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Building Diverse Communications Channels

While I have no comment on the presidential campaign of Howard Dean, it is interesting how his campaign is using the Internet. Fast Company's Linda Tischler provides an insightful sidebar quoted here:

1. Design the organization to be nimble from the start. A decentralized workforce can respond to local challenges more quickly if it doesn't have to wait for clearance from higher up the food chain. Be willing to let go of total control.
2. Find ways to let supporters -- or customers -- talk to each other. Make it easy to connect, then step out of the conversation.
3. Encourage ways for ideas to bubble up from the field. Understand that the more brainpower that is applied to a problem, the better the solution. Unleash the power of the people to be creative.
4. Recognize that it's not about the technology. True, you need a basic level of technical sophistication to make things work, but the technology should be in service to the idea, not the other way around.

Howard Dean's campaign is described as primarily Internet based. The original article covers the important issue; What about people who don't have Internet access? A media campaign (or anything designed to influence a selling relationships) must consider multiple communications channels.

Joe Trippi, campaign manager, addresses this issue by holding meetings at Internet caf?and other public places with Internet access-- however, short of providing your customers the connections they need, you must have a healthy balance of traditional marketing like brochures, catalogs, and phone calls.

Various other parallels between a political campaign and a business start-up are drawn, but the key points to take away from this article are:

• When adopting any communications channel consider availability to all of your target customer base,
• Open communications with/between customers improves your ability to serve their needs while increasing your profits,

/ b2b-websites | clearly-communicate /

By Justin Hitt at October 14, 2003 11:05 AM  Subscribe in a reader