Friday, August 20, 2010 |
posted by Sue Heuman |
With recent events in the news about people who’ve had all they can take on the job (and found creative ways to exit from those jobs), it seems to me that it reflects a bigger workforce issue.
Years ago, my parents’ generation lived to work. Indeed, many people’s identities were defined by their jobs: more than “what do you do” it was “who you are.”
That link to personal identity was a great complement to the hierarchical organizational structure of the day. Older, wiser, more experienced employees were leaders and mentors, guiding the new employees. Orders were given and followed. Task lists were completed. Work was quantified. And when an employee had put in sufficient time, he/she was promoted – a badge of honour, proudly worn, that added to the individual’s identity.
I believe today’s workforce is defined more by its friends, social networks and interests, and less by job titles or work responsibilities. Work exists largely to pay the bills (which is not to say that young people are less passionate about what they do). The difference is in this generation’s ability to turn work off and open up all the other aspects of their lives.
It is something to be admired, and yet, causes some discomfort for the baby boomers among us. This is a different approach to work, but is it better? Worse? Will the next generation care as much as we do?
Time will tell. And the next generation may express that concern and stewardship in different ways than we did. That’s ok.
We are part of a huge societal evolution, I believe. More than just being the most connected population in history, we are in a time when people can influence, inspire and contribute to a variety of interests more efficiently than ever before.
As a result, people have more complex identities: perhaps artist, activist, athlete… and employee. The challenge for employers is to recognize, nurture and celebrate all the personalities that show up every day.
Is the target audience 'dead'?
Wednesday, August 11, 2010 |
posted by Sue Heuman |
She’s a baby boomer, 50, two grown kids. Loves NASCAR and the ballet. Reads voraciously. Three dogs (she’d have more if the law and husband allowed). Votes, donates time and money. Travels. Practices yoga three times a week. Business owner, strategist, social media junkie.
Marketers, would you ever profile this person as your target audience? Of course not. No one in their right mind would dream up such a combination.
Yet it’s real.
Where on earth can you meet such a person? On Twitter, of course. She can follow people who share the same interests (albeit in different combinations, for sure). And she and they can connect in real time: have conversations, debate issues and share points of view.
The appeal of Twitter is that people can find communities of interest on a range of topics. And maybe that’s why it has taken off at such a phenomenal rate. People can be all the multi-faceted characters that they are – despite the fact they wouldn’t fit in anyone’s audience profile.
The trick for public relations and marketing professionals in the future is to find ways to connect with all the people that we are as individuals. So think about who you REALLY are. Then go out and find more just like you!
POSTSCRIPT: This blog post has prompted quite a few comments, both here and in person. The key point I'm trying to make is that I believe social media helps us turn the perspective around. Previously, marketers would identify their target audience and then plan strategies to meet them, based on a series of assumptions. Social media now gives us the opportunity to first search by relevant topic, and then find the people who are likewise interested. With social media, other assumptions (age, gender, occupation, etc.) are irrelevant if we search by topic first. So, you may not think a ballet lover and NASCAR fan go together...but they do. Who knows what other combinations are out there?
Does the source really matter?
Tuesday, July 20, 2010 |
posted by Sue Heuman |
For years, marketing and public relations functions have been separated in companies. These silos rarely talk to each other, yet both are talking to the customer. Does this make sense?
Enter social media – the new darling of the internet, which both marketing and public relations want to claim as their own. Advertising agencies and PR firms are scrambling to add expertise to offer this juicy vehicle to their respective clients. And still, marketing and public relations divisions in organizations barely talk.
The situation is ripe for change. After all, each is reaching out to the same demographic, one presumes with aligned messages, although that is dependent on whether direction is provided at the top. As each reaches out through Twitter and Facebook, the dialogue gets noisy.
I think we’re going to see a merger of marketing, public relations and social media into a new industry that embraces all methods of connecting to customers. Social, traditional and earned media are really achieving the same things, albeit through different means.
In the end, is it the means that matters, or the results? I would argue that results trump all, and the fight over who is responsible for what will become moot. What are your thoughts?
