The Communicator

Blogging is a wonderful way to build relationships, showcase ideas and motivate audiences. But do blogs work in every industry and for everyone? Certainly not.  

Blogs facilitate the sharing of ideas with like-minded audiences. They can be used to motivate, inspire, educate or placate, but – at the end of the day – their value rests in their ability to communicate ideas and opinions. 

In my very first post on this blog (To Blog or Not to Blog), I suggested that certain industries and functions – in particular those that generate ideas or motivate people – had more to gain from blogs than most other sectors. Here are some examples: 

Not-for-profits: For organizations that depend on public good will, blogs provide an excellent way to motivate donors, inform volunteers and advocate for a cause. Blogs are also great vehicles for improving an organization’s profile with stakeholders, media and the general public. 

Professional Services: No industry produces more thought leadership than the professional services. For consultants and ‘rain makers’, blogs deliver a safe and certain distribution channel that can be branded and reused as business development or marketing collateral. 

Industry Associations and Unions: With a geographically dispersed membership and only the occasional formal interaction with the members themselves, blogs offer trade associations and unions a way to highlight certain issues and motivate the membership around advocacy. 

Politicians: In most democracies, the public likes to know what their elected officials are thinking, planning and doing on a daily basis. Blogs provide a transparent and approachable way for politicians to further their agendas, rally constituents, and win-over their detractors.  

CEOs: Regardless of the type of organization, blogs have a large role to play in Executive and Internal communications. It is critical – especially in times of change – that executive teams be visible, approachable and honest. Blogs can be an excellent way to provide context to corporate objectives, motivate employees around a cause or inspire innovation and collaboration.  

Just over two years ago I ended my post with the following advice for professional communicators:  

Treat blogs like you would any other communication vehicle. Evaluate their reach, impact, cost and effort against your objectives. And if it turns out that a blog makes sense, the first step should always be to ensure that you have a long-term commitment from your organization, and the right resources to ensure sustainable success.  

And – regardless of your industry – that certainly hasn’t changed.  

Want to talk about whether a blog strategy is right for your organization? Contact Peter at peter@communicationsunlimited.ca.

While growing up in Africa, I had a friend in the French diplomatic corps with a unique communication problem: while he and his household staff all spoke fluent French, they couldn’t understand each other.

You see, my friend had been educated at the Lycée in Paris and had a lovely Parisian accent, while his staff were from Côte d’Ivoire and spoke a local vernacular. Complicating things further, his new wife was raised in Haiti, and used that country’s unique French dialect. So great were the communications barriers that they may as well have been speaking Greek, German and Mandarin.   

It’s a common problem. Many professional communicators at global organizations agonize over deciding which version of a language they should use for their global communications initiatives.

In fact Mr. Gates’ most recent edition of Microsoft Word offers us 21 different versions of Spanish, 18 English dialects, 16 local Arabic options, and some 15 regional French languages.

There are no right or wrong answers. Regardless of which language or dialect your organization chooses, it is essential to formalize the decision and create a style-guide that will be relevant and appropriate for the long-term. The key is to provide a consistent and recognizable voice. 

Here are a few basic fundamentals to help you decide which dialect might be the right one for your organization:

• National or local companies should stick to local practice and grammar;
• Global companies should use the language prevalent at their Head Office or that of the country where their shares are primarily listed; and
• Companies looking to communicate in a foreign language should cater to their largest potential market.

However, the best strategy will always be one that recognizes and adheres to local custom whenever possible. Large multinationals may have the bench-strength to customize materials locally, but many organizations will need to maintain a network of regional communicators to provide those services on an ‘ad-hoc’ or as-needed basis.  

Winston Churchill is said to have quipped that Britain and America were “two nations divided by a common language”, but in reality there are now more than 80 nations who claim some version of English as their official language. Clearly, not every Anglophone is beholden to the Queen’s English. 

Need help customizing your communications tools? Contact Peter at Peter@CommunicationsUnlimited.ca.

As communications professionals, we are often expected to defend our organizations through thick and thin, the good and the bad. In fact, frequently we’re expected not only to drink the corporate KoolAid, but to mix and distribute it too. 

This is about more than just toeing the company line – as is expected of every employee. We are also expected to be evangelists of the strategic vision, defenders of the corporate faith, and crusaders in campaigning against those who would besmirch our corporate reputation. 

For the most part, communicators embrace this role; A-types tend to relish playing the role of the gallant knight. But – all too often – we become blinded by our faith in the corporation. In the process, we lose touch with our audiences and external perspectives. We think of the world only from one perspective: the Beloved Company’s.  

Balancing between both sides of the spectrum isn’t easy. It requires us to walk a fine line between being believers and being fundamentalists. The most difficult part is that we tend not to notice that we’re jumping off that cliff until it is far too late to turn back. 

