Insights for Leaders Navigating
Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.
From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.
With more than 500 million active users on Facebook and nearly 200 million registered accounts on Twitter (as last reported on Jan. 29, 2011 in Forbes), it is likely that your company is one of the many to have a presence on either one or both of these social media platforms. And it is even more likely that the majority of your colleagues are also actively participating on these platforms – for personal or professional purposes or both.
With more and more people are using social media (i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flicker, Twitter, etc.) every day in their personal lives, the line is blurring between what is public and private, personal and professional. And while most may appear to be using these tools appropriately, others may be unknowingly posting information about your company that is inappropriate and has the potential to quickly damage your company’s brand and reputation. If you don’t think anything bad can happen to your company from an innocent tweet of Facebook post, think again. Take a look at this chronology of brands who were “blind-sided by the Internet and social media” as captured by Industry Analyst Jeremiah Owyang from Altimeter Group on his website, Web Strategy.
We have been collaborating with a number of our clients in the development of their social media strategy, identifying best practices and the appropriate channels to engage with their key audiences. For some, we are partnering with them and other departments to modify their existing social media policy to help employees use social media in a respectful and responsible way.
However, simply having this policy in place does not always mean that employees will understand them or incorporate them into their daily jobs or lives. It is important to develop a social media training program that helps to socialize your policy and provides your staff a foundation to help them make the right choices at work and at home when it comes to using social media.
Below are just few ideas to consider when developing your social media training program:
- “Engaging” Training Materials. If social media is about engaging with your community, why not make your training session interactive and engaging with your employees as well? You could create a PowerPoint presentation to share your social media policy and best practices. Consider including real life examples of appropriate and inappropriate uses in social media to create an interactive discussion. You can also develop a quiz that tests employees’ knowledge and comprehension throughout the presentation, and offer a prize at the end. In addition, you could also create a fun introductory video that opens the session with employees sharing what “social media means to them.” By engaging staff in these interviews in advance of the training session, it may help to drive buzz and excitement among other staff members who will be curious to see their peers in this video.
- Leverage Other Employees as “Trainers.” Depending upon the number of employees and office locations, it may not be practical or efficient for any one team to attempt to directly educate all of your company’s employees. Consider training a well-respected leader in each office location who will then train the employees in their office. Spend time with them in a ‘train the trainer’ session to review the social media policy in-depth, ensure they understand the need for the training and the social media do’s and don’ts. By doing so, they will be able to accurately communicate your new policy during their training sessions to their staff.
- New Hire Orientation. Now that your employees understand your social media policy, consider developing information for your HR team to present to any new employees as part of your on-boarding or orientation process. Whether it is a single PowerPoint slide or simple one-page handout, share a high-level overview of your social media policy with directions on where they can find more information and who to contact if they have questions. HR can also make this information available on your corporate intranet to serve as a helpful reminder for employees.
- Leverage Internal Communication Channels. Partner with your company’s internal communications team to help build excitement by featuring some of the key takeaways employees will learn at the training session and potential prizes they can win from their participation.
Afterwards, create a brief story to share in your employee newsletter to reinforce the key messages provided during training and remind staff of best practices when engaging in their personal social media channels. If your company has an intranet, consider creating a dedicated page to host the training materials, your social media policy and contact information if employees have questions or concerns.
Regardless of the methods you develop to train your staff, if it is done well, your employees will end up with a much better understanding of how to manage their personal social media activity, ultimately helping you to avoid future potential issues for the company.
If you have provided social media training at your company, what methods or tactics worked well for you.
Over the last two months, we’ve had the pleasure of working with Verdiem to execute a targeted media relations campaign to generate coverage in national and local business publications as well as IT and green IT vertical publications for a new product announcement. Our objective was to help Verdiem continue to establish itself as a thought leader in PC power management and win mindshare within the industry. We developed a media relations strategy to target publications that specifically cover green IT issues to discuss how Verdiem’s SURVEYOR solution helps organizations save money and energy. We also wanted to reach out to Mac reporters, as the updated product included support for the Mac OS platform.
Verdiem last week announced the latest version of their flagship PC power management solutions, SURVEYOR 5.5. This new version includes support for the Mac operating system, a unique differentiator within the market as no other solutions offer this functionality.
