XV – Having a Strategy Day?

Posted on 05.01.2010 | 1 Comment

Want to communicate your business strategy to the lines of business responsibles, market leaders and those in charge of support functions? Taking either a top-down or bottom-up approach, it often falls to the communicators to spread the news. This can be comfortable or uncomfortable, depending on the content of 1-to-3-to-5-year plans to be presented and discussed.

Combining strategy and communication

At the yearly gathering of all lines of business heads, local office representatives and chiefs of support functions, everyone wants to be heard and seen. Trying to juggle everybody’s priorities and demands as a communication professional isn’t always easy. “Yes, your strategic input is valuable too.” “We should formulate some specific communication measures.” “But how will we communicate that to your clients? I’ll be glad to help pull some ideas together and write up a communication plan, you know,” I’d hear myself say.

No loose ends – wrapping up the day’s content

To keep track of all that is communicated on such a highly intense and fully packed day, we decided to record the presentation sessions as webcasts and send a link to all participants thereafter. This way, they could review the discussions leading up to the decisions taken and recap the day’s content. What was my role as a communication professional? I made sure that the internal technical set-up was ready, the recording was handled by Solutionpark and the link sent to participants the following day.

From a communication perspective I like to structure content, categorize it and create user-friendly download sections in my webcasts. This way, the viewer can easily navigate through the various subjects, especially if there are a number of different aspects or speakers involved. Explaining your company’s strategy, the ‘Whys and Why Nots’ is a valuable experience, and I find, an emotional topic that deserves to be documented on video.

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XIV – Beloved briefing

Posted on 16.12.2009 | Leave a comment

I know, nobody likes to do them, but sometimes it is simply more than pure necessity; our beloved briefings. We find them tedious and a waste of paper and time, tough it’s only fair to our suppliers and business partners to say in writing what we want and how we see things. And it’s always a good exercise for ourselves as communication specialists to bring to mind where we are currently standing. This includes our situational analysis, our expectations, our thoughts, our guidelines, our self-perception of an organization. There is a reason why companies have a (documented) corporate identity, a corporate philosophy, corporate values, a vision and mission statement and even a code of conduct.

Clarity is key

I want to be clear on what direction we are heading in, my business partners and I, together as a team, and, I want to get the go-ahead from top management in advance of making my suppliers run around like headless chickens, just because I was incapable of giving accurate and comprehensible instructions. Here is the deal.

What should go into a good and comprehensive briefing:

  1. Situational analysis
  2. Goal
  3. Target audience
  4. Key messages
  5. Company image and perception, CI/CD, corporate values, style, language
  6. Implementation (tools, channels, resources, content, structure)
  7. Expectations
  8. Timeline
  9. Budget

10.  Extras (e.g previous examples, additional items etc.)

Too much? Not enough? Well, the more detail and clarity the better. Your external providers will be thankful. Give it a try. It’s worth it. You will be able to use the framework and structure of your briefing over and over again, adapt and update it. Good luck!

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XIII – Don’t be shy to tell the story!

Posted on 10.12.2009 | Leave a comment

One of the best ways to tell a story is through pictures, moving images, on film, in a video, with faces and people, with sound and music and light: personal and emotional. We all like going to the movies and being captured by the latest Hollywood saga, drama or comedy. At university ‘film history’ was one of my favorite subjects, as we got to watch old movies all the time.

So many questions, so little answers

Why don’t you want to tell a story about your company? Aren’t you proud of what you have created, established, produced? Isn’t your image, your reputation, what your CEO has to say or what your clients think of your organization, important to you personally? It’s undeniable that emotions always play a role in what we think of a person, especially one’s boss(es), of a company or of a product or service. The world is not just ruled by stock prices and bank accounts.

Companies may be driven by facts & figures, financial results, ratings and stock prices, but there is always an emotional component attached to believing in what a company’s leaders are saying; in the reasons for buying a product, service or stock and in trusting in the image or reputation of an organization. Wouldn’t you say so?

 

On being bold and daring

Here is the opportunity: in order to raise awareness, sell a product, create understanding, influence opinions, explain a decision or situation, inform your clients and business partners on a particular subject, give your customers a voice, reach your employees in a crisis situation, tell the story. Right here, right now. How can you expect your audiences to trust you if they can’t see or hear you? Let the tale come from the heart and you can be assured of its credibility. There is no easier way as to say it on (video)tape and play it in today’s most widely, highly and globally used communication tool, the Internet.

I can only say: Give your story a face and a voice.