So how do professional communicators keep themselves grounded in reality without losing the faith? 

Most importantly, communicators must stay close to their audiences. Whether visiting branch plants to keep in touch with employee concerns or meeting with reporters to take the pulse of the media, we must always have line of sight on our audiences. 

In particular, make an effort to seek out detractors. Try to empathize with their perspectives and understand their biases. We don’t have to agree with them, but we do need to understand where they are coming from. 

A great way to do this is to engage in social media. These are often better than traditional media, where bias must be kept (somewhat) in check and journalists are (usually) bound by a burden of proof. As a result, social media commentators tend to be much more opinionated and often provide clearer insight into audiences’ real motivations and concerns. 

The bottom line is that, while we must still mix and distribute the corporate KoolAid, it would be advisable to maintain some perspective, and not to take as big a sip as everyone else.

Need help with your corporate communications? Contact Peter at Peter@CommunicationsUnlimited.ca.

Leadership transitions are always a turbulent time for an organization. To the rank and file, a new leader signifies a departure from the past, indicates a change in strategic direction, and is often a harbinger for dramatic change. Even the best planned successions can lead to a drop in productivity and loss of employee engagement. 

There are, however, a few ways for professional communicators to mitigate the upheaval that can come from a change in leadership. 

First, try to avoid the Cult of the Leader. While the strategy can work well in select cases – almost only with Founding CEOs (Bill Gates, Donald Trump, etc) – there is an inherent risk in tying an organization’s future to their leader’s persona: at best, the inevitable departure of an iconic leader impacts employee engagement and investor confidence; at worst, the organization spirals through a series of stand-ins who are forever doomed to be compared to the Great Leader. 

Instead, always employ a more diversified strategy incorporating the entire leadership team. Put particular focus on highlighting the skills and attributes that help them to meet corporate objectives or that embody the company vision. At the end of the day, the loss of a General can be overcome, but the loss of the King signals disaster. 

When the time does come for regime change – either from within the family or from those more hostile – the key to a smooth transition is to start communicating early. Introduce the Crown Prince as soon as possible and evidence their commitment to the organization’s mission and vision. If possible, take both the outgoing and the incoming leaders on a road-show together to demonstrate continuity to employees, investors and key customers.   

Throughout, try to position the change process within the framework of the organization’s core objectives. Take every opportunity to show how the change furthers the company’s goal of achieving its mission or long-term objectives. The masses will always back a new regime that helps them to achieve their personal and communal priorities.   

Finally, listen to dissenting views. Right or wrong, the grapevine is a mean propaganda machine, which quickly generates rumours and misinformation. But these can be easily mollified if taken seriously and addressed early. Be sure to identify and address potential rumours and contentious issues before the villagers show up at the gates with pitchforks and torches. 

Six hundred years ago, the cry of “The King is dead! Long live the King!” was the first sign of a change in leadership. Even then, communicators keenly understood the need for smooth transitions and continuity in leadership.

Looking for a professional communicator to help you through a leadership transition? Contact Peter at Peter@CommunicationsUnlimited.ca.

Have communicators completely consigned their spelling skills to Microsoft and Apple? All too often these days, I find myself the recipient of emails rife with glaring spelling mistakes or sporting a completely out of place word. 

I’ll be the first to admit that I am often schooled by Professors Gates, Jobs et al., particularly when I’m short on time or enjoying the blessings of an (all too infrequent) brainwave. But rather than blindly right clicking and accepting the first offering that the magical red wavy line suggests, I always try to take the time to see my mistakes and learn from them. 

An even worse scourge, however, is the ever-helpful ‘auto-correct function’. This little gem has been responsible for frequent careless and often embarrassing mistakes around the office. I myself have been guilty of blaming the looming ‘pubic health crisis’ for many of society’s woes. 

Here’s the problem: as professional communicators, a basic command of spelling and grammar is a must. A disregard for spelling – and in fact for editing – only erodes your credibility as a communicator. Sure, your friends and family will forgive you the occasional mistake or misplaced word, but at the office, few will give you the benefit of the doubt. In the corporate world, spelling mistakes are indicative of two types of people: those who believe themselves to be too busy for ‘quality control’, and those that simply can’t spell. Communicators should fall into neither camp. 

Regular readers will know that I always like to provide a selection of actionable and practical advice for the challenges I raise. In this case, however, there really is only one solution: Always make the time to read what you have written. And while the importance of rereading your work should not diminish based on the length of the piece or the audience for which it is intended, communicators who have just pounded out a 30-page dissertation (or a short yet crucial quote from your CEO), will want to make sure they walk away from their drafts and return to re-read them with fresh eyes. And it’s never a bad idea to get a colleague to take a look over projects you have been staring at for a while. 

