Archive for the 'IABC' Category

Last week the IABC’s* EuroComm Conference 2008 took place in Barcelona, where I chaired the plenary panel discussion on social media. I was joined by co-panellists Giles Colborne of cxpartners, a web usability expert, and Marc Wright of simply-communicate.com, an internal communications specialist. We had a really good session, which was primarily the result of great comments and challenges from the 80 or so business communicators taking part in the session. I just want to focus here on one issue that emerged from the discussions, which I think reflects the main concern of businesses around social media: control.

When we asked the delegates what was preventing their businesses engaging in the social media, the main reason appeared to be an anxiety about losing control. If you have a blog or social network space, people can come and leave negative comments. If you allow your employees to use social media for internal communications, they could spread seeds of discontent internally. Social media tools also make it easier for staff to leak your internal discussions externally. If you offer spaces for user-generated content, you can lose control of the content and message.

But we also discussed how control is an illusion in the brave new world of social media. There could be people out there already expressing negative views about your business or brand on other social media spaces even if you don’t have a business presence on the blogosphere. Your staff are already able to sign up to Facebook or set up their own blogs at home, even if you block them at work. Leaks occur with email as easily as via any other internet or intranet tool. Someone could be filming you or any of your executives with their mobile phone camera even now, capturing your pratfall or offguard comment to be served up on YouTube for the world to see. Employers are doing internet searches of potential recruits as an add-on to the traditional ways of doing background checks - will they find that photo of you taken by a friend at your cousin’s wedding with someone’s knickers on your head?

For businesses who are worried about controlling the message about their product or services, the least you can do is monitor what the online is saying about you even if you decide never to engage in social media. And if you do engage with a blog or other social media tool, that can actually help enhance your reputation especially if you engage in an authentic way. The community you build around your blog will come to trust, respect and like you and loyalty can count for a great deal in times of crisis.

For individuals, the question is: will we always have to be “on” not just when we engage online but wherever we are because we never know when someone may capture us unawares on digital media? This is a much more challenging issue. It is impossible to be perfectly behaved all the time - that’s just a fact of being human. And perhaps we have to trust that people know that - and that in the long term, people seeing someone’s mistake displayed on YouTube will recognise that it’s just a very human momentary lapse, especially if there are other images of that person online that counter lapse. Perhaps in this early period of the mobile phone video, there’s a lot of press and publicity about this issue because it’s novel but that in the long term, there won’t be such a hoo-ha because there’ll be so many unremarkable human failings available to view online. Or perhaps we will all have to hire public relations consultants to help us with reputation management in the future, whether we are Britney Spears or just an ordinary non-celebrity…

We did not reach any solid conclusions during the discussion, only that this is one debate that is going to contine.

What are your thoughts?

Photo: of car wreck thanks to OpenSkyMedia from flickr.com (CCL)

*International Association of Business Commuicators

Following on from my post about the preparations for the EuroComm Conference in Barcelona last month, I’m pleased to report that we have just launched the website and blog for the Conference.

The IABC EuroComm Conference in Barcelona will take place on 4-5 Feb 2008. The website is at http://www.salle.url.edu/EuroComm/.

The blog will feature articles and posts on the theme of Innovation through Communication, which is the theme of the conference. We would very much like to engage in discussions and shares view around this theme even before the conference starts so we hope that you’ll come along to visit the blog at http://www.salle.url.edu/EuroComm/blog/.

Guest-bloggers include business communicators who will be speaking at the conference - they will be sharing their personal views on the blog in advance of the conference. There is also a core team of bloggers, including IABC members Marc Wright of simply-communicate.com, the online communications magazine, Kevin Keohane of SAS, the branding agency and Yang-May Ooi of ZenGuide, the social media consultancy as well as web usability expert, Giles Colborne of cxpartners, the usability professionals.

We are also inviting business and communications professionals to submit articles around the theme of the conference, Innovation through Communication. You do not have to be a member of IABC and you do not need to be going to the conference to submit an article. We’d just like to hear your views if you have a story or opinion piece that is relevant to our theme. You can find out more through our Article Submission Guidelines

The programme for EuroComm Conference is available at http://www.salle.url.edu/EuroComm/programme.html

Registration for the Conference is now open - find out how to register at http://www.salle.url.edu/EuroComm/registration.php

For information about discounted accommodation during the Conference, go to http://www.salle.url.edu/EuroComm/hotel.html

The IABC UK SpeedExperience session last Tuesday evening offered up five round table discussions to members and their guests, including Change Management, Brand Engagement and Social Media. Each discussion lasted 20 minutes and then everyone got a chance to swap groups and go to 2 other discussions of 20 minutes each.

