Morningstar Communications Luminary Blog

As the devastation in Haiti has caused us all to examine what’s important in our personal lives, it has also caused us to look for ways we can use our core business skills and practices to help those in need. Commonly referred to as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), evolving a business focus so it simultaneously supports public interest is a booming trend across the business community.

Some will disagree, but I believe it is up to all of us to leave our community and the world better than we found it. And more times than not, it is our business savvy and resources that allow us all to do so.

Take for instance the way the wireless industry has banded together to allow customers to text “Haiti” to 90999  in order to donate directly to the American Red Cross. The adoption of mobile giving has raised nearly $30 million in relief funds for Haiti. Many wireless carriers have provided this service free of charge, because it’s a simple way they can use business infrastructure to serve a common goal.

And beyond providing services that enhance a greater cause, CSR is also about taking responsibility for a business’ impact on society. We all leave a mark somehow, so it’s important to find a way to repair the damage we cause, often through sustainability practices.

But don’t assume CSR comes at the cost of successful business – at its core a good CSR policy should bolster your bottom line and the community at once. Yes, there are critics of this type of business practice, but at the end of the day if any person or company is striving to better our community then I’m all about it.

Business schools are teaching it, global enterprises are adopting it. To learn more about CSR I recommend visiting the CSRwire and reading the 2009 Year in Review.

Today is Friday, which means Follow Friday is in full effect on Twitter. The Follow Friday hashtag (I prefer using #FF to save characters) is a weekly meme on Twitter where users suggest other accounts to follow. I’ve been exposed to many informative and entertaining new people on Twitter by monitoring mentions throughout the day.

One troubling trend I’ve been keeping tabs on, and doing my best to nip in the bud, is people tweeting long lists of usernames without an explanation of who they are or why we should follow them. A better way to participate is to pick one or two people you want to recommend, and use your remaining 130 characters or so to tell us WHY we should follow them.

For instance, my #FF recommendation this week is @jpgardner for the great work he’s done on the new AMC Theatres website  and Facebook fan page. That’s 129 characters and clear insight into why I think he is worth following.

Twitter is all about enabling conversations, so let’s hope we see less talk and more interaction on Fridays in 2010.

Trade shows. For many companies trade shows play a significant role in their marketing and business development efforts. But booth space, sponsorships and manpower can make trade shows expensive. After the budgetary and personnel resources are taken care of, businesses should look for all possible ways to leverage their trade show presence before, during and after the show.

Media relations is one strategy for leveraging your company’s trade show presence. Your experts are there, and so are trade media reporters and editors. You have information and expertise to share. The media is looking for compelling and timely content. This all adds up to the perfect opportunity for a win-win media relations scenario.

To make the most of trade shows and garner media coverage for your product or company, consider the following.

• Determine one or two announcements or trends you can speak to and contact trade reporters before the show to
   schedule interview times.

• When appointing spokespeople, remember that trade shows are a great place for reporters to put a name to a face and build a relationship with your spokesperson. Try to select someone who will represent your organization outside of the trade show, as well.

• Media train your spokespeople to ensure they’ll have the best interview possible.

• Consider having a member of your PR team at the trade show to coordinate interviews on site. It is not unusual for an interview to be rescheduled, pushed back or even run long. Having a person on hand to ensure the interview process runs smoothly allows your spokesperson to concentrate on what’s being said, instead of the logistics.

• Follow up with your media contacts after the event to say thank you and determine if any other information is needed for their story.

Trade media relations can be a very successful strategy for building relationships and sharing your message. Next time you’re preparing for a trade show, consider adding media relations to the mix.

On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of attending KC/IABC’s monthly lunch. I volunteer at the registration table for these events (a GREAT way to network/meet people if you are new to an organization), and often stay for the presentations as well. This month’s topic dealt with social media’s impact on crisis communication. Max Muller and Kathleen Leighton shared some great insights on creating internal social media policies and utilizing social media to help communicate your messages during a crisis.

There is no doubt that companies must add social media usage sections to BOTH internal and external communications policies. However, I want to differ from Max and Kathleen as to why social media guidelines are important for employees. Their point is that companies need social media usage guidelines to protect against potential brand damage. I think most of us have seen the Domino’s Pizza YouTube video, or the many other examples of social media use harming a brand.

