Social media on the red carpet

A recent article in smh online made me think about the most cohesive approach to social media. Should brands be maintaining complete control of their social media activities by managing in-house, or should they hand the reins to a third party?

The beauty of social media for consumers is that it allows them direct contact with brands. So what happens if the person behind the screen at the other end is actually a third party contracted to manage the brand’s social media strategy? Does that make the message and communication any less authentic?

I believe that the answer isn’t one or the other, rather a collaborative approach between the brand and social media experts.

I like to think of it like a winning Emmys outfit. A fabulous stylist will take their client’s personal style and brand into account when designing an A-lister outfit. They need to choose a dress that fits the celeb perfectly, that flatters and accentuates their assets, and that improves their less positive areas. A stylist will help them pair the dress with shiny accessories, killer shoes and amazing makeup and hair. At the end of the day however, it is the celebrity’s job to approve the complete look and make sure it is representative of their style and personality. It is up to them to strut down the red carpet, pose for the cameras and give witty, endearing answers to the interviewer’s questions. They are the ones who will appear on the best and worst dressed list and it is their image which is at stake.

This relationship is a perfect example of working collaboratively to achieve a successful result.

Social media is still a very new area for a lot of brands, so it is only natural for them to turn to their trusted advisors for guidance. Clients need to be confident in their agency’s understanding of the brand and messages to be able follow their advice on how to present themselves online.

At the same time I believe brands need to hold on to some control, by staying involved in the process and understanding the rules to maintain the integrity of their communication with their consumers. Just like the celebrity, it is the brand’s image and reputation that is out there when taking the leap in to social media, not the stylist agency behind it.

Getting Ahead Of The Crowd

I have had the pleasure of working intimately with the waste management industry over the last two years as a public affairs adviser to some of Australia’s leading environmental management corporations, industry roof bodies, property developers and advocacy organisations.

These experiences have led me to appreciate that for the most part the waste management industry has a profoundly positive sustainability story to tell but it generally approaches the telling of these stories in a reactive manner.

I, though, am a firm believer that the positive narrative ought to be told proactively and by operating in this manner your business will thrive commercially.

Now, I’m not going to use this space to tell you about the intricacies of your own businesses, but rather to talk about what I know best: communications and public affairs.

One way to quantify the value of communicating sustainability is to ask: is it worth doing for broader reputational reasons – in other words – is it important to your stakeholders? Or, is there a risk to my organisation if we don’t communicate what we are doing in sustainability sense to our stakeholders?

A national poll recently commissioned by Parker & Partners found that 82 per cent of Australians want action on climate change now, with the majority of them wanting strong action.

It may not be the # 1, or even # 2 issue for the bulk of Australia’s suffrage in this election, but there is no doubt that whichever party can best demonstrate its commitment to taking action now on climate change will benefit from a real boost in electoral support.

This is particularly relevant for organisations whose operations have a clear physical impact upon their communities a la the waste sector.

As most readers would be aware, the visibility of an organisation’s activities is usually what drives community concern and/or media interest – with each stakeholder group utilising the other to apply pressure.
The very nature of government for example, is that it watches these groups particularly closely. Media and community pressure are important drivers of political influence. And in an industry as regulated as the waste sector, government perception is critical.

Government also has a more elevated role in ensuring the best possible legislative and regulatory frameworks are in place to deliver good public policy outcomes.

The reality is that in pursuing sound public policy in the sustainability space, there is always a stronger likelihood of government focusing on those organisations which have the largest impacts on the community – in doing so it allows them to make the most amount of difference whilst applying the least amount of burden on the community.

There are of course other stakeholder groups in addition to the aforementioned, however we’ve found that these are the core set of protagonists which organisations grapple with when identifying the opportunities and risks for communicating their sustainability track record.

Which brings us to the issue of how organisations should approach the way they communicate their sustainability activities.

There are three broad principles which I believe are vital in telling your sustainability story:

• It must be real, meaningful and authentic
• It must be demonstrable – and be able to be measured and evaluated
• It must be positioned in the context of a commitment to ongoing improvements

Obviously, organisations which don’t take their sustainability credentials seriously enough – or worse, try to pretend they are more sustainable than they actually are (the dreaded ‘greenwash’) – run the risk of attracting high levels of scrutiny from government and media, and thus damaging their brand in the eyes of their customers and the broader community

One play for the sector would be to communicate the renewable energy potential of landfill, or the decline of greenhouse emissions from the waste sector as a whole, to stakeholders and the community at large. I’ll leave the nuances to you.

