What if you overheard a story around the water cooler?  And instead of the typical office gossip, your colleagues were discussing good news. And you reacted: “wow, this message is spreading like fire among employees (and outside the organization) and that was exactly our goal”?

Research shows that engaged employees are more productive, exhibit less absenteeism and are more likely to stay at their company longer. So how can you capture the power of a passionate group?  The Allstate Insurance Company has proven that engaging them as Ambassadors can drive positive business results.

Allstate’s exclusive, in-the-know employee group has been designed from the bottom-up with the goal of expanding the company’s network of advocates to promote its brand and reputation.

CEC members, join us and Laura Glaza, member of the Reputation Leadership team from Allstate, on November 18th to hear how they’ve designed the program and how the movement has created ambassadors who are excited about speaking on behalf of the company. We guarantee that this is not your standard “corporate” ambassador program. Register here.

For a sneak peak into how the program works, read on.

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Today’s post is the first in a weekly series where I’ll blog about the smart approaches to CSR challenges that we’ve heard over the course of conversations with your peers.  First up: The scoop on the folks at TNT, who came up with a smart method of engaging their workforce around their strategic CSR initiatives…

For readers who don’t know them, TNT is a global transportation and distribution company with operations all over the world.  They’re conscious of the environmental impact of their fleet of vehicles, which are responsible for more than half of their total CO2 emissions.  TNT calculated that some drivers could improve their fuel efficiency and decrease CO2 emissions by up to 25%, so they took an innovative approach to getting drivers to reduce their impact.

In 2008, they launched a competition amongst their drivers, the Drive Me Challenge.  It involves an F1-style dash, in their usual TNT delivery vehicles, and around a racing track!  We’re assured it’s great fun for all involved… But this involves more than racing, like Sebastian Vettel or Lewis Hamilton, around a track ; TNT has added an extra dimension, which ties to their CSR objectives, which link in turn to the strategic success of the business.

Drivers can only qualify for the Drive Me Challenge by driving both fuel efficiently and safely – drivers from all over the world are ranked against this criteria, and only the regional champions qualify for the main event.  As drivers bid to qualify for the finals of the Drive Me Challenge, which has become a very prestigious annual event, TNT has improved the fuel efficiency of their vehicle fleet by 5%. Read More »

By Rebecca Canan

Did you have a chance to attend our webinar last week on social media monitoring?  During the webinar, we invited CEC members to join a discussion with Scott Stevener from Monsanto, Linda Locke from Reputare Consulting (formerly SVP at MasterCard), and Karin Kane from evolve24.  You may have recently seen guest blog posts from Scott and Linda on the CEC Insider.  Below, get the quick scoop from our third panelist, Karin, who manages client engagements at evolve24, a reputation management and monitoring firm.  And CEC Members: if you missed the webinar, you can access the replay here!

Rebecca (CEC): In brief, can you describe how your media monitoring is different from what most communicators use/receive?

Karin: We recognize that communicators can provide tremendous value across an organization when they measure, and share, the insights they can uncover from media.  Because of that, we focus on providing those insights.  We offer the widest selection of social media content, and provide very advanced analytics that allow our clients to measure social media in very distinct ways.  Along with the standard share of voice and sentiment metrics, we measure influence, credibility, reputation, emotion, and risk. These measurements make media monitoring relevant for communications and marketing teams, customer experience and customer service teams, HR, sales, operations and risk management. Read More »

By Laura Newman

I am embarrassed to say that I watched “Out of Africa” for the first time just a few days ago. There’s no doubt I have a soft spot in my heart for Africa—I’ve spent close to a combined three months in Uganda and Kenya, I was in South Africa  for the World Cup two weeks ago (it’s Ayoba time!), and I’ve even visited the Nairobi farm of Karen Blixen, the author of “Out of Africa.” But I’d never gotten around to actually watch Meryl Streep fall in love with Robert Redford in the film.

When I finally curled up on the couch to watch it in my London flat last Monday, I was swept away by the beautiful scenery and passionate romance. But I was also encapsulated by another aspect of the movie—the importance of storytelling.

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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 »

By Evelyn Ostrovsky 

If two weeks ago you didn’t know about the American Red Cross’s social media use, you do now. The Red Cross’s innovative fundraising efforts for Haiti relief show that a little social media can go a long way in rallying global support for a common cause.

Given this success, it’s ironic that the Red Cross’s social media manager, Wendy Harman, was initially hired 4 years ago to “make the internet stop.” Red Cross executives were concerned about the volume of negative comments about the organization after Hurricane Katrina, and they wanted to somehow make the criticism go away. (Now, all good communicators out there realize that this is impossible, but can certainly relate to the sentiment.) Instead of staying in combat mode, however, Wendy saw an opportunity to enable advocates to rally around the Red Cross cause. Her journey from “make it stop” to empowering supporters took a few rogue experiments, some excellent listening skills, and the know-how to rein in overzealous business partners.

We’re thrilled to have Wendy share her story at a CEC webinar next Tuesday (February 9 at 11 EST). CEC members can register now for this event; if you’re reading this after the fact, you can check out the event replay here.

Now, let’s hear from you. What did you notice about social media’s role in fundraising for Haiti? What takeaways do you find transferable to the corporate setting?

It may say something about me (the voyeur/research geek) that I’ve been eagerly awaiting the 2010 Edelman Trust Barometer results to see how the recession has impacted trust in business. I have to admit, I was surprised at how quickly trust seems to be bouncing back from the gutter that was 2009 (caveat: 70% of respondents think companies will go back to “business as usual” once conditions improve). For Comms, the most important finding may be the last one, focused on how companies can really earn that trust.  Long story short: engage with everyone, all the time.

This conclusion would probably bring even the most superhuman communicators to their knees. Something has got to give. In my humble opinion, Comms needs to stop trying to push more messages into more channels in an outdated hub-and-spoke model.  Instead, Comms needs to motivate stakeholders to share information about the company with their peers. This not only makes universal, 24/7 engagement more physically possible; it also happens to be a more effective way to generate trust and support for your organization. Read More »

By Rebecca Canan

One of my favorite parts of work is getting the non-obvious, top-secret scoop about what communicators are doing. With social media as my specialty, I especially like getting the behind-the-scenes tour of their social media platforms. Who manages their blog? What’s being censored (if anything)? How does the company get value from the site? I recently asked these questions of Nick Caplin, Corporate PR Manager for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. Check out what he had to say here:

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