Tourism Ireland is currently ranked the third largest national tourist board on Facebook, with approximately 700,000 fans across 20 markets in eight languages. In the absence of an accepted industry standard to assess the value of this beyond simply counting fan numbers, we developed the concept of Social Equivalent Advertising Value (SEAV).
Just as the PR sector has traditionally measured its impact by the cost of buying advertising to cover the equivalent column inches, so a similar approach can be applied to social media. The more a brand message is shared, the more “column inches” are gained and the value of this can be compared to the cost of equivalent online advertising.
We identified four levels of consumer engagement with brands in social media:
- Post Impressions: viewing a brand post.
- Page Impressions: viewing a brand owner’s social platform.
- Personal Actions: consuming brand content such as photos, videos or links.
- Public Actions: sharing brand content with their network.
We then categorized the actions that consumers can take across the major social platforms into each of these groupings, and attributed a financial value to the cost of delivering a comparable consumer engagement online. This allowed us to quantify the value of our social engagement in Facebook at the end of last year at an annualized level of €1.7 million.
If employees are so connected, why is it so hard to communicate with them?
Over the years, I’ve developed a strategy tool that I call measurement-based planning. It may sound counterintuitive to start your plan at the end, but starting with defining what you ultimately want to measure—and how you will measure it—creates a more focused and concrete communication plan, with more quantifiable results.This is a twist on the traditional planning process that focuses on goals and objectives. Yes, the things you ultimately want to measure are the objectives. However, analyzing those objectives through a measurement lens from the outset forces you to think much more concretely.
For instance, one of the responsibilities in your job description may be to manage employee communication and to educate and motivate the company’s workforce. Instead of plunking down “educate and motivate employees” as an objective, start by asking yourself, “How would I know if employees were educated and motivated? How would I measure that?”
Consider three types of outcome measures, which social media measurement expert Kami Huyse has summed up neatly as the three As: awareness, attitude and action. In other words, what will your audience know, what will they believe, and what will they do?
When Should We Measure Communications?
Annual in depth surveys. Engagement and satisfaction surveys are typically carried out annually and can carry additional questions to provide some insights into the effectiveness of communications.
Prior to a specific communications campaign. In order to best understand the impact of communications, it is necessary to measure (awareness, attitudes, knowledge etc) before a campaign.
After a significant communication or campaign. It is important to measure the effectiveness and impact of significant communications programs and initiatives. This allows you to tailor internal communications to make sure they are effective and delivering quantifiable business value.
At intervals to track attitudes. Regular measurement helps communicators to gauge the ever shifting feelings and attitudes within an organization and to tailor messages to make sure they are appropriate to their audiences.
Pulse checks and temperature checks during and after specific events provide an insight into the issues and challenges an organization faces and to gather feedback on specific issues.
At intervals to benchmark and track against KPI’s. Measuring regularly against benchmarks and tracking trends over time provide an early warning of issues that may go undetected until they have escalated further.
What to Measure?
Determining which aspects of communication to measure will depend on the organization’s specific business and communication objectives. A few examples of useful communications measurements include:
How should employees behave as company representatives on social media platforms?
- Transparency. Should employees acting as company agents identify themselves? Should they use their own names? Should they list their job title? Should there be specific rules that apply their use of photographs or avatars?
- Confidentiality. What information are employees allowed to disclose? Is this information already public? If not, does it require specific approvals? Who gives permission for release of non-public information? Is the information of competitive value?
- Financials. How should employees discuss corporate results or financial situation? This is particularly important for publically traded companies where regulatory agencies are involved.
- Copyright. How are intellectual property (aka IP) issues to be handled? What are the internal procedures? To whom should employees address their questions?
- Competitors. Since social media forums tend to be open to the public, how should employees treat competitors and their representatives? Are there specific procedures that they should follow?
Teachers can affect our eternity. In fact, it’s hard to tell where the influence stops, even after all these years. Not every teacher has a profound affect, but most of us remember what it was like in P.E. My teacher was a short, spunky lady named Mrs. Bruno. I was a cheerleader in high school (I know, you’d never guess it) and Mrs. Bruno’s leadership took us to many championships. The best teachers teach from the heart and these lessons continue to resonate in my world today.
