How Blogs, Wikis, YouTube & Facebook are Changing Employee Communications

I’m live blogging Brendan Hodgson ‘s and Amanda Brewer’s session at the Canadian Public Relations Society’s national conference in Halifax.

I’m using CoverItLive to take notes during the presentation. They should appear as I write them, just as if I were posting live to Twitter or IM.

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Brendan Hodgson and Amanda Brewer (06/10/2008) 
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9:56
Brenda Hodgson: Employees are increasingly important as brand guardians. They could be your best friend or your worst enemy, depending on how they conduct themselves.
9:58
Bloggers are not just talking about their companies. They are publishing on the open Web employee communications and emails that in an earlier era would have stayed inside the organization.
10:01
It’s much harder to distrust a person than it is a corporation. [So, the blogging employees have an advantage over the “official line” in the company release.]
10:05
Allowing subject matter experts, customer relationship managers and others to talk directly in social media brings companies the strength of the personal face. It also brings risks.
10:06
During a crisis, corporate Web sites will receive a spike of traffic. It makes sense to put Web 2.0 communications here so that people can find them.
10:10
Companies should attempt to define guidelines that employees can use to govern their online behaviour in a space in which there are few established rules.
10:13
In a world with many, many channels and millions of videos and blogs, companies need to learn when NOT to react – when there reaction would catapult a reaction and perception among a few into a mainstream media and mass story.
10:15
Corporate communications are no long “gatekeepers.” They are now “stewards of communication,” guiding employees to communicate responsibly.
10:17
Web 2.0 has allowed workers and unions to move from the era of the picket line to the era of the Facebook group – a much more powerful way to communicate their point of view.
10:18
Online activists move through a process of awareness building to education to stimulating broader discussion and then finally activation of support.
10:20
[This is quite remarkable. Brendan Hodgson is talking about “we” and “they” – management and union – in his presentation. Shouldn’t he be talking about “us.”]
10:23
Hodgson: What does all of this mean? We’re in an era of engagement and participation vs. command and control. There is rumour and misinformation out there. And companies must know when to speak and help their employees speak to correct that rumour and misinformation.
10:25
Companies should engage in public discussion with credible online voices.
10:27
Amanda Brewer is now presenting a case study of the 2005 CBC lockout.
10:29
Amanda Brewer was an internal communications manager at the time of the CBC lockout. She subsequently joined Hill and Knowlton. Now, CBC has contracted with CBC to bring Amanda back into CBC “because we’re ramping up again.” {Is CBC heading toward another strike?]
10:32
Brewer: In 2005, the lockout began with standard picket lines, but proceeded quickly to incorporate Webcams, blogs and podcasts. CBC Unplugged and Studio Zero. This was great for CBC because it allowed them to monitor what the union was saying. But it was troublesome as well because the marketplace would be crowded with many voices balancing the CBC’s single voice.
10:34
Brewer: The genesis – Tod Maffin. iloveradio.org One of Tod’s first posts characterized the CBC employees as “communicators and broadcasters.” Not just broadcasters, but communicators. The union allowed Tod and other employee bloggers and podcasters a credit fo 20% of their picket line time for their online activities.
10:35
Brewer: There were “amazing numbers” of traffic to the CBC employee sites. There was a hunger of information from the voices independent of the official union line and the company line.
10:36
Brewer: The CBC lockout became a “blog war.” It changed the way union negotiations play out in Canada because the playing field was levelled.
10:38
The “Ouimet” blogger was a member of CBC management. Ouimet was a pseudonym. And Ouimet talked about what management was doing – not always positively – on her “teamaker” blog.
10:39
After the strike, Tod Maffin ended up as the blogger for the CBC blog, Insidecbc.com.
10:42
Brewer: Lesson – it’s a shared process. Prepare to relinquish control. Employees will be partners in communications. During labout negotiations, “this can be completely nerve-wracking.”
10:43
Brewer: If CBC does end up in a labour problem again in 2009, the fact that they have Tod Maffin inside and have listened to bloggers will help them in managing through any disruption.
10:49



Live blogging Andrea Mandel-Campbell at Canadian Public Relations Society 08 National Conference

I’m going to try CoverItLive this morning to live blog Andrea Mandel-Campbell ‘s session at the CPRS08 national conference. So, if it works, you should be able to see my notes live blog notes below.

