CEC Insider

When LeBron James finally joined Twitter during his week long free agency, many predicted the announcement of his new team would come in a 140 characters, representing another blow to the role of “traditional” media in reporting the world’s events.  Instead, fans were treated to “The Decision,” an hour-long ESPN special ostensibly to raise money for the Boys and Girls Club.  The backlash to both LeBron and ESPN was swift and intense as viewers saw a media organization ceding privileged access to accommodate the figures it’s supposed to cover and the corporations that back them – all perhaps just to stay relevant in the world of Twitter.

But the immediate revulsion of the public to ESPN’s highest-ever rated softball game suggests that Americans may have seen the future of journalism and decided they don’t like it. Read More »

Rule #1 (supposedly) for writing a blog is to include links: lots, the more the merrier.  I’d never really questioned this; hyperlinks are a part of Web reading, so it makes sense to use them when you’re writing for the Web.  Furthermore, search engines reward being linked to (although less now than ten years ago), so links are a polite acknowledgement of ideas that inspire you (not to mention a subtle ask for reciprocal links).

But I’ve had an epiphany over the last two weeks, brought on by one of the few remaining sources of Web deprivation: travel, in particular, airplane travel.  (Yes, some carriers offer in-flight broadband, but not my last few flights.)  This prompted me to do something that has become almost nostalgic: break open a book.  In this case, it was Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows, which, as far as I’m concerned, is a must-read for any communicator.

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Whenever I need inspiration, I visit Big Think, a global forum that “put[s] you in contact with the ideas of very smart people.” There, I’ve watched short videos and read articles that prompt me to question my life assumptions; some of my favorites include Learning from Failure, Why You Can’t Work at Work, and Why You Can’t Get a Date. Apparently, there is a mathematical theorem that proves that dating in large cities is difficult and frustrating. Amen. It’s not just me .

One of the more interesting videos I’ve watched on Big Think is about “Unleashing the Creative Economic Revolution”. It’s an interview with Richard Florida, an academic and author of the book The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life. Florida theorizes that the “creative class”—basically knowledge workers with an added dash of pizazz, flexibility, and creativity—is vital to the growth of society. He sees a lot of this “creative class” participating in science, technology, arts and entertainment, and film making design.

Now, most of you reading this post aren’t scientists, techies, or rock stars. You’re communicators. But, guess what? YOU, communicator, are part not merely part of this exciting “creative class,” but the potential leaders of it.  Hear me out. We need not all be Lady Gaga to be considered “creative.”  Simply approach your daily work with a fresh, open perspective, and  you’ll capitalize on opportunities to discover new talents, devise better solutions to tired problems, and help your business in the process.

Sound like a bunch of idealistic Millennial hogwash? Leading the “creative class” is a lot easier than you think; in fact, you’re already active in the “creative class” business. Here’s what you do EVERY SINGLE DAY to stamp your creativity all over your organization:

• You invent.
  You don’t employ traditional tactics to build your reputation and differentiate your brand. You think about your audience, goals, and available tools to create customized communication plans. For a cool innovation that we like, check out TheFordStory.com to see how they’ve invited customers to tell the company’s story.
• You consult.
  You solve strategic problems with creative communications solutions. We’re seeing more executive communicators report directly to the CEO, highlighting the importance of communication in achieving company goals. Moreover, CEOs are looking to you to determine fresh ways for them to engage with stakeholders. Check out the CEC Employee Communications Forum for creative ideas for executive virtual engagement.
• You enable. You help others express their creativity. I’ve been impressed by your efforts to help employees start blogging, Tweeting, and creating content. Inside the organization, you’ve been working hard to implement the internal collaboration tools necessary for employees to connect and engage with one another. If you haven’t yet seen the inner workings of Sabre’s internal platform, SabreTown, check it out on video today.

See? You’re creative! And cool. And a communicator. Rise up and take your place among the artists and filmmakers, the professionals who leave their personal mark on everything they produce! Rise up and take your rightful place as leaders of the “creative class.”

Done something especially creative in your work recently? We’d love to hear stories!

I hope it’s not obvious from the way I talk or act—but I grew up as a big NASCAR fan. That’s right, stock car racing. The high banks of Daytona, King Richard, The Great American Race—all threads in the fabric of my youth.  Please humor me and tell me it’s not obvious.

I do come by it honestly, though—my Dad spent his youth hanging around the local race tracks of Long Island as a driver/mechanic (one small offshoot of NASCAR’s roots extends from the Carolinas all the way up to suburban New York City…you don’t need to be a Southerner to be a redneck.)

This genetic anomaly may be somewhat embarrassing to admit to, but it does have at least some value, since there are lessons from NASCAR racing that have great applicability for us in corporate comms.

Lesson number one:  Never admit to being a NASCAR fan. (oops…too late)

But a more important lesson is the one they teach to rookie drivers about how to avoid The Big One. That’s the name given to the kind of catastrophic chain reaction wrecks that occur about every other time they race at the superspeedways like Daytona and Talledega.

