Hopefully by now we have all escaped the craze of crowded malls for the last time in 2011. We’re down to the wire—the holidays are here! That said, it’s never too late for a last minute gift for your fellow communicators.

So a year ago we were asking ourselves the same question: what are the top things on a communicators’ wish list. It’s been a year full of hard work but for many communicators, the wish list in 2010 looks pretty similar to the one today—check it out! As technology has gotten smarter, and our stakeholders’ expectations have changed, there are a few things I would add:

1)      Internal Collaboration Vendors: Technology has moved us beyond discussion forums or internal “Facebook”-like sites and enabled our intranets to act as business collaboration tools with social activity streams that put relevant content and people in front of our employees.

• Check out this best practice from MITRE and explore vendors with collaboration capabilities

2)      Message Planning Support: Now, the dream gift for most communicators and marketers would be access to NeuroFocus—access to neurological research which maps the emotional connections and associations that stakeholders have with certain products, messages, or experience to scientifically plan messages and campaigns. Teams like Frito-Lay have seen the monetary returns on this type of information.

For those communicators who are unable to strap an EEG to your stakeholders’ heads, the CEC has developed a close second—a new Writing for Impact Workshop. This half day session digs into tactics for deep stakeholder understanding to help you reflect stakeholders’ interest, values, and language as well as how to prompt action through the way we write or package messages. Really, it’s a gift for the whole team.

• Learn more of schedule a session for your team here. Read More »

Whether it’s the sites we check when we first get to work in the morning or what time we run out for coffee, routines can be hard to break. But choices like these aren’t usually worth doing a critical analysis each time we make them.

The real problems arise when we start to rely on similar tactics for making more important decisions, like internal communication channel selection. Rather than ask yourself, “What is the best way for employees to be informed about this leadership change?” it’s easier to jump to, “I’ll just write a quick post on the intranet.”

Falling into bad habits like this prevent you from strategically selecting channels to make your communication more effective. Luckily, we have a cheat sheet to help you stay out of a channel selection rut.

This channel selection guide will help you choose the optimal channel based on what you want to achieve with your target audience. By considering what information is most effectively communicated through different channels and weighing the pros and cons of each, you’ll be able to quickly choose the best channel for your objective. Read More »

As a former journalist, ohhhhhh how I HATE media hyperbole. Don’t you? Every bad weather system that’s described as (this year’s) Storm of the Century…every one-day drop in the stock market that has investors reeling…every tragedy that forces local residents to rebuild the shattered pieces of their broken lives. Uhhhhhhgggh.

When I think about what’s become of the news business, I don’t know whether to laugh, cry or go out on the front lawn and start eating grass (isn’t that what animals do when they think they’re about to barf?).

But I gotta say — although you may already be getting a little queased-out from the relentless coverage of this Joe Paterno/Penn State story — for once, this ain’t hype.  This really is the biggest scandal in sports history. More than just another ringing bell for the Pavlov’s Dogs of Media to salivate over, this is a cautionary tale for EVERYONE in a position of authority at any big organization in the world.

Here’s a strong recommendation from your friends and colleagues at CEC: Use this moment as an opportunity to have an important discussion with your CEO.  Particularly if he (90+% chance it’s a he) is a football fan (gut guess on my part = there’s a 75+% chance he at least likes football).

All you have to do is ask him, “So, uhhhh, whadda ya think about the whole Paterno mess?”, then sit back and let him spew. Whatever he says next will enlighten both of you about his understanding of “the way things work” in today’s media environment.

Chances are you’ll get one of three responses: Read More »

Searching for strategies to cope with information overload turns up countless articles, blog posts and how-to guides. The light at the end of the tunnel seems to be that the more we understand how our brains function under the constant bombardment, the better we can be at filtering through it — or the better Google and Amazon will be at doing it for us.

But there are some instances where we just have to say “enough,” and one of them is company-wide communications. The cumulative impact of multiple functions across a firm sending company-wide messages can quickly swamp employees and managers. Rather than take time away from their primary responsibilities individuals turn to the simplest solution, the delete button. This presents a serious threat when truly important messages are lost in the noise.

So how can Communications help curb the runaway messaging problem? It can be hard to tame functional groups across the organization because they have little incentive to curb their output, which only makes up one slice of the prolifically messaging pie. Policing company messaging systems is often too resource-intensive for Communications to take on single handedly and wouldn’t solve the root cause of the issue. Read More »

A short while ago I came across this article on the BBC about “Americanisms” in the English language (being a non-native English speaker, “ideas coming out of left field” confused me for many years too!). Given my personal fascination with languages, and also because our very own CEC team is split across the “pond”, naturally I shared this with my colleagues. After poking a bit of friendly fun at the phrases each of us in the UK or US say, at the end of the day we must admit that we all use these little catch phrases in our day to day speak, and that sometimes things do get “lost in translation” when interacting with people in other countries (sometimes, even when we both speak the same language!).

