How A Successful Obama Campaign Could Change the Way Washington Communicates

June 19, 2008

This article, which appeared in today's PR News Online, was written by Jeff Connaughton and Shabbir Imber Safdar. Jeff Connaughton is vice chairman of Quinn Gillespie and Associates, a government affairs and strategic communications firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. Shabbir Safdar is the founder of Virilion Inc., a digital communications firm headquartered in Washington, D.C.

If Barack Obama and his grassroots army win the White House in November, he has promised to change the way business is done in Washington. Some of the implications, such as earmark reform, more transparency in contracting and lobbying, and campaign finance changes, are stated plainly on his "Ethics Issues" page.

Yet, in a larger sense, corporate advocates and communications specialists will be trying to make sense of what it means to their business. How will they influence policy-making in Washington when the person just elected to the highest office in the land won with a legion of small donors and volunteers, using boundary-busting Internet techniques-all while castigating the outsized influence of corporate lobbyists in the process and promising to change the system?

Who knows if the Obama administration will return K Street's calls; regardless, public relations and public affairs professionals will have to reorient their thinking to conform to the new political landscape.

The most obvious implication will be changes in the way the White House communicates with key stakeholders and constituencies. With promises of more open White House communication, and an army of supporters still connected by e-mail, an Obama administration may rely far less on the mainstream press to get its message out or to set the context of a story. As in the handling of the Rev. Wright episode, candidate Obama has shown that he can make one public speech, post it online, and fundamentally change the dynamic of the news cycle by the effect of bloggers and thousands of commentaries.

While still valuable, spinning the evening news cycle or a major print story will become marginally less effective. A recent survey from iFOCOS found that half of all Americans are obtaining their news from the Internet. While the sources they may find online are from the Web portals of traditional media outlets, online pundits and bloggers outnumber traditional media outlets online, and they can often promote or bury a story within hours.

Working inside this dynamic will be difficult without matching the same tactics. While it's unlikely any industry or interest will be able to raise a similar multitude of supporters, the same level of openness and commitment to monitoring and participating in online discussions will be critical. Smart organizations will effectively advance their policy agendas online as part of an integrated public affairs solution, developing issue groups by providing supportive evidence for their case directly to the public through online communications channels.

Specific recommendations for operating in this changing and complex communications environment in 2009 include:

1. Begin a program to monitor online conversations about your issues in the same way that you currently monitor press clips. When you need to enter the debate, you will better understand the "map of influence" around your issues online.

2. Prepare your government affairs and communications teams to take their case directly to the public via the Web. Put your tactical system in place so that you are not confronting the logistical issues of speaking online while simultaneously dealing with a public or government relations crisis.

3. Force yourself to act daily to grow the "issue community" you have developed both online and offline. Identify and target additional interested persons and allies so that you can mobilize them as effectively as possible when needed.

ABOUT QUINN GILLESPIE & ASSOCIATES

Quinn Gillespie & Associates (QGA) provides public affairs counsel to leading corporations, coalitions and trade associations. One of the only firms to integrate lobbying and communications services, QGA's team of nearly 30 professionals bring a bipartisan, multi-disciplinary approach to helping clients successfully manage public affairs challenges. For more information, please visit www.qga.com or contact Stacey Morton Bowlin at 202-429-6879.