PR-Bridge

Earlier this week, AdvertisingAge reported on a talk by Procter & Gamble interactive marketing exec Ted McConnell, with the provocative title: “Digital Guru Not Sure Marketers Belong on Facebook.” Reacting to the attempts to “monetize” social media sites, McConnell explained, “What in heaven’s name made you think you could monetize the real estate in which somebody is breaking up with their girlfriend?”

I discussed this issue in detail in early August, advocating that organizations move away from thinking of social media sites like they do television, radio, or billboards, and instead uncovering new ways of using social media to build relationships. McConnell also brought up this point, dispelling the “media” aspect of “consumer-generated media.”

“Who said this is media,” McConnell asked. “Consumers weren’t trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant…We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it.”

Recently, USF public relations students in my Writing for Public Relations classes have been doing research on college students and attitudes toward branding, brand loyalty, and how they are dealing with the economic downturn. While I won’t divulge much of the information they’ve uncovered, since we’ll be releasing it over the next several weeks, I will reveal that the brands students are most loyal to interact with them in ways they desire, such as sending discount coupons through the mail, not by blitzing them with ads on Facebook and MySpace.

I also wonder if the rock band Pearl Jam might provide some lessons about how organizations should reach out to customers. At the height of its worldwide fame, the band stopped making videos and cut back on marketing, essentially removing themselves from the mainstream pop universe. While it shed casual fans, it built online communities of dedicated followers, even handing over control of its music. For instance, allowing people on fan sites to trade bootlegs legally.

As a result, Pearl Jam now has a large, dedicated group of fans that sell out every show and support its CDs. While it will probably never reach the heights it did with its first several albums, in terms of overall CD sales and radio play, one could argue that Pearl Jam is more popular than ever.

I think the answer lies somewhere in the idea of building a group of intense users and then figuring what that group wants from the brand and how to deliver it in the most efficient manner.

According to a recent AP article, some 10 million people in the United States are now jobless. The national unemployment rate stands at a 14-year high of 6.5 percent, according to government statistics. That number will increase, since several large employers announced new rounds of layoffs, including Ford and GM.

Certainly 10 million unemployed is a significant number – the highest in 25 years. Moreover, the “official” government statistics only tell part of the story when it comes to determining the national unemployment rate, which I discussed in a 2004 article, “The Downside of Downsizing” at The History News Network. These figures only count people actively searching for work, not those who have dropped from the search altogether. More telling in today’s economy, the figures also do not account for people who are underemployed — like a marketing exec, for example, forced to work part-time or in a service industry position to make ends meet.

What cannot be overlooked as the incoming Obama administration searches for ways to fix the ailing economy is that many of these 10 million unemployed people may never fully recover from the psychological devastation of getting downsized. The lack of humanity in the process is staggering, certainly considering the decades of experience corporations now have with mass layoffs. Anyone who has had experience with being laid off or interacting with family or friends who have can relate. Many honest, ethical, hard working people never shake the downsized stigma, carrying it around for the rest of their careers.

From an internal communications perspective, many companies assume that putting together a decent severance package heals the wound. One could argue, however, that putting a dollar figure on an employee’s tenure or work history merely accentuates the pain. For many, no amount of money can overcome the psychological pain, basically equating the job loss with feelings of inadequacy or worthlessness.

When laying off employees, organizations often resort to lawyer-speak in an attempt to thwart potential lawsuits. As a result, people are not provided with meaningful explanations of their termination. Corporate platitudes about stock price, redundancies, and other explanations do little or nothing to keep workers from hefting the psychological scars associated with being laid off.

Economic chaos is going to be the status quo for the immediate future. In response, we should do as much as we can to help those downsized to regain meaningful employment. If those positions are not readily available, then at least we can treat people with dignity, not like outcasts. A critical aspect of fixing the current economic troubles is getting people back to work. Rather than tossing those laid off overboard, the nation needs to find new ways to harness their experience and business knowledge.

Scholars will examine the 2008 presidential campaign for a long, long time. The money spent by each candidate guarantees this, particularly the tremendous advantage Barack Obama has wield in the battle with John McCain.

While most of the major polls — like Yahoo! with its scoreboard estimate of the popular vote and electoral college – have Obama winning easily (right now, Yahoo! declares Obama winning 51.6 percent to 44.3 percent), what no poll or polling group can account for is the deep-rooted racism of the American public. On the surface, the equation seems straightforward. If Obama wins by less than 6 percent (or, if McCain somehow emerges victorious), then I posit that many voters, in their heart of hearts, stood in the voting booth and simply could not vote for a black man for president.

The potential role of race in the election seems more compelling when one examines the latest information about the candidate voters think will do more for the economy and to change Washington. Despite McCain’s self-avowed “maverick” status,  voters claim Obama leads on these issues. Obviously, some undecided voters could walk into the booth and go with McCain based on his experience and foreign policy viewpoints. That may account for the close election, if it gets close. Race, however, is a more compelling explanation.

Throughout the election season, information about the potential racism and its consequences popped up irregularly. On NPR, for example, correspondents went into battleground states and spoke to party stalwarts. In West Virginia, some Democrats interviewed flatly said that they were uncomfortable with Obama because of race. A poll in that state identified that 25 percent of voters would not vote for Obama due to race. Other NPR interviews revealed voters concerned about “the Muslim issue” and Obama, insinuating that Obama was a Muslim, not Christian.

An article in the Dallas Morning News, “In Areas of Pennsylvania, Issue of Obama’s Race Remains,” discusses the potential fallout in areas of that key state that have traditionally voted Democrat. “People won’t make up their mind or say they are going to vote for Obama because they are afraid that they could vote for a black man,” said Phil McGrogan, a retired salesman who said he’d vote for Mr. Obama. “In some of the yards where I see signs that say ‘Another Democrat for McCain,’ I know the people and I know they are racists. I even told my wife, you can almost pick out the rednecks.” McGrogan had the guts to tell the reporter what many others either think or see in their own neighborhoods.

The reason a Dallas paper would venture into southwestern PA is due to the fallout generated by the area’s Democratic Rep. John Murtha, who referred to the western part of his state as “a racist area.” He later rescinded his comments, but for many the notion stuck.

Even the now famous Joe the Plumber resorted to coded language, criticizing Obama for tap dancing through an answer, ”Almost as good as Sammy Davis Jr.” An Associated Press article lists several overtly racist ads run by pro-Republican groups, ranging from “a California group, which distributed anti-Obama literature with stereotypical black America images of a watermelon, ribs and a bucket of fried chicken…[and] A Virginia GOP official said Obama would hire rapper Ludacris to paint the White House black.”

The race challenge is one that haunts surveys — people often either lie or tell the person conducting the survey what they think they want to hear. What potential voter is going to admit to a pollster that they are racist? To get at reality, many polls have gone to computer-generated systems that eliminate human interaction.

Polls are attempting to get at the center of the race issue, but not until tomorrow’s election will the real consequences be revealed. A recent AP-Yahoo News poll, for example, determined that 40 percent of all white Americans hold at least a partly negative view toward blacks. Race may determine the outcome of the 2008 election, but whether it does or not, the results should show how far the nation still must travel to overcome its racial divide.