you ask? Here it is, followed by a sampling of responses:

What steps do you think government should take to help American businesses spur job creation?

On Wednesday the President is giving a major speech to the Business Roundtable. As a senior advisor to the President, I wanted to spark a dialogue in advance of the speech about this important question. We’ll be following this thread and later in the week I’ll follow up with a post responding.

From the first post…

Put my business, as an independent financial consulting business, on an equal footing with JP Morgan and GS.

…to the last…

If you make a mistake, don’t hide it, get over it.

…from the short…

Promote buy American when possible.

…to the sacrastic…

Hey! I have an idea!! Let’s focus on “the trades” and “manufacturing”, and let’s call it Made In America! Wow!…

…Valerie Garrett and President Obama got an overwhelming number of responses as they ponder the vexing questions that are clearly not only top of mind for them, but also for professionals on linkedin who are now, finally, starting to get comfortable not just having a profile on linkedin, but really connecting with others for not only professional advancement but also the Common Good.

I don’t know about you, but I cannot wait to see how the White House responds to the deluge of responses.  Doing so requires a new kind of diplomacy that demands nothing less than authentic engagement with everyday people like you and me.

Is the White House really listening?

(Photo Credit:  Breakfast with Barack by jurvetson )

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