We prefer the latter, and believe this long-term relationship building is the true strength of online communications.

Anybody can press a button and blast out a message.  And there are a lot of consultants out there making a pretty penny off broadcast-model-tactics-based programs that have their clients pay for formulaic, short-term bursts of activity that do little more than blast out impressions and messages.

We choose a different path and believe in the strength of integrated, outcomes-focused campaigns that allow you to build long-term relationships with hundreds/thousands/millions of people in the areas that matter most to you.

To do this requires five steps that are fully intertwined and occurring simultaneously:

• Develop Online Messaging
• Take Message Public: Creating the Narrative
• Engaging Voters
• Creating/Identifying Advocates
• Mobilizing Activists

To simply explain how this works, I’ll share the metaphor of a restaurant owner:

• A restaurant owner opens up shop and then develops and runs ads to tell the story of his restaurant and build awareness.
• A customer becomes engaged when he or she comes in and eats at the restaurant.
• If the customer likes the food, the ambiance and the friendly wait staff, he or she will come back again and again — allowing the restaurant to identify that person as a potential “advocate” of the operation.
• The restaurant then can use a variety of tactics (maybe its Yelp or Foursquare or Facebook) to provide that person with the incentive and tools (mobilizes) to advocate for the restaurant — by spreading the word to his/her network and recommending the restaurant.

Too many consultants focus on the last step — mobilizing current advocates — without the continuous outreach and education for which we strive. It is, in fact, this continuous outreach and education that makes effective advocacy campaigns unique and powerful.  The key is not only finding those already passionate and asking them to advocate — it is reaching the undecideds and converting them into advocates.

Online tools allow you to build programs that work like an ongoing machine to constantly find interested audiences, educate them via your point of view, get believers to become advocates, and constantly generate supporters between the campaign’s launch and the end date.

Don’t just broadcast.  Don’t just deliver messages.  Start building relationships.

Of course, that’s been true throughout history.  Any communications tool — be it Twitter, Facebook, a typewriter, a phone — is only as effective as the content being delivered.

So it should come as no surprise that the fast-growing online “coupon” company Groupon is staffing up with … writers.

That’s right, Gigaom has this great story today (we love it because it exemplifies our core philosophy):

“…while the popularity of group-powered buying accounts for a large part of the company’s growth, many supporters say that a key strength is the writing talent Groupon displays in its email offers. A piece in The Atlantic entitled “Forget Journalism School and Enroll in Groupon Academy” notes that the company has more than 100 writers, editors and fact-checkers on staff — more than a lot of medium-sized newspapers — and adds that “journalism majors should rejoice” because the company is hiring and training writers.”

I hope all the businesses, non-profits and political campaigns who are currently suffering from “shiny new object syndrome” read that article.  Groupon is focusing on content first — and growing as a result.

The content is what matters.  Start with hiring great writers.

Boy, have we heard that line before.  I’m willing to bet you have, too.

Believe it or not, there is still a misconception that online communication is only effective if you’re targeting young voters or consumers.  There’s only one problem with that assertion:  it’s wrong.

There is a growing body of evidence that shows older segments of the population are the fastest-growing group of online users.  Just this past week, the Pew Internet and American Life Project released a new report that shows that older users are outpacing Millenials in social networking growth:

While the youngest generations are still significantly more likely to use social network sites, the fastest growth has come from internet users 74 and older: social network site usage for this oldest cohort has quadrupled since 2008, from 4% to 16%.

Millenials are also getting beat by the older Generation X in terms of diversity of online use, as Gen X’ers (age 34-45) are more likely to engage in several online activities, “including visiting government websites and getting financial information online.”  That may be of particular interest to financial services companies and political campaigns.

So, the Web isn’t just for kids anymore — and if you want to target Americans of all ages, your best, most cost-effective bet is doing it online.

They started out as web designers, but the members of the 37signals team have shown themselves to be excellent content producers, having authored several successful books, and maintaining a blog that garners several hundred thousand visitors per month.

To be sure, I highlighted a number of great excerpts throughout the book, but one particular quote sums up our philosophy here at Merc:

You can also see it in people who want to blog, podcast, or shoot videos for their business but get hung up on which tools to use. The content is what matters. You can spend tons on fancy equipment, but if you’ve got nothing to say … well, you’ve got nothing to say.

As we’ve posted here, here, here and here – it’s not your “Facebook strategy” or “Twitter strategy” or “Flip Cam Strategy” that matters.

Focus less on the tools.

What matters is your content, plain and simple.