I was invited to host the Social Media discussion, “To Blog or Not To Blog?” and we had three very meaty and engaging discussions. The visitors to my group brought up a range of key issues that I think is worth discussing more widely here as the issues are relevant to both businesses and communicators. So, in no particular order, here’s what came up:

# Many comments boiled down to: corporates and big business find the word “blog” very unnerving. It conjures up images of unsavoury types that “we shouldn’t be associated with” and it’s all self-indulgent personal outpourings of no interest to anyone but the author. I offered a counter view that blogging technology is just a tool that enables you to have an easily updatable online site that you can use as a communication tool. If calling it a blog doesn’t help, you can call it an online magazine, journal, resource, discussion space etc. For a more detailed discussion of this, see my post A Blog by Any Other Name

# “There aren’t any good blogs out there. What value can our organisation gain by having a blog?” . I agree that there’s a lot of rubbish out there - out of millions of blogs, it’s unlikely that all of them are great! Equally, it’s unlikely that ALL of them are rubbish. If your company has a blog, its value lies in what you make of it, how you use it, who you use it to engage with. There are leading thinkers, public figures and business people who blog. There are also those who are experts in their field but who may not be famous who blog to share knowledge and engage in discussion. I’ll be posting links to some great blogs in the next few days - and maybe you’ll be inspired!

# “There’s nothing worse than a blog that’s not been updated for ages - people who blog for their business need to commit the time and energy to maintaining its output.” I wholeheartedly agree. There are ways to manage that commitment - it’s better to write something once a week regulary than over-commit and give up after a few days. If you are going to update just once a week, then say so clearly on the blog and keep to that commitment eg “I will blog every Wednesday”

# “Who is going to read our CEO’s blog? What’s he going to say that’s going to be of interest?” My view is that a commitment to your blog is a commitment to your readers. If your readers are you customers, then it is a direct commitment from the CEO to your customers. If your are thinking of an intranet blog and your readers are the staff, then it is a direct commitment from the CEO to your staff. How valuable is that to the company? Start with identifying you want to engage with and the what will come. Put yourself in your readers shoes and ask yourself what do they want to hear about.

# “My CEO wants a blog but doesn’t have time and wants someone to write it for him. I don’t think ghostblogging works. And it’s not authentic.” I agree. If the CEO is not committed to real communication and merely delegates someone to write something for him/her in his/her name - as if this was just like speechwriting, it’s going to be a failure. However, I believe there is a model where you can facilitate a CEO whose strength may not be in words or storytelling to convey his opinions and vision effectively on a blog. It takes a lot more time and work than the speechwriting model and it’s important to be upfront about the facilitation involved. But it means that someone who may not have the gift of the gab but who has a worthwhile message to convey can participate in this medium.

# “We send out an email every couple of weeks to staff internally. The directors want a blog but we did a survey and the staff want the email and don’t want a blog.” If an email model works, there may be no need to change it. However, bear in mind that emails can get lost under “the crease” after a day or so. It’s also difficult to remember they are there and unread or find them again if you want to refer back to something. You could set up a blog fairly cheaply where the same email message is made into a blog post, with the RSS feed set to deliver email notifications to staff when the blog is updated every couple of weeks. The advantage is that all messages will then be one central, searchable, archivable place. Different departments could post to the same space with categories like “HR”, “Marketing”, “IT” etc, each using different feeds to send out the email to different recipients. This would also be a way to preserve the company’s memory/ knowledge.

Also, be aware that if you ask people if they want something they already have or something they don’t know much about, they will invariably choose the thing they know. If the directors are keen to have a blog, it may be an idea to trial it for a few months and then gauge the feedback. To ensure maximum return on the trial, you’d need to make sure you have a proper business case and project management structure in place - and get advice from someone who knows how to run a blog from a communications perspective, not your tech guy.

# “I’m starting out building my freelance business. Can a blog help me?” Most definitely. It can help you showcase your expertise and engage in discussions about the hot topics in your field without relying on begging the traditional media to publish your article or interview you. Traditional media is still important but having a direct way to communicate with your clients and potential clients has a lot of value. It’s also a great way to network globally and let’s face it, networking is a very important way to get new business and keep existing relationships going.

Getting proper social media advice

My final impression is that some companies and businesses seem to be interested and excited about engaging in social media but they are being advised by communicators who do not know enough to give them all the rounded advice they need - and communicators are keen to find out more about what’s out there. Some who are looking to engage online don’t read blogs and don’t blog themselves - you need to start reading blogs at the very least if you want to take your first steps in social media. If you’re not sure where to start, you can try my Beginner’s Guide.

