Alan Wolk: Sarah Palin Is Your Social Media Role Model

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Sunday at the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin (SXSW 2010), marketing consultant Alan Wolk co-hosted a panel discussion on Sarah Palin’s successful use of social media:

"For whether you agree with her or not, the fact that she can post something on Facebook and get 3,000 comments in 3 hours, is pretty remarkable."

Wolk and co-host Brian Cain got the audience involved in the conversation, and a wide range of opinions were expressed. The consensus ("more or less") was that Gov. Palin’s social media strength has three basic components:

A Consistent Message: She does an excellent job of staying on point on not straying from her core message and storyline.

A Strong POV: Palin does not try and please everyone. She does not worry about what people outside her core constituency think and has very definite opinions on things that she is not afraid to both express and defend.

A Feeling Of Familiarity: Palin’s supporters often view her as “my friend Sarah, the politician.” You can see this in the very personal tone of many of the Facebook comments, which are written as if the poster was speaking to an old friend.

Wolk's full post is here.

- JP

Brand management experts see opportunity for Palin

A number of personal brand management experts see opportunity for Sarah Palin in her step down from the Alaska governor's office:

"She's fascinating. She's a celebrity in a party that has very few celebrities," said Jenn Stark, who runs Know Your Brand in Cincinnati, Ohio. "So if she plays her cards right, it could really, really work out well for her."

The problem for the former Republican vice presidential nominee is that she's so famous, virtually everyone has already formed strong opinions about her. So far, her brand has been defined by others -- first, by the John McCain campaign and then by the media.

"I think that was one of the reasons there was this abrupt resignation," said Rex Whisman, founder of BrandED Consultants Group in Denver. "Now is the time to develop an appropriate brand platform and have Gov. Palin define and help guide what her brand is."

Because, as Stark put it, "she has already set a brand perception within the minds of many Americans," Palin can't make radical changes.

"Her brand will continue to be one that is strongly conservative, strongly for the American individual, and I think that will continue to play well in the heartland," said Stark.

The rest of the article is here.

- JP