For some people, with all the talk about GooglePlus and Twitter, blogging gets lost these days. But for those of us in the communications business – whether we’re consultants or employees – blogging matters. That’s why I’m delighted to have been invited by IABC/Toronto to discuss this topic on September 27 in an evening seminar. We’ll cover:
How blogging can help you (or your leadership) build relationships and establish expertise in a niche
How to begin blogging and then increase your readership
How to sustain your blogging efforts and make them part of your career strategy – whether you’re an employee or an independent
To add to the fun, we’re requesting that people submit questions in advance by tweeting with the hashtags #iabctoronto and #blogging. Of course you can ask your questions in person at the seminar.
Peter Aceto, President and CEO of ING DIRECT Canada, received the 2010 Communicator of the Year award from IABC/Toronto this morning at a ceremony downtown. ING DIRECT Canada is the largest direct bank in the country.
If you’ve seen Mr. Aceto in one of his videos or read his tweets, you know that “what you see is what you get.” He carries this sense of transparency in all of his communications.
Powered by two lovely cups of coffee, I’ve captured some of his remarks for you.
Truly a “social CEO,” Peter Aceto places the highest value on communications and connecting with people, referring to this strength as the biggest predictor of leadership success. Of course a CEO must be concerned with profit, but he contends that the leader must also be held accountable for valuing people and communications, for behaving responsibly, for providing value and service, and for always telling the truth. “Communications will become the most valued leadership skill in five years,” he predicted.
To be effective, messages must be simple, transparent and honest. He believes that there’s no longer a need to communicate differently to different stakeholders.
Throughout his speech, Peter Aceto emphasized the excellent contributions of his team at ING DIRECT Canada (some of whom were in the room – along with his wife and mother), and introduced a few of the staffers who so capably handle internal and external communications.
He reminded us that communication occurs when the message is understood, not just when it’s disseminated. He then shared a story of one time within the bank when leadership assumed that all employees were aware of a new program. Thanks to Peter’s brown-bag lunches with call centre and operations staff, he discovered that this wasn’t the case, and that employee communications needed to be improved in this particular area.
When asked about internal communications, Mr. Aceto told us that the bank has recently implemented Yammer, an internal Twitter-like micro-messaging tool. “It’s important for us to hear what people within the organization really care about,” he said.
Responding to a question about the time he himself devotes to social media, he said: “We know that social media is not going away. We need to be there, to be a part of the conversation.” He cited the example of ING DIRECT Canada’s new Thrive account. “Online we’re getting direct feedback from people, from customers,” he said. The public responds through social media much more easily and quickly than they would by email or letter.
All the IABC/Toronto members I spoke with were impressed with Peter Aceto’s passion for his work and his dedication to constantly improving as a communicator.
We were also inspired by a speech by Priya Bates, ABC, who has been named a Master Communicator, the highest honour bestowed by IABC in Canada. Congratulations, Priya!
If you wish, you can listen to an audio version of this post here:
Every few weeks I get a call about producing a “CEO broadcast,” a “CEO podcast” or a “CEO audio message.” Essentially these are all the same thing: an audio version of a message from the organization’s chief executive officer, so he or she can reach out to employees using a medium other than text. To be sure, most CEOs continue to communicate within the organization with emails, memos and newsletters, but they’re increasingly adding audio to the mix.
Why use audio? The warmth of the voice imbues a message with sincerity, humanity and personality. Most CEOs wish that they could personally visit every site and department in their organization, shake hands with each employee, and have lunch with all the teams. But unless the organization is very small, this just isn’t possible. So the CEO broadcast is the next best thing.
Focusing on the CEO message Yes, we need to talk about technology, but even more important is the message itself – the tone of the message and the content of the message. Do spend some time planning this. If you are the Director of Communications or the VP of Employee Engagement or whatever – whoever is working with the CEO on his or her message – it’s important to invest the time to plan the message. Doing it on the fly is probably not the most effective way to proceed. I promise that you'll regret it later.
Producing the CEO audio message After you’ve decided on the messaging, it’s time to think about technology. The easiest way to produce an audio message is to use a handheld digital recorder. But don’t rely on the built-in microphone. Spend $100 or so on a good-quality microphone. In a pinch, if you don’t have a portable recorder, you can use an iPhone with a mic/earbud headset. Just be sure the mic is placed properly.
Be sure to record in an uncompressed format, such as WAV, for best quality. Also make sure that your recording mode is set for 44.1 KHz and not 48 KHz. This will ensure that your file will sound fine if people listen to it with a Flash player. (Have you ever heard an audio file where the person sounds like Daffy Duck? It was probably recorded in 48 KHz.)
If you need to remove any errors or stumbles, you can edit the audio file using Audacity, which is a free, open-source program. You can also add a musical intro or other additional audio material, such as a call to action at the end, perhaps using the voice of someone else within the organization. The final step is to save the audio file as an MP3. This is a compressed format, which makes the file smaller.
More tips Most people speak with more passion and energy when they stand, rather than sit.