The perspective I take is one of empowerment. Yes, employees who use social media can harm a brand. However, they also have the ability to POSITIVELY impact a brand’s perception. Companies need to encourage effective and appropriate behavior in these spaces, rather than seeking to limit access. After all, word-of-mouth is king these days, and social media is the driving force behind its popularity. Companies that educate and empower employees to act as brand ambassadors in these spaces can and do realize benefits that outweigh any potential drawbacks.

I consider myself very fortunate to have received degrees from two excellent journalism schools with wonderful reputations. I graduated from the University of Kansas where I, like thousands of others in our area, received the essential building blocks I needed to pursue a career in this business. Much more recently, I received a master’s in communications management from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communication through their well-respected Executive Master’s program.

The benefits I’ve received from pursuing my degree from a national program like Syracuse are almost too numerous to mention and will be the subject of another blog post. But, as a preview, one of those benefits is the commitment on the school’s part to provide life-long learning opportunities to its graduates. I just returned from an alumni reunion in New York City, where, in addition to renewing old acquaintances with corporate communicators from around the country, the school offered several presentations from some of the most important voices in our industry today. The knowledge nuggets and “ah-ha” moments were numerous – and tough to do justice to in a blog post – but there were a few that I want to share right away:

•    Richard Edelman, Chairman and CEO, Edelman, shared his take on the monumental sea change hitting PR. His agency’s “trust barometer” has been a useful tool to show us that people have moved from media and other authoritative sources (“taking Walter Cronkite’s word for it”) to now turning to their friends and family as the people they trust most. We can no longer talk down to or “at” the people who matter most (PWMM) for our organizations. He called this change “moving from the vertical to the horizontal axis.” He urged communicators to “go where the conversations are” and said that, in this day of mass communications on multiple planes that “every company should consider itself a media company.” And, no surprise, he emphasized the importance of good listening (“listening with intelligence”) if we hope to change behaviors in our markets.

•    My friend and classmate Diane Thieke, APR, Marketing Director, Dow Jones @thiekeds: Diane spoke about her new role to help sales people in her organization do their jobs better by understanding and using LinkedIn as a relationship management tool. She also talked about our Web 2.0 world by relaying the story of how her teenage son chooses and buys music in a completely different way than in our generation (out with the corner record store, in with Pandora!)

•    Deirdre Breakenridge, co-author with Brian Solis of “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations,” reminded us again that “nobody owns social media” and talked about the seemingly endless new (many of them free) online tools to help us monitor the conversations and engage in that active listening that is so crucial in PR 2.0.

•    Mark Weiner, who owns a worldwide PR Research firm, showed some fascinating data gleaned from more than 20 years of organizational ROI studies to show that, even though PR budgets are still just a fraction of what advertising gets, PR regularly outperforms advertising on a relative basis and its positive ROI effects last longer than traditional ad campaigns and other promotional activities.

•    Finally, Jim Olson, Vice President of Communications at US Airways had us mesmerized with his stories from the “Miracle on the Hudson” (which has its one-year anniversary this week). Jim’s team received 350 media calls in the first 90 minutes but, thanks to a tremendous amount of crisis communications planning, handled the crisis well in the immediate stage and then followed up on what became one of the great “feel good” stories of the young century.  Among nuggets shared by Jim were the need for organizations to carefully watch search engine traffic on their crisis stories as US Airways found that search engines were the number two way that people sought out information after the river landing (news organizations being the first). US Airways also deftly used social media to help manage the secondary stories and built thousands of Twitter followers once they said that Capt. Sullenberger’s much-anticipated return to the cockpit would be announced on Twitter first.

In summary, a great way to start the new year professionally for me. Here’s wishing you a great year of professional development in 2010 as well.

Just five years ago, 51 percent of journalists looked to blogs for story ideas, for research or for finding sources, according to ZDNet Research. Fast forward three years to 2008, and that number is up to 75 percent (Brodeur and MarketWire).

Social media and social networking are changing the landscape of traditional media relations. And so, we adapt.

We optimize our news releases for search engines, we create customized, short email pitches for bloggers, and we get on Twitter and follow specific reporters. But in the end, we’re still after the same thing we were 20 years ago: building relationships.