My wife and I spent last Friday car-shopping — an effort that ultimately resulted in us purchasing a new Toyota Sienna minivan.

We love the van (it’s basically a computer and sound system on wheels) and had a very pleasant experience with the great team at Thomas Toyota in Joliet.

As the days passed, however, I began thinking about some simple ways the dealership and Toyota corporate could implement some basic online tactics as part of their sales and ongoing customer relationship program.

• Get All Foot Traffic ‘Hooked’. Earlier in the day, we had visited a Honda dealership, spent time with a salesperson, and even test drove a car.  They didn’t capture any of our contact information (big fail).  Toyota, however, captured my basic information (name, phone and email) as soon as we entered the building (kudos).  They should go further by capturing cell phone, Twitter and Facebook information from everyone who enters their dealership.

• Immediate Follow Up. Let me once again reiterate that the team at Thomas Toyota was very helpful and pleasant.  But imagine if I had received an email, tweet and/or Facebook message the morning after purchasing my car, asking me if I enjoyed the ride home and had any further questions?  Or, if I hadn’t purchased a car, if I had received a message later in the day highlighting great features of a car I had test-driven?

• Ongoing Follow Up. Having all of my online contact information would allow them to link me to their Facebook page, where I could learn about future specials, and even read “human interest” posts about their personnel, etc.  I could receive tweets and emails about special new features on my new car.  They could solicit testimonials from me (more below) and allow fellow customers to share tips.  And, of course, they could communicate with me to remind of of things like oil changes, or upsell me on things like satellite radio or their “SOS” communications system.

• Get Testimonials. By communicating with me on an ongoing basis, they would be able to proactively deal with my concerns or issues — and learn about if and why I am a happy customer.  Then, they could reach out to me to solicit a testimonial.  Perhaps it’s a quick, written testimonial — or maybe it’s even a video testimonial that they can share across all their communications media.  That would be gold.

• LinkedIn. They should get every member of their team on LinkedIn.  Their customer relations manager, or even salesperson, could add me as a connection a few weeks after I purchased the car.  It would be yet another way to keep an ongoing discussion with existing clients (which, hopefully, would translate to repeat sales from me and my family.)

• Monitor and Respond to my Twitter Comments.  Since I purchased the car on Friday, I tweeted about my Toyota Sienna several times.  They were positive comments.  At the very least, the Toyota corporate communications team should have been monitoring this and thanked me for my purchase.  But the local dealership could do this, too.  Again, I’m not upset that they didn’t respond — but it would be a great, simple way for Toyota to add to their customer relations program.

• Monitor Social Networks for Potential Customers. During the week before I went car-shopping, I tweeted the fact that we would be shopping for a minivan.  I even mentioned that we were focused on the Honda Odyssey and the Toyota Sienna.  There are countless people sharing the same type of information on a daily basis.  All you have to do is go to http://search.twitter.com to type in the word “minivan shopping” or “Toyota Sienna” to find out who is sharing this info.  And, local car dealers, can search by location to mine for new customers and reach out proactively.  It’s that simple.

These are just a few of the quick ideas I’ve had since purchasing my car.  They could be applied to any storefront business.  The first step is capturing the opt-in information of anyone who enters your doors (and especially those who becoming paying customers).  Then determine your content strategy to help build a relationship with those people and keep them coming back through your doors.

P.S.  Please also read our prior post to show how car dealers can use Facebook ads to more cost-effectively target new customers and increase sales.

Our firm had the pleasure and honor of managing Judge Powers’ campaign.  The people of Will County are fortunate to have him on the bench.

Congrats, Judge!

(Click here to read more about the work we did on his campaign).

Just take a look at comScore’s latest online video viewership report for July:

• Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube, ranked as the top online video content property with 143.2 million unique viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 55.1 million viewers.
• Facebook jumped one position to capture the #3 spot with 46.6 million viewers.
• Of the 178 million U.S. Internet users who watched online video content during the month, also viewed nearly 3.6 billion video ads in July.
• Leading the pack with 783 million ad impressions was Hulu.
• Hulu was followed closely behind by the Tremor Media Video Network at 451.8 million, and the Brightroll Video Network at 248.4 million ad impressions.
• Online video ads reached 27 percent of the total U.S. population an average of 44.5 times during the month.

Online video is single-handedly changing how we get our news, weather, favorite shows, and entertainment. The advertising potential is enormous, and the impact is bigger still.

With 89% of Internet users consuming online video, it is essential to incorporate this valuable tool in your modern communications arsenal.