Here are 7 things I learned from my P.E. Teacher that influence my actions today with Social marketing. See how many resonate with you:
1. “Failure is not fatal. But failure to change might be.” Marketing in the Social era is scary. Many dealers don’t know what to post on Facebook, or blog, or where to even start. The best thing to do is begin and fail until you succeed. Hire a mentor to guide you. Whatever you do, don’t do nothing. You need to be where your customer is, and that place is Social Media.
2. “If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.” I hear many companies shouting, “Buy our product and Social Media will be a snap.” Don’t believe it. Social marketing takes hard work, commitment, talent and a budget. There are many obstacles but none that can’t be overcome. Once you’re on the right path, you’ll find your sweet spot.
3. “Enthusiasm is everything.” Social marketing succeeds because we are social animals. Sharing great information with other humans is part of our culture. How big a part does enthusiasm play in your overall business operation? Empower your staff to help create content for your Social channels. An enthusiastic team is contagious. Your customers will catch it and spread the awesome.
4. “Teachers teach more by what they are than but what they say.” The same is true for your store’s brand. It’s not enough to advertise what great prices you have or what awesome service you deliver. Others have to be saying it too. Utilize Social Media to communicate what it is about your store that makes it unique – why people buy from you. Enlist customers and employees to tell your story.
5. “Never mind what others do. Do better than yourself, beat your own record from day to day, and you’re a success.” I see many businesses who put a lot of weight on how many Facebook fans others have and they judge themselves by that. What matters in Social is to have a highly-engaged audience who want to talk about you to their friends. Keep score on yourself. Set goals and measure your progress. That’s how you succeed in Social marketing.
It’s no longer enough to have a sleek website, social-media presence, and consistent brand aesthetic online. The new rules of branding your business on the Web have a lot less to do with presentation, and a lot more to do with interaction. In order to bring you up to speed, Inc.com has compiled nine of the most innovative and ingenious tips from articles, guides, and interviews in Inc. and Inc.com over the past year. These are the new rules of branding online.
1. Don’t just start the conversation.
Be an integral and evolving part of it. “Social media has one very important perspective to share with brand management—the conversation. Like branding, social media is all about the conversation and building effective relationships. They are perfectly suited to one another,” says Ed Roach, founder of The Brand Experts, a brand management consultancy in West Leamington, Ontario, the author of The Reluctant Salesperson, a free e-book available at http://www.thebrandingexperts.ca. The rules for brand messaging through new media versus traditional channels haven’t changed, but “the game sure got better and more interesting,” says Roach. It’s not enough to have a Facebook page or a Twitter account, you must participate in the conversation by making regular posts and replying to direct messages from your customers. Ron Smith, president and founder of S&A’s Cherokee, a public relations and marketing firm in Cary, North Carolina, agrees, adding that you’ll want to stay on top of what people are saying about you and your brand online. “Monitoring social media is a must for all companies. Social media has shortened the time frame for company responses to complaints or accusations. These days, companies need to acknowledge any issues and control the messaging in a matter of minutes instead of hours or days,” says Smith. Read more.
2. Either keep your personal brand out of it…
So you have 10,000 Twitter followers. Does it matter to your customers? Tim Ferriss, the entrepreneur behind the sports nutritional supplements companyBrainQUICKEN and author of The 4-Hour Workweek, told Inc.com contributor John Warrillow: “Unless you’re in one of a handful of businesses like public speaking, I think managing and growing a personal brand can be a huge distraction for company founders. I see all of these entrepreneurs trying to collect Twitter followers, and it reminds me of a matador waving a red flag in front of a bull. In this case, the founders are the bull. The bullfighter moves the flag away, and the bull comes up with nothing but air. Steve Jobs has a personal brand, but it isApple’s product design that makes it such a valuable company. He isn’t jumping onFoursquare to develop his ‘personal brand.'” Read more.
3. …or dive in and make all the headlines you can.
Appearing in the media as a source of expertise can go a long way toward building your brand, Inc.’s April Joyner reports. To gain press, identify media outlets that are most applicable to your particular areas of expertise and send them targeted pitches.
