8 Simple Steps Towards Reaching A Broader Audience

As I have mentioned in previous posts, your country’s achievements may seem wonderful to you and your Diaspora, but if your goal is to make friends for your country, showing off is not enough, and can sometimes be annoying. I mean, if your country has a strong economy and you are promoting that aspect in a country that suffers from high unemployment, you might start pissing people off.

You must show how your country’s achievements benefit the region or city you reside in.

It is classic “What’s In It For Me” only with the mind-set of ‘What’s In It for Them’ elevated by social media, and creating a win for all situation.

For example, let’s say that one of the pillars of your country’s overall branding strategy is its medical field. It is part of your job to make people aware of the fact that you have a lot to offer in that realm. So what’s the problem? Write a few words, add hashtags and attach an article from a website published in your native country raving all about it and post on your Facebook page, right? Sure if you want it to end right there, but if you want to be effective there are more ways to do it, and here is one of them:

1. Contact the author of the article as well as the hero of the story.
2. Email the article to local bloggers who would be interested in that content and offer to connect them with the above.
3. Contact an online medical publication as well as a specific community that would be positively affected by this breakthrough, and get them to publish the story (written by the blogger who picked it up) on their website, newsletter and social networks. Don’t just post it on their page, it works better for all involved if they post it on their website and later share it themselves.
4. Tell them all that you will be more than happy to promote the post using your mission’s networks as well.
5. Once it is published, keep your promise and share it on your Social Media Channels using effective hashtags.
6. Post on your website that the local publication/blog/organization wrote about this amazing discovery in your country, give the gist of it and share the link to where it was published.
7. Thank the blogger as well as the organization/publication for posting and promise to let them know if and when you receive anything that would be of interest to them and send them the link to the featured article on your website.
8. Use the information in the article and refer to it in an answer you compose in response to that or a related topic on Quora or any other significant Q&A based social network.

By applying these simple and basic PR moves, you will be able to:

1. Deliver your message to a broader audience.
2. Give your country positive exposure.
3. Make new connections with bloggers, organizations and publications that will in the future be open and willing to receive more information from you and also possibly host or co-sponsor joint events, delegations or co-ops.
4. Contribute to the local community and show how relevant you are to their day-to-day lives.
5. Improve your country’s online presence and reputation. The circulation of linked information from one website to another, as well as newsletters, tweets and shares help search engines pick up on you and the story.

Resisting Temptations: 10 Lessons learned

We all have different considerations that lead us to choose whatever business we are in. Whether it is for financial benefit, a passion or a deeply rooted sense of mission, the hard work we invest makes us venerable to criticism and makes us at times, and yes, emotional.

I admit, I have made quite a few mistakes by allowing those who I like to call taunters (after the ‘French Tounter’ in Monty Python’s Holy Grail) get to me while trying to engage on Facebook, Twitter and sometimes even on Quora.

Having the urge and the ability to respond directly has taught me a few valuable lessons which I am happy to share with you:

1. Count to 10. A lot has changed since childhood but that tip is still very relevant, even with the need for quick responses.
2. Anything you say can and will be retweeted against you.
3. Just because they “like” you, doesn’t mean they’ll always like you.
4. A back and forth conversation on our timeline can be left for those who really like you and would gladly comment for you.
5. Your own personal sense of humor or irony can alienate fans who identify with the message but not with its delivery.
6. The account you manage is not your own. The way you navigate the conversation is part of your brand strategy and reflects on it, not your personal feelings.
7. Your taunter is not targeting you personally, but they will be happy to use your emotional outbreak just for fun. They are either bored out of their  mind or there with a deliberate intention to criticize your brand/organization/country with no real wish for a dialogue.
8. Welcome your critics. The human need to be noticed is a large part of how and why social media has grown to these dimensions. Censorship repels even the loyal fans and lessens the engagement.
9. You can’t always predict or control where that comment/tweet or post will end up.
10. If your fans are ganging up on a taunter, calm the discussion down, even if you agree with them. But seriously, don’t  give a person or a comment more attention than they deserve. That will only make them want to keep doing it.

