Tag: communications
I had the pleasure of hearing Dani Burns speak last week at the Charlotte PRSA Young Professionals luncheon. She shared her valuable insights on building your personal brand and advice on managing your online presence. Dani raised a great point when she spoke about using Google reader to aggregate blog content, using the tool to gather information in one place where it can be read at your convenience. This led me back to something I’ve also been thinking about: the power of learning from the ideas and challenges that my peers are sharing via their blogs, content that I have come to think of as my continuing education.
Whether you prefer Google or another RSS aggregator, e-mail subscriptions or bookmarked links, make the investment in identifying and gathering the insights of some current great minds – a form of higher education that doesn’t require thousands of dollars or a break from full-time employment.
There are far too many fantastic resources to possibly list them all here, but I wanted to share a few of my favorites that are helping me learn to be a better communicator. Each of these blogs has a different approach to a range of topics impacting our daily work in communications. Their authors represent many different vantage points but can all agree on at least one thing: working in communications has never been more exciting, and we all have an opportunity to learn and grow together.
I am always looking for new resources so please share your favorite sites in the comments or on Twitter! @amandala or @largemouthpr
B.L. Ochman’s What’s Next Blog
K.D. Paine’s PR Measurement blog
Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang
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Governor Perdue released a social media policy and tutorial for state government last week via her Facebook page, recognizing that social media is more than just the "next big thing," but an opportunity for government to operate in an environment of transparency and accountability.
We saw social media's potential for political impact during the 2008 presidential race, and I applaud the state for embracing new channels for communicating with constituents. I thought it was interesting to note that one of the state's goals for engaging in social media is to ensure records are properly managed and preserved. Every organization has different needs and, just as the state has, they should clearly define their goals and priorities for social media upfront.
A policy can help answer common questions:
Who are the company's social media "spokespersons"?
What is the company's social media crisis strategy?
How can employees engage as individuals on behalf of the company as a whole?
How will a company monitor the personal interactions of employees?
Each community has its own etiquette and taboos that are important to understand before launching a company presence. Establishing a social media policy will empower employees to engage on behalf of your company and establish boundaries for what is appropriate. Supporting a policy with employee training will help everyone be comfortable and excited about participating and foster a rich community of organizational users.
Photo credit Chascow
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I recently attended a trade show with one of our clients to leverage its social media presence as a strategic part of its event outreach. In this instance, we wanted to share information about our client’s participation and plans for the event through the company’s Twitter account. The strategy Largemouth PR developed for the show was structured to support the launch of an industry-leading technology, as well as promote several cool features on display at the booth and encourage attendance and share highlights of presentations delivered by two company representatives.
From this process, I decided to pull together a few general tips and considerations when it comes to “live Tweeting” from an organizational perspective during an event:
Build your followers
We all know that Twitter is not just for gaining as many followers as possible—right?! Building, nurturing and communicating with your online Twitter community is an ongoing process, but prior to an event you should consider taking inventory of who is following you—who will be reading your updates?
There are ways to reach existing Tweeples that may be interested in specific event updates, and in turn realize that they are interested in your organization. If you are participating in an event with a booth or as a sponsor, you may have access to a contact database of attendees. If it is an event you have attended before, reach out to your own contact list of past attendees. In no way shape or form should you spam people to insist they follow you. Simply add it to your marketing mix with a link to your account profile and say, “We will be sharing insights from XYZ Conference. Follow us on Twitter to receive updates about the event.”
Who will be Tweeting?
Determine in advance who will actually be posting Tweets during the event. Decide if the updates will come from the company account or from an individual employee’s account. Either way, the person should attend the trade show so he/she is able to contribute in real-time with accurate information.
Internet access
This sounds pretty basic but if you don’t have Internet access, it can derail your whole Twitter update plan. Find out in advance if the expo floor or conference area will have Wi-Fi access. Do you have to purchase it in advance? Will you tote around a laptop or make updates through your mobile phone?
What will you share?
As with any approach to a social media outlet, you want to ensure you are sharing valuable content with your followers. If I were following a company to receive updates about an event and all they did was post things like, “Having a great time at XYZ Conference.” What does that tell me?
