This is an adapted guest post from Shelley West in our sister program, the Marketing Leadership Council (MLC). Shelley wrote this for the MLC Wide Angle blog.

As part of my quest to know everything there is to know about what our B2B members are doing in the social media space, I spent this past Wednesday in Chicago at MLC’s B2B Social Media Strategy Builder workshop.  It was a great opportunity to interact with and learn from folks in the social media trenches at some of our B2B member companies.  In attendance were more than 40 staff members from over 20 corporations, representing a diverse set of industries and somewhat varied levels of social media maturity.   During the lively discussion, participants shared challenges, questions, ideas, frustrations, and successes.  A lot was shared, but I think two key themes emerged as the most challenging for those in attendance:

Challenge #1:  My boss told me to get our company on Twitter, what do I do now?

Several folks in the room reported that the powers that be at their companies had tasked them with objectives like, “Start a Twitter feed” or “Build a Facebook page.”   But without knowing what that those singular activities were meant to accomplish, marketers and communicators are left without a clear direction.  Very few would move forward with a goal to “Set up an event” or “Advertise in a trade journal” without a clear idea of what those activities were meant to accomplish for the business.  The same holds true in social media.  Social media is not a strategy in and of itself – it should be in service of a larger, more considered business objective.  Think about what business results you want your social media efforts to drive.

And, as I have said in past posts, I feel compelled to assert again that I am not using “social media” as a proxy for “Facebook.”  Social media incorporates a wide variety of channels and initiatives including blogs, interactive forums, user communities, communication tools, and virtual gatherings.  Think big! Read More »

Intranets – they spark joy and frustration in equal measure (often tipping in favour of frustration). Joy because we now have an easy and effective way of getting important information to our employees without bombarding them with emails. Frustration because no matter how hard we try, the feedback is still that when employees need something it’s hard to break through the maze.

It’s not like we aren’t trying. Communications teams (in partnership with IT and HR) are always looking for better and smarter ways to leverage this golden tool. What we’re all aiming for is employees who actually use the intranet, on a regular basis, to do their jobs better and faster. But how do we know that it’s really working? Most communicators keep close track of intranet metrics like clicks and views.

However, these volumetrics reveal nothing about what employees may have intended to do on the intranet, or wish they could do. Employee needs and goals are constantly changing, so how do we measure whether we are keeping pace? Read More »

This is a guest post from Kirsten Robinson, writing for our sister program, the Marketing Leadership Council (MLC) on the MLC Wide Angle blog.

Between crowded malls, prices varying by location, or, just not knowing where to find a product—shopping can be a headache.

The good news is, with the increasing number of mobile users, and explosion of smartphone apps, consumers can use their phones to ease their shopping woes.

What makes a great mobile shopping app? Aside from easing the customer’s life, they also deepen the brand (e.g., decreasing customers’ transaction efforts), and scale quickly (e.g., integrating social propellants)—attributes that marketers should aim to provide with their mobile executions to make them stick.

We’ve compiled a list of some of the best mobile shopping apps out there: Read More »

By Kirsten Robinson

We all know what it’s like to struggle with creating a balance between work and personal life. But how do you balance work, and…work?

This is a common problem for frontline employees who are asked to carry out corporate social responsibility objectives that are in conflict with their daily workload—they don’t know how to achieve both simultaneously. And, disconnected from the central strategy, employees aren’t given much reason to care. Engage your staff by creating learning moments where they can discover and share with each other how their actions play a role in achieving company CSR goals.

We spoke with Rosanne Bonanno, Senior Communication Manager, and Ellen Witte, Project Manager, both at TNT, about what worked well for them in engaging frontline employees in CSR initiatives:

1. Facilitate Hands-On Learning. Integrate frontline staff’s core job tasks directly into the CSR-related activity to help employees  see connections between their job and your CSR objectives.
2. Infuse Learning with Fun. Make learning fun and sociable to give frontline employees the opportunity to interact with and learn from each other.
3. Facilitate Peer-to-Peer Sharing. Use audience-centric communication tools to effectively reach dispersed frontline audiences, sustaining learning and understanding beyond the specific activity.

CEC members, get more in-depth details on how TNT mobilizes frontline employees around CSR initiatives, and read excerpts from our conversation with Rosanne Bonnano and Ellen Witte.

As part of our ongoing effort to help organizations harness the power of social media, the CEC hosted a discussion a few weeks ago with our Social Media Networking Cohort. The virtual meeting was designed to be an informal discussion where we were able to talk about challenges, test ideas, share experiences and brainstorm on topics surrounding the social media frontier. With over 20 companies participating, it was a great way for all of us to learn what others are doing beyond our own industry, business model, and geography. Here are a few smart tactics, interesting strategies, success stories and challenges that came out of the conversation:

It can be hard work, but create a social media policy…and make it simple.

Whether your company is starting to slowly dip its toes, or has already taken a dive into the deep end of the social media pool, one of the first things we strongly recommend is creating a social media policy. Creating a policy will help protect your company against legal and reputation risks by outlining the Do’s and Don’ts of social media for employees. One participant of our discussion said their greatest successes in the social media space was creating a simple social media policy (that was finally approved by Legal). Originally, they had created a very thorough (read: long and complicated) policy to be the security blanket their senior leadership needed. However, their complicated policy actually handcuffed their employees from fully leveraging social media. Once they simplified their policy and created something everyone could understand and adhere to, the company was much more effective with their social media efforts.

CEC related  resource: Create Your Own Policy.

Want to take control of rumors?  Try blogging.

