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We held another National Security Strategy lecture as part of Ogilvy Exchange last week.  It featured Price Floyd, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs.  Price talked about how the Department of Defense is using social media and his presentation was a big hit.  And rightfully so.  National Public Radio was right when they called Price a social media guru.  You should take a look at the enhanced DoD website. 

You can get part 1 of the discussion here.

You can get part 2 of the discussion here.

If you’re reading this post, you are aware (maybe painfully knowledgeable) of the rapidly changing media landscape.  My colleagues and I are constantly talking about shrinking newspapers and news programs that are devoting less time to news and providing less hard news within the contracted newscast. 

Clearly, the future of the news media is cloudy and that is a shame because we need professional journalists, editors, columnists, photo journalists, producers, editorial writers and op-ed editors to report and provide context.  I know that the digerati believe the social media arena is filling the void and creating new outlets.  I agree (to a degree) but I also believe the social media space is a poor news generation vehicle.  It largely remains a means to circulate news and opinions (some informed and some not so much).

The future of newspapers is a particular concern because it is home to the op-ed.  While a good op-ed can be difficult to craft and unbelievably challenging to place, it is king in the public affairs realm.  There are several reasons why I hail the venerated op-ed.  First, it establishes a company or trade association as a thought leader on a subject, which provides a competitive advantage in the world of ideas, public opinion and policymaking.  Second, it allows a company or association to state its case and advocate for its point of view.  Lastly, it can drive social media. 

Think about this: op-eds are picked up by bloggers, Twitter addicts, Facebook users and people from all corners of the social media universe.  It is the content that the social media sphere craves.  Op-eds are linked to, quoted from, and serve as material for an array of online commentary.

So, social media devotees can join me in hailing the op-ed, which appears to also be the king of the social media empire.

This is a time of unprecedented activity in the national security space.  The country is in the midst of two wars and in a global pursuit of terrorists.  At the same time, President Obama and Secretary Gates are increasing emphasis on hybrid military options and softer power national security options.  And, the Quadrennial Defense Review, a top-down review of military strategy, is underway.

This coming Tuesday, June 30, Ogilvy PR will hold its second lecture in the National Security Lecture series.  We’ll post some of the hightlights on this blog following the event so stay tuned.

Driving home yesterday, I was able to listen to Marketplace on NPR.  It is one of my favorite programs but I usually miss it because I forget to tune in while I’m in my office.  So, yesterday was a treat on two fronts.

I listened to Robert Reich issue his grade on ”Obamanomics” and he marked down an F for the bank bailouts.  That can’t be good.  Taxpayers have forked over around $600 billion and here is Reich saying that “banks are lending less money than they did five months ago.”  Really?

Then, this morning, the Wall Street Journal blasts a headline, “Lewis Testified U.S. Urged Silence on Deal.”  It turns out that Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke and then-Treasury Secretary Paulson “pressured Bank of America Corp. to not discuss its increasingly troubled plan” to purchase the dead-on-arrival Merrill Lynch.  Huh? 

The lack of transparency on the BoA purchase of Merrill and the lack of candidness about why banks are not lending should trouble consumers on many levels.  But it should also concern bank executives and their shareholders because the lack of information will likely create further distrust in the banking system, damage the bank’s reputation, and hurt the business.

Banks may want to take a page from Alex Rodriquez’s playbook.  Get out the facts on your terms.  Waging a good issues management plan is good for a single.  And, we all need some singles right now.

Not long ago, I mentioned that the public affairs and digital teams would be updating the look and adding new features to the Intersection. I can now write that this weekend, we’ll be launching a brand new look to the Intersection and adding several new features - a Twitter feed and news feed. The news feed will aggregate headlines from a publications and news sites that many of you probably read every day. Our news feed will give you a quick look at some of the key stories that are being covered.

The next addition that we’re going to add within the next week will be a polling feature that we think will be quite interesting. If you’re like those of us in the public affairs group at Ogilvy, you probably read the National Journal’s Insiders Poll each week, which features the results of a couple of policy and political questions that were presented to a small universe of insiders - hence the name Insiders Poll. How many times have you wanted to put forth your opinion? That urge hits me just about every week (as I’m sure many of my colleagues can confirm). Now, I’m finally addressing it by creating an alternative forum and I want you to participate too.

The Intersection’s poll - the Interchange - will be open to all policy and political junkies everywhere. The Interchange will pose a new question or two every week to two weeks - depending on the level of response (so please weigh-in). And, the questions will sometimes mirror those in the National Journal, which will give us the chance to see how your opinions match up with the “Insiders.” Round One of the Insiders vs the Junkies is coming up. I’m looking forward to the match-up.

