Get Management Support for Your PR Change

PR and marketing plans often fail because communicators do not sufficiently engage the boss in what they are doing.  Put simply:  fail to win senior management buy-in and watch your PR proposal die. Often times persuading the boss is the toughest part in the whole communications process.

Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin's new book Repositioning: marketing in an era of competition, change and crisis suggests the communications barriers between the top floor where funds are allocated and the shop floor where ideas are born often involve:

• Cows: Never underestimate how tough it will be to get management sign-off  on  a new proposal that threatens someone else's favourite cow or worse still their cash cow. Future opportunities are often slaughtered on the altar of today's practices. 

• Bad decisions:  People are reluctant to embrace new ideas that cause them embarrassment about decisions they have made in the past.

• Egos:  Always factor in egos. The person in charge may regard an initiative as a threat to their authority or status.  They may either try to kill it or perhaps as bad to modify and brand it as their own.  Trout and Steve Rivkin point out this ploy can be like changing a cake recipe.  The cake may end up looking the same but it sure does not taste the same. 

Both authors have come up with strategies to help you convince the boss and the board, all no doubt won from years of dealing with senior managers.

• The world has changed:  Include a section on how the world has changed upfront in your proposal.  This acknowledges previous decisions and past poor performance were  based on the best  information available at the time but now things are different.  It avoids directly confronting past mistakes, lack of action or earlier decisions that were just plain bad.

• Educate  the boss:  Never, ever assume management knows about marketing, PR or communications or the latest trends.  Bring in an outside expert to advise them, give them a suitable book to read or arrange for them to meet someone from a successful (non-competing) organisation they admire.

• Analogy:  Use the power of analogy to draw a comparison with others.  XYZ Company passed on trying something similar and look what happened to them. Given people are often motivated by loss rather than gain introduce a note of caution or alarm into the comparison.  However always end with of course they may not happen to us but...

• Implement slowly:  Start slowly, pilot programs, use trials and always announce your victories.

Please share your ideas on persuading CEOs to support your PR or marketing initiatives.  

(Source Repositioning Pages 180 - 188)

 

Repositioning Your Brand: Book Review

Repositioning: marketing in an era of competition, change and crisis

Easy read with practical information

is authored by US marketers Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin.

Both have written a book of uncommon wisdom for marketers in the post Global Financial Crisis world. 

It is hardly suprising Trout (and Rivkin) has produced this book now.  Communicators know that competition is fiercer than ever, budgets are under pressure and the old ways of communicating are under serious challenge. Since the 1980s Trout has been writing and offering solid, practical marketing ideas in compelling, clear prose for communicators of all descriptions.  My bookcase holds several of his earlier works and while their 80s and 90s covers now look dated and daggy each is well-read and much loved.

Repositioning calls on companies not to manufacture but to adjust the perceptions people have either of them or their competition.  Why?  Because people are complex creatures when it comes to communications. We are overloaded with information, few of us can tolerate confusion or risk, we lose focus easily and once we have made up our minds that’s pretty much it.  It is hard to move us from our existing attitudes so only by working within the framework of how people already think can organizations achieve sustainable results.

The authors suggest two basic strategies to get people to thinking differently about your brand.  Reposition the competition and/or go out all out to compete on a simply defined value proposition. Big companies often struggle to carry out either one. They are slower to turn around than the Queen Mary and because of their size and complexity many have trouble managing their way out of problems or managing their way into opportunities.   Of course big firms are well placed to compete on price.  However this is often a short-lived strategy and one only available to the bigger players.  For the rest of us someone else can always mark down the sales docket lower than we can, plus research shows most price promotions rarely succeed in the long run. 

Reframing the competition means hanging a negative on a rival to reflect a favourable comparison on ourselves.  Given most marketers are positive, upbeat souls and most managers are disinclined to controversy it can be difficult to steer an organization in this direction. Yet Trout and Rivkin cite examples in the olive oil, prestige cars, vodka and other industries showing how this strategy can fence in the competition.

We instinctively know successful marketers need to communicate value to the marketplace because as one chapter title proclaims “value is the name of the game”.  Value can come through doing something special, getting new technologies to the market first or stressing whole of life costs over mere purchase price. It can also come from adding premiums others cannot match or at its most basic by being  plain nice and helpful to your customers.