Michael Dell simply gets it. He understands that businesses can no longer afford to rest on their laurels while the digital bazaar transforms the world around them. More importantly, however, Dell understands that in order to promote change he must lead by example. No executive has all the solutions to the many questions surrounding the shifting corporate landscape, but at least Dell isn’t afraid to look for the answers.
Using Dell as our model of forward-thinking leadership, I offer these seven traits of what it takes to be an affective social executive. Fidelman has expertly identified the traits of those executives unafraid or incapable of changing with the times, but now it’s time to seek out the antidote.
#1 The Malleable Mind
Think of the “Malleable Mind” as the counter to Fidelman’s “Short Sleeve Fat Tie Executive.” Whereas Fat Tie Execs expect to be sole originators of all ideas, cruelly dictating company agenda from the confines of their office, Malleable Minds value the input of their employees. They aren’t threatened by change—in fact they’re often excited by it, and actively encourage an environment of new ideas and approaches. Malleable Minds recognize that employee initiative and collaboration are essential cornerstones of the social business, and they encourage their workers to utilize social media and discuss new ideas that might improve day-to-day operations. Malleable Minds know that you can’t keep a good idea down for long, and see it as their job to absorb information and help put ideas into motion.
Identifiable Traits – Malleable Minds understand that they’re not the only ones with good ideas. They are unburdened by ego, actively seek feedback on their own initiatives and welcome the opinions of others. They understand that respect is earned not through an iron fist, but through and open mind. They may be the boss, but they do not take their positions for granted.
It’s no longer enough to have a sleek website, social-media presence, and consistent brand aesthetic online. The new rules of branding your business on the Web have a lot less to do with presentation, and a lot more to do with interaction. In order to bring you up to speed, Inc.com has compiled nine of the most innovative and ingenious tips from articles, guides, and interviews in Inc. and Inc.com over the past year. These are the new rules of branding online.
1. Don’t just start the conversation.
Be an integral and evolving part of it. “Social media has one very important perspective to share with brand management—the conversation. Like branding, social media is all about the conversation and building effective relationships. They are perfectly suited to one another,” says Ed Roach, founder of The Brand Experts, a brand management consultancy in West Leamington, Ontario, the author of The Reluctant Salesperson, a free e-book available at http://www.thebrandingexperts.ca. The rules for brand messaging through new media versus traditional channels haven’t changed, but “the game sure got better and more interesting,” says Roach. It’s not enough to have a Facebook page or a Twitter account, you must participate in the conversation by making regular posts and replying to direct messages from your customers. Ron Smith, president and founder of S&A’s Cherokee, a public relations and marketing firm in Cary, North Carolina, agrees, adding that you’ll want to stay on top of what people are saying about you and your brand online. “Monitoring social media is a must for all companies. Social media has shortened the time frame for company responses to complaints or accusations. These days, companies need to acknowledge any issues and control the messaging in a matter of minutes instead of hours or days,” says Smith. Read more.2. Either keep your personal brand out of it…
So you have 10,000 Twitter followers. Does it matter to your customers? Tim Ferriss, the entrepreneur behind the sports nutritional supplements companyBrainQUICKEN and author of The 4-Hour Workweek, told Inc.com contributor John Warrillow: “Unless you’re in one of a handful of businesses like public speaking, I think managing and growing a personal brand can be a huge distraction for company founders. I see all of these entrepreneurs trying to collect Twitter followers, and it reminds me of a matador waving a red flag in front of a bull. In this case, the founders are the bull. The bullfighter moves the flag away, and the bull comes up with nothing but air. Steve Jobs has a personal brand, but it isApple’s product design that makes it such a valuable company. He isn’t jumping onFoursquare to develop his ‘personal brand.'” Read more.3. …or dive in and make all the headlines you can.
Appearing in the media as a source of expertise can go a long way toward building your brand, Inc.’s April Joyner reports. To gain press, identify media outlets that are most applicable to your particular areas of expertise and send them targeted pitches.
