The value of writing it down

December 27, 2006 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

BlackBerry with notes People who have been in meetings with me will tell you that the first thing I do after I sit down at the table is to pull out my BlackBerry or open my notebook computer and start to take notes.

I use the MS Outlook notes function to take notes in meetings, telephone calls and to jot down random thoughts whenever they hit me. This forces me to review what I heard and thought when I “clean” up the notes by deleting or saving them.

Very often, I find myself stopping on a point that may have been quickly glossed over in a meeting or conversation. Sometime, the participants in a meeting do not give the points the time or attention they deserve as different individuals with greater rank, ego or just need push the discussion to suit their own purposes. Other times, a clear connection with something else I’ve been thinking about or working on will jump out at me during my review. Or I’ll simply find that quiet contemplation of the notes allows me to find meaning and significance that I had previously missed.

Management guru David Maister also adopts a similar approach.

How do you ensure that you remember and think about what is important in each day? Do you have other exercises and habits that work for you?

BBS: Maryam Scoble and that guy she brought with her…

October 27, 2006 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

Maryam Scoble and some guy she brought with her presented Ten Ways to a Killer Blog. And they should know.

Maryam: Don’t start blogging when people tell you to do it. Do it only when you feel like it.

Robert: How do you start a blog? Start by reading other blogs. By doing this, you’ll be able to identify styles of writing that you like. And you’ll also figure out whether you will be a good blogger. Because if you read blogs for a few weeks and find that you are not constantly commenting on other blogs, blogging may not be right for you. Blogging is about conversation and if you don’t comment regularly, you’ll probably write a “press release” style blog – and they’re really boring.

Maryam: When you start to blog, you’ll develop friends and online relationships. You’ll learn and you’ll develop a network that will be valuable.

Robert: If you’re trying to build a business audience, become an authority on it. And be generous by sharing your knowledge. And link to others. This will draw people to you.

Maryam: There are two kinds of bloggers: Bloggers who want to make things, shake things and change the world. There are other bloggers who just want to talk to their friends, post their baby pictures, talk about books, and share with friends. But regardless of which type of blogger you are, there are some things you must know to make your blog popular.

Robert: It’s a google world. The first thing most people do when they are using the internet is to go to the search bar. The search bar has become the primary entry point for using the computer.

People who focus their blogs on a single niche seem to do better than people who write generalist blogs. If you understand this, you must pick a niche you can specialize in and develop a unique perspective. This will allow people to find you and to return to you.

Can people still do this or have all the niches been occupied by early bloggers? Mike Arrington and TechCrunch is an example of a late entrant who developed a distinct voice by picking a narrow niche and going even deeper.

Link to other blogs.

When Robert began to blog at Microsoft, he began to link out. And as he did, people noticed and began to interact with him. As they did this, their comments moderated in tone.

Maryam: Even A listers maintain searches for their name. If you write about them, don’t be surprised if they comment on your blog.

Robert: Anyone can become an A lister with great content. For example, by having an interview with Steve Jobs.

He was challenged on this by voices from the audience. But Maryam came to the rescue.

Maryam: “I think it’s about coming up with consistent stuff. By covering interesting things and saying interesting things on a regular basis. It takes time.”

Robert: “There’s not just one A list. There’s 100,000 A lists. There’s one for every topic.”

Maryam: “There’s no one right way. I write about many different topics. My way is different from Robert’s.”

Admit your mistakes.

Maryam: “This is one of the reasons I didn’t want to blog. I read Robert’s blog and many of the comments were very harsh personal attacks. Because of Robert’s response, he gained credibility.”

Robert: “This is something I’ve learned. Richard Nixon didn’t admit that he’d made a mistake and people just kept piling on. When I make a mistake I try to admit that I’ve done it.”

Write good headlines.

Robert: In a google world, keywords and good headings count. In a world with much greater volume, you have to scan more rather than read deep. So, write good, descriptive headlines. They will stick out of the list. And they’ll be found more easily.

Robert showed the homepage of techmeme to illustrate that someone who writes good headlines will get noticed.

Use other media.

Robert: TechCrunch is a good example of this. When Michael Arrington started, every post had a graphic. This raised the bar. And today, you need to use a variety of other media – pictures and videos in particular.

Even if you are a text blogger, you can use a visual to stand out. This is why many text bloggers use lists. By breaking a text blog into a list, you can grab attention.

Robert pointed to crayon as an example of a company that is using Second Life to stand out. And GM uses flickr pictures.

Have a voice.

Maryam: Let people see you behind the posts. It will make people want to connect to you.

Get outside the blogosphere.

Maryam: By going to conferences, meeting other people, you will develop stronger relationships. And this still counts with blogging.