At the end of the day, when managing public diplomacy, and particularly digital diplomacy,

“Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time”

there are always 3 groups you typically interact with:

1. The “Persuaded” – Your supporters who will like, share and comment positively if the agree or won’t comment if  they don’t, just to save face (your face).
2. The “On the Fence” – Those who either have no opinion or are trying to establish one. Put them at the top of your priority list and tip them over to your side.
3. The “No Matter What You Say, You Suck” – those will always be around, and you will never persuade them, especially if you insist on letting them drag you into confrontation. So just keep your level of engagement at minimum and let their arguments against you gain you the sympathy of the “on the fence” crowd, the solidarity of the “persuaded” crowd and let it work to your advantage.

Always remember that being wise is much more important than being right. Let others do your lobbying, beyond the time it consumes of you and the potential slips of the type, it is in your best interest to mobilize others on your behalf. Especially if you represent a government, because the mere fact that you are the government puts a damper on your credibility.

Credit and Credibility: The Double Edged Logo

For everyone in the business world, there is no doubt in the importance of the logo. Since it is the key visual representation of the brand we are trying to create, it is at many times the first thing we attend to before making our content visible. The design has become such an important factor, that any companies have sprung up in recent years offering branding as a design service. Of course, we al know that a visually attractive design means nothing without content, and more importantly, if the brand doesn’t deliver its promise – it will surely fail.

For countries, the lead visual is usually their flag or coat of arms. The flag is almost always the most recognizable visual image that associates people with the country with some exceptions. For cities and places I could also be a unique landmark. The Eifel tower has become a symbol of love that has shaped the perception of Paris as the city of love in the minds of many, just like the Hollywood sign promises stardom and glamour. But the French flag that represents equality, fraternity and liberty does not always make us associate those values with the country and the design and colors can be easily confused with other nations’ flags and symbols. Ironically, the Statue of Liberty is an iconic manifestation of the USA’s brand promise, Freedom, and leaves its French origin almost forgotten.

In a quest to find one visual image that ties in everything they have to say, some countries have resorted in creating an altogether new visual image as part of their branding efforts, namely Spain.

Their success in doing so reflects on the totality of their strategies and their ability to deliver the brand promise.

Whatever flag, logo or symbol they chose, governments have a tendency to pass their message across in a variety of ways, some more effective than others.

Governments tend to view and treat their official websites as their primary interface with the public. They use them to concentrate information, statistics, consular services, media alerts, press releases and statements and of course, pre-written articles and stories that are meant to expose the public to the country’s accomplishments and successes.

The thought is that if the website gains a good reputation, people will go to it to get the latest news, especially in a time of crisis. However, it must be remembered that a mission’s website is not a credible news site. No matter how democratic and open a country may be perceived, the government is and will always be run by internal and external political interests that cannot be overlooked by the critical eye.

Even “show off” articles designed to accentuate a country’s achievements become plain propaganda and have less chances of making an impact.

Advocacy groups who tend to share content from government websites are also victims of the social media revolution, being an organization rather than a real person with his or her own thoughts and opinions.

In the case of digital diplomacy, Social media has made the logo a double-edged sword, and that should be taken into consideration when attempting to get the message make an impact and actually break out of the comfort zone.

Ever find yourself saying to someone “Well of course you would say that, you are bias”? How many times have you read something and quickly deleted it from your mind when you noticed that this groundbreaking research was funded and published by a commercial company that conveniently offers a solution? I bet that this doubt in credibility prevented you from forwarding or sharing it.

This simple logic should resonate with both government agencies and advocacy organizations and drive them to give more thought to who conveys the message when strategizing their digital diplomacy efforts.

In addition to this, there’s the element of quantity. The number of shares, likes and comments encourages or discourages people to share and determines how far the message is carried by an influential trend.

When using a hashtag or discovering a trending topic via twitter search bar, you can’t help but notice how many tweets include the particular hashtag and in what context. Also noticeable are the accounts using it. That has a big effect on the reach of the message. If it is clear that almost only organizations and government officials are using them rather than “simple people”, there is a problem…

Obama’s fake fans saga indicates that although his people understood and shared the points I raised here, their failure lies in the fact that they misjudged the public and underestimated our intelligence. They replaced the real engagement social media is based on with old propaganda methods.

Basically, they took the social out of their dipdip efforts and left it to the amount of professionals running accounts rather than creating enough attractive content for people to share. I am not naive, of course aliases will be used. But just like everything, they should be used wisely.

I would like to see more governments and advocacy organizations try to reach out to new audiences by creating accounts with less obvious affiliation and more original content geared towards people’s likes and interests rather than the grouping by nationality, color, sexual identity, political views etc.