With the recession still having a shrinking effect on IT budgets, Verdiem’s SURVEYOR PC power management solution offers enterprise IT professionals with an opportunity to save money, while also reducing their carbon footprint. SURVEYOR typically reduces the energy waste from employee computers by 30 to 60 percent, which translates to an approximate savings of $20 to $60 per computer. So far, there are more than 600 companies (with more than one million employee computers) utilizing this software to monitor, manage and report on their energy savings.
As a direct result of our efforts, we secured more than 11 standalone stories in key publications such as EnvironmentalLeader.com, GreenBiz.com, iTWire, Mac Observer, Mac News, Wall Street Journal (via ZDNet) and Northwest Innovation, who also published a second article, a Q&A feature with Verdiem CEO John Scumniotales.
While the green IT movement isn’t new, there is still tremendous growth occurring in the space with opportunities for companies to differentiate and become a thought leader regarding a specific “issue.” Verdiem is a pioneer in the PC power management space, and with a compelling pitch, solid statistics to back up its claims, and a great spokesperson who is passionate enough to effectively tell its story, we were able to secure quality coverage that further demonstrates their innovation and win mindshare in the industry.
If you are interested in learning how Communiqué PR may be able to help your company launch new products or services in the green IT space, please contact us at info@communiquepr.com.
With the continued rise of technology and demanding schedules, meetings are increasingly taking place via conference calls or webcams. Our team at Communiqué PR facilitates many interviews and meetings over the phone with clients, media and journalists not only in Seattle, but also around the world. And while virtual meetings allow us to cut costs around travel, are more personal than email, and are flexible for schedule coordination, they are not without pitfalls.
Before you schedule your next meeting to take place via conference call or Skype, consider a few of these challenges and solutions:
- Remember virtual meetings are less personable than meeting face-to-face. Harvard Business Review recently published an article “How to Conduct a Virtual Meeting” by Dr. Nick Morgan, president of Public Words Inc. and author of several books on communication and speech, that addressed a few of these issues. Dr. Nick Morgan suggests two strategies for dealing with this roadblock. “Recognize that virtual meetings are suboptimal and plan accordingly.” He suggests using virtual meetings only for information-sharing and less important topics. Dr. Morgan says, “Save the emotional stuff for face-to-face meetings…So if you’re kicking off something important, or celebrating a big win, bite the meeting bullet and bring everyone together.”
- “Label your emotions and ask others to do the same.” His strategy surrounding this concept puts the responsibility in the hands of the meeting facilitators to identify their own feelings surrounding the contents of the meeting and to also create an expectation that others label their emotions and opinions as well. He also suggests that the facilitator create opportunities to identify and clarify emotions relating to specific issues covered in the virtual meeting with clear questions or guiding statements. Dr. Morgan gives an example: “Jim, I’m really surprised to hear that third quarter numbers aren’t improving. Surprised and worried, actually. How are you feeling about them?” Giving everyone a chance to explain what their thoughts are gives participants an opportunity to verbally communicate the types of cues that you miss out on by not being face-to-face to read body language.
- It is difficult to visually construe messages or ideas over the phone. Given this, it is essential that the meeting organizers plan ahead and distribute PowerPoint presentations, images and other pertinent information prior to the call. This allows participants to refer to visuals to better grasp your message.
- Sometimes time zone differences make scheduling impossible. Clearly it is critical to look for blocks of time where daytime hours overlap when proposing a virtual meeting. You want avoid one caller having to wake up at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. as this is not a good way to have everyone mentally present. If this is unavoidable, you may want to try to meet in person or look to deliver information in writing.
- A good facilitator can make a huge difference. This person should keep everyone engaged and have questions prepared. Brainstorm ways to identify participants’ opinions and feelings on issues to make up for lack of body language cues.
As communications professionals we’re adept at ensuring key messages are conveyed in a variety of mediums, however these tips above are a good reminder of when to go virtual and how to make the most of these meetings.
Most marketers and PR professionals appreciate the importance of having access to credible information. Many college students and researchers are in the same position. They need credible, current content and want a Google- like experience when searching their libraries for it.
Until just 18 months ago, accessing information in academic libraries (and some corporate libraries) has often been a painful experience as information is located in a variety of different databases. Researchers had to know in advance where to look for information within the library. With Serials Solutions discovery services, today’s research process is greatly streamlined.
