A quick update on my recent ever got pinged by your CEO? post, and some related commentary on online social media in the enterprise world.

Presumably by way of a forward-thinking PR department close to Deutsche Telekom management (indeed my employer), I recently received a LinkedIn invite to connect to DT CEO Rene Obermann.
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By most measures, the White House’s first online town hall meeting was a smashing success.

A whooping 104,081 email submissions and 3.6 million votes later, today, the US irreversibly gained a whole new level of citizen participation.

To that point, the White House actually created a namesake post exactly for that purpose.

What should come next, in my mind, would be to ensure that this new-found form of political dialog marketing will continue to be exactly that – an ongoing, productive dialog to and fro the electorate and the elected.

To that point, anyone in digital media building and growing a brand online knows, focused quality discussion across the social graph is not as easy as it sounds.

After all, the Web’s bull horn capabilities are very much a two-way street. And media outlets everywhere are likely eager to pick up on any disgruntled citizen that felt s/he didn’t get a proper response.

So beware White House, from now on be prepared to handle your incoming emails with great care.

It’s all about keeping the conversation going.

A quick update on politicians zooming in on social software for added grab attention. 

The President’s staff just announced its first virtual town hall meeting.

Right from the East Room of the White House, President Obama will respond to citizen emails.

Clearly – despite (presumably) some form of prior email filtering – the new administration continues to be anything but shy about using the wide-open Web for added dialog with its electorate. 

And then uses traditional media pundits to get talked about for days on end.

Of course, this being yet another step in the ongoing democratization of information, just wait until half of Congress will be holding similar online events. 

Or your governor will send you email invites to his virtual town hall gig.

On the Web, social software is ubiquitous.

Everyone can do it. 

The world is flat. 

Terrific! Do engage.