Simon Mainwaring. The We First Blog.

How brands and ad agencies contribute to long-term solutions in Haiti: Poprule interview with Rob Kramer (Part 2)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNin34Zocgw

Here is the second part of the interview I did with Rob Kramer regarding his new cause action platform, Poprule. You can watch Part One here.

HAITI:

SM: Rob and I were going to get together a few weeks ago, but he suddenly disappeared off to Haiti when the tragic earthquake happened.  Tell us a little bit about what you’re doing there, and what the plans are moving forward.  I understand you’re doing something to provide long term solutions.

RK: So I’ve been involved in the clean water space, and when I was in Haiti about a week after the earthquake, I discovered that water is a catalyst for all kinds of social change.  So if you deliver clean, safe water, mothers can be home, they can become teachers and the kids get educated.

SM: Instead of four miles for four hours one way and four hours back to carry water.

ORPHANS:

RK: Exactly.  Then there’s economic opportunities that are presented.  The one issue that we’re focused on in Haiti—and water is the catalyst which introduced me to this issue—is that before the earthquake, there were about 380 thousand orphans.  Now there’s close to one million orphans.  If we don’t do something about that and create a holistic solution and teach them schools, the country will never rebound.  It will be a lost generation.  And so what we’re doing is we’re putting together a project to build a home, a school and a community center.  The school will actually house certain kids who are orphans who have no other place to be.  We’re going to redefine this notion of what it means to be a child without parents. It will be more like a boarding school.  Within that boarding school there will be an opportunity to interact with the community, to have activities, to have weddings, to have soccer fields.

SM: So you’re rebuilding community, not just giving a place for orphans to live.

RK: That’s right. Orphans and water that we provide becomes the catalyst and the fulcrum upon which everything else is laid.

LONG TERM SOLUTIONS:

SM: Time and time again, as I hear different people working in the non-profit space, one of their frustrations is that there’s a lot of run and done organizations that will go in and do some pretty cool, priceless management work, which is important in its own right, but over the long term you need the investment to rebuild the infrastructure, to rebuild community, to rebuild schooling and so on.  So it’s fantastic that you’re working in that area.  How does anyone have a look at PopRule, how do they get involved if either they’re a consumer or a brand?

RK: PopRule is not particularly consumer-facing at this moment in terms of its website.  We’re in stealth-mode so a lot of our relationships are very one-on-one, but we are spending lots of time with ad agencies and brands to develop varied strategies to create education action platforms, finance action platforms, how we deal with jobs.  So anything that is action oriented; that’s social, economic, humanitarian, political, cause oriented.

HOW BRANDS AND AGENCIES HELP:

SM: So if you’re an ad agency, brand or publisher how would they reach out to you?

RK: They can reach out to us through rob@poprule.com or go to poprule.com and you’ll see the various verticals that we address, although basically it’s just sending an email to get in touch with us.  And then we usually do some go-to meeting demos with the folks.  What we’re essentially building is an online-offline action platform that is a bit like foursquare in that it’s location based, but it’s all based on this premise that action is no ethos.  That, in order for us to create social or political change, we have to take action.  We can’t just talk about it, we can’t just read about it, we have to inform ourselves, but we have to move into action. Poprule’s platform helps organizations.  Essentially, a non-profit organization that only expects people to come to their website is missing the point.

It’s fantastic what Rob is doing.  Please, if you’re a brand or agency, support in any way you can by visiting poprule.com

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Why customers, and not social media, are your key to brand success

Large and small brands are now embracing social media as a means to reach their customers but many still make easily avoidable mistakes. For instance, many persist in seeing these tools as an end in themselves rather than an extension of traditional media that has always been social in nature (whether it’s television, print or radio). Instead, they look at social media as a weapon with which to advance their brand’s interests or to damage control a crisis.

This could not be further from the truth. The tool that either promotes or comes to the defense of a brand in any given situation has and always will be the customer. Let’s look at a few recent examples for proof.

On the negative side we see the backlash against Nestle for deleting Facebook posts and YouTube films that exposed the deforestation caused by their palm oil harvesting. Or the worldwide backlash against BP when it tried to shut down Boycott BP Facebook accounts and mock twitter accounts critical of their handling of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

On the other side, we saw loyal Prius drivers come to the defense of the brand on the basis of its longstanding commitment to quality and the environment when Toyota was justifiably attacked for major safety concerns.

The true value of social media is its ability to deeply engage customers engendering good will, loyalty and positive word of mouth advertising. When you do that you create embedded ambassadors promoting the brand among their friends. It’s these customers that social media must serve so they can then promote the interests of the brand. It’s a subtle distinction but it’s important in terms of guiding where and how a brand and its advertising agency focus their energies. To that end here’s a great post by Valeria Maltoni (@conversationagent) that lays out 6 ways for brands to connect with their customers.

Do you agree that brands still struggle with this distinction? Or do you think social media tools are an answer in themselves?

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Social media explained by a 9-year-old in one sentence

Not long ago I took my daughters to the Portland Children’s Museum – wonderful place – and I couldn’t help but notice this quote written on the wall above the clay making room. To me it distilled the essence of social media so I wanted to share it.

The quote reads:

When I make my art about a flower it is not showing you who the flower is, but to tell you about me.

From the mouth of babes! There are several powerful thoughts here communicated in one simple and authentic statement. Here’s what I see that relates to the practice of social media:

1. People reveal themselves through their interests, concerns and interaction.

2. We must listen to what we’re being told about the speaker, not just to what he or she is saying. (More on corporate listening here.)

3. We should respond in a way that lets the speaker know we see them, not just what they said.

As marketers we would do a darn fine job if we managed to pull off all three consistently. When we engage using 1-3, we automatically establish an emotional connection through which we can create a brand advocate. It’s so easy to forget that all the information, words, ideas, and images we share are really just different attempts at reaching out to each other. In fact, here’s a few great examples of brands using it well during the World Cup in a post by Brian Solis.

As with most things in life, this simple approach to social media is far harder to do. But lucky for us, every so often a child like Elyssa comes along to help us.

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