Tag Archives: communications

“If I knew then what I know now”: insight and wisdom from veteran communicators

Leave a reply

Back in April, I got to join a lineup of communications professionals, sharing our experiences and career life lessons at an evening of storytelling hosted by IABC/BC.

The evening surpassed every expectation I had. Each of the presenters spoke with passion and often with real courage; the stories they shared were sometimes painful but always inspiring – and tremendously valuable.

The organizers have been posting each presentation on YouTube. Each one clocks in at around five or six minutes, and they’re well worth watching. (The first three and a trailer are up already, and I’ll be adding new ones to this playlist as they’re posted.)

A big, big thanks to Catherine Ducharme for inviting me. One last lesson I took from the evening: I have to go to more IABC/BC events, because this one was terrific.

P.S. – As the final speaker after a series of powerful talks, I was facing a classic hard-act-to-follow dilemma. I’ll tell you how I tackled it in a separate post, once my talk’s online.

 

What’s the strategy behind your communication vehicle?

Leave a reply

Ever feel like you’re working for a firm called Weneda Communications?

You know what I mean. You have an endless stream of people knocking on your office door and saying, “Hey, Weneda Facebook Page.” Or “Weneda blog.” Or “Weneda YouTube channel.”

(At least Weneda has changed with the times. A few years ago, it would have been “Weneda leaflet” or “Weneda newspaper ad.”)

Thing about Weneda Communications is, they’re great at production. They know how to crank it out. They’re just not terribly strong on why.

At Weneda, they don’t think much about strategy. They go from problem to tactic in a single step:

“People are criticizing our customer service record.” “Weneda podcast.”
“Nobody knows about this issue.” “Weneda Twitter feed.”
“There’s a crazed elephant stampeding down the hallway towards us.” “Weneda web app.”

What they don’t do is ask a few intermediate questions, like “Who do we want to reach?” “What do we want to motivate them to do?” or “Exactly how did you get past security?”

Without those questions, there’s no real way to measure success… except, inevitably, to notice that the problem seems to still be around, just as bad as ever.

It’s rarely easy to be the one who puts a stick in the spokes at Weneda… but it has to be done. Someone has to say “Hold on. Let’s take a step back and look at the big picture.”

In other words, before Weneda vehicle – whether it’s a leaflet or a mobile app – Weneda Strategy. And Weneda Plan.

 

Do Pentagon shifts signal the mainstreaming of social media?

Leave a reply

Two back-to-back stories on Wired’s Danger Room may well presage a change in the way organizations approach social media.

Unfollowed: Pentagon Deletes Social Media Office:

At a time when Facebook has 500 million users and Twitter is closing in on 200 million, the Pentagon no longer has a single person guiding its communications shop on how to use social media to get the military’s message out. Gone are communication pro Price Floyd and technology exec Sumit Agarwal, the two men brought in during the past two years to get the Pentagon comfortable with online interaction in the 21st century.

Tweet Away, Troops: Pentagon Won’t Ban Social Media

As Danger Room reported yesterday, the Pentagon’s gotten rid of its social-media office [....] And the 2009-era policy that enshrined military access to social media — the result of a hard-fought internal struggle — expires on March 1.

[...] But [Pentagon spokesman Bryan] Whitman says that by March 1, what’ll be gone is the bureaucratic format for the policy (.pdf), to be replaced by a more permanent one — not the substance. [....] The policy will still give military members access to social media.

Some bureaucratic shifts may occur, but in terms of substance, “we’re not anticipating any changes,” Whitman says, as social-media use is “the way a predominantly young force communicates.”

Now, organizations often put the best possible face on internal developments, and it’s not hard to imagine the Pentagon really is dialing back its social media engagement.

But here’s the other possibility: that social media are now so ubiquitous, and so far-reaching, that it no longer makes sense to segregate them from other communications functions. The ability to post to a Facebook page or handle a blog comment is now just as fundamental to the work of an organizational communicator as the ability to bang out a pithy, effective news release. (If not more so.)

That’s the case made by assistant secretary of defense for public affairs Douglas Wilson in the first Danger Room post:

Wilson says using social media ought to be the responsibility of the approximately 100 people he oversees. “I was increasingly concerned our approach to social media was a stovepiped professional area,” he tells Danger Room.

“It’s important for people in press operations, community and public outreach and communications and planning to be able to know how to use and access Facebook, Twitter and the other social media tools, rather than just have a single unit or single person do nothing but social media.”

Of course, if the permanent policy ends up clamping down on military social media activity, and the Pentagon pulls back from its own engagement online, this will all ring a little hollow. But I’ll be surprised if that happens.

