Before starting any campaign, I ask myself "what are we trying to achieve here." Every client is different. PR goals are typically in line with business goals, which range from increasing revenue to increasing users. Whenever a client (or fellow team member) suggests a campaign or initiative that isn't in line with our current mandate, I compare it to grocery shopping. Anyone can blindly enter the supermarket and buy anything that looks appealing, but at the end of the day, you still don't have anything for dinner.

As digital integrations become more and more commonplace in the industry, it becomes painfully obvious which campaigns were executed with a clear goal in mind, and which were not. A good example of this is a promotion launched by the new AMC show "The Walking Dead." They are running a contest that gives viewers a chance to win a "stagger on role" on the show. Anyone that knows me knows that I'm a die hard zombie fan, so I suffered through the commercials to find out how to enter. The rules: At some point during the Sunday program, a code will be given. Viewers simply have to go to a landing page (on the AMC) site, enter the code, and their contact information and press send. Upon doing so I quickly looked for the sharing tools. Obviously I wanted to share this great contest with my social networks. No. No sharing tools. No "Share on Twitter"; No "Post to Facebook"; No "submit to Digg." You would think that the goal of the network would be to increase viewers of this new program. The logical thing to do would be to give existing viewers the opportunity to become advocates, and share the show with their friends. It isn't that difficult to integrate these tools, but somehow AMC failed to recognize the opportunity. They went to the grocery store and bought a microwaveable dinner.

On the other hand, they have an active and engaged Twitter account at @WalkingDead_AMC with more than 26k followers, and an official Facebook page with more than 354k likes. These tools, however, were created to inform and maintain the existing fans of the 5-episode strong series, not increase viewership (I may be wrong, but you would assume a network with a new series would want that).

This can be easily remedied. Below are my top 3 recommendations for AMC:

1. Heard of chicklets? Add links to Twitter, Facebook and Digg that enable fans to seamlessly share information on the show, contest, video content, etc. with their friends
2. Use what you got! Add embed codes to the videos on the main site that enable fans to share them on their blogs.

3. Promote the newsletter! I've spent the last week obsessing over this show, and didn't realize until a few moments ago that a newsletter existed. In addition to encouraging e-mail signups, create an interactive newsletter that will live on Facebook. The newsletter tab will become the main page for the Facebook fan page and include the great content that already lives on The Walking Dead website. But since it lives on Facebook (where a majority of the show's fans already live!) it makes it easier for fans to share it with their friends.


The only way a show can survive is if it has a strong, growing community. I implore AMC to give their fans the tools to make that happen.


PS: Don't forget to to TiVo "The Walking Dead" (Sundays at 10:00 p.m. ET)