Off The Record 2010 Federal Election Campaign

Special Edition: Election Eve

That was the election that was

Political orthodoxy, the published polls, and gut feeling say Labor will be returned to power tomorrow. However this campaign has been anything other than orthodox. As many commentators have stated it’s a campaign between two opposition leaders, with Labor surrendering many of the benefits of incumbency in removing Kevin Rudd and installing Julia Gillard as Prime Minister in June.

Both leaders have had very few slip-ups of their own doing but have lost momentum at crucial times. Tony Abbott struggled to effectively sell his broadband policy and lost valuable momentum, but it was the leaks against Gillard from within her own Party that have probably been the most damaging moments of the campaign so far.

Both leaders failed to really cut through in their campaign launches, but Abbott missed the bigger opportunity to capitalise on the calamity of Labor’s second and third weeks. Gillard’s ‘web-health’ policy announcement during her launch speech played well to the ALP’s policy strengths, supporting her forward-looking rhetoric and highlighting a perceived weakness in her opponent.

The live debate was a dull dead heat, while the two ‘people’s forums’ in Rooty Hill and Red Hill were evenly split.

There is clearly an anti-Government swing on in Queensland and NSW, and although it is now a cliché, it is true that ultimately the campaign will be decided by the uniformity of that swing in those two States.

The Labor brand in both States is clearly damaged. In Queensland, the removal of Kevin Rudd has not played well, while Gillard was clearly taken aback by the strong cynicism in Western Sydney following her announcement of the Parramatta-Epping rail line. The ALP now probably regrets its decision to muddy the waters in the campaign between State and Federal issues in NSW.

Countering this is strong support for the Government (and the progressive side of politics) in Victoria and South Australia – partly due to the Gillard home town factor – which may see as many as four seats change hands from Liberal to Labor. WA could go the other way with Hasluck and Swan (notionally Labor) in play for the Coalition.

The Greens are on track to attract their highest level of support at a Federal election and are now favourites on the betting markets to win the seat of Melbourne. That the Greens hold the balance of power in the Senate after 1 July 2011 is the only certainty going in to tomorrow’s election.

The Coalition campaign has built some momentum in its final days but OTR still thinks Labor and Julia Gillard will fall over the line with a four to six seat majority.

The best of times…

The PM’s performances have been strong throughout the campaign so it is difficult to pinpoint one single best moment, however, Australians got to see the “real Julia” in the television programs Q&A and The 7PM Project, and she continued to build on these strong performances.

Tony Abbott’s victory at the “people’s forum” at the Rooty Hill RSL was a moment of strength for the Opposition Leader. His decision to literally meet people at their level played out well, setting the tone for his contribution to the question and answer session. While the margin of victory was close it showed that Tony Abbott could hold his own as a creditable alternative Prime Minister.

… the worst of times

Veteran journalist Laurie Oakes’ airing of inside cabinet information that Gillard had questioned a pension increase and paid parental leave marked the low point of the Government’s campaign. A second leak that she had reportedly sent a staff member to represent her at National Security Committee continued to provide an unwelcome distraction for the PM and overshadowed the Government’s campaign message for a number of crucial days.

The Coalition’s campaign launch was a lost opportunity for Abbott to continue to build momentum over the course of the campaign. The absence of any detailed policy coupled with a focus on personality was supposed to show the Coalition as a safe pair of hands. Instead it provoked questions about the Coalition’s policy strength. Tony Abbott’s admission later that he was not a “tech head” only encouraged the perception that he was not across the detail of his own policies.

Return engagements

It’s safe to say there has not been an Australian election in living memory where so many former party leaders played such a central role. Like once great actors who can’t bear to leave the stage, in 2010 Kevin Rudd, Mark Latham, Bob Hawke, John Howard, John Hewson, and even Andrew Peacock all took turns at upstaging the young ingénues who had taken their roles.

