Rudd and Abbott Use Social Media For Election. 7 Things to Watch

We're off and running to the ballot box.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has set 7 September as the date for Australians to go to the polls to choose a new government.

In the 2007 and 2010 elections social media was seen as something of a novelty. That makes 2013 Australia's first real social media poll because Australians are now terminally addicted to social through devices, phones, laptop and desktops.  In fact there has never been a more connected and potentially better informed electorate than today's voters.

Preparing for the upcoming battle the Labor Party recently hired three top American social media types who worked on the 2012 Obama campaign.  You'll recall that campaign set the gold standard for politics and social media.

So as we start the Election trail, how do the chief contenders rate on social media?

PM Rudd starts with a well established social media presence.   He's been in that space a long time. He has 1.3 million followers on Twitter and tweeted over 9500 times.  On Facebook he has almost 94 000 likes.  That's impressive, and the tone and level of his conversations on both platforms shows Rudd is comfortable with new media.

Mr Abbott starts the Election campaign with only 148 000 Twitter followers and 1350 tweets. His Facebook following of around 39 000 fans is almost one third of Rudd's numbers. In comparison Abbot's social conversations come across as more formal than Rudd's dialogue and at this stage Abbott does not show much online interaction with others. Still it is early days!

Interestingly both Labor and Liberal Parties have similar numbers of Youtube subscribers (around 3500 each).  This is likely to grow with many predicting Youtube will be where it all happens as the parties turn negative as they invariably do during Australian elections. 

Over the next five weeks it will interesting to see how both contenders adapt and adjust to social media.  

So keep a mouse ready and eye out to see how the two candidates use these new channels in their bids to win high office.  

Among the things that would indicate the candidates are serious about social, are their:

• Frequency of using social media to get their Election messages out.
• Level of interaction with followers and fans or do they stick with one way conversation?
• Cross linking to others' commentary such as media and third party endorsements to portray credibility.
• Ability to persuade voters to donate money or volunteer their time.
• Use of imagery to bring emotion into messaging and cut through the clutter.
• Willingness to bypass traditional media and use social to break news.
• Capacity to inspire others to produce and share favourable content.

...and of course look out for novel or unusual online tactics as the campaign unfolds.

It is interesting times ahead.  So in the coming weeks check your screens for what could well be Australia's first social media election campaign.

Content Marketing Is Like a Bullet Train

Credit: NJ.com

Stop, go, pause.  Stop, go, pause.

Traditional marketing and most PR moves from one campaign to the next. You plan, implement, await  results, adjust and start over again.  

These traditional approaches are like a milk train chugging from point to point, stopping at all stations along the way.  The journey is slow and steady.  There is lots of shunting and grunting with station masters along the way putting themselves between you and your customers. The passengers continually hop on and off.

Content marketing on the other hand is more like a hi-speed inter-city bullet train. You step aboard for a journey with few planned stops until you reach your destination.  

There are no third parties between crew and passengers, and hopefully the passing scenery (your content) is so engaging your travelers enjoy the journey with time and kilometres flying by.

Related post:  Content marketing: why now?

Progress Of Open Government in Australia

My colleague Craig Thomler recently delivered this very insightful presentation. 

Open government progress in Australia from Craig Thomler

4 Reasons To Outsource Content Creation

Peter Yorke is among India's most experienced communicators

Content marketing may be new to Australia but elsewhere it is more established. Take India for example.

My friend Peter Yorke runs a very successful content marketing agency in Bangalore India.  We recently spoke about why a company might want outside help to implement a content management strategy.  

Peter has been helping Indian B2B companies - mainly in the tech space - develop and share content with customers and others. He has been doing this for nearly five years and has come the conclusion that outsourcing content creation and strategy carries distinct benefits.

• Firstly, outsourcing provides flexibility.  It lets companies scale their content creation activity up or down depending on their budget or what's happening operationally. And  it can provide the surge capacity if serendipity delivers an opportunity too good to miss.

