Obama cranks up the hoax-busting machine

Taking their rapid rumor response and online communication strategy to the next level, the Obama campaign today launched FightTheSmears.com - their new myth and hoax-busting web site. One of the campaign's greatest hurdles has been constantly fighting false rumors perpetuated by blogs and chain e-mails. The campaign first largely passed over the rumors, not giving them any more credibility than they deserved. However, rumors continued to circulate and dog the campaign, so they launched the FactCheck microsite. Still, the myths persisted and chatter got louder, so today they came out in a big way to announce the new site.

FightTheSmears lists each popular rumor followed by a brief explanation of the truth and, in most cases, a link to a third-party web site to give it additional credibility. What's most important about this site is that it enables users to immediately send the truth to their network of friends. This makes critical use of a growing, highly effective, grassroots organization and helps quickly spread corrections.

TIME's web site today asked if the strategy would work. If Obama's grassroots organization continues to have opportunities to spread news quickly, and if they make it easy enough for on-the-fence folks to jump in, too, FightTheSmears.com will be a success. The rumors will never go away completely, but the web site will help slow their circulation. In addition, Thomas Goetz at Wired writes of the SEO strategy behind pushing the site out in a very public manner. If enough people begin linking to FightTheSmears.com and the site gets enough of the right web attention, it will drive down rumor mongering sites on search results pages, effectively putting the most credible information at the top. Sounds like a nice, extra SEO bump on top of a massive truth-spreading effort.

On a related note, a great example of a hoax-busting web site in the corporate space is Coca-Cola's Facts and Myths site. I'm not sure who helped them develop it (if anyone) but we've shown it as an example of a best practice.

Wal-Mart plays nice with activists

There's a great article in the New York Times today about Wal-Mart making inroads with some of its most active, harsh critics by engaging them as partners. One of the things Richard Edelman has been talking about for years is that when fighting attacks from NGOs, companies can make progress by looking for places where the two sides can come together and actually make improvements. After all, activist groups exist for a reason - to remind you there is another side to every story, and while you can't always satisfy them (nor should you try) major improvements to company policy or culture can be made by working with them. For example, Wal-Mart has improved its labor relations and environmental programs, among other things, by a considerable amount.

No doubt, it took Wal-Mart many mishaps and missteps to get to the point where it is now and it will certainly make many more on its road to build its reputation. It is too early to tell, but the fact that the company is engaging activists on a problem-solving level (and that the activists are actually engaging back) could be the beginning of a solid case study in activist relations.