As companies become more and more international, communicators experience increased difficulties when crafting messages for their diverse global audiences.  I often hear members say things like “we want to make sure we act and sound as ‘one company’ and convey a consistent image, but we also want to sound sensitive to the local culture” or “we think we are being culturally aware in our messaging, but we’re still perceived as too American” [or too Swiss, Japanese, etc.].

How can communicators stay consistent in what they’re saying across markets to convey a unified company image, but at the same time be relevant? And even before thinking about content, how do you even prioritize communications for each market so that you’re not communicating too much and having your messages ignored? Read More »

When I was a kid, we had a piano in the house. It was an attractive piece of furniture in our family room. I say that, cause no one in our family knew how to play it (beyond say, “Chopsticks”).

But (for reasons which still elude me), we once had it professionally tuned. Now, I’d seen pianos being tuned before. It’s done electronically with a device that analyzes each note and indicates whether it’s flat or sharp. But the guy who tuned our piano had no device — cause he was totally blind.

Think about it. A blind piano tuner (watch the video). Born without sight, this guy’s hearing was so super-sensitive, he could immediately detect the slightest imperfection in each note, and adjust it back to pitch-perfect just by listening.

To him, an out-of-tune note is like a physical discomfort, and he’s the doctor who relieves patients of their pain.

In some ways, that’s what we communicators do. Only not with musical notes, but rather, with words. When we hear something that’s not right — we just know. It gets under our skin, and makes us uncomfortable. In some cases, it triggers our gag reflex and makes us wanna lose our lunch. And we’ve gotta fix it. Read More »

Too often communicators create one version of every message and cascade it in multiple global markets. Efficient? Perhaps. Effective? No.

Every message isn’t relevant to every market, and when audiences continuously receive communications that don’t resonate with them, they stop listening and end up missing out on important, applicable messages in the mix.

You can help communicators overcome this by equipping them with tools to enable them to customize messages to resonate locally.

We’ve recently learned about one tool in particular that can help companies figure out which messages they want to prioritize, by timing their delivery based on the target audience’s receptivity. Communications teams can use a set of questions applying to the following steps to guard against over-communication:

• Step 1: Auditing your existing message mix
• Step 2: Assessing your message mix
• Step 3: Understanding local priorities
• Step 4: Adjusting your message mix

CEC members, access the complete set of questions to help you time your messages to maximize audience receptivity. Read More »

As is smart, today’s communicators are increasingly focused less on crafting messages and more on enabling communication across the organization. Core activities include coaching leaders to communicate more effectively, enabling employees to participate in social media, inviting stories and testimonials customers, and looking for opportunities to more closely align  with the needs of the business. While the function evolves dramatically, one core still remains ever critical: writing.

Good writing, however, is no longer about perfect grammar or storytelling—good writing today is about prompting audience action.

As the CEC looks to support its members’ continued development across the core 16 communications competencies, we have explored what proficiency in writing looks like in today’s environment. Last week, we had the opportunity to preview a new Writing for Impact Workshop with the Communications team at W.W. Grainger. Our session focused on clarifying the one key engagement idea that solidifies for readers why they should care and would want to take action.

Our peers in Marketing believe that a simple, memorable advertising slogan can drive a campaign’s success. In Communications, however, a simple, catchy, and consistent message won’t do the trick–we aren’t typically talking about the coolest new consumer product. Our aim then must be to create messages that emphasize our shared values with our audience and clarify the desired action of our audiences.

Read More »

By Rebecca Canan

This is the second in a two-part series about corporate translation services.  This post offers insight into how communicators are assessing translation vendors to ensure a good fit with company needs. The first post outlined the primary options for translation services (e.g., in-house, free lancer, vendor, etc).

If you’re like other CEC members, you opened up a phone book (or more likely, did a quick Google search) to identify a company that could translate your organization’s communications.   However, due to global expansion in new markets, you may be facing increased (and quicker) demands for translated company content.  How can you ensure that you’re partnering with the best vendor for your needs?  One of your peers recently asked a question in a CEC discussion forum, requesting advice on translation services.  Aside from assessing a vendor’s language capabilities and costs, here are other factors your peers recommend considering: Read More »

Thanks for the comments and notes about our utility industry blog within a blog.  I appreciate the individual e-mails and encourage folks to use the comments as a source of ongoing conversation as well.  One of the common threads to your feedback was the complexity of messages involved in your space.  Indeed, when I review the questions that come to the Council from our utility members, we are confronted with difficult issues such as rate increases, renewable energy vs. clean coal generation, a massively complex energy bill (at least temporarily stalled in Congress), and regional economic development packages.   To make life even harder, utility communicators must simultaneously address both low-information residents and high-information advocacy groups or legislative committee staff members.  In other words: It’s Complicated!  Read More »