SITUATION: You’re driving down the straightaway of a 2-and-a-half-mile track going 200 miles an hour, and you see a wreck developing a couple hundred yards ahead of you. What are you supposed to do?

Smacking on the brakes isn’t gonna save you—you’re going way too fast for that. And there’s no way to tell which direction the careening cars will go next.  Some wrecks push up the banking toward the outside wall.  Some collect down low toward the infield.  They’re all different. You’ve got about one second to determine whether you will narrowly avoid certain doom, or, become yet another victim of The Big One.  Soooooooo again, what are you supposed to do?

Here’s what:  Aim for the center of the wreck.

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In retrospect, it seems pretty funny that social media’s permanence was debated in the not-so-distant past.  (“It’s a trend.” “This will all blow over.” “Make it stop.” Etc.)  It’s clear today that social media has created a paradigm shift in how people communicate—and consequently businesses as well. It’s important for Communications to evolve with the times, of course, and CEC has seen quite a few members make fantastic use of blogs, video, Twitter and wikis both internally and externally.  That said, I’m personally fascinated by the notion that communication behaviors originating in social media can create a ripple effect on in-person communication.  So why not get creative in adapting our in-person employee communications to better tap into the same motivators that draw people to social media?

In that spirit, here are 3 social media features that can be re-imagined for the “real world” of any employee—wired or not:

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As communicators, we often have to deal with snippy and critical comments from others in social media, yet stick to the high road in speaking for our organizations.  But what happens when the urge to snark back is just too tempting?  Nestlé’s recent experiences offer up a case in point.

Here’s what happened:  Nestle posted a status update on its Facebook “fan” page, requesting that people refrain from using altered versions of the Nestlé logo when posting on the company page; otherwise, the posts would be removed.  Not surprisingly, a few people complained that Nestlé was acting overly authoritarian for an open social media forum.  Now, this in itself would not be a huge deal—a lot of brands are concerned about their logo usage and brand integrity.  But here’s where the plot thickens.  Rather than letting a few unfavorable comments go or respectfully acknowledging them, the company moderator got into a petty, sarcastic, and heated comment battle with fans.  Read More »

Where exactly does the smartest, most progressive thinking in Corporate Communications come from?  The ivory tower of some big F500 headquarters? Some ivy-covered hall of academia?

Turns out some of the most progressive Comms ideas I’ve heard in the last year were first developed…in the underground rock & roll scene. Wendy Harman got her start in “communications” promoting local bands in Washington, DC—before she was hired by the American Red Cross as their first-ever Social Media Manager. (You may have seen Evelyn’s post last week about the Red Cross’ extraordinary response to the crisis in Haiti.) And among these progressive communications ideas is…how to create strategic results using social media outlets like Twitter.

So…to the question at hand.  Twitter. Channel, or not? Read More »

Among the few things I remember from Philosophy 201 is the quote from the French philosopher Michel de Montaigne: “It is good to rub and polish one’s brain against those of others.”

But for most of us grown-ups (personally, despite my advanced age I still feel compelled to add italics when thinking of myself that way), our days are spent in a mode of relentless multi-tasking—constantly putting out three fires at once, but hardly ever thinking.  How sad is it to be absent-mindedly checking your Blackberry while another person is standing there in the room trying to talk to you?  But we’ve all done it.

OK, constant distraction probably won’t kill you (smashing into a tree “texting while driving” being one notable exception), but to lead a truly satisfying life, it’s important for all of us to occasionally slow down and make the time to THINK.  To have a “spa day” to polish your brain.

That’s why this is one of our favorite times of the year at CEC—because we’ve just now opened up registration for our 2010 executive meeting series, Influencing Stakeholders in a Networked Environment. Read More »

According to Time, the best single guarantee of sales success—of any sort—is to get yourself booked on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Communicators will tend to agree, as they’ve spent years building relationships with their own Oprahs: journalists, industry experts, you name it. This approach made total sense in the old world of communication.   But I’m increasingly convinced that it’s not that cut and dry in today’s communication environment. Here’s why:

We live in a highly networked information environment—audiences can now seek out multiple opinions at the touch of a button before they make their own mind up, and they’re increasingly likely to believe “someone like them.”  Both trends we’ve seen for a few years in the Edelman Trust data.

In the past, our job has been to make sure the top of the communication hierarchy gets the right information.  In a network you can’t stop there—it’s all about enabling information “flows”—and that appears to have a whole different set of rules. Read More »

By Lisa Schievelbein

Deep down, every communicator is a voyeur.

 How do I know?  For the last few months, Kayleigh and I have been analyzing the organizational design of CEC member teams, and let me tell you—communicators just love peeking at org charts. They have different reasons for this, but I think one is particularly powerful: a hope that some formula for success can be found in the neat boxes and lines on a PowerPoint slide.  (As you can imagine, the let-down factor is inevitable.)
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