Whether you are a business or a communicator advising a business considering engaging in social media, you need to know what the technology can do but you don’t necessarily need an IT/ tech expert. In fact, I would go so far as to say your online communications policy should not be led by your IT department. You need someone who understands communications and how to take advantage of social media online to best engage with your customers, staff or other stakeholders. Social media is not going to replace traditional communications but will complement it and is definitely here to stay - so you need a rounded communications team with both advisors who understand the real world media and those who specialise in online media.

Pic: thanks to estudioquimbaya from flickr.com

spdex

I’ve been invited to chair one of the discussion round tables at this event organised by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), UK later today.

Here is the blurb:

“Have you ever asked yourself:

# Is it really possible to manage change?

# Can our employees also be our brand ambassadors?

# To blog — or not to blog?

#Engagement — just the latest word for motivation/ commitment/loyalty?

#Can internal and external communication ever be aligned?

# Where can communication help in a crisis?

Come along to Speedexperience—Share the Knowledge to discuss these and other issues with experienced practitioners…

The date: Tuesday 9th October
The time: 5.45

The format: welcome drink, speed experience table discussions start 6.30 and end 7.45 with the opportunity to continue the discussions/informally and network over a glass of wine and nibbles.

The place: The Churchill Room (HMRC Parliament Street in Whitehall). From its historic balcony Sir Winston waved at the cheering crowds at the end of World War 2

The cost: £20

.

.

.

.

.

How to book: http://iabcexperiencenetworking.eventbrite.com”

It may be a bit late to book online but if you are keen to come, contact Susan Walker via email: commevaluation[at]hotmail.com

Photo: thanks to wikipedia.org

spdex

The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) is organising a regional conference for its European and Middle Eastern communicators with La Salle University in Barcelona on 4th and 5th February 2008. The theme is Innovation through Communication.

I recently joined IABC and I’m delighted to be part of the organising board for the EuroComm conference in Barcelona with the responsibility of implementing and running the conference blog. The website and blog are being developed by La Salle’s inhouse team and I spoke with their key conference organiser Alejandro Beya and web developer Carlos Ramil last week about infrastructure and design elements. They’ll be using Wordpress and I’m very excited to see what they are going to create.

The website and blog will be launching during October. I am pulling together our core blogging team and we are also inviting guest bloggers to contribute posts around the themes of innovation and communication. For example, we have invited the speakers to blog about the topics that they will be speaking on at the conference - from a more personal point of view than they might perhaps be able to offer in a conference room with scores of people, powerpoint slides and miked up to the sound system.

So far, the line-up of bloggers looks something like this:

Blogging Team/ Blog Management

Yang-May Ooi, communications & social media consultant, ZenGuide (UK)
Angie Macdonald, web writer & blog management specialist, ZenGuide (UK)
Marc Wright, internal communications expert, simply-communicate.com (UK)
Giles Colbourne, web usability expert, cxpartners (UK)
Kevin Keohane, brands expert, SAS (UK)

Guest Bloggers

Silvia Cambie, business communications expert, Chanda Communications and President, EuroComm Organising Board (UK)
Andrew Riley, assurance reporting and communications specialist, Harrison Riley and President, IABC UK (UK)
Ulrich Gartner, Vice-President of Communications Europe, AB Electrolux (Sweden)
Ian Anderson, Head of the Communication and Information Unit, European Commission (Belgium)
Martin Crocker, Marketing Communications Manager, Gemalto (France)
Rauf Hameed, Communication and Environment Manager, Tetra Pak Arabia (Saudi Arabia)
Ulrike Bleistein, Head of Pharma Informatics Communications, Hoffman La Roche (Switzerland)
Velin Velkov, President of IABC Europe and Middle East Region (Bulgaria)

We are still in the preparation stage so the list is likely to change and evolve. I’ll be blogging more about that and all the other news about the conference on the EuroComm Blog once that is up and running. For now, I just wanted to share this heads-up with you here while we’re waiting for the main site to go live.

Photo: thanks to danntara from flickr.com

This is a cross-post from my arts blog Fusion View

Do you know any Malaysian businesses that blog or use social media? Or are you a business-owner, corporate executive or professional person in Malaysia who blogs as part of your business? I need your advice!

I’m writing an article for Communication World, the journal for the International Association of Business Communicators, (IABC) about business blogging in Malaysia. I have a couple of businesses in mind that I will focus on in the article - businesses based in KL who are actively engaging with bloggers and who have blogs themselves.