(When the General Counsel realized that one of his staff members and several of his fellow executive committee members would be thrown out, the top lawyer reluctantly changed his mind. Others, including me, were delighted that employees were shouting out such great affirmations about the company to their peers inside and outside the organization. Talk about powerful–and free-PR!)
How well does your social media policy reflect your corporate values?
Every couple of weeks, someone will drop a draft of their company’s social media policy in front of me and ask what I think. In most cases, I am delighted that it’s a draft and not yet published. These policies are usually riddled with “do not” and “never” and “forbidden” language. It makes me want to launch a performance art project with actor John Lithgow doing dramatic readings of these clamp-down policies.
Now, John Lithgow has a great, resonate, voice-of-God kind of voice. But I choose him specifically because of his role in one of my favorite cheesy 80s movies, Footloose. As Reverend Shaw Moore (thanks, IMDB) he kept poor Kevin Bacon and his friends from dancing in their little rural town.
It didn’t work.
I don’t believe that the social media policies that focus on the forbidden work, either. They aren’t realistic and they give the impression that employees’ judgment is no better than your average first grader’s.
Sun Microsystems took a much saner and smarter route in the Sun Approach to Public Discourse. Here are a few headlines from the policy: Don’t Tell Secrets; Be Respectful; Be Interesting, But Be Honest.
Hill and Knowlton also has a straight-forward approach highlighted in this blog post that focuses on disclosure, ethical actions and other topics pertinent to an agency that conducts social media campaigns on behalf of its clients.
The common denominators in both policies are that they treat people like adults and they accept that employees are going to use the Internet in all sorts of official and unofficial ways. The policies don’t go all John Lithgow on them and try to put a stop to such nonsense; they give guidance toward doing it well, with integrity and in ways that won’t damage the company, the client or the employee.
And you’d be wise to give guidance to employees. In the Social Media/Networking Usage Trends Report prepared by Travelers, only 25 percent of respondents showed any concern that things that they post online could be damaging to them professionally. Forty-two percent said that they “never post anything that reflects poorly on my employer.” What are the other 58% up to?
I am sure that there are other examples of good social media policies out there, and I’d love to see additional examples. Know of any?
PS: I have no connection to Sun Microsystems (other than having met the delightful Deirdre Straughan who pointed me to their policy at a Communintelligence event), Hill & Knowlton, John Lithgow or Kevin Bacon. But if you can put me in touch with John about that project…
Barbara Govednik launched 423 Communication in 2001 to helps its clients tell their stories through freelance writing services, coaching and editing services, and employee communication consulting and implementation. Read Barbara’s Being Well Said Blog.
A colleague recently asked for dos and don’ts in partnering with IT. It is a crucial skill in today’s corporate environment. Partnering with all functions in the organization is important, but IT in particular.
We need IT: we need the technology they deploy, good security, openness to new approaches such as social technology, clear, user-centered choices in technology.
IT needs communication too. They need adoption of new technologies, a clear connection to the business, openness to business process change, help leveraging their great solutions into the culture of the business. They need to be seen as not just a consumer of resources, but also a driver of business. All things we can help them with.
The way we approach partnering with IT professionals can make or break it.
Respect their knowledge and capability. Don’t be dismissive or condescending. They know important information – stuff we don’t know – and their perspective is often a good balance with the communicator’s perspective. It’s not that they “don’t get it,” it’s that the lens they are looking through is a different color. We should, however, seek to enlighten them about the role and value of communication.
Be linear, process-oriented thinkers. To work with them, we must become a little more like them. We must be able to connect the dots in a linear process, see the process breaks and bottlenecks. If we move through processes with them we’ll all see the end game together.
Speak their language. Know the basics, terms and concepts. Be able to converse about these with confidence. Doesn’t mean you have to sit down and code an application. I like being the dumb blonde in the hardware store. Working with my IT partners is no time for the dumb blonde routine.
Define roles and responsibilities clearly. IT has specific responsibility for delivering solutions that meet business needs and requirements. Communication should take responsibility for clearly communicating strategy and requirements, helping IT connect to the business goals, ensuring good change communication during rollout, and securing the change in the culture. Use our different areas of expertise to divide, conquer and succeed.
