American Airlines’ new logo generated a lot of press about its “new” brand recently.

Don’t believe the hype!

AA’s graphic design and presentation has changed, and I love it.

The new symbol on the fuselage is a nice evolution of old to new, and the tail graphics definitely say AMERICAN Airlines in a way that would make Team America very proud.

Inside the fuselage, however, I expect the flying experience on American Airlines not to be so… evolved.

Where I typically sit (in the back with Del Griffith), it’s likely to remain cramped, crowded and cumbersome. Even on the 550 new planes American has coming to them.

It will likely still be a little hot (or cold) and sometimes unsettling. What is DRIPPING on me?

That, unfortunately, is the brand of most air travel; a commoditized, uncomfortable experience that leaves most carriers to compete solely on who offers the cheapest ticket.

New logos and paint schemes won’t change that. New ways of doing things at the gate and at 30,000 feet might.

By Mike Mulvihill

NPR ran a segment today (What’s Driving College Costs Higher?) featuring Kevin Carey, the director of the Education Policy Program at the New America Foundation, portraying the nation’s growing student debt crisis as the result of excessive spending by colleges and universities, which drives up tuition, and declining government support for public universities as state and local governments face budget crises.

The story’s timing is due to the impeding bewitching hour for student loan rates, which in a few days are set to double from the current 3.5 percent rate for millions of Americans if Congress can’t agree on legislation.

Carey accurately points out that that college tuition has consistently increased much faster than both inflation and incomes. And, that a major accelerant to rising college costs includes administrative and teaching costs, scholarships, sports teams and elaborate new construction projects. But other than in his opening statement, he fails to acknowledge the equally significant role of decreased state funding for public universities.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, public university tuition revenues today cover about 50 percent of expenditures, up from about 40 percent a decade ago. According to the State Higher Education Executive Officers association, that number was less than 25 percent in the mid-1980s.

And the problem is accelerating. An annual study of state spending on higher education found that state appropriations for colleges and students sunk by 7.6 percent in 2011-12, the largest such decline in at least a half century.

The annual Grapevine study, conducted by the Illinois State University Center for the Study of Higher Education and the State Higher Education Executive Officers, found that all but nine states experienced one-year declines from their 2010-11 totals. The 41 states that cut their spending did so by as little as 1 percent (in Indiana and North Carolina) to as much as 41 percent (New Hampshire), with a third of all states posting double-digit drops.

For decades, government has been weaning public colleges and universities from taxpayer funding. But as usual, taxpayers who actually use those services then pay more – often much more – to access these same services. As a nation, unless our states again look to fund public higher education with the aim of maintaining U.S. global leadership, Mr. Carey is exactly correct: the student debt crisis reflects a larger, (more) troubling trend in higher education.

Photo: supplychainalmanac.com

By Mike Mulvihill

This weekend, our family posted a question to our friends on FB querying if anyone knew what the Occupy Wall Street folks really wanted. The response was voluminous, but so were the array of answers and their alarming lack of clarity. As the movement continues to pick up speed in cities around the country and around the world, perhaps the organizers should re-examine a little Protest 101 to make the most of their days in the sun.

Get a lot of attention: OWS gets high marks here. They have gotten a mountain of attention. You’d have to be living under a rock to be unaware of their encampment on Wall Street , the placards, marches and personal stories railing against what used to be called the Establishment. Now, the movement is spreading to a theater near you.

Have a clear message: As Hamlet said, “Ay, there’s the rub.” All of the media attention has focused on the volumes of angst and frustration emanating from the OWS movement. We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore. abuse of power…corporations’ disproportionate influence in the political sphere…Wall Street got a bail out, but the people didn’t…mountains of college debt but no jobs for college grads…more government, less government. Unlike protests of the 60’s, which clearly wanted an end to the war in Vietnam, this movement has yet to form a clear message as to what they’re fighting for. And without a clear message, the movement will eventually peter out.