Robert: This is where the PR people miss out. They don’t realize that they need to go to conferences and meet people.

Market yourself.

Maryam: Recently, my blog was featured on the Best of MSN. I got 4,000 hits per day as a result of this.

Robert: Put your URL on your business card. It will help people to find you. Also, be creative with your business card. It’s those little touches that will help you.

Search google for Scoble business card tips.

Write well.

Maryam: Before you publish your post, do a spellcheck. Reread to be sure you said what you wanted to say. “Check your state of mind and state of heart” to avoid saying things you will regret.

Robert: Write short paragraphs. Put the most interesting information up top (the journalistic inverted pyramid.)

Expose yourself.

Robert: A lot of corporate types are very reserved about their writing. Every blogger has a knob that reads “safe” on one side and “interesting” on the other side. Don’t stay on the safe side. Spice up your blogs by showing something about yourself. Tell stories. Move the needle to the interesting side and you’ll get a more engaged side.

Help other people blog.

Maryam: Share what you’ve learned and help other people get into the community. That will build the network globally and for yourself as well.

Engage with commenters.

Robert: A lot of corporate ty
pes are skittish about going to other blogs and participating in the conversation. Simply having your own blog is not enough. You need to go to other blogs and comment to become known and to attract new readers to your own blog.

Keep your integrity.

Robert: “Dave Winer would keep telling me this.” You are what you appear to be. Don’t try to fool people or misrepresent yourself.

Thanks to Maryam Scoble and Robert Scoble for an enjoyable, engaging session by two people who really project happiness.

BBS: Betsy Aoki, Lawrence Liu and Josh Ledgard

October 26, 2006 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

The final session of the day. (Fingers, don’t fail me now!) And the crowd is thinning out. Only about half as many people as there were in the room this morning.

Microsoft and Social Media: Lessons Learned from MSDN Community Blogs and Channel 9. OK. Like most of the rest of the world, I use Microsoft software every day. (I’ve even drafted this introduction using Microsoft Live Writer at 30,000 feet on the flight from Toronto to Seattle.) They are everywhere.

And I just couldn’t resist a session in which Microsoft’s social media types – Betsy Aoki, Lawrence Liu and Josh Ledgard – talked about how they started their blogging initiatives at Msft and the lessons they learned from their experience.

Josh Ledgard said that the doors have been opened to enable customers to file bugs on Visual Studio. This has led to a better relationship with the community and to product improvements as the bugs have been dealt with.

Lawrence Liu said that a community has been established for SharePoint, maintaing contact with customers after the marketing campaign has concluded. For example, the Microsoft team drew on input from the community to produce enhanced documentation with screen shots, something which Microsoft doesn’t normally include in their documentation.

Lawrence Liu reflected on the difference between buzz and engagement. It’s possible to generate a lot of buzz, but more difficult to translate that into genuine engagement.

Betsy Aoki pointed out that the amount of blogging around Microsoft products by people who find bugs and suggest fixes and work arounds enables the company to focus their attention to other issues not fixed by the community.

Lawrence Liu indicated that he is hoping to poll community input on topics that should be covered in screencasts for SharePoint.

The panelists offered much more information that I haven’t captured. Sorry, guys, it’s been a long day and my batteries just ran down. Not it’s back to the hotel to recharge and prepare for day two.

See you tomorrow!

Astroturf or legitimate grassroots mobilization? Kami Huyse answers my question

August 28, 2006 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

I’ve been following the discussion about astroturfing initiated by Paull Young.

The first participants rushed in to condemn astroturfing. Who wouldn’t?

Well, a lot of people, it seemed. And why were people holding back from such an important discussion?

Much of the early discussion focused on examples of outrageously bad behaviour. Of course, it’s easy to condemn clear cut, extreme cases. But what the average practitioner encounters on a daily basis is much less clear cut.

For serious practitioners that I talked to, the real issue is a working definition of behaviour that we can agree defines the line between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.

I raised this question in a comment on Canuckflack. (Unfortunately, I can’t link back to the post, which wasn’t ported to Colin’s new site when he switched to WordPress in August.) The response to my comment was positive and thoughtful. Paull Young picked up the question in a post and added a related heading on the New PR Wiki Astroturf page. And then Steve Field nudged the issue forward.
Now, Kami Huyse has published an Anti-Astroturfing Code of Ethics that I think will serve to guide practitioners as they encounter real world situations. Kami’s code:

I will not fabricate a public concern by paying or coercing individuals to falsely act as concerned citizens. I will only seek to help give voice to those who already hold an existing concern and/or provide education to stakeholders that might be affected by a particular issue.

When supporting grassroots efforts, I will ensure that I am transparent in all my actions and clearly and publicly state what actions I am taking and which organization or client I represent.