At the end of the day, communicators that do not take this simple but critical step may suddenly wake up to find that they have lost both their ability to spell and their credibility around the office. 

(Editor’s note: those with dubious sensitivities will roar in laughter at some of the ‘autocorrect’ horror stories found at http://damnyouautocorrect.com/. You may want to close your office door.) 

Looking for a professional communicator that understands the importance of good grammar and quality control? Contact Peter at Peter@CommunicationsUnlimited.ca.

Communications professionals love surveys. Indeed, there’s nothing like a good round of strong statistics to prove a point or drive home a key message. 

But audience surveys carry an intrinsic risk: the data may not always say what you expect it to. Many a seasoned professional has put a survey out in the field, only to find that the results were either so bland that they were un-newsworthy, or – worse – contradictory to their company’s key messages. 

Unfortunately, surveys are notoriously difficult to kill. In part, this is because market research can be an expensive investment that is not easily written off. But most surveys also involve a fair amount of management buy-in and employee involvement (particularly in enlisting clients to participate), and so there is often a high level of expectation for communications professionals to deliver something valuable from the survey results. 

So what can communicators do to squeeze value out of bad data? Here are a few options that we offer our clients when in a similar situation: 

Chop it up and dose it out: OK, so maybe your data – in its entirety – isn’t all that compelling. But quite often there are seams of gold hidden within specific data sets that can be mined by cutting up the data in different ways. So, for example, try looking at the data in terms of age groups, industry sectors, or geographical region, and use the resulting data to target trade publications or special interest groups. In many cases, communicators can garner more media coverage using this strategy than a simple ‘newswire’ distribution and email blast.

Use case studies: Case studies are always a great way to bring data to life, and are often used by communications professionals to create a media ‘hook’ for bland data. The trick is to pick a company/group/individual that epitomizes an extreme respondent (either best or worst case) and is of interest to the general public. It would make sense, for example, to use Obama’s Presidential campaign to demonstrate the benefits of grassroots social media campaigns; or BP’s past two years to reinforce data on the value of a strong crisis communications capacity. 

Rethink the deliverable: When handed lemons, you don’t have to make lemonade; pies, cakes and cookies can be even better. In the same way, communicators should consider repurposing parts of the data to support other vehicles such as employee newsletters, sales sheets or websites. Communicators will find that this can be a great way to give their data some legs, while also demonstrating its value internally. 

But no matter how bad the data is, always remember that the worst thing you can do is ‘stretch’ the findings to suit your purpose. This is tantamount to lying and is an unnecessary risk for the project, the organization, and a communications professional’s career.

Need help turning your market research into something of value? Contact Peter at Peter@CommunicationsUnlimited.ca.

Even on the best of days, communications can be a high-stress job. In fact, in a recent study by CareerCast, Public Relations was ranked as the second most stressful job for 2011 (commercial pilots ranked first; senior executives third). 

And while much of that stress can be attributed to the short deadlines, high risks and demanding stakeholders that we all toil under, leadership and culture also play a commanding role. 

Indeed, many communications leaders often fail to fully understand the impact of their actions on the engagement, culture and stress of their teams. And since higher stress usually means more mistakes, lower productivity and burn-outs, we thought we would offer four key areas where communications leaders can significantly reduce their team’s anxiety levels: 

• Keep your cool – Remember that your stress level will have a direct impact on the stress of your employees. No matter what the topic – or how ‘safe’ you feel within the confines of your department – leaders should always try to refrain from blowing off steam inside the office. Bottom line is that stress breeds stress, or (as one of my old colleagues used to put it) when the Big Top spins, all the Little Tops spin too. 
• Maintain a reasonable schedule – This is a challenge across most organizations. Leaders like to get into the office before their employees in order to get a jump on the day, but employees like to get into the office before their bosses to prove their commitment (in a dance that is otherwise known as ‘Optics’). But eventually, everyone is coming in at the crack of dawn and staying in the office until 8pm which obviously kills any semblance of work-life balance. Leaders must break the cycle (though that will often mean starting and finishing the day from the home office) in an effort to demonstrate that it’s OK to have a life outside of the office.     
• Allow failure – Communicators take on a certain amount of risk every day (media calls, for example, can be very risky endeavours, even in the best situations). But to do this successfully, employees must feel that there is some allowance for mistakes within the team culture. And while I’m certainly not endorsing wild risks or stupid failures, many communications leaders may want to take a softer line on errors, thus promoting continuous improvement and experience over constant perfection. 
• Be clear and consistent – One of the bigger stresses for communicators generally manifests when ownership, objectives or goals are unclear or – worse – contradictory. And given that most communicators tend to serve multiple customers and stakeholders simultaneously, communications leaders will need to work closely with their teams to ensure that they are receiving clear and consistent direction. For more on defining roles, click here.