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XII – Three criteria, one channel

Posted on 02.12.2009 | 2 Comments

I want to do a video, sure, cool thing, but what and who and where and how? And what for, for heaven sakes? As a communication professional I have been taught to think in structured, linear processes, in concepts and with project management as a guiding principle of my doings. On a side note: It’s not as creative as one might imagine. So, simply follow the basic steps of analysis and definition, implementation and evaluation. Super. By the way, I still believe in that method. So I’ve learned to ask the right questions, coach my counterparts and advise them on what I believe to be a valuable and successful communication path.

Here are the three most important criteria for producing a webcast:

  1. We want to reach a broad audience that goes beyond our immediate target audience
  2. We want people to be able to view the webcast independent of geographic location and time zone
  3. We want to use a video for bringing our communication messages across

Reaching out to a broader audience

Even though you have a specific target audience in mind, you automatically reach a much broader group of people including potential clients, interested investors and future employees that might be surfing your website. Exposure is imminent when placed on the landing page of your company website. You never know who will be attracted to your CEO’s video message, your product line responsibles’ statement, your market managers’ proposition or your business experts’ insights. Therefore it’s wise to draft your message carefully, take the time to prepare your script, select an appropriate location for the shooting and get your webmaster or web content editor on board early on. It’s important to place your video on a site that is easily accessible and quick to find – not buried in a corner of your website.

Giving your company a face on your website

Let your speaker do some media/camera training, with our without a teleprompter and discuss your expectations with your external provider – video, multimedia or web TV producer and streaming engineer. Your communication agency or Solutionpark can help you scout the location, draft the story board, write the script and organize the props. Be it as part of a full fledged integrated communications campaign or a single communication activity, it’s so easy to have so much exposure with only one small video.

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XI – One of the most important events of the year

Posted on 25.11.2009 | Leave a comment

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) is always a highlight in a company’s yearly event calendar. So much preparation, so many things to think about, so much budget spent for a single half day. Nevertheless, it’s an important event for internal and external audiences such as the Executive and Board members, the legal department, investor relations, all shareholders and investors. Often the communications department is involved as well as an event agency, simultaneous translators and a streaming company in charge of the videotaping and broadcasting.

Keeping track of your target audiences

Leading up to the ‘big day’ I remember many arguments and discussions about all kinds of internal and external communication issues including ‘Shall we show it to employees?’, ‘Why should we show it to employees?’ ‘Do we put in on the Internet or not?’, ‘Does the public need to know?’ etc. The Annual General Meeting is THE event a company holds for its shareholders and includes the entire senior management and executive staff as well as the organization’s Board members. Employees and the general public sometimes get forgotten in the process. I find it just as relevant and significant to keep them in the loop of a company’s developments. And that is a communication departments job! So I can only plead for you to take on the responsibility, get a streaming provider such as Solutionpark on board, and get moving.

Employees first!

We webcast the Annual General Meeting on the intranet for all employees to see, i.e. for those who aren’t shareholders and for those who are but decided not to attend the AGM in person. It’s simple transparent information policy to keep everyone up-to-date and not to exclude internal resources whoever and wherever they may be. Besides, it’s a legal requirement to keep a copy of the recording anyway, so why not produce it as a webcast and put it on the web.

I find this a good example of using multimedia tools to create more transparency and inclusiveness. Don’t we hear too often: ‘Why wasn’t I informed?’, ‘How come I didn’t hear about this or that?’ The whole purpose of putting videos on the Internet is to reach a broad audience and make an event available to everyone. All of your shareholders and employees will be grateful to you.

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X – A typical day at the office – communication in action

Posted on 18.11.2009 | Leave a comment

On a typical day, when a publicly-traded company published their quarterly financial results, it all begins at 7 am with sending out the official press release and financial results presentation to the media, analysts and investors as well as publishing it all on the company website. An E-mail is sent out to all employees informing on the news while the internal communication specialist and internal services people get the auditorium ready for the upcoming employee information event.

Pulling it all together

The IT person responsible for helping with the webcast and the two streaming engineers from Solutionpark arrive and set up 2-3 cameras, hook up laptops and lay the necessary cables. I check the lighting and the sound (microphones) and upload the employee presentation onto the laptop next to the speaker’s desk. By 8 am staff piles into the auditorium – once again filled to the very last seat – and eagerly awaits the Executives Team’s explanations of the quarterly financial results. The session will be recorded including the slides and Q&A and is published on the intranet an hour following the staff event as a Video on Demand.DSC_0055

By 9 o’clock the Executive Team moves on to the boardroom where the investor call will be held shortly. The scripts are ready and so are the head of investor relations and the streaming engineers who will ensure that the slides are synchronized with the speeches from the CEO and CFO. This investor call will be broadcast live, i.e for everyone to see who logs on (and registers) on the company website. While the live webcast is in full swing in the boardroom, the auditorium is once again remodeled and set up for the onsite press conference.

