For those who have been invited to attend one of CEC’s day-long meetings, the decision about whether to go is a bit like gambling…essentially you’re betting on whether being out of the office for an ENTIRE day (and hoping there are no meltdowns while you’re gone–always a crapshoot in the Comms game) is worth the ROH (return on hassle).

At our recent West Coast meeting, we hosted Diane Gage Lofgren, Senior Vice President Brand Strategy, Communications and Public Relations at Kaiser Permanente.  Following the event, Diane reported that she got some serious ROH.  So much so, that she wrote a blog post about it for the rest of her team.  And then she shared it with us.

So…to those of you are are still thinking about joining us:

a) Hope you will.  Seats are still available to a number of upcoming sessions.

b) If you’re still not sure, take it directly from the unedited words of one of your peers who did choose to say, “yes” to a day filled with networking, some very lively discussion, and (gasp) 24 hours of total separation from the everyday madness of the office. Read More »

This is the first in a three-part series on thought leadership.

Un-think what you think about thought leadership.

You’re a communicator.  You don’t need to live by Marketing’s definition for thought leadership.  You can create your own!

Marketers, especially those in the B2B space, are attaching to Gartner’s definition of thought leadership marketing:

“the giving — for free or at a nominal charge — of information or advice that a client will value so as to create awareness of the outcome that a company’s product or service can deliver, in order to position and differentiate that offering and stimulate demand for it.”

Most companies espouse this definition and think of thought leadership only as a tactic to build awareness of the company or product with its customers.

Communicators—with their myriad stakeholders and focus on corporate reputation and brand—think of the term and its implications quite differently.  Whereas Marketing’s thought leadership rightly so focuses on the product and customer, Communications’ thought leadership can focus on a wide variety of activities to achieve company-specific ends.  Perhaps the most challenging part is defining what those ends should be.

We polled the CEC membership and partnered with Ignacio Gonzalez, Stakeholder Engagement Specialist at Shell USA, and Matt Broder, VP of External Communications at Pitney Bowes, to uncover how communicators are defining thought leadership at their companies and using it as a potent tactic to achieve company goals.  We found that most thought leadership programs aim to achieve one of three outcomes:

1. Boost Credibility (Reputational): “Thought leadership is where an organization can share best practice and offer valid views and opinions on a topic which gives them credibility in the marketplace.”—Head of Communications, Consumer Products 
2. Instill Company Culture (Cultural): “Thought leadership is a culture that is driven by, rewards, and recognizes ideas and strategic thinking that is outside the norm and where ‘idea failure’ is considered a learning opportunity.”—Executive Communicator, Fortune 500
3. Shape the Industry (Aspirational): “Thought leadership means defining the horizon for your industry.”—Anonymous Read More »

Over the past four months, we’ve been having the most amazing discussion* with communicators all around the world as part of our ongoing Annual Executive Retreat series, “Influencing Stakeholders in a Networked Environment.” (Thanks to the hundreds who’ve taken part so far…BTW, it’s still not too late to join us…seats are still open for the upcoming tour stops in London, Toronto and DC).

* Discussion (singular) not entirely accurate. Turns out, it’s actually two very different discussions:

a) How ready are YOU to succeed in the current/emerging/not-too-distant-future world in which what we say is much less of an influence on stakeholders than what people are saying to each other via their personal networks?

b) If you are ready, then how ready is your CEO?

And, as you can imagine, discussion “b” then quickly breaks off again into two very different discussions:

b1) My CEO really gets it.  He (let’s just go with “he” for now — my apologies to 2.5% of Fortune 1000 companies) is totally aware of the rapid changes occurring in the social communications landscape and is keen to push us forward.

b2) My CEO is still kind of traditional/conservative/a bit of a dinosaur.

It’s a classic dichotomy.  Is he more modern or ancient?  Spaceman or Caveman?  George Jetson or Fred Flintstone? Read More »

As a part of CECs latest project around CSR and Sustainability, we’ve asked our members to tell us about their CSR programs.  Often, they tell us about their programs for philanthropy, and in many cases, they will spend up to 3% of company revenue on these programs!

Now, this seems like a staggering figure: if my company has revenues of $1billion, there’s a good chance that we’ll be spending $30million each year on philanthropic exercises.  Where progressive companies such as Nestlé look to “Create Shared Value” (CSV) for both themselves and for society (which method we’ll look at, below), others simply share the value that they’ve already created.  And what do they get in return?  Some cite a boost in employee engagement, whilst others cite intangible reputational benefits.  Few can quantify either gain very well. Read More »

By Rebecca Canan

We hear it over and over again from companies in Insurance, Healthcare, Pharma, Energy/Utilities, and Financial Services:

“We want to use social media, but we just can’t! There are too many regulations and risks.”