Have a call to action: It kind of goes hand in hand with a clear message, but now that you got me all worked up – what should I do about it? One of occupywallstreet.org’s own posts is a call for everyone to register to vote. Sadly, there is only one comment to this post. Whether OWS likes it or not, this movement must become a political movement to succeed. What the anti-war movement learned is that if you want to change the system, you must participate in the system. Infiltrate the system and then change it. If you don’t like the dirty bastards you elected (whether by commission or omission), then vote them out. Get people in office who will create legislation that helps the common man – people who won’t bend to the will of political funders and the desire to be re-elected versus do what they were elected to do in the first place. Please OWS, tell me what you want me to do to vent this angst before you merely lead me to decide I am a helpless victim.

Help organize the solution to the problem: Yes, I am emotionally engaged. I hear your message. I agree there is a problem. I am engaged and ready to act. I want to be part of the solution. What can I do? Effective movements capitalize on the opportunity to bring people to action by facilitating that action. They help you become part of the political process. They find and support candidates to run for office. Their members become part of these campaigns. Marching and chanting slogans is but a precursor to the real work of a movement – meaningful societal change. That change will not come from trying to create a parallel universe. It comes from working within the current paradigm.

Have staying power: OWS just celebrated a month. Change takes time. It takes a commitment to win the many battles it takes in order to win a war. Will OWS (or its successor entity) be around in six months? A year? Will all these people eventually decide they have somewhere else they might want to be? Now is the time to be laying the foundation for OWS to survive as a meaningful change agent, a formidable opponent to take on those who abuse power (or whatever the platform coalesces to be). This requires organizational skills, funding and strategic thinking. Because when you get me to act on your initiative, you better still be there when the real action starts to happen.

OWS has an opportunity to provide a platform, a voice and a vehicle to create change for a large number of Americans (the 99 percent) who are justifiably disillusioned with the status quo. Simply attacking the system without a plan is an uprising. And OWS isn’t in a position to architect a coup d’etat. But it can spark a evolution that could achieve real societal change that keeps our country from plummeting into a two-class system that history tells ends only with revolution. As OWS says in its press release celebrating one-month in Zuccotti Park(aka Liberty Square), “We are only getting started.” I couldn’t agree more.

Photo courtesy of CNN Money

by Lisa Kersey

While the mantra in real estate has long been “location, location, location,” the corollary in the communications industry is “communicate, communicate, communicate.” And for hospitals focusing on positioning themselves for the pending changes associated with healthcare reform, communication will be a critical ingredient to their success.

So, whether your hospital is making changes to position itself for the long-run, or whether it’s making changes that impact the short-run, it would be wise to consider the following principles:

1. Understand the stages of change.
   Let’s face it. People don’t like change – even when it’s positive. To effectively bring people along with change, you must recognize the stages of change – awareness, understanding and engagement – and bring people through them. During awareness, employees should learn about the change and the reasons behind it. If communication regarding the change has been done well, people will move to understanding, when they begin to internalize the change and understand what it means for them personally. Then, they will begin to care about what it means to others and to the company, and they can begin to engage in the value of the change for the organization.
2. Identify and understand the impact.
   Understanding who will be impacted by the change and how they will be impacted is a great first step in determining the best means of communicating with them. You will also want to anticipate their questions and identify where you might have gaps in decision-making or need additional information to respond to employees’ questions.
3. Use key messages.
   Key messages are the 2-3 points that you want everyone to remember. They should be short and simple–and if you’re lucky, quotable. Thirteen years later, everyone still remembers the essence of O.J. Simpson’s defense, “If the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” While your key messages don’t have to rhyme to be effective, they should be short and they must be repeated. In addition, they should be used to answer every question or serve as a “bridge” or unifying element in all of your responses. This helps reinforce key points you want everyone to remember. Lastly, key messages are not a script – they should not be memorized.
4. Explain the reasons for change.
   One of the biggest mistakes companies make in communicating change is the unwillingness to share the reasoning behind the change. Generally, this is driven by fear that leadership will lose control of the message, or the misguided belief that employees “can’t handle the truth!” But like Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men, these executives are wrong. Most people can move through the stages of change if they understand the logic behind it – even if they don’t agree with the specifics.
5. Acknowledge people’s emotions.
   Don’t do warm and fuzzy? No problem. But avoiding this stage could make employees feel cold and prickly! Acknowledging emotions is a critical stage of change that many organizations skip because it makes them uncomfortable. The reality is that change makes everyone feel uncomfortable. Simply acknowledge that you realize change is difficult. And if your company is making efforts to ease the transition, be sure to share these details.
6. Give people a reason to hope.
   Once you explain the change and the reasons for it, it’s time to allow your employees to internalize what it means for them and the future prosperity of the company. Cast the vision – inspire your employees to be engaged in your company’s future. The late Steve Jobs certainly understood the value of casting a vision. This is an important step in the change journey of your employees.
7. Realize that not everyone will move through the stages at the same time.
   People’s ability to move through change looks like a bell curve. In a typical workgroup, about 20 percent of employees tend to resistant change – these are your laggers and draggers. Don’t focus your efforts there! The good news is that you have another 20 percent who are your quick adapters and can generally help lead others through the change. You also have another 60 percent who are in the middle, and with good communication, can generally move through the changes smoothly.
8. Communicate, communicate, communicate!
   It takes the average person needs to see or hear something 7 to 10 times before they remember it. And since people can only take in a finite amount of information at a time, key messages are critical to effective repetition in your communication. It is important to remember that people’s ability to absorb information actually decreases during times of stress. If you sound like a broken record, you’re probably doing a great job.

