The Communicator

It’s a rotten time to be in advertising. After a decade of extreme turbulence – mostly precipitated by the runaway popularity of the internet – the recent economic downturn has been a disaster for traditional advertisers. Clients have gone bust, outlets have closed, and advertising budgets have been slashed across the board.

But it’s a great time to be in PR. The internet has steadily amplified the voice of communicators, unlocked entirely new channels and audiences, and pushed down the cost of delivering effective programs. The recent economic downturn has only made PR more valuable as companies deal with the public backlash of excessive bonuses, corporate failures and unprecedented layoffs. For evidence, check out the recent article “Good News”, from The Economist which details how global PR firms are booming.

Now, I’m not jumping on the ‘Death of Advertising’ bandwagon. In many promotional circumstances, there is great value in the judicious use of advertising to support communications initiatives. But where advertising is limited to one or two phases of a brand’s lifecycle – launch and promotion -  public relations goes much further, offering holistic and effective reputation management for every phase of the business cycle. 

It’s not even the advertising industry’s fault. You can thank changing societal trends and technological innovation for altering the fundamentals of: 

• Trust: Recent surveys show that – overwhelmingly – people trust their peers more than companies (not sure that we needed a survey to tell us that, but kudos to the Market Research guys for creating work for themselves in the downturn). In geek-speak, this roughly translates to: B2C + B2B < P2P. While advertising gurus have been struggling to find the winning formula for advertising on social media sites, PR has been busy building trust between consumers and brands through open dialogue and transparency.
• Availability:  Innovation has been giving advertising the cold shoulder. Between PVRs, RSS feeds and news aggregators, people have become quite adept at stripping advertising out of everything they do. Not so for communications messages, which have proliferated and often taken on a life of their own by harnessing peer and social networks. 
• Cost: The diffusion of advertising vehicles and splintering of audiences means that companies need to target an ever-increasing range of outlets and vehicles to get the same benefit from advertising as before. For PR, the incremental cost of adding new outlets, channels and audiences to an existing campaign is negligible to non-existent. 
• Shelf-life: Google search your company. Do you see all your old advertisements? Probably not. But I’m sure you found hundreds of copies of older press releases, puff pieces and news coverage. Ad campaigns die after the budget is gone, but PR tends to live on forever.

Like it or not, websites take work to return results. The sad truth is that many organizations are not realizing the true value of their online assets. After the initial euphoria of launch, neglect quickly sets in, turning the website into little more than a dumping ground for press releases and puff pieces. 

It’s not uncommon. Most communicators tend to view their organization’s website as a burden to be managed rather than an opportunity to be seized. Content management ends up being relegated to HR and Communications assistants who aren’t ultimately responsible for enforcing content standards or basic submission criteria. 

Professional communicators who have slipped into this more ‘ad-hoc’ approach to maintaining their websites will need to dedicate substantial time to refocus their online strategies in order to create real value. 

Here are a few tips to get your website back on track: 

Take time to regroup: The most important thing you can do is clearly define your website strategy. Start by taking a step back and considering what you are trying to accomplish with your site and who you are hoping to communicate with. Be realistic about what your strategy can achieve, but imaginative in your planning. 

Set the rules: Knowing where you want to go and getting there are very different things. Use your new website strategy to define the types of content that best achieve your objectives. Create and formalize a set of criteria that clearly demonstrate what is appropriate for your website and what isn’t. To make your job easier in the long run, socialize the criteria throughout your organization so that everyone understands the parameters. 

Cull out the old and weak: A common problem plaguing most websites is the build up of outdated or useless information. Set a holistic ‘best before’ date and remove or archive anything on your site that isn’t current or relevant – keeping in mind any regulatory obligations that your industry might be subject to.  

Clean it up: Ad-hoc approaches lead to websites that suffer from repetitive content, broken links and a multitude of conflicting voices. Small to mid sized organizations often find that centralizing the writing and editing under a dedicated resource (separate to the site’s webmaster) resolves many of these issues. Larger or multinational organizations tend to rely on robust website guidelines that dictate writing style and review requirements. 

Consider a facelift: While everyone agrees that new content is a key driver of website traffic, there is a lot to be said for a quick paint job. Switching to your secondary colour palate or occasionally updating your graphics clearly demonstrates that your site is under active management and being kept fresh. 

Website management certainly isn’t the most exciting job for professional communicators, but when approached systematically and creatively, it can easily provide the biggest bang for your buck.  

Websites that work is one of our Top 10 Communications Issues for 2010. Next week we’ll look at #2 – PR defeats advertising.

iPhones, laptops, PDAs, cell phones, PCs… the internet is now truly ubiquitous. No matter where you go, the web always seems to be right at your fingertips. 

