By Rebecca Canan

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are now behind us, and maybe you snagged some of this year’s top holidays toys for friends, family, and, er, yourself.  As I’ve been doing my own holiday shopping, I started thinking about what things were on our CEC members’ wish lists this year.  That is, what are the cool “toys” and tactics that some CEC members’ have…and other members would LOVE to have?  Below, you’ll find the five top picks.  CEC members, let us know if you’d like to learn more about any of the things on this list – we’d be happy to share more.  Everyone, what else is on your wish list this year?

Communicators’ Holiday Wish List

1. Internal “Facebook” site: Any communicator who is responsible for internal communications or, more specifically, the intranet secretly (or not so secretly) wishes for an engaging – yet safe – platform that connects employees and encourages collaboration and dialogue.  Imagine this: A social networking site that humanizes employees with profiles, photos, and social activities, yet also equips them to get their professional questions answered quickly.  As a (huge) side benefit, the site also builds ties and a common culture across the company.  This is a reality at Sabre, a Texas-based travel and leisure company, where they’ve launched an internal platform, SabreTown, to great success. 

Check out a video and, CEC members, read more here.

2. Blog College: Are you tired of creating all the content for your company’s social media platforms?  Isn’t there someone else in your company who is a subject matter expert and would likely have more credibility?  Many communicators find themselves in the same position, yet are apprehensive about turning over “control” of the content to employees outside of Comms.  One really smart approach we’ve seen to this challenge was developed by National Instruments (NI).  NI has scaled their ability to engage with stakeholders by deputizing a group of subject matter experts across the organization.  The Communications team has developed a training and support playbook for these employees to ensure that they are maintaining company quality and culture standards, while able to maintain their own personal style.

CEC members, access the entire playbook for Blog College.

3. Super sweet monitoring system: This may be something you don’t yet know that you want.  However, how much value are you getting out of your media monitoring tools?  We’ve said this before, but if you’re like most communicators, you use monitoring in one of two ways: (1) reactive: spot issues and figure out whether to respond OR (2) retrospective: see how well a message was picked up.  For some companies – like Monsanto - with a “super sweet monitoring system,” they use their monitoring platform in proactive ways.  For example, they can see how a given message is likely to affect stakeholder perceptions and can make predictions that inform communications and business strategy.

CEC members, read more and hear Monsanto talk about this approach here.

4. Ambassador program (that works): Many organizations have employee ambassador programs; many organizations have lackluster ambassador programs.  However, at Allstate, they have an ambassador movement (note: not a program or a campaign) that WORKS.  The company’s bottom-up design and focus on employees’ interests differentiates the Movement from others.  Ambassadors receive access to exclusive information, discussion forums, and events, so that they can chose how to participate.  These exclusive resources make them feel more comfortable and excited about speaking on behalf of the company with other employees and with external stakeholders. 

CEC members, read more about the movement and hear Allstate talk about it here.

5. A guide on how to write content that gets shared: Think about how much time we spend writing content that gets used once (e.g., in a CEO speech)…or gets put into a press release and sits (gets stale) on our company’s newsroom.  A couple ideas:

• Create a more engaging online newsroom - one that encourages back-and-forth with your stakeholders and is intended for audiences beyond the media.
• Follow some basic tips to better ensure that your content “flows.”  For example, Intuit includes “tweetable” soundbites and attaches a relevant hashtag for the company’s executive presentations.

CEC members, see our guide for How to Build a Leading Online Newsroom.  And read tips to Create Content That Flows.

Happy Holidays to all!