An article by Channel Signal appeared in SNEWS a couple of days ago. It has to do with wolf-killing derbies held in Idaho, and is getting circulated. The piece also addresses UVEX and how it used social media to outflank the International Olympic Committee.

I want to make it easy for you to see Channel Signal columns from SNEWS. So, go to this link and you can view the story, as well as other SNEWS stories.

https://www.snewsnet.com/SNEWSFreebie/ChannelSignalFriend.html

Thanks.

I sometimes feel like I am completely out of touch with our lawmakers, and that I may now be a fringe member of society.

Major issues are at work effecting the outdoor recreational industry. And I feel helpless.

Two points:
1. Today, an American citizen can carry a firearm into our national parks and wildlife refuges. Now, this bill was passed by a Congress who sits atop the most violent society in the world.

2. The Utah legislature just passed a resolution stating that the state of Utah does not believe in global warming. It believes initiatives to combat global warming will hurt the Utah economy.

So, now, when an American wants to tote a gun into our national parks, a place of sanctuary for the populace, he or she can.

There are over 600 animals listed as endangered in the United States alone.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Report

The FBI reports there are over 200 million guns in the United States and that number is rising.

The U.S. Department of Justice also reports:

Among those ages 15 to 24, the U.S. firearm homicide rate is 5 times higher than in neighboring Canada and 30 times higher than in Japan, and the firearm homicide rate for the 15- to 24-year-old age group increased 158 percent during the 10-year period from 1984 to 1993.  A teenager in the United States today is more likely to die of a gunshot wound than from all the “natural” causes of death combined.

And as for the adults, the same report says that in 1996, the last year all of this was measured, over 34,000 people died from gunshot wounds.

Firearm injuries are the eighth leading cause of death in the United States. In addition, for every fatal shooting, there are roughly three nonfatal shootings.

And now we turn us lose in the National Parks and the Wildlife Sanctuaries? Our meager supply of wildlife officers will now be forced to be law enforcement officers. And our parks will become a sanctuary all right, for felons and others running from the law. And how will they eat?

As far as global warming is concerned…Congress asked influential scientists to write a report. They did, and all concurred. Here is the report.

Global warming in the last 2,000 years.

And that reports says that global warming is a fact. A fact.

Now, anti-global warming bloggers have taken to the offense. Have they produced anything close to this document?  No.  Apparently, they just look out their window and see that it is snowing in Virginia and that is sufficient evidence for their belief.

When did we stop believing science? Here is the Utah legislature in action.

Utah Legislative Action

So, it looks like we ignore the facts. Ignore gun violence. Ignore the protection of the wild things. Ignore global warming.

And it does seem that the conservative portion of America is employing the best lobbyists. And they seem to control both the federal and state legislatures.

And on this Sunday morning, I feel alone. I grew up being taught that every American has a voice. And it seems the causes I believe in have a lot of voices behind them. But our voices seem to be drowned out by the sound of money being poured into the pockets of politicians.

Money talks. And in our country, with a booming voice.

Well, it happened again. And it will happen again until brands finally understand  they  have to respond quickly and effectively to an incident so that it does not become a crisis.

Incident= Kevin Smith, the film director and avid twitter user, was forced off a Southwest Airlines flight because he is too heavy.

Evolved into an Issue: Smith used his twitter account (1.6 million followers) to rage against the airlines’s handling of the incident.

Evolved into a Crisis: Smith rallied many large people to the cause. Many others agreed with Southwest that some people are too large to fly in just one seat. The debate rages, and Southwest is in the middle of it.

Result: Southwest is now spending major resources on crisis control about obesity, and not spending that money on operating an airline. The Board of Directors must be thrilled.

It all started with a tweet on Twitter.

Dear @SouthwestAir  from @ThatKevinSmith— “I know I’m fat, but was Captain Leysath really justified in throwing me off a flight for which I was already seated?”

And the pic he took just before being asked to leave the plane.

Photo just before he got off the plane.

Here’s the response from the company. Corporate, logical, and with no humanity in the voice.

“Mr. Smith originally purchased two Southwest seats on a flight from Oakland to Burbank – as he’s been known to do when traveling on Southwest. He decided to change his plans and board an earlier flight to Burbank, which technically means flying standby.

“As you may know, airlines are not able to clear standby passengers until all Customers are boarded. When the time came to board Mr. Smith, we had only a single seat available for him to occupy.

“Our pilots are responsible for the Safety and comfort of all Customers on the aircraft and therefore, made the determination that Mr. Smith needed more than one seat to complete his flight.