With healthcare reform, hospitals are experiencing a new wave of change, unparalleled in the last several decades. But a thoughtful and thorough communications plan will be a key to your success.

By Mike Mulvihill

The King is dead. (Not Elvis. Well, yes Elvis is dead…never mind.) As of this past weekend, the bizarre royal icon conjured from some creeper van nightmare no longer fronts for the Burger King brand. He’s been dropped for a new ad campaign that focuses on BK’s food. (However, he is still all over the web site as of this morning.)

Unfortunately, rebranding Burger King will take more than a few new ads and dropping Stephen King’s version of a Ron McDonald doppelganger. Here are three cardinal rules to keep in mind for any rebranding effort.

Credibile– From creepy frozen smile face Burger King to a food quality focus? It’s kind of hard to take consumers from one point in the brand spectrum to a whole new area code without some real changes in the physical product, the delivery channel and the customer service experience. It appears BK has a Whopper with guacamole on it. As much as I prescribe great power to the avocado (especially if they come from Mexico – yep, that’s a client plug!), BK hasn’t altered a customer experience that has been losing market share for years. Dressing up the Whopper does not suddenly overcome system wide shortcomings and transform them into a credible brand promise.

Authentic – Burger King built its business on flame-broiled burgers like you get from the backyard barbeque. The King did nothing to advance that brand. The current brand positioning is yet to be fully divulged, but BK would do well to go back to basics. Flame-broiled burgers and the Whopper would be a good start. They can deliver an authentic brand experience on these items and then build around it to higher quality, fresher tasting food. But after years of creepy King images, it may take a while.

Relevant – Yes, focusing on freshness and food quality is a trend in the food industry. But burger chains still make or break their bottom line on 18 to 35 year old guys. This campaign might be better suited for a brand like Red Robin, Five Guys or Elevation Burger. But then, the audience would skew older and more affluent or toward Moms and families looking for a healthier fast food experience. However, that is not Burger King’s sweet spot. So how relevant this new brand will be to the core market and what impact it will have on increasing share against the likes of Mickey D’s is suspect.

Brands take a long time to build. They are precious. BK squandered brand equity for years with an attempt to just be noteworthy, hip and, well, weirdly memorable. Now it wants to rebuild core brand elements that have been on the back burner for a long time. It will be interesting to see how the recovery unfolds.

It became really evident this Thanksgiving – my incessant, addictive need to try to keep up with friends and loved ones on Facebook and Twitter. My aging and computer-phobic mother was upset about the preoccupation and predilection my teenage children and I had with our smart phones.  She had a point. (Christmas should be even more interesting!)

Have you thought what it would be like to go without social media access for a week? Well, in September, Pennsylvania’s Harrisburg University of Science and Technology began a weeklong ban of social media.  For days, students had no access to Facebook, Twitter, and other services on campus. (Granted, there was a bevy of off campus WiFi hot spots more han happy to help alleviate this conundrum.)