• Contracting content creation guarantees customer service levels.  You're paying for a content asset (piece of work) tailored specifically for your audience.  Being a commercial arrangement you can be confident it  will come in on time and within budget, making things more predictable than relying on internal staff who, let's be honest, are often diverted off to other priorities.

•  An outside agency brings a fresh set of eyes to your operations.  They can spot a good case study for online publication or turn up a story to round out a speech although it's been sitting under the noses of staff for some time.

And finally, Peter points out that content marketing is still so new, CEOs just may not have the in-house talent to start up a content marketing strategy. 

What do you think?  If content marketing is all about relationships should you keep it firmly in-house? 

Listen to how Peter uses content marketing templates to guide staff and help clients. 

If Content Marketing Was A Train ....

Stop, go, pause.  Stop, go, pause.

Traditional marketing and most PR moves from one campaign to the next. You plan, implement, await  results, adjust and then start over again. Traditional approaches are like a milk train chugging from point to point, stopping at all stations along the way.  It is slow and steady and with with a lot of stops and station masters along the way putting themselves  between you and your customers.

On the other hand content marketing is like a hi-speed inter-city locomotive. You hop on and you're there for the journey.  The crew and passengers are together until they safely reach their destination and during their travels get to understand and appreciate each other. 

Related post:  Content marketing: why now?

  

50 Stats On Content Marketing

50 Stats You Need to Know About Content Marketing from NewsCred

Making Content Contagious

Jonah Berger busts myths on why people share information

 In a recent Harvard Business Review podcast, Wharton Professor and author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On, Jonah Berger, revealed the results of a recent study on why things catch on online. 

So why do we share some information but feel disinclined to pass along other material?

As communicators we may intuitively know positive content is more easily shared than negative information. And naturally people like to share things that make them look smart, 'in the know' or ahead of the trends. 

Yet it seems that emotions are a bit more complicated than that.

Berger reports positive tends to be shared more often than negative information. Yet emotions like anger and anxiety can induce powerful reactions that impel us and others to share content.

Also it seems negative publicity is not always bad for a brand. Berger notes:

" What our research found is that even negative word of mouth, even negative publicity, can increase sales if it increases awareness or accessibility. For small businesses or products that most people don't know much about, even a negative can be a good thing because it lets other people know that the product exists. I'm not suggesting go out there and get negative word of mouth. But what I am saying is negative isn't always as bad as we think it is..." 

 And what about controversy?  Can that make your content contagious?  

PR practitioners know a little controversy can sometimes be very handy in causing conversations and drawing attention to an issue.  Yet this too is not clear cut.  Berger's research shows we might be ready to share controversial issues with those we know.  Yet we can hold back from passing along really controversial information - such as news on abortion, asylum seekers or political preferences - for fear of offending others or drawing hostile reactions particularly from those we don't know. 

So how do we best spread our information round? Do we frame our content as positive or negative, aim for controversy or avoid the difficult issues?

It seems making your content contagious really does require some deep thinking from the outset.

Listen to Jonah Berger's interview here.

 

Thnaks to the Content Marketing Institute for these 100 examples of Content Marketing.

100 Content Marketing Examples from Content Marketing Institute

Build Stories

The Building of Stories from Big Fish Presentations

This presentation is a wonderful guide to the elements and suspense of storytelling and how a good story can inspire us to act and move forward.

It is worth a read.  Well done to my friends at Big Fish Presentations.  

Click the full screen button for best reading. 

Latest Stats on How Australians Use Social Media in 2013

State of social media in Australia in 2013 from Bob Crawshaw

Future Factors 2013: A Forecast From Singapore

We Are Social - Future Factors 2013 from We Are Social Singapore

This a very clear presentation by a Singaporean agency on the future trends in social and mobile media.  Well done to We are Social Singapore.  