Just what is a social media expert?
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 |
posted by Sue Heuman |
K, folks, time to get a grip. There seems to be a lot of debate swirling about who is qualified to be a social media expert and who is not.
If you use social media effectively, are you an expert? If you use the telephone effectively, are you an expert? And if so, in what regard?
Here’s the deal: social media is just another vehicle for communication. Yes, there are folks who have developed apps to mine social media contacts for fun and profit. But most organizations actually just want to connect with their customers. Nothing nefarious going on there.
So, who knows how to connect with customers... hmmm....let me think.... Oh yeah, PR, communications and marketing people. It seems appropriate to me, therefore, that the expertise in communication transfers nicely to this new medium, and that social media forms a part of an overall marketing and communications strategy for a company.
If you need advice on how to use social media, contact communications and marketing professionals. After all, you wouldn’t ask the phone installer for advice on how to cold call a customer, now would you?
As always, your comments are welcome (click on “comments” in green)
Ch-ch-ch-changes!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 |
posted by Sue Heuman |
How can senior leaders inspire change in their organizations? Turns out that change is hard, but not impossible.
Here are some tips to help your corporate change program:
- Examine the existing corporate environment, including processes, barriers, policies and culture. Understand the questions you are trying to answer before answering them.
- Enthusiasm is great if it's focused. Otherwise, fragmented or unconnected activities can lead the team away from the desired targets.
- Clearly articulate the new future, and be sure to include enough specifics to manage the implications of change. Broad statements don't provide enough detail to guide mid-level and front line leaders.
- Test the new future and sample processes with a cross-section of staff. If you've watched CBS' "Undercover Boss" you know that employees with a range of experiences know far better than executives how things really work.
- Refine and set a clear strategy to implement the change that includes all divisions and all work units. Again, sounds obvious but sometimes work units are left out, or it is assumed that change won't affect them.
- Provide sufficient resources to support the change at the senior management, mid-management and front line levels. This point is critical. Organizational change is not something managed off the corner of your desk, and specific skills are needed to enable the change process.
- Regularly monitor the progress against the change plan, and adjust as you go. Again, this is a key to success. Things rarely go exactly as planned so flexibility and ability to adapt as you go are very important.
- Communicate and demonstrate transparency. Fear is the biggest barrier to change. No hidden agendas, no holding back. If you want the best from your team, treat them like responsible adults and let them do their best.
Finally have patience. Change takes time, especially when adopting new processes and responsibilities. I welcome your comments and insights (click on "comments" in green at the top of this post).
Does media relations define PR?
Friday, July 2, 2010 |
posted by Sue Heuman |
For many years, media relations and PR were synonymous. More recently, PR’s role has expanded to include stakeholder communications while some practitioners specialize in investor relations or government relations.
With the social media movement in full swing, PR people are finding an even greater role as their company’s social media voice.
And, just as the future of traditional media has been the focus of debate, so too is the role of PR people in media relations. After all, if newspapers and other media disappear, media relations quickly becomes irrelevant.
Worldcom PR, a global leader in public relations, conducted a survey of its worldwide clients to find out what shifts they were planning in their PR spending. Here’s what they found:
"According to the survey, the services respondents expect the decrease to include: media relations (19 percent), advertising (17 percent), and direct mail and marketing (11 percent). In general, the majority of firms are optimistic about business increasing in the next three to five years.
Moreover, an increase in multichannel services is a critical indicator for firms to move beyond media relations as a major source of revenue. For example, more than half of the respondents expected social media, interactive/web development and search engine optimization services to increase – 93 percent, 73 percent and 61 percent, respectively. Yet obstacles still remain for firms to determine how to increase revenue from these services; particularly search engine optimization – for example, no agency reported more than 10 percent of revenue from SEO.” (SOURCE: www.worldcomgroup.com)
Wow. For those practitioners solely involved in media relations, time to learn about Twitter! ;)
Seriously, the impact here is in understanding the power that companies have to tell their own stories directly through means other than mainstream media. I personally believe that media will still be around, although they are currently going through their own evolution. But the new focus must be on connecting with people in the ways in which they want to be reached.