Results of the weeklong ban were released this past Friday. The study showed that 25 percent of respondents reported better classroom concentration that week, while 23 percent found lectures more interesting and 6 percent reported eating better and exercising more. During the ban, 33 percent of students reported feeling less stressed. Twenty-one percent said they used their normal social networking time to do homework, while 10 percent said they read online news.

Back when the experiment began, there were several posts about how schools should be encouraging more social media use for idea sharing and mental stimulation. I don’t argue with their point. But I am acknowledging the other viewpoint – what would we do if we didn’t have mobile social media to absorb our attention? Would we better or worse off?

Think about how much time we spend on social media. In the line at Starbucks, let’s pull out the phone and connect. What about having a conversation with the barista or someone else in line? Go to any library on any university across the land right now during final exams week, and you’ll find studious students cramming – all while procrastinating on Facebook and Gmail. Watch yourself at family functions, dinner out, the kid’s game, out at the bar – you get the drift. How often do you pull your phone out to check if anyone wants to talk to you, while there are perfectly fine people to talk to standing all around.

The Harrisburg experiment was inspired by the provost’s observations of his teenage daughter using her iPhone. If you search blogs on the topic, you’ll find those that feel the Harrisburg blackout smacks of the oft-repeated view that social media is a time-waster made up of trivial, multi-tasked conversations that distract young people from “real life” (or class).  I don’t think that’s the point. The point is balance.

Danah Boyd (@zephoria), a researcher studying social media, points out the disconnect between reality and the expectations that exist in learning environments. Boyd writes that because many continue to emphasize “push” or “broadcast” methods of information sharing, “we are failing to teach our youth how to evaluate, interpret and assess the information that they pull or that which falls out of the sky.”

 Agreed, but perhaps it would serve us well to re-infuse a little humanity back into our social relationships this holiday season and maintain it for the coming year. I like people. I like them even better when I can see, feel, listen and talk to them.  Try it, then go FB you friends about the experience – they’ll love it!

Photo courtesy pheelfresh

After a week of speculation, by the time this post is viewed BP will have likely announced that Tony Hayward is headed to Siberia. Fitting that Hayward would be sent to Russia, where he will help manage BP’s joint venture there.  Perhaps the most deviled person in America, Hayward is the guy who after 11 men lost their lives on the Deepwater Horizon rig said, “I’d like my life back.” Who referred to the worst oil spill in history as only a “relatively tiny” amount of oil.  The top exec of BP’s who in the midst of this giant crisis whisked back to England to race his multi-million yacht while Louisiana’s working class fisherman watched their livelihoods wash away.

In his place is the first American to ever run BP – Robert Dudley, a steady-spoken Southerner who’s quietly become the BP face in the Gulf since he took over that role from Hayward in June. Ironically, Dudley, who grew up in Mississippi, is best-known for being CEO of the Russian business TNK-BP, the very same unit where Hayward is being exiled. There, Dudley performed well until he fled the country in a visa dispute that is said to have been a Kremlin-inspired campaign to destabilize BP there and put it under more Russian control.

So what does Dudley need to do to salvage BP’s position in the U.S., which happens to be home to 40 percent of both BP’s assets and its shareholders?  His prospects aren’t promising. As Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said the Gulf will spend years recovering from Hayward’s failed leadership. “The new leaders of BP will have an uphill climb to correct the legacy left by Hayward, indelibly inked by the disaster in the Gulf.” John Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil, said Dudley’s job is so onerous “I’m not sure if one person can do it all,”

Regardless, here are the things he must try to accomplish:

