Posts Tagged ‘public relations’

Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.  This was the reaction of my University friends when I told them that I was venturing into the glamorous world of PR.  As I had already done a period of work experience with a PR firm I knew that this was not the case, however I was more than happy to play along with the stereotype.  And with a certain level of smugness I tell them that I am a Junior Account Executive.  This is because executives stroll round in pin striped suits, slam doors and shout, “Come on, we need the Japanese report done by six o’clock.”  It is amazing how deceptive a job title can be.

It comes as quite a shock when you first realise how ignorant you actually are to the industry you have been appointed to work in.   Not since my first day at primary school when I managed to get myself locked in the toilets have I been so out of my depth.  But, there is light at the end of that long and murky tunnel.  My head has finally stopped spinning and some of these abbreviations that fly around the office actually make sense.  All going to plan, I will be an Account Executive before I know it.  So when people in the pub ask what I do I can sound just as obnoxious as I tell them that I am an Account Executive.  That is unless they work in PR and actually know what that means.

A number of my colleagues and I went to an lecture from Thomas Gensemer, part of the online team behind Barack Obama’s grassroots and fundraising success. Arguably, Obama’s online campaign will become the ultimate case study of the benefits of online campaigning and Gensemer was a significant contributor to this success.

What was personally interesting was that the basis of the Obama strategy lay in the importance of constant personal contact and simplicity. Gensemer made the very valid point that regular email newsletters, no matter the quality, are rarely consistently read by the majority of recipients. There were 7000+ messages sent out to Obama supporters over the course of the campaign and all averaged less than 300 words, all with the aim of getting “feet on the ground”.

The ultimate objective of the online campaigning was to create local, on-the-ground activism, so each request was aimed at getting the recipients to do something, whether that is volunteering at the local campaign office, knock on doors, leaflet or donate money. Hence, the huge amounts of funds raised and the huge number of volunteers and local organisers.

The individual touch was also vitally important and this was achieved through personalised replies. If a volunteer replied to one of the mail-outs, Gensemer said that their aim was to get a personalised reply back within 3-4 days.

It was a fascinating insight into online political campaigning, but the beauty of its simplicity means that aspects of the strategy could potentially be transferable to a good deal of what we do as public affairs and public relations professionals.

Much of our work is issue related, or can at least be linked or incorporated into issues. Therefore aspects of the Obama online campaigning strategy could be transferred across the areas of politics, global advocacy, patient group outreach, product promotion and the list goes on.

Therefore online campaigning and interaction is a fantastic tool and if done properly, can be extraordinarily powerful and transferable to a number of sectors. It is certainly something we, as communications specialists should all be getting a handle on.