Build a stronger brand, start with your employees

I still don’t think C-level execs or consultation firms get it…a brand starts from within a company, and I think that with social media this becomes even more true.

Consumers no longer depend solely on advertising and company Web sites for information. If anything, most consumers are skeptical of these sources. People seek the truth…for the most part. (Of course there are still elements of wanting to be cool and not entirely realizing when we’re being influenced by really slick marketing…but this is rare.)

If I want to know about a product, I google. I scan. I look for consumer reports, ratings by people who’ve bought and used the products (yeah, I know there are companies who use unethical stealth marketing, and plant good reviews….but if you do enough research, read enough blogs, talk to friends…you’ll be better informed). 

I also look for what employees are saying about the company whose products I’m interested in buying. What do they think of the company? Are they well treated? Would they buy the company’s products…if not…why would I?

BusinessWeek ran this article: Feeling trashed on the Web? It’s a good read about the role social media plays in shaping a company’s brand…but I still think they’re missing a huge point: brand begins with the people who make up the company…the employees.

Execs should start to recognize what employees can offer in terms of free marketing, attracting potential talent, customers, and in general, brand equity…just by being encouraged to share their opinions.

Ask your employees what they think of early revs of your new marketing campaigns. Let them blog about what it’s like to be an employee of your company…host these blogs on the company’s own Web page. Start an industry wiki that employees and others can contribute to and reference. Be transparent…and let this start with how you communicate with employees and extend it to how you empower your employees to communicate freely with others…on behalf of the company.

If you don’t trust your employees….you didn’t do a good job in hiring them. Let go. Trust your decisions and trust that most employees want their company to succeed!

Oh…and one other little thing…BusinessWeek…what was with writing vIDEO in that article when referring to videos? Was it a: we’re trying to subliminally market IDEO ? (If so…bad ideo!) If not…whaddup?

Great advice: First ask “why?”

Melcrum posted a great bit of advice from Bill Quirke about internal comms planning that I think really applies to social media too.

If you have a feeling that your company should be using social media tools, but management is skeptical about its use and perceived risks…you should first ask yourself what the company’s goals are in terms of communicating with its employees. What do employees need to know? How do you want them to feel? Do you want to build a sense of community amongst a dispersed employee base? Do you want employees able to ask questions of your leaders, discuss topics openly? To find one another…perhaps through an internal social networking site so employees can seek out experts in particular areas? Etc.

• Figure out what your goals are: what information you want to communicate, and why (What’s the problem/issue you’re trying to solve?)
• Research social media tools and determine their value/what they deliver that your current comms tools do not fulfill
• Select the best tool to attain your comms/company’s goals and know why it’s the best (don’t just go with a social media tool because it’s the newest thang!)
• Make the pitch in this order: goals, gap/problem, solution

Facebook labelled a $5 billion waste of time….for real!?!

Steven Lewis from Zest Digital in Australia rips into an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald that says Facebook may be costing Australian companies $5 billion a year with employees wasting their time according to a Dr. Cullen from SurfControl.

The SMH article says:

“The next time you see an employee hunched intently over the computer, don’t imagine he or she is slaving over the office accounts or a report for the next shareholders meeting.

Employees are more likely to be whiling away the hours on the social networking site Facebook, a report says.”

Of course they are…I mean really…aren’t we all just hunched over our computers looking for ways to waste our time! I don’t think so.

If you’re a solid employee with some pride, you want to do a good job. But this doesn’t mean that you have to be in your chair from 8 AM to 5 PM doing nothing but work. Impossible! Your brain needs a break. Whether that’s switching tasks, checking your e-mail, having a chat with a cube-mate, going outside for a bit of a walk, or checking Facebook (ahhhhhhhhhh nooooo!).

Some of my best ideas come to me when I’m taking a shower (which, by the way, I don’t do at work in my cubicle). I don’t send my boss a memo every time I work from the shower, or dream up an idea and jot it down in the middle of the night…so I don’t expect to see a memo telling me Facebook has suddenly become a banned site. Crazy.

But come to think of it…maybe I should start charging for my shower work…I could expense my water bill too. How much would that cost Dr. Cullen?

The future of social media….hmmmmm

In a study by Melcrum, researchers report that only a third of communicators polled say social media is a priority right now. My guess is, only a third of communicators know what is meant by social media (considering that people who regularly talk about social media can’t settle exactly on what it means). That aside…my sense is that there’s still a lot of confusion and a lot of unknowns when it comes to social media in corporate comms.

It only seems right that I decide for myself what I mean by social media. So here it is: communications tools that allow group discourse and/or information that is delivered to viewers/listeners/readers so they can watch/listen/read on their own time.

For instance…with blogging, people can read, then comment, read other people’s comments, then comment some more (if so inclined). Podcasts: while there is no back and forth (unless it’s live with a call-in Skype line), listeners can subscribe to a podcast and have it “delivered” to their computer so they can listen to it when they want. Wikis: online reference developed by a group of people that can be edited, added to, and deleted by members of the community. There are plenty of other examples.

What gets me though is when people say that social media isn’t for every company (which someone said in the Melcrum study…whose name I can’t remember right now…and have Googled like crazy to try to find…but can’t…but I promise to add it when I find it). Not everyone should blog. I agree. Especially not every CEO or senior leader…if you’re not inclined to write on a semi-regular basis don’t blog. Don’t do it. It will end poorly for you. But acknowledging that there are some people who shouldn’t blog or podcast is very different than saying social media isn’t for every company.

To me, this is like businesses saying (back when the telephone was being widely introduced): “Oh we don’t need telephones. Employees will just waste their time talking when they should really be working.” Can you imagine a successful corporation today running its business without a telephone? No.

Social media is today’s telephone….but instead of just being one communications tool, it’s a set of tools that can be used to participate in discussions that are already going on in the hallways and the company’s cafeterias. People are talking. You could be part of the conversation…or ignore it, see how business turns out for you.

Words matter!

“Let’s enable the platformitization through synergy.”

I’m not joking—I’ve heard this uttered many times by colleagues. And if not this exact ordering of words, something close to it. What scares me is that I’m pretty sure platformitization is not even a word—nor should it be!!!(Oxford & Webster’s: If you’re reading this, don’t get any ideas!!!)

Here are some words I’ve heard around the office, with my translations:

Synergize: Working together to get something done (so clichéd that it invokes a gag reflex in me…I dry heave when I hear this one)
Enable: We don’t really do it, we just help make something happen (it’s wimpy…I don’t like it)
Platformatization: Yeah. Not sure here.
Challenging: We’ve screwed up somehow, but don’t want to say as much so: “…we face some challenges.”
Strategy/strategic: Mostly used to make oneself seem smarter, as in: “this is my strategic plan…” You know, versus the dumb-ass, non-strategic plan or goals someone else would come up with.

I know there are way more…got any to share? Words that trigger your gag reflex!?!