Monday, October 18, 2010

New Media Today: Burying Internet Search Results

In just a couple short weeks, the voters will finally be heard.  The steady stream of political rhetoric populating our internet worlds -- email inboxes, Twitter and Facebook news feeds and everywhere we turn -- will thankfully start to come to a close.  It is my full expectation that any objective look into which political or third party issue advocacy campaigns were effective, which campaigns exceeded expectations and which were able to avoid disaster or accomplish miracles will have done so through the effective utilization of new media tools.  The end results will see demonstrated through that process should serve as an example and a warning to those groups and interests that want to impact policy after the elections.

Third party issue advocacy groups interested in impacting public policy, and corporate government relations and trade and professional associations that want to impact policymakers must have a presence in new media.  There are a great number of public relations and other firms more than willing to make that case to corporate and third-party America and separate those entities from their money.  Unfortunately, most of those public relations firms are simply using the same old communication models they practice with traditional media and simply targeting a larger universe by expanding their audience to include the blogosphere and other online entities.

It is better to proceed in that manner than not to proceed at all, but most of those organizations could spend their resources much more effectively and efficiently by operating not with traditional public relations firms, but by working with smaller, more agile, adaptable and creative firms.  These smaller firms are able to create news, build interest in issues to appeal to mainstream media and utilize other tactics to not only develop and drive messaging, but also to fight the efforts of their adversaries to spread undesirable messages about them.

It's no surprise that that business competitors have utilized a wide variety of tactics to tarnish the reputations of competitors or the image quality of their products or services.  The online world provides a myriad of opportunities to do so.  Wisely, current consumer product or service providers are using the internet and platforms like Facebook and Twitter to interact with customers whether those customers are happy or dissatisfied.  Are you having trouble with your particular internet service provider or your cellphone service provider?  Maybe you're having trouble with a particular brand of TV or mass email service provider.  If you are experiencing such problems, it might a lot more effective to simply have a lot of Twitter followers and speak loudly about the problems you're experiencing and have a lot of other Twitter followers be willing to dialogue with you or share your frustrations.

Companies are wisely monitoring dialogue about their companies in real times in places like Twitter and Facebook.  If you were having trouble with your cable TV provider and you commented as described above, you may very well be discovered and get someone working diligently to fix your problem before the story gets spread any further on Twitter or Facebook.  And as someone who has handled new media communications on a political campaign, I can tell you that nothing is as disconcerting as seeing negative comments about your candidate populate the tops of Twitter searches or Google or other search engine inquiries.

One of the more recent, but certainly very real developments in this environment is employing professional firms to monitor those developments in new media and with popular search engines like Google and to work to bury negative information about a candidate, a client or a specific product or service offered by a Company.  Without even getting to the veracity or significance of the actual allegations included in such inquiries, we're all familiar with the idea that perception is reality.  If I do a Google search for you as a political candidate, as a Company or about the product or service your company offers, my perception and willing to invest time, money or a vote on you will be greatly impacted by what I find when I search in Google, Twitter or look you up on Facebook.  

First, it's critically important that you have a targeted and deliberate effort to populate important places with positive information.  You should have a website.  It's probably a good idea to have a blog whether separate or incorporated in your website.  You should have a Facebook business page, a LinkedIn business or cause-related page and a Twitter identity (or several) that regularly populate the internet with favorable information about your company, your products and the service you provide.  That is the foundation where you start and you should ensure that your presence is at least as good (ideally is much better) than that of your competitors.  

Those tools allow you to have the online infrastructure in place to not only populate with favorable information that you can control, but also to allow you in a good position to respond to negative or crisis situations should they occur.  It's as simple as providing your company with insurance.  You may look at things and determine that you serve all your clients well, you have a steady stream of new clients and everyone is happy about what you have been able to do for them.  Well, that's ideal.  But it also means that someone else would like to have your clients whether they be existing or a percentage of your prospective new clients, so there is always incentive for people to spread negative information about you or your firm or organization. In yesterday's world, that simply meant a whisper campaign.  Nowadays those communications can be shared online and they can spread like wild fire.

It's critically important that your name and your reputation be monitored.  And if a competitor does decide to spread negative information about you, your firm or the service your provide (whether accurate or not) it is important that you have the ability to move that information way from the top of search results on Google, Facebook and Twitter with a positive campaign of your own.  Except for very specific researchers, most who search for information don't continue past the first page or two provided by Google.  If you are able to keep negative information on pages 4, 5 or 6 of a search (rather than popping on lines number 1, 2 or 3 of the first page) you will keep those negative perceptions away from millions of interested, seeking, viewing eyes.

Please don't hesitate to take a look at www.brownstonecommunications.us if you would like to learn more about how to drive your messages or utilize online tools to both drive your positive message or protect your company, your campaign, your product or service from the negative perceptions being perpetuated by your competitors.  You can't avoid being part of the online discussion about your company, your product and your services.  You can ensure that the favorable messages you control will be seen in that world.  And you can be sure to create the online infrastructure necessary to put into action if any competitors attempt to disseminate any negative information about you or your business.  It's up to you to put yourself in that position of power.     

Monday, October 4, 2010

Coalition Building is Critical in Attempting to Influence Public Policy and Elections

It is impossible to develop a truly efficient public and/or government relations campaign effort without maximizing opportunities to build coalitions that allow client strengths to grow exponentially. Those who are fighting in the public policy arena gain great benefit by employing experienced and proven legislative counsel. Such counsel is expensive and sometimes out of reach of some organizations. Whether one has the ability to retain that counsel or not, it is imperative for companies or associations to identify, plan and build coalitions that suit the particular company, industry or issue. 


