What do Lincoln and Hickenlooper have in common with SE2?

In Governor Hickenlooper's State of the State address earlier this month, he used a quote from Abraham Lincoln:

“With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed.”

That statement has been on SE2’s website for years (see the rotating quotes on the bottom of the page) because we feel that it so clearly describes the service we provide for our clients. We help build and shape public sentiment.

It may sound underhanded and manipulative, but it’s true. And, luckily, we get to do it for clients about whose issues we’re passionate (we may be spin doctors, but at least we’re spinning good stuff!)

You may think that if you have a great idea or you’re doing great work, that’s enough. But without effectively communicating, your ideas and your work can’t go very far. If people have never heard of you, they aren’t going to contribute to your cause, buy your product or vote for your proposal.

It’s obvious what the Lincoln quote means for a ballot issue campaign or other public policy initiative – if you don’t get more than 50 percent of the vote, it doesn’t matter how great your proposal is. But the point is relevant for any industry, any organization, even any individual.

A recent New York Times article profiled the woman tasked with repairing Bank of America’s reputation. The “image officer,” Anne M. Finucane, wisely pointed out that communications can’t solve everything: “In order to repair reputation,” she said, “you have to repair the issues that underlie that.” But without good communications, no one will know that the underlying problems have been fixed.

Good communications can support your objectives and bad communications (or no communication) can undercut everything else you do. Hickenlooper wisely understands that if he wants to be a successful governor, he needs to understand what the public cares about and he needs the public to support whatever goals he has. The only way he can accomplish that is through effective communications.

Romney is Hispanic. If he wants to be.

My two-year-old daughter and GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney have something in common: They both are Americans whose fathers where born in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.

NBC’s Rock Center aired yesterday a story on Romney’s family ancestry in Mexico. I happen to know the town featured in the story; its high school had a great basketball team that I played against a few times.

Romney’s father and grandfather are Mexicans based on where they were born. It sounds funny, but about 125 years ago his relatives were immigrants to Mexico.

This takes us to today’s perhaps ludicrous question (you might think the answer is obvious):

Does this mean that Mitt Romney is Hispanic or Latino?

Per a 1976 Act of Congress, there are two approaches to define Hispanic or Latino:

• An ethnic group that traces its roots to 20 Spanish-speaking nations from Latin America and Spain itself (but not Portugal or Portuguese-speaking Brazil).

• A simpler approach. Anyone who says they are. And nobody who says they aren't.

If we would go for the first approach, Romney would be Latino, for the same reason as my daughter: his father is from a Spanish-speaking country. But if we go for the second approach, the answer would be a firm no. The U.S. Census uses this approach and I am almost certain that Romney didn’t check the box “Hispanic” in the 2010 census questionnaire.

However, there are many white people who do, like “white Mexican“comedian Louis C.K.

But this leads us to a further comment on diversity and identity within Hispanics. Hispanic or Latino is considered an ethnicity, not a race. A person can be Hispanic and black, white, Asian, Indian, or a mix of any races. In the 2010 census more than 53 percent of Hispanics selected white as their race. There is an interesting CNN story on how Hispanics contributed to 74 percent of the growth of the white population in the last decade.

It’s true that there are some common patterns that define a Hispanic or Latino, such cultural differences, language, preferences, and most importantly, identity. But it’s true as well that there is a great diversity within Hispanics that you need to aware of if you want to effectively communicate with them. Such diversity includes language, of course, but that’s not the only factor. With more Hispanics online, more bilingual Latinos, and different levels of acculturation and integration, reaching out to this group that represents 20 percent of Colorado’s population requires a comprehensive strategy that can capture all factors.

And speaking of roots to Chihuahua, did you know that the majority of Mexican Americans living in Colorado trace their roots, like me, to this Mexican state?

Hispanic media are interested in your stories

Hispanic news outlets are interested in your stories. And they want to get more stories.

But before reaching out to Hispanic media, please consider the following recommendations:

1. Translate communications materials, such press releases. This is not because they don’t speak English (they do, and well), but it increases your chances of coverage by making their job easier. Bilingual reporters have told me they want information in Spanish since they don’t have the time to translate. Besides, by doing you the translation, you are in control of the quality of the content in Spanish. My recommendation is to send information in both languages, considering that some Latino newspapers are bilingual.