In my experience working with the media, nothing beats meeting face-to-face or even picking up the phone and having a quick chat. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn certainly have their uses – quite good ones at that. In fact, my colleague Matt Dunn recently blogged about how he developed a relationship with a reporter via Twitter, and multiple media stories have resulted.

In Matt’s case, and the many I’ve encountered working in this business, I’ve been reminded that people want to make a connection. Reporters included.

Here are three simple steps you can take to further build relationships with the media or any other key audience. Consider these a reminder for getting off on the right foot in 2010.

1.    Make the connection. Set up some time to meet with the person. Face time is invaluable and truly strengthens your relationship. If you can’t meet, pick up the phone to check in on a regular basis.
2.    Find the communication channel that works. Does the person respond best via email? Or maybe he or she prefers a phone call or a conversation over Twitter. Use the channel that works best for the recipient and you’ll be more successful in getting your message across.
3.    Be gracious. Whether in media relations or other relationship-building activities, being kind and gracious goes a long way. For example, sending a thank you note after a meeting that expresses appreciation for the time spent is a no-brainer (read Eric Morgenstern’s blog about the importance of a handwritten note).

 If you’re like me and have been unplugged for several weeks at the end of the year, your RSS reader of choice is packed with posts about 2010 predictions and/or 2010 resolutions. Of course, I don’t have time to read through them all (Sorry!), but I do like to cruise through several of each to get a feel for potential trends and areas where people would like to improve professionally. Here are several posts that resonated with me.

Kevin Dugan, in typical Bad Pitch Blog style, shared several ways to “suck less” in 2010. I especially like his first tip on pledging to make a mistake. I’ve too often seen people afraid to take a unique approach to a challenge because of the chance of making a mistake.

Jason Falls shared a slightly different take on Kevin’s point in this post, where he discusses what he calls the “me too” syndrome currently pervasive in social media.

Tom Murphy takes a different approach in this post, proclaiming 2010 as the year you need to invest in you and offering several areas to focus on. Love this list more and more each time I read it.

For me, 2010 promises to be a very intriguing year, both personally and professionally. This year, I’m setting a goal to be involved with social media, listening, interacting and adding value to conversation. You’ll see me blogging more often, commenting on blogs more often and generally seeing how deep the social media rabbit hole goes for me.

I’ve also made a goal to be more involved with my community. I’m volunteering regularly with Kansas City’s chapter of IABC. I’m also joining a leadership group with Big Brothers Big Sisters. I couldn’t be more excited for the new opportunities and relationships these groups will provide.

What does 2010 have in store for you? What’s the one thing you hope you are able to accomplish before 2011?

 Numerous components make up an effective communications program. In the past, the best planning always started with the intended recipient at the forefront, i.e., the “target audiences” or “key influencer groups” or the like.

Not anymore.

It’s time we all stopped focusing on “target audiences” and start communicating with the People Who Matter Most.

First of all, the phrase, “target audiences” doesn’t test well with target audiences. No surprise. None of us want to be viewed as an audience; we all expect to be treated as individuals.

In fact, it’s human nature to resist being lumped into a group. I’m actually a lot of things: an entrepreneur, a marketer, a communicator, a Kansas City advocate, an Overland Park resident, a husband, father, brother and son, a KU alum and a die-hard Chiefs and Royals fan. All of those make for convenient “target audiences”…but please don’t just put me inside a group and think “one-size-fits-all” outbound communications will work for me as well as others.

The fundamental power of the renaissance underway in the communications industry is that we are no longer relegated to one-way communications from a corporate entity to a “group.” Now, it’s all about engaging conversation, creating influence and preference, and interactive communications; witness the meteoric rise of social media.

Change your approach. Stop thinking mass distribution as your primary communications method. One-to-many simply isn’t very effective in today’s world.

Instead, talk directly with the People Who Matter Most (employees, customers / clients, investors, suppliers / distributors, influencers, community, industry, etc…) on an individualized basis and everyone wins. With a clear message, you connect with the people who matter most, and change attitudes or behaviors.

This change won’t happen overnight. But if you start focusing on “people” and not “target audiences,” you’ll be much farther ahead.

Onward and upward.