Nonetheless, we rely on the fact that correctly communicating a person's or organization's attributes can mean the difference between success and failure, and nowhere are the stakes higher than the run for the presidency.

So what's the main critique of McCain that can be used as a lesson by those running businesses or non-profit organizations? To answer that question, let's look at the criticism McCain is facing from both Republicans and Democrats, as reported by the AP and the New York Times:

"He has to make the case that he's different than Bush and better than Obama on the economy," said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

He's cheery and smiling during question-and-answer sessions with crowds but becomes visibly annoyed — even surly — when he reads aloud scripted attacks on Obama and Democrats.

They said McCain can prevail if he presents himself as the optimistic visionary the public wants at deeply worrisome economic times.

"He has an opportunity to step up and be a forceful leader during these challenging times," said Ron Kaufman, a veteran party operative who also worked for Romney. "McCain got the nomination because that's what his brand is, but somehow it's gotten muddled."

The main thing he needs to do,” said Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman from Minnesota, “is focus on a single message — a single, concise or clear-cut message, and stick with that over the next 30 days, regardless of what happens.

This last point is, arguably, the most important. Public relations, when done well, is about getting your message(s) to the target audience in the best way possible. The simpler the message, the easier it is to get it into people's heads, but the trick is finding one that's not just simple, but also resonates with your target audiences and moves them to action. In political campaigns it's even harder, because you have people actively working to discredit your message as soon as you utter it.

Nonetheless, it's not impossible, as the Obama campaign has shown. They have stuck with "change" (as dull as that may sound initially) since the get-go, and made sure everything they say falls under that umbrella. McCain's messaging has seemed to bounce around quite a bit - focusing on Obama's lack of qualifications and other alleged shortcomings (I come at this from a totally non-partisan standpoint, so I don't judge right and wrong in terms of content), as well as trying to embrace the "change" mantra himself. This, it seems to me, made the McCain campaign far too Obama-centric, which - in the long-run - simply serves to focus more attention on Obama.

McCain's supporters are right to be nervous. The last few weeks before an election can be the most important, but one of the principles of good communications is that repeated messaging over a long period of time will work. Obama has made that investment already. McCain's only hope is that those who remain undecided until just before it's time to pull the lever almost all decide to go with him. That's looking like an increasingly slim possibility, given the polling numbers so far.

So the take-home lessons are: carefully choose key messages that impact your target audiences positively, stick with your key messages through thick and thin, and don't focus on the competition.

Be sure to check out the SPEC SHEET HERE!

Let me have that sink in... $6,000.

A blogger for the New York Times also tells the story of how it is cheaper to send data to space then through a text message. To Space!

Those 20 cents a message can add up very quickly, but not quickly enough for some companies. In today's New York Times, is a story on how Verizon wants to charge marketers, alert service and social networks an extra three cents a message to send you text messages. While, you might think I would come down hard on Verizon on this, I'm actually glad to see someone else foot the bill for these messages. Now, I don't realistically expect this to bring down costs to consumers, but if this means less text messages are sent, which the article suggests it will, I'm all for it.

I will mention a couple of sites that will let you send text messages for free from a computer, (Text2Day and TextReminders) but my real suggestion is to break your dependence on them entirely. If you have a smart phone with e-mail use that, if not, well, I suppose you could always call the other person. Your budget will thank you.

Pictured above: Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential Campaign logo.

Brand development: A quick look at the power of symbols.

Back in the good old days of cowboys and cattle drives, "brands" were marks to identify ownership of livestock. That ownership eventually became a stamp of quality in cattle markets. Over time, the terms "mark" and "brand" became interchangeable in the world of product marketing. (In francophone countries, the word "Marque" - the French equivalent of 'Mark' - is still in use today.)

Whatever your language of choice, the term "brand" has since evolved to encompass almost every facet of a specific business' identity, from cultural relevance and market leadership to the ability to routinely create iconic products and build a great reputation. At the forefront of a brand (as printed on a company's packaging, products, websites, letterhead, front door, etc. is its mark. Its logo. Its symbol.