We’ve been investigating this claim and how much of it is true…what CAN you actually do?  Based on conversations with social media pioneers/”survivors” from the highly regulated space and quantitative research from our social media diagnostic (CEC members, take the diagnostic here), we’ve come up with a few conclusions.  Check out our article on Forbes.com about six social media principles for companies in highly regulated industries!  Let us know what you think.

By Mike Wellman

Question: What happens when you ask too many of the right questions?

Answer: You end up with your average, boring company blog.

That probably wasn’t the answer you were expecting.  In a world where we are working harder to provide more consultative support to our business partners and gain better information to make more effective decisions, we are taught that success comes from asking smarter questions.

Taking that advice, communicators have asked our team what would often be considered the “right” questions in relation to social media, and blogging in particular.  I.e., you’ve been looking for help on things like segmentation, search engine optimization, demonstrating return on investment, engaging detractors, and techniques for aligning your blog to your company strategy.

The good news is that these are all things our CEO would be thrilled to hear and that we should keep in mind.  With more data available and still-tight budgets, we have to maintain some level of perspective to respond to rising scrutiny from senior leadership.

But the catch-22 to this upside is that these are also the questions that cause us to focus too much on business outcomes, not enough on truly reaching our stakeholders; and can turn us into *shudder* corporate blah-gers. Read More »

Lemme ask you… what if you knew that 30-40% of the stakeholders you’re working so hard to reach just aren’t interested in ANYTHING your company has to say?  Not one bit.  How would you feel about THAT?

Frustrated?  Make ya wanna pull your hair out? (not an option for me)

I’ll confess that I, too, used to think that the most frustrating moments of our jobs as communicators are those times when we fail in all our attempts to SOMEHOW reach the people we want to reach.

We just keep trying.  Using every ounce of our creativity, our extraordinary ability to develop compelling messages, our brilliant wordsmithery (including our skill in inventing words that don’t actually exist) to come up with a million new and different ways to connect with people who still seem totally resistant, no matter what we do.

Turns out there is a better way.  Stop trying. Read More »

I have always harbored a strong personal interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and so I am delighted to be heading up the Council’s latest efforts in this terrain.  Like all our projects, we start with the questions: “Who cares?  Why does it matter?  And what is the value to the business?”  As I was researching these questions, I was particularly interested to see if CSR had fallen among priorities in the corporate agenda (along with expense budgets and Christmas parties).  It turns out that CSR has actually grown MORE important during the recession, both to CEOs and to the key talent they are all fighting to attract and retain.  Below I’ve included some of the evidence I’ve found so far:

• CEOs vote CSR as critical to future success:  A recent survey by UN Global Compact and Accenture reports that 80% of CEOs (out of a sample of 766 globally) say that the downturn has raised the importance of sustainability.  Re-establishing consumer trust is the immediate issue.  Seventy-two percent of executives cite “strengthening brand, trust and reputation” as the strongest motivator for taking action on sustainability issues.  Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of corporate CEOs (93%) believe that sustainability has become critical to the future success of their companies, seeing it as a source of cost efficiencies and revenue growth.
• Business school graduates would trade cash for a sustainable company:  It’s not just senior leaders who are prioritizing CSR.  There is a rising social consciousness among business students too.   Read More »

Among the past month’s most prominent images have been thousands of “fan boys” lining up for the iPhone 4; Lebron James jerseys burning in effigy; fanatics obsessively watching soccer worldwide; and politicians escalating their attempts at anger toward BP.  Given how intense passions drove all those activities, few members were shocked when CEC found that emotional connections (over experiences or trust) drives the active support an organization needs to penetrate today’s networked environment.  While agreeing with the theory, many have argued that their categories are too rational, regulated, or conservative to build such bonds.

While we’re not all Apple, I don’t buy that this finding doesn’t have immediate applicability for every communicator worldwide, and to try to prove it, I’m listing below 10 highly accessible steps to develop more emotionally resonant content.

Read More »

Public Affairs, You Confuse Me.

Calling all communicators in the business of Public Affairs—what makes you stand out from the rest of your peers in Communications?

• Do you have key legislators and lobbyists on your BBM contacts?
• Are you the sole owner of CSR and community relations initiatives?
• Are you the policy guru, spotting nefarious legislation and getting your company ahead the messaging curve?
• Do you spend countless hours grooming your CEO and other executives for government testimony?

Read no further if you have an answer and wouldn’t mind sharing it with me. Continue on if you think I’m a confused Millennial. Read More »