Communications opportunities in those spammy Google results

A recent article in the Washington Post business section described Google’s ongoing, possibly losing battle with content spammers in its search results. For every step Google takes to make its search results less amenable to manipulation, those who would manipulate it get even more savvy, meaning that when someone turns to a Google search to find information, the list of results they get is less likely to be useful.

The article included this paragraph:

Google’s predicament, analysts say, comes at a critical moment in the life of the Internet… social networks such as Twitter and Facebook offer people the ability to gather information online the way we always have offline – by asking people we know. Studies show we often give greater trust to information gathered from sources we know than from those we don’t.

At first read, that’s a, “well, duh” sort of notion. But on further reflection, the trouble with spammy search results and the trend toward more organic, “social search” offers opportunities for policy and political communications. So, this week we offer three ideas to ponder about making use of the shifts in information-seeking and sharing.

1) Make a strategic shift to prioritize cultivating information champions as well as campaign champions.
We’ve seen campaigns of all sorts get more sophisticated about building engagement ladders to cultivate volunteers into effective campaigners and even campaign leaders, taking responsibility for tasks like calling or visiting their legislators to volunteer leadership roles with responsibility for recruiting others to do the same. We’re fans of “engagement organizing” and we think cultivating campaign champions is generally an excellent use of resources.

However, the changing ways people find and share information points to another potentially valuable role: information champions. The odds are good that among the many friends, members, donors, and “lurkers” – people interested but not enough to take any action” – there are many who’d be happy to learn 3-5 important pieces of information and share them with their networks. Many people who don’t want to call their Congressman (or state legislator or City Council member) would be thrilled to be seen as experts amongst their friends and family on a topic that’s interesting and relevant.

If information is power (a key principle of political and policy communications as we know it), then information champions ready and able to fill in when their second-cousin’s -best-friend-that-they-met-at-a-party-last-year-then-friended-on-facebook ask a question related to your issue are as important as campaign champions ready to cajole their friends into storming the castle.

2) Rethink some messages as sharable, helpful facts.
Political and policy communications is complex because politics and policy is complex. For every policy or political priority there is a mountain of ideology, research, speculation, fact, and opinion to back it up. Too often, campaigns focus messaging on mobilization and present the back-up details as the mountain of stuff to wade through. Making the most of the opportunity presented by too much information (and not enough of it reliable) online requires a shift to thinking about the backup information as strategically as the up-front messaging and call to action.

As a quick first step: pick three pages on your website that describe your organization’s policy, regulatory, or political priorities. See how long it takes you to find three short, simple backup statements (ideally three that are in line with your overall campaign messaging strategy) repeated prominently at least three times. If it takes you more than a minute or so, no one outside your organization is remembering any of them at all.

3) Double down (and get more strategic) on paid search.
While the wizards at Google (and Bing, and Yahoo) are no doubt sweating the spam challenge, the fact remains that millions of people still go first to search engines to find information. The vast majority of organizations we work with – be they associations, causes, coalitions, or non-profits – do not have a strategic eye on making the most of paid ads. This is a mistake. If the list of organic search results a user finds when they look for information related to your policy or political issue includes five “eHow” articles on the first page, imagine the value of having just the one good link at the top (or side) offered up by you, the experts on that issue, the ones with the reliable name, the credible information, and the easily scanned and remembered 3-5 details on your webpages. Be there with a solid approach to paid search as part of your larger communications strategy.

Up next week: 3 things on coalition communications strategy – making the most of that big group of smart people and powerful organizations you’ve got around the table.

Getting the Tech House in Order

We are strategists, communicators, campaigners, and policy wonks.  Political wonks, too.  We like to spend our time with our clients devising the best ways to win votes, hearts and minds, attention, whatever will make the most difference. We don't love talking ... Continue reading

Develop Great Messages

Strategy, tactics, evaluation and measurement, may all be in place and spot-on, but if you're delivering the wrong message it can all be for naught.  This week, three quick things to keep in mind during the message development phase of ... Continue reading

Blogging as practice

Stories Another thought about keeping content fresh: Blogging is as much about refining and practicing the delivery of your message as it is about actually delivering and spreading a message. All non-profits have a message they are trying to deliver.  And messages ... Continue reading

Keep your content fresh

We all know that content is king.  If you expect people to visit your web site more than once, then you need to provide something of value to bring them back.  No amount of fancy bells and whistles on your ... Continue reading