A striking chart on the history of personal computer unit sales stirred up conversation in January that mobile computing is the harbinger of death for the PC. What struck us at Dominion Strategies, however, were its implications for Social, Local, Mobile (SoLoMo) search and marketing in the public affairs space.

The number of people carrying the Internet in their pockets and briefcases is exploding exponentially. Nielsen estimates that there were 116 million mobile web users in the United States in September 2011, and smartphones outsold PCs for the first time in the fourth quarter. This creates an opportunity for advocacy groups, non-profits, and grassroots organizers to instantly connect with potential supporters at the moment their passion is piqued, and point them to a local leadership network and other nearby supporters. What’s more, the contact is inherently personal, literally touching them where they live.

Opinion leaders are uniquely positioned to extend that touch into the public advocacy space. Tapping their influence is essential to optimize Social, Local, Mobile (SoLoMo) search behind the goals of any campaign. Resources and insights provided by the Opinion Leader Network® can powerfully harness that influence, which spurs action among supporters and encourages them to interconnect locally. Those relationships, once forged, can be maintained with ongoing engagement strategies, providing a ready resource for future campaigns.

According to Google, “high quality content is content that you can send to your child to learn something.” By raising standards for producers and driving progress in terms of content quality, Google Panda, Google’s current search results ranking algorithm, will increase the quality expectations of users over time.

Former NASCAR Communications Executive and Public Affairs Veteran to Offer Clients Crisis Communications and Litigation Support Counsel

For over twenty years, Ramsey Poston has been guiding his clients to successful resolution of high-stakes public relations issues. Mr. Poston develops comprehensive strategies to ensure that his clients’ image remains intact and that his clients’ positions gets a full and public hearing.

“The addition of Ramsey to our team will be a significant benefit to our clients,” said John Leary, Dominion Strategies’ managing partner.  “Ramsey is one of the best strategists around.  His experience managing crises and litigation makes Dominion Strategies even stronger.”

Mr. Poston has most recently managed NASCAR’s Communications Department, leading a team of 30 public relations professionals covering all aspects of the sport’s communications. He has been credited for building one of the best PR teams in sports.  In this role, Mr. Poston applied innovation and foresight by developing strategies for social media; development of revolutionary statistical applications; enhanced photography resources; and the creation of the NASCAR Citizen Media Corps.

Additionally, Mr. Poston served as NASCAR’s chief communications strategist and spokesperson for all litigation and crisis situations. During his tenure at NASCAR, he successfully led the litigation communications efforts in a number of high-profile cases.  He has been the on-record spokesperson for NASCAR, conducting close to 1,500 interviews.

Prior to joining NASCAR, Mr. Poston served as a Senior Vice President at the Washington, D.C. public affairs firm Powell Tate. While at Powell Tate, Mr. Poston specialized in crisis communications. He led the firm’s Labor & Employment practice, providing strategic communications counsel to companies in a number of employee-management scenarios including litigation, contract negotiations, unionization campaigns, and corporate campaigns.

Mr. Poston holds a bachelor’s degree in political studies from Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island, and studied language and Asian political systems at Sophia University in Tokyo.

The rapid development of communications technologies has been at the center of this change, so it’s no surprise that in the first standalone measure of smart phone usage, the Pew Internet Project gathers some interesting data that shines a light on this.   In a national telephone survey of adults conducted April 26 – May 22, 35 percent – over one-third – of Americans report owning smart phones.  These Americans access the Internet or email on phones (87%), which includes two-thirds (68%) who do so on a daily basis.  Twenty-five percent responded that they mostly use their smart phones for accessing the Internet rather than their desktop or laptop computers.

When separated by demographic group, higher levels of smartphone adoption were seen among the financially well-off and well-educated, non-whites, and those under the age of 45.

Seeing clear evidence of these trends over the last several years, we adapted the Opinion Leader Network , our proprietary online advertising network for advocacy campaigns and premium brand advertisers, to increasingly focus on mobile devices to reach opinion leaders.

The rate of adoption of mobile devices among opinion leaders shows no sign of slowing and the OLN is staying in front of the trend.

Facebook’s EdgeRank and Google’s algorithms have many implications for how businesses, non-profits, and citizens share and receive information. “News Feed Optimization” will soon become just as important as search engine optimization for most organizations.  This TED talk with Eli Pariser points to the need to understand “filter bubbles.”