I will never knowingly distort or falsify information to help my client/interest achieve a strategic/emotional advantage in a public debate.

I will encourage all grassroots supporters to be open and honest in all of their communications, just as I will be open and honest in mine.

Well said Kami. I can live by that.

Conference Blogging: The FPRA shows how it should be done

August 13, 2006 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

A hat tip to the Florida Public Relations Association for the very successful live blogging around the recent FPRA annual conference. To my mind, FPRA blog established a new standard that other PR organizations should study and emulate at their next meetings.

What did FPRA do right?

First, they publicized it in advance of the start of the conference through established blogs. I spotted lead up posts by Josh Hallett at hyku and Erin Caldwell at the Forward Blog. By having established bloggers post about the conference blog in advance of the conference, their established communities of readers were able to subscribe to the conference blog in time to catch all of the action.

Second, the bloggers actually blogged frequently. In my experience, this has been the most frequent failure of other organizations that established conference blogs that remained virtually empty (and unvisited?) throughout the conference. FPRA’s conference bloggers – Josh Hallett, Chris Gent, Jennifer Wakefield and Bob O’Malley – posted more than 70 times leading up to and during the conference. More than enough to attract attention.

Third, the quality of the posts was high – a good mix of informative longer posts with quick hits. This sustained attention.

Fourth, the posts prompted a real discussion. Some posts had as many as 14 comments – which is a lot compared to other PR conference blogs I’ve visited.

Finally, they used multimedia to give visitors that “being there” feeling. A nod to Josh Hallett for introducing hallway interview MP3s to his posts in addition to Flickr photos. A nice touch.

The complete conference postings can be viewed under the Annual Conference category on the FPRA blog.

Congratulations to the FPRA, especially their hardworking bloggers, Josh, Chris, Jennifer and Bob!

Goals and Objectives, Strategies and Tactics

August 3, 2006 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

Over the past 20+ years, I’ve seen a lot of communications plans. And I have marvelled at how often the authors of these plans have been unable to discern the difference between goals and objectives or strategies and tactics.

In a recent episode of Inside PR, Chris Clarke asked asked listeners if they could explain the difference between communication goals and communication tactics.

Shel Holtz provided an answer that linked strategies and tactics to goals and objectives. I found his explanation to be one of the most useful I have ever heard. Simple clear and concise.

Of course, because it was an audio comment, you had to hear it. And because podcasts aren’t as readily searchable as blogs, I’ve decided to write down the essence of Shel’s explanation so that I, the people I work with and other practitioners can refer to it in future.

Shel recalled a presentation by Wilma Matthews, the Co-Author of On Deadline: Managing Media Relations. In her presentation, Wilma described a four step strategic planning model:

Set a goal: the business outcome. What you want your communications to achieve.
Establish strategies: The broad approaches you are going to take in order to achieve the goal.
Define objectives for each strategy. Objectives are the measurable tasks that will be undertaken in order to realize the strategies.
Develop tactics – the tools that will be used in order to achieve the objectives.

Wilma used the example of World War II in order to illustrate the application of these concepts.

Goal: Win the war.
Strategy: Surround Germany to choke off the resources that fueled its military force.
Objective: Invade France. This is measurable. You’ll know if you’ve succeeded and to what degree.
Tactics: What will you use to do this? e.g. ships, planes, soldiers, etc.

In summary:

Goals = the broad outcomes
Strategies = the approaches you will take
Objectives = the measurable steps to achieve the strategies
Tactics = the tools you will use

Makes sense to me. What do you think?

Society for New Communications Research calls for awards nominations

June 23, 2006 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

Society for New Communications Research Shel Holtz points out that the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) has opened nominations for its new awards program.

The SNCR says that the awards “will recognize excellence in the use of new communications models and solutions.” Nominations must be submitted by September 8, 2006 and the awards will be granted later in the autumn at the society’s inaugural research symposium. Case studies for the winning awards will be published in the society’s online New Communications Review.

IABC International Conference – Jody Humble

June 6, 2006 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

Jody Humble, regional manager of corporate communication for FedEx Canada, argues that storytelling is an effective way to communicate and shape corporate culture.She opened her presentation with a video narrated by individuals reflecting on how FedEx employees has rallied to help in the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans and Louisiana.“That explains the kind of company we are trying to be.” And the company clearly is doing something right ait ranks number four on Fortune’s list of most admired companies.Key drivers of culture at FedEx include a recognition that “Our product is our people.” Layered onto this is the evolving portfolio of companies (e.g. Kinko’s) and increased competition. Finally, there is a recognition that expectations of the company are changing. For example, in the post-911 world, the company must play a role in ensuring the security of it clients.

