Evidence of failure of CAP public affairs

[AirDX]

"We hope you find this service interesting and entertaining, but you probably wouldn't want to write your Ph.D. dissertation based on the information provided by Trends."

The problem with your use of this "data" is you don't know how they've sampled and massaged it, and you haven't QCed it at all.

I just plugged in some random search terms, and they all showed the same decline.

I tried "cessna", "astronomy", and even "toastmasters" (didn't you say Toastmasters was on the rise?).  "Congress".  Lots of things - some were level with spikes, most were declining like CAP.

There's something else going on than a "failure" of CAP PAOs, and I think it's in how Google Trends manipulates data and generates their index.

This is a non-event.

[JC004]

I think we need a more rigorous statistical analysis before deciding that this info means much of anything.

Oh, I certainly wouldn't say that this represents either high quality data or statistical analysis, but it is at least as good as any other data available to us at this point.  Web site hit data would be nice to have as well.

Maybe I should talk about who I think is failing in this case. 

I certainly don't put all or actually even much blame on NHQ.  While I think we probably could expect more from our paid staff they are no more at the heart of our public affairs program than are the NHQ paid ES guys are at the heart of our ES program.  They have let us down in certain areas without a doubt.  Maybe the blame is more on those who set our budget priorities and maybe they haven't been given the resources to really do any sort of national marketing campaign.

The main problem is that there is an extreme shortage of active unit public affairs officers and mission information officers to get CAP the publicity it needs at the local and state level.  An active PAO can just do wonders, but most are either ghosts on the organization chart or just barely active. 

Now, someone made the point earlier that our membership is growing so how bad could our public affairs be?  Well, if we were growing at a really strong clip, that might hold water.  But, on average we're barely adding 1 or 2 new members per unit across the country.  That hardly represents any sort of surge and I think that any unit should be able to sustain that rate with no public affairs program at all.  We have all been part of or heard of major public affairs events [put on by some unit resulting in huge spikes in membership.  If that was happening across the country our membership might be increasing by 10-20K per year and we'd be adding units across the country.  Any increase is great and shows that some units somewhere are doing things right, but its nothing to brag about. 

Now, lets turn to the "other organizations are doing bad so its no big deal if CAP is doing bad" argument.  I'm not surprised the Boy and Girl Scout trends are down.  Their membership has been falling.  The Boy Scouts lost 3% of their UNITs from 2009 to 2010.  Membership organizations such as ours have been in a general downturn for decades.  Toastmasters are a different story -- they have actually been growing at a great clip over recent years according to their annual report (an increase of 22% from 2006-2010) and if you measure them by number of news references (like I did with CAP in my last post) their number of mentions has been on the rise while ours has been on a decline.  If anything that might show a positive relationship between news stories and very high membership growth rates.

I think this is basically right.  As I have been saying, this isn't an issue of "NHQ public affairs people suck" or "National volunteer public affairs people suck."  It's more an issue of an ongoing neglect by the National Board and others that has been going on for many, many, many years (and many new people over that time).  While things may have been done by specific groups or individuals that are disappointing, the problem is ongoing and has several causes.

As I see it, marketing must be addressed as such:

