Ah, Mitch Stewart, there you are! Just as the Heartland blows a gasket.

A few things struck me today that reminded me timing is really, really freaking important. First, health care.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, the previously-successful-at-social-media Obama administration has completely missed the boat in utilizing its network to dispel rumors about the health care plan and public option. 

According to an NBC News poll, not only is Obama's disapproval rating at an all-time high, so is the misinformation permeating conversations across the country regarding the health insurance reform proposal. Forty percent of those surveyed said Obama's health care plan would only worsen the quality of their current coverage and that it will limit patients' access to doctors as well as medical treatment options. However, when presented specifics about the plan 53% said they would support a plan with those details. 

Just today, I received only my second email from Mitch Stewart with more details and rumor clarification about the program. Here's the thing: the 'damage control' ship has sailed. As NBC News also asked, are there too many misconceptions circling the nation to ever reel in this issue? Had the administration better planned for the worst-case-scenario word-of-mouth before introducing the proposal they would have had a better shot at controlling the conversation. Now it may be too late. 

Another time sensitive issue--of a much lighter note and of less national significance, so take a breath--happened today in the public relations world. Many of the PR pros I follow on Twitter were discussing Beth Brody of Brody PR and a huge faux pas she committed earlier in the day. Long story short: Beth spammed a "marketing piece" for her firm to every PR big wig in her contact list. And when I say big, I mean big. The problem: she open cc'd all of the addresses instead of choosing the much more subtle bcc option, allowing a public "Reply All" free for all.  Rather than immediately issuing a mea culpa, apologizing for the email debacle, neither she nor her team released a statement until about 7 hours later. In the meantime, the topic harpooned on Twitter into the Biggest Mistake Ever made by a PR professional. This is a perfect example of the need to respond immediately and clearly. Social networks just move too fast (if you're the one who made a mistake).

PR pros, I'd love to hear your thoughts on timeliness. Can you be prepared for everything, with a plan ready to go, even for social blunders like the famed "reply all" response? 

Are you there, Obama? It's me, Rebecca.

I thought we were almost BFF's. We were tight. You were emailing me every day! 

But for a president who revolutionized the way candidates interact and rally their troops during a campaign, your team has apparently forgotten that using both mainstream and social media might also help with pushing your agenda. That is until today, with the launch of the Health Insurance Reform Reality Check. 

I will say that this is a totally bipartisan blog post, but it was just yesterday that I was so frustrated at the difficulty of finding out specifics about the program. And I'm not talking about finding the actual bill that's proposed. I want laymen's terms, is-my-grandma-gonna-be-put-to-pasture and is-my-dad-gonna-go-broke kind of details to respond to to circulating rumors. To me, this type of communication is essential for people like me, Gen-Y young professionals who can't study the 1000-pg. bill right this minute, but truly want to know what's going to make it work. 

It seems that more right-leaning networks as well as opponents of the bill know exactly why Obama's health care plan can't and won't work, and those are the things I'm hearing. I want facts and statements just as simple about why it WILL work. In a fairly decent example of integrated marketing communications to push the message, today I was finally reached by the administration with the campaign, both through my social networks and of "Reality Check" coverage on my local news (which I only saw because it was on one of the TV's at the gym). 

If you're like me (typical Gen-Y attention span and fairly unfamiliar with the health care industry), the videos on the site may help get a better, more balanced idea of what the president is proposing. I'm anxious to watch the polls over the next few weeks to see if the campaign is the "reality check" America wants after all. 

If the Obama campaign successfully utilized social networking (and built what I thought was a strong relationship!) to disseminate information and gain support, why would the Obama presidency not do the same? 

Don't get me wrong, I'm all about social media...

...but let's hope that Wedding 2.0 does not become a trend of the future. I prefer to think of this as a (very successful) social experiment. 

Wouldn't you be annoyed if your friend sends this to you two days before her wedding? Then again...I'm a planner.

Creative for a cause

I've been really inspired by Blame Drew's Cancer and think this can give non-profits some ideas about how they can fundraise using Twitter. Here's how it works: we Twitter users, like Drew, can blame all of our problems on his cancer. If I can't find my keys, I can #BlameDrewsCancer. If my dog peed in the house, I'm going to #BlameDrewsCancer. And so on. 

With the goal of donating to the cause's new parter, LIVESTRONG, the final tally of "complaints" from Drew's Cancer--AFTER he's beaten it--will hopefully be matched with a dollar donation from sponsors. We can also join the cause on Facebook (http://bit.ly/13TpN2), using the hash tag on Twitter is a lot more fun. 

For those of you who are leaders of non-profits: do you think this could be a way to build exposure for smaller non-profits to a larger scale? On the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Twitter is still a relatively intimidating component of social media, and it has yet to take off (I Blame Drew's Cancer) outside of the young professionals population. However, I'm thinking similar promotions on Twitter would be a smart way to promote Gulf Coast causes. What do you think?