2. Designate and prepare a spokesperson to address media en español. Again, they can understand you perfectly well and chat with you in English. But for the news story, specifically for TV and radio, they need that sound bite in Spanish. To accomplish this, you want a credible representative for your organization who can explain and expand on your issue or story by communicating your message properly. If that person isn’t available on staff, an experienced communications consultant who is fluent in Spanish can fill that role. But remember: It’s not enough that the staffer or consultant speaks Spanish if he or she isn’t an experienced communicator. You wouldn’t hand off your English-language spokesperson duties to just anyone, so don’t take that approach when communicating in Spanish.

3. Don’t assume your story won’t be of “Hispanic interest.” Spanish-language media outlets, just like English-language ones, select news stories based on a variety of criteria. So, let them decide if they will pick it up your story or not, but don’t come to your own conclusion without even trying to pitch stories at all. You could be pleasantly surprised about what they decide to cover. SE2 recently helped publicly unveil a fleet of new plug-in hybrid trucks for Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, including one that was driven by Gov. John Hickenlooper. There was no special Hispanic angle but we translated the press release and I was available to serve as a Spanish-language spokesperson. The announcement was featured as one of the main stories on Telemundo’s newscast at both 5:30 and 10 p.m. (also known as 9News en español, as it broadcasts from the 9News newsroom)

Finally, just in case you were wondering why you need to reach out to the Hispanic population, here are few reasons:
One in five Coloradans, or about 1 million people, are Hispanic. According to Pew Hispanic, close to 80 percent of them speak some Spanish. By not including Spanish media, your message could be missing a substantial portion of Colorado’s population.

In the Denver area, three TV stations offer Spanish newscasts and websites. There are also eight bilingual or Spanish-only newspapers with different levels of local coverage, and at least four local Spanish radio shows include news- or information on community issues.

SE2 rejects spin, embraces candor in holiday letter, t-shirts

SE2 has taken its commitment to transparency to a radical new level with the Colorado-based communications firm’s latest holiday letter and gifts.

SE2 left the “track changes” visible in its holiday letter to give recipients a window into the process of smoothing out the rough edges of reality.

For example, it shows that the original text “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger” was replaced with “SE2 enters 2012 stronger than ever.”

And “A terrible employment market meant that no one was able to find a better job” became “SE2 grew to 14 loyal employees.”

SE2 also produced for select friends of the firm a t-shirt that drops all pretenses of being anything more than typical corporate swag. In fact, “swag” is spelled out in large letters on the front, with the following definition on the back: “Acronym for ‘stuff we all get.’ The obligatory corporate gift with a logo plastered on it. ‘I was excited when our consultant gave us a holiday gift but it turned out to be just the usual swag.’”

And, yes, the T-shirt includes SE2’s logo.

(Click to expand)

SE2 also produced a second t-shirt with the word “Trending.” That doesn’t really have anything to do with transparency, but the staff found it entertaining.

SE2 is a full-service mass communications firm focused on public policy, issues and social marketing.

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Why sharing your email list is bad.

We get a lot of questions about email list sharing etiquette. The most common question is,"Can I share my email list with partner organizations?"

Our answer –99 percent of the time– is a definitive no. Here’s why:

Sharing your list probably breaks the privacy policy you’ve created.

When people subscribed to your organization’s email list you probably told them in the fine print (i.e. your terms of service) that the organization would not share any information collected from website users with third-parties. Sharing any information, especially personal information (e.g. an email address) that your clients, customers, members and supporters have trusted you with is a direct violation of the very privacy rules you’ve created.

Which leads to the second reason…

Sharing your list makes your organization appear untrustworthy.

Your organization should be committed to protecting any information that a customer shares. Even if not explicitly stated, customers assume that you will protect their information. Sharing that information with third-parties is a direct violation of that trust.

The price you pay for breaking that trust extends far beyond what a customer thinks about your email program.

Customers will start to wonder what else your organization does behind their back with their private information. Clearly, this is not what you want your customers to think about your organization.

Additionally, if email service providers (e.g. MailChimp, Vertical Response) find out that you’ve shared your list, or worse yet, emailed a list of people who have not explicitly indicated that they want emails from the organization, they will flag your account and the account that owns the list as spammers. Once you are flagged as a spammer, none of the emails you send, or that the organization you’ve shared a list with sends, will never ever make it to the customer’s inbox again.

And if that isn’t enough…

Sharing your list annoys people.

Think about your personal experience with unsolicited email, like when you wonder how a company you’ve never heard of got into your inbox. Does it annoy you? Yes. Do you open it? No. So why risk annoying your customers with an email that they’re probably not going to open anyway?

Here’s what you can do instead...