But I am keen to discover other Malaysian businesses that blog or use social media to promote their enterprise or to engage with their customers.

If you live in Malaysia or have a connection with Malaysia, can help me flesh out the article with some of your thoughts:

# Are there businesses or professional people (eg lawyers, architects etc) do you know of that are engaging with bloggers eg via their own blogging or by making contact with local bloggers?

# Are there any businesses using other types of social media to connect with their clients and customers eg podcasting, video, social networks?

# Do you have any advice for businesses wishing to engage with Malaysian bloggers?

If you are a blogger and you think that your community of bloggers around your blog could help with these queries or may have any experiences/ ideas they can add, please do blog about this query.

Communication World goes out to around 14,000 professionals in PR, marketing and communications around the world as a glossy magazine and also, some of its articles are available as pdfs online. IABC also has a Malaysian chapter. This will be a good opportunity for Malaysian innovation in the blogosphere to be seen world-wide and a good platform to showcase MPH and local litbloggers. I will give full credit to you - and any of your blogger contacts whose information I use in the article.

The deadline for my finished article is the end of July so I hope you’ll be able to let me have your thoughts as soon as possible eg in the next few days so I have a chance to write them up into the article. (Sorry for the short notice - I only got the commission to write the article a couple of days ago!)

Please add a comment or you can email me via the Contact link at the top of this page.

PS. I am going to keep mum about the two businesses that blog that I know of for now as I would like to get fresh ideas from you

Photo: thanks to kleinmatt66 from flickr.com

Continuing the Conversation from the social media discussions in Slovenia….

One of our round table participants held that one of the core values of blogging is its openness for everyone to take part, to add their comments, to disagree or disagree, to share ideas. That gives blogging and social media its vibrancy and energy and it is through open conversations without centralised control that fresh ideas emerge, freedom is embraced and exercised and democratic principles are lived out in the flesh.

Is there a place for private blogs or private networks? Can an online space that is public and open to all in some situations restrict one’s freedom to express oneself fully and truly? Some possibilities come to mind:

• a forum where bloggers who have experienced cyberharrassment might want to share and support each other.

• a business network where financially sensitive information needs to be discussed

• a network where business leaders may wish to network freely with each other - be able to disagree, argue, debate etc without what they discuss being open to misinterpretation to those not within their industry

I’m sure you can think of other examples as well.

It can be very valuable for victims of trauma to speak openly about their experiences without feeling judged or put down by others. Public spaces on the web can be uncivil and unruly, jostling spaces, just like any street or the subway in rush hour. A safe space for such discussions would need to be private.

Similarly, with any other matter that is sensitive whether financial, personal or in business, private networks may be the only way that social media can be used effectively.

Debate, discussion, disagreement and argument in are all part of the process of negotiation or coming to a decision or consensus in the Western democracies. Sometimes there are disagreements between people on the same team or same Board or the same committee while they work out their ideas and before they come to a firm conclusion. It may be that where social media is used to facilitate this process, it needs to be private between the relevant people so as not to have the process hampered by those who are not meant to be involved in that process. It also may not be appropriate for these people who are playing on the same team to be seen by their stakeholders in the process of the disagreement if that is going to be misinterpreted as a problem in the leadership and cause unnecessary instability within the corporation or their market - when in fact it is merely a process of interrogating an issue that will ultimately be resolved.

I find this issue a challenging and very interesting one. I agree whole-heartedly with my colleague who upholds the value of openness and lack of controls on the blogosphere as a whole. And yet, I find that there are circumstances when in fact you can only have openness within a ring-fenced “safe” area.

What do you think?

~~~~~~~~

Photo: thanks to Aaron Jacobs on flickr.com

Note: ZenGuide is updated Mondays and Thursdays

prjslv

I have uploaded my photos of my trip to Slovenia for the IABC Leadership Institute on a new ZenGuide Flickr account. The collection of photos shows the speakers at the conference as well as some of the delegates and some snaps of the gorgeous capital city Ljubljana.

Ljubljana is perfectly set along the banks of a small meandering river, with cobbled streets and baroque (?) architecture that reminded me of Austria. There were cafes and restaurants spilling out into the streets and people strolling and cycling at a leisurely pace. The Slovenian Tourist Board describes their country as the place where Germanic efficiency and order meets the Mediterranean good life and Ljubljana definitely seems to fit that description.

To see the photos, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/zenguide/tags/iabcslovenia/ or click on the photo below.

