- Advertising.
- Blogs dedicated to the construction project.
- Complaint management systems to register and track complaints.
- Construction staff volunteering for local charities and events.
- Employing local people and buying from local suppliers.
- Conveniently placed information centres where residents can get information.
- Dedicated website or minisites.
- Demonstration projects.
- Displays at community events.
- Email channels for complaints or queries.
- Employing local communicators who understand affected communities.
- Fact sheets with specifc themes that can be mailed, emailed, downloaded or handed out.
- Information packs for businesses, schools and retailers.
- Interactive mobile kiosks in libraries, shopping and other high traffic areas.
- Leaving behind legacy projects after construction such as new roads, school improvements, parks and other recreational facilities.
- Media briefings on constructions sites.
- Media relations.
- One on one briefings with landholders and other key people.
- Operational changes based on community feedback such as scheduling work at night or during school holidays.
- Presentations to local groups on a one-off or regular basis.
- Print materials such as newsletters, bulletins, advisories, bulletins, posters.
- Transferring communications staff to live in the areas affected by construction.
- Research on audiences and attitudes before, during and after construction.
- Site tours and open days for the public.
- Specially equipped information buses that can travel around communities.
- Sponsoring organisations or events in areas affected by construction.
- Staff from diverse backgrounds tasked to communicate with multicultural communities.
- Stakeholder consultative bodies offering feedback on the effectiveness of communications.
- Thank you events once a project finishes.
- Toll free hot lines.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
32 Ways To Communicate A Construction Project
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Pollies Speak Plain English Please
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Bob's Online Library
Why Raising Awareness Is Poor PR
- Continuous communications and keeping in mind the PR maxim: just when you are sick of saying something, people are probably just starting to listen.
- Compelling content (centred on personal stories) that motivates people to change what they are currently doing.
- An approach that grabs attention and propels your message through the communications clutter engulfing the average person.
- A repetitious mix of communications tactics so if one approach fails one time, another may succeed later.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
The Business Reason To Tell Stories
The best way to pitch storytelling to your organisation is to position the argument as a 'winning hearts and minds' one - creating an emotional connection to the organisation, its objectives, goals, strategy and vision rather than simply a rational one.
Assuming that no business leader would argue that they didn't want to create this level of connection, it would be fair then to suggest that a storytelling approach is really one of the most effective ways of achieving this. Since mankind began we have used stories as a powerful way to transfer knowledge and information, engage and inspire people and to spark the emotions, stimulate actions or change attitudes and behaviours.
It may be a good idea to pitch the idea starting with a great story about an employee who, faced with a particular dilemma (eg customer- related), took a particular course of action to win the day and make something happen that has been truly inspiring or beneficial in some way to the business.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Branding for Not For Profits
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Free PR Workshops in 2010
- Workshop #1: Communicating to Community. Develop a 12-month PR plan that costs under $500 to carry out.
- Workshop #2: Social media for charities and other not for profits. How not for profit groups can use social media to reach the community.
- Workshop #3: Get Yourself PR Ready. Go behind the scenes to work out PR responsibilities, budgets and time-lines.
- Workshop #4: Sponsorship and fundraising. Get sponsorships and manage sponsors so they return next year and beyond.
- Workshop #5: Writing for the media. Learn to write media releases, media alerts and media backgrounders for mainstream and on-line media.
- Workshop #6: Event planning. Seven steps to holding great events.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Australia's Best Storyteller

Since 1922 the Memorial has become
The Memorial is among
The Memorial is unique for a government agency. While most departments of state communicate through the formal language of bureaucracy, the Memorial let’s the "average bloke" or as Americans say the "ordinary Joe" become the storyteller. Their letters, souvenirs, keepsakes and imagery provide personal testimony to past battles. Today we live in an age of celebrity. But the Memorial has no celebrities. The most prized of its spaces is the tomb of a single Unknown Soldier rather than monument to any general or world leader and its most popular sculpture is a man and a donkey.
The Memorial holds a lesson for all communicators. Even the most complex communal stories are best told through the words, experiences and emotions of the individual.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Improve Your PR Productivity
- Evernote to clip and store material from the web including images, websites and documents.
- Drop Box to share files and folders between desktops, laptops and mobile phones.
- You Send It to email very large files such as videos and hi-res images.
- Audio Boo to record an audio file to the web and then distribute it.
- And of course, Facebook and Twitter to share ideas with other communications professionals.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
The PR of Climate Change
The threats posed to Earth by a changing climate are real and far reaching.