• Cut off Bob from the outside world so he doesn't know that things are being done with social media
• Make an actual Facebook presence that doesn't suck, get the official setup going - not a million pages (which reminds me, I have to make a list of Facebook examples)
• Make an actual Twitter presence that doesn't suck
• Make a YouTube presence...Having one to start with would be great.  Then make sure it doesn't suck.
• Standard brand across online media
• STYLE GUIDE - COME ON, PEOPLE.  SERIOUSLY.
• Standard logo!  Duh.  Again...seriously.
• Make the vehicles not look silly
• Local Search Engine Optimization - for example: I type in "volunteering philadelphia pa" into Google and up comes CIVIL AIR PATROL!
• General Search Engine Optimization
• Website re-design (internal and external)
• Get "civilairpatrol.com" through an ICANN appeal. We have General Counsel for stuff like that.
• Re-do the print brochures and other print materials
• Prepare more guides for the wings and subordinate units to implementing marketing of all kinds
• Prepare templates for wings and subordinate units to use (website, social media, print materials, etc.)
• Increase the material offered in the Public Affairs toolkit
• Implement e-learning for things in public affairs - general marketing, writing, photography, websites, etc.
• Create an easy-to-deploy system for wings and subordinate units to take a standard software set (content management system and extras) and templates to deploy a unit website easily
• Revise CAPR 110-1 (while technically an IT regulation, this has a significant impact on online operations - especially marketing)
• Start a social media working group - NOT a committee.  Make it composed of people who KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING
• Stop this silliness of National's FIRST consideration of social media being the SOCIAL MEDIA POLICE. Instead, implement guides, best practices, etc. as Pylon has outlined previously
• List CAP on volunteer recruiting websites nationwide.  Assist the units in doing the same.
• Effective partnerships and collaboration with outside organizations
• Increased presence of CAP at related conferences and similar events
• New public service announcements
• Develop FIELD teams of great photographers and videographers to collect more material for local and general use
• Provide software and links to software for units to use that would help in things like web work
• Provide a great set of image files - logos, web banners, website graphics, that can be used as-is or easily modified (like a Photoshop .psd) for customized use

Overall, the approach should be:

• Standards
• A solid, consistent brand
• Engagement
• Useful materials
• Member guidance
• Member education
• Utilization of member talents and ideas to make the program a success from National to the squadron

The following are not included:

• A racecar
• Totally freaking random usage of brand elements like colors and logos
• Anything half-baked

Special emphasis should be on educating, empowering, and equipping at the local level.  Marketing campaigns, like political campaigns, are highly local and things like local SEO and squadron-level education in marketing assist in making this a success.

While I keep working on my personal Operations materials (as time allows, bit by bit) for eventual release to the masses once they're done, I keep seeing these issues and kind of thinking that I should go back to marketing stuff if given the support/opportunities, including updating my massive 4-part Public Affairs course (a 4-inch binder worth of material).

[RiverAux]

I tried "cessna", "astronomy", and even "toastmasters" (didn't you say Toastmasters was on the rise?).  "Congress". 

I said Toastmasters news stories had increased not web searches for them. 

[RADIOMAN015]

Unfortunately, much of what is presented gets down to the volunteers available time to do all of this.  Also the willingness of the local/regional media to run stories about CAP, which will vary greatly throughout the US.

IF you look even at wing level website you will see lack of updates.  My wing currently doesn't even have a pubic access site for wing related public affairs information e.g. stories, news releases etc. ---  I also know that the wing Director of Marketing & Public Affairs (new title) is working full time in a demand job.     

Personally, my suggestion on the website information is to have national maintain a sub site for every wing and the wing posts their news to that site.    On the squadron side, I now have a younger senior member who has the skill, motivation, and discipline (and has) re energized the squadron website.   I now have to catch up my articles to post a two year history of what we've done, with of course the current year having individual articles.  However, again with squadron (groups & even wings) IF you loose the resident expert on website design/maintenance, the site becomes outdated.   Is it better to not have a website at all OR to have one that has only news 2 years old  

It also seems to be an IG "checklist charlie" item on publishing a unit newsletter.  Personally, I think stories should be published (our goal) to the website as they happen rather than news that is a month or more old being published.  The issue also is do we publish the story in html or in PDF format (or both).  It's also very expensive to publish in paper form a squadron newsletter, especially if it is in color.

It does seem to me that all the talk about social media policy at the NB level seems to be more about "control of the membership (opinions)" rather than "substance improvement on the use of".       

Additionally even in the planning side, when I took a public relations course in college,  public relations planning primarily looked at the various "publics" (e.g. general public, our membership, potential/actual contributors/supporters, potential/current users of services) and developed specific strategies for each (including method(s) for reaching).

IF you look at any wing plan it is basically the same for all of them.   They also want the same type of plan at the unit level.   The unit level plan in my opinion really just needs to be a supplement to the wing plan or even use the wing plan as the guide.  Time needs to be spent actually producing content to distribute to the media, rather than "pie in the sky" planning.   So if you asked me what my plan is, it is:...  " to foster good community relations & awareness by participating in community events & also preparing and sending news releases (and completed stories) to various media outlets in the local area for squadron and individual squadron members achievements...."   I don't believe in flooding the media with lots of news releases but trying to do one or two a month.

