Armed with a passion for heart care, a strong focus on prevention and a love of the Butler community, Dr. Azouz returned to BHS after a short stint at an urban hospital. He came back with a mission to educate patients, helping them understand the risks and causes of heart disease and, ultimately, helping them prevent it. Fitting Group’s mission? Let Butler County know about Dr. Azouz’s much-anticipated return.

Using the BHS website, print advertising, outdoor advertising and direct mail pieces, we spread the word that this familiar face is back in town. Only a month later, his patient numbers are as high as his standards for heart care. Welcome back, Dr. Azouz!

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…a team of highly-specialized orthopedic surgeons!

When Butler Health System asked us to promote the super hero-like skills of their orthopedic specialists, we dubbed the doctors “Ortho Force” and the campaign took off. Tactics like TV spots, outdoor boards, print ads, online banner advertising and Google AdWords drive users to the new Ortho Force website. The site highlights the skills and personality of each member of Ortho Force, proving that these seven unique docs make an unstoppable team.

Can they solve your bone and joint issues? Absolutely. Are they more powerful than a locomotive, faster than a speeding bullet, and able to leap tall buildings at a single bound? Hey, you never know.

So as a young Republican, I should be enthused about the following:

Last week, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, candidates to become chairman of the RNC were asked at a debate, among other questions, whether they have any followers on Twitter. Almost all of them responded ‘yes’ and went on to quote the exact numbers of social media followers and friends they had accumulated on not only Twitter, but Facebook as well.

This somewhat unusual line of questioning is part of a larger movement by the Republican party to focus on the Internet and social media after the November drubbing by the more tech-savvy Democrats. In fact, a coalition of Republicans came up with a ten-point action plan outlining how to rebuild the Republican party, with “the Internet” as the number one priority. According to them, “Winning the technology war with the Democrats must be the RNC’s number one priority in the next four years.”

So am I, as the young, social media-pushing Republican, enthused about this? No. Here’s why.

If the Republican party really does plow ahead making the Internet its number one priority, it will be missing a vital step in the process of rejuvenating itself – REBUILDING THE BRAND (or, as we like to say, spanking).

Whether it is social media, online advertising or good old-fashioned print advertising, it doesn’t matter which outlet you’re using if the right message isn’t there. The majority of my peers (who supported Obama to McCain 2:1) were not supporting Obama because they received his tweets or were friends with him on Facebook. They supported him because they wanted change and his brand represented that. Consistently.

The Republican party has already realized it needs to revitalize itself, and that’s an important first step for Challenger Brands. But before it jumps the gun and tries to “get out there” and “connect,” there needs to be consensus about what it stands for and what message it’s trying to portray. Once everyone has a message and cause to rally around, then online support will develop naturally – that’s the beauty of social media.

Until then, tweet off.