When I was growing up, there was a frame in our family room filled with old political campaign buttons. I thought that was pretty cool. This frame had maybe 30 old buttons and pins in it going back to the 1880’s.

I’m a little bit of a political geek. For a while growing up I thought that was were I was going to work, then an internship right after college changed my mind and I’ve been pushing technology ever since. Even though I don’t make my living at it, politics and the marketing of politics is a hobby. I volunteer for some local elections and people and issues I believe in.

A previous post on DontEattheShrimp led to a discussion with Adam Gottlieb who is one of the folks putting together the APIC National Convention in Las Vegas, August 4-7 at the Riviera Hotel. What is APIC? American Political Item Collectors. For anyone involved in marketing or politics this could be a fascinating show to attend.

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a few weeks and was waiting on a picture of that frame to include, but it didn’t happen. Then today, a story on Fark, everyone’s favorite time waster caught my eye. The blurb was relatively tame for Fark, “The 10 most bizarre bits of political memorabilia that you can buy right now.” but it caught my eye. Not sure how many of these are real, but check out the accompanying article then get yourself to Vegas to see the real thing.

The above pictures are by Adam Gottlieb of items in his collection. Also, Adam and the convention were included in today’s Bee.

Check out CapitalElector.com. Lots of locals getting involved in coverage of Sacramento-area politics. I found it yesterday via Matt Rexroad, who I believe will be contributing.

The site is done by the folks that used to focus on Elk Grove politics at Eyes of Argus. With the upcoming Sacramento mayoral fun-off, they are hitting the market just in time

More voices is a good thing. Good luck.

I’ve written several times here about the need for transparency in online PR.  You can’t hide forever. If you try and hide, you will be found out.  I spent quite a bit of time on this in my recent social media class.  I’m not sure if the members of the class completely caught on, hopefully this story will help.

The latest to fall victim to this is 5WPR. The way I understand it is that an employee of 5WPR posted comments in support of their client using the names of various people who had previously been critical of the client

Click on the link below to see the way a news search for their name looks right now. Not pretty for them, or their client. I will say there is something I admire, they didn’t fire the person who did it.  They need to train that person, not fire them.

http://tinyurl.com/5cs9sw

The theme of today is ‘blue.’ I think it’s because we haven’t seen blue sky here in two weeks due to all of the smoke. Earlier today I mentioned Blue Microphones as new client of Morgan/Dorado.  And earlier in the week, I mentioned a business book called Blue Ocean Strategy.

This book was sent to me by a new client and is about identifying and taking advantage of uncontested markets.  The new client is Zubican, and they will be doing exactly that.  In a few weeks I’ll be able to tell everyone about what Zubican is doing, but in the meantime you might be able to gain an insight into their plans by checking out page 61 in the section entitled, ” Look across the chain of buyers.”

Tori and Dean.  Tori Spelling’s current show, Home Sweet Hollywood. Why the heck am I writing about it?

See the picture below, that’s Tori’s husband Dean McDermott. He does voice over work.  See what he’s recording with?  The white ball. That’s a Snowball microphone from Blue.  And guess what?  Blue is now a client of Morgan/Dorado.

Apparently Tori also has a new book out. Now we’re not promoting it, but sTori Telling is interesting to one of our employees.

Marc Strohlein of Outsell has a fun/informative semi-rant about bad marketing writing.  Lots of very good points, but one that made me laugh out loud was:

“Another pet peeve is marketing based on the “ours stinks less than theirs” approach. As a customer of a well-known cellular company, somehow their tag line of “fewer dropped calls” isn’t very reassuring–would you go to a surgeon who promised fewer dead patients? How about a newspaper that promised fewer wrong stories? Now to be fair, it does pass the “made to stick” test as it is firmly implanted in my brain, but it serves as a constant reminder of the deficiencies of my mobile service–probably not the intended result.”

Additionally he gets additional points for the shout out to the Heath Brothers. Authors of “Made to Stick.” Great book.

I really enjoyed reading Groundswell. It is an amazing resource for internal marketing teams that need a little extra help to make their case to upper management that this phenomenon is real and not a flash in the pan.

There was one section that stopped me. I’m not sure if it was merely a result of wording or oversimplification. In chapter four, “Strategies for Tapping the Groundswell,” there’s a subhead entitled “What about business-to-business?”  This subhead contains the following line:

“There is no such thing as a social network for business or a business commenting on a blog. Businesses don’t interact. People do.”

I would agree with the above in a perfect social media world.  The issue is that most online relationships are transitory.  When someone leaves a company, they take their network, their online credibility and connections with them.  Where does that leave the company?  Companies need a way to leave comments about other companies.  Not on individuals or by individuals, BUT by employees acting on behalf of the company.

Why is this striking a nerve with me?  We have a client that is in closed beta right now with an online business-to-business network. I would love the opportunity for these smart people to talk with the Groundswell team about businesses and sharing information online and the benefits for them and their customers.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been reading Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff from Forrester Research (although Charlene has since announced she’s moving on).

I’m going to have several posts about thoughts on the book, but this is a kick-off.  I see this book as a great resource for those that work inside large companies to make the case for participating in social media.

One of the questions I often receive about social media is, “Where do you find the time?” I talked about this a bit before and included Clay Shirkys great video highlighting his thoughts.

Groundswell has another thought. Spread across multiple groups. There is a need for continuity and planning across groups but all activities don’t have to fall on one person’s shoulders.

They break down “Five Objectives Companies Can Pursue in the Groundswell” on page eight.  They then highlight existing groups within most organizations that can participate and share the benefit. Here are the objectives, along with the internal groups that can benefit and participate, followed by my perspective:

1. Listening - Research - seems like a no-brainer, but it’s not for most companies.  Seems that a lot of companies prefer paid for research and focus groups.
2. Talking - Marketing - Makes sense, but please, please HEAR and LISTEN as well as talk
3. Energizing - Sales - touchy ground, or at least it was.  Remember the uproar in, I believe, 1996 when Hotwired.com started ads on their site? People said it was the end of the Web. It’s OK to sell using social media. However, the two way nature, ease of broadcast publishing by individuals, and ability for a Groundswell both positive and negative to grow quickly, makes RESPECT for your audience a huge factor.
4. Supporting - Support - Listen. Find customers having positive and negative experiences with their product.  Helping them when they didn’t contact you directly could build a solid customer relationship.
5. Embracing - Development - A lot of development happens within a bubble of like-minded people.  If customers are using your product in new and innovative ways, embrace them. Make them feel valued. And who knows, you just might make a better product.

More thoughts to come.  The next post may address the quote from page 70 that says, “There is no such thing as a social network for businesses or businesses commenting on a blog.  Businesses don’t interact, people do.”  This to me is a bit like a literal interpretation of the bible.

Great article in the Austin American-Statesman by Omar Gallaga on the rise of co-working spaces in that wonderful city.  For the uninitiated co-working spaces basically rent offices and facilities for extremely short terms. Think no-tell motel for the mobile professional set.

We’ve been in our offices now for a little over a year.  After starting Morgan/Dorado in our guest bedroom, the breaking point came when I had my third coffee shop meeting of the day, when the temperature was 105.  I looked into co-working but decided for my business where we deal with lots of client confidential information our own office was the best bet.

But if you’re in need of offices or a conference room from time to time, check out local co-working spaces around you. Might be a good fit.

hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.