FedEx has introduced “The purple promise: Pledge. Attitude. Behaviour.” to shape and sustain its positive corporate culture.

Pledge: I will make every FedEx experience outstanding. Experience includes experiences between employees, with customers and with anyone else the company deals with.

Behaviour: A personal checklist for action. How will I satisfy my customers today? Have I treated them in a professional, competent, polite an caring manner? Have I delivered the highest quality service? Have I processed information with 100% accuracy?

The Purple Promise is an essential business strategy. It provides a basis for empoyees to compete collectively and provide optimal customer experiences, thus improving customer loyalty.

Four elements of embedding the culture:

Policies, practices and tools – must be established at the outset.
Leadership by example (storytelling) – provides a basis in fact.
Communication (storytelling) – delivers and sustains
Recognition & reward – At the end of the day, people need a personal reason to change their behaviour.

Storytelling is a principal vehicle for propagating a positive culture based on the Purple Promise. Our world is a social place. Our view of it is created by social interaction more than facts. We listen to people we trust.

Through the intranet, employee videos, an in-house television network, face to face meetings and other vehicles, FedEx attempts to deliver a constant stream of stories that embody the Purple Promise.

For this to work, it requires an enlightened human resources director who is prepared to work closely and cooperatively with the communications department.

Performance measures have been realigned to service performance, including a bonus based on the company’s service results.

This is backed up by both monetary and nonmonetary recognition and awards. A tiered recognition program empowers managers to acknowledge positive contributions on the spot. A more formal selection process is used to select recipients of Purple Promise Awards, which carry both recognition and remuneration.

In fine David Letterman, form Jody closed with a list of the Top 10 benefits of storytelling:

10. It can be inexpensive – a great deal can be accomplished at relatively little cost

9. Adds endurance ot the message

8. Encourages listening – we all listen to stories.

7. Infiltrates ‘water cooler’ conversations.

6. It is highly persuasive – You’re more likely to believe something in the context of a story.

5. Inspires trust – increased interaction through storytelling enhances familiarity, comfort and trust.

4. Forges the bonds of common experience

3. Simplifies the complex via metaphors

2. Appeals to emotions – a good story moves you emotionally.

1. Captures and leverages institutional knowledge – a great way to share knowledge with your workforce.

In the question and answer session, one participant observed that The Purple Promise is working because it is a way of life, not merely a communications program. For a culture program like this to work, everybody must be part of it – executives, human resources, frontline service deliverers, every part of the organization.

This was a good, practical advice section that had the corporate communications people in the room taking notes.

PRSA Counselors Academy Deb Radman

May 27, 2006 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

Day two of Counselors Academy opened with another round of Breakout sessions – small groups of 10 to 15 participants seated around a table for a discussion led by a senior practitioner or an expert advisor.

The first session I attended on “Preparing Your Future Leaders,” was led by Deb Radman, Managing Director of Stanton Communications and a former Chair of Counselors Academy. Darryl Salerno, the President of Second Quadrant, also offered much valuable insight. Darryl is the advisor Steve Cody credits with helping him to develop Peppercom‘s successful formula.

Most of the discussion participants agreed with Radman’s that all people are imbued with somesome leadership qualities. It is the responsiblity of current leaders to help young people to identify and develop the particular leadership qualities each of them possesses.

Of course, some people need more help than others to discover what they have that is special and will help them to lead a team or to run an agency.

Mid-size firms provide an opportunity for people to develop their leadership abilities. We’re in the leadership business: Our work is about helping articulate a vision, helping set goals, planning, researching, advising, persuading, and clarifying. That’s what leaders do.

We must stimulate the people who work for us to consider what kind of leader they might be and what they need to do to get there. Ask employees about who is an aspiring leader? Who do they perceive to be leaders? it’s very revealing.

What leaders look like:
They have bedrock values.
They have the courage to be decisive.
Consistent behaviour.
They do what they say they’re going to do.
They have the courage to be decisive.
They enable collaboration by building trust.
They create other leaders, not followers.
They articulate a clear vision of where they’re going.
They choose to lead.

To teach leadership, the people who you are trying to teach must perceive you to be a leader.
You must know what the people in your organization view as leadership qualities; then look at yourself to determine if you have the qualities to lead them, not just to manage them.

Radman emphasized that there is a tremendous difference between being a leader and a boss.

Boss drives people; Leader motivates them.
Boss depends on authority; Leader on persuasion.
Boss uses fear; Leader uses positive reinforcement.
Boss fixes the blame; Leader looks for a solution.
Boss say “I”; Leader say “we.”
Boss will tell people what to do; Leader will entice people to do something.

Leadership is a choice; you must inspire or persuade people to look inside themselves to determine what they want.