Humans like symbols and emblems, whether they show up on flags, military unit patches, family crests, educational institutions' emblems, sports teams' uniforms, the butt of livestock, products, or corporate letterhead. We wear them on T-shirts and baseball caps. We stick them on our cars and laptops. We paste them onto our desktops. We add them to our Facebook walls. Some of us even get them tattooed sometimes. (Note: The next photo is not of me.) That is the level of emotional attachment that people can have with symbols, which is why almost every organization in the world uses them.

Without flags, symbols, marks and logos, what would initially separate Nike from Adidas, France from Belgium, Dell from HP, Volkswagen from Audi, or even the Yankees from the Socks? (I said initially! Chill, sports fans.)

To illustrate the role that evocative emblems (logos) can play in the success and longevity of a brand, here are a few you might be familiar with:

Pretty potent stuff. Okay, so we've established the power of logos. Badges. Emblems.Symbols.Whatever you choose to call them. We can move on now.

The emergence of branding concepts and logos in political campaigns.

One of the prime newcomers on the list of most-viewed "logos" in the last few months has been Presidential hopeful Barack Obama's distinctive circular sunrise and stripes. Last month, I brought you the history of the Republican and Democratic parties' elephant and donkey emblems; today, I bring you a little bit of insight into how the Obama campaign logo came to be.

From Chicago Business News:

A team of Chicago graphic designers has given Barack Obama’s campaign its signature look. Sol Sender of Sender LLC and five others in his firm created the logo the Illinois senator is using for his 2008 presidential bid.

The icon, a gradated blue “o” featuring three red stripes, is prominently displayed on Mr. Obama’s campaign Web site pages and featured on t-shirts, buttons and bumper stickers.

Sender LLC is a Chicago brand consultancy and design studio whose clients include Crain’s.

“We were looking at the “o” of his name and had the idea of a rising sun and a new day,” Mr. Sender said. “The sun rising over the horizon evoked a new sense of hope.”

“It begins to break with tradition while also rooting itself in tradition,” said Peter Krivkovich, CEO of Cramer-Krasselt advertising agency in Chicago. “Patriotism is the foundation, but above that is hope, opportunity, newness.”

While most presidential campaign sign designers have traditionally not strayed beyond the realm of background color and font type, it is interesting to see logo design finally make its way into the world of voter influence tactics.

Of course, we don't need to look too far to find another example of catchy political logo work of late. Our sitting president, George W. Bush's iconic "W" (ironically adopted by Oliver Stone as the title of his latest movie) has served as an emblem in its own right, showing up on bumper stickers, T-shirts and even underwear.

Where do we go from here?

Are we seeing a new trend in presidential political marketing? Possibly. If the objective is to help a candidate appear to stand stand for something greater than a political platform or formulaic series of promises, why not create an emblem that can hold that message for them and resonate with an audience in the same way that our favorite brand logos do? Why not transcend agendas and soundbites to create something greater - something that can be conveyed in a symbol? It looks like political strategists have finally tapped into our need to rally behind symbols rather than... words. In the same way that we get behind Apple, Harley Davidson, Nike and New York Yankees logos, we can now get behind our presidential candidates' logos and truly join their team.

It's probably too soon to tell whether or not a candidate - in spite of their record, position in regards to issues and even charisma - might actually gain an advantage over another by having a well-designed logo, but the question is well worth asking.

Eh.

One quick word of caution as present and future presidential hopefuls begin to venture across the candidate-to-brand barrier in order to gain a strategic advantage: The margin of error in the world of brands is razor-thin. As expectations rise to unrealistic levels (political leadership is much more complex and volatile than market leadership), each mistake become increasingly costly. (The White House doesn't have a customer service department. You aren't likely getting a refund or a discount coupon in the mail when things don't go your way.)

The power that comes with becoming a brand can be too much for just one man (or woman) to handle - even for a Washington, Kennedy, Roosevelt or Lincoln.

As my uncle Ben once told me, with great power comes great responsibility. Something to consider once elections are behind us and the time comes to actually deliver.

Have a great weekend, everyone. ;)

image of Super Obama by legendary graphic artist Alex Ross.

http://specials.msn.co.in/sp08/msphonedatamanager/

looks quite neat... Of course I have a corporate solution for this :)

PopNote is a lightweight yet robust peer to peer Instant Messaging communication client that operates over the Internet or LAN´s. PopNote can send an instant message that will pop up on the destination´s Desktop on arrival; and or allow more aggressive real time chatting. PopNote´s unique Echo feature confirms the recipient received your message.

