GRASSROOTS GROW AROUND THE GLOBE

It may come as no surprise to you, but absent  the computer and Internet, my communications / public relations firm (and quite possibly yours) would be dangling over a black hole of uncertainty.  Instead, over the past 8 months, it's put me on planes to serve clients in California, Arizona and Florida next week.

One client hired me to work with his four member team (three in California, one in Singapore), to coordinate a conference in Miami that has attracted one of the largest and most prominent audiences in agriculture conference history.  Regardless of the numbers, the audience is among the most influential ever assembled, or at least it's gotta be close.

Over 250 executives and public officials will represent 150 of the world's largest agricultural companies and 38 nations at the Rice Americas Conference.  I don't know a darn thing about rice, but it's been rewarding to build worldwide attention and interest in it by engaging people via the Internet.

One downside of the Internet is that it's shortened peoples' attention span to about 30 seconds.  That fact alone makes my point.  Note: If you continue reading, either you're one the few who's maintained your brain or I've thus far done my job and won your interest.

Most marketing and public relations companies make sharpening their Photoshop skills the top priority.  Few, if any, have a job description that matches mine: Identify, intrigue and motivate prospects to willingly and unknowingly advance my client's interests.  Sales?  No.  It's a process called "identification" which accomplishes a goal I've coined as "audience optimization."  I can take at least some credit for that phrase because Googling it May 3, 2009 produced only 551 hits; add "communication" to the search and you get a whopping 154.

Despite the amount of work, time and creativity this process requires, audience optimization generates rewards that transcend what traditional marketing accomplishes by leaps and bounds.  Why? Because you're devising strategies that cultivate the field, sow the seeds and get the grassroots to grow greener than even an environmentalist can dream.  That is, we're matching the message to the audiences rather than matching colors on a web site template or tri-fold brochure that the recipient probably didn't want in the first place.

Network, network, network and the Internet enables us to do that.  However, it has to be done carefully and sincerely.  If people introduce themselves with a business card or try proving their public relations accomplishments with brochures, they're blowing you off.  Yes, those things are important, but they're not a foundation for building interest -- the goal of communication and that requires an audience.   Engaging that audience requires more than 30 seconds of attention.  Thanks again for reading this far.

People don't want to be sold things, they want to belong.  If they don't identify with a project or product, they don't become part of the marketing or public relations process. Most marketing firms don't understand that and ultimately fail at what clients are paying them to accomplish, but comprehending that process and engaging it is why and how Master Manuscripts will make your mark.

*KFGO Radio, The Mighty 790 posted "Grassroots Grow Around the Globe" online.