Do you want to know a secret?

A tweet this morning got me out of bed, dressed and driving through school zone traffic for something I could have had in my own kitchen. It looked something like this:

Now, there are several things that are compelling about the message. First—and most obvious—it’s getting something free. Sure, it’s just a $1.65 cup of coffee, but there are no strings attached. Walk in to any 7-Eleven store, fill your cup, show the clerk, walk out.

Second, I got to express my opinion about something. The promotion is part of a longer “7-Election” campaign that the company runs during the presidential race every four years. There are red cups for Romney, blue cups for Obama and green cups for Independents/Undecided/Etc. According to the press page, the “unabashedly and unscientific poll has correctly predicted the presidential election for the past three election cycles – 2000, 2004 and 2008.” When my friend Patrick reported on his Facebook page that blue cups were winning at the local store, my “tribe” affiliation with the Red team got me moving. As author Seth Godin tells us in “Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us,” it’s our nature to make a difference for something we’re passionate about, even if that’s assuring our candidate a lead in the coffee cup count.

Finally, the 7-Eleven deal drew me in because it’s insider information. There was nothing at the bricks-and-mortar store that said coffee was free. I felt I was “in the know” about the giveaway—and that FEELING overrode the fact that everyone who grabbed a large cup got it free at the register, whether they were aware of the deal or not. As Steve Lee at QuickSilver Interactive Group told a group of us Wednesday night, one of the best ways to engage your social media followers is to tell them secrets. Pull them in to your confidence. Make them a part of something cool and interesting. It draws in new followers—and, more importantly—keeps them coming back for more.

If you follow Sprinkles cupcake stores on Twitter, for example, you’ll occasionally get a password for a free cupcake with purchase. Today, if you told the counter staff “Neapolitan” between 10am and noon, they’d give you a free Neapolitan-flavored cupcake with the purchase of any other cupcake. It’s a sweet deal for someone like me, who loves cupcakes, but it’s also a good deal for Sprinkles. It sells cupcakes (I have to BUY one to get my “free” one), builds brand loyalty, and generates a positive buzz about the national chain.

It also helps me build my personal communities. I quickly shared both the coffee and cupcake deals with my friends and followers. In turn, they often share similar ones with me. It’s how I know that my favorite local restaurant, Celebration, always has fried okra and jalapeno gravy available, even though neither is on the menu. And I know that J Crew and Banana Republic give 20% in-store discounts to students with any school ID. Learning these things from my friends subtly strengthens our connections and pulls us back to social media again and again—a model that any corporation or non-profit organization justifiably strives to duplicate.

Now let’s do a little community building with each other. I’ve shared my secrets with you. What inside scoop can you share with me? Post them in the comments box below or tweet it to me @anneharding91. Can’t wait to hear what you know!   

Just puck it.

As the National Hockey League lockout closes out its first full week, many professional players are in talks to sign with European leagues for the 2012-13 season. Perhaps they’re thinking of hockey legend Wayne Gretsky’s observation: “A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player skates to where the puck is going to be.” Though they’ll get monthly escrow checks equal to about 8% of their salary throughout the negotiations, players who don’t earn the multi-million dollar salaries see the puck—in this case, the paycheck—to be skimming elsewhere. They’re simply trying to get in front of it.

It’s a good communications strategy as well, especially when it comes to social media. We’re chasing a very elusive target audience across the very slippery surface of multiple media. Good players are skating very near the puck, but always just a bit behind. The really great players are moving to where the puck is going to be, anticipating their target’s next pivot and being in place when that audience arrives.

Of course, this is about as easy as blocking a 100-mile-an-hour slapshot. Consumers of information now have thousands of choices, each one requiring different content, maintenance, and follow up. Even if you figure out the best platform for today’s audience and message, you have to figure out who your audience WILL BE next year or next decade. It takes “skating to the puck” to a whole new level.

For example, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, commonly known as the VA, is starting to focus its communications efforts on an entirely different audience. The image that many of us have of veterans is an older population: World War II veterans are now in their 90s and Korea and Vietnam veterans are collecting Social Security. But nearly 20% of veterans are under age 45 and this audience of nearly 5 million users expects digital access and social interaction.  

In response, the VA is a dynamic participant in social media on Facebook and Twitter, with “nearly 640,000 friends and followers,” according to VA online comms director Brandon Friedman. The agency also actively advocates on behalf of veterans-only online communities like the Community of Veterans, which boosts more than 23,000 members. Though the VA communciations team admits they’ve only just begun to explore interactive options, they're working to get ahead of where their target audience is going, not just chasing after them.

The approach to doing this well is the same as an athlete might take. Practice. Watch those who do it well. Practice some more. Look for tips and techniques and advice. Practice again. And while we may not ever be a Gretsky-level of elite player, we might get better at hitting our goals.

