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Chris joins Purple in a senior creative and strategy role, and he will work closely with Purple’s brand trust division, Citizen2, to serve many of the firm’s Fortune 500 clients. He previously served as an executive creative director at Leo Burnett USA. Julcher is best known for his work on Kellogg’s brands including the awarded “Childhood is Calling” campaign for Kellogg’s Rice Krispies.

Kevin joins Purple after serving as a senior member of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s communications team. As the city of Chicago’s first director of social media and an official spokesperson, Hauswirth developed innovative ways to merge traditional and new media to build the city’s coordinated approach to digital communications.

Our clients continue to look to Purple for help with their unique brand trust and reputation opportunities, and Chris and Kevin will both prove to be strong additions to our Chicago team led by John Gatti and Chris Mather.

Read more about our team based at the corner of Washington and Morgan in the West Loop.

But, while English speakers were split on Chávez and his legacy in the hours and days following his death, Spanish speakers on social media were far more sympathetic and more likely to embrace Chávez as a leader deserving of respect. And, because more than 70% of total online conversations were in Spanish (1,264,065 on March 5 alone), looking only at English discussions gives a distorted view of the perceptions of Chávez worldwide.

The chart below shows the number of conversations mentioning Chávez each hour following the news of his death:

In the hour after the news broke, Chávez generated 717,297 online conversations. Over the next 24 hours that rate decreased, of course, but remained much higher than this month’s average daily total of 27,442 mentions.

Most interesting is the difference in content between the English and Spanish conversations. Take the cloud below in English. Highlighted words are split between positive and negative. Chávez was a friend of the poor and a great leader, but was also a polarizing figure.

The Spanish cloud sees things a bit differently. Highlighted words have been translated and include passing and nation. Rafael and Frías, Chávez ’s middle name and his mother’s maiden name, also appear. Conversations that included his full name were mostly positive and respectful. Other terms in the cloud, like #laculpaestuyapor, which translates to “shame on you,” were used in response to those who dared to say negative things about Chávez.

Trending Twitter topics in Venezuela on March 5 and 6 also reveal how those he led felt about their leader. Trends like “#VivaChávezporSiempre” (“Chávez lives forever”), “#GloriaAlBravoChávez ” (“Glory to the brave Chávez ,” a play on the Venezuelan national anthem), and “#ChávezalPanteon” (a movement to get Chávez  buried at the National Pantheon, where Simon Bolivar is buried) illustrate how Venezuelans felt about Chávez’s passing.

Chávez certainly was (and will continue to be) a controversial figure in America and around the world. But for Spanish speakers, opinions on Chávez aren’t nearly as divided as you might think.

Check out the full report here.

As a former White House reporter, I well recall joining a chorus of colleagues who complained to the Powers That Be whenever we felt like we hadn’t had enough contact or interaction with the president. And that’s the argument we’re hearing again today.

Nothing about the argument is any different – but everything about today’s circumstances is.

The 2012 presidential campaign demonstrated, among many other things, how adept and sophisticated the Obama operation is in connecting directly with voters. Through an astute use of social media and the building and maintenance of extensive email lists, President Obama was able to tailor dozens of different messages to dozens of different constituencies – with a nimbleness and speed that allowed him to adjust his message on the fly in response to changing circumstances.

Time was, a president was reliant on the media – think Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “Fireside Chats” over the radio, or John F. Kennedy’s reliance on televised news conferences – to get his message out. In doing so, he relied on a de facto partnership with newspapers and television and radio networks. It was a relationship fraught with the kind of healthy tension that democracy and a free press demand, but it was a partnership nonetheless.

But those days are done, and gone with them is most of the leverage that traditional media outlets once held over the White House.

Every president since the dawn of television has searched in vain for ways to go around the White House press corps and the other pillars of mass media. In an ever-expanding technological landscape, President Obama is the first president to be able to fully harness the power of the Internet and social media to connect directly with voters – and eliminate the “filter” of the traditional media establishment.

This development raises some troubling questions for people in the news business, to be sure. But as a media consultant, I see this as a great learning opportunity.

When I switched careers half a dozen years ago, none of my prospective employers asked my views – or expertise – regarding social media, and, truth be told, it never occurred to me to mention the fact that I was on this new thing called Facebook.

And even several years ago, I didn’t emphasize the social media practice in my firm while trying to land new clients.

Today? With examples like the Obama campaign before us, the very nature of how corporations, trade associations, sports stars and others communicate with their constituencies is rapidly changing.  It is becoming an increasingly integral aspect of how companies connect with customers, clients and prospective customers, and keep track of who is saying what about them – and where.

Informing clients that traditional media outreach is now inexorably intertwined with digital and social media interaction isn’t just some marketing ploy. Every day, corporate branding and communications campaigns are being waged – and won – by those who rely on fair coverage by outlets like The New York Times, but also by connecting with key audiences and stakeholders via Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook and other networking sites.

Members of the White House press corps looking for a return of their past leverage and clout are bound to be disappointed. But their employers – all of whom are businesspeople, after all – would do well to study how President Obama interacts and connects with voters and supporters.  They must find ways to use these tools and techniques to establish deeper connections with existing subscribers and advertisers – and focus, as well, on reaching out to new audiences.

While doing this won’t resolve this balance-of-power struggle between the White House and its press corps, it might give media companies some of the insights they need to survive in our new, interconnected, interactive world.

In our final Purple Poll, we looked at voters nationwide and in the Purple State electorate.  Obama holds slim margins in both areas, up 1 (47% to 46%) nationally and by 2 (48% to 46%) in Purple States.

This campaign ends pretty much where it began: an extremely close race.  President Obama enters the final days with a small lead, but Romney is within striking distance of a vulnerable President.

Click here to see our latest results.  And don’t worry – there will be more polling from Purple Insights after the election!

Romney’s rebound is built on a stronger overall image, while Obama’s slim lead is protected by improved impressions of the economy.

Click below for our analysis and crosstabs – and more!