Archive for October, 2008

Conservation Districts — county-level natural resource agencies — seem to be getting more serious about marketing and communications. Some of them have hired me (thank you very much), and their national association has made the topic the centerpiece of the inaugural issue of their magazine, The Resource. If you’re interested in a good overview of the fundamentals of conservation communications, this magazine is a good read.

One of the success stories profiled in this issue is the Muskingum (Ohio) Soil and Water Conservation District, which has developed a consistently successful outreach effort to local print and broadcast media. The authors report:

The district feels its media outreach effor ts have yielded great results. Their public events are always well-attended, and their district office regularly fields questions from local residents who have seen, heard or read about district events or programs.

My hat is off to the district for this, because I know how hard it can be to maintain a consistent media relations effort. But the nagging question is, how long will this activity continue to pay off like this? I did a just a very quick Google search, and immediately found some stories that suggest the news media is dying the same slow death in Zanesville that it is everywhere else.

This recent story, ironically in the New York Times, thoroughly sums up the bleak prospects for the news media.

And as the news media collapses, it’s dragging the familiar and time-tested art of public relations down right along with it — pushing nature protection and pollution control organizations to explore related-but-unfamiliar disciplines that generally fall more under the general heading of “marketing.”

If the online variety of marketing interests you, then create an account over at Facebook and check out what some of the river groups are up to — creating “groups” and “causes” to reach out to those who are interested. Here are a few links to explore:

• Alabama Rivers Alliance
• Black Warrior Riverkeeper
• River Alliance of Wisconsin

It looks to me like these and other groups are experiencing a pretty mixed bag of success and failure. I don’t doubt that there is plenty of experimentation ahead before the best practices for conservation communications in the social media are established. But hats off to these groups for taking the chance and trying something new! Even of some of the attempts don’t pan out, in the long run they’ll be glad they took a few risks.

Usually, nothing. Take this sign here: It has some real facts about a real problem. And now that you know these facts, what are you going to do differently for the rest of the week? Answer honestly!

And that’s the same reaction you get from others when you let environmental facts speak for themselves. People can accept the truth of facts — and still not change a thing about their behavior.

To use facts skillfully, you need to tell people what they prove. For example, if I was going to make a sign about depression, I’d use those facts like this:

One in 8 adolescents suffer from depression, maybe even your child. So be a responsible parent and visit www.stopdepression.org to learn the symptoms to watch out for.

So here’s (part of) a factual-and-flawed ad from the Coral Reef Alliance. If you wanted to finish it, what could you write?

“…very subtle cues from our environment can significantly influence behavior and feelings,” that’s according to Yale Professor Dr. Lawrence Williams, who ran a series of studies that were reported in the Associated Press this week.

The first example: Study participants were divided into two groups, given a drink and a description of a fictitious individual, and asked to describe that person. The results? The group that was holding a cup of warm water were more likely to rate the fictitious individual as “generous, sociable and good-natured,” than the group holding a cup of cold water.

In a related exercise, participants in a study were asked to hold a warm item or cold item, and then given an opportunity to select a gift for either themselves or a friend. Those holding a warm item were more likely to select a gift for a friend than those holding a cold item.

There’s no logical or rational reason why people would behave this way. But people aren’t logical or rational. So at one level, the message of these wacky findings is very clear: Serve hot cider rather than iced tea at your next fundraising gala!

But the real message of this study is most important at a different level: People elect and decline to do things for all kinds of reasons that are subconscious, hard-wired in our brains, completely irrational – but still within your control.

Think about that the next time you want somebody to turn off the lights, put a rain barrel on their house, donate to your organization, pick up after their dog, call their local county council representative, respect the slot limit for the fish they catch, or do any other thing that might aid your nature protection and pollution control efforts.

Open your mind to the prospect that the reason you want them to do it — and the reason they might actually do it — could be totally different.

According to a fresh poll on global warming, majorities of Virginians from all walks of life believe that global warming is real and is a problem. An interesting note here during political season is that the smallest majority of believers is Republicans (57%), and the largest majority of believers (88%) is Democrats.

Source: REPORT OF THE VIRGINIA CLIMATE CHANGE SURVEY, University of Virginia, 2008

My key takeaway from this study is this: The number of people who believe in global warming is quite a bit larger than the people who are serious about doing something about it.

But you’d never guess that reviewing the communications materials produced by the mainstream environmental movement Click here for one example. Most nature protection and pollution control groups continue to devote a lot of effort into educating or convincing citizens that global warming is real — something most of them already believe.

These groups are putting relatively less effort — and far less scientific rigor — into helping citizens overcome the self-doubt that holds them back from doing anything about it.

Bottom line here — when those naysayers throw up those outrageous claims, don’t take the bait. Stick to your story about global warming and use the water words that work to help believers overcome their doubt in themselves.

Thanks to K. at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality for slinging this study my way!