We all know what can happen when a rumor starts to spread about our company. “Well, my friend has a cousin who knows a girl who is married to a guy who works at that company…so it must be true!”  Rumors spread more quickly than ever before and they become so distorted that they can negatively impact your company. To take control of the rumor mill, one participant’s team uses company blogs as a way to either confirm or deny the rumor. They can then take readers to a place where they can get the right information. It’s a quick, easy, and informal way to take control of the situation before anything gets out of hand.

CEC related resource: NI’s Conversation Matchmaking System and Managing Reputation in Online Conversations Read More »

Having recently embarked upon a project about how progressive companies communicate organizational change, I’ve found myself scanning this week’s news with a fresh perspective.

As readers with more than a passing interest in the English Premier League may have noticed, Arsenal FC were acquired this week by American businessman, Stan Kroenke, owner of numerous sports franchises in Colorado. This is part of a wider trend of foreign owners investing in English football, with recent takeovers having also occurred at clubs Liverpool FC and Blackburn Rovers.

Each acquiring party has inherited different scenarios, and each has communicated the change with a mixed bag of results…

Enlightened Continuity

In Arsenal FC, Mr. Kroenke has acquired a successful business, in excellent financial health. Amid the uncertainty that comes with new ownership/leadership, he has been quick to allay fears of sea-change amongst key stakeholder groups, such as supporters:

“Arsenal are a fantastic club with a special history and tradition and a wonderful manager in Arsene Wenger. We intend to build on this rich heritage and take the club to new success.”

Rather than leap straight in with sweeping change, Kroenke has adopted the mantra, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ – he has aligned himself with the popular former shareholders, providing continuity for key stakeholder groups such as supporters, and playing staff. Read More »

Our latest research on Building a Change-Ready Organization shows that agility is a huge driver of performance. Improving the agility of your workers will give you four times the performance returns than simply getting them to work harder. What drives employees to be more agile? Understanding the company’s overall business context is a vital component that helps employees to embrace new ways of thinking and come up with ideas on how to improve existing processes.

Our quantitative analysis shows that employees’ ability to make connections to company context, beyond their immediate role, increases their agility regardless of what position they hold within their company. However, some industries might find it harder than others to foster understanding of the company for every segment of their workforce. Manufacturing industries, in particular, find it difficult to reach front line, often non-wired, workers who lack access to common communications channels like email and intranet. Frequently, even if the messages actually manage to reach these workers, employees tune them out because they don’t seem relevant or are not communicated in “their” language. Read More »

We had some wonderful sunshine in London this past weekend, and like any good Londoner would, I joined a group of friends for a picnic at our local park. As we were sitting and chatting about subjects from careers to our world travels, it struck me that in my group of six, we had six different nationalities (or dual ones sometimes!).  Now, living in London you don’t really pay much attention to how many international people are around you, and one easily forgets that this multicultural society wasn’t very common a few decades ago. But, as companies operate in more and more countries and hire more and more diverse workforces, multiculturalism has become standard in today’s workplace.

For us in Communications, this presents an exciting, yet difficult challenge, namely coordinating and managing communications efforts & messages in our global companies. In dealing with employees across multiple countries, cultures, and languages, how often have you struggled with questions like:

• How do I reach global employees that are remote from headquarters and sit in four different time zones?
  
• What language do I use to communicate with them?
  
• How do I empower local teams to manage those communications without creating a mess/PR nightmare?
  
• Who are my communicators in each country? Read More »

As part of our 2011 research on “Building a Change-Ready Organization,” we’re finding that it’s especially important for employees to understand business context in order to make smart decisions on their own. What external pressures influence the way our company operates? How does our company compare to competitors? How does changing one part of the business influence the whole?

We’re on the hunt for companies that share context in a way that empowers employees (versus justifying corporate decisions). In the meantime, I thought it’d be useful for us to share some business context on European consumer segments. These three consumer snapshots are drawn from Iconoculture, a Corporate Executive Board program that uses consumer trends and cultural observations to inform companies’ viewpoints. I’d love to know whether you find these snapshots interesting or if they’ve helped you consider a new way of communicating with stakeholders. Does this context help you think differently about something your working on? Would you like to see more snapshots in the future?

UK: Households see drop in disposable income

According to a survey by economic consultancy Markit, 35% of UK households report a drop in their disposable income. 82% of respondents say that prices of goods and services had risen.The survey also reports that decreasing job security is deterring consumer spending. Five times as many people reported lower job security as those who reported a more positive outlook.

What This Means to Business

Economic uncertainty continues to worry consumers; the lessons learned from this recession have created a savvier, more wary UK consumer. Consumers are becoming more watchful of prices on everyday goods and services, and they’re seeking high value, even on low-cost goods. Read More »

Organizations need to constantly adapt to meet the demands of continuously changing business environments. Communication teams are doing their part by driving employee support of change initiatives and keeping morale high. The most common tactics we’ve heard involve building the visibility and credibility of leaders.

We’re learning that companies can’t drive agility with inspiring words from the top. Instead they need to build an environment that encourages action from the bottom up. That’s why the best communicators are knocking down barriers to communication and encouraging employees to embrace and share new ways of thinking and working.

Admittedly, Communications cannot build a change-ready organization on its own. It can, however, play a significant role by focusing on three key drivers of employee agility.

1. Build connection
   Agile employees need information that empowers them to make the right decisions, on their terms. We’ve found that the type of information matters. Typically, information shared with employees is event-centric: “We have a new CEO. Here’s what this means for you.” However, the best communicators are providing information that builds an understanding of the company as a whole—things like how it operates and what constraints and risks it faces. Read More »