Moving forward through the day

I remember the poor guys from the internal services department well who had to lug hundreds of chairs, shove around tables and prepare the information booth for the awaited financial analysts and business journalists. As employees, we were not allowed to participate in the press conferences, though we’d sneak through the hallway and try to get a glimpse of who had come. Are there photographers present? Has a journalist from a prestigious financial paper arrived? Have the analysts dressed in their sleek designer outfits again?

By noon, the show is over, the employee webcast published on the intranet, the investor webcast marked for download on the Internet, journalists’ and analysts’ questions answered. Oh well, just a typical day at the office.

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IX – You don’t need a large external provider for a small budget

Posted on 11.11.2009 | Leave a comment

I always think that size does matter, especially when a company appears to be larger than it actually is, and just because you can list 23 subsidiaries on 5 continents, for e.g.. Anyway, as a communication professional I feel strongly about selecting the right external providers for your internal and external communication activities. Not the biggest, fanciest with the most luxurious, but someone that understands my communication needs, be it for a simple recording of a statement from the CEO to organizing the entire communication of a live broadcast of an extraordinary annual general meeting which is viewed by hundreds of people across the globe.DSC00055

Bringing the world together

Truly I’d start with a small communication project, see how it goes and see how you like it. Do a video on demand, as you are less under pressure in case the speakers mess up or the weather is bad (if you are doing the shooting outside) or some technical emergency pops up. Over the years I did a lot of testing with different scenarios, and depending on the bandwidth, employees in a small office would gather in front of one screen to watch the video. They’d tell me many times that they enjoyed coming together and through the video felt more closely connected to the headquarter thousands of miles away.

Creating a big bang

P1040158Compared with traditional communication (print) tools, and don’t get me wrong, I have had great experiences working with ad agencies and producing plenty of print material, the cost of webcasts on average is often lower and the impact so much greater. Assume you are using a webcast for a message from the CEO, an update on the business strategy and your are introducing a new Executive Team member, that is three in one right there. Don’t have to bother writing individual pieces including a speech, a presentation, an internal announcement etc. No need trying to copy all different user groups into the ‘To:’ field of your E-mail. As soon as you have the video up on the Internet a broad audience can view it as much and as long as they want. And, you can even track the traffic.

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Drowning the old-fashioned corporate imagery

Posted on 11.11.2009 | Leave a comment

Throw away your old corporate pictures, logos, images and graphics. Or at least ban them to the archives. Now. And don’t leave any of that horrible stuff sitting on your website, by all means! It’s your company’s business card, for crying out loud. Nobody wants to keep looking at those boring, rusty, stiff, repellent visuals. It’s time for something new! Instead of wasting time and money surfing though stock image databases, go ahead and produce your own. Grab your iPhone and call a photographer, videographer or multimedia producer who will give your company (website) a fresh new look.

Some corporate websites really give me the creeps. Yuck. Is that really who they want to be?

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VIII – In communication it’s all about the mind-set

Posted on 04.11.2009 | Leave a comment

Remote00099I grew up being exposed to new technologies and computers from an early age onwards. Then at university in the USA we were required to e-mail our research papers or hand them in on a disk, which seemed quite revolutionary at the time. Later on, in my professional communication career, somehow, I got stuck with different sorts of web projects mostly from an internal communications perspective. Colleagues say I inspire them and as I enjoy working in interdisciplinary teams and on technical topics, communication and PR on the one hand and IT-related activities on the other, make up an ideal mix for me.

Taking on the responsibility and seeing the big picture

Of course I was the one carrying the responsibility for introducing webcasts for internal communications and there was always the chance something out of my reach would go horribly wrong, but I couldn’t let fear get in the way. It’s my job to bring people together, provide the most suitable communications channel for distributing relevant information to a wide audience and collecting feedback to make it even better next time.DSC_0066

Take it from me, I had my doubts if our employees wouldn’t get tired of watching videos say, on a monthly basis, but to them it was so important to see the company’s executives’ and senior staff members’ faces regularly. Colleagues in Tokyo feel more connected and part of the company, staffers in Argentina see the big picture and understand the overall business strategy and the employees at the Cologne hub hear what questions their counterparts in Zurich are raising towards the Global Executive Team. That really helps and at the end of the day makes my live easier too.

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