I have found some outside research that should be of interest to anyone who needs to get the attention of their audience. Some of you may find yourself in this group.

Ketchum, a global PR company, conducted research with USC’s Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center regarding how consumers use media. Their findings have immediate applications to those of us in the government relations profession, which you will see in my commentary after I outline a couple of the findings.

TSG has been admonishing the profession for quite some time that people rely most on personal experiences, word of mouth, and friends when making decisions. They rely on it not only for what kind of shampoo to buy or where to vacation, but also on who to vote for, whether to give to your PAC, or whether to get involved in your grassroots efforts.

Ketchum has found that the way communicators provide information is out of sync with the way people use media, according to Media, Myths, and Realities, a comprehensive survey of media usage among consumers and communications professionals. They examined the use of more than 40 media channels. http://www.ketchum.com/node/1131

Friends Matter

What is the number one source the people turn to in making a variety of decisions? Advice from family and friends. Advice from an expert ranks high for making medical decisions and purchases based on a product’s environmental impact.

Here’s the problem for communicators: despite the strong evidence of friends, family and experts playing a key role in influencing decisions, only 24% of communicators report having a word of mouth program in place.

Amy’s Reality Check: The Public Affairs Council’s corporate PAC benchmarking report showed that 94% of respondents believe that face-to- face contact such as small group and one-on-one meetings were the most effective way to raise money for PAC’s. Those are forms of word-of-mouth campaigns, so that’s good news.

However, when asked what solicitation techniques they most frequently use, e-mail came in first at 72%, followed by small group meetings (which decreased by 8% from the previous election cycle). “One-on-one meetings” fell from 44% in the previous cycle to 31%.

Spending time on what doesn’t provide the greatest return begs a question. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions, but I see a disconnect. What we have here is a failure not to communicate, but to implement. Word-of-mouth works, and those who are disciplined when executing this strategy will reap the rewards.

What about Your Website & Podcasts?

Regarding company websites, according to the Ketchum study, the communicators ranked their company website as the “most effective way to share corporate news or issue a response to crisis,” but consumers ranked company websites sixth and seventh among places they turn to for news and crisis response.

Be wary of the communication “flavor of the month.” Ketchum advises to be sure to stay on top of the latest research and avoid becoming reliant on any single communication technique regardless of how “new or exciting it may seem.” For example, podcast use is registering in the single digit range with the exception of the 18 to 24 age group. That age group experienced an increase in podcast use from 8% to 13%.

“This year’s findings magnify the point of last year’s benchmark survey which showed that communications professionals need to vigorously reassess their communications priorities to meet consumers’ needs in this multimedia channel world,” said Nicholas Scibetta, Ketchum Senior Vice President and Global Director, Global Media Network. “Communicators must focus on speaking to individuals, not just broadcasting to the masses when getting their messages across to this new “public of one.”

Amy’s Reality Check: While your members and/or employees likely visit your advocacy or PAC web pages for information, it’s best not to rely on it entirely, and especially when there is a crisis or bad news to report.

The most accurate way to determine how they want information is, shockingly, to ask them. However, rather than asking your stakeholders how they want to receive information, ask them how they received information that they acted on. It’s always more reliable to test past behavior than future behavior. Humans are notoriously biased when it comes to predicting their own behavior.

Here’s one of my absolute favorite examples. When PAC prospects are asked how they want to receive PAC information, they will, as sure as the sun rises, say “we want emails.” But that answer has nothing to do with whether they will contribute to the PAC. (which is why I never, ever ask PAC prospects this question in my client research projects)

I have sat speechless (you know that’s rare) with amazement in meetings where consultants wave this info around like it’s the panacea for increasing PAC contributions. In fact, my colleague, Dr Kelton Rhoads, reminds us that, ”While email is usually cited as the most preferred type of communication, it’s also ranked as the most ignored type of communication.”

Regarding media channels, I have been forced against my will to sit through entire workshops devoted to government relations podcasting as the next influence breakthrough. After understanding this research, that is probably not the best use of our time. Although worthy of investigation and something you may want to provide to members, it looks like it may be a “downstream” issue, akin to discussions over the color of your conference name badge ribbons and the order of speakers at your fundraiser, not something that should be given high priority in terms of time or money.

The Bottom Line

Create and institute a powerful word-of- mouth communications strategy. What is critical, according to John Kleinberg, who has conducted extensive research on the algorithms of social networks, is the number of people you have communicating on your behalf, the credibility of the messenger and that messengers’ connections.