IMPACS declares bankruptcy

Leave a reply

I’m stunned: IMPACS, the Institute for Media Policy and Civil Society, announced yesterday that it’s declaring bankruptcy. And it’s pointing a finger at the Harper government’s budget cuts last year.

IMPACS is – was – a provider of communications training and services to non-profit organizations in Canada and internationally. Their monthly newsletter was a goldmine; their workshops widely used and well-appreciated.

From the announcement:

The experience of IMPACS is, regrettably, not an isolated instance. There are numerous non-governmental organizations and charities in Canada’s community non-profit sector that are facing many of the same financial stresses. Chief among them is the lack of what is often called “core-funding,” i.e. revenue sources from operations or grants from governments or foundations that can sustain what is even the modest central management function at the heart of any organization.

In addition to the matter of inadequate core funding, another major challenge has been the ripple effect of cut-backs to federal grants and contributions announced last summer. This has had an adverse effect on the ability of numerous organizations in the non-profit sector to afford the services of the IMPACS Communications Centre, a social-enterprise model, moderate-cost provider of high quality communications services to non-profit and public-sector organizations.

One thing: some very talented people just became available. Savvy employers should get on the phone right now.

Want to work in the UK for Amnesty International?

Leave a reply

This just landed in my inbox:

Consultancy on operations management (4 months)

This role will be part of the Internet & Ecommunications Programme at the International Secretariat (London) with an immediate start date.

Responsibilities:

  • overview of current work activities and workload, identify project vs operational (2-3 weeks doing 2-3 days/week, interviews with team members + observation + documentation)
  • analysis of resource capacity / efficiency loss areas (1-2 weeks)
  • dramatic prioritization of operations, and presentation to senior management
    introduction of scheduling and prioritizing tools (e.g. SCRUM, weekly planner, daily stand-up meetings): testing with the team, refining to adapt tools (1-2 months)
  • work schedule for next 6 months (2-3 weeks)

Knowledge, skills, and abilities required:

  • Skill in examining and re-engineering operations and procedures, and developing and implementing new strategies and procedures.
  • Knowledge of budgeting & resource estimation
  • Ability to supervise and train employees, to include organizing, prioritizing, and scheduling work assignments.
  • Knowledge of organizational structure, workflow, and operating procedures.
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to work effectively witin a diverse environment.
  • Ability to foster a cooperative work environment.
  • Skills in employee performance management & dev

How to apply:

Email your CV to dmcquillan@amnesty.org and hsuarez@amnesty.org (Helena Suarez), including “IEP Consultant” in the subject line.

Stop corporate abuse, change the world, live in Boston

Leave a reply

One of the first big international campaigns to ever hit my radar was the Nestlé boycott: a successful mobilization of consumer outrage over Nestlé’s aggressive — and destructive — marketing of breastmilk substitutes to mothers in poor countries.

Now the people behind that campaign, Corporate Accountability International (you young’uns may not remember when they were called Infact), are hiring a communications director. Interested?

Our Communications Director will work as a member of the senior staff to create and implement an innovative organizational communications plan. The Communications Director will implement communications strategies for our organizational expansion, including new campaigns on water, food and agribusiness, and oil industries and on the global tobacco treaty. Corporate Accountability International has a history of well-known and well-publicized campaigns; the Communications Director will contribute to this history through strategic communications plans that will raise public awareness of our new work.

Among the people you’ll find at CAI is the delightful and unduly modest Brian Sant, the group’s online organizer. I got to know him at Web of Change; you’re going to love working with him.

CBC lockout may be the first ever Web 2.0 labour campaign

3 Replies

It’s going to be really, really good to have the CBC back. But I’ll miss the highly personal style of CBCUnlocked. The corporation’s web team would do well to take a close look at what made that site work so well.

And I’ll also miss the extraordinary efforts of Tod Maffin and the CBC Unplugged crew (who scooped the country on the tentative settlement in the very early hours of October 3).

Looking back years from now, we may well recognize this as the very first Web 2.0 labour communications campaign (although hopefully, along with personal jetpacks and in-brain TiVO, the future will also bring us a better name than “Web 2.0″).

Continue reading →

Is CBC Unplugged the future of labour communications?

1 Reply

Pay very, very close attention to what’s going on at CBC Unplugged. If you’re active in the field of labour relations, that site may just be a crystal ball into your future.

It’s the latest project from locked-out CBC producer Tod Maffin (whose name appears so often on these pages partly because he’s produced my pieces from time to time, but mainly because he’s doing such fascinating stuff). At one level, it’s a blog aggregating the voices of CBC employees… and, admirably, CBC management as well:

And, since some people have asked, this is my own personal blog. I’m trying to provide balanced coverage. This site is not a production of either the CBC or the CMG.