So you would think it would be easy to tell people about the problems we face, what part they can play in helping the planet to adjust and then stand back and watch them take action. If things were only that simple.
The recent Copenhagen Conference showed even governments armed with the latest, most compelling data cannot agree on what should be done. So what hope is there in convincing Earth's six billion people to act for the common good.
Last month Columbia University's Centre for Research on Environmental Decisions released the Psychology of Climate Change Communications report. Meant for use by governments, scientists and environmental groups, it provides a framework to recognise the barriers to communicating climate change and recommends strategies and tools to convince people to act. These include:
- Know your audience and appreciate their current level of knowledge about climate change. If there are misconceptions in their mental frameworks, replace these with facts and fresh information.
- Get your audience's attention. Frame information in a manner that is comfortable for them and talk about the here and now rather than some abstract, imperilling future. People tend to discount environmental (and financial) consequences with every year they are delayed so add immediacy to the conversation and talk about the present.
- Put the dire global situation into a local context and bring the message close to home. Most often local leads because people show more concern with events in their neighbourhood than in far-off places. Tap into the desire people have of avoiding losing something and make them aware of the potential for current (as well as future) losses if we fail to act.
- Translate scientific data into concrete experiences, avoid using technical jargon and rely on simple language. The goal for scientists should be to help their fellow citizens to quickly absorb information rather than spend time trying to decipher vocabulary. Sure there is a place for charts, graphs and carefully worded text but these work far better when supported by vivid imagery, film, real world examples, personal case studies and simple analogies.
- Avoid overusing emotional appeals. Continually trying to scare people into action strains our finite capacity to worry about things. Our minds concentrate on what concerns us right now and too much long term fear can lead to emotional numbing.
- Acknowledge the uncertainties surrounding climate change. People will understand incomplete information better in a group where they have a chance to discuss it rather than as individuals trying to understand an issue alone.
- Tap into social affiliations. Appeal to the various roles a person plays (parent, farmer etc). Focus communications on the small group rather than the larger body and use local messengers who are more likely to be listened to than some distant authority.
- Encourage participation because people are more likely to act if they have had a part in shaping an action.
- Make it easy to take action. Give people simple things they can do in the first place that can build into a more extensive program. Offer incentives and default options individuals can easily accept.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Community Relations Will Be The Emerging PR Discipline in 2010

Climate Change, the Global Financial Crisis, Terrorism and other problems demand an response now. Yet at the same time we know that their solution will involve all of us for generations to come.
That is why in 2010 we are likely to see community relations emerge as a distinct PR discipline similar to how investor relations emerged in the 1990s. Community relations is the art and craft of sharing information and talking to communities to solve problems that affect people with common interests. In the future it will involve:
- Actively listening to our communities through research, face to face discussion and what people say on social media platforms.
- Educating people on the key dimensions of issues because the ones we face invariably are complex and have more than one dimension.
- Presenting a vision for the future with a mix of facts, figures, case studies, projections and other data and communicating with logic and emotion in language and imagery that are easy to grasp.
- Adjusting corporate behaviours and responses when the wisdom of the crowd, the state of the economy and the health of our planet tells us that things plainly are not working.
- Persuading our organisations to have the courage to take a leadership position on the tough issues and continuously communicate what we must do with conviction and clarity.
Communicators hang on. Not only are the channels we use changing, the philosophy of what we do is about to undergo a tsunami-like shake-up.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Happy 2010
Best of success and every peace to you and your loved ones in the coming year.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Holiday Greetings After a Year of Crisis Communications
- Devastating Victorian bush fires
- Global financial crisis
- Climate change
- Rapid fall of Tiger Woods and a myriad of local and global dramas our communities faced.
Thanks for reading Traffic on Maine in 2009 and for those I encountered during workshops, seminars and other byways of life ... it was a pleasure to meet you.
Enjoy a safe and happy Christmas season. May you and your family have a well deserved break over the Australian summer and then return refreshed in 2010 to communicate with your community.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Rescue at Sea: The Video
miles off the southern tip of New Zealand.
I was on board the US ship Seven Seas Mariner when it diverted course
to rescue a solo sailor from Germany. Heavy seas had battered his
vessel and disabled the steering. He had been drifting for three days
miles from anywhere and his plans for an around the world journey had
come to a potentially life threatening end.
The Mariner launched a small rescue boat which battled rolling waves
to recover the yatchsman. The ship's passengers watched the whole
operation - which I can testify - had several very tense moments.