But for professional communicators, the rapid proliferation of web-accessible devices can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the public’s increased access to the internet can lead to more visitors to your website and thus a better return on your investment. On the other, the complexity of maintaining a consistent customer experience and brand identity across a growing number of platforms can quickly sap your resources and become a cumbersome burden. 

For many organizations, there is no easy answer. Communicators will need to find a comfortable balance between maintaining an easily-accessible website and managing the host of other web priorities that drive their traffic and achieve their objectives. 

Regardless of your current strategy, we have noticed a few trends that we’ve picked up from leading websites: 

• Keep it simple: Don’t let your website get bogged down with long passages of text or huge pdf files. Remember that people may be accessing your site with different download speeds, screen colour capabilities, and data plans, so try to stick to simple text and lots of white space to enhance ease-of-use. 
• Know your audience: While this may be a ‘no-brainer’ for most, it’s easy to get caught up in hype (or simply the desire to demonstrate your innovation to the world), and lose sight of the basic characteristics of your audience. Use your website metrics to understand how your most frequent visitors – or most valuable customers – access your site, and concentrate on improving their experience first. 
• Seek value opportunities: Regardless of their popularity, many new technologies and devices perform unique functions that can greatly enhance your message. Try gauging the added effect of incorporating tools such as interactive charts, streaming video and real-time updates to illustrate your point and add value. 
• Leverage free apps: Rather than spending lots of time and money deploying video functionality or other cool applications, consider harnessing existing free sites such as YouTube or Twitter to perform some of those functions. Not only are they extremely cost-effective, but they can also gain much wider viewership than your corporate site alone. 

At the end of the day, it all comes back to the basic fundamentals of communications: know your audience, how to reach them, and what matters really matters to them. If you always keep that in mind, you can’t go wrong. 

Devices challenge accessibility is one of our Top 10 Communications Issues for 2010. Next week we’ll look at #3 – Websites that work.

I’ve never met a professional communicator who cherished writing process documents. Most of us – and this is a generalization – would rather spend a day engaged in creative brainstorming sessions than drawing up a formal process document.

But as work loads continue to increase, and temporary hiring freezes become permanent, professional communicators will find some relief by creating and formalizing processes that maximize their available resources while streamlining the delivery of many common functions.

Don’t get me wrong: most organizations already employ a number of useful communications processes, particularly around copy approvals and media reporting. But most existing processes – and here comes another sweeping generalization – were originally created to mitigate risk rather than reduce waste.

Instead, communicators should be looking for functions that their teams perform regularly which produce a more uniform output. One excellent area that is frequently overlooked is the creation of newsletters. While the copy always changes, all of the basic steps – from the solicitation of story ideas to the distribution of the final product – can easily be formalized into a process and largely outsourced. 

To get there, many communicators may first have to come to terms with the fact that processes eventually dampen creativity and innovation. Some will even find their very function changes from that of ‘creator/strategist’ to ‘project manager/reviewer’.

However, processes can also be a great way to get rid of mundane tasks and focus on projects demanding the greatest level of strategic and creative input.

Regardless of your motivation, here are a few tips that we’ve learned from our work creating communications processes for clients:

• Communicate the process: Many processes quickly come off the rails because either the audience was unaware of the change in service levels, or the participants didn’t fully understand their role. Always try to include a communications plan that recognizes all the stakeholders involved or impacted.
• Include service level expectations – especially for your outside vendors and contractors. To ensure a smooth process, each actor must know exactly what is expected in terms of turn-around times, deliverables and formats. For internal staff, processes provide great metrics that can easily be used to support performance reviews and quantitative benchmarking.
• Revise and evaluate annually:  I don’t need to tell you how quickly things change. New objectives, innovative technologies, changing roles and evolving audience expectations can easily scuttle a perfectly good process.  The summer doldrums tend to be a great time for this task.  
• Outsource everything: Once a formal process has been created and tested, consider outsourcing the whole thing to a trusted communications professional. Many small companies (including our own) provide this type of long-term project management service, so find one that fits your organization’s unique style and needs.  

Real die-hards may even find value in drawing up a ‘process-creation process’ … but even we think that might be going a bit far.

Process becomes king is one of our Top 10 Communications Issues for 2010. Next week we’ll look at #4 – Devices challenge accessibility

With a few notable exceptions, most professional communicators would agree that many companies’ reputations have been under fire recently. The truth is that the corporate reputation function in most organizations has been in decay for years and that growing public cynicism and high profile corporate melt-downs are only a symptom of a fundamentally undervalued function.      