The book cautions repositioning is not easy.  It takes focus, management leading from the front and advertising and public relations combining in a linear, well thought out fashion.  The key ingredients for any repositioning strategy are time and commitment.

The book sells for $42.95?  Is it worth it?  It is to me.  Right now I am putting together a marketing strategy for an iconic project with high expectations.  It has involved many dedicated people for many years and the public has definite opinions.  I am sure Trout and Rivkin's insights will help me plan a better campaign. 

200,000 texts sent every second

200,000 texts sent every second

The popularity of text messaging has leapt three-fold in the past three years, with almost 200,000 text messages sent every second, the UN telecommunications agency has said.

A total of 1.8 trillion SMSs were sent in 2007, but in 2010, the number sent has jumped to 6.1 trillion

To read the full story on your mobile please use this link
http://m.abc.net.au/browse?page=11144&articleid=3042854&cat=Justin

To read the full story on a PC or Mac please use this link
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/10/19/3042854.htm
U

What Have I Been Up To?

It's been almost a month since I last blogged. 

Since then I conducted two tele-workshops on PR for Lions Australia and I've been reading lots of books on marketing and communications.  

The latest is What Makes Us Tick  by well known and respected social researcher Hugh Mackay.  I'm half way through it and it's an insightful read on people's basic motivations.  In fact it's the type of book which should be compulsory for anyone working in communications or management.  

I'll post a review as soon as I have finished the book.

More Parliamentary Voices Should Improve Communication

Since the 21 August Federal Election, Australians have faced a unique political environment - a hung Parliament in which four Independent MPs hold the balance of power.  

This situation has already driven old style party machine politics off to the sidelines - at least for the moment.  Potentially it can lead to the most profound political transformation Australian voters have seen in decades.  Instead of only two approaches to matters of policy and politics - Labor and Liberal - there are now five ways to explore, talk about and resolve issues facing the country.  Labor, Liberal, Greens and the four Independents will each play to different sets of community interests.

It's early days yet.  But this change could prove organisationally healthy and  improve the national political discourse. Now more perspectives will be offered from  the speaker's podium and the interests of 20 million Australians may be better served by a diversity of opinions and voices.

What do you think?

Last Lion Roar

Last Saturday our Lions Club decided to disband. After seven years it  was a  sad occasion as our members gathered for the last time as Lions.

Some people will go on to other Lions Clubs. Others will look elsewhere  for opportunities to volunteer. In the end the busy lives we all lead caught up with us.  As a group we became increasingly unable to  find the time, energy and effort that being a member of one of the world's best known community organisations demands.  Busy careers, growing families and passing through different stages of  our lives overtook our good intentions. Rather than limping on, we collectively decided to call it quits. And that was despite the support from the Lions hierarchy which did everything to help the Club continue.


 In today's fractured  and frenetic community getting the loyalty and attention of a volunteer is impressive  Getting seven years from a volunteer is a real achievement. But there are more traditional souls who see being a member of Lions, Rotary or similar organisations as a lifelong  commitment akin to what used to be expected from Catholics or  Communists.

As we disband I would like to think that all sides in the Canberra volunteer triangle have benefited.  Individual members were able to multiply their personal efforts by drawing on  the support and camaraderie of tens of thousands of brother and sister Lions across the globe.

For nealry a decade the Lions organisation was able to tap into the services of well established career professionals with a wide range of talents.  But most importantly our local community - particularly older Australians from migrant backgrounds, young people entering the workforce and  people in the community sector - hopefully gained a little something from our Club's efforts.

15 Key Questions Bosses Should Ask About PR

Most bosses intuitively know the power of PR.  However they are so busy running the business they focus on communications only when a crisis hits or when staff present a fresh PR proposal.  Most are willingly to leave the details to their PR professionals.