• Rally the Troops – The new chief must persuade thousands of employees to embrace a culture of safety that Hayward apparently failed to instill.  BP has one of the worst safety records in the off shore oil industry. The U.S. business has suffered three calamities in the space of five years—a fatal blast at a Texas refinery in 2005, an oil spill in Alaska in 2006 and now the Deepwater Horizon incident. The UK’s Times Online ran a November 2009 story, that “Ruthless cuts by (Hayward) have produced results in higher than expected profits… More than 6,500 jobs have been eliminated and overheads have fallen by a third….Having already cut $3 billion from costs, he predicted that another $1 billion will be eliminated by the year end.” Perhaps it is time to invest in people, in safety and in rebuilding employee confidence in BP.
• Show Up, Be Human, Be Credible – The first item Dudley has already done by running the Gulf operation since June of this year. Dudley, an engineer by trade but a businessman by profession, recently served in a position some at BP refer to as the Foreign Ambassador. “Bob Dudley is the only senior executive who is totally untainted by any of the problems that have hit BP for the past five years,” says Fadel Gheit, an energy analyst with Oppenheimer & Co.  Untainted though he may be, he’ll need all that diplomatic training and some on-the-ground, face-to-face visibility from the Louisiana up to Capitol Hill to mend fences among BP’s partners in the Gulf and convince the U.S. government and public they can trust it to safely do business here.
• Assurance and Stability – It is critical that a change in leadership does not signal anny wavering in BP’s commitment to take care of its own mess. If anything, it should signal a more fervent commitment to see this thing through for years to come. People in the Gulf, business partners and local, state and U.S. government need to know BP will stand by its commitments no matter how large they may be.
• Housecleaning – Several top U.S. executives have been tainted or have soured their relationships with the public and government. Dudley will need to clean house and replace his team with leaders and managers who can cultivate trust with critical stakeholder groups inside and outside of BP.
• Be Forthright, Compassionate and Honest – Dudley needs to be the anti-Hayward. When he makes a comment or a commitment, he better under promise and over deliver. He needs to connect with the public like they’re his neighbors. He needs to be humble and homespun, not smug, flip and hubristic.
• Businesslike and Pragmatic – The Gulf wants to get back to work. The oil industry wants to get back to work. And BP shareholders want the company to get back to work.  BP shares have dropped $77 billion in value since the April 20 rig explosion that set off the spill, even with a recent rally. And the stock market will be watching carefully for any sign of financial trouble — or to see if BP won’t resume its dividend — and sudden flight from the stock could erode Dudley’s internal support.

A tall task for one man to take on – but as PR and change management practitioners, it could be one of the most challenging and rewarding gigs of the decade. Hell, if it doesn’t kill you, it will make you stronger.  Oh, and, buh-bye Tony.

Photo of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester from Aidan McRae Thomson

We’ve heard that the Internet is supposed to be the great equalizer. In a recent article about how hospitals are competing with smaller ad budgets, several steps were defined to almost guarantee a successful digital campaign:

• Having a (content) rich, useful and consumer-friendly website
• Advertising on popular local websites
• Concentrating on paid and organic search optimization
• Establishing appropriate niche group pages and advertising to highly targeted audiences with matched services
• Using communication based networks (aka Twitter) with healthcare special interest audiences

It is excepted that these strategies all take time and are worth the investment, it can even be considered part of the process to attract brand loyal customers. So why does this not always work?

I suggest the landscape is moving and that most marketers are not willing to change. Bill Hunt asked if big brands will be the death of social media? While it is a catchy question I think he hits on the underlying concern about using social media: YOU have to make it unique everytime!

I know this concept isn’t revolutionary. To me it seems that the lesson isn’t being learned about trying to put lightening in the bottle. The best quote from Bill’s post is “Social Media users are people who are connecting with people who have shared interests – “SHARED INTERESTS” – which makes it niche marketing at best.”

This is a no-brainer… So when a social network changes why do we care? Because we are lazy (in the bad way) and want to just connect to people the same way every time. So when another social network crops up or Facebook changes it’s layout again, when Google tweaks its algorithms or *gasp* Twitter tweaks its service – there is concern over how to “game the system” again. It’s not about the technology or overcoming the “roadblocks” but connecting with the audience.

This year I was privileged to be involved with Tweetsgiving, a social media project with a goal to raise $100k in donations for an orphanage in Tanzania. While the total donation amount hasn’t been reached (yet), the campaign was successful because of the impact to the targeted audience. It wasn’t about making fans or followers but to encourage individuals to change the world through the power of gratitude. I think the following stats are evident of this happening.

