Trovärdighet eller budskap

I slutspurten av valet verkar två av de grundläggande förutsättningarna för bra kommunikation stå mot varandra; trovärdighet och upprepande av huvudbudskap.

Jag blir upprörd och slutar lyssna då ett inrepeterat politiskt manifest kommer som svar på en enkel fråga. En monolog som inte har med frågan att göra, möjligen med ämnesområdet om man har tur. Det är då befriande att höra någon som faktiskt svarar på frågorna, oberoende om jag håller med eller inte. Ett ”jag vet inte” känns bättre än massa valfläsk. Den politiska helheten kan jag själv bilda mig en uppfattning om, bara de svarar på frågorna.

Jag är den första att skriva under på att en av de viktigaste byggstenarna i effektiv kommunikation är att hitta huvudbudskap som är tydliga - och som i politikens värld också skiljer sig från andra partier - och sen upprepa dessa. Det är uppenbart att PR-byråerna trummat in detta i politikerkåren.

Vad de verkar glömma är en annan grundsten för effektiv kommunikation; den att avsändaren av budskapet måste uppfattas som trovärdig. Trovärdigheten minskar i samma takt som flosklerna flödar. Kommunikationen får motsatt effekt mot den tänkta – jag ifrågasätter trovärdigheten, och därmed åsikterna, hos personen och dennes parti.

Politiker borde lära sig från en av journalistikens grundteser, som om man översätter den till politikerspråk innebär; överskatta inte dina väljares kunskap, men underskatta aldrig deras intelligens.



/Magnus Lindén

Magnus Lindén är kommunikationskonsult på JG Communication och gillar att se helheten innan det blir fokus på detaljer. Kommunikation måste ha ett tydligt syfte.


Andra bloggar om: kommunikation, företagskommunikation

Campaigning on a shoestring

On Friday, I met the future of Swedish politics---when I held a workshop for a group of passionate and driven candidates who are running for office (and launching their own “personvalskampanj” in the process.)

Like so many others, they were looking for inspiration from the Obama campaign. How can a candidate best tell their story, develop their personal brand, and build a grassroots coalition of passionate supporters? We explored these issues during a wonderful afternoon full of intense discussion and new insight.

It goes without saying that those who are running their own campaign in Sweden are often working with a shoestring budget. So here are some of the things you can do on-line right now to launch your own campaign---without it costing a penny (or krona!)

1. Yes, you can still go to Camp Obama , the training ground for young leaders in the campaign. The Camp Obama blog is still up and running and many of the sessions can be streamed on-line. The genius behind Camp Obama was one of my favorite professors at Harvard Kennedy School, Marshall Ganz.

2. Have you seen the incredible treasure trove of presidential campaign commercials maintained by the Museum of the Moving Image? This should give you plenty of ideas on what works and what doesn’t in telling your story, and what the other side might use against you.

3. Your essential reading list should include the book Learning from Obama: Lessons for Online Communicators in 2009 and Beyond from epolitics, which can be downloaded as a free PDF.

ELIZABETH WALENTIN

Elizabeth Walentin may be new to the blogging scene, but she's an old hand when it comes to strategic communications. An American with five years in Sweden under her belt, her areas of expertise include presentation training, media relations, and political strategy. She is a communications consultant and head of Education at JG Communication.





Andra bloggar om: kommunikation, företagskommunikation

2010 is the new 2008: At least when it comes to campaigns

Obama’s campaign is so 2008. That’s the consensus if you ask Swedish political bigwigs like Bo Krogvig (as quoted in this week’s Resume) and Janne Sundling (as heard on Tuesday’s Novus election seminar.)

It’s easy to disregard the Obama campaign success, especially since Swedes are known for being innovators looking out for the next big thing. But let’s not forget the Obama movement too fast. There are still so many communications lessons from ’08 that could be used in the upcoming Swedish elections.

One of my favorite examples of actually not a part of the official campaign, but an outside initiative called The Great Schlep created by a PAC called the Jewish Council for Education and Research. Together with the talents of comedian Sara Silverman and ad agency Droga5, they created this hilarious (and warning, explicit) video that has received millions of YouTube hits. The goal? To get Jewish young people to travel to Florida to visit their grandparents and convince them to vote Obama.

Now why focus on this incredibly segmented target group of 600,000 Jewish voters in Florida? Florida is the swing state that gave Bush his narrow victory in 2000, and also happens to be the home of the second-largest Jewish community in the US—most of them retirees. Many of these elderly voters were uncertain about Obama, while at the same time Obama’s opponent McCain, partnering up with Joe Lieberman, was aggressively courting this group. The Great Schlep campaign gave young people the tools, tactics, and talking points to make a difference. The result? Not only did Obama win Florida, he also won a larger percentage of Jewish voters (78%) there than Kerry did in 2004 (74%.)

This story might seem incredibly 2008 to you. But my question is: have we seen anything like this yet in the 2010 Swedish campaign--whether affiliated with a party or not? Is there a communications effort out there that effectively uses humor, and is also aimed at a specific target group (that might otherwise be taken for granted)? I’m still waiting for some good examples....

ELIZABETH WALENTIN

Elizabeth Walentin may be new to the blogging scene, but she's an old hand when it comes to strategic communications. An American with five years in Sweden under her belt, her areas of expertise include presentation training, media relations, and political strategy. She is a communications consultant and head of Education at JG Communication.






Andra bloggar om: kommunikation, företagskommunikation

Campaigning 2.0: Will it matter here?

How much does social media matter in winning an election? That’s the question on the minds of every political junkie in Sweden right now. The national election is coming up on September 19th, the first time Swedes will be electing members of parliament since Obama changed the rules of campaigning. Can the seven largest parties Twitter, Facebook, blog, and You Tube their way into the Riksdag?

Jesper Strömbäck, professor at Mittuniversitet in Sundsvall, is one of Sweden’s foremost experts in political communications. If you can read Swedish, check out his analysis of why social media won’t decide this election. And for further reading, don’t miss Politik 2.0, an ambitious book/web guide for Swedish politicians from Brit Stakston, consultant at JMW.

Here’s my take-- based on what I saw on the campaign trail for Obama in Virginia. Yes, Obama put a lot of investment in his social media strategy. It mobilized his base of supporters and helped him gain an army of volunteers and a flood of donations. But he backed this up with an extremely well-organized and well-executed field operation on the ground. He also spent more than any previous presidential candidate on traditional media, including radio and TV spots, and extended ads like this one.

Swedes get so excited about the possibilities of social media. And rightly so, since everyone and their “mormor” here seems to have a Twitter account. But the situation is different in the US. Many of the voters I spoke to in rural southwestern Virginia were lucky if they had a phone line, let alone an internet connection.

So yes, let’s see what effect social media will have this September. But I’m also equally interested to see how much old-fashioned (and Obama-tested) methods like door-knocking will matter in the upcoming Swedish election.

ELIZABETH WALENTIN

Elizabeth Walentin may be new to the blogging scene, but she's an old hand when it comes to strategic communications. An American with five years in Sweden under her belt, her areas of expertise include presentation training, media relations, and political strategy. She is a communications consultant and head of Education at JG Communication.


Andra bloggar om: kommunikation, företagskommunikation