It appears, according to this MediaPost piece, that this political ad rule of thumb is set to rise:

This year’s political ad spending could be up between 5% and 10% from 2008 levels, spurred by the Supreme Court’s recent favorable ruling on corporate political spending. Although as much as 75% of political ad dollars are spent on local TV, more of it in the future will be diffused to online, mobile and other new media.

The slow, secular shift away from measured media to marketing services, TV’s gradual disintermediation by Internet-connected media, and the movement toward more a la carte, on-demand video are among the wild cards. All will play havoc with once predictable advertiser spending, even in election years, analysts say.

This shift tracks with the poll results we’re seeing that show media consumption among voters is increasingly fragmented.

While broadcast is still king — its rein is much more tenuous than it was even a year or two ago.  Voters are increasingly getting their news online, and our ability to hyper-target these voters makes online advertising an increasingly wise and effective investment.

A new report from 360i shows that most brands are coming up short in their attempts to utilize Twitter as a marketing tool.  But let’s be clear — it’s the brand’s use (or abuse) of the medium, rather than the medium itself, that is holding them back.

According to 360i, after a six month study, Twitter users barely know or care about brand presence on Twitter.  When brands tweet and try to communicate with their followers, it’s mostly a one-way conversation.  The study finds that only 1% of consumers who mention a brand in a tweet are in a conversation with that brand. The large majority of users’ tweets are on a personal level.  They tweet about seemingly mundane details of their lives, such as meals, plans, and get-togethers.  360i reports that 94% of tweets are personal, with 85% being original content that is not re-tweeted.  Instead of truly engaging and trying to become of this personal conversation, most brands have resorted using Twitter as a type of press release service.

“There is still a misperception that if brands show up, people will listen to them, kind of like Facebook a few years ago,” 360i Senior-VP Sarah Hofstetter told Advertising Age. “Twitter can be used as a promotional RSS feed, but that’s not going to establish a relationship with anybody.”

Modern communications isn’t simply about “eyeballs” anymore — it’s about engagement.  And those brands that choose to use Twitter as a press release service are simply living in the past.

On the other hands, those brands that are engaging best are seeing the true benefits of this communications tool.

What’s the best way for them to engage?  We’re fond of comparing Twitter to an “online cocktail reception.”

Why?  Have you ever walked into a cocktail party where you don’t know anybody and everybody seems to be already be engaged in familiar conversation?

What do you do?  Do you walk up to a stranger and start reciting your company’s latest press release?  Of course not.  You usually break into a conversation by making some small talk. Maybe you mention the weather, or the type of drink you’re consuming, or something about the drapes in the restaurant — let’s face it, small talk can be mundane.

But my point is that there are all these conversations going on, and you use some mundane, sometimes personal, detail to strike up conversation. Then that personal conversation may lead to a discussion of business, then an exchange of business cards, then perhaps a business deal.

So it goes with Twitter. Most “tweets” are people talking about what they’re watching on TV, or the kind of work day they had, or what food they’re cooking for dinner, or what they’re doing on their vacation. Those tweets can lead to conversations with other people who have the same interests. Sometimes — just like the cocktail party — that can lead to business.

So is Twitter merely a networking tool? Yes, but it’s much more.

• Frank Eliason was a customer service manager at Comcast who, in 2008, started Comcast’s first Twitter account: @comcastcares. A few years later, Frank was managing a full team of customer service “tweeters” and he tells us that (as of January 21, 2010) his team serviced a total of 160,000 people via social networking sites — more than 50,000 of them on Twitter. That’s just since February 2008. Frank’s team monitors Twitter to find out who is talking (or complaining) about Comcast and reaches out to them to help solve their problems. They also receive a good number of service requests by people who now know they will receive quick replies from Frank’s team via Twitter.

• Similar to Comcast, major brands monitor Twitter to find out who is a) Tweeting about their brands, b) Saying good things about their brands, and c) Who is complaining or “trashing” their brands. For example, according to a recent Forbes article (Daniel Adler, “Twenty-One Twitter Tips,” Forbes, July 31, 2009), there were 3.37 million mentions of “Starbucks” through May 2009. Starbucks follows those mentions like a hawk — using it as a real-time focus group.

• In Illinois, we have a fast food chain called “Culver’s” that has great burgers and custard. The local Culver’s franchise in my town has its own Twitter account (@culvers177) and provides daily tweets of their “flavor of the day.” Many times, these tweets are tempting enough to lure me and my family for dinner (or dessert.)