I believe the future will include a wide range of tools at our disposal. Understanding how, when and why to use each tool will define the future of public relations. Where are you in the evolution?
Twitter is what the world wide web was made for!
Sunday, April 25, 2010 |
posted by Sue Heuman |
Sharing information. The web was pioneered by Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Calliau, Paul Kunz and others in the 1980s and 90s. Why on earth would they pursue this project?
“The WorldWideWeb (WWW) project aims to allow all links to be made to any information anywhere. [...] The WWW project was started to allow high energy physicists to share data, news, and documentation. We are very interested in spreading the web to other areas, and having gateway servers for other data. Collaborators welcome!" —from Tim Berners-Lee's first message.
Who knew then that the web would transform our lives the way it has. The above quote, by the way, is from Wikipedia, another incredible collaborative project that put a lot of encyclopaedia salespeople out of business.
The shift in society and culture that has occurred over these past 20 years is arguably the biggest change since the discovery of fire. The evolution of cell phones to smart phones, iPads, netbooks, to pretty much every other device; was possible because the world wide web taught us to think differently, and act differently. It opened up the way we communicate and enables us to hear firsthand the ideas and opinions of others.
We forget the organizational culture of command-and-control that existed in businesses and governments in the 1980s. “Share information?! Are you crazy?! How will I retain my power over staff, customers and suppliers??”
Fast forward to today, where information sharing and collaboration have proven time and again that the best results are achieved by the many, not the few.
Enter Twitter. The ultimate information-sharing platform. Instant. Accessible. No permissions needed. A place where famous people and everyday people exchange ideas, Twitter has moved far beyond Mr. Berner-Lee’s dreams for the web. It has proven to be such a successful force that people have developed ways to expand information sharing beyond 140 characters to include links to longer posts. Suddenly, citizen reporters are tweeting news hours before traditional media can catch up. This is not a failing of traditional media (after all, there are billions of people and only thousands of reporters), but an endorsement of the power of information sharing, instant access and word of mouth. People are now able to source their own information needs and hear directly from governments, manufacturers, companies, and non-profit organizations. We are smarter consumers, voters, citizens, employees, entrepreneurs...people.
These are my thoughts. And, thanks to the world wide web, and Twitter, I can share them with you. What do you think?
How to attract and retain good employees
Friday, March 26, 2010 |
posted by Sue Heuman |
As the economy slowly starts to turn around, the focus for most businesses and governments will be on retaining their staff. After all, companies invest in their employees through on-the-job training, workshops, courses, and by giving them new challenges that help their personal growth.
No one wants to see the best and brightest walk out the door to a better offer. One of the things we know about employee engagement, though, is that it’s really not about money. Employees who are most satisfied on the job have appropriate duties and responsibilities, are given chances to try new things, and are compensated a fair amount. In fact, according to Canadian HR Reporter (May 2006), these are the seven key factors that affect engagement:
1. Trust senior management
2. Are asked for their ideas and opinions on important matters
3. Clearly understand the organization’s vision and strategic direction
4. Trust their supervisors
5. Receive recognition and praise for good work
6. Have a clear say in decisions that affect their work
7. Perceive their supervisors as caring and considerate of their well-being.
We know that engaged employees perform better. In light of the recent economic downturn, however, employees may not be as engaged with their employers as they have been in past. Many companies have faced budget cuts, layoffs, plant closures and more. It’s hard to keep those “left behind” motivated and excited about the company.
So what can you do?
1. Improve employee communication through a range of channels. Employees want to hear from their supervisors, branch managers, and senior management. They need reassurance and a strong vision for the future to help renew their confidence.
2. Train middle managers – most are really good at their jobs, but have received little or no communications training. It’s critical that middle managers understand their role as the “corporate translator” in the organization – helping to turn broad corporate goals into specific actions for front line employees. Focus Communications offers a ½ day training course for middle managers, check out our training page.