In meantime, between now and Sunday evening, we’re going to put a temporary hold on posts and new comments. Bear with us over the weekend as we work to unpack and get settled in our new home.

We hope the changes we’re undertaking make the blog more useful. Let us know what you think. And, don’t forget to participate in the Interchange. Your opinion counts!

Stay tuned…

Christopher Beam wrote a piece for Salon that made a number of excellent points about what comprises a good blog and how beneficial the online format can be. Beam singled out the excellent blog, Evolution of Security, by the Transportation Security Administration. The blog’s interactivity and responsiveness are truly outstanding. And, the blog is an excellent example of knowing your audience and how to interact with it. In general, many of the features in TSA’s blog are ideas that we recommend to our clients.

Perhaps the most important issue in Beam’s piece comes at the end. It is an issue that I constantly wrestle with - message control. In meeting after meeting, I’m asked “How are we going to maintain control over the message if we blog?” I’m sure there are many public affairs executives who have been asked the same question.

The question led me to attempt to define “control” in the new age in which we live. I didn’t fully abandon the idea of trying to define control but I became more interested in idea of managing the message - particularly online. Pushing messages onto people doesn’t work anymore if it ever did. Indeed, did Barak Obama control his message during the campaign or did he manage it? Does Apple control its message or does the company manage it?

Ah, yes. Manage the message. That is a more realistic desire in a communications campaign.

So, what would be involved in managing the message? How can an organization manage its message?

Initiating a conversation; volunteering throughts or ideas; helping people understand an issue; honestly engaging stakeholders; discussing and exploring different ideas and options all provide the opportunity to manage the message.

And, perhaps most importantly, listening can an organization help manage its message.

And, that is where a blog can come in or not. While a blog may not be the right vehicle for every organization, the basic principles of communicating - including listening - work within a blog framework but they also work in every other aspect of communicating. Isn’t that worth remembering?

The Hotline reported that “Organizing for America boasted that 1,200+ canvassers fanned out across the country this weekend taking the case for Pres. Obama’s budget door to door.” That is quite a few people knocking on doors! Couple this past weekend’s action with the President’s participation at campaign style events over the past week and it it clear that this White House is completely comfortable taking its case straight to Main Street. Is your organization prepared to match that intensity and effort?

The White House’s campaign efforts on behalf of its budget proposal should be viewed as good news to many organizations in the nation’s capital city. Trade associations, in particular, through their members have opportunities to reach deep into the grassroots. And having grassroots support is going to be critical on key issues such as health care and energy.

If the effort to inform members’ employees hasn’t already stated, it’s time to catch up because this White House isn’t about to stop reaching out to people through online and offline activities. It’s fully intended to build grassroots support 24/7. So, it’s time to start building a committed group of supporters outside the Beltway or reenergizing the people who have already committed to your cause.

Last night, I checked my personal email account and a LinkedIn update caught my attention. Robert Cornet, who owns his own PR firm, sought to measure (unscientifically), how corporate executives view the PR people within their companies. He found that “Only a little more than one-third (36%) strongly agreed (10%) or agreed (26%) with the statement, The PR people in my organization have valuable knowledge I don’t have. The rest who answered – 61% — either disagreed (24%), strongly disagreed (27%) or said they didn’t know if PR pros had valuable knowledge.”

While there are a whole host of issues that factored into the results, I’m warming up to the idea that the environment is skewed in ways that make it difficult to be seen as possessing valuable knowledge.

I think that this video from a segment from one of Conan O’Brien’s shows - one with Conan and Louis C.K. - is pretty insightful about the people’s expectations. If this is in any way a semblance of the environment in which we live and if these are the expectations that people have, people in the communications business, whether they are public affairs people or marketing gurus, face some significant challenges. The player is disabled by request….so here is the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoGYx35ypus

Now long ago, I commented on the explosion of Twitter and wondered how I was going to use it in the public affairs arena in new ways that had not been explored. A number of members of Congress either were using Twitter or were on the verge of entering tweeterville, which convinced me that the tool needed to added to the toolbox. I think it was a week or two later that the Washington Post published an article about all the Twittering that was being done during President Obama’s address to the Congress.

I’ve decided that it’s time to expand my ability to communicate and so I have set up a twitter account. You can follow me at http://twitter.com/rorydavenport. Hope you tweet with you soon.

It’s not like we talk about the end of the media as we know it for 16 or so hours a day…but we do.  It’s kind of like watching a Formula 1 race (or a NASCAR race for some of the members of the team, and you know who you are) to witness the crash.  Or, should I say crashes as the number of media outlets in Washington continues to increase.

Nick Ludlum, a colleague, points to a couple of interesting articles on the topic.