Let's get real

Not too long ago, most of us crossed an invisible line, moving into what futurist and author Peter Hinssen calls “the new normal.” It was the point at which technology became so seamlessly blended into our lives that we took it for granted. We were no longer amazed by the innovations. We were no longer impressed by the productivity tools. It was all simply part of our daily routine.

As part of this unconscious transition, we also changed the way we interacted with one another. Time and distance were no longer relevant factors. We could reach out to practically anyone in the world and create a personal connection.

All of these subtle changes have dramatically altered our expectations of communication. We know what’s possible because we use digital media every day. We’re sending relevant, personal, and engaging information to our friends and colleagues—and expect to receive the same.  

This creates a challenge for the 21^st century communicator: how do you keep it real and individualized when you’re sending a message to thousands of people?

The approach that falls flat is to keep your message generic enough for anyone. This serves to make it interesting to no one. A perfect example is the “UNT Official Message,” an email sent to students and faculty at the University of North Texas on an all-too-frequent basis. This week’s messages were titled “We’re off to a great academic year” and “Remember September 11^th,” so you can imagine how quickly they were discarded.

Finding a better way is a challenge, though, “when the target audience is constantly moving and, with the help of spam filters, frequently ducking,” says a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Everyone wants information delivered via a different channel, says the article, but putting messages everywhere can overwhelm students and create far too much work for staff.  

A good option, the article suggests, is to let your audience lead you in using different channels for different messages. This might mean promoting campus events on Facebook, posting news on a designated Twitter account and athletic scores on another, and reserving emails for major alerts. Blogs and websites can also add to the mix, making professors and administrators more approachable.

 “Blast e-mails are too impersonal,” says Kenneth Elmore, dean of students at Boston University. “People want to know you've thought about them," he says. Elmore’s “Dean’s Blog” is a creative missive that strikes a distinctively conversational tone about campus happenings, Elmore’s recommendations to student’s about campus life, and his thoughts on the direction of the university. It’s a fun read, which draws students to voluntarily turn in and pay attention. The blog site also has links to his Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages—different options for staying connected.

This strategy makes the messages seem intimate by revealing a personal side of the communicator. Students don’t see it as getting boring news from the school—they’re getting insider information from the cool Dean who posted his playlist last week.  

I know it works because I eagerly follow my own alma mater’s administrator, Texas A&M University President R. Bowen Loftin, on his Twitter account @aggieprez. He’s a nerdy little guy who wears glasses and a signature bowtie, but the campus and alumni have embraced him because he lets that nerdy side show. His tweets are crazy-proud of the university. And he (or his staff) respond, re-tweet and actively engage—making us part of a personal conversation.

This paradigm shift is a big transition for mar-comm professionals like me, who’ve made a career from "mass" communication. But considering it objectively, I have to wonder why we haven’t been taking this approach all along. After all, it’s always been the human element that’s made our messages real.

Plans down the drain

I haven’t had running water in my house for over five hours now. My toilet is in the middle of my living room. The plumbers’ tools are scattered from one end of the house to the other. And the chaos seems unlikely to end anytime soon.

The frustrating part is that this was supposed to be a fairly simple repair, but the crew failed to plan the job. They just showed up and started pulling things apart. They’ve had to make a run to Home Depot, pull out work and start over because they skipped a critical step, and even borrowed some screws from my personal toolbox.

                   

This approach wastes their time and mine. It diminishes my confidence in their abilities. Though they’re likely to achieve the desired outcome (or they won’t get paid), behind the scenes and under my floorboards is a big mess that makes everyone look bad.

So it goes with many organizations’ communication strategies. An ad hoc approach gets limited results—often just enough to satisfy, but rarely enough to add value. The staff keeps plugging away. Tinkering. Making a big mess. And eventually getting a job done, but not the job we’d all anticipated.

Unlike my plumbers, most communications professionals know and understand the value of a good plan. It guides the ongoing process, makes priorities clear, and defines roles and responsibilities. It helps us know where we’re going, and signals when we’ve arrived. It builds credibility. It even works to assure our future.

Yet few of us take the time to create this roadmap. We blame the time constraint—a by-product of our understaffed and overcommitted departments these days. However, I suspect the real reason is fear. We don’t know how to start or compile; don’t want to show that this is a hole in our skill set; can’t answer the questions that form the basic elements.

I’m grateful, then, that I’ve been challenged by former employers to figure it out. I’m glad that managers and executives have considered any plan to be better than no plan, and been willing to work with me in making it better. I am always happy to have a newer, better, fresher template to follow. Every process and exercise grows my abilities and adds to my self-assurance.

I only wish my crazy plumbers shared this philosophy.