Think of IT as a client. Collaborate and ensure their success. Make them shine – sometimes IT can serve as a pilot and example to the rest of the organization. Give them positive visibility. Seek solutions, don’t take or give orders.
Communicate ROI and drive the business. What every good IT and communication professional wants to do for their company. We are on the same team and we share many of the same challenges and frustrations. Not being viewed as a strategic business driver or trusted advisor, is just one of them. We can help each other here.
IT isn’t gender specific. IT is becoming increasingly diverse with many women joining the ranks. I’ve seen some of my colleagues refer to the “IT guys,” but it’s no longer just a guy space.
Stacy Wilson, ABC, is president of Eloquor Consulting, Inc., in Lakewood, Colorado
Here at the IABC World Conference (Twitter tag #IABC09), much of the buzz is about “social media.” First of all, a lot of my clients wrinkle their noses at the term. I’ve started using “social technologies” which is not only more broad and approachable, but also less entertainment sounding. Let’s face it, being able to find the right subject matter expert because of a great internal profile, well, that’s not really “media” is it?
I continue to be amazed at the number of people who are talking about social technologies, but not actually using them. It’s some of these who whine: “my boss won’t let us do this or that.”
Some of these technologies have to be tried to comprehend and strategize, not to mention convince others of their value. So, how can you really do justice to the opportunity and potential if you aren’t playing in the space at all? Jump in and give it a try. Read, comment, blog, make friends – just get a feel for it all.
Once you understand what social technologies can do, ask yourself these questions:
- What business problem(s) are we trying to solve? (from the perspective of the business or end user)
- What business goal does this initiative support? How?
- Who are our stakeholders?
- What do we want to do with our stakeholders?
- Do we have executive support?
- How strong is that executive support?
- How will executives and other leaders be involved?
- Who needs to be involved, and can they participate enough from the start to ensure success?
- Can this initiative start small?
- Which superstars/rebels can be engaged in a lead role?
- How well is the organization prepared for the impending cultural and organizational change?
- What legal issues (e.g., privacy, discovery, retention) exist and how will we address these?
These questions will set you on your way to strategic use of social technologies that will deliver business results, as well as, great new communication channels. So, build some skill first, then get serious.
Stacy Wilson, ABC, is president of Eloquor Consulting, Inc., in Lakewood, Colorado
A client recently asked me if I had a tool that would help her track and collect measurement data during the course of a project. “Have you got a tool for that?”
It made me realize that when it comes to measurement we really harp on the planning skills. Which is crucial. But the collection, tracking, analysis and reporting are equally important. How many of us have planned our measurement, but never carried through?
So, here are some tips that will get your measurement skills up to speed across the entire measurement lifeline.
- Planning
- Target metrics that connect to business goals and prove communication success
- Find out what the organization is already collecting
- Determine the frequency of collection, approach of collection (e.g., survey, interview, electronic) and owner for each metric
- Collection and tracking
- Identify due dates for all the collection activity
- Determine all the collection logistics in advance so you don’t miss anything
- Automate what you can (e.g., invitations, reminders, electronic data reports)
- For longer-term efforts with multiple measurement points, document key data points and findings as they come in
- Analysis
- Identify the three most relevant findings
- Identify the most surprising finding
- Identify the findings that require additional follow up
- Categorize, count and analyze open-ended comments
- Consider the benefits of cross-tabulating some of your quantitative data
- Assess what worked well in the data collection process and what did not
- Reporting
- Understand the expectations and interests of the stakeholders to whom you are reporting
- Break out recommendations by short-term and long-term timing
- Identify those findings that best connect to goals
- Be realistic about how much you can present in the given time
- Determine which visuals and which words will be most useful to incorporate
- Identify the final call to action
- Anticipate questions and prepare a response
If you approach items two through four with the same diligence communicators typically approach item one, you’ll be more apt to follow through. And follow through means having more and better data, and more and better data means proving our value.
Proving our value through great measurement is one ingredient in the recipe for becoming a trusted advisor. Thinking strategically throughout the measurement lifeline is another. And, yes, we have tools for every step of the way.
Stacy Wilson, ABC, is president of Eloquor Consulting, Inc., in Lakewood, Colorado
Search engine optimization is often about making small modifications to parts of your website.