Determine what information will be important to share with your particular audience. Inform them about the keynote speaker and share takeaways from different presentations. Tell them information about your new product offering or insights from visitors to the company booth. Post photos during the event using applications such as Twitpic (if you have a Twitter account you already have a Twitpic account). Monitor for responses and reply to questions by following the event hashtag. What is a “hashtag” you ask?
Hashtags
Most tech or social media conferences are Twitter-savvy and determine a hashtag in advance. A hashtag is a way to label or codify your Tweet to make it easily searchable and associate it with a common discussion. If you’re not sure if your event has a hashtag, reach out to the event organizers and ask for it specifically. Who knows, you might even inspire the event team to create one!
Often times the information you share on Twitter during a trade show will be most helpful for those who were unable to attend. However, select conferences will have live Twitter feeds of the event hashtag on display during the show so attendees can see what people or company representatives find interesting. For a great summary and example of using a hashtag for an event, read Mitch Wagner’s post on the InformationWeek Global CIO Blog that summarized his plans to use #iw500 for the InformationWeek 500 Conference. One thing to remember, hashtags are great for real-time discussions but they don’t have a never-ending online shelf life.
These are just a handful of ways to leverage your Twitter account during a trade show or event. I’d love to hear about your personal experiences or suggestions – feel free to share a comment!
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I can't tell you what the next crisis to affect your company will be, but I can promise you this: there is a crisis out there with your name on it, and you'd better be ready. Be it a traumatic event at your location, a lay-off or a problem with a product or service, crisis will come knocking - and happy is the communicator who feels confident and prepared when it happens.
Confidence comes from having a crisis communications template in place before disaster strikes. Largemouth Communications recently developed a communications training presentation for one of our clients, with the goal of helping human resources and facilities managers at this company feel confidant and prepared to handle media inquiries in a crisis situation. We recommend a simple, three step process to prepare for and manage crises.
Step One: Do Your Homework
Before a crisis occurs, it is essential to identify specific individuals in your company who are authorized to speak to the media. Make sure all employees and anyone who answers the phone know who these individuals are.
It is also useful to outline your approval tree ahead of time. By this we mean the people (executives, attorneys, etc.) who must approve any internal or external communication before it is delivered.
As soon as you become aware of a crisis, immediately get to work gathering the "5 Ws"
What - what happened?
Who - who was affected?
Where - where did the event occur/where do those affected live?
When - when did this happen?
Why/Significance - why did this happen, or what is the significance of this event?
Use this information to craft the appropriate communications to internal and external audiences and route them through your approval process.
Step Two: Manage the Media
An asterisk to this step would read "*to the extent this is possible." You can't control the media, of course. What you can do is manage, to the best of your ability, the flow of information out of your company about the crisis. Here are some key tips:
1. When a reporter calls, find out the nature of their inquiry and their deadline.
2. Respond to reporters promptly, but only after properly preparing and gaining approval of the information you plan to share.
3. If you can't meet the reporter's deadline, be honest. There are few times when having a good rapport with reporters matters more than in a crisis situation.
Step Three: Control the Message
You can't control the reporters you deal with or the stories they write, but you can control your company's message - and you must.
Here's a simple fact: if your statements to the media only include the messages you want to deliver, then you ensure that those messages will be represented in the coverage. Why? Because you've given them nothing else to use. I'm not suggesting you play coy or stonewall - in fact I would strongly advise against these tactics. Craft a statement that gives the media as much information as you responsibly can, and stick to it, even if you have to repeat the same three or four sentences over and over.
Last but certainly not least, show your internal audiences the same respect you show the media. That cuts two ways. First, effective internal communication during a crisis helps mitigate rumors and protect productivity. Second, all your internal communications (or the absence of communication if you make that mistake) can and probably will be shared publicly. When it comes to employee communications in a crisis, it pays to be dogmatic about two things:
1. Make sure they hear it from you first whenever possible.
2. Don't share any information internally that you would not be willing to share with a reporter.
I close with a caution for those who think these guidelines seem so intuitive as to be unnecessary: when the feathers hit the fan and the adrenaline kicks in, you'll be glad to have a simple but well-thought-out crisis communications plan to fall back on. Take the time to get it on paper and get the necessary players on board while the seas are calm. You'll be glad you did.
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