Consider just one of the company’s solutions. Introduced in the summer of 2009, Serials Solutions Summon™ service allows students to search their entire library’s collection from one search box, providing a search experience similar to that found with Google. Students type their search terms and get a list of all the relevant physical books, e-books, patents, artwork and journals available to them from their library’s collection.
We recently had the opportunity to help get the word out locally about Serials Solutions. We reached out to several journalists covering technology and business to let them know about Serials Solutions’ plans to expand its workforce in Seattle. Much like the other tech companies located in the Puget Sound area, such as Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Google, Serials Solutions also employs a significant number of local people. The company currently employs 200 people in Seattle and is continuing to grow. The company plans to fill 30 positions during 2011, and is leading the way in a changing market.
As a result of our activity, the following articles appeared in March and April.
- Puget Sound Business Journal, “Serials Solutions seeking 30 people; Microsoft, 3,297” – Mar. 25, 2011
- TechFlash, “Serials Solutions, HathiTrust to provide full-text library search” – Mar. 28, 2011
- Puget Sound Business Journal, “Question for Michael Gersch” – April 8, 2011
While there is a lot written about Serials Solutions in the library industry, we anticipate as the company grows there will be additional local coverage in the coming months.
The Communiqué PR team publishes new content on our blog several times a week. We strive to provide our readers with valuable information, analysis and tips relevant to today’s communicators and executives.
Given the amount of information we all receive daily, we recognize you may not read each and every blog post. So we thought it might be valuable to highlight the blog posts that were most popular among our readers based on the number of unique visits.
Below is a list of the most popular blog posts we published in Q1 2011.
How to Choose the Best Twitter Hashtag
Promotions on Facebook: What You Should Know
Public Relations, April Fools’ Day, and Fake News
In Social Media, It Pays to Know Your Audience
Our Business is Growing. We’re Hiring!
We welcome your feedback. Do you have a favorite blog post from Communiqué PR? Comment and tell us your favorite(s).
Launching a blog can seem like an overwhelming task. Getting started is half the battle. At Communiqué, we have helped several businesses and nonprofit organizations create, launch and manage their blogs.
For clients looking to launch a blog for the first time, we have developed a blogging toolkit that we customize for their particular needs. This toolkit assembles all the information that an organization will need to blog successfully.
Using our toolkit, we do the following:
- Identify your main objectives. In order to launch a successful blog, it is helpful to identify what you are trying to accomplish. You need to answer the question, “Why am I doing this?” Are you trying to change behavior, inform a key audience or entertain?
- Identify your key audiences. Ultimately, you want your blog to be read. Before creating the content, it is critical to identify who your readers will be and understand what motivates and/or resonates with them. Then, filter all content through the eyes of your audience by asking how it will be helpful to them.
- Name your blog. This step seems obvious, but selecting a memorable and meaningful blog name can help give your blog recognition. The name should be relevant and not misleading.
- Identify success measurements. You can determine the success of your blog in a variety of ways. Identify how you or your company will determine the success by measuring variables such as the duration of page stay, unique visits or increased site traffic. It is helpful to set achievable benchmarks on a quarterly or semi-annual basis to measure growth.
- Determine roles and responsibilities. Empower members of your team or company to help with the development of the blog content. This will help everyone feel included and ensure the blog can function consistently. This will alleviate pressure on one individual as team members take ownership in content development.
- Develop a publishing schedule. Your readers need to know what they can expect from your blog. The best way to achieve this is by committing to a schedule and delivering. If you can blog once a week, we’ll help you set up a process that will best accommodate this goal.
- Build a strong pipeline of content. We recommend you develop an editorial calendar and have a handful of blog posts ready for publication before you launch your blog. This will also help to ensure content is posted consistently and on time.
- Establish clear deadlines. Let contributors know when their blog posts are due for review. To ensure there is clarity about deadlines, we recommend scheduling calendar updates to provide reminders when draft posts are due to reviewers.
- Identify a process for managing comments. It will be important that you read comments and respond to them in a timely manner. We can help you think through the process for this.
As part of the blogging toolkit, Communiqué PR will also provide your team with ideas for search engine optimization, guidelines for developing content, a checklist for reviewers to use, and ideas for standard features that should be included when developing your sites.
If you’d like more information on the benefits of blogging, please check out the links below or give us a call. As you can tell from our site, we are passionate about blogging!