• In Los Angeles, the nightclub crowd is familiar with the “Kogi BBQ” mobile trucks that park outside the clubs late at night and sell Mexican tacos stuffed with Korean-style meat. The company has 52,000 Twitter followers and uses Twitter to send out alerts on the locations of its four mobile trucks. How successful is this marketing effort? The trucks regularly draw crowds in the hundreds — and they have been featured in publications ranging from the Los Angeles Times to the Wall Street Journal.

• K9Cuisine.com is an online purveyor of premium and organic dog food. They have a Twitter account managed by the company founder and president, Anthony Holloway (@k9cuisine). Anthony uses Twitter as a customer service tool — but also as a way to help answer questions and provide tips and advice to pet owners. Although they don’t overtly use it as a sales tool, Anthony tells us that Twitter is the third-largest source of traffic to the company Web site — very warm leads that could lead to hot sales.

So, you see, different organizations are using Twitter in different ways to communicate with their unique audiences.

The new report from 360i report may seem negative on Twitter on the surface.  But further reading shows that it’s the message, not the medium, that makes the difference between success and failure.

Most small businesses return to traditional advertising, such as the newspaper, Yellow Pages, and radio. But some businesses have forsaken these advertising staples all together, and created successful marketing campaigns online — for far less money.

Facebook and Twitter present a unique opportunity for small business owners. There are currently more than 1 million small business profiles on Facebook which reach out to millions of customers everyday.

Businesses with fewer than five employees “see Facebook and others as a way to reach targeted consumers” while saving marketing expenditures during a rough economy, says Darren Waddell, vice president of marketing at MerchantCircle.

According to the MerchantCircle report, “More than half of the nearly 10,000 respondents to the survey say they plan to create or maintain a social-networking presence in the next three months.”

Some businesses have found a degree of success with their online exposure.

John Swartz writes in USA Today, “Online sales at Southern Jewlz have doubled in six months since recent college grad Randa Yezak, 23, started using Twitter and e-commerce software. Her 2-year-old business also has 8,000 fans on Facebook.”

As with any success stories, we must add the tag “results are not typical.” HipChat, a group chat and messaging service for companies, reports that more than 90% of the 2,000 small businesses it works with use social media, but few have seen a business benefit.

Fact is, Facebook and Twitter offer a way to effectively communicate with consumers interested specifically in your product or services. Small businesses are the only way to steer our economy back on track, and a majority of them are now using social networking to do so.

Will you join them?

As epolitics.com reports:

Call it innovation, call it self-preservation, call it a traffic scheme, but the Baltimore Sun, one of the leading papers covering Maryland politics, has made the decision to offer a blog to every legally registered candidate running for office in the state of Maryland. The offer is bipartisan and covers both federal and state candidates.

Why do I love it? First, because I just like seeing traditional media try new things. If they fail, it’s entertaining (yes, I know it’s mean). If they succeed, we all benefit.

Second, I am going to watch to see which candidates take advantage of this opportunity and produce compelling content that actually moves their campaigns forward.

So there — you know what I think.

What do you think of this move by the Sun?

Foursquare is a social networking platform that allows its users to “check-in” to virtually everything from restaurants to airports via their smart phone and 3G connection. Users can add tips and reviews, or even caution their friends away from an undesirable experience. When you check in, it is linked to Facebook and Twitter, so your friends can see where you are and possibly join you if in the area.

The ability to see your friends recent check-ins opens up a whole new realm of social networking. This new wave of “exploration networking” is allowing businesses to get valuable exposure to consumers who are on the go. Companies are even able to promote specials, coupons, or other marketing strategies directly to Foursquare users.

Click here to see how Foursquare worked for the Charleston Fine Art Dealers Association’s Palette and Palate Stroll, and how it helped create a successful PR campaign.

Should Foursquare join Facebook and Twitter as part of your companies social media communications strategy? We think so.

As more and more users depend on this style of social network to virtually interact with businesses around their area, the potential for promotion and exposure is priceless. So put your business on the map and reap the rewards of the Foursquare revolution.

Are all of your Facebook status updates products of rigorous review processes by your communications, legal and policy departments?

Does the above result in social networks in which you’re only posting one or two times per week?

Then maybe social media isn’t for you (or your company.)  Or, more to the point, maybe your organization needs a communications climate change.

If you think the above examples are overly-exagerrated, think again.  Unfortunately, we’ve run across several organizations in recent weeks where those examples held true.  And yet these organizations were left scratching their heads as to why their online communications programs weren’t bearing fruit.