3. Engage your staff in a discussion about current and future challenges. Company executives don’t need to come up with all the answers – in fact, employees will feel more connected to the organization if they have the opportunity to contribute. Having asked employees for their ideas, it is critical that management actually considers the ideas, and then gets back to the employees to let them know how (or if) the ideas were implemented.
Companies need to act NOW to attract and retain a confident, motivated, engaged workforce. As communicaitons professionals, what are you doing to help your companies succeed?
The medium is the message
Monday, February 15, 2010 |
posted by Sue Heuman |
"The medium is the message"
Marshall McLuhan uttered those famous words in 1964, and although much has changed, this dictum remains true (perhaps even more relevant) today.
Mr. McLuhan was indeed a visionary. He understood that the way in which a message is delivered is as important as the message itself. As social media opens up ever-expanding platforms and technology, his words are prophetic, indeed.
But beyond those famous words, Mr. McLuhan also said, “The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village” (1962). Hard to believe that was nearly 50 years ago! He died in 1980, so he didn’t have the chance to experience the full realization of his words through platforms like Twitter and Facebook, and technology such as iPad and Blackberry.
If he were alive today, I wonder what he would say about the incredible opportunities that we now enjoy to connect with friends and strangers alike; at home, work or on a city street. What message is the new medium telling us?
We are more connected now than at any stage in human existence. We “meet” people through tweets; discuss ideas and opinions through blogs. We answer online polls and contribute comments through a range of forums.
We can agree, or disagree, on every topic imaginable. If social media is the new medium, I believe the new message is connectedness.
What do you think Marshall McLuhan would say today? I welcome your thoughts.
10 tips for great communication
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 |
posted by Sue Heuman |
Companies and organizations in today’s global economy work very hard to convey information, capture the audience’s attention and inspire behaviours or attitudes to support their business objectives.
In reaching out to their customers and audiences, however, most organizations are too focused on what they want to say, not what the audience needs to hear. Many employees write from a ‘we’ perspective – ‘we do this’ and ‘we do that.’ And, despite their best efforts, it’s very difficult for employees to change this approach even if they are aware that there is a better way.
Why? Because employees are the organization, and as much as they try to put themselves in their customers’ shoes, they know too much. They have too much background knowledge, and the links and connections that hold meaning inside an organization are meaningless outside. This deep knowledge of the product or service usually leads to them trying to say too much. We call it “telling everybody, everything, all the time.” And it fails every time, because people just don’t care as much as you do about your stuff.
One of the best things writers can do is to turn their perspectives around so that they start with the answer to the question, ‘so what?’ Write interesting, compelling text that provides enough to engage the reader without overwhelming.
Here are some tips to help you communicate what your audiences need to hear:
- Do identify what you are trying to achieve, and tailor your message to the audience.
- Do start with WIIFM – what’s in it for me – from the audience’s perspective, not the company’s. Find out what’s important to your audience and address it first.
- • Do outline the basic information in short, punchy sentences. Avoid long, complicated sentences filled with jargon. Generally, any sentence with more than two commas is probably too long.
- Do write in the third person. Not “We are a Fortune 500 company...” which just begs the question, “who is ‘we?’” Instead, write “ABCDEF Corporation is a Fortune 500 company...”
- Do add some excitement! When writing, ask yourself, “is this something I would want to read?”
- Do include clear steps that the audience can take. Make it easy for your audience to buy/support/donate/whatever... right away.
- Do include charts, graphs, diagrams and other visuals to enhance and support your text. Supporting visuals should add value, not just be a pretty picture to occupy space.
- Don’t get bogged down in the details. Keep information clean, clear and succinct.
- Don’t re-create the history of the project/product/initiative – no one cares. Provide just enough background for context only.
- Don’t leave the reader asking more questions than you’ve answered. Make sure the information is complete and offers a rounded view of the topic.
And, of course, it’s critical to include a link or contact coordinates for more information.
It’s difficult to gain and sustain people’s attention these days. When you do have their eyes, ears and hearts – even for just a few brief moments – be prepared to make the most of the opportunity.