One of World's Toughest Regulators Ticks Social Media

In April 2013 the US Securities and Exchange Commission  (SEC) ruled companies trading on the US Stock Exchange can post investor information on social media.

That's a major tick for social media channels as  "perfectly suitable methods for communicating with investors."  

Noting the rate at which information flows through Facebook, Twitter and other platforms, the SEC cautioned companies to give investors adequate notice of when and how they plan to use social media when releasing information.  

 In a survey of 120 financial types the online publication, Bulldog Reporter, found 60% to 70% of all investors say they use traditional sources of investment information (press releases, newspapers, analyst reports.) 

People under 40 are the most likely group to check company information  on social media. 

The US stock market operates in a highly litigious environment and the SEC oversees highly regulated, multi-billion dollar transactions every trading day. 

The ruling should encourage Australian governments wrestling with what information is suitable for their own online accounts. 

Content Marketing: Why Now?

"Content is information others find useful or entertaining or both.  

 It is not necessarily what you want to tell people.  It is what they want or need to hear.  Content marketing is about providing that type of information on an enduring basis." 

The term ‘content marketing’ may have recently landed in Australia but the practice of content marketing has been with us for a very long time. 

Down the centuries people have always shared their content.  It could be in the form of knowledge and awareness of the world around them, transferring skills, warning others of danger and or just passing along useful facts, figures and opinions.  

Today the demand for helpful content, from reliable sources, is the greatest at anytime in history. That is because personal and corporate communications are changing fast, our lives are busier than ever and we are increasingly selective in choosing who we listen to.  
  

• Families are time-poor. Too many people want our attention and we would be simply overwhelmed if we surrendered to their demands.

• Since 2003, social media has accelerated the pace and rate of communications change.  Social media has an insatiable appetite for information and gives us a channel for direct and very personal information.  It also gifts us each of us with a publishing platform and a filtering system.  We now have numerous options to receive and share information, anytime, anywhere, any place.  And we can easily block out information from those we distrust, don't now or who hold different interests or attitudes.

•  Recent Australian research shows we are skeptical about what we hear. We mistrust brands, business, government and other traditional sources of information.  (2013 Edelman Trust Barometer for Australia.) and operate on the basis that no organisation has the right to be heard.

• Traditional media used to be the dominant communications channel for most of us.  Now it is fragmenting and as it searches for new business models, it is becoming one more way - not the only way - to connect people with similar opinions, behaviours or needs.                                                       

So it is time for a different PR approach if we want to find, produce and share the type of information that will connect us to our customers, clients or fellow citizens.  

Enter content marketing, an evolution of old-style marketing.  It is a system that is gaining traction in the US and now emerging in Australia.

Bank Markets Federal Budget As Customer Content

 

I have banked with the National Australia Bank (now nab) for 25 years and, with a few exceptions, the relationship has been good. 

I recently discovered the Bank and I are content marketing enthusiasts. 

In the lead up to the Australian Federal Budget last week, the Bank offered free budget updates and analysis on issues I'm interested in. For me that's superannuation and anything about small business taxation. 

The information comes as video or text and importantly I can consume it when I want.

All this sounds like good tactical level Content Marketing built around a specific event.  

Through nab I got a quick assessment of how the Budget affects me personally, within 48 hours of the Commonwealth Treasurer delivering his much anticipated speech. I did not have to wait on others like traditional media and specialist magazines to bring me the news.  

That's a nice piece of content marketing from a business that usually only provides me routine (but important) service.

State of Social Media in the Australian Public Service

This is a summary of a presentation by author and academic Greg Jericho on the state of social media in the Australian Public Service.  Given to a Canberra IABC on 29 April 2013.  Good insights.

Gold Quill Judging Looks At World's Best

This weekend I helped judge the 2013 Gold Quill award entries in Melbourne.

I always learn so much from the experience and it's the one of the highlights of my year as a communicator.

Gold Quill Judging 2013 from Bob Crawshaw