If a partner organization wants to use your list, or if you want to borrow another organization’s email list, you have some options:

• Ask the organization whose list you want to use to send an email on your behalf. They can send a dedicated email asking their customers to check out whatever it is you’re trying to “sell.” Or, better yet, they can incorporate a callout about your organization into an email that they’re already planning to send out. That callout can encourage their subscribers to check out your organization and become a subscriber themselves. This approach builds trust among consumers for both the sending organization and the partnering organization.
  
  
• Send an email to your customers with a callout about the organization that wants to use your list. In this case, you should try to incorporate their callout into an email that you are already planning to send (e.g. monthly e-newsletter) and that’s full of relevant content that the subscriber is expecting to see. An email that’s sent from your program, that’s all about another organization could still be considered spam. Tying partner content into your regular email communications will certainly make it appear less spammy and help ensure that your readers know you have their best interest in mind.
  

Have you shared you're email list with disastrous results? Share your story below. (We won't judge! Everyone makes mistakes.)

The countdown to the holidays begins for nonprofits

Is your nonprofit organization positioned to take advantage of the holiday giving season? Here are some quick, easy-to-implement tactics that you can use to maximize end-of-year giving:

The medium matters.
Think about how your audience likes to receive information. Older people might like to receive your end-of-year “ask” via mail while younger people might prefer digital media (i.e. email, social media). Allowing your audience to engage with the campaign through the channel they prefer improves your odds of success. For example, an email ask with a link to an online donation form isn’t the best way to encourage donations from seniors (who tend to be more skittish about sharing credit card information online). Save that for younger people who are very comfortable with e-commerce.

The message matters.
You’ve probably heard us say it before: Message is everything. Compelling, thoughtful messages are key. Talk about the impact a donation makes for the community you serve. Don’t get bogged down in process, which doesn’t give people that warm, fuzzy feeling that gets them to open their wallet. Show how the money benefits people. If you can, tell specific stories.

The timing matters.
Remember, the end of the year is a busy time for everyone. This year, consider testing the timing of your ask. Instead of blasting it out to the entire supporter database at the same time, pull a randomized list from your database and send them the ask after the New Year. Then, compare the number and value of donations made in each campaign. While it defies convention, some nonprofits report that they have more success collecting donations after the New Year, when people are less inundated with gift buying, baking, and thinking of ways to get out of their spouse’s company Christmas party. You might just find that a New Year ask is actually more effective.

This year, commit to trying something different with your holiday fundraising campaign.

Have you tried any of these tactics before? Which ones worked best for you? Share your successes (or other ideas for great holiday campaigns) in the comments below!

Hop on this emotional roller coaster

It is just another ordinary Tuesday at SE2. You know the kind: staff meeting is starting late, no lunch in sight, most of us are staring at our iPhones attempting to squeeze in a few more precious moments of work. Although the players are the same and the location hasn’t changed, we know almost immediately that something is different.

Susan (a sly smile plastered on her face) starts the meeting with a special announcement about rewarding our hard work. This instantly strikes me as promising – we have been working really hard after all.

Suddenly, Eric Anderson rounds the corner with a giant box from Amazon. Inside the box there are 11 festively wrapped boxes. "11 boxes? How convenient,” I think to myself. "There are 11 staffers here at SE2."

After a brief speech about technology, presentations to clients, etc., our minds are wondering: Is it possible that they contain the iPads we’ve spent the last six months lobbying for?

Soon, a rectangular box is in front of me. After a brief countdown, we simultaneously rip into the goods.

My heart is filled with sarcasm, sadness and a little anger the moment I uncover my gift. These are no iPads. These aren’t even generic electronic tablet notebooks. At this point, I know that even Palm Pilots would be an upgrade from these “magnetic drawing boards.” (The brand name of these devices is Etch-A-Sketch. That’s right, they didn’t even buy us the real magnetic drawing boards.)

The situation only grows worse when Anderson proceeds to demonstrate how to use the “magnetic drawing boards.”

With that, a thick cloud of disappointment fills the room. We quickly move into the usual meeting agenda and spend the next full hour discussing SE2 business.

Throughout this time, I’m on a roller coaster of emotions. I simply don't know what to expect next. First, it was anticipation, and then it was disappointment. Now, all I feel is sadness. I silently drown my sorrows in a cupcake as the meeting draws to an end.

Just when we think it’s over, a series of bags appears on the table.

Susan’s sly smile returns. The cloud of disappointment begins to lift. Hope is restored.

Thank you SE2 for the awesome iPads! (Safe to say we are officially the coolest firm in town.)