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Andrea-Mandel-Campbell (06/10/2008) 
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7:32
Mandel-Campbell is the author of Why Mexicans Don’t Drink Molson.
7:33
She is always surprised about how we see our country and the rest of the world see us.
7:37
Canada is a trade reliant country. We are “price takers.” Not a great position to be in.
7:39
Canadian corporate icons Alcan, Dofasco, Inco, Algoma and Falconbridge were all founded and funded by Americans.
7:50
Why don’t Mexicans drink Molson? It’s about the ambition we have for ourselves, our country and our children. Molson was content to focus on the Canadian market and failed to expand aggressively into the world.
7:52
Molson is representative of Canada. Molson was the oldest brewery in North America. A company so powerful it had its own bank. Known for a high quality product. And today, it doesn’t really exist. As a result of the Molson Coors merger, all the senior execs now reside in Colorado.
7:53
Even Andrew Molson himself acknowledges that the Montreal headquarters of Molson has been hollowed out.
7:54
Contrast this with Heineken – which has expanded globally. Or Mexico, which imports barley from Canada to brew its beer. Yet, Corona, considered a substandard beer in Mexico, is sold in over 100 countries around the world.
7:55
Two reasons for Molson’s (Canada’s) failure: 1) They never invested in the brand. 2) They never had a global ambition.
7:57
Ontario is the most profitable beer market in the world – because the government provided Molson and Labatt with a regulated virtual duopoly.
8:00
The Canadian brewers failed to plow their profits into business expansion because they lacked a global vision. Things were too comfortable at home. And while Canadians looked inward, the global industry expanded and consolidated around them. When Molson finally woke up and tried to expand into Brazil, they lacked the skills for global expansion, failed and ultimately had to seel the company to Coors.
8:00
This is a pattern that repeats over and over in Canada.
8:03
This problem has been replicated across industries. In all the sectors in which we are rich in natual and human resources. Forestry. Oil. Grains. Banks. Our companies are dwarfed and simply don’t figure in the world as significant brands.
8:04
When Canadians make the excuse that we are a small country and that we shouldn’t expect to be able to grow world beaters, we are demonstrating the national psyche that has led to our current circumstance as global also-rans.
8:08
Mandel-Campbell sees us as being “skimmers.” We take advantage of the natural wealth of our country. But because this is so abundant, we haven’t really learned how to go beyond the easy to product results. So, we haven’t really learned how to be world-class competitors.
8:12
Canadians are paying a price for this complacency. We are slipping in our relative standard of living. Our companies are being outpaced by globalizing companies from other countries no larger than us.
8:13
In Canada, instead of focusing on our advantages – natural resources, human capital, access to U.S. markets, we too often focus on the “limitations” – a too small population spread across vast distances.
8:15
Our corporate and competitive failure is particularly egregious when you consider our abundant riches.
8:17
Canadians also are not very good salespeople. We fail to make the most of our successes when we do have them.
8:21
Canadian must learn that we can be successful and tout our success in a confident and assertive way – without sacrificing those national traits we are proud of.
8:23 [Poll]
Do you agree with Andrea Mandel-Campbell’s contention about the reasons for Canada’s failure to compete globally?
Yes

 ( 100% )

No

 ( 0% )

8:24
Mandel-Campbell’s bottom line: “Canadian succeed when they dare. All that’s missing is the dare.”
8:30
Government regulation has played a huge role in this. It’s no accident that our well-known successes such as Cirque de Soleil and Research in Motion are in unregulated sectors. “When you regulate and protect a sector, they become lazy because they don’t have to work very hard.” Look at banks. If you can get the kind of return that you do in Canada, there’s no incentive to compete in markets where you’ll have to work harder for thinner returns. And this contributes to a psychology in which Canadians come to believe that we aren’t good enough to compete internationally.
8:33