~~~~~~~~

Note: ZenGuide is updated Mondays and Thursdays

prjslv

We had a great discussion at the round table discussions on Social Mediathat I chaired at the IABC European Leadership Institute last week. For the next couple of weeks, I’ll be blogging about some of the issues we talked about and asking for your thoughts on it - whether you came along to the round table discussion or not, I think these issues are relevant for communicators and businesses generally. I hope you’ll add a comment or email me to share your views and experiences.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thirty Million Blogs and One Lifetime

How to avoid information overload

One question we grappled with at the Social Media round table discussions was: there are so many blogs out there and busy business people and professionals have only a finite time to spend surfing the web, how can we keep track of them all?

Well, we can’t. It’s impossible to even expect that we can keep up with the estimated thirty million blogs that populate the blogosphere.

But we can keep up with some of the blogs that interest or intrigue or inform or amuse or entertain us. A business leader I know enjoys political blogs so he follows UK Member of Parliament Boris Johnson’s blog and the satirical by “Guy Fawkes’”. I follow the blogs of Malaysian writers (eg Lydia Teh and Sharon Bakar) as well as marketing blogs and new media blogs and a range of others. I don’t read them all every day but have them in my Google Reader blog aggregator and dip into different ones as the fancy takes me.

Some of the benefits of following blogs for me are:

• learning tips and information straight from an expert’s mouth eg how else could I pick up useful gems from Seth Godin, the marketing guru, from the comfort of my own home?For businesses and professionals, it goes without saying that diverse ways to increase your learning, knowledge and skills has long-term business benefits.

• picking up news some time before it is picked up by the traditional press eg I learnt about Twitter long before it hit the news; I was following the Kathy Sierra death threats story at least a week before it came on the news. Having early knowledge of what’s going to hot can help add to one’s competitive edge.

• being entertained and challenged and having my horizons broadened by videos, stories, writings etc that would never make it into the traditional media eg great YouTube videos; Asian community blogs ; “flash fiction” writing. New, fresh ideas beyond what everyone else is receiving can spark creativity and contribute to new ideas within one’s own business.

So, find the blogs that are helpful to you or that you enjoy and follow those.

How to get noticed in the crowd

For those businesses and professionals who have blogs, the question then is how can you get your blog noticed in the melee of so many competing voices?

It is unlikely that you will have the whole world coming to your blog. You don’t necessarily want or need the whole world to come to your blog. Once your accept that, I think the key to drawing an audience and getting noticed in the clamour of thirty million blogs is simple:

* Know your audience.

Who are the people you want to connect with? If your target audience is a global audience of teenagers, you’re going to create different content and have a different marketing strategy from a situation where your target audience is insurance brokers or accountants or lawyers. Think about who you want coming to your site eg Your clients. Your stakeholders. Focus on their needs and interests. If what you offer is relevant to them, they will come back for more.

* Create great content.

Write well. Make a visit to your blog an enjoyable or informative experience. Offer an incentive to come back eg prize draws (”become a subscriber and get the chance to win XXX”), a cliffhanger (”to be continued next week….”), trailers (”next week, I’ll be interviewing Brad Pitt….”). Break up serious content with personal interest or lifestyle stories.

* Pimp your site

Make your blog site visually distinct and a delight to behold. I don’t mean add so many bells and whistles and colours so that it takes ages to load or is really difficult to read because there are so many distractions on it. I mean show that your care about your readers’ visiting experience by making it user-friendly to navigate and a memorable visual experience - just as you would take care to present your brand or logo beautifully or maintain a striking and comfortable office for your clients to visit. I explore all this in more detail in my post “Are You Worth It?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Photo: thanks to pacifica-group.com

Note: ZenGuide is updated on Mondays and Thursdays.

prjslv

You will see the password-protected post that was uploaded a minute or so ago, IABC - Slovenia: Resources. This contains additional resources for IABC members who are currently attending the IABC Leadership Institute conference in Lubljiana and who are participating in the round table discussion on New Media that I am chairing there.

I hope for those who come along to the round table, we will be able to continue the discussion online after the conference via email and/ or comments and further posts here on ZenGuide following up on the issues we discuss. If anyone would like to contribute an article as a guestblogger on ZenGuide, please do contact me via the Contact link at the top of this page - in particular, if you do not yet have a blog or a forum you can easily access to share your views, being a guestblogger is a great way to start engaging in online conversations.

Next week, I’ll be highlighting some of the issues that came out of the round table discussions and inviting all my readers to comment and share your views.

Photo of Slovenia: thanks to mackintravel.com

prjslv