Homepage: http://arc.tzo.com/
Download: PNE_V312.ZIP
File Size: 257 KB

Why would I NOT want to do business with your company? Gulp. While it’s true that a lot can be learned from digging into the benefits and reasons why your customers love you, there is almost more to learn (and use in your marketing messaging) for why people wouldn’t want to do business with you.

It’s called objection messaging, and with it, you can address every reason someone might have for not choosing you and turn it into a strong message to accomplish the opposite. Acknowledging a person’s fears, aversions and issues with your brand or product, and creating compelling marketing messages that overcome them, are surefire ways to differentiate yourself from your competitors and connect with your customers in a powerful way.

Look-Smart Tip: Take a good, hard look at your brand or product’s weaknesses and reasons why people might not choose to do business with you. Then, poke holes in their argument with strong, positive marketing messages of acknowledgment and vuala! Your customers won’t be able to find a good reason why not to do business with you.

Everytime I see these ads on TV, I ask... "What the hell is Sun Cellular doing?!  Don't they have a marketing team at all?!"  Don't get me wrong! No... no... I am not a die-hard Sun subscriber (not because of anything else, but I just want to point out that I am neutral here).  In fact, I have been a loyal Globe subscriber all this time... even if a day passes by without getting a strong signal from Globe.  (uhuh... as in!)  Back to the topic.  I know for a fact that Sun Cellular was the first to launch this Unlimited Messenger thingie, but there seems to be no aggressive campaign/ads initiated by them on TV.  You can check it out here: http://www.suncellular.com.ph/vas_iMess.php.  As you can see in their press release... you can do Unlimited 'Messengering' for 24 hours, for only 20 pesos!

• Unlike the offerings of other networks, you DON'T NEED TO INSTALL anything into your phone.  You are chatting as if you were just sending SMS!
• For first time users - your first day is FREE.  Just text SunIM to 2746
• You can IM with all your friends in Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, and even ICQ!
• Added Features:  a) You can download your entire contact list for ALL your IM accounts so that you can see who is online b) Since your 20 pesos is valid for a good 24 hours only, you can check your remaining subscription time by sending an SMS command to 2746 c)  You may also get a ONE-WEEK/7-day subscription at 100 pesos.  (so that's 2 days free for you dear!)

Well, I haven't been using SunIM for quite sometime now, for the reason that I am literally glued to my laptop already, because of the tons of paperwork that need to be finished.  Still there is the Sun though... with my Plan 350 - Unlimited Call & Txt.  (San ka pa?) 

Good to note that despite Sun Cellular being the underdog among all three of them, it doesn't stop looking for ways to gain that competitive edge, and to also give more options to consumers.  It's just a pity that their ad campaigns are not that visible to the viewing public.  Matawagan nga si Aga! :)

Happy Weekend everyone!

..or you may just do it through the web by visiting...

http://email2sms.ru/sms.php

The phrase "executive experience" is even being used by detractors, as they dispute what is implied by the statement.

This is a real-world, real-time example of the art of staying "on message." And by doing so, the general public is picking up the phrase -- and the intended message behind it -- with many taking that message as fact.

While I don't suggest that nonprofit staff should practice "truthiness," I do think that we can learn a lot from this process about getting our message across to the media while answering their questions honestly.

Before you talk to a reporter, think about the message that you want to share with the readers/viewers/ listeners (not to mention the bloggers that might pick up the story). How do you want to frame the story, meaning what's the point of view from which you want to tell your story? And, more importantly, what world view do you hope to impart on the audience?

For example, do you want to audience to see the current economic morass as a case of greedy financiers, several years of poor governmental regulation or as the result of an economic system that is flawed by emphasizing support for the wealthy over that for other U.S. residents?

Once you've decided your frame, jot down the main message and the accompanying messages to communicate during the interview. Then use every opportunity during the interview to insert your message into the answers the reporter seeks.

Staying on message is sometimes tough, but it helps to spread your nonprofit's message and ultimately its mission to your constituents and beyond to the general public. And somehow I imagine your message will be much more substantive than "no matter what else, we have executive experience."

