Barack Obama is one mean communication machine. A few days ago, I got an email from him asking for support on health care. Yesterday, I was invited to listen in on a conference call he conducted from Air Force One this morning on the push for health care reform. Joe Biden sent me an email this morning asking for a show of support for Sonia Sotomayor. I'm not so naive to think these men are typing in my email address by hand and thinking "gee, hope Christopher replies quickly." But compared to the communication I got from Bush (nada), I'm feeling pretty special.
Mostly I'm impressed with how extraordinarily well-organized his administration is when it comes to communication. It's a full-court press, use every medium available enslaught. Their branding is superb; their messages are tight and on target; their spokespeople are articulate, gracious and intelligent. Their website is useful. If they only serve as role models to other organizations dependent on outreach, they will have contributed tremendous value.
While the tools may seem overwhelming at first, the process is straightforward:
- Build a stable, well-designed website that either is your business or accurately reflects its essential tenets
- Blog or post regularly in paragraphs to further announce and clarify your opinions, ideals, desires and developments
- Email as needed in sentences to connect with clients, customers and audiences
- Tweet often in phrases and links to identify your expertise, your areas of interest or your immediate observations
There's more out there, but these basics are enough for most businesses. The secret sauce is that everything needs to be linked to other relevant people and places, and structured in a way that's searchable. But that's why we hire the cute guys with the big glasses.
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