But by asking pointed questions a boss can quickly determine the value of any communications, PR or marketing proposal they are asked to approve:

• Does this plan support my business or operational plan?
• Does what it is being recommended build on our previous good work and avoid our past communications shortcomings?
• Are my audiences clearly identified by geography, interests, beliefs or other common characteristics?
• Are the messages we want to share clear, unambiguous and easy to understand? 
• Could our information be misunderstood or misinterpreted and cause unintended consequences?  
• Is our information persuasive and backed by evidence such as facts and figures, case studies but above all by stories of ordinary people who benefit from what we do?
• How, when and where is information going to be delivered to audiences?
• What opportunities do audiences have to offer their opinion?  
• Is there a processes to improve communications based on feedback?
• Are the communications tools proposed the right fit for the audience? 
• Is there a mix of approaches so if one communications channel fails, others may work?
• What is the communications timetable? 
• Will we deliver consistent communications or are we communicating by episodes?
• How will I know if this proposal is working?  
• What is the process to monitor, measure, evaluate and adjust what is being proposed?

Bosses can't be expected to know everything particularly about the ins and outs of communications.  But they should able to ask penetrating questions when it comes to approving a new PR or marketing budget.

Radio: The Power of Promotion

I have long been an advocate of the power of radio.

Radio can be particularly powerful it combines advertising, editorial and promotion.

Last Saturday I was part of a regional radio promotion where I witnessed first hand the immediacy of the medium. Listeners to the station's morning program were invited to rush to a local shopping centre to claim a holiday giveaway prize. The first person - a young woman - turned up within minutes of the first announcement followed by others as the promotion continued throughout the day.

Advertising by itself may work. But you increase your chance of cut-through success when you combine it with a competition or incentive for listeners.

Keep Your Eye on Australia

Last month Canberra ad agency Grey Group Australia released its third Eye on Canberra survey.  

The survey comes out of the wider Eye on Australia survey which looks at Australians,  what's going on in their families and households and how they view the issues of the day.  

The Eye on Australia survey has been going 19 years and collects data from 998 people across the country by telephone and through the Internet.  This year's findings reveal some interesting insights:

• While Australians are generally satisfied with their lives, people in Darwin are the most satisfied and those in Brisbane are the least satisfied of people living in capital cities.
• Brisbane people are also the most likely to be concerned about the economic outlook for the coming year while residents in Darwin are the least concerned.
• People aged 25 - 34 are the most concerned age group about the economy, perhaps suggesting those early in their careers, couples with young families and first home buyers feel vulnerable to any economic downturn.
• 72% of Australians agree their family is becoming more important to them every year and 81% of us will sit down together and eat as a family.
• Nearly three-quarters of us think there is not enough respect shown to older Australians and advertising does not portray our seniors properly - which is odd given baby boomers are the most cashed up group in our community.

The survey also ranked the major issues for Australians in the next five years.  The five top concerns on our minds in order are -  and probably why these subjects are getting attention in the current Election:

• Lack of water and water management.
• Climate change.
• Unemployment and job security.
• The cost of living and lower standards of living.
• The health system and the increasing costs of health care.

When asked to describe our Australian values, being multicultural, easy going, free, living in a land of opportunity and being competitive are things that rate highly.  However we place less importance on being traditional or sophisticated, Australia as a world leader or living in a classless society.

Media Policy for Not For Profits

Recently I worked with a not for profit with member clubs spread across  two states to develop a policy to help clubs and the Executive manage proactive and reactive media relations.

The policy featured:

• The objectives or why the organisation will engage the media in the coming 12 months. 
• An encouragement for clubs to proactively engage their local media outlets as way of telling communities what they and the larger organisation is doing.
• Tools to help clubs such as pre-packaged media backgrounders, fact sheets, templates, speaking points and standard paragraphs for media alerts and media releases.
• Advice on how to access localised media contact lists.
• Guidance on handling media relations in crisis and advocacy situations.
• A media release review process - for all levels - so key players in the organisation know what is to be presented to journalists and what might make news.
• Tips for recycling earned media coverage so that office holders, members and key supporters know what the press is reporting.
• Social media guidelines so what is presented online is consistent with what is presented to traditional media.   

And because it is often so expensive, a media policy should spell out the why, when and where  advertising will be undertaken and how it will be blended with media relations.

Basic Behaviours Improve PR

Sometimes not for profits ask what is the single best thing they can do to improve their PR.

Actually there are three key behaviours that can boost your PR performance right now irrespective of what sector you operate in.