Successful coalition building doesn't happen by accident.  First and foremost, relationships and existing networks are the place to begin.  Brownstone Communications works with a broad network of professionals from a variety of disciplines in all 50 states across the country and in the District of Columbia.  Additionally, Brian Fojtik, the President of  Brownstone Communications and those with whom he works enjoy broad experience in working as active, long-term members of national policy-based legislative organizations, national professional organizations, partisan networks that span all fifty states and the broad span of individuals, corporations, professional and trade associations (retail, wholesale, manufacturing, commerce and others) and with members who make up the core constituencies of these organizations.


The importance of the relationships cannot be underscored enough in building successful and effective coalitions.  Relationships alone, however, will not get the job done.  In addition organizations attempting to impact public policy or elections must rely on professional and creative coalition builders with experience.  Such coalitions start with the organizations and individuals themselves.  They expand to primary stakeholders and secondary stakeholders.  Who is directly impacted by the policies or action of interest?  Who is secondarily impacted from a professional, financial or employment perspective?  How about from a personal perspective?  And which organizations or individuals have the most impact or could potentially impact decision makers the most?  Political donors?  Friends?  Family?  Political supporters?  And what ability exists to reach those individuals and convince them of their stake in the issue?  A thorough assessment by a creative professional is key to maximizing the voice of your movement or organization.

Brownstone Communications clients can be assured that no matter what the level of resources available for a specific program, creative, aggressive and effective coalition-building skills will be put to work to support their programs.  You can learn more about Brownstone and the services they provide at www.BrownstoneCommunications.us   Brownstone represents unparalleled experience and relationships in the coalition- building world that puts your efforts well-ahead of that of your competitors from day one.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

New Media: Big Firms Often Come Up Short

It has become clear that organizations, movements and businesses across the globe have increasingly recognized that they need a new media presence or program, while simultaneously recognizing that they have no idea how to go about doing it.  It's also increasingly clear that there are many public relations and "new media consultants" working diligently to separate those entities from their money and provide little in return.

I don't know a lot about automobile maintenance and the functioning and repair of my car.  But I know enough that I need my car to be maintained and serviced when there is a problem.  I've learned that my ignorance makes me vulnerable to those that want to separate me from my money.  It's no different in the still emerging field of new media consulting.  I've worked for over two decades in politics, government and government relations.  In that time, I'm proud of the creative solutions I've devised to meet challenges that occur in a legislative setting.

In order to successfully confront those challenges, you need to understand your audience, the specific history and rules of the venue in which you're operating and how to successfully develop meaningful coalitions that strengthen your position.  It's also helpful to identify the proper way to message your issue and motivate key stakeholders in the public doman to weigh in with legislators.  As President of Brownstone Communications (www.brownstonecommunications.us) I'm good at managing those issues and challenges after doing so at a very high rate for over 13 years for highly-targeted industries under very intense pressure.  Admittedly, there are others who are excel in this field.

There are also folks who excel at internet marketing and messaging.  There are very few that excel at government relations, political campaigning, issue advocacy and effective online communications, but there are a great number of firms professing to be able to do so.  In my most recent experience, most of those firms excel at neither.  These firms are generally media firms or public relations firms that operate under the old model of taking a news story for a client to the mainstream media (whether it be print, radio or TV) and pitching the story in the hopes that someone will run with it to the benefit of their client or cause.  Rather than creatively use new media to message effectively, these firms fall flat.

The "new media consultants" or media/PR firms that profess an expertise in "new media" or "online marketing" generally have little or no expertise in all the tools available to benefit their clients and causes.  Instead, they simply practice the same model of "pitching stories" in an expanded universe that includes a variety of different blogs and other non-traditional venues.  I applaud them for expanding the universe, but I caution potential clients not to see beyond the limitations of these firms.

When pitching potential clients, these firms are at the same advantage as the auto mechanic is in pitching me.  I'm a sitting duck when my engine is making a funny noise and so are the potential clients of these media firms.  One certain warning sign to look for are any firms that claim to have been experts in this emerging field for the last decade.  The field hasn't seriously existed in the last decade.  The 2008 Obama campaign is held up as an example of great use of online marketing.  And to put it in perspective, the Facebook and Twitter we know today didn't really even exist two years ago.

Whether your challenge is providing a profile for your business that allows you to maintain relationships with current clients or customers or expose your business to potential new customers, you need a firm that will allow you to make news and noise with your targeted audience, not simply use the old model of pitching the occasional news story and allowing yourself to be heard only at the whim of others who control the information gate.  The current new media environment gives you the keys to the information gate.  Unfortunately, too many firms are ill-equipped or too lazy to use those keys.

There are opportunities for businesses, political campaigns, issue advocacy campaigns and any organization to use existing websites and blogs, to create websites and blogs, to take advantage of online radio and terrestrial radio, YouTube and other video formats and use Facebook groups to promote your unique story and messaging with audiences that need to hear it.  Social networking such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook and advertising there and with Google and other locales provide other unique opportunities.  It's still useful to use relationships to pitch stories to mainstream media and prominent blogs that reach targeted audiences.  But you can strengthen that pitch dramatically by making your story a true story that is attracting attention and interest and action before you pitch it to more traditional media outlets.

It's a dramatically changing world.  The world today provides extraordinary opportunities and few have the expertise to take advantage for those in the public forum.

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