eCommunications for global organisations

I just picked up this recent post from Helen Dunnett (disclaimer: she is a client of ZN and we think she is great) on some feedback she received from various audiences in political communication when approaching the internet as a core communication tool.  Over the past year she has been sharing her experience and enthusiam about the web and it’s power to transform communication with her rapidly growing network. 

Her comments will be very useful for those trying to find the best way to explore the web as a core strategic tool in getting the right message out to the right audience.  We have, in the course of our many meetings with a number of players in the Brussels political scene been confronted by many similar questions so it is great to see them put from a client perspective, from someone who has been able to make the case for this and seen the benefits for her own organisation follow.

After reading the objections she has faced my suggestions to the bold communicators interested in taking this further are the following:

1) Everyone now accepts that the internet is an important and powerful tool in shaping perception on critical issues.  The key problem is they don’t know how to act on this knowledge.

2) A personal and direct exposures to the tools and the social networks that are driving this change is key to enable communicators to form the correct strategy.  So like or not, you need to sign up to a number of online networks (linkedin.com - which most people do passively, facebook.com, and others that you find interesting) and actively use the tools (by posting on forums in linkedin for instance). 

3) The right tools for you and your organisaton keep on evolving so it is best to do some background reading of ebooks and follow some blogs (Helen’s own called learning curve or the one written by my colleague Steffen could be a good starting point). 

4) Meet regularly with people (agencies, consultants, colleagues) so you can learn about what works and gain insights from other people who have faced similar situations than you.

5) Get started.  Take some small, below the radar, steps with some online initiatives to get comfortable with the territory.  Start a blog, take it personally and see for yourself how it can help to get your message accross.

6) Get help.  Once you have decided to move forward in this space, surround yourself with a strong team with the right advice and experience as well as technology, create a plan and sell this to your management.  Then go forward and start learning.

This is a cross-post from Steffen’s blog.

Much has been said of how the Obama campaign mastered the web. The fact that three million people donated online, helping to make his campaign the best funded of all time, meant that money was no object. Having an endless supply of cash was obviously pretty handy, but what’s perhaps even more salient is that the Obama campaign was funded by citizens. Parties, corporations and corporate interest groups are usually candidates’ main donors, and these will at some point expect payback in some shape or form. How will citizens expect payback from Obama? By fulfilling his campaign promises. This is of course no guarantee that he can or will, but it’s a good starting point.

What’s been most revolutionary has been the campaign’s ability to use the web to not just inform people, but to mobilise them. Massive followings on various public social networking platforms has kept people informed and excited, and enabled them to easily spread information and urge their friends and acquaintances to join the conversation or register to vote and so on – the viral effect at play.

Even more important was my.barackobama.com, which became an offline facilitator for people wanting to help in some way - make calls, arrange meets, knock on doors, put up placards and so on. It’s somewhat ironic, but the ability to mobilise people offline was arguably the most important element of Obama’s online campaign: sort of a return to a bygone age when citizens would congregate for hours in town-halls and other meeting places to debate, organise, and delegate in support of their preferred candidate. The web has shown itself to be the enabler and integrator that has resurrected this phenomenon. So much for people being politically apathetic – it was a question of time or the means (and let’s not forget: an inspirational candidate).

A few recommendations on the topic of Obama and the web:

• Seth Godin writes about online viral videos trumping TV ads and how Democrats used permission to grow their support base and interact with them more effectively than the Republicans.
• EurActiv have interviewed Brian Fetherstonhaugh, chairman and CEO of OgilvyOne Worldwide, about Obama’s use of “new media”.
• A good post by Colin at ePolitics who claims that Obama would not have won without the Internet and explains why.
• Last but not least, concerns that Obama and his team would put their web efforts on hold following their win have proved to be without merit. The website of the President-elect, Change.gov, was launched last week, with some decent elements, like a “submit your story” feature and a blog. There’s some way to go before it matches my.barackobama.com in terms of interactive features and so on, but I’m sure that’s coming.
• And a tangent: the UK Conservatives are the latest to have hijacked “change” on their new, admittedly impressive, website.

While their efforts to remain in the communications stone age and withstand the onslaught of digital have been valiant - MEPs don’t use the web, they’ve often claimed - Public Affairs professionals in Brussels are slowly coming around to the fact that digital can work for their clients too. Next up is the clients themselves and convincing them to invest in online activities, which is no mean task. First, although their ability to radiate expertise on topics they’ve first heard about over lunch an hour before a meeting should never be underestimated, with limited experience of digital themselves, PA professionals might struggle to explain its full scope. Second, old-school clients who barely use the web and think no one other than their teenage grandchild does either will really take some convincing.

Here’s a few things that might, combined, win them over.

Fleishman-Hillard, one of Brussels’ premier Public Affairs agencies, publish a blog entitled Public Affairs 2.0 which recently carried an interview with our client, Helen Dunnett of ECPA. She is described here as “perhaps Brussels’ foremost trade association blogger” for her work on pesticideinformation.eu, which is part of our ongoing work with her on social media outreach initiatives for ECPA.

There’s a good article on the BBC describing how the web has played a crucial part in Obama’s (dare we say it?) successful Democratic primary campaign. It highlights the power of the web as a mobilisation tool, and rightly so: although plenty of focus always remains on the web as a fundraising tool, or a one-way communications tool to a younger audience, it’s the grassroots mobilisation potential that’s most revolutionary! student loan