The first is come up with a plan and know where you want to be in the hearts and minds of your audience in the future. Childishly simple? Yes. But how many people actually have a framework to guide their future communications actions? Regrettably not many. If I asked you to
go get your plan right now, could you do it?

The second thing is likewise elementary: just get started. Perhaps the
biggest single barrier to successful communications is organizational
inertia. As the Nike logo says "just do it". Don't overthink the
issue, get started, learn, grow and improve along the way.

The third element is start early and act often. Just when you are weary with what you are doing and what to change, the folks "out there" are probably just starting to get it.

Everything in marketing and PR will take longer than you think because you are dealing with people, their attitudes and behaviour. People are complex so why would anyone think that communicating with them should be simple.

Certainly there is nothing glamourous in these thoughts but most often our mental attitude puts the brakes on our PR.

Broadcast Your Own News

The world of communications is changing fast...

I recently came across Citizen Tube which is a feed of the latest breaking news videos on YouTube. Citizen journalists - or for that matter anyone - can upload content of what they consider newsworthy and bang through this channel it's out there for the world to see. 

Citizen Tube is supported by a Twitter account - @citizentube.

How times change.  Just five years ago you might report a story or an incident to your local paper or TV station, only to be told it was not newsworthy.  That meant someone else's judgement effectively "killed" the story and its circulation stopped dead - consigned to you and whoever else you might happen to tell, email or text.  

Now you can record something through a flip cam or mobile phone, upload it and it's online as your version of the news forever for anyone anywhere to view.  

Now wonder tradtional media gatekeepers are nervous.

The PR of Changing PMs

This past week has has been history making in Australian politics. In a late night party coup Kevin Rudd was dumped as Prime Minister and within 24 hours his deputy Julia Gillard became Australia's first female Prime Minister.

In public relations actions always speak louder than words, so it will be instructive to see the impact of these events in the minds and attitudes of ordinary citizens ... in the lead-up to the next election and beyond.

Most likely we will see self referential communications come into play.  For those who like Mr Rudd last week's events will be seen as dastardly and disloyal.  To those who support Ms  Gillard they will have been necessary actions to get the Government and Australia back on track. 

However the rest of us - the so called silent majority - may feel a little queasy about the way Mr Rudd met his fate.  Australians pride themselves on giving everyone a "fair go".  In the workplace or market place the treatment Mr Rudd received - instant dismissal - is usually  reserved for those who commit criminal offences or whose performance seriously endangers the safety of others.

In the long run and in public relations terms the "Rudd dismissal" may have more impact on shaping how people view the character of politicians than on any changes it causes in government.

Blogging Tips: 52 Different Ideas | The Fight Against Destructive Spin

http://www.spinsucks.com/social-media/blogging-tips-52-different-ideas/

Here Comes Everyone

I am half way through reading Clay Shirky's book Here Comes Everyone.  This is a book well worth reading.  It was published two years ago and I'm uncertain if it achieved best seller status but neither fact detracts from its significance.

The book is about how social media empowers people to self organise around their issues and interests.  

In tightly argued prose it asserts that social media has collapsed the costs of communication and created an entirely communication ecosystem which is as historically significant as when printing presses first replaced the medieval scribe.

Today social media have smashed the economics of communication and the entry fee to create, manage and create content is negligible for most of us.  This has allowed the mass amateurisation of communications particularly in the traditional media process. As it embeds in our culture social media has moved the news cycle away from  publishers and producers towards individual citizens, consumers and communities.  
 

The professional class of editors, producers, reporters, photographers and film crews are no longer the gatekeepers of the information that reaches our communities. We now have other ways to learn about our world.

Yes I can hear the old guard saying that so much of the information that passes through social media channels is inane and banal.  

But doesn't that reflect more on the quality of our conversations than the intrinsic value of these exciting new tools? Although they give us opportunity they are only as worthwhile as we make them.

Thank You Notes Work

I'm a great believer in thank you notes as a communications tool.

So I was delighted to come across this article from the latest IABC Communications World.  It talks about about the power of thank you notes and when to use them 

SeeThanks and No-Thanks: Write letters that make a difference by Claire Meirowitz.

Three Tips For Not For Profit Advertising

We don't cover advertising much in this blog and many PR people shy

away from it. But it is one channel that should always be considered

and never overlooked in your advertising planning.