Ironically, the corporate reputation function suffers from its own image issues. In many organizations, professional communicators have historically struggled to draw quantifiable correlations between corporate reputation initiatives and bottom line revenue. This has given executives and CFOs an excuse to siphon resources away from these projects to shore up other branding and advertising initiatives that provide the more obvious revenue streams. 

The past two years have therefore delivered a series of potentially fatal body blows to an already weak social contract. As the public either experiences or witnesses companies laying off staff, denying pension benefits to retirees, grabbing tax-funded bailouts or taking unconscionable salaries, the influence wielded by these companies, by virtue of their strong reputations, has evaporated.   

On the bright side – their loss could be your company’s gain. Rather than hollowing-out the function, we suggest that professional communicators explore a few of the following ways to get their corporate reputation off life support: 

• Redefine your objectives and audiences: Everything you once knew about your audiences has probably changed in the past few years. With different motivations and emotional triggers, you may need to fundamentally rethink your overall corporate reputation objectives, strategies and tactics. But be careful not to change anything that might alienate your already-loyal customers.    
• Be transparent and approachable:  These two often go hand in hand. The public wants to feel that you respect your mutual relationship, welcome their feedback and are worthy of their trust. Remember though: transparency is about more than posting reams of documents online. You also need to help your audience find, understand and contextualize the information you are providing.
• Leverage social networks: By far the biggest game-changer for communications this decade, recent surveys show that peer-to-peer recommendations hold significantly more influence with audiences than corporate messaging or advertising. Besides a fantastic return-on-investment, social networks have the rare quality of providing measurable outcomes and benefits.
• Maximize your current assets: Many organizations maintain robust Corporate Social Responsibility and community investment programs that carry a fair amount of existing good will. Remember that the most valuable wins will always be won through getting more mileage from current assets rather than creating new ones.
• Start with your employees: It may be a cliché, but when it comes to corporate reputation, your employees really are your greatest assets. Their personal engagement, loyalty and respect for the company can be infectious, and should be harnessed and mobilized into the community.  

Ultimately though, the eventual success of any corporate reputation program relies on achieving executive buy-in, demonstrating persistent dedication, and adopting a longer-term perspective. 

Taking corporate reputation off life support is one of our Top 10 Communications Issues for 2010. Next week we’ll look at #5 – Process becomes king

Professional communicators should be paying attention to the simmering content ownership battle between Rupert Murdoch and free online content providers. It could end up being the self-inflicted wound that kills traditional media.

If Murdoch is ultimately successful in cutting out free online media syndicators like Google, Microsoft and Ask.com, pundits predict an immediate 25% drop in overall readership. For professional communicators who base their media lists on hits and circulation, this kind of change could push once-venerable publications off the radar entirely.

In truth, the content wars will only accelerate the inevitable. Most communicators saw the writing on the wall years ago, and quickly readjusted their media lists to accommodate new media commentators who offered further reach and more influence than their stalwart daily counterparts.

Regardless of how the battle ends, the ensuing propaganda and inevitable fallout sends a number of clear messages to professional communicators:

Prioritize for accessibility: When building your media lists and outreach plans, factor in the accessibility of a publication as well as the reach and reputation. Consider conducting a media audit to understand who the real media players are in your market and what biases they may have.

Educate your executives: Remember that the world has changed quickly, and some of your senior executives may not agree that their faithful daily is on life support. Start the education process now by taking away their company-expensed subscriptions and replacing them with an online version.

Be the media: As the traditional sources of reliable information begin to fade, professional communicators have an opportunity to fill the void and provide the public with alternate sources of information. Be very careful, though, not to try to pass off marketing propaganda as hard news. The public can be quick to recognize and expose self-serving agendas.

Broaden your outreach: There may still be a place for the traditional desk-side briefing or media tour, but chances are your newest key influencer lives on a farm in rural Wisconsin or in a Bangladeshi apartment complex. Some innovative communicators are seeing a lot of success using social media sites and tools to conduct real-time ‘face-to-face’ briefings over the internet.

At the end of the day, Mr. Murdoch will soon realize that his real problem isn’t the free content providers at all. It’s that people simply don’t want to pay for their news anymore.

Content ownership wars – the communications fallout is one of our Top Ten Communications Issues for 2010. Next week we’ll look at issue #6: Taking Corporate Reputation off life support

A remarkable shift is about to change the way people use the internet. As more and more devices incorporate GPS technology and connect to the web, location-based information and services will quickly become the ‘killer app’ of the decade.

Web 3.0 or GPS 2.0?

