The Communicator

Is your communications department environmentally friendly? It should be. 

Around the world, businesses, consumers and governments are keenly focused on reducing their environmental footprint. And communicators must be at the forefront of this movement: we must work with our companies to drive sustainable solutions; we must strive to effectively communicate our environmental credentials to our customers and regulators; and we must engage and motivate our employees to do their part. 

But most of all, we must set a good example. And while communicators have never been big emitters of greenhouse gasses or huge proponents of seal-clubbing, there are still a number of ways that they can start to reduce their environmental footprint and – at the same time – set the bar for their organizations. For instance: 

• Reduce paper – while pundits have been prophesying a ‘paperless office’ for more than a decade, this utopia still seems far away. Communicators (who are often the most rampant users of paper – particularly once all the corporate collateral is taken into account) will find that by creating a ‘print-to-order’ system for brochures, factsheets and annual reports, they can not only cut down paper use, but also reduce cost and effort. For a deeper discussion on the benefits of a print-to-order system, check out this article. 
• Promote web content – while ‘print-to-order’ will help manage the supply side, communicators must also work to reduce the demand for paper products. This means migrating their (internal and external) audiences away from paper and towards the web versions. In most cases, this may require some subtle ‘incentivising’. So, for example, instead of taking 10,000 brochures to a conference, communicators should be exploring opportunities to make the web copy more relevant to the conference attendees (maybe add a coupon, a free guide or relevant links to valuable content).
• Leverage technology – given the rapid adoption of smartphones and the proliferation of social networks, communicators should be looking for ways to migrate all of their existing paper-based communications tools to new and more dynamic platforms. At the same time, the growing popularity of video applications like Apple’s Facetime are driving adoption of video conferencing and should dramatically reduce business travel and all of the greenhouse gasses that goes with it.    
• Work with responsible suppliers – an organization’s environmental footprint doesn’t stop and start at your front door: your suppliers and partners also play a part. So when selecting a supplier or a service, environmental impact should be considered as one of the key indicators along with cost and value. Some suppliers may be quite innovative (for example, at Communications Unlimited, we plant a tree every year for each client we work with in an effort to ‘pay back’ what little paper we use). 

But most importantly, professional communicators must use their considerable skills and influence within their organizations to promote and catalyze sustainability programs. There are many ways to do this, from the subtle (i.e. working with executives to build a sustainability fact sheet ‘just in case the media call’) to the blatant (i.e. forming and chairing an employee sustainability committee to explore grassroots strategies). 

Few today could argue that the environment is not a key concern for businesses and consumers. Now we just need to make sure that communications is part of the solution instead of reinforcing the problem. 

Reducing our environmental footprints was the last of our Top 11 Communications Issues for 2011. We hope you have enjoyed and/or found value in our outlook on issues facing communications professionals this year.  

To work with a communications supplier that cares about the environment, contact Peter at Peter@CommunicationsUnlimited.Ca.

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

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.

Web 2.0 and the rapid adoption of interactive web-based technologies could be the greatest thing to happen to your company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program.

This week, we examine a few free and easy ways to harness Web 2.0 to reinvigorate your CSR initiatives.

Blogs: CSR programs lend themselves well to a blog format. Blogs allow the writer to be descriptive, emotive, passionate or even outright promotional without the restrictions that normally come with traditional communications vehicles like press releases. At the very least, CSR Leaders should maintain an internal blog to enhance employee engagement, increase participation and drive awareness. Better yet, an external blog can be an excellent way to interact with the local community, showcase priority initiatives and reinforce your company’s brand.

While internal CSR blogs can focus on recognizing small groups of employees or divisional events, external CSR blogs should represent the collective and be written from the corporate perspective. 

Social networks: Let’s be honest – most company’s CSR programs don’t really justify a full MySpace page or Facebook profile. Social networks require a constant stream of new content, so unless your organization announces or participates in at least one CSR initiative a week, you might consider a more subtle approach: recognition through association.

Here’s an example: Company X maintains a Twitter profile, with about half of their employees signed up as ‘followers’. The Company is a long time supporter of the Canadian Cancer Society and is itself a ‘follower’ of the Society’s Twitter profile. Company X’s CSR Leader uses the company’s Twitter account to re-tweet the Society’s upcoming events and announcements to employees, who then re-tweet these messages out to their friends and clients. This allows Company X to not only increase employee participation and awareness, but also gain exponential recognition by leveraging their employee network.

File sharing: According to ComScore, YouTube recently surpassed Yahoo as the world’s second most popular search engine. There is no doubt that peer-to-peer (P2P) video and images can be powerful vehicles for delivering and reinforcing a message, but they can also be great tools for enhancing your company’s CSR program. Many organizations have already set up ‘shared space’ on their servers to host company photos and webcasts, but should consider creating an in-house web-based file share system aimed at highlighting CSR programs.

To really harness the value of file sharing, try encouraging your employees to capture images while participating in a community or volunteer event and help them to share their footage on YouTube (then consider tweeting the best examples out to your employee network and further).

While a few companies are still blocking employee access to social networking sites, the most successful organizations are finding ways to embrace new technologies to drive real business results. For more information, check out our recent post on leveraging Social Networks to drive employee engagement.

Need help with your organization’s social networking? Contact Peter at Peter@CommunicationsUnlimited.ca