While the operational side was underway, the ship's communications
team were also engaged. Using hand held cameras the Mariner's crew
filmed the complete operation from preliminary planning by the Captain
and his team to a closing interview with the exhausted yatchsman once
safely on board.
Within hours they had cut a broadcast quality video and made it
available to passengers.
It was a great use of video technology to give the Mariner's 700
passengers a glimpse of the story behind what they had witnessed only
hours earlier.
There were very well deserved accolades for the rescue crew and their
seamanship. But I also give a well done to the ship's communicators
for reacting to and using technolgy to tell a story no-one could have
anticipated.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Paris, London and Eden NSW

The 1959 Peter Seller’s movie The Mouse That Roared told the story of a tiny fictitious principality that declared war on
Eden, a modestly sized fishing town on the coast in southern NSW town has a marketing program in place to attract cruise ships. It is an attempt to broaden out the economy which has been affected by changes in the local fishing and timber industry in recent years.
The town must have a very capable marketing team. They recently managed to attract the Regent Line’s luxury ship, the Seven Seas Mariner, to drop anchor in
Many shops in the town dressed up with banners and balloons to welcome the tourists who hailed from mega cultural hubs like
Nowadays we often hear how regional
Well done
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
How people use Twitter
Here is a very short presentation on how some of the people I follow communicate through Twitter ...from retail to public safety. And here's the who's who of Twitters in Australian Governments.
Please check out my simple SlideShare Presentation:
Friday, October 30, 2009
10 Steps To Engaging Communities
No matter how compelling or frightening the data may be, governments still need to convince people they need to act in the face of challenging circumstances. This means consulting them, getting their input and then fashioning a response individuals, communities, business, government and others can act on.
Often community consultation involves a series of inter-locking steps:
- Identifying stakeholders and individuals who wield influence
- Identifying local attitudes, aspirations and concerns
- Helping those affected understand what it is proposed, how it will improve things and when things begin to happen
- Providing opportunities for community feedback and involvement throughout the project
- Keeping people, especially key people, continually informed
- Incorporating feedback into planning and subsequent actions and, as importantly, telling people you have done so
- Communicating milestones and outcomes
- Simplifying communications yet providing access to detailed data if people want it
- Frankly acknowledging setbacks and disappointments
- If people have to change behaviours, providing information when they need it and how they need it and offering ongoing encouragement
Things rarely go to plan 100% of the time in community consultation, coalition building and communications. After all we're dealing with people - just like us - and that's just the way it is.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Wanted - Visionaries Who Can Communicate: Apply Within
Issues like the global financial crisis, climate change and international terrorism are enormously complex. The threats in each are real and pressing. There are no easy answers and what is needed is a sustained, perhaps even a multi-generational approach to tackling these challenges which cut right across borders.
These problems impact us all , so it is good to remember the simplest way through complexity is clear vision and simple communications.
This past week two visionary communicators have been notable.
On Friday President Obama received the Noble Peace Prize. The award was probably more in recognition for his ability to inspire people and give them hope than for any one achievement this early in his Presidency. Obama is a communicator in his very own class and the power and persuasion of his words resonates beyond Americans to people around the world.
In this past week I came across leading Canadian environmentalist Harvey Locke who talks about the need to think and act on the grandest of scales to protect and strengthen the earth's fragile environment in the face of climate change.
Locke is currently in Australia talking about about his experiences in helping to establish the Yellowstone to Yukon conservation corridor in North America. At 3200km long Yellowstone to Yukon is the largest conservation undertaking of its kind in the world. It literally links landscapes in the western United States and Canada to preserve animals and vegetation. It is shifting conventional thinking beyond saving "small isolated islands" of threatened environments.
Locke speaks simply, persuasively and peppers his views with anecdotes and stories. In his efforts to encourage Canadians and Americans he underpins the conversation with basic but compelling messages:
- Firstly the problems of climate change are so significant, no one person or organisation has the solution. Organisations should stop pretending they have a monopoly on the way ahead. They must paint the grand vision of what could be and allow the rest of us to define our own contribution on how this can be achieved.
- Locke believes in personalising the story. Or in his case "animalising the story." He talks freely why large a North American conservation corridor is so important to the long term survival of buffalo, grizzly bears and other animals iconic to North America. He has chosen his case studies well to tug at the heartstrings of his listeners.
- He stresses the need for simple conversations. You can't reasonably expect people to support what they don't understand so he cautions governments and scientists to stop over-complicating the information they provide to the rest of us.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Don't Applaud the Death of the Newspaper Just Yet

I precisely identified my preferences for music and the Internet delivered exactly what I wanted. And that got me thinking - there may be a downside to all this.