• 21,226 tweets
• 336 photos tagged
• 79 videos tagged
• 68 songs tagged
• 896 blog posts

So where does this leave an online marketer? Nigel summed it up with simplifying the solution: Great strategy and creativity are critical whether your brand is big or small. It’s not about making a repeatable success rather focusing on your unique and targeted audience and engaging each time with personal interest. The rest will follow in time.

Joan of Arc by D.B. King

Since the holiday shopping crush has begun in earnest, perhaps we can acknowledge one of the great undercurrents of our time, the rise of the female economy. To quote Harvard Business Review, “Women now drive the world economy.” This reality will become even more obvious as we pull out of the recession, but can marketers adapt?

Traditionally, when faced with a predominantly female stakeholder, marketers created the same product in pink, purple, and pastels, rather than design their products to actually meet the needs of modern women. Wrong approach. Dell learned this with its pink laptop controversy earlier this year.  The same thing can be said for some well discussed communications programs (hello, Motrin!).

With women driving a vast majority of purchasing decisions – yes, even those big screen TVs – marketers must adapt.  The days of pink TV sets won’t work anymore (though some will try).

Consider how brands like Banana Republic have evolved. From end to end, they have come to understand their female customer. The in-store experience matches their research, but so does their product marketing.

A Banana Republic size 6 is really a size 6, and will always be that.  Different style lines match women’s actual body shapes, from petite to tall, from slender to full figure. The result? Women don’t have to go through agonizing hours to see if the 6 is really a 6. That means online sales, ladies and gentlemen, lots of them.  Why? Because women really don’t want to go shopping, they want more time! They want to live, have a career and a family, and yes, maybe even go to the gym (source: the aforementioned HBR article).

Of course, that brings up another very savvy female marketing organization, Curves. Focusing on efficient 30-minute workouts designed for women, Curves has built phenomenal word of mouth marketing, revolutionizing the fitness industry. BTW, Curves is a male owned company. CEO Gary Heavin understands that marketing to women means understanding their fitness needs, not forcing preconceived gym notions into the market. Heavin has succeeded garnering a significant portion of the female exercise market in spite of his pro-life views.

So communicators face the great challenge of adapting or failing (as if social media wasn’t enough). It comes down to this: Because it has been a male dominated world marketing has catered to the presumed buying power. Now that buying power belongs to women, marketers must change theirfocus to what their “new” customer wants.

by Geoff Livingston

You may be strong, you may be smart, but if you cannot adapt to rapid change you won’t survive. A rather Darwinistic statement, but a truth that companies and communicators increasing must accept. Communications technology has turned our world upside down (this post owes a special hat tip to Kyle Reis, and the great conversation he had with me that inspired it).

I imagine social media wonks grinning like cheshire cats and traditional communicators groaning. But the observation applies to all. Five years ago Twitter didn’t exist and Facebook was a blip on the map. Where will we be in another five years?

Today’s communications reality: Every decade brings sweeping challenges to the industry, driven by more telecommunications bandwidth and computing power. Consider the following:

• 70s: Broadcast TV dominates, while metro newspapers consolidate to fight off the evening news. Cable TV is born.
• 80s: Personal computing takes off, cable becomes widespread, commercial adoption of the Internet begins
• 90s: The decade of email and Web 1.0 (.com), satellite rivals cable, wireless takes off
• 00s: Web 2.0 rises to the fore, 1.0 community properties like Prodigy, AOL suffer; wireless Internet services blow up. Print pubs start failing en masse, while electronic books become available.

The rate of change accelerates with each new decade. As we conclude this one, we have seen the birth of next generation email (Google Wave), the virtual reality network Second Life (rise and fall, in this case), the beginning of a pitched battle for the mobile Internet between Apple and Google, and Verizon’s recent declaration that it’s done investing in it’s landline business.

We focus on how organizations use these tools to communicate with their stakeholders, but bit and bytes have become so disruptive communicators can no longer afford to turn their backs on media advancements. The only certainty is flux and change.

A core competency for successful communicators and their companies — agencies, for profits and nonprofits alike — must be adaptability. Our media world will continue to move like a river, relentlessly flowing over any barrier until it reaches the see. Now more than ever we must think liquid.

