The Art Of Influence In The Digital Age
In an increasingly complex and rapidly evolving government affairs landscape, where legislation and regulations are expanding globally and public perception is ever-present, government affairs teams are facing the challenge of achieving more with fewer resources. To address this, organizations are adopting strategic best practices to enhance their efficiency and effectiveness, including:
1. Media Research and Relations: The media can be friend or foe in the public affairs arena. The best strategists have relationships with the top influencers in all relevant markets. Be proactive by offering resources, insights and interesting story angles. Set news alerts so that you are notified when someone covers relevant, if not related, subject matter. Offer letters to the editor in response to related coverage that reinforces key points, while adding points that were missed. Of course, be responsive to all media inquiries.
2. Social Media Research & Relations: Social media is one of the X factors in the world of public affairs. First, follow key influencers and even competitors. Follow key hashtag conversations to stay abreast of key developments and key influencers. Post and repost positive coverage for added exposure. Reply to allies and fellow advocates to expand the conversation. Monitor your posts and related posts for trolls. It is rarely wise to respond to trolls, but we should know who they are and neutralize them when strategic. Post videos, photos, studies, statistics, etc. that can promote your position and your message. Determine which social media platforms are the best fit for your mission and target audience and encourage your allies to join you there.
3. Leverage Big Data for Analysis: Big data is getting bigger by the day. Conduct an internal audit of the data that you have and the data that you need for optimal performance. Fill the data gaps with third-party data when possible and create new data capturing methods to garner even more ammunition. Enlist artificial intelligence to find issues, opportunities and allies that can help you turn the tide.
By utilizing legislative and regulatory analytics, government affairs teams can embrace data-driven decisions and move beyond qualitative insights from relationships, external consultants, or news reports, which can be inefficient and risky. Reliable analytics platforms provide data-driven insights to inform decision-making, enabling teams to:
- Identify strategic lawmakers for engagement.
- Predict the probability of a bill’s passage.
- Analyze legislator effectiveness in moving legislation.
- Gain insights into trends to develop effective strategies.
This data-driven approach allows government affairs teams to quantify relationships, leverage data, and operate with greater effectiveness and efficiency.
4. Stakeholder Research, Relations & Recruitment: Policy teams need to measure and quantify their impact to demonstrate their value to executives, who prioritize metrics and ROI (Return on Investment). Since advocacy efforts don’t always directly impact the bottom line, it’s essential to look for ways to measure performance that resonate with the C-suite.
Government affairs teams can demonstrate their value by tying results to actions through stakeholder management:
- Quantify financial impact:
- Estimate the financial impact or cost savings of legislative efforts by tracking bills influenced or blocked.
- Show potential financial consequences of policies through economic impact analyses.
- Quantify savings achieved through technology use.
- Track political contributions and relationship development: Grassroots and PAC managers can track political contributions and the development of strategic relationships.
- Record granular details: Advocates should record detailed interactions with legislators.
- Use data to chart effectiveness: These data points help evaluate the effectiveness of strategies, performance, and relationships.
- Leverage technology: Use technology for legislative tracking and policy monitoring to streamline workflows and improve advocacy. Technology platforms can help log actions and connect them to relevant bills, regulations, and legislators.
- Report effectively: Create a reporting framework aligned with organizational goals and use data to demonstrate impact to stakeholders. Develop professional reports that resonate with decision-makers.
- Recruit members and allies who share your vision and agenda.
By focusing on these strategies, government affairs teams can effectively communicate their impact and demonstrate their value to secure additional resources and support.
5. Invest in State and Local Politics: The passage of a surging number of state bills recently emphasizes the growing importance of engaging with state and local governments for organizations, especially with slower federal legislative activity. State legislatures introduce and pass significantly more bills than Congress, directly impacting organizations at the state and local levels.
Instead of solely focusing on potentially ineffective federal lobbying, organizations can gain more traction by engaging with state and local legislators, who are often more accessible and directly impact issues relevant to their constituents. Successful policies enacted at the state or local level can then serve as models for nationwide adoption.
Leveraging technology is crucial for managing the high volume of legislative activity and tracking relationships with numerous legislators across different jurisdictions. Modern advocacy teams need a central platform to store notes, track communications, and manage relationships with key decision-makers on a state-by-state basis. This allows teams to:
- Track and prioritize issues effectively.
- Receive timely alerts and updates on legislative activity.
- Maintain strong ties with decision-makers by tracking interactions.
- Improve efficiency and effectiveness in their government affairs efforts.
In summary, organizations should prioritize a state and local government affairs strategy, leverage technology for efficient issue tracking and relationship management, and recognize the significant impact of legislation at these levels.
6. The X Factors: As hard as we work on the strategies and tactics above, there are several factors that we can’t control. Bribery and blackmail are nothing new in politics and denying their persistence today is naive. We can have common sense and logic in our corner. We can have influencers and decision-makers behind us. Even the media is singing the praise of solution A. But corruption can derail even the best of visions. There are many who believe that Jeffrey Epstein ran a blackmail enterprise on his fantasy island. They claim that he nailed the rich, famous and powerful with compromising photos, videos and more. Others claim that the Russians have compromising photos of Donald Trump, which is why he is so cozy with Putin again during his second term. The threat is real. There isn’t much that can be done, but be vigilant to the possibility.
“Government affairs today is more of an art than a science,” said Gary Chandler, CEO of Crossbow Communications. “Access to many government officials is getting more restricted, so the more that we can reach the masses through the media the better. Activating the stakeholder base is more important than ever.”
Public affairs today is more complex than ever. We have to be visionaries who can strategize and execute simultaneously on many levels, in many markets and often in many countries. Resourcefulness and results are essential. Harnessing big data and AI are now critical success factors for most consulting firms and their clients.