True advertising in the mainstream media can be expensive, but it
remains a partcularly powerful way to quickly raise awareness while
keeping total control over how your information is presented.

Three ways to contain what can otherwise be an expensive undertaking
are to:

• Consider working with smaller start up advertising agencies to
develop your creative copy. "Newbie" companies can often be leaner and
hungrier than their larger counterparts and more eager to make a name.
They are more likely to go the extra mile for your limited budget.
Alternatively work with advertising students who may need to bulk out
their post graduation resumes. These "juniors" can often surprise and
delight with the freshness and energy with which they approach your
issue.

• Most of us want our ads on the front page or at least in the
earlier section of a print publication. But specialist sections - such
as a motoring supplement or the school pages - often attract "rusted on" and loyal
readers. Although they may not be as obvious as the early general
news (ENG) option, at the end of the day they might be prove more
effective in reaching the people you need to engage.

• The advertising world is replete with all kinds of special deals
such as distress space, last minute offers and discounts for multiple
placements. So before handing over your cheque ensure you inquire
about the current deals on offer.

Advertising is among the more costly communication options available
to you but it can also be one of the most effective to create instant
impact.

Recording The Next 100 Years Of The ANZAC Legend

During his ANZAC Day speech at the Australian War Memorial Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the creation of a national commission to set up a program to commemorate the centenary of ANZAC Day in 2010.

The commission to be headed by former Prime Ministers Bob Hawke and Malcolm Fraser will call for suggestions from communities, schools, veterans and other organisations.

Social media can play a key role both in the consultation process, recording the centenary activities and then preserving and enriching Australia's Gallipoli experience for the next 100 years.

Some early thoughts are:

• Could the Commission use online as well as other consultations to broaden its outreach to people in regional areas, younger people and the large numbers of Australians travelling or working overseas?

• For the first time a national wiki would allow us to link the stories of individual families and communities right across the country with the broader events in our military past.  Australia's network of councils and shires are well placed to carry the local coordination a project of this size and scope demands.

• We should continue efforts, already underway, to ensure we have a digital photograph of each of the 102 000 Australians who have died in conflict and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial. (Assuming of course these images still exist perhaps in old suitcases or in long forgotten packing cases in garages throughout the country.)

And at an early stage the Commission should engage with Australia's multicultural communities.  With over 25 per cent of Australians born overseas, people from different backgrounds need the chance to engage with and interpret the ANZAC legend in a meaningful way.

Twitter Etiquette for ANZAC Day

25

ANZAC Day is fast approaching - 25 April the day when Australians and New Zealanders commemorate their countrymen and women who died in conflict.

With the increasing popularity of Twitter many of us will be sharing our experiences online as we attend dawn services, parades and get togethers around the country. But when symbolic ceremonies meet new technologies a few simple protocols can help determine what is acceptable and what might cause offence.  

On ANZAC Day Twitter can be a powerful tool to:

• Share family ANZAC stories online. 
• Ask others about a particular campaign or research a loved one's service history (A good place to start is www.awm.gov.au).
• Swap details of the services, ceremonies and marches in your area.
• Arrange to meet with friends.
• Tweetpic our ANZAC images.
• Share recipes for gunfire breakfasts and ANZAC cookies.
• Tell mates where the Two Up is. 
• Report on veterans and their units as they march proudly through our towns, suburbs and cities.

But please leave your mobile in your purse or pocket and turn off the tweets during:

• The dawn service (between 5:30am and 6:00am on 25 April).  This is the time for quiet reflection on the deeds of those who stormed Gallipoli's beaches 95 years ago and the fallen who followed.  Tweeting is likely to annoy others if  the LCD screens of Blackberries and Iphone light up the pre-dawn skies.
• During the bugle calls of Last Post and Reveille.

This ANZAC Day please tweet in the spirit of Lest We Forget.

Communication Wisdom Can Lead Minds

My friend Geoff Kelly writes a regular online newsletter for leaders who want others to support their ideas. Go to http://www.kellystrategicinfluence.com.au and enter your name and email address in the subscription box.

We particularly like this month's post on leadership and communication. Thanks to Geoff for allowing it to be re-published here.