That term–social marketing–is buzzing across the blogosphere, our inboxes and in conference rooms. However, did you know that it’s been around since the 1970s? …and fundamentally, it has nothing to do with Twitter, flickr, Ning, Myspace or Facebook. It’s much bigger than that.

This is because social marketing has everything to do with behavior–influencing it and changing it. Simply put, I like to say that social marketing is the science behind social change. It is not social media. Read that line again. People often confuse the term “social marketing” to mean two very different concepts: 1) social media marketing and 2) the real, science behind social change. While the two have much to learn from each other, they are not one in the same. (For a deeper clarification, check out Nedra Weinreich’s dichotemy.)

I realize my 140-character friendly definition of social marketing is a bit of a simplification, which is easy to say and harder to implement. In the past month, we’ve been writing and reading about movements, and many of us touch–either directly or indirectly–work that deals with social change. We love it, live it and on an increasing rate–crave it. Climate change. Poverty. HIV/AIDS. Human Rights. Animal Rights. But moving the needle is tough work. It’s persistent work. It’s not glamorous, and you, or your organization, can’t do it alone.

We can live social change, and we can do social change. But, until we study it and own it as a discipline, we won’t be as successful in our movements as we could be. As a follower of the Buzz Bin, I know a large focus of dialogue here is on social change, so I want to share some social marketing tools to add to the tool belt (that don’t require a log-in):

• Social Marketing Listserv. Join over 3000+ great social marketeers from 38 countries who, on a daily basis, discuss the latest trends, research and updates regarding behavior change and social change.
• Academic Textbooks. There are over 12 social marketing textbooks. My current favorite–Social Marketing in the 21st Century by Georgetown’s Alan Andreason. Ever heard of Philip Kotler? Marketing guru. Ya, he helped invent social marketing, along with Nancy Lee. Bill Novelli? Yup, him too. The best part–so can you, and it can start with the turn of a page.
• Ongoing Research. Check out the the Social Marketing Quarterly.
• Successful Case Studies. Here. Here. Here. and Here.
• Social Marketing and Behavior Change Experts: Start following @chiefmaven, @stephendann, @sm1guru, @Nedra, @mikekujawski and others.
• Captivating Conferences. In late 2008, the 1st World Social Marketing Conference was held in Brighton. There is also the Social Marketing in Public Health conference held every year in Florida. The 2010 conference will mark its 20th anniversary!
• Social Marketing Association. This is in the midst of being formed and will launch at the 20th Anniversary at the above mentioned conference. Philip Kotler has already confirmed to do the kick-off. Feel free to join 300+ fellow change makers in this effort.

When it comes time to implement, perhaps we need to start by thinking–Are we asking the right questions? Or, as Jay Baer put it, or we addressing the WHY before HOW? To add some visual and emotional elements to the discussion, I like how this video turns the tables and asks different questions of us:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIZ56OrLQ5k

So, fellow changemakers-movement-igniters, next time we buzz through the blogosphere, open our email, or sit around in the conference room, perhaps we start not with what tool or tactic should be used. But instead, ask first:

Alexandra Rampy is a social marketing believer, blogger, practitioner, researcher and enthusiast. Connect with her on Twitter and on her blog.

“____________ is dead.”

Go ahead and fill in that blank with the usual suspects; blogging, Twitter, PR, marketing, FriendFeed, the press release, the media, etc.

Admit it, you’ve probably seen, read, or possibly wrote something that fits the above standard claim. It gets repeated, rebroadcast, refuted, and recycled. And that’s ok. That’s how this stuff is supposed to work. It is what happens as people keep entering the house of social web and longtime residents become bored with the decor and want to move on to more interesting things. (Photo credit: matildaben)

The barriers to entry into social media are often easy to overcome with a little planning and commitment. Basically, you have to want to know because by this point, if you are not learning, experimenting, or using social media tools, you are choosing to ignore the significance and potential of the social web.

Natives + Immigrants
In his book Don’t Bother Me Mom – I’m Learning, Marc Prensky writes:
“After dealing with Digital Natives for quite a while, I’ve become a kind of digital anthropologist, spending a great deal of time observing the rich digital world and life that the Natives are in the process of creating for themselves. It turns out that for almost every activity in their lives, the Digital Natives are inventing new, online ways of making each activity happen, based on new technologies available to them. Some of these new approaches Digital Immigrants can -and do – use as well. But some are so foreign to the Immigrants that they are almost, or totally, unintelligible.”