As the newest member of the team I am getting asked two questions by a lot of people, what are you doing? and what does Gnip do? I answered the first question in my last post and will address the second question in this post and point people to the main Gnip website and Gnip blog (where I will be cross-posting a lot of content from this blog in the coming months)

Gnip provides a extensible messaging platform that allows for the publishing or subscribing of events and data from across the Internet, which makes data portability exponentially less painful and more automatic once it is set up. Because Gnip is being built as a platform of capabilities and not a web application the core services are instantly useful for multiple scenarios, including data producers, data consumers and any custom web applications. Gnip already is being used with many of the most popular Internet data sources, inlcuding Twitter, Delicious, Flikr, Digg, and Plaxo.

So, who is the target user of Gnip? It is a developer, as the platform is not a consumer-oriented web application, but a set of services meant to be used a developer or an IT department for a set of core use cases.

• Data Consumers: You've built your pollers, let us tell you when and where to fire them. Avoid throttling & decrease latency from hours to seconds.
• Data Producers: Push your data to us and reduce API traffic by an order of magnitude while increasing distribution through aggregators.
• Custom web application: You want to embed or publish content to be used in your own application or for a third-party application. Decide who, or what, you care about for any Publisher, give us an end-point, and we push the data to you so you can solve your business use cases, such as customer service websites, corporate websites, blogs, or any web application.

By leveraging the Gnip APIs, developers can easily design reusable services, such as, push-based notifications, smart filters and data streams that can be used for all your web applications to make them better. Are you a developer? Give the new version a try!

It explains a topic I always seem to have troubles with, and it tells you how to get rid of those nasty Enumarations (or worse: ints) that tell you in which state you are.

I beleive a whole series of articles on ATS (advanced state systems) is comming up, so be sure to keep an eye on FocusedGames.com

Its not a great photo, but I was driving behind this truck today and got freaked out when I thought the back door was sliding open.  Turns out it was a rotating advertisement.  Maybe I'm the only one, but I've not run into one of these before.  I've seen lots of driving billboards, just not one that changed.

Anyhow, I was so busy waiting for the thing to move that I don't think I remember what  single advertisement  was.  Is this type of communication distracting-does it detract from the message?  Or is it just me and my ADD?

Are there any other ways we communicate that actually end up detracting from our message?

We'd love to hear your feedback.

And in the meantime - here are a few ideas on how Passpack users can use Messaging...

Send Pin Numbers or Deadline Dates

If you are a professional, a freelancer, a business owner or similar, you have most likely had to exchange sensitive info that you just don't feel that comfortable exchanging via email - PIN numbers, deadline dates, user logins, normal text messages, events and of course...passwords.

Busy offices have busy ears and some information is worth sending encrypted.

Family Reminders

You're about to leave work and can't remember the new security code on the house? You could have your spouse/partner email or text it to you but do you really feel secure sending that information around like that? Have an encrypted message sent to your Passpack account. Job done. You can leave work knowing the security code is safe in Passpack and never traveled unencrypted.

Families and friends have endless options for secure Messaging between accounts: PIN numbers, travel plans, insurance codes, a private message you want to stay private like possible birthday gifts for Mom...

Lots More...

If you spend a certain part of your day in front of a computer and like to drop terms that leave most average internet users perplexed, you'll love Passpack Messaging, but I will leave it to you all to tell us why? What could YOU do with Passpack Messaging?

Want to Try Messaging?

Keep in mind that messaging is ONE of the many features Passpack plans on releasing and we are always looking for your feedback. The following ideas on how to use Passpack Messaging are just a taste of what's to come and a small step to a big plan called Sharing.

Passpack Sponsors Girl Geek Dinner

Last week we posted about Passpack's sponsoring of Rome's first ever Girl Geek Dinner and the outcome was a success! The evening really went well thanks to the help of everyone involved and we met some really interesting women. Take a look at some video and pictures from the night at passpack.com/girls

Auto-login Bug. Squashed.