I think the pubic relations/public affairs paid employees at National, really are committed to do the best job possible.  They've published my releases in CAP Volunteer Now, and sometimes I'm writing the stories/releases for wing and even region events because there's no other PAO available to attend (which I understand totally because of the cost of gas just to travel to these events (and even the travel time) that are held right in my back yard so to speak).   Yes I just step in and do it :angel:, without even being asked

I think that our public affairs/public relations program will always face challenges and some controversy BUT overall I think we are making some progress.
RM

[RiverAux]

It also seems to be an IG "checklist charlie" item on publishing a unit newsletter.  Personally, I think stories should be published (our goal) to the website as they happen rather than news that is a month or more old being published.   

FYI, using a wing web site as your "newsletter" has been accepted on at least two wing compliance inspections that I'm aware of. 

[Smithsonia]

There are so many things to say on this subject. Several I know nothing about and being trained in "old media" I won't comment on - with this exception - Twitter and Facebook are certainly worthy pursuits particularly regarding cadet recruitment.

Regarding "old media": Almost every town, state, region has a cable channel devoted to the community. These were once titled Community or Public Access channels. The channel that I have in Colorado routinely run 30 minute feature video content from the Army/Air Force/ and Marines. I have long sought funds to produce a 30 minute documentary or magazine format show to provide an interesting half hour program. I think with a cadre of 6-8 cadets and 3 to 4 seniors this could be done for about $500.00 per episode ($1000-$1500 per year.) I even had a local station in Denver offer to donate cameras and some editing time for this project plus the local community access had extra edit room time to donate.

If I remember right the 5 access channels that I talked to in Colorado were willing to clear 20 half hours per month to run this project in rotation along with the Army Navy etc.. That is a bunch of free publicity even given the fact that Public Access channels don't garner large audiences.

I put it to my command and they thought about it so long that the TV station pulled out and the local access channel became wary of our dedication to the project.
I think:
a) This kind of project can be done nearly anywhere because public access channels are ubiquitous.
b) This kind of project can fill in with resources from National and other Wings. You tube stealing should be encouraged.
c) This kind of project would be a great teaching tool for CAP Cadets to learn both PA duties and television production.

If you like the idea. Do it.

Pieces and parts of this idea still exist on You Tube SEE HERE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EyJmkER-d8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VZJhTMURs4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SzvIsMC6B4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbciFZYHGzk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mze_U34y7mk

[Eclipse]

It also seems to be an IG "checklist charlie" item on publishing a unit newsletter.  Personally, I think stories should be published (our goal) to the website as they happen rather than news that is a month or more old being published.   

FYI, using a wing web site as your "newsletter" has been accepted on at least two wing compliance inspections that I'm aware of.

As well it should - no one is interested in "newsletters" anymore.  The ones I get, I pitch.  The very nature of the medium means they are not current
information, just a rehash to check a box, and even a lot of those are filled with non-CAP information.

As to the domain name, seriously?  It never occurred to me until this minute that the "gocivilarpatrol" domain was anything but a misguided attempted to be "withit".  That could be handled in a few phone calls or a lawyer letter or two.  Or just buy the darn thing and move on.

The fact that we moved off the ".gov" is ridiculous for starters, and CAP.com is just a placeholder as well.

[JC004]

It also seems to be an IG "checklist charlie" item on publishing a unit newsletter.  Personally, I think stories should be published (our goal) to the website as they happen rather than news that is a month or more old being published.   

FYI, using a wing web site as your "newsletter" has been accepted on at least two wing compliance inspections that I'm aware of.

As well it should - no one is interested in "newsletters" anymore.  The ones I get, I pitch.  The very nature of the medium means they are not current
information, just a rehash to check a box, and even a lot of those are filled with non-CAP information.

As to the domain name, seriously?  It never occurred to me until this minute that the "gocivilarpatrol" domain was anything but a misguided attempted to be "withit".  That could be handled in a few phone calls or a lawyer letter or two.  Or just buy the darn thing and move on.