So we thought it’d be useful to create a compact guide that lists some best practices that teams within Google and external webmasters alike can follow that could improve their sites’ crawlability and indexing.
View Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide (pdf)
Many organisations face the challenge of deploying an enterprise social network with limited funds. There just aren’t enough free resources — money, headcount and time — to devote to this important task. If you’re about to assume the role of project champion inside a small or mid-sized organisation, you need to be aware of the many different hats you’ll probably be wearing in the very near future.
1. Strategist
Developing a coherent and credible social strategy is the foundation of a successful network deployment. You need to be able to paint a clear vision of what you hope to achieve, develop a detailed roadmap that explains exactly how you intend to get there, and set out clear milestones that will gauge progress.2. Advocate
Someone needs to sell the business case to the business. There is a small chance a C-suite sponsor will assume this role, but even if they do you’ll probably find yourself filling in the gaps. Effective advocacy is an unending challenge, not a one-off task.3. Architect
While it is true that social networks can grow organically, the final result will almost certainly be a lot more effective if you map out a plan that details how you’d like the network to operate on a day-today basis. Consulting with people inside the business to establish their needs and wants will help you plan for success.4. Engineer
While a cloud deployment is simple, integrating enterprise systems into the network can be a far more complex task. You’d hope and expect IT to manage this part of the deployment. Nevertheless, you’ll want to understand the basics so you can keep across what’s happening.5. Change Agent
Using these platforms can require people to change the way they work. As any of us who have attempted to stop smoking, lose weight or start exercising will know, getting someone to break a hard-wired habit is a challenging assignment. A full understanding of change management theory and practice will prove invaluable.6. Educator
These tools are so simple that most people can use them right out of the box. However, to achieve your strategic goals you’ll need to educate people on best practice. A blended learning approach of face-to—face and online learning works well. You’ll find that you’ll almost certainly need to run the face-to-face sessions yourself.7. Communicator
An ongoing communication program is part and parcel of most deployments. There is of course the need for a strong launch campaign. In addition, there is a requirement for an ongoing campaign that shares success stories and encourages participation. Experience of running an internal communications program will pay dividends.
Unless you’ve been holed up in a cave for the past few years, you’ve probably had some kind of brush with a quirky company called Zappos. You may be one of the millions of fanatically loyal customers who buy shoes from them over and over again. Or you may be a salivating investor who’s watched the company skyrocket from zero to over $1 billion in sales in less than 10 years. Or you may be like me – one of the lucky few who’ve had the rare opportunity to visit the corporate headquarters in Las Vegas and witness their wacky and wildly successful culture.
Why this Whimsical Workplace Works
Before I even entered the building, several “Zapponians” greeted our group of visitors outside with the kind of upbeat playfulness you’d only expect at someplace like Disneyland. (BTW, I’ve been to Disneyland, and they could learn a thing or two from Zappos).
You Can’t Fake Culture
It’s easy and appealing to subscribe to that kind of philosophy – and lots of organizations claim to live by it. But for most, it’s a shallow charade that shows up like a short-term promotional event. At Zappos, it’s the true essence and heartbeat of everything they do – and it’s captured wonderfully in the company’s annual “Culture Book.” It’s their traditional collection of stories gathered each year from employees, customers and vendors about their experiences with the company. In the 300-page 2010 edition, Hsieh makes a point that illustrates the emphasis they place on culture as a conscious business strategy. The company is very clear about its brand, and as Hseih puts it, “The brand is simply a lagging indicator of the culture.”
Les Landes, Landes & Associates
Buy Les’s webinar replay: Getting to the Heart of Employee Engagement
Measuring the value of communication has always been important. Today, it’s become something of an obsession, and it’s easy to understand why. But instead of focusing on measuring the value of communications, communicators should concentrate on communicating about measures that people value. Here’s an example of how a St. Louis-based winner of the Baldrige National Quality Award, Wainwright Industries, applied that principle.
Making data meaningful with “Mission Control.”