In their minds, they needed to invest more money in bells and whistles.  New apps.  Fresh widgets.

Wrong.

It’s not about the widgets.  It’s about the content.

We’re living in the age of real-time, folks.  While that may sound scary, it’s reality.  Are you ready to adapt?

It may only have been a few years ago that you had the luxury of spending an entire afternoon running your press releases through a groupthink approval process before hitting the send button on your fax machine.

But times have changed.  We have to be able to react within seconds, not hours.

And different communications platforms require different discussions.  People on Twitter and Facebook don’t simply want focus group-tested talking points.  They want a discussion.  They want a conversation.

So, what we normally tell organizations is this: either change your communications climate, or stop embarrassing yourself with a failed social media experiment.

Otherwise, you’re throwing good money after bad, and tarnishing your brand in the process.

Are you read for the climate change?

“Email is probably dying.”

Forgive us if we’re skeptical.

While nobody can fully predict what new technology will take hold over the next few years, email is still the fabric that holds together online communications.

For example, Ms. Sandberg should look at her own company.  In fact, Facebook would be a whole lot different without email.  Where do friend requests, event invites and messages end up?  In both your regular email and Facebook inboxes.

Whether or not Facebook launches its own version of email — it’s still email.

Facebook also recently launched a new partnership with Yahoo! in which those with Yahoo! accounts can fully integrate the Facebook experience into their email.

Other newer social networking tools (and, yes, email is a social networking tool) also heavily rely on email.  Twitter, for example, relies on email to deliver you direct messages and new follower alerts.

Further, take a look at this recent study that finds the great majority (58%) of Americans start their day with email — as opposed to 11% starting it with Facebook.  Those numbers could change in the coming years, but those current numbers don’t make it seem as if email is going anywhere anytime soon.

Will email change?  Yes.  Will it adapt?  Yes.

We already see how Gmail users’ experience is changing — with the integration of Google Buzz, Google Voice and evolution of Google Chat.

Yahoo! is changing, as well, with its Facebook integration.

So, yes, email will change.  Email five years from now may look much different than it does today.  But that doesn’t mean it’s dying.

It’s adapting.  And it’s a bit too early to predict its demise.

In this post over on my personal blog, I provide my take — that it’s a good communications move.

What are your thoughts?

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of listening in on a Bulldog Reporter teleconference featuring social media/tech evangelist Robert Scoble, entitled, “2010 Tech Trends and Tactics.”  (You can view the live tweets here.)

What made this teleconference so interesting is that here you had Scoble — a journalist (yes, bloggers are journalists) who is also a brand unto himself — talking to PR flaks about how best to utilize new online tools to engage the media.  I say this is “interesting” because not only are many of these PR folks the same people who are pitching Scoble on their clients’ new apps and wares — Scoble is out there using these tools to build his brand.

But I digress…

The key issues that stuck out for me from the teleconference were the following:

• Know what your story is first and know how to tell it.  That will determine what tools to use. As I’ve written here previously, content and message should always come before tech.  Too many people worry about their “Facebook strategy” or “Twitter strategy” before thinking about their content strategy.  If you don’t have a compelling story — there isn’t a tool in the world that’s going to help you.  Scoble hits the nail on the head with this one.

• Blogs are still the best way to tell a story. Of course, I’m not surprised that Scoble (a blogger extraordinaire) would say this, but he’s correct.  Tools like Facebook and Twitter are great — but blogs really allow you to expand the space in which you can tell your story.  As Scoble pointed out, frequent, unique, compelling content on your blog is also the best way to pump up your content’s SEO value.

• The most effective PR “pitches” Scoble gets are from friends or fans recommending products, rather than press release and pitch calls. This really reinforces the idea that modern communication is about authenticity.  It’s not about slick taglines.  Your product has to be good.  Your service has to be solid.  If those two principles are in tact — your product will create buzz organically.  No amount of tweets or status updates can cover up for a crappy product/service.  And the buzz you create is the best PR you can generate.  More so than any press release you can send to journalists like Scoble.  (Could the press release really be dead?)

All in all, a worthwhile teleconference.  Thanks to Bulldog for putting on the teleconference — and thanks to Scoble for participating.

Last week, my wife and I had the pleasure of spending the weekend in New Orleans to celebrate our anniversary.  On Saturday, we were fortunate enough to happen upon the Preservation Hall jazz club, which is, in my honest opinion, a national treasure.