The fact that we moved off the ".gov" is ridiculous for starters, and CAP.com is just a placeholder as well.

That's true and CAP's .gov domain may yet get yanked with the new project to review these as ordered by EOP.  This is especially true, I'd think, if it isn't being used.  The lack of a real redirect effort was a joke too on the part of the company that built the mess.

If you go to civilairpatrol.com, which as I said, should be acquired by ICANN's process, has a link to buy the thing.  If you click it, it says "Why Build a Brand When You Can Buy One?™"

How about that?  They're allowing you to buy Civil Air Patrol's brand.  They must be on the losing end since CAP doesn't have much of one because they neglected to build it!  :-)  That said, legitimate claim under Federal Law, so the thing is CAP's - BOOM.  I know someone who has done these things.  I reviewed the work that he did for my credit union.  Pretty straightforward. 

Do you really think they tried to be cool, though?  Or they just saw "Sorry, civilairpatrol.com is not available.  We suggest: gocivilairpatrol.com, getacivilairpatrol.com, supercivilairpatrol.com, mycivilairpatrol.com..."? 

[jimmydeanno]

well, the Army put "Go" in their URL, they have a lot of members... 

[JC004]

well, the Army put "Go" in their URL, they have a lot of members... 

I've seen this little pattern of "check out armed services websites, put it in National Board agenda."  They need to look at a BROAD range of sources for ideas, especially volunteer organizations.  At current, they don't seem to be looking at volunteer organizations, based on what's written.

Someone needs to task them to my list above.  It should keep them occupied.

[Eclipse]

The problem is that the audience is the "great unwashed", and for them, "go" and "my" seem to still mean something in internet naming.

[Major Carrales]

Contrary to what you read on GOOGLE, GOOGLE is not the WORLD.  But they are working on it.

[EMT-83]

Someone at Google just logged that comment!

[Major Lord]

If the sole purpose of CAP Public Affairs Officers was to ensure that we have a continuing and climbing incidence of searches by name, it would still be a tremendous over-reach to suggest that a Google ( A company with a very political agenda) trend chart represents useful data. Polls and Statistical evaluations are far better tools for altering public opinion than reflecting it. To suggest that Google Searches for CAP have a direct correlation on our publicity or recruiting efforts is an unreliable and potentially misleading tool for evaluating PAO's .

The single largest search for a single word as I understand it is still the word "sex" , and we have not seen sex become wildly more popular as a correlated function of Google searches. CAP and Sex still seem to be remarkably popular, despite Googles' advocacy or dissuasion.

I reject the initial premise that PAO's are merely an ad hoc public relations firm, whose sole job is to keep our names and heroic exploits ( while leaving out the scandals and corruption) in the eyes of the public, and I would not characterize the Google data as " Evidence of failure of Public Affairs" and find the inference insulting, ignorant, and ill conceived ( Note: I am not a PAO, although I do enjoy Kung PAO chicken) 

This does not address the larger question of whether CAP is in fact a "failing" organization. To make that statement would be as much an unfair over-reach as the first accusation. It is clear that our mission is changing, and that all things being equal, we are not currently the beloved step-children of USAF or USG in general. Things could change.......we have the very clear advantage of working for free, something that becomes increasingly desirable as our Country falls into a cataclysmic financial abyss. If we can keep our own leadership from turning us into a flying Peace Corp, and lead us back to Father-USAF to get us back into the homeland security game, we stand a fair chance of surviving, but this is not something an uncoordinated mass of PAO's can do for us. Its up to us to sink or swim.

Major Lord

[RiverAux]

I never said that CAP was a failing organization, just that our public affairs program is failing.  We've been puttering along in about the same place for many years now. 

I'm not sure what you think the job of the PAO is if it isn't to keep CAP in front of the media to the maximum extent practical.  Yes, they also have duties in keeping our members informed as well, but those two go pretty hand in hand.  Either you've got a PAO that does both or you've got a "PAO" that probably doesn't do either. 

I actually did cite some of CAP's polls showing how little known our name is.  There is no doubt that if we re-did that poll now it would give us more reliable information on how we are doing.  Give me some money and I'll do the poll.  In the meantime, I make use of what data is available. 

