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For years, people have touted the "narrowcast" capabilities of the Internet to communicate one-to-one with customers, employees, partners, suppliers and stakeholders. But it's increasingly obvious that the Internet makes a dandy direct-broadcast network too, especially given its lack of editors, producers and other nitpickers who get all fussy about facts, balanced reporting and third-party perspectives.
Annual reports and proxy ballots aren't enough. Companies need to engage in a constant dialogue with their significant others. Public relations used to fill this void by scheduling speeches, community events and other opportunities for corporations to, well, relate to the public. However, PR now focuses exclusively on manipulating media coverage of a company and its products, leaving traditional tactics to overtaxed internal resources.
Enter the Internet. It's easier than ever for companies big and small to keep in touch with their constituents using the kind of faux familiarity favored by politicians for centuries. One way to do this is to produce and distribute an online newsletter like the one you're reading right now. Another way is to authorize company spokespersons to participate in Usenet groups and other message forums that discuss a company's products or category (hint: you can also harvest the email addresses of people who post to these forums). A third is to offer premiums like discounts and prizes for participating in online surveys and focus groups.
One of the goals of these CRM (customer relationship management) activities is to build a huge database of valid email addresses that can be tapped in a crisis, like the one Hewlett-Packard faced when outsiders began doubting the wisdom of its proposed merger with Compaq. When trouble strikes, it's faster, easier and more effective to blast an email to your core audience rather than take out an advertisement in a media source that may or may not reach all of your intended audiences.
Can your company do the same thing? Is there a database of every customer name, address, phone number and email address somewhere in your organization?
Probably not. Bad idea. It's imperative to build a comprehensive contact list of your customers. Even if you don't use it regularly, you don't wait until your founder's children start painting protest signs. Or your T1 line crashes.
For more information, please contact Mainsail president Mark White at
mwhite@mainsail.com or 510-647-1500.
Based in Brussels, Chris
Clark is senior vice president of strategic services for
Mainsail. He is also the author of "Byte Back," a monthly
humor column for Adweek Magazines' Technology Marketing.
Click here for more information on Mainsail
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