THOUGHT

48
TECHNOLOGY
QUALITY
INNOVATION
TECHNOLOGY
Communicating business
in an ever-changing world
Deal with people and organisations that speak to you plainly. If they try to blind you with their technical prowess
from the outset how are you going to handle them when there are tricky issues in the relationship?
The pace of change
in communications
is staggering. In a
handful of years the ways
businesses talk to their
customers, and to each
other, have altered beyond
all recognition compared
to decades of what came
before – and the revolution
rolls on relentlessly.
The rest of what it takes to run a
business hasn’t necessarily changed so
much. There’s still always the morass
of red tape to wade through, neverending
HR matters to deal with, record
keeping (including constantly changing
requirements) and, oh yes, still your actual
product or service to be delivered.
That being the case, expecting hardworking
business owners and senior
managers to keep up with the latest
evolution in social media or digital marketing
is a big ask.
This, in turn, makes it hard to evaluate
the people you will need to bring in to
deliver those essential elements of modern
marketing, whether in-house or on an
agency basis.
There’s an interface of communications
MARK
WAUGH
techniques with cutting-edge technology
that makes it possible for people with only
a bit of knowledge (and jargon) to run rings
around you.
I know that’s slightly cynical, but recent
experience has highlighted to myself
and my colleagues that it’s exactly what
is happening on a daily basis to many
businesses and organisations we come into
contact with.
It’s really easy to get lost in a blizzard of
sales pitches and conflicting advice when
you start to look around for providers, but
there is a route through that should see you
into clear air, where you can discern the
wheat from the chaff.
It comes back to basic business
principles and good practice:
• Deal with people and organisations
that speak to you plainly. If they try to
blind you with their technical prowess from
the outset how are you going to handle
them when there are tricky issues in the
relationship?
• Ask for references. If they can deliver
on their promise, someone they already
work for won’t be shy in letting you know
that.
• Use their tools on them. If someone
claims to be an expert in search engine
optimisation, see if they’ve got their own
website good search engine exposure...
If it’s pay-per-click advertising, are they
achieving good positioning for themselves
or other clients? And look them up on social
media * How are they engaging? What’s
their tone of voice? Do they feel like a good
advocate for your business?
• Check any claimed credentials. It’s
not essential to use suppliers who sign-up
to industry schemes, but if they claim to be,
for instance, a Google Partner, check them
out in the Google Partners directory. There
are many who claim to be who are not.
It might feel like a wild frontier
sometimes, but the communications
revolution is actually as much subject to
the rules of good business practice as any
other.
Approach it like that and you can avoid
beating yourself up that you’re not down
with the geeks!
• Mark Waugh is managing director of
Be Bold Media Ltd, based in Newport, and a
former daily newspaper online editor
MCCONNEL
BLAZING A TRAIL
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A multi award-winning British manufacturing
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