Lipstick: Not on my pig thank you

In the past week we saw a media storm in the US presidential election following comments by Barack Obama about the Republican Party trying to dress up its policies.

He used a colloquial term‘lipstick on a pig’ which is a colourful way of saying you can’t make something attractive if it plainly isn’t.

The Republicans took this as a criticism of their Vice Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, who the week before had used a lipstick reference in her acceptance speech.

The media picked up on the ‘he said she said’ verbal seesawing that followed between the two parties. The air turned thick with claim and counter claim about lipstick, pigs and personal attacks.

What a waste of precious time and energy that all was. Especially when global warming, terrorism, the state of the US economy and other key issues call for immediate attention.

The Public Relations Society of America was the only group to emerge looking good. On behalf of its 32 000 members the Society called on both the Democrat and Republic campaign managers to commit to the highest standards of ethical practice in their campaign communications and forgo innuendo, incomplete information, surrogate messaging and character attacks.

It asked both campaign managers to sign pledges to this effect but have yet to hear back from either. The Society also started up a Facebook group, “Clean & Fair Campaign 2008,” as a quasi petition to support their stand on honest and open communications in the Elections.

For years I have belonged to the Public Relations Institute of Australia, the Australian Marketing Institute and the International Association of Business Communicators. Yet I can’t recall those professional bodies saying anything in public about honesty in public communications.

Well done PRSA for taking the lead.

Word of Mouth Marketing Part 2: Message Multipliers

In an information-overloaded world many of us increasingly turn to people we respect for information, advice and to help us make sense of the world.

We seek out these key influencers because they have particular skills, knowledge, experience or just wise way of looking at things. They often are at the centre of community, business, or social networks so if they support what you do, they can help you connect with people you might otherwise struggle to reach.

These ‘message multipliers’ are important whether you are in business, work in government or belong to a community group. Their value to you lies in the fact they can:

• Give their personal credibility to your information within their networks.
• Pass along your information in language their people understand.
• Help you frame your issue so it makes more sense for people they know.
• Allow you to include your information in their events, newsletters, websites etc.

You can identify key influencers among or through:

• Your best customers.
• Key professions associated with your cause.
• Business and community organisations.
• Local governments.
• Local media.
• Leaders of local school and parish committees, service clubs and sporting clubs.
• Teachers and academics associated with your issue.

Even in this digital age personal contact remains the best way to approach key influencers. Invariably they are busy people and time poor but will appreciate meeting face to face.

At your initial meeting (unless they are already committed customers) your only job is to show how what you do will benefit the people they know. After all their credibility depends on the value of information they pass along to others.

Convince key influencers to support your issue and you pass a critical milestone in generating successful word of mouth marketing.

Watch Your Back on the Internet: Everything Is On The Record

In our digital age never forget everything is on the record.

This past week we had news of Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter who is pregnant. That sent people scurrying to look up the MySpace page of the daughter’s boyfriend, Levi Johnson.

On his homepage (which has been subsequently removed) Johnson declares himself “a redneck” and offers other colourful comments.(http://tinyurl.com/63lgnp).

Who would have thought the MySpace ramblings of this Alaskan teenager would be make US Election news?

Thanks to YouTube we also know the former head of the US Democratic National Committee, Don Fowler, believes the coincidence of Hurricane Gustav bearing down on New Orleans and the timing of this week’s Republican Convention “demonstrates God is on our side”.

That insight was captured by a fellow air traveller on a cell phone camera and then uploaded to Youtube (http://tinyurl.com/6bznw4).

Scary stuff. In the age of the Internet remember that your digital signature is very long and what goes out through the Internet may one day come back to haunt you.

I'm worry that people posting their party and other exploits to Facebook and such sites might one day regret how quick they hit the upload button.

So it's better to:

• Assume every email or post to MySpace, Facebook etc may one day go public.
• Say nothing in public you would not want your mother or your boss to see on YouTube.
• Be particularly careful of images you post on-line.

Word of Mouth Marketing Part 1: The Zen of Word of Mouth

"The idea of word of mouth is very Zen. You put the idea out there, let it go and if people like and trust you they will spread the word." Variety Magazine 21 July 2005.

This is the first in a series of posts on word of mouth marketing (WOM) following interest generated at Canberra's first word of mouth marketing workshop.

Today WOM is more important than ever because we are increasingly weary with advertising and cynical about how the media report events. Word of mouth stands out because it is about genuine conversations between real people. That makes it the cheapest and most effective promotion an organisation can have.

The span of word of mouth is spreading. Traditionally it involved face to face encounters. You talking to me. Now new digital technologies have put WOM on steroids making our on-line conversations just as important as our off-line efforts.

Whatever the arena effective word of mouth marketing needs six key elements to work:

• Make sure your organisation and its issue, cause, product or service have integrity and offer value. People will only spread positive word of mouth when they believe in something. So provide something worthwhile to talk about and remember word of mouth will always punish poor performance and those who lack integrity.

• Be clear about who you want reach because WOM is all about people and their networks. Know who and where they are.
  

• Identify, recruit and maintain relationships with people who can help you connect with your audiences. Often called 'key influencers', these individuals lend you their language, contacts and credibility when they carry your information into their networks.
  

• Provide key influencers with simple messages, stories and pass-on tools so it is easy for them to spread the word about you. Constantly refresh your conversation with these people.
  

• Use as many channels as possible to keep the conversation going. Create continual 'buzz' through face to face meetings, speaking to groups, inviting people to events and going on-line to either create your conversations or join in with others. Perhaps it is better to start with a few communications channels you are confident will work and then expand your repertoire as you see results.
  

• Track the results of your conversations by encouraging feedback and using on-line and other tracking tools.

At the end of the day marketing is about doing the right thing by your customers, clients or fellow citizens and encouraging them to talk about you.

Diplomacy Goes Digital

The US State Department is embracing social media in an impressive way.

Its 'Dipnote' initiative offers a range of internet resources - videos, images, blogs, RSS feeds, podcasts etc - to inform the public about US diplomacy. The Dipnote blog is written by two State Department officers, one of whom travels with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Importantly 'Dipnote' allows people to have their say on world issues. For example a recent blogpost on the international community's role in the Russian- Georgian conflict drew 73 comments.

The new State Department internet site is in strong contrast with its Australian and New Zealand counterparts. Their websites continue to be mostly text based with little scope for public interaction.