When they set their sites on the award, they knew they would have to collect a lot of data – and figure out how to share it throughout the organization. The solution was inspired by NASA. The Wainwright team decided to post the data in a single room organized around priorities that came from input provided by employees. They called the room “Mission Control,” and it was designed to let all employees know how various aspects of the company’s performance are tracking at all times. Using color coded flags, the display provides instant awareness of emerging problem areas. What’s more, it activates a pre-set course of action if performance indicators fall below established benchmarks.
While it’s essentially a communication system, not many professional communicators would typically see it as part of their domain. Therein lies the proverbial rub – and the opportunity to be more relevant.
Measuring what matters to people.
When communicators measure their success in terms of functional indicators like media impressions, newsletter satisfaction ratings and similar measures, they’re not connecting with most employees who don’t care much about those measures. Ultimately, the most vital function of organizational communications is to facilitate the exchange of data, information, and knowledge that support employees in doing their everyday jobs. That’s what most people care about – and that’s where communicators should focus much of their measurement efforts.
The first step is to ensure you’re focusing on relevant indicators. Examples might be safety, employee learning and development, results of continuous improvement efforts, quality of products and services, defect and rework rates, results of employee opinion surveys, customer satisfaction, sales and margins, progress reports on employee profit-sharing and the like.
Sharing information so people see why it matters.
But all that data is useless without an effective system for sharing it. In short, measurement needs to be supported with a communication system that spans the entire organization. Communicators shouldn’t try to do it alone, though. They should work closely with other key functions – human resources, organizational development, finance, quality, information technology, sales, marketing, customer service, etc.
The roles played by the people in this measurement and communication “orchestra” vary depending on numerous factors. Someone, though, has to take the lead and serve as the “conductor” who keeps the group operating in unison. That role is ideally suited for communicators who can see their way out of their traditional boxes.
Regardless of who plays what role, several important elements have to be built into the design of an effective measurement and communication system:
- Leading and lagging indicators
- Frequent and timely
- Simple
- Visual
- Relevant
- Quantitative
- Benchmarked
- Action-based
Click here for a brief description of each of those elements.
It’s a big role to take on, but it’s worth it. Beyond the merits of the system itself, communicators stand to be recognized more for the value of their work – and appreciated more for their contributions to the performance of the organization.
Les Landes, Landes & Associates
Buy Les’s webinar replay: Getting to the Heart of Employee Engagement
I want to share another insight from my late friend and mentor, David Berlo. He always emphasized the distinction between results and performance. Results are the outcomes you produce, and performance is how you get there, he said. From there, he asserted that being singularly results-driven in what you measure and reward eventually leads to the deterioration of both performance AND results. Here’s why.
Outcomes vs. Inputs
First, we all know that people tend to repeat behaviors that are reinforced in some meaningful way. Likewise, people tend NOT to repeat behaviors for which they receive negative response. Next, it’s important to realize that no one has direct control over outcomes (results) – unless the game is fixed or there’s an unfair advantage. People can only control inputs (performance).
Now, if bad performance always led to bad results, and good performance always led to good results, it wouldn’t matter which one you rewarded – results or performance. But that’s not always how things work out. Sometimes you don’t get good results even when you give your best effort – other variables can come into play. Other times, just the opposite is true. You can give a marginal effort and come out smelling like a rose.
That’s not how things usually happen, but look at what you get when they do. If you fail to reward people for good performance because they had bad results, you discourage them from repeating the good behavior. If you reward them for good results in spite of poor performance, you reinforce poor performance in the future. The cumulative effect over time is inevitable. Every time you focus on results in a way that either reinforces poor performance or discourages good performance, you also take a step backwards with long-term results.
Performance is the bottom line.
Of course, you have to add up the numbers on the bottom line eventually. But even if winning in the world of business means producing results, lasting success still requires focusing on the drivers of those results, and rewarding effective execution – regardless of the outcomes in the short run. Berlo summed it up this way: “Winning is the name of the game, but performance is the bottom line.” Clearly, if effective execution isn’t producing the desired long-term results, you need to figure out where the disconnect is. But it serves no purpose to penalize people for poor outcomes if they’re doing the right things in the right way. If that happens, you need to fix the systems, not the people.