Sound familiar? While Prensky is explaining to parents how children are actually getting valuable skills from playing video games, I am interested in how social media natives and immigrants are not adversaries. Instead, we should operate in mentoring relationships.

To the Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, and Late Majority on the adoption bell curve, you are the Social Media Natives. You get it, you’ve shared it, many of you are tired of talking about it.

To the Laggards of the adoption bell curve, you are the Social Media Immigrants. You’re getting it, you’re sharing it and yes, in time, some of you will probably grow tired of the tools.

But we can (and should) still learn from each other.

We have a responsibility to share
In the seminal work for the PR field, Effective Public Relations, the authors write:
“Because professions draw upon a specialized body of knowledge developed through research, practitioners are obligated to support the advancement of professional knowledge.”
(Cutlip, Center, and Broom)

As professional communicators, we should devote time to topics, writings, discussions and brainstorms that keep us sharp and informed. If that means rehashing some old(er) debates, so be it. We’ll all be better for it.

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Richie Escovedo (@vedo) is a husband, father of two and communications/PR professional with experience in educational and non-profit settings. He writes over at the Next Communications blog and believes in education and the integral need for effective and open communication. Richie is also focused on helping blossom the social media interest and network within the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

We often get stuck in the conversations about marketing and communications here, but social networks are about people. And we have a great opportunity to make a difference every day and affect change. There are many ways to do that, including fundraising, political activism, education, and much more. We in many ways have an obligation as members of larger communities to do this.

We discussed Dave Armano’s effort to help a victim of domestic abuse. For further information and analysis see Beth’s blog for a marketplace discussion of Armano’s effort.

We also talked about LComm’s project with Save Darfur, and were joined by Allyn Brooks, who talked about about Social Philanthropy and the Darfur crisis.

Our question to you, the social media consumer: What are you waiting for? Add your voice now: http://www.addyourvoice.org/ – send President Obama a postcard and play your part to Save Darfur. Or do something else and affect change within your network and the world… One person at a time.

Nothing can kill a corporate social media campaign quicker than fear. This great cause of many problems is the number one barrier to corporate adoption of social media. Consider these types of fear.

Fear of losing control: The old saw is back! But do not underestimate how strong a hold message control still has on today’s communicator. Unwriting 60 years of communications theory — theory that is still being taught in universities throughout the world — is no easy task. It’s no wonder why corporate types balk when they hear brand management theories won’t work anymore.

Fear of negative feedback: Less of an issue these days, but still prevalent. In a class I taught the other day, students were told to ignore negative blog posts and comments. Uh no. Negative posts are an opportunity to listen and engage.

Fear of legal repercussions: Lawyers, they always get in the way! Companies have great fear about how statements made on the blog can be viewed not only from a liability standpoint, but also from a compliance standpoint (you know, the SEC). They forget the company needs to be marketed, that consumers demand open communications from companies.

Fear of change: This more than any is the 800 lb. gorilla that social media advocates really need to start talking about. All of the other fears can be combated using case studies and examples. But no matter how many examples of collaboration and social media excellence a company is exposed to, it must still face itself.

The Big Change

Let’s not oversimplify this change. It’s simple to understand tactically, but simple is not easy. Especially when it involves shifting cultures and decades of practice. Sea changes are extremely difficult to deal with for many people. Human beings just don’t like sudden changes. They balk when the normal gets turned upside down.

Remember “Who Moved My Cheese?” Well, Spencer Johnson can make a killing off of PR agencies and marketing departments for the next few years. It’s going to be rough for some folks (image credit: photo.net).

Competition will eventually force most companies to adapt social media tools, but it’s going to take time. And we who have already adapted need to be patient.

The role of the social media savvy is not to chastise these folks, but to help them. I’ve called it evangelism, but perhaps the right word is coaching. And who hasn’t had someone coach them through a challenge? Or choose another word, navigator, pathfinder, etc. The point is we need to extend an open hand.