When a Leak Can be a Good Thing

Google has demonstrated its mastery this week of using public relations to create lots of buzz and excitement for its new product launch.  In Google’s own blog post from Sept 1, the internet giant announced it “hit the ’send’ button a little early” when announcing Google Chrome - Google’s own web browser (which I’m trying out as I write this).  

Why would Google leak this information and why were they so successful?

Often, public relations is the choice tool in the marketers toolbox to first inform the public about a new product or service (followed by paid advertising).  That usually entails media pitching aggressively to get their story published.  But in Google’s case, all it had to do was blog about it – on it’s own blog nonetheless. It’s a great case of less is more…give people less information to peak curiosity and get people talking.  

 

This is a fine strategy when you’ve got a company that has built one of the strongest corporate reputations for its committment to innovative web-based products that have transformed personal computing.  It already has the trust of consumers.  So, when Google drops some news, people anxiously await.  

It’s no surprise that Google doesn’t use paid advertising.  They don’t need to.  They’re so good at what they do, they let their applications work and then let people talk about it non-stop.  

Google, congratulations on a well-executed strategy.  I don’t believe the “leak” was unintentional for a moment.

Let Social Media Increase Access

During my final year at Northwestern University’s Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) graduate program at the Medill School of Journalism, I was fortunate to work with Professor Clarke Caywood on an independent study focusing on social media marketing and the 2008 Primary Elections.  A major part of my thesis stated that new media marketing effectively made direct access between candidates and voters possible for the first time on a wide scale.

Seth Godin just wrote an insightful blog entry “Old Marketing with New Tools,” which argues technology that is supposed to make communications with customers easier, often leads to more impersonal communications that drive customers away from us.

I think Seth is totally right on.  In the public affairs world, our clients have been trying to speak directly with voters, constituents or community members for time immemorial.  Social media technology has allowed us to do that better than ever.  However, public affairs is often so concerned with scale (how many people can I reach) that we forget to keep our customers engaged (not always happy) through thoughtful and personalized communication.  We miss opportunities to earn peoples’ trust that way.

However, what social media technology does is allow us to connect directly and personally with our base.  Instead of worrying about how many people I can connect to, let’s focus on the quality of those communications.  Yes, it may take more time to personally think about and respond to people’s inquiries.  But ultimately, this is how trust is built and value is realized with constituents.