As the Hall’s Web site explains, the venue was founded in 1961, “created as a sanctuary, to protect and honor New Orleans Jazz which had lost much of its popularity to modern jazz and rock n roll.”

First, allow me to paint a quick picture of the venue:  it was a small room, cramped, and without air conditioning (in 95 degree heat/heavy humidity).

A six person band appeared, wearing white dress shirts, black pants and black ties.  There was a tuba, trombone, trumpet, clarinet, saxophone, drummer and piano.

It was an amazing experience.  For forty-five minutes, we were treated not only to incredible music — we were treated to an American history lesson.

Totally unplugged.  No microphone.  No sound system.  It was all about the music.

I got to thinking about modern communications.  All too often, organizations, campaigns and corporations focus more on the equivalent of their “sound systems” — you know … the tech, the apps, the widgets, the shiny new objects.

They should be focusing more on their music.  As we’ve said here before, message should come first — tech second.

Too many folks worry about what they’re Facebook strategy, or Twitter strategy, or LinkedIn strategy should be — and don’t spend enough time plotting out their content strategy.

Your content is your music.  Unplug.  Focus on your music first.

That’s the key to a great performance.

There are some organizations that “walk the walk” with their social media programs.  And then there are those that merely go through the motions.

It’s easy to tell them apart.

Take Southwest Airlines, for example.  They clearly have taken the social media plunge in a big way.

They don’t just treat their Twitter account as if it’s a glorified news feed.  Yes, they promote their company.  But they also engage.  They serve.  They respond.

Their social media program isn’t a social media program at all.  It’s an extension of their company.

I began flying Southwest last year — partly as a protest against the other, larger airlines that tack on extra fees and have employees who treat their customers like, well, dirty.   In short, I was sick of being nickeled-and-dimed, scolded and talked down to by the other airlines.  I chose Southwest for the friendly service, the clean planes, the easy system of earning free flights … among other reasons.

This past weekend, my wife and I took a trip to New Orleans for a weekend getaway.  Our flight out of Chicago was delayed — by three hours.  As we sat on the tarmac, I grew impatient.  And so I posted to my Twitter account a complaint about the lack of drink service after a two hour delay.  I received a prompt reply from @southwestair apologizing, with the promise to see what they could do about the drink service.

A few minutes later, the crew came around with water (granted, not the Rum and Coke I wanted….but drinks nonetheless.)  Was the drink service a result of my tweet?  Perhaps.  But I was made to feel like my complaint was being listened (and responded) to.

Today, I received an email from Southwest apologizing for the delay, explaining that it was due to weather, but offering me a free voucher for a future flight:

Thank you for your patience while you waited for your May 21 flight from Chicago Midway to be “cleared” for departure.  Though we may not be able to control springtime weather or the rate in which Air Traffic Control releases flights, we do have some say in the way we show our appreciation of your valued patronage.  In this regard, I am sending a LUV Voucher that we invite you to apply toward your next Southwest reservation—I hope this gesture will be accepted as our acknowledgement of the overall frustrations created by this situation.

Wow.

They didn’t pass the buck.  They turned a challenge into an opportunity.  And now here I am writing this post and telling you (potential Southwest customers) my story.

That’s the social web at work.

That’s how you walk the walk.

That’s how it’s supposed to be done.

Well done, Southwest.  You’ve strengthened my customer loyalty.

We’re fortunate to work with a great group of clients that challenge us each and every day.

And we’re pleased to announce the addition of some new clients to our team:

• Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council (email advocacy)
• Illinois House Republican Organization (email advocacy)
• Gary DeMoss for Maryland State Senate (online communications … Web site coming soon)

We’re also tackling some new projects for JUSTPAC (the political action committee of our existing client, the Illinois Civil Justice League) and look forward to some upcoming projects for the Illinois Chamber of Commerce.

We’re excited to work with each and every one of these organizations, and look forward to contributing to their success.

I’m quoted in this article from today’s edition of PrairieStater.com about the lack of successful online programs among Illinois campaigns and candidates.

“The amount of political campaigns that are ‘doing it right’ online are actually very few and far between,” said Curt Mercadante, principal of Merc Strategy Group, LLC. “It’s mostly just a lack of committment on the part of candidates and campaign manager to spend the time and resources needed to be effective online. For the most part, they are stuck in the traditional mold of broadcast communications and don’t see the value in building relationships online.”

Just calling it how I see it.  I hope candidates start taking it to heart and realizing the importance of spending engaging online.  Their campaigns — and the electorate — will be better off for it.