While the Internet is great at delivering information to suit our needs it is not so great at delivering other information which we either should know or possibly might want to know. And that's what makes the Internet so different from newspapers.
By and large our daily or weekly newspapers do a creditable job of sourcing, sifting and presenting a broad selection of news from our communities, states or from around the world. It could be information on politics, business, sports, health or a whole host of other topics. Newspapers lay out a vast array of information and each edition offers us the opportunity to learn something either we did not know or really need to know. And all the time we retain the right to skim straight past anything we don't not fancy.
The Internet on the other hand delivers only what you we ask for. That is its great strength and at the same time a fundamental weakness. By its very specificity it just might fail to introduce us to other material we could benefit from.
Some call this the echo chamber effect. Unless we take very deliberate steps to expose ourselves to contending voices, we stand in danger of seeking out only the information from the Net that supports our opinions and own world view.
This phenomen is nothing new. Research shows many of us choose to get information only from those media outlets that agree with and give voice to our opinions. Perhaps this is just part of the human condition: to hear what we want to hear. But the troubling thing about the Internet is it can silo our information with such cold efficiency.
Some social media commentators delight in predicting the demise of the newspaper. The evidence certainly seems powerful particularly in the USA and more recently here in Australia with the shrinking of Fairfax newsrooms and the iconic Trading Post disappearing from our news stands to morph into an online version.
I am more cautious about whether the predicted death of the newspaper is such a good thing. True they have their shortcomings but without print newspapers do we risk losing the daily opportunity to tune into the broad coverage of community information they provide? News that we can read over coffee, swap, share and circle with a pencil. Or even rip out and stick on the refrigerator door if it is particularly relevant to our lives. And without the traditional newspaper where will those without digital access go?
I'm a great believer in the digital age bringing in a golden age in communications. However let's be careful. We may gain something wonderfully valuable from these new digital platforms but in the process we may lose something wonderfully valuable as well.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Technology Reducing Face to Face Communications?
Read Shel Holz's blogpost at http://shelholtz.com/
Social Arab Web
Friday, September 25, 2009
Fundamentals For Communicating The Really Tough Issues

It aims to inform Australians about the need to link landscapes (landscape connectivity) to preserve our vegetation and animal life in the face of climate change. The science behind this concept is complex and often difficult to explain, so the ongoing challenge is to gain public support by providing clear, simple and relevant explanations the layperson can understand and relate to.
So many of the issues our communities face are complex - the global financial crisis, why we are fighting in Afghanistan, improving the health of Indigenous communities etc. Yet if we don't find a compelling and continuing way to tell those stories, public interest - no matter how well intentioned - is likely to drift.
There has never been a better time to be a communicator because we have so many tools available to carry our information. Yet at the same time the communications challenges we manage have rarely been tougher.
I'm hoping that by sticking to four communications fundamentals we can guide our efforts in this current campaign to success:
- The best way to communicate complexity is through simplicity.
- The best way to communicate significant change is through stories of the people either affected by or involved in that change. Personalise the policy whenever you can.
- It's unlikely a single communications channel will reach those you need to engage. Go for redundancy and use as many relevant media as practically possible.
- And finally ... be persistent. In this age of instant gratification most of us want immediate results. However truly important issues only gain traction over time and it can take even longer for people to move from ingrained attitudes and behaviours.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Are We The First Connection Generation?

Iggy Pintado, a former
Pintado starts by identifying a number of "connector profiles". These are drawn from his own extensive marketing experience plus personal research he undertook for the book. He claims Australians - and this probably applies to those elsewhere - fall into one of five categories when it comes to using new media:
- Basic Connectors are people with low levels of technological take-up. They can be any age but are united by their disdain or fear of technology. They need to be thoroughly convinced that new communication platforms can improve things and it often takes a tech-minded family member or friend to guide and encourage them to venture into online media.
- Passive Connectors have a basic understanding of the new technologies but choose not to make it a priority in their lives. When it comes to online action they observe rather than participate. This is hardly surprising because many people in this category have traditionally consumed passive media such as print, radio and television. In marketing terminology they could be classed as the "late adopters" in the digital era.
- Selective Connectors understand new communications technologies and use it to share experiences and maintain their family, friendship and business networks. However they stop short of expanding the range of their connections which limits their ability to take advantage of business and other online opportunities.