So while the title of Second Most Stressful Job of 2011 is probably a bit of a stretch, many communications leaders would still be well advised to keep a keen eye on how their own actions are influencing the overall stress level of their team. 

And by the way – those looking for less stressful jobs may want to consider a career as a Philosopher or Mathematician; two of the least stressful jobs for 2011 according to the analysts at CareerCast.

Want to reduce your stress levels? Get Communications Unlimited on your team. Contact Peter at Peter@CommunicationsUnlimited.ca.

Employee engagement has never been so important. Across the board, workers continue to feel a deep sense of insecurity and anxiety. Understandably so: in many industry sectors and geographies, unemployment continues to run high; consumer optimism is virtually non-existent; and most corporate employees just count themselves lucky to still have their jobs. 

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 continuing to predict a largely ‘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 over the past two years, expect to be working harder than ever before. 

The obvious challenge for executives now lies in re-engaging a distrustful and passive employee base.  

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

And 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-vitalise 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 2011 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 and re-establishing morale. 

Looking for a writer to can engage your audience(s)? Contact Peter at Peter@CommunicationsUnlimited.ca

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.

If you are a professional communicator, chances are you own a smart-phone or some other type of mobile device. Whether it’s a BlackBerry, iPhone or netbook, mobile devices are quickly changing the way people interact with each other, and – more importantly – the way communicators approach their jobs and audiences. 

Indeed, mobile devices are in the midst of turning traditional communications models on their heads. Only ten years ago, media was the king of conduits; telephone calls went to people’s land lines; the majority of consumers still got their information on paper rather than online; and subways, taxicabs and public loos were places of quiet contemplation, rather than mobile office spaces. 

But as adoption numbers start to spike (especially following the release of the 3G iPad), communicators will increasingly find that these devices are forcing them to reconsider the way they approach their jobs and their audiences, particularly in five key areas: 

Work-life balance: the lines between work-life and home-life are merging, creating a double-edged sword for communicators. On one side, communicators now enjoy unprecedented levels of connectivity, allowing them to deal with issues and progress projects from almost anywhere in the world (whether a client site in Australia or a couch in the living room). At the same time, however, communicators will need to pay close attention to their work-life balance if they ever hope to retain some of the sanctity that comes from being ‘out of the office’. 

Writing styles: with comparatively small screens and somewhat limited functionality, communicators will need to revisit their organizational writing styles to properly communicate with mobile device users. And while many communicators are already starting to consider rewriting their websites to ‘optimize’ them for mobile devices, this is only half the battle. They will want to carry their new writing style through all of their written communications – from emails to press releases – to make sure they are capturing 100% of their audience(s) all of the time. 

Presentation: separate from writing style – yet inexorably intertwined – is the need to update the look and feel of online material for mobile devices. And while design specs tend to fall outside of the traditional communications purview, IT teams are usually reluctant to build out new functionalities that don’t have a direct bottom line benefit. In response, many communicators will find themselves working as catalysts within their executive teams and IT leadership to free up the required budget and resources needed for redesigns.  

Internal communications: professional communicators aren’t the only ones bringing work home with them on mobile devices. In turn, this has created some unique opportunities (and a few challenges) for internal communications professionals. And it will almost certainly be a boon for HR and benefits professionals, who will see increased rates of compliance on everything from benefits enrolment to professional development requirements (as employees take e-Learning modules and benefits forms home on their devices). That said, communicators will need to work closely with legal and IT to ensure the proper security and controls are in place to prevent the loss of intellectual property or competitive advantage. 

Meeting skills: we are all guilty of it: sitting in a meeting or listening to a conference call and your mind starts to wander.  Before you know it, you find yourself scrolling through emails and checking the latest hockey scores. As frequent presenters and public speakers, communicators will need to recognize that audience attention is becoming increasingly difficult to capture. In some cases, they will want to find ways to maintain their audience’s interest long enough to make their point; in others, they may prefer to recognize the limitations and find alternate methods of reinforcing their messages (for example: following-up calls with meeting notes, recording sessions for audience review, or even sending a synopsis to their mobile devices). 

And while some tech pundits envision a day where offices are abandoned and employees work from the comfort of their homes, don’t expect to be living this utopia any time soon. Looks like you’ll still have to come into the office tomorrow. 

Communicating with Mobile Audiences is one of our Top 11 Communications Issues for 2011. Next week, we’ll look at managing social media cynicism.

Need help with your mobile communications? Contact Peter at Peter@CommunicationsUnlimited.ca.