“Our Employees explained why the decision was made, accommodated Mr. Smith on a later flight, and issued him a $100 Southwest travel voucher for his inconvenience.”

48 hours later came this:

Southwest Airlines Blog Response by Linda Rutherford, VP of Communications

Better, but too late. Now, go here.

Kevin Smith on Twitter

As mentioned, the issue has exploded.  Now, my question is…where was the Southwest CEO, Gary Kelly,  in all of this? When an incident threatens to become an issue the leader of the company has to become the spokesperson. And that person has to act quickly and decisively to put the issue to rest. Otherwise, the issue becomes a crisis.

In realtime social media 48 hours is too long.

And Kevin Smith has over a million followers on Twitter. Should that make a difference? Yes. Why? Because he is talking to 1.5 million people and what he says matters. Now, yes, he is a movie director and has a following…and that is the point. When you have that large of following, people are interested in what you have to say.

Oh, and by the way, about 12 hours ago a local news station reported that Southwest booted another person off a flight for being too fat.

Another who is Too Fat to Fly

You see the crisis is now news, and has taken a life of its own.

And another man has now been removed from an Air Canada flight because he smelled. And guess what airline was also mentioned?

Too Smelly to Fly

A ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

AND

Recently I was in a good conversation and the subject came up of “and”, in this context… the problem that many companies have in new media is that they believe this is an and…meaning new media adds to their workload.

Middle manager: “You mean I have to do my job…and this new media thing?”

There is no and. New media is a push-pull marketing strategy that takes the place of other advertising, marketing and public relations initiatives. Meaning you can push messaging into the new media space, and pull positive impressions by engaging with consumers. You can cut down your print advertising. Cut down your press releases. Cut down your number of events.

And then you can invest some of that money in publishing interesting content into your distribution channels. You can work on attracting tweeters and bloggers with that content and then bring your messages into the marketplace with many different voices. You can retrieve real-time market-research when consumers address your products, customer service, or marketing initiatives.

And yes, it will cost money. But not as much money as you were investing in simply a push marketing strategy.

There is no and when it comes to new media. And if brands think there is…then those brands are already behind. Consumers want to talk with real people in a company. And if you hide behind a strategy that force-feeds messaging to consumers and ignore their questions, then consumers will only ramp up the volume.

Consumers now publish. Brands should not fight it. They should publish content. Engage. And convert.

And if companies think new media is an add-on, they are ignoring the thousands of people reading about the brand and responding to the product everyday.

New Media is not an add-on.

It is called change.

On the heels of the Outdoor Retailers Show and all of the new  media that was happening around the event, my friend Carson Stanwood emailed me a very timely post from Seth Godin. He writes about the three types of people new media Influencers face in all industries. Again, this is applicable as Influencers, public relations experts and new media companies begin the dialogue about entering into unknown waters.

Here is Seth’s post.

Frightened, clueless or uninformed?

In the face of significant change and opportunity, people are often one of the three. If you’re going to be of assistance, it helps to know which one.

Uninformed people need information and insight in order to figure out what to do next. They are approaching the problem with optimism and calm, but they need to be taught. Uninformed is not a pejorative term, it’s a temporary state.

Clueless people don’t know what to do and they don’t know that they don’t know what to do. They don’t know the right questions to ask. Giving them instructions is insufficient. First, they need to be sold on what the platform even looks like.

And frightened people will resist any help you can give them, and they will blame you for the stress the change is causing. Scared people like to shoot the messenger. Duck.

The worst kind of frightened person is one with power. Someone in a mob of other frightened people, someone with a gun, someone who is the CEO. When confronted with a scared CEO, time to run. Before someone can change, they have to learn, and before they learn, they have to cease being scared.

One reason so many big ideas come from small organizations is that there is far less fear of change at the top. One mistake board members and shareholders make is that they reward the scared but hyper-confident CEO, instead of calling him on the carpet as he rages at change.

When I first encountered surfing, I was scared of it. It looks cool, but an old guy like me can get hurt. A patient instructor allayed my fears until I was willing to get started. When you first start out, the things you think are important are actually irrelevant, and it’s the stuff you don’t know is important that gets you thrown into the ocean. Finally, and only then, was I smart enough to actually learn.

I’m bad at surfing now, but at least I know why.

Comfort the frightened, coach the clueless and teach the uninformed.

Seth Godin\’s Blog

Excellent advice. Now, let all of us in the outdoor recreation new media biz get to work. Our goal should be to help brands and retailers engage with consumers. Growth will be the result.