- Active Connectors appreciate and use the new technologies to develop and maintain contacts, assertively share their thoughts and routinely use platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Linked-in for commercial and personal benefit. They are the marketing equivalent of "early adopters", people willing to try new things and take on fresh thoughts.
- And finally there are the Super Connectors. These folks are digitally light years ahead of the rest of us and on the bleeding edge of technology. For them an online life is as fundamental as using running water or electricity.
And what exciting times we live in when initiatives such as the Australian Government's National Broadband Program, the schools laptop program and first stirrings about Government2.0 have the potential to transform us into Australia's first connection generation.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
The Assumption Effect - Never Assume Anything
We were half way through it when we both realised that we were each talking about a completely different issue. No wonder the conversation was not going very far.
In recent months I have been involved with two organisations where the same thing has happened. Senior managers assumed the people they wanted to reach knew what they were talking about. In both cases the intended audiences knew little if anything about the subject.
Both organisations exhibited self referential communications: a symptom which runs along the lines of I know what I mean therefore everyone else must know what I mean.
As communicators it is very easy assume because we have invested time and effort in producing key messages, designing brochures, distributing media releases etc, that people - apart from us - know what we are on about.
There must be some high sounding term in the science of communications to describe this effect. I'm not sure what it is so I simply describe it as the assumption effect and it has probably been the root cause of countless failed PR and marketing campaigns.
Never assume the people you want to reach know what you are talking about until they demonstrate that knowledge. That sounds simple but I wonder how many times your personal or organisational communications have been de-railed by making false assumptions at the outset.
That's why it always pay to market research your audiences, and if the data or observation are not there, never assume they either know or care about what you want to communicate.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Local Government and Social Media

Here are some links you might find interesting:
- A copy of today's presentation
- Jeff Bulla's post on 28 Reasons the CEO is Afraid of Social Media
- Another post from Jeff: 9 Ways to Convince the CEO to Use Social Media and Enter the 21st Century
In this interview Mayor Rob discusses using Twitter, blogs and Facebook to communicate his municipal duties. This is well worth a listen.
Cheers and good luck to all my colleagues in Local Government.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Fundamentals for Not Profit Communications
Now in its sixth year these sessions offer pro bono marketing advice to volunteers groups, charities and not for profits.
To finish up the 2009 program we asked colleagues in our international PR networks to name the top ten things not for profit organisations must get right when they set out to communicate to their communities.
We got more than ten so here's the list.
Craft a message that resonates and connects. Before embarking on a PR campaign, craft your message. Who you are and who do you help? Do your services overlap with other groups? How is your organization unique and what makes it stand out? People want to know before investing what area of the community you serve. Is it pets, homeless people, the elderly, disabled children, etc? They also want to know that the majority of funds go to the intended programs and recipients.
Find out how to connect emotionally with your target audience. Put a face on the population you serve and tell their story. Describe their situation and how your services have helped them. If you must present a bleak picture be sure to provide a solution. People want to hear positive outcomes to things that affect them and their community so how do your services improve the community's quality of life.
Make your message as personal as possible to the audience you are trying to reach. And the information you are giving them has to be kept simple on the front end. People aren't going to read, or listen to a lot at the outset. Once you get their interest then you can deliver more content. So you have to really target your audience carefully. Tossing out lots of content broadly hoping to catch a few is wasteful in this economy.
Demonstrate the need, show you have a solution and then share your successes.
Listen before you communicate. The good Lord gave us two ears and one mouth for a very good reason.
The basic motivation factor of "putting something back in to the local community" is a good message. It leads to a sense of achievement and well being for volunteers and a sense of philanthropy for donors. Also promise donors publicity because people like to be seen to be doing good things.
Communications must empathise transparency and accountability. Ensure you report on how the funds you raised are being used and that what you claimed you would do, you actually did.
A lot of not for profits want to start with the tactics first and forget to spend a few minutes asking the questions to make their efforts smarter. So before you communicate, ask what is the purpose of my communications? What is the primary message I want to convey? Who is it designed to reach? What do I want people to do after they hear what I have to say? How will I know I have been successful?
Have I got my logos, images, taglines and spokespersons ready to roll before I start talking?
Understand the media likes conflict. Where there is no conflict or opposing views there is no story. So find a local hero and go for a feature story rather than a news story.
What is your value to the community at large? How many people are using your services, how many are unable to get these services? Where would those folks get services if your organization didn't exist? What would happen to them? And what is your impact on the general community?