For years, pundits and internet gurus have been debating the future of the web. To some, Web 3.0 is the culmination of semantic web browsing (see Wikipedia for more on the semantic web). To others, the next-gen web recognizes the rise of smart-technology, where our appliances spend more time online than we do.

However, it is the viewpoint of this humble publication that, once realized, Web 3.0 will bring together online data, personal preferences and – most importantly – physical location to provide audiences with a truly unique and tailored experience. 

Location, Location, Location

In theory, a location-based web will provide the consumer with highly targeted and personalized content based on their exact location. Companies and organizations will harness a location-based web to drive sales and to guide consumers to retail outlets, service locations and events.

Take, for example, the realty industry. By incorporating location data, a realtor’s website would interact with the consumer’s mobile device to display various levels of detail. On a macro-level, the site would direct the user to the ten closest homes that match their chosen criteria. Once at the desired property, the same technology would provide pertinent information about each room in the house, based on exact location and altitude.  A similar example would see retail banks directing members to branches, ABMs and after-hours support lines based on the user’s location and time of day.

Organizations that are able to deploy a location-based web will enjoy a huge advantage over their competitors, but success will necessitate a new perspective on the way information is accessed and displayed.

Here we go again…

Most organizations will find that the practical implementation of a location-based Web 3.0 will require the close cooperation of cross-functional teams led by IT, but including communications, sales, marketing, distribution and customer service.

For professional communicators, the development of Web 3.0 will mean an essential shift in the way we view our customers and their needs. Not least of all, corporate website copy that used to appeal to the broadest possible audience will take a fair amount of reorganizing and refocusing to truly take advantage of the enhanced customer segmentation delivered by Web 3.0 applications.

In the end, Web 3.0 will be far from just ‘another cool app’. It will create new communications channels, fundamentally transforming our communications strategies while offering unimagined opportunities to build valuable and relevant relationships with our audiences.

Web 3.0 – Location is everything (a.k.a. The Advent of GPS 2.0) is one of our Top Ten Communications Issues for 2010. Next week we’ll look at issue #7: The Content Ownership Wars

This year, many organizations will take a cold, hard look at their social media strategies. Sobering up from the initial marketing euphoria that seems to accompany the popular adoption of all new mediums, marketing and communications departments will focus on realigning their social media objectives and budgets to achieve results, and real value.

This will require a fundamental shift in the overall expectations of social media from ‘selling’ to ‘engaging’. In many cases, this move can be supported by a repositioning of responsibilities, taking social media budgets and management out of disparate Sales & Marketing portfolios and placing them within the oversight of Organizational Communications.

This move will facilitate two outcomes – it will de-couple social media objectives from the achievement of bottom line sales figures, and it will shift the overall expectations of social media throughout the organization.

So as you review your social media strategy this year, try to help your organization focus on five key areas where social media will create actual value:

Corporate Reputation – This year, most organizations will go beyond simply managing their corporate profile on LinkedIn and Facebook. The most tepid will harness social networks as an extension of their existing communications outreach, but market leaders will put special focus on building transparent relationships with their key influencers and most vocal detractors.

Employee Engagement – While some organizations continue to bar employees from using social media networks at the office, many professional communicators have already recognized the opportunity in creating and monitoring employee networks to enhance and manage employee engagement (for more on this topic, see Time for E2E).

Corporate Social Responsibility – An area that is already seeing good returns with social media, CSR leaders will continue to leverage the power of social networks to build awareness and encourage participation in their community, environmental and social programs. Internal charitable events (food and blood drives, United Way challenges, etc.) will find their goals more achievable through the tactical use of social media.

Issues Management – We have all seen the speed by which issues can circulate around social media networks. More than ever, professional communicators will need to put more resources towards monitoring the ‘chatter’ on popular networking sites, all the while seeking opportunities to engage supporters, manage potential issues and debunk rumours before they gain momentum. 

Client Communications and Customer Service – Many organizations are finding great success in creating social networks to provide ‘after-sales’ support. Not only are they able to communicate important product updates quickly and efficiently to customers, they enjoy increased customer loyalty and higher levels of customer service. In some cases, Customer Service departments have been able to reduce their workload by encouraging customers to provide support to each other.

The good news is that social media is ready to return value if used  properly. The trick will be in setting realistic and achievable objectives, while wrestling supervision away from those who are just looking to make a quick buck.

Social media (finally) returns value is one of our Top Ten Communications Issues for 2010. Next week we will look at Issue #8: The advent of GPS 2.0.

Employee engagement has never been so critical. Across the board, workers are feeling a deep sense of insecurity and anxiety. Those lucky enough to have kept their jobs have witnessed friends, neighbours and colleagues lose theirs, seemingly without rhyme or reason.