----------------

“Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people”  William Yates, Irish Poet

2,000 year old wisdom guides today’s top leaders and communicators.

Did you know that this is the most over-communicated and over-informed society in history? Information is doubling every three years. Human capacity to take in information is not.

The internet now has over a trillion (a million million) unique URLs and is adding several billion pages a day. That makes it several billion pages a day harder for leaders to get attention and buy-in for their key strategies. Several billion pages a day harder to get prospects to notice and buy their products and services. Several billion pages a day harder to get traction with staff, suppliers, Government, shareholders and community leaders.

So what’s that got to do with leaders winning hearts and minds? Everything.

People behave according to the way their world occurs to them. Faced with the same circumstances, two people will buy differently, vote differently, and act in every other way differently based on how their world occurs to them.

Leadership implies followership – you can’t be a leader unless someone follows you. To achieve this you must influence (hopefully for their good and not for their disadvantage) the way they see some part of their world and circumstances.

So to lead followers to action in any arena, leaders must first get their attention, engage them in some way about their idea or strategy, and convert them to commitment and action over time.

If you fail to get attention in today’s communication blizzard,you fail.

This is why corporate leaders struggle to gain the support they need. They're losing sales, time and money, and often fail to connect with the people who matter most to them.

One in three of the CEOs who leave the largest publicly traded corporations in the world are fired for performance failures. Failing to earn crucial support is a major factor in CEO performance failures.

This is why Government leaders struggle to achieve traction with the community on key policies and regulation change. Political support is more volatile, with election results routinely reporting major swings in voting results. And leaders in Government bureaucracies are less influential than ever before with their political masters.

For most leaders, gaining attention and converting support now costs more money, takes more time and is less certain than at any time in human history. That is because they are poorly advised and doing what they see what most others doing.

For example, the average corporate website has more than two self-references a sentence. These are words that refer to the organisation in some way, including its staff, products and services, processes and words like I, we, our. Go to your next cocktail party and talk about yourself as much as that. You'll see a space open around you like Moses parting the Red Sea.

So why does common sense fail when we leave the cocktail party and move into the world of communicating business and Government to mass and niche audiences?

Leaders would do better to adopt the 2,000 year old wisdom of a Roman statesman. Cicero said:”If you wish to persuade me, you must think my thoughts, feel my feelings, and speak my words.” At the time Cicero was the most influential thinker in the most powerful civilization the world had known.

Who has the better chance of reframing the way someone sees his world – the modern day leader with his or her average self-centred web site and average self-centred communication program? Or the ancient orator who knew enough to think, feel

and speak from the perspective of his target audience?

Cicero knew he had to immerse himself in seeing the world as others saw it, so he could deeply understand what they really thought and how they really felt. Once he understood how they saw and felt about their world, he would craft his words and argument to reframe their world view. And he would use the language of his audience, because that was language that they understood.

As a highly educated Roman and a citizen of high rank, Cicero could have used any form of sophisticated language to express the most abstract concepts. However, he chose to understand his audience and communicate meaning and language that his audience would understand and relate to.

Great leaders throughout history have known the importance of winning hearts and minds to their cause. And they knew the secrets of how to do that. As do the best leaders today.So here is the surprising truth.

The most effective leaders communicate less and differently, rather than louder with more of the same. Less because they hit their target precisely.Differently because they resonate with more meaning, with more variety and with more credibility.

This is both a tragedy and an opportunity. Most leaders don’t get it, and until they do their influence and achievement in this world will be so much less than it might have been. The tragedy is that so many great ideas and achievements will die with them.

The opportunity is that it is all learnable. You can start where you are and learn and develop high level skills and achievements as a leader who can change your world by winning the hearts and minds of others to your strategy or idea.

Anyone can do this, but few will. That is the unfair advantage for the few who choose to be the change in their worlds.

Decide now to take this journey. The steps are simple, if not always easy. However the rewards that flow from becoming a high-impact leader are life-long.

Community Radio Can Be Powerful PR

Australia is rich in radio.  But community radio stations rarely feature in PR and media relations plans. And that's a pity because community radio covers a lot of territory and reaches a lot of people in this country.  