Also, it is possible to record the CEO’s audio message remotely, when you’re not in the same room. You can record over the phone or Skype if you need to. The quality won’t be as high as in person, but it’s still pretty good.
Distributing the CEO audio message Some organizations actually produce true podcasts with RSS feeds, but more likely, the audio file will be placed on the intranet or even emailed.
More resources for you A couple of years ago I produced an episode of the Trafcom News Podcast on the topic of CEO podcasts. Here is a link to it.
If you need help creating your CEO’s audio message, I offer coaching to help you get started, or to actually produce your audio broadcasts for you.
In their book, Meister and Karie Willyerd look at what innovative organizations are doing today, and the challenges and opportunities they face in the future as they tap into the talents of five distinct generations. As I listened to Shel interviewing Jeanne Meister, I wondered about the implications for my own clients.
Here’s an interesting story for a Friday afternoon.
After Chip Conley, CEO of Joie de Vivre, a chain of boutique hotels in California, attended the Burning Man festival, some photos of him shirtless (and in one, wearing a tutu) appeared on Facebook. His blog post about the contretemps that followed is a great study in authenticity.
To me, the photos show the real Chip, and he is proud to be that guy. Most CEOs would not be too comfortable with such candid photos on Facebook, but he is. What do you think?
In my former life as a systems analyst, I had a cubicle neighbour named Norm. He was a friendly chap. Too friendly. For approximately two to three hours a day, Norm would visit the other analysts’ and programmers’ desks, to update us on his scintillating life: his award-winning meatloaf recipe, the latest sin committed by his greedy ex-wife, his mother’s health crises, and so on. A week after I joined the company, I wondered why the heck Norm was hired, and why he was still there.
Once, when he was away on vacation, one of his clients needed me to run a report. I turned it around in one day. When Norm returned, he was upset: “I tell them it takes a week! What can I do now that they know it can be finished in 24 hours!”
I left the company after a short time (can you wonder why?), so I don’t know what happened to Norm.
The issue is: Many organizations have a Norm or Norma or two. In today’s competitive economy, time wasting may be less overt, but it’s still happening.
Perhaps you’ve seen one of the many recent studies stating that organizations are losing millions to employees Twittering or Facebooking the day away.
These studies bother me for two reasons:
They seem to measure only “costs” or “wasted time,” not the benefits gained from employees’ presence on social networks.
They fail to account for the time the employer gains while the employee checks email at home, answers mobile phone calls at all hours, etc.
As my example shows, people who want to waste time will find ways to do so, whether they’re chatting on the phone all day, taking endless smoke breaks, playing computer solitaire, or excessively updating their Facebook status.
This is a people-management problem, not a social media problem.
In Trafcom News Podcast 86, you can hear how Fortune 1000 organizations are learning to thrive using social media tools. In this 12-minute podcast, you’ll meet Bob Pearson, president of the Social Media Business Council, which helps large enterprises to share best practices on social media issues. Bob spoke at Third Tuesday Toronto on July 7, 2009. Visit the Trafcom News Podcast blog page to listen to the podcast, or download it, and to read the extensive show notes. (Yes, I’m proud of my show notes, people!)
What does your CEO know about social media? Many senior executives aren’t familiar with blogs, podcasts, Twitter and so on. They know their kids are on Facebook, but they’ve never seen it themselves. They fear the “conversation” out there (and inside the company too), but don’t realize that they need to be part of it.
If your CEO is in this camp, or if you yourself are lacking in knowledge in the social-media department, here is a must-listen podcast. It’s a panel discussion recorded during the Ragan Communications conference, “Corporate Communications in the Era of Web 2.0” at the North Carolina headquarters of SAS on October 16, 2008. Mark Ragan, CEO of Ragan Communications, moderated the discussion, brilliantly (and sometimes hilariously) taking on the role of a CEO trying to get answers to his concerns around the adoption of social-media communication channels. Panel members included: David Biesack, SAS; Shel Holtz (co-host of the FIR podcast and a renowned communications expert); Vida Killian, Dell; Terry McKenzie, Sun Microsystems; and Jim Ylisela, Ragan Communications.
Katie Paine of KD Paine and Partners, the Queen of PR Measurement, was in Toronto recently for a Third Tuesday meetup and the Roundtable on Social Media Measurement. I was fortunate to get a quick interview with Katie, in which she touched on the value of measurement and how it's often misunderstood in the business world.
You can listen to this 18-minute podcast at the Trafcom News Podcast blog. Please let me know what you think!
Shel Holtz knows his social media. He’s also an expert on organizational communications. In a blog post today, he lists the most common reasons for companies to resist wading into the social media waters:
1. IT won’t let us
2. It will be abused
3. Management fears loss of control
4. Legal and regulatory risks
5. We don’t have the time or resources
From my experience, I agree wholeheartedly with Shel’s list, with reason #5 being the most common lament. Most of the corporate communicators with whom I work are drowning in projects, struggling to keep their heads above water. What do you think?
Shel Holtz knows his social media. He’s also an expert on organizational communications. 