Recently, users were telling us about the peculiar behavior of Passpack's auto-login - it was happening to some of us here as well. It turns out, there was in fact a bug and the UTF-8 encoding was "getting lost in translation" during the encoding and decoding for the 1 Click Login encrypted mini-packs. In other words, some packs that contained entry titles with non alpha-numeric characters (for example ò, È, җ, ễ, ﭛ ,שּׁ) may have had difficulties with auto-login.
In other other words, auto-login was acting a bit naughty :)
Problem solved. Sorry to those of you who had to copy and paste your way around. Let us know if you are still experiencing any trouble.

Passpack Messaging Testers Needed

Tomorrow we are opening testing for Passpack messaging. Here's a super sneak preview image...

If you're wondering what messaging has to do with passwords - good question. Messaging is one of the first steps that Passpack is taking towards the release of full sharing passwords between accounts. Messaging will allow users to send encrypted messages from one Passpack user to other Passpack users of your choice. Do you see all the possibilities in store?

As long as you have a Passpack account and a friend with a Passpack account, you can be a tester.

Be the First to Test Messaging?

As I made my way inside, I looked at the tag-along and noticed that the date stamped on the back was 2006. I get the efficiency, since it was a re-election campaign. In fact, I almost applaud it. There's only one (major) problem. A lot has changed in the last two years—far too much to just recycle what you've already done. By simply reusing your old stuff you are saying one of two things: either you are too out-of-touch to recognize that things have changed, or you haven't done what you said you were going to do the first time, so you just say it again.

The same goes for any business. A consistent message is key. Beat it like a rented mule, especially if it is good and on target. But also recognize that as you produce, address issues and evolve, you move along and tackle the next set of problems.

I don't, by any means, advocate that you should craft your message around the latest trends. Doing so would signal that you aren't committed to who you really are. And if you're not committed, why should anyone else be? Being timely and consistent with your message reinforces your brand. It shows your audience that you are focused on addressing the needs of your constituents (customers, consumers, employees, etc.).

Constant reinforcement of your message is necessary for solidifying your brand. Incorporating timely needs into that message is critical to building a long-term brand.

Is this a gimmick or a legitimate innovation for preaching? During sermons, the Rev. Mike Schreiner of Morning Star Church (United Methodist denomination), allows text messages to be sent off – to him that is, with questions relating to the sermon.

The so-called ‘Director of Worship,’ Amie Haskins, receives the messages on the church mobile phone. These she screens and then types questions into a keyboard to be sent via a computer connected to Schreiner’s lap top in the pulpit.

With the questions appearing on his screen, this allows Schreiner the ability to answer relevant questions during the sermon.

The text messaging also engages the young people of the church and they listen more intently than they did before.

The text messaging is part of the wider ‘technological ministry’ operating at the church, which includes lighting controls, presentations on the large screens above the stage, wide-screen plasma monitors in the church’s coffee shop in the lobby, etc.

Apparently the texting fad is taking off across the US and is even used to some degree in the Mars Hill Church at Seattle.

Part of the philosophy behind the texting fad seems to be to be more appealing to people so that they come to church and get more involved in what is actually happening. Undoubtedly this would be an attractive and seemingly successful method for getting people involved and coming along, especially those who love their gadgets these days.

I am sure that texting has its place in the ministry of any modern church and can prove very useful to send messages to large numbers of people at once and for keeping in touch, however, the use of texting in the local church context seems to me to be out of place.

Preaching ought not to be confused with teaching, with the two being different aspects of a church’s ministry. Certainly any true preaching will include teaching, but teaching need not include preaching. Preaching is the authoritative declaration of the Word of God to the people of God by the God-called preacher of God. He comes with a message that is to be heard by the people of God for the people of God. The message is not to be tailor made to the felt needs of the people sitting in the congregation nor is it to be modified to suit the desires of those sitting there as expressed via texted questions to the preacher.

The danger is that the preacher will be moved away from his task and go off message to pursue certain tangents that may not even have been the course he intended to take as the messenger of God to the people of God. He comes with the Burden of the Lord and he must speak and be heard as that messenger.

Preaching is a declaration and explanation of the Word with relevant and searching application and as such is not a dialogue, no matter what form that dialogue might take.

For more on this read the article on texting in church at:

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/religion/story/EC394B244877FB16862574CD00081AAD?OpenDocument