Free Willy was one of my all-time favorite childhood movies. In addition to a love for MJ’s classic song “Will You Be There,” this movie established my lifelong dream to swim with the orcas.  Willy was anything but “Killer,” and it’s hard to believe “Shamu” would be either.

I’ve been following the story of the recent tragic death of SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau—both due to my personal interest in the relationships between humans and animals in captivity, and my professional interest in how SeaWorld would respond to this crisis situation.  As a curious millennial, the first thing I did was log on to the SeaWorld website to see what they had to say about the incident.

Day 1 after the incident, I visit the SeaWorld press room—nothing.
Day 2, I try the press room again—still nothing.
Read More »

By Lisa Schievelbein

For many communicators, Legal is a slayer of dreams.

I’ve heard this (paraphrased) complaint countless times across six years of CEC member conversations. The source of the conflict varies, but the storyline is usually the same: Legal vetoes communication ideas that depart from a “command and control” approach to corporate communication. It probably goes without saying, then, that social media has been a virtual Celebrity Deathmatch between the functions.

That said, we’re seeing some promising signs of a relationship thaw. Exhibit A: last week, CEC members joined their Legal and Marketing brethren at a panel discussion about cross-functional collaboration in social media. The 90-minute session was co-hosted by two of CEC’s sister programs (GCR and MLC) and headlined by Wal-Mart, Allstate, and Coca-Cola. Despite some differences of opinion, the overall consensus was clear: these three functions need to work together to manage the legal landmines of social media WHILE aggressively using it to the company’s advantage in engaging stakeholders. Here are 4 tips specifically for Comms in negotiating this balance with Legal: Read More »

I do not feel old.

I can’t predict the weather based on whether my joints hurt.  I can eat a hunk of jalapeno cornbread on my way upstairs to bed, and still fall fast asleep.  I’ve never been to The Scooter Store (although I have been to a taping of The Price Is Right—twice, actually).

But when I think about how different the communications landscape is today—compared to when I started my career—it’s scary to think of how old I really am. Read More »

By Rebecca Canan

Last week, I learned a firsthand (and inadvertent) lesson about the new rules of media relations.  Here’s the story timeline:

• Washington DC has a series of blizzards across the week, leaving behind more than 50 inches of snow.
• Mid-blizzard, CEB (parent company of CEC) sends out an email stating that the office would be open regular hours, but to let your manager know if you were unable to come in.
• I laugh in disbelief.
• In aforementioned state of disbelief, I sign on to my personal Twitter account and tweet about it.
• Thursday morning I wake up to find that my seemingly personal and innocuous tweet has been cited in the Washington Post (PRINT AND ONLINE VERSIONS) with the context below—my own emphasis added:

Some Washington businesses that urged employees’ attendance have been getting pounded on washingtonpost.com and Twitter. Employees of Rosslyn-based Corporate Executive Board expressed exasperation that their office was initially open: “bec54″ wrote, “Boycotting CEB’s decision to stay open today by sitting on the couch in my fleece onesie. This snow is INSANE.”

[INSERT PANIC]  Pounded!?!  My fleece ONESIE?!?!  NOOOOooooo! Read More »

Once upon a time, the intranet’s purpose was to store information for a small set of users, usually just IT geeks. Back in those days, decentralized intranet governance was fine, given the simplicity of the systems.

Today, however, intranets have evolved into must-have business tools for all employees. We all know that this shift in scale, interconnectivity, and user base has significant implications for intranet governance. In short, loose models simply don’t work.

If these decentralized governance models no longer work, then what does? The best models I’ve come across promote co-ownership between Communications and IT. In these partnerships, Communications almost always owns the strategy and IT designs and supports the tools to execute this strategy. Read More »

For $3 million dollars per 30-second spot, Super Bowl advertisers gave us Betty White, talking babies (again), Danica Patrick (again), a Google wedding, and more late-night wars (why would Leno appear in a competitor’s commercial?), among other sophomoric hijinks. Those were my favorites in an otherwise uninspiring line-up. But even when our marketing brethren aren’t so funny, I see several ways that communicators can help their organizations get more out of any significant investment in advertising: 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?

By Rebecca Canan

Nearly every day, I get to talk to members about CEC’s major research initiative for 2010, and over the course of the past couple months, this has summed up to A LOT of conversations!  I’m asking them about external stakeholder outreach…how the media landscape is changing…how this is tangibly affecting their teams.  Really rich and interesting conversations.  THEN, the conversation turns to media monitoring.  It goes something like this:

Rebecca: So, how do you monitor conversations about your company? How much do you spend?  How do you USE the information?

CEC Member: [Yawn.]  [Then rattles off responses like a robot.]

Now, I’ve got nothing against robots (er, total tangent and perhaps inappropriate, but I actually think robots are HILARIOUS).  That said, I sense that members waste a lot of money on robotic “going through the motions” in this area. To them, monitoring is simply a part of the Communications function.  A box to check off.  Something that has to get done and does not necessarily require much reflection.  It may be the obsessive analytic in me, but I think that (1) communicators typically lack a deliberate and integrated objective for monitoring and that (2) they don’t use the information spit out of their monitoring machines.  Alas! Read More »

Like most political junkies, I spent last Tuesday night following the returns of the Massachusetts “special election.”  Among hundreds of potential reasons for the upset cited, many pointed to Scott Brown’s effective use of social media.  This significant event in the application of social media to politics followed a more symbolic event the day before.  On January 18^th, 2010, Barack Obama sent his first tweet. (I found this shocking because I would have put the over/under on his total tweets at around 100, but this was the first from the President himself.)

These developments reminded me of three recent member conversations on the following question:  Will social media erode the line between traditional lobbying and public relations?   I won’t predict the future, but I’ve seen enough smoke lately from some very credible parties to suggest the potential for a significant fire.    Read More »

I hate TV commercials. When we first got a DVR (greatest feature = the “skip ahead 30 seconds” button), I vowed to reduce my intake of commercials by 100%. Nothing gives me more giddy joy than watching a full hour of American Idol in 42 minutes. I feel like I’m getting away with something (gotta say, I do love that feeling!).

But despite my heavy-handed imposition of a “zero tolerance policy” at home, a few TV commercials do slip in from time-to-time (mostly when another family member is commanding the remote). Good thing, actually. Cause one I have seen recently is the new Domino’s Pizza ad campaign. Have you seen it?

Essentially, their message covers five points:

• We’ve been asking you what you think of our product.
• You say it sucks (crust like cardboard, sauce like ketchup).
• And you know what? We agree.
• So, we’ve used your input to reinvent our product. Thank you.
• We hope you like the changes. Again, thank you.

What Domino’s is communicating, (in the most publicly naked way ever!) is a magical quality that virtually all of the world’s great companies share. Humility. Read More »