Friends of Vehr Communications:
Welcome to the first-ever edition of "March Forth," a publication of Vehr Communications, LLC. We are pleased to share this as we celebrate our first year in business, as we publish our new
Web site (we hope you will click over and take a look), and in the wake of the March 4th, 2008 Presidential Primary Election.
Political contests have always been about the use of communications to inform and persuade. Politics shines a bright light on the use of strategic communications to manage reputations, build relationships and deliver results.
March Forth is intended as a resource for professionals interested in strategic communications. We're not trying to answer big questions. We want to connect you to informed ideas and opinions so we can learn together."
Our first-ever edition has a focus on politics because, well, it's the hottest thing going. Besides, we can all learn from those who spend ever second of every day communicating strategically to persuade.
Browse around. Check out our new
Web site. Tell us what you think.
Presidential Politics, Persuasion and the Internet
Ohio's March 4 Presidential Primary just ended and the General Election looks to be unofficially underway. Has the internet changed how politicians communicate to persuade? Are our habits of news-gathering and decision-making about politics forever altered? See what others are saying:
The Internet's Broader Role in Campaign 2008
Detailed study by the Pew Research Center (published in January, 2008); lots of findings about shifting media habits by generation, by race, by party, etc.
The Presidential Election Race Using Web 2.0
An interesting post (Kyle James) on that starts with the Pew study (above) and dives deep into the candidates' use of social networking.
Social Media Meets Politics: Creative.We.Is.
Interesting blog (Todd Defren post) with lots of links (ever see the ObamaGirl video on YouTube)
Some Local (Cincinnati) Campaign Flavor
Museum Center/U.C. Joint Event:
The Cincinnati Museum Center and the U.C. History Department have teamed up to bring an interesting speaker back to Cincinnati. XU Graduate Mike Ford will reflect on 30 years in American politics on March 13 at 7:30 p.m. at the Museum Center. Learn more.
Zoo campaign Web site tries something new:
The Friends of the Zoo campaign committee offered a first-ever vote for the King or Queen of the Jungle
. Visitors voted one of five animals for President and matched the real candidates to the animals. It was fun and generated some traffic but fell a little short of creating the buzz we hoped for. (Vehr Communications managed the 2008 Zoo campaign.)
PR News, PR Insights
Connect (on the left) to a number of PR and Strategic Communications online resources, blogs and discussions. These are some of the ones we particularly favor.
As practitioners, we use communications to manage reputations, build relationships and deliver results. The internet is changing how we do it, but how we have always done it is still critically important.
We hope the connections we provide here, and the various additional news outlets and blogs we connect to on our Web site, help you to understand this rapidly changing industry as much as they help us. | 
