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Shel Holtz
Communicating at the Intersection of Business and Technology
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Clinton’s Fact Hub a model for rapid business response to rumors and inaccuracies

Business can take a lesson from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The presidential candidate has launched a new website called The Fact Hub, designed to provide an instant response to misrepresentations and misstatements of fact. According to an article in The New York Times, even Republican strategists are applauding the move:

Steve Schmidt, a former political strategist for President Bush who helped oversee his 2004 campaign war room, said the new Clinton site was ???the next evolution in rapid response.???

The site is built on a blogging platform (but without comments), enabling quick responses to inaccurate media reports and statements by opposition candidates. It has already been used to debunk a rumor that Sen. Clinton failed to leave a tip at a restaurant, a story that was picked up by a variety of media.

If you’re an anti-Hillary person, please don’t post anti-Hillary comments here. (I’m not a Clinton supporter myself.) This post isn’t about Sen. Clinton but rather the use of social media tools as a channel for quickly addressing rumors and inaccuracies. Business would be well-served to look at this example and adopt it instead of relying on less effective channels like those stodgy corporate statements we’re so accustomed to issuing.

Hat tip to Carmen van Kerckhove for the heads-up.

11/09/07 | 4 Comments | Clinton’s Fact Hub a model for rapid business response to rumors and inaccuracies

Comments

  • 1.You call it debunking a rumor. This was no rumor. They did not tip the waitress according to the waitress. They later gave her and another 20 bucks AFTER the dustup. I suppose the I was for the illegal immigrants getting license before I was against it was also a rumor? Using the media to address screw ups like hers is going to be easier for her as the media is in love with her husband and will support any means to get him back in the White House. Mama's don't let your babies grow up to be interns.

    manapp99 | November 2007

  • 2.<sigh>

    How did I know that a post about a communication tool would provoke a politically-based comment? Sheesh.

    From the New York Times:

    "After NPR broadcast the report, Mrs. Clinton?s campaign responded by saying the candidate and her aides had in fact left a tip: $100 on a $157 check at the diner. The restaurant manager, Brad Crawford, confirmed in interviews, including with The New York Times, that Mrs. Clinton, of New York, and her retinue had indeed left a tip, though he did not say how much."

    But that's neither here nor there. The use of a blog as a tool for addressing negative stories is still a good one -- as the Republicans' Schmidt noted.

    Shel Holtz | November 2007 | Concord, CA

  • 3.Just last week I was talking to a client about how many social media platforms, such as blogs or Twitter, can be used for far more than they were originally designed to do. For example the speed and flexibility with

    http://www.stuartbruce.biz/2007/11/hilary-clin | November 2007

  • 4.It's a brilliant move by the Hillary camp, as long as it continues to stick to the facts and doesn't devolve into typical campaign rhetoric. This kind of website would be especially beneficial to companies facing a public crisis where rumors are flying - of course, you'd have to make sure the company attorneys were bound, gagged and locked in a closet to do it, but it would certainly make communication with a company's key audiences much easier and more effective.

    Mistie Thompson | November 2007 | St. Louis

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