POTUS waved at me

Today, President Obama is in Colorado for the second time in four weeks, this time to discuss solutions to the mounting college debt problem. (Since we’re all friends here, let’s be frank: he can’t win in 2012 without us.) As a result, the streets downtown are closed and unusually deserted. On top of that, the first snow of the season fell last night, which only added to the quietness of the scene.

I tell you all of this because it’s important context for what I’m about to tell you next.

A few hours ago, President Obama waved at me.

It all started with a client breakfast meeting downtown.. Our client selected a restaurant in Hotel Teatro, which is located across the street from the hotel where President Obama slept last night. A few minutes into the meeting, we noticed a string of identical white vans lining up just outside the window. Someone suggested they might be the press vans that precede the President’s entourage.

Sensing that we might be in the right place at the right time, we paused the meeting and stepped outside. As the limos approached, I started waving half-heartedly unsure of who I might be waving at. The next thing I knew, there he was: looking right at me and waving back. Those ears! That smile!

In the rush of it all, my client and I grabbed hands and started jumping up and down and waving dramatically. Barak Obama chuckled. At us.

Here’s a photo that Sarah snapped to commemorate the occasion.

That’s right folks, President Obama was inside that very limousine. Safe to say, this morning was the best breakfast meeting I’ve had in a while.

SE2 Salmon Watch 2011

Trust us, the anticipation is killing us. SE2 is eagerly awaiting the arrival of one Eric Sondermann’s freshly-caught salmon. Just when we thought we couldn’t wait any longer, a FedEx truck was upon us. Was it the salmon we were waiting for or just a delivery to the house next door? (Remember, this fish is perishable!)

Orvis for life.

SE2 holds a carnival in honor of Susan’s 10 year anniversary

Principal Susan Morrisey recently celebrated 10 years at SE2. The SE2 Party Planning Committee thought this sounded like the perfect opportunity to throw a surprise party! Not just any surprise party would do for the occasion so we decided to make it a carnival... a Susan Carnival!

Our goal was for our Susan Carnival to be the embodiment of one of our new favorite words: Janky, which, according to Urban Dictionary, means, "of inferior quality; old and dilapidated; refers almost exclusively to inanimate material objects, not to people."

This required that we have a janky mini-bar, janky games and the jankiest of prizes. It was awesome.

Take a spin through the photo gallery below to see how it all went down. Or, watch the highlight reel.

Photo Gallery:

Video Highlight Reel:

Wish Susan a happy anniversary in the comments below!

Posted by: Megaphone Man

Inspired.

About six weeks ago I was tipped back in a shampoo bowl (you know, the super uncomfortable, porcelain ones they have at your favorite salon) getting my hair washed and racking my brain about how SE2 could create a break-through video that had more impact than your run-of-the-mill nonprofit piece. I needed something that would illustrate a sense of urgency and need, pull heart strings and serve as a compelling reason to support one of Denver’s more worthy organizations – The Colorado I Have a Dream Foundation (where SE2 Principal Eric Sondermann serves as a Board member).

My impromptu brainstorming took me back to an event I attended in April – the inaugural TedX Mile High gathering. It was here that I saw a host of inspiring speakers who, among other things, helped me to shake off some of the mental cobwebs I had lurking around after 12 weeks of maternity leave. The presenter who left the biggest impression was a social-worker-by-day, slam-poet-by-night, West Denver native who talked about how he helps kids navigate the justice system. I remembered the pace of his narrative, his message of hope and perseverance, and the standing ovation he received from the crowd. But above all else, I remember how he made me care again about kids who I might have otherwise written off.

Fast forward to last night where my SE2 colleagues and I sat at the annual I Have a Dream fundraiser watching four minutes of what is probably some of our best video work to date – thanks to the talents of poet Bobby LeFebre, videographer Chris Shinn and a host of other project partners who came together to help us make Livin’ The Dream.

This video officially kicks off a pro bono creative campaign SE2 has donated in an effort to bring more attention to and clarity around the inspiring work that I Have a Dream does. We’re calling it The Edge Initiative. As it is unveiled this fall, our hope is that people will come to realize the precarious place in which “Dreamers” tend to find themselves – both on the brink of bigger and better things, but also too damn close to falling prey to issues like violence, drugs, hunger and crime. Through digital storytelling, The Edge Initiative will offer a realistic look at the lives of these kids. They are children who often face realities that the rest of us don’t know and can’t begin to understand…realities that come from living in poverty. I hope you’ll stay tuned.

Livin' The Dream from SE2 on Vimeo.