The Gnomes Did It

These guys have nothing to do with rural communication...or do they?

Special Delivery

I’m at work, slowing plodding through the social media plan provided to the college by Yellowseed. Our department requested a very large overview of what our institution could be doing, in terms of social media outreach. Based on Yellowseed's suggestions, we are to pick and choose what will work best for us.

I came to the public relations section of the plan that suggests I should join CNW, PRWeb, and a few others, in order to distribute our press releases. I went to their sites and then I laughed. On average, each press release costs $100+ to send out, depending how far and how wide I want to go.

Sure, the release would get to where I want it to go, without me slogging around the internet, individual blogs, etc…but the reality is that I have no budget. Seriously, my PR budget is under $3000. Does Horton give a Hoot about what I have to say for a minimum of $100 a pop? Do you think I could talk my boss into it? While I’m at it, I may as well ask for a clipping/media tracking service, and an internal communication specialist, and a web marketing specialist, all of which I currently have my hand in.

Then I came across the only thing I want for Christmas this year: a Social Media Release Template. I was about to scribe a fancy letter to my IT department, which had a lot of whining in it, and then I stopped to think.

Last week, I sent out a press release – the traditional kind that apparently don’t work anymore – with two photos attached. Approximately half of the emails sent out came back to me because the organizations did not have enough room on their servers to handle the two photos! In fact, I’ve been told that I can’t send out PDFs because some of them can’t open them, and I’m not allowed to use Windows 2007 because many have not upgraded! Can you imagine what would happen if I sent out a press release as an html based social media release?

Once again, Rural Communication 1.5 comes back to haunt us. Sure, we like the technology, and the gorgeous things it does and can do. But, can we handle it? Are we ready for it? Would I get more coverage if I did things that way?

Not yet.

The Float

Today I write about floats. Not the kind with Coke and vanilla ice-cream, but the kind one may see in a David Lynch movie. The kind where you are standing on the side of a street on a hot summer day, beads of sweat running down your face and your legs, camera around your neck, hand raised up to your forehead to prevent the glare from getting in your eyes…waiting for something to happen.

Then you hear it – “WWWRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEERRRRR”. The sirens ring out and your kids start running in circles and the old man on the side of the road perks up from his nap. The parade is coming! The parade is coming!

Dancers, pipe bands, fancy cars and look! Here come the floats. What a concept. There are no GPS units in these babies telling us what to advertise as they grow closer to the credit union or the hardware store! Oh no. These are home-grown contraptions that people get truly excited about. Everything from a truck with a big sign, filled with balloons and individuals squirting water (which took 20 minutes to throw together), to the college’s float, which took a week to decorate and a large chunk of our advertising budget.

Is it worth it? Oh yes. Especially when you win “best float” and get media coverage for a week. Especially when your employees and their grandchildren are proudly riding it, waving to their friends and family. Especially when you stop to chat with an alumnus, see the float is leaving, start running after it, sprain your ankle and go on Workman’s Comp for 3 months (that’s my story).

Floats – the craziest, trippiest form of marketing and communication around. Rural, grassroot communication at its finest.

Metro vs Bucolic

Today I met with an editor of a local newspaper. He told me to enter my (ancient?) press releases through his website and to make it no longer than 150 words.

My immediate reaction was: “How on earth can I make a story into a 150 word paragraph? What’s the point?” The point is this: People want snippets of info. Short, sweet, to the point. They want the “Metro, all-news radio” version (which is gaining popularity in major city centres). It makes sense I suppose. We are in information overload most of the time. Usually we don’t want to learn too much or it makes our head spin. However, this can also be dangerous. What’s the real story behind the snippet? How many will dig? What’s being covered up?

I wonder if a metro publication would work out here. We’d have to change the name from “Metro” to "Bucolic" or something…

Experiential Marketing at its Finest

Here’s an experiential marketer for you. A man on the street corner letting us know that we are going to die because the wrath of God is coming. A sandwich board, a big sign, and a nice hat at the busiest intersection in Nelson, BC

What more do you need, really?

The Good Ol' Days of Face to Face

The other day I saw an ad for an experiential marketing conference. It’s a conference about face-to-face marketing. The good ol’ days in their books. Makes sense since the upcoming Y generation has now surpassed the baby boomers in terms of numbers. They’ve been connected since they were in the womb and have lost some/most of their social skills outside of texting. It’s a proven fact. So, what’s this face-to-face thing all about? LOL!

Here in rural BC I can tell you that face-to-face is still where it’s at…most of the time. There is still a sense of community that involves running over to your neighbour’s to get a cup of sugar and not ordering one online from Zippy the Sugar Daddy (assuming you HAVE neighbours, that is). People still want to see you. They want to know you before they give you their business. They want to meet you to talk about their life. If you want a press release printed online or otherwise, you take the editor out for lunch. Simple.

It’s still valuable and its funny how this aspect of communication has been downplayed. Maybe the experts will be coming to rural communicators to see what this face-to-face thing is all about! Maybe in this particular area, we have a one-up! Rural Communication squared!

Welcome to Rural Communication 1.5

Never heard of 1.5? Well, it exists in the realm of rural communication, believe me. I live in a small community in the West Kootenay region of BC. By small I mean less than 10,000 people. We are surrounded by smaller and really small communities all through the “valley”. Some of these people do not have access to high speed internet and some of these people don’t want to be connected. They moved out here for a reason. Not to be bombarded with media, messaging, etc. They want peace. They want real people. It’s just a little slower out here.

Which is why I’ve decided to embark on a communication journey of 1.5. To let people of the 2.0 realm realize that it isn’t all about them. You do have to do things just a little differently out here…most of the time.