BTW, there are several other threads where the failures of CAP's public affairs program are discussed in great detail.  No one is resting any argument solely on this information.

[SoCalMarine]

I'm going to have to side with RiverAux here.

I have two examples which are completely anecdotal so back off you Academic Nazi's! (Just kidding Eclipse!  )

First example: Upon getting off active duty, after a few months I starting looking to get involved in some type of service organization. I ran across the Coast Guard Auxiliary by chance and ended up joining. Before anyone thinks I'm saying the CGAUX is better, I am not. I think their PA program has had issues as well speaking to people outside of the boating community. Anyway, during all that time I never came across CAP in a search. Funny thing is, I was in CAP as a cadet, and I had completely forgotten about the existence of the organization. I only came across CAP after a few years in the CGAUX when some cadets showed up to a rescue swimmer demonstration we were putting on with the USCG. So, even for people searching CAP doesn't always come up.

How do you guys think we can change that?

Second example: I recently attended the CLC class at the AFA. One of the instructors was a 2nd year cadet, and still a CAP member. Someone in the class asked him how many fellow cadets knew of CAP. He answered that almost no one that he has talked to in two years knew. The only ones that did know were, for the most part, current or former members and they had their own little get togethers. He DID say, however, that the brass generally knew about CAP, and that it was his personal belief that CAP cadets going to the AFA were expected to be more knowledgeable and squared away than the average cadet coming in. Sometimes, that made it harder, but better.

Just two examples. I think more public events need to take place, more CAP sponsorship and so on. You've got to spend the money to make the money.

I have been working to help CAP on different levels with PA stuff. I'm the public affairs specialist with my Guard unit, and I'm a PA III with the CGAUX (the highest level). I've got considerable experience, but I keep running into excuses. Some are legitimate, and some are not in my opinion.

[flyboy53]

Two things.

First, you can make statistics say anything you want them to say, so I'm not that excited about this graph.

Second, if you're really looking for a way to boost CAP's image in the public, that's a big PR campaign above and beyond the financial resources of NHQ, the Regions, Wings and local units. Remember the more local the level, the more likely the public relations is handled by a volunteer doing the best that person can do.

Anthing above and beyond the local unit press in the local media takes big bucks and a PR department looking at getting the message out there, and I, for one, am not that excited about throwing money at NASCAR again.  Remember, too, that the average local person looks at the CAP as part of the Air Force, so you have the same identity crisis that the Guard and Rerserve feel no matter what you do.

You want to boost the name recognition, especially in a positive way, than the responsibility falls on each of us to promote the organization in any POSTIVE way we can.

I have, however, been very excited recently at the sharp ads in the Air Force Association monthly magazine that show us doing our thing.

[RiverAux]

Well, right now CAP is spending only about 100K out of a 55 million dollar national budget on advertising, which is just amazing to me.  Sure, NASCAR was a disaster, but there actually are effective ways to spend money on marketing CAP.  For example, advertising could be bought for a song in the many regional pilot-focused tabloids that you can find in FBOs across the country. 

I'm glad that you agree with me that the local PAO is the heart of the program.  The few real PAOs that we have (as opposed to many that are on the roster but do nothing) can make an impact.  If there were more of them and if they received proper support then I might not say that the PA program as a whole is a failure. 

I'm very glad to hear about ads in the AFA magazine. 

[Spaceman3750]

Well, right now CAP is spending only about 100K out of a 55 million dollar national budget on advertising, which is just amazing to me.

Really? Why is PA more important than our three missions? If you want to spend more money it's got to come from some other budget area, presumably where it's being better spent.

[RiverAux]

Who said it was more important?  Are you saying that we should spend absolutely nothing on anything other than ES, AE, and CP?  Of course you're not (I assume).  But, this is a truly insignificant and insufficient amount.  PA is an investment in making sure you have the people and resources so that you can carry out your primary missions. 

Now, if you gave me a choice of having 100 top-flight squadron PAOs or 1 million to spend on advertising, I'd probably pick the PAOs.  But, that isn't the choice we've got.