But CBC Unplugged is also the home for a wide range of podcasts by CBC staffers — and ground zero for a revolution in bargaining communications.

Studio Zero is one such venue for all that sidelined CBC talent to carry on their craft, communicating on behalf of the employees. The result is a well produced, engaging show with a lot of familiar voices.

The show isn’t limited to the Internet. A number of independent, co-op and campus radio stations are broadcasting Studio Zero as well. And between the podcasts and broadcasts, the employees’ message is reaching a lot of ears. Tod reports:

The CBCunplugged.com podcast feed is now among the top-ten of all podcasts in Canada (iTunes.com). In one day, nearly a thousand people downloaded the Vancouver podcast by clicking from my site alone. This does not include the people subscribed on the feed or who downloaded from the CMG site. Today, 6,253 ���unique visitors��� visited the blog -��� about a third were returning visitors. I have never seen traffic like this.

Here are two interesting things about all of this.

One: These employees have realized just how central they are to the CBC’s brand. The individual on-air personalities, the recording expertise, the production prowess — they’re all key to the distinctive CBC sound, not to mention the quality of CBC’s programming. Obviously the union doesn’t have the kind of resources the corporation has, but if the lockout persists, and sponsors start lining up, Studio Zero could have real legs… and might well outlive the dispute that spawned it. Other unions may well look to this experience to see ways where they, too, could supplant the employer in case of a lockout or strike.

And two: this isn’t an official union production. The Canadian Media Guild certainly isn’t unhappy about it, and is allowing members to apply time spent on Studio Zero against their picket line duty. But the content isn’t vetted beforehand, and not every minute is on-message; one streeter includes a comment from someone who’s perfectly happy with the CBC’s current management-only programming.

For that matter, Tod’s site feed includes comments from CBC management, a link to the corporation’s e-mail newsletter on the lockout, and criticism of both sides:

To get this thing resolved and put the programming you’re used to back on the air, we need your help. Both sides need to get back to the table. Both sides claim they would if they other will. It’s silly. It reminds me of grade three.

What does all of this mean for labour communicators?

For one thing, while management will continue to have the luxury of speaking with a single voice, that may prove increasingly difficult for unions. Individual members will increasingly use blogs and other forums to publicly express their views on bargaining strategy, lockouts and strikes, and not all of them will be working from talking points. (A group of Radio-Canada employees have already started their own French-language podcast; the first episode is available here. And it’s not just audio. An Edmonton CBC host is presenting Lockout Blues, a video report
 on the lockout.)

In high-profile situations, the media will be looking for deviations from the union line, and their initial impulse will be to report them as a sign of division — an interpretation management will be happy to encourage and exploit. Antagonistic reporters and commentators will also scour those blogs for inflammatory rhetoric they can use to characterize the union as extremist and unreasonable. Unions will face constant demands to issue condemnations, clarifications and rebuttals; if they accede, they’ll be on the defensive and off message. That’s new and difficult terrain to navigate…

…but exciting terrain, too. Here are just a few reasons why this is good news for labour communicators and unions:

  1. This new environment will put a premium on engaging honestly and constantly with members and activists — which effective unions already know how to do well. That, in turn, will help them develop messages and strategies that resonate more powerfully with members, and strengthen the union’s voice with broader audiences.
  2. For some members who have felt uncomfortable speaking up in traditional settings — those who are intimidated by public speaking, for example — blogging offers an appealing route into involvement with union issues. So does participating through comments in blogs set up by other members. And participating in that kind of discussion is a step closer to more active participation in the union itself.
  3. Let a million flowers bloom. Of course there will be disagreement; the democratic nature of the labour movement is one of its greatest strengths and its strongest appeal. There will also be plenty of members who want to blog about their agreement with the union’s position — and they can do so with a level of personal authenticity that management can only dream of.
  4. There is a growing broader public within the blogging world, one that is suspicious of institutional voices but open to talking and listening to individuals. Your members’ blogs can be a key channel to that audience.
  5. Member blogs provide one more way for the union leadership to engage with members. Joining conversations in comment areas will require a certain amount of judiciousness, but can be very fruitful — not just in responding to member concerns, but in gaining a richer sense of some members’ opinions and ideas.

As the reach of blogging grows, organizations’ communications efforts will soon look less like a seamless gleaming whole, and more like an atom — a tightly bound nucleus of disciplined messaging at the centre, surrounded by a diffuse cloud of electrons: members, supporters and activists, all communicating in their own (sometimes conflicting) ways.

But don’t think for a moment that means abandoning the strengths of a traditional communications strategy. A compelling message, careful research, a well-defined audience, a clear goal, the right vehicles — if anything, these become even more important to ensuring a strong, clear voice for working people and the organizations they create.