Giving a presentation today about new/social media to a couple of nonprofit groups in Oklahoma. During the presentation we dive into the ‘should I be doing social media’ question.

Well, that’s a question solely answered by your business objectives. Let’s think about social media in the context of organizations using it to spread their message. You’ve first got to approach the question from the standpoint of what’s my business objective?

Once you know the objective, find out where the dialog happens. Use every resource from the Internet, to employees, to random folks and find where the conversation is happening.

Now that you know the business objectives and where the dialog is, you must listen to the conversations. Think about it… you can’t roll up on a group of people standing on the street and just start spouting your messages. You’ve got to know what the group is talking about and how they are talking about it.

Find out who the opinion leaders are in the conversation. They can help you move your messages and give some ‘street cred’ to you.

Remember to only communicate when relevant. If you tell me how to bake a cake when I’m talking about building a Web site, I’m gonna get annoyed and cancel your communication. Keep doing it and I may turn on you and try to get others to follow my task of silencing the Betty Crocker.

Wrapped up in a list (all about the list – baby):

• What is your business objective?
• Where is the dialog happening?
• Listen to the conversation
• Find the opinion leaders
• Comment only when relevant

So should you do social media? I hope so. Find a business reason to do it. If you can’t find one, don’t even try. If you’re looking for a reason, social media can help multiply your message to millions instead of the thousands you reach by traditional media.

P.S. I love Betty Crocker. Mmmmm, goodness from the kitchen!

This is a quick blog post. Do you Twitter? You should be. Visit www.Twitter.com and start now. It's a very cool social media tool. You can follow me at samsims if you want to.

 OK, now that is out of my brain, I'll write something a little more detailed later. Happy tweeting!

Yesterday I had the privilege of speaking to the Central Oklahoma Chapter of International Association of Business Communicators. (Ready for the alphabet soup?... Central OK IABC). They were a very fun and interactive group, and we had the opportunity to talk about grassroots campaigns and earned media. It all started me thinking. Maybe I should post what I’ve just presented and open up a broader conversation about the topic. So what follows is a blog-ready version of what we discussed at the meeting.

During my presentation, I asked the basic question of what is grassroots. Not surprisingly the answers were all over the map. I too have been down the “what the heck is it” path with grassroots and have finally landed on a personal definition after conducting some research.

First let’s get the Merriam Webster definition out of the way:
According to MW, grass roots is

1. basic, fundamental
2. being, originating, or operating in or at the grass roots
3. not adapted from or added to an existing facility or operation : totally new

I’ve adapted it and other research for use in the communications industry to be: any campaign that is attempting to bring about some level of change within an audience that previously had no interest in the issue. Now that I’ve put that in writing, I’ll be sitting by the computer waiting for people to debate, shred, support it. Start the frenzy.

Here are some thoughts to get your brain turning about a grassroots campaign in a little different light.

How to develop a grassroots plan:

1. What is the business objective?
2. Determine stakeholders, evangelists
3. Do research to understand how they will comprehend the issue***
4. Develop communications within their understanding
5. In a perfect world – test the communications
6. Execute the plan
7. Evaluate the plan: Did it fulfill the business objective? If not, tweak and do it again.

*** The key is understanding the social environment, the context of relationship and the frame of reference to communicate with your audience.

Are you a sayer-of-nays when it comes to grassroots campaigns? Then how do you explain the following:

The infamous writers strike – It raised awareness among folks that previously had no idea or interest in their plight. Didn’t really matter until it impacted us directly, huh? We can agree that it began to impact us with the borage of news stories, our favorite TV shows being postponed and the cancellation of the award shows. Side note: way to stand your ground writers. Now, help fill the void that was created by your absence.

Now that you have the grassroots plan in place you might need to get a bit of earned media. Here are a few tips to help you. By no means do I guarantee that these will work. Media is made of people and you need to foster a relationship with them before you begin to sling news at them. (FYI: slinging news is bad)

Tips to garner earned media:

1. Get in the mind of an editor.
2. If your not there, call them and pitch the idea. They will help you determine what reporter should hear your pitch.
3. The public can create a draw for media coverage. Get your evangelists to help spread the word. Social media and networking is great for this.
4. Create a painfully logical partnership and join forces. Partner with another organization that has media relationship and is will to share, but the partnership must be symbiotic. Otherwise you have manipulation, which according to a friend of mine is one-sided cooperation.

Hope this triggers some thoughts. Feel free to comment about it. Thanks again to Central OK IABC for allowing me to present.

Recently I had the opportunity to test a creative idea in the realm of public relations strategy and the idea – although I wanted to do it and thought is was a good idea – didn’t fit in the plan. I was headed towards that ever embracing Oooo Shiny moment.

An organization that I volunteer my talents and time wanted to run a special promotion in the hopes to attract media. The event (actually, series of events) would have been great, but there was the problem with it. It didn’t meet the business objectives of the organization. Ultimately what we were trying to accomplish might have created a buzz, but it wouldn’t make a dent in the business direction for which the organization is heading.

Approaching the idea from the business angle gave me the ability to counsel the organization’s leader and illustrate the public relations need to reside at the c-suite level.

Did we end up doing nothing, you ask? Nope, we focused our efforts and spent what little precious time we had on staying the course. Call it being efficient; call it being effective, but really it’s just following a predetermined plan.

The great part… I get to actually evaluate the plan based on the communications objectives to see what worked and what didn’t; then building on the corrective actions if necessary.

Have you been pulled from the tasks at hand because of a great idea? When did you realize it was an Oooo Shiny moment? Next time try these easy 10 steps:

1. breathe deeply
2. focus your inner-eye on the prize
3. exhale
4. repeat Row, Row, Row Your Boat twice aloud.
5. smack yourself
6. smack again – harder
7. cruise the Internet for funny videos
8. take a drink of milk
9. laugh so hard said milk comes out of your nose

All kidding aside. Number 10, ask yourself, “What business objective does this achieve?” Also you’ll get better results if you can start a round of step four with your coworkers.

First a thanks to a band of the late eighties/early nineties, REM, for the blog title. Funny how the band name also reflects the tone of the blog.

Here's the deal when it comes to public relations and marketing...too many distractions. Really not distractions, but more so variables. As people venture down the road of public relations or marketing planning, distractions... I mean variables crop up everywhere.

Without a plan, any creative idea will win the spot light, but with a plan the strategist quickly knows if the creative idea fits the strategies, which meet the objectives and fulfills the goal, and ultimately supports the goals of the organization.

It's up to the strategist to stay the course, wade through the muck, (insert your choice of cliché) and develop a plan that meets business goals.

As I venture down the path of questioning planning and strategic action, I encourage you to chime into the conversation. I want to know your thoughts whether you agree with me whole-heartedly or you have a thought that is completely opposite. Open and honest conversation will only make the topics stronger.