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Content In this Social Media Era, is Still Key to Successful Employee Communications With the start of a new year and in fact, a new decade upon us, it’s natural to evaluate what communication tools and vehicles have been working successfully and what technologies have enhanced our ability to provide value to our stakeholders. Yet, one of the industry’s leading employee communications gurus says communicators need to take the “corporate” out of corporate communications, and replace it with “creative.” Focusing on people According to Crescenzo, employee communications typically talks about the three Ps: Policies, Programs, and Procedures, including necessary but usually dry topics like corporate initiatives, wellness, and safety. The way to make employee communications more engaging is to find the fourth P, which is “people.” Corporate communicators need to see themselves as storytellers. Crescenzo believes any organization in the world, no matter how small, has interesting people doing interesting things. Communicators should harness these stories to create more interesting content. “Content is more important now than ever,” says Steve Crescenzo, a veteran corporate communicator with 20 years of experience, “however, communicators are just taking the same corporate content—boring press releases, bad photos, and poorly written stories and they’re pushing them out through new social media vehicles.” Based in Chicago, IL, Steve is one of the U.S.’s leading experts in employee communications. Voted the number one seminar leader at IABC’s International Conference in 2008 and 2009, he believes that social media demands a different way of communicating. “It needs to be more conversational, more real, and more focused on people—there needs to be more storytelling,” says Crescenzo. Replace “corporate” with “creative” Creating valuable, engaging content is one of the biggest challenges communicators face— no matter what vehicle they use. Audiences have many online choices: interactive sites like The New York Times, podcasts on every subject under the sun, not to mention the multitude of social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. And then the audience has our stuff: dry, dull, safe and boring corporate content. It doesn’t stand a chance when it comes to grabbing our audience’s attention. And this is where communicators make one of the biggest mistakes. Instead of using these new tools to move away from the same old boring corporate boilerplate language and cookie-cutter copy, we simply repurpose the dry corporate content and push it out using new social media tools. The result? No one pays attention to it. Crescenzo believes it’s because we focus on fighting the wrong battles. “Communicators fight the battle of the deadline and the battle of the approval process—what will get through with the least amount of edits in the least amount of time. In the meantime, we lose our biggest battle—readership—and that’s a high price to pay these days.” How to sell it to executives Some people have argued that it is hard to convince corporate executives to use social media as a communication vehicle. “Communicators make the mistake of falling in love with the new tools,” says Crescenzo. “They try to sell their tools to their leaders, instead of approaching them from the business point of view.” The way to sell social media to executives, Crescenzo suggests, is to demonstrate how social media can help the organization achieve its business and communications goals, and solve problems. This requires communicators to look at things from a business perspective, instead of from a social media enthusiast angle. Crescenzo will be in Toronto to present his one-day seminar, “Creative Communications: Taking the Next Step,” on February 26, 2010. Loaded with dozens of case studies and best practices in creative communications from small and large organizations throughout Canada and the U.S., Crescenzo is hosting a sneak peek professional development event exclusively for IABC/Toronto members the day before on February 25. Stay tuned to e-Lerts and the website for registration details. Emma Huang is a Toronto-based public relations professional with a decade of experience as an international journalist. 8 January – February 2010 Communicator http://toronto.iabc.com/
Digital Dialogue Sticking to those resolutions takes determination, focus and sheer will. For the online communicator, the same holds true. After meeting with a group of my online communicator-type pals at the gym yesterday, over celery sticks and chocolate bars, we came up with a list of seven resolutions to which we believe every communicator involved in the World Wide Web should pay heed. 1. Develop a strategy – This should come as no surprise. As professional communicators, this is where we always start. The web is no exception. Whether it’s old-school online initiatives (such as your website or e-mail newsletter) or a social media campaign on Facebook or Twitter, all digital communications efforts must be mapped to your organization’s mission and support the overall business plan. Otherwise, it may be a cool idea, but what’s the point? 2. Prioritize communication channels – As communicators we’ve hit the jackpot. There have never been more communication channels from which to choose. While we revel in abundance, Resolutions of Highly Effective Online Communicators 7If you’re like me, the New Year is a time to shed those bad habits of yesteryear, and look ahead with optimism: I will eat more veggies… I will exercise more than once a month… I will stop eating chocolate. sometimes it can be daunting and downright confusing. The key is to look to where your audience goes for information and focus your efforts there. If your audience is job seekers, focus on building an amazing online recruitment area within your website, post job openings to online job boards and use social media sites (such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) to spread the word. 3. Connect all communication channels – Build your online community and increase traffic to all other channels by using the cross-promotion trick. For example, if you’re building subscribers for your e-mail campaign, include a sign-up form on your website and promote it on Facebook and Twitter. If you’re using social media sites to spread your message, provide a link to your website and re-use the content on your blog, your website and Twitter. 4. Write web-friendly content – Content is king. Period. Unfortunately, even the most dedicated communications professionals can get caught up in the technology or sidetracked by design. Stay focused on your message and write your copy in a way people can easily scan online. By treating your content as an asset, you’ll be well on your way to building a meaningful and successful online presence. 5. Evaluate. Evaluate. Evaluate. – If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Establish benchmarks. Set goals. Track results. Make adjustments. Evaluate by monitoring web traffic (i.e. number of visitors and pages most visited), tracking the number of e-mail subscribers or measuring the size of your communities on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere. Report these findings to internal stakeholders to keep them engaged in your online communications initiatives. Such measurements prove that your strategies are working and it’s money well spent. 6. Remember your user – The digital area can be a very lonely place. Unless you develop a clear picture of your target audience and build your online initiatives around their needs, they’ll be gone (if they ever came in the first place). If it’s a website, figure out what tasks they want to achieve or the information they truly need. If it’s a blog, find out what topics are timely and relevant. If it’s a tweet, provide your followers with links to information of particular use. Stay focused on your user and they’ll come back for more. 7. Participate – Join the online conversation that’s going on with other digital communications professionals. Comment on blogs. Follow on Twitter. Connect through social media communities. To keep pace, you have to keep talking. Putting these online resolutions to work will pay off in the long run. Now all you have to do is eat right and go to the gym. Valeri Hall Little is an online communications specialist with more than 15 years in the digital arena. As president and founder of intandem communications, she has helped hundreds of companies implement strategies to make their websites more effective and easier to use. http://toronto.iabc.com/ Communicator January – February 2010 9
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Communicator

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