It is estimated more than 4.5 million adult Australians listen to community radio stations every week.  That makes them an effective way of channelling campaign messages to grassroots and often committed audiences.

Community radio caters for many interests including community, multicultural, Indigenous and religious broadcasters. And like its commercial cousin community programming includes a stew of  music, news, current affairs, lifestyle and local content.

Although bigger stations may have a full-time station or program manager, volunteer broadcasters who give a few hours of their time each week are the lifeblood of stations.  As well as their broadcasting value these volunteers are often activists in their own right who can provide word of mouth and other engagement opportunities beyond the reach of the station. 

Here are the websites of peak and other bodies where you can learn more about Australia’s community radio sector:

• Community Broadcasters Association of Australia
• National Ethnic Multicultural Broadcasters Council
• National Indigenous Radio Service
• Christian Broadcasters

Community stations even have their own news service. A small team of dedicated journalists run National Radio News from Bathurst in NSW supported by communications students at Charles Sturt University.  Their three minute news bulletins are syndicated to local stations across the country.

Many years ago I was a part-time community broadcaster.  That plus recent experience of working with a host of community stations has convinced me that volunteer radio can be an important medium in a PR project.

What has been your experience of community radio?

Facebook Guidelines for Parents, Students and Schools

I thought you would find this interesting:

Facebook Guidelines for Parents, Students and Schools - http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wiredprworks/FkFt/~3/gCw0JhROIEM/

Shared from wiredPRworks, an iPhone app.

Open Government: The Canadian Way

Recently I met Canadian Chris Moore, the  Chief Information Officer for the City of Edmonton.

Chris is spearheading  efforts to deliver “Open Government” to the City’s citizens.  That means making the processes and data held by Edmonton's agencies more available to people …and in easily accessible forms.

The City of Edmonton is the fourth municipality in Canada with open government initiatives rooted in the IT department.  Chris’ measures include crowd sourcing new ideas and launching an Iphone app to allow citizens to easily report graffiti and potholes around the city to a municipal call centre. 

Chris has over 25 years of IT experience and has only been in his current job around 18 months.  Based on his experiences - which I’m sure have involved many bureaucratic struggles - he identifies three conditions as necessary in any efforts to make government more open.

• There must be support from the top which means political  and CEO backing.
• Administrative arrangements must support the move to change.
• There must be genuine community engagement with peers, staff and with residents.

Chris blogs Edmonton’s Open Government program here.

Follow the Australian Government’s progress on Open Government here.

Say It Loud

I have just started using Audio Boo, a new social media application that allows you to share audio files via the Internet.

Audioboo is an application for recording and sharing your voice with the world. The free version allows you to create audio up to 5 minutes in length and post that to an account on the web. You can add titles, tags, geolocation info and a photo to the recording before you upload it and all that will be saved with the file.

I recently "did a boo" especially for people who attended one of our workshops. A sort of enhanced word of mouth.   Listen here

Audioboo could be a good way to go if the people you need to reach, prefer to listen rather than read information.

Stories: The Key Ingredient for Successful Launches

A launch of a new product, service, idea or campaign can either be just another occasion or like the launch of a rocket heading to the moon it can be an opportunity to inspire.  Too often in the hurly burly of a campaign it is easy to overlook the power and importance of a launch and fail to draw maximum value from it.

A launch provides the chance to introduce new ideas, different ways of working or even to bring forward a new CEO or team.  It can start the telling of a corporate story or continue the telling of a necessary tale.  And it can be a golden opportunity to gather, energise and send forth key supporters to promote your issue.  

Of all the different types of events the launch is one that should be as impactful and emotional as you can possibly make it.  After all if you are not excited about your issue at the outset, then why should anyone else care?  And these days just having one speaker follow another - unless each delivers riveting presentations - is hardly likely to make the grade.  Today audiences expect something novel and compelling.

I have attended two launches in recent weeks - both on similar issues.  One used a standard format with a succession of VIPs speaking in generalities.  The other got real people to share with the audience their personal stories of tragedy, triumph, failure and achievement.   The first was scripted.  The other poured straight from the heart.

Perhaps there is an old lesson to re-learned.  The art and craft of embedding personal stories into a launch should take primetime over the logistics of invitations, catering and other things that can so easily overtake our pre-launch efforts.