So what does that mean for us in the people professions? For HR people, it’s pretty obvious. Some compensation and bonus programs are notorious for focusing solely on immediate, bottom line results without regard to how they’re produced – often leading to short-term “success” with negative long-term consequences. Those programs have to encourage performance that looks at the long haul. For communications people, we need to look at where the bulk of the ongoing organizational dialogue is focused. Are we communicating effectively about the “steps to success” – or is everything employees read and hear about focused on the end game? If it’s results we’re after, we’d better be talking a lot more about what it takes to produce them – because in the end, it’s how you get there that counts.
Les Landes, Landes & Associates
Buy Les’s webinar replay: Getting to the Heart of Employee Engagement
Assessing the state of communication at your company means gathering SWOT data vital to improving communication. An overall communications assessment should be conducted, at minimum, on an annual basis. Smaller or shorter communication assessments, often referred to as pulse checks, may occur for specific projects or topics on an as needed basis.
Whether you are conducting an annual overall communications assessment or a pulse check, you are also increasing the visibility of- or internally marketing the internal communications function.
Assessment activities include:
1. Review (structure, roles/responsibilities)
2. Audit (engagement survey data, messages, channels)
3. Observation (meetings, events, water cooler talk)
4. Interviews (leadership and non-leadership)
5. Focus Groups (functional, mgmt and non-mgmt)
6. Surveys
7. Research (benchmarking, industry data)
So, when is the last time you conducted an assessment? Get in the game and benefit by:
1. Developing a broader network and elevating the importance of the function.
2. Gaining an understanding of the communication history and of the current environment or situation.
3. Comparing your organization to others.
4. Being able to conduct a gap analysis.
5. Identifying improvements and/or areas where you are falling below standards.
Julie Baron, COMMUNICATION WORKS
Attend Julie’s webinar replay: How to Conduct a Complete Communications Assessment
My old mentor, David Berlo, used to say “selling is lying when you’re doing it to a teammate.”
His point goes to the heart of a troubling trend emerging from the business world’s current fascination – and struggle – with social media. We’re seeing an unsavory mandate coming from corner offices in companies nationwide. Now that they have this way cool tool called a “blog,” they want to use it to promote corporate messages alongside its intended use as a conversation tool for building relationships.
As blogging experts know, of course, once an organization starts down that path, credibility goes down the toilet. Some companies go so far as to use their blogs for posting news releases. You can imagine the reaction from bloggers to that kind of promotional intrusion? You might as well be wearing a neon sign flashing – propaganda.
So what’s a communicator to do?
It’s All About Conversation
Maybe we can make some inroads by reminding executives of the good old days when one of the main forms of “social media” was – consumer affairs. What? Consumer affairs? What’s that got to do with social media?
Some years back, when I headed up corporate communications at the international food giant, Pet Incorporated, consumer affairs was one of the departments that reported to me. We had about half dozen people who spent their days either answering letters or talking with people on the phone – all different types on lots of different topics. But all of those people had one thing common. They wanted someone to talk with them … to hear their stories and deal with their issues. They certainly did NOT want someone to sell them the company line. We worked hard with our consumer affairs specialists on how to have conversations with people – and we steered them away from spouting corporate propaganda.
Resist the Temptation for Promotion
Of course, there’s one big difference between that kind of socializing with stakeholders and what’s happening in the blogosphere. Today it’s not just one-on-one with a few hundred or even a few thousand people a year by phone and snail mail. It’s about connecting with potentially millions of people – in a matter of days or even hours and minutes.
And therein lies the rub. The allure to violate the implicit social media code to converse rather than promote is just too tempting to resist for many promotionally minded managers.
It’s a classic case of killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. They’re going to exploit social media until nothing is left of their credibility but a pile of ruffled feathers. So remember these truths:
1. Only the technology for social media is new, not the concept
2. If you use it for promotion or propaganda, you do so at your peril
Valiant communicators may have to fall on their sword for the cause, but those who stand up against the temptation to abuse social media will avoid the trap of “lying to your teammates” – inside and out.
Les Landes, Landes & Associates
Buy Les’s webinar replay: Getting to the Heart of Employee Engagement