Employers are in a similarly tough spot. Unsure about the shape of the short-term economy, most organizations are now focused on increasing productivity at the lowest possible cost. Around the world, economic pundits are predicting a ‘jobless’ recovery.  

The result is that organizations are expecting to realize much of their short-term productivity gains from their current employee base.  So if you kept your job last year, expect to be working harder than ever before.

The obvious challenge for executives now lies in re-engaging a shell-shocked employee base.  

Professional communicators can – and should – take a lead role in responding to that challenge.

While short-term gains in engagement will be hard to measure in relation to bottom-line economic output, there are a few high-value areas where communicators can start to see some quick returns.

• Go see your people – consider taking your executives on a ‘road-show’ to visit your employees at their posts. Far from a staged town-hall event or video broadcast, your executives need to be seen on the factory floor or in the lunch room. Take advantage of the face time to remind employees how important their individual contribution is to achieving the company’s goals.
• Re-launch employee programs – most organizations already do a decent job at investing in employee programs and training, but often fall far short when it comes to driving actual participation. Whether they use them or not, employers should highlight these programs to their employees as evidence of the company’s investment and long-term commitment to their staff.
• Band together for a cause – after the economic, environmental and social upheaval of the past few years, there are unlimited good causes to support. Build employee morale and a sense of unity by pulling together for an issue that everyone can feel good about.

Many internal communications professionals have already recognized this change and started 2010 with a renewed focus on rebuilding employee engagement. Those that haven’t will need to quickly bury the ‘hunker down’ mindset of the recession and take a much more proactive role in driving productivity.

Re-engaging employees to drive productivity is one of our Top Ten Communications Issues for 2010. Next week we will look at Issue #9: Social media (finally) returns value.

Have you seen our new site? www.communicationsunlimited.ca.

By all accounts, 2009 was a challenging year, and one that many were happy to see come to an end.

As we launch into the first week of the new decade, we believe we are headed for a year of steady recovery and gradual value creation. We see professional communicators playing a critical role, harnessing new technologies and squeezing value out of old assets to engage and inspire their audiences, while at the same time maintaining tight budgets and reduced headcounts. 

Looking to the year ahead, we would like to offer what we believe to be the Top Ten Communications Issues for 2010: 

10.  Re-engaging employees to drive productivity: after the bloodletting and losses of the past two years, employees will require a renewed focus. Organizations that get this right will retain the best talent and drive overall productivity without increasing headcount.

9.  Social media (finally) returns value: but it may not be where you were expecting it to be. Innovative organizations are taking a fresh look at how they use social media and Web 2.0, and many are being forced to realign their expectations at the same time.

8.  The advent of GPS 2.0: as mobile technology gets smarter, and online map sites start to integrate customer reviews into their search results, communicators will want to take a keen interest in dealing with unfavourable feedback as quickly and efficiently as possible.

7.  Content ownership wars: regardless of whether Rupert Murdoch is ultimately successful in suing online content providers or not, the issue of content ownership will start to change the way communicators approach media relations outreach and challenge who they count as their top tier outlets. 

6.  Taking corporate reputation off life support: it wasn’t just the recipients of government bail-outs that took a hit to their reputation last year. Many organizations will need to put substantial work into rebuilding trust with both the market and their customers.

5.  Process becomes king: while communicators tend to shun process for creativity, great value will be realized – particularly in large or complex organizations – by creating and formalizing processes that reduce waste and streamline the delivery of day-to-day communications functions.

4.  Devices challenge accessibility: as a new generation of content readers such as Kindle and iPhone increase in popularity, communicators will seek out new ways to distribute their content and integrate a wider variety of accessibility options into their outreach. 

3.  Websites that work: like it or not, websites take work to return results. Many organizations that have taken an ad-hoc approach to maintaining their websites will need to dedicate substantial time to refocusing their online strategies to create real value.

2.  PR defeats advertising: paid circulation is dropping, publications are closing down and online banner ads are failing to show results. This year will mark a turning point in corporate budgeting, where PR budgets increase at the expense of advertising.

1.  A permanent seat at the table: likely the most important development of the coming year will be the increased voice that communicators will have at the executive table. Having shown our value and grit over the past twelve months, professional communicators can expect to get more frequent calls from the CEO’s office this year. 

Over the next ten weeks, we’ll take a closer look at each of these issues and explore potential solutions, best practices and themes that are certain to be critical for professional communicators in 2010. Coming up next week: Re-engaging employees to drive productivity. 

We’re proud to unveil our new and improved website for 2010. Visit us at www.communicationsunlimited.ca and tell us what you think.

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