Take advantage of third party endorsements in the form of testimonials from clients, favorable media placements, or even simply through the reputations of the people who serve on your board or who volunteer. But please choose them wisely. The best part of this strategy - it's virtually free.
Show the value you provide - the value of your research, the fact you employ real people at all levels, spend your money in the local economy and that you are open to people asking questions and seeing what we do. Wrap those points up in good story telling and tell a story about people who do things. Storytelling is becoming a lost art but you can't lose if you can get a handle on it.
... and my very special thanks to our contributors - Chips Henriss, Kristie Aylett, Karen Miller, Tim Entwisle, Janet Bosserman, Jeff Botti, Mike Spear, Rosanne Gain and Susanne Dupes.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
The Rise and Rise of Twitter

- Twitter launched a special guide on how business can use the micro-blogging platform.
- The UK Government has just released a Twitter Template Strategy for Government Departments.
Not For Profits Face Tough Marketing Challenges
It concludes that:
- Incomes of not for profits are declining but government funding is stable.
- Incomes are reducing at the same time as costs are rising.
- 30% of not for profits have taken measures to reduce costs and more plan to do so in the next 12 months.
- Larger organisations are faring better. Probably because they have more reserves, are better known and so far they have been more proactive in introducing cost saving measures.
- Many will put more emphasis on winning government funding so government relations tools and tactics will increasingly feature in their marketing mix.
- About a third of organisations plan to upgrade their websites and 35% are planning to improve communications with stakeholders.
- Many are considering collaboration or partnerships with others but very few would consider a merger.
- There will be a greater call for volunteers as one way to meet increased demand for services as staffing levels either remain static or drop.
The PR and marketing implications from this study are stark.
In the coming year not for profits need to develop and implement simple, cost effective marketing efforts that deliver both dollars and volunteers. That's if they intend to continue to offer the same level of services their communities have come to expect ... and keep the doors open and the lights on.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Fun But Pointless Advertising

The pomegranate mobile phone video ad shows a mobile device that does everything: as well as the normal phone functions it brews coffee, shows movies and comes with an in-built language translation service.
Sound too good to be too true? Well it is. In fact the ad is a hoax that leads to another online ad promoting the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.
There's probably a clever Canadian ad director (dressed in the ad industry's obligatory black jeans and T-shirt uniform) counting clicks to the ad and reporting to clients even Australians have viewed the ad.
Like a lot of advertising today it holds out the promise of one thing but fails to deliver. So how effective is it if it fails to do the real job of promoting Nova Scotia? I might have started out interested in next generation phones but I finished up definitely not interested in Nova Scotia.
At the end of the day, are more people interested in Nova Scotia? If not, what's the point? It is easy to be clever online but it's much harder to be effective and deliver real world results.
Am I being too precious? Should I just sit back and enjoy it? Watch the ad and tell me what you think?
Friday, July 3, 2009
Social Media Musical
Is this the world's first social media musical?
And well done to fellow blogger Chris Lake for posting two great sets of presentations.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Get Buy-In Before Crossing the Digital Divide
At today's Public Sector Marketing Conference in Canberra, two speakers offered practical ideas to help you get others behind your online efforts.
Jason Davey of Bullseye, an Australian Aussie digital marketing firm, suggests to persuade the Boss you should:
- Detail the data. Successive research reports are showing Australians are increasingly going online for their information. A good start in letting your Boss know the facts and stats would be the latest report by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (read here).
- Educate and immerse the Boss in the social media application you want to use. There is nothing better than getting him or her to test drive the new tool.
- Pick out a similar organisation (or one the Boss admires) and show how they are successfully using social media.
- Mock up tweets, blog pages or sites to show how the final product will look. Seeing is believing so try a demonstration.
- Suggest running a pilot program. The words "pilot" or "trial" can go a long way in removing the corporate fear factor when trying something new. It's a good way to reassure the doubtful as you head into new territory.
My Twitter buddy Diana Mounter from the Local Government and Shires Association of NSW offers practical tips for getting the IT guys on board when you want to introduce social media into your marketing:
- Develop a relationship with the IT team and get to know their issues before proposing anything too radical.
- Regular informal discussion is a great way to make sure a new venture starts properly and then stays on track.
- Talk about your communications needs rather than the technology you want. Chances are your IT guy has other options that could meet your marketing needs better than the one you're suggesting.
The key take-out: build support within your organisation before crossing the digital divide.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Sponsorship and Fund Raising Presentation
If you have ideas on how not for profits can keep their cash flow going in these uncertain times please share them with others by leaving a comment.
Thanks.