The most tragic player was clearly Mark Latham. Rarely has an ex-politician’s desperate and transparent need for relevance been so unmatched by their ability to achieve it. No doubt he’ll think he accomplished what he set out to do, shining the spotlight on what he now says is an empty and meaningless process. But Latham looked like a buffoon and a bruiser, and ended up committing the cardinal sin of being boring.

The best return engagement was John Hewson, whose appearances on the ABC’s top-rating (three words you don’t see together very often) Gruen Nation revealed a raconteur of some skill, and a pretty insightful commentator to boot. No doubt he’ll be looking for other media gigs to capitalise on his renewed fame.

It’s strange to say Kevin Rudd had a good campaign, but in an odd way he did. Media and public sympathy was only enhanced by his illness, and whatever the result tomorrow his reputation will come out unscathed: if the ALP wins, his late intervention will be seen as a key factor; if they don’t, his ousting will be.

Bob Hawke has now effectively replaced Gough Whitlam in the pantheon of Labor greats, while John Howard’s brief return cemented the affection and regard significant sections of the electorate still hold for him. The less said about Andrew Peacock’s ill-judged comments the better.

It’s been suggested the reason for all these special guest appearances was that neither the PM nor Opposition Leader had the gravitas to pull spotlight themselves. We’re hoping that in 2013 one of them has been on the stage long enough to grow into the leading role, and that there’s no longer a part for these distracting supporting players.

Kerry and Laurie’s Excellent Adventure

This campaign has been characterised by media outlets keeping their leading journalists at home rather than lose them to the road for five weeks. This may have been what led one media commentator to call the coverage “one of the most abysmal performances I have seen from the media”. We’re not sure if that’s true, but the line of questioning about “Mr Rabbit” surely marks a new level of triviality.

But despite all the tweets, Facebook updates and FM radio interviews, the last five weeks have clearly demonstrated the traditional media’s ongoing ability to lead the political debate, set the agenda, and completely derail a campaign when they want to.

Two pivotal journalists – Laurie Oakes and Kerry O’Brien – changed the fortunes of both parties in the campaign, throwing the Labor and Coalition campaigns off the rails in a way that demonstrated these Titans’ ability to own the media cycle: Oakes by his cabinet leaks and O’Brien with his questioning of Abbott on broadband. Both journalists were at the top of their game and left politicians on both sides in their wake.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

First there were silly arguments about the format for the leaders’ debates, although what we ended up with was a forced and lifeless event. Then there was the economic debate that never was. But the most interesting new development over this campaign has clearly been the ‘people’s forums’, where Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott have been tested separately by questions without notice from voters.

In the crucial election battleground of Western Sydney, Gillard and Abbott faced a room full of swinging voters at the Rooty Hill RSL. Gillard faced a reasonably hostile audience from a pokies stool on the stage, dealing calmly with questions on the ALP factions’ involvement in Kevin Rudd’s dismissal, broken promises and bungled schemes. Abbott won the night by moving down to be amongst the people, and demonstrating his natural, folksy style with everyday Australians.

This week featured another people’s forum in another important battleground: Queensland. The forum at Brisbane Broncos Club in Red Hill used the same format as the Rooty Hill event. Both leaders positioned themselves below the podium among the people and both faced some difficult questions, Abbott on WorkChoices, broadband and election costings, Gillard on why she took away Queenslanders’ ability to determine the Prime Minister. Abbott was up first, but Gillard emerged slightly ahead according those present and media commentators.

The ABC’s Q&A debates offered viewers a different dynamic, with a mix of Labor, Liberal and swinging voters. Gillard’s polished performance was a defining moment in her campaign, producing a near perfect answer on her family status and demonstrating her sharp humour when responding to a gift of a question on Mark Latham. Abbott found the questions from the ABC’s audience more challenging, provoking a mixed response from the audience.

The people’s forums were a refreshing change from the trained political parlance practised by the press gallery and challenged the leaders to connect on a different level. We’re sure they’ll become a fixture, although the jury is still out on the need for a US-style debates commission for future campaigns.

The State(s) we’re in

The cartographer’s marks that separate the States of the Federation are often said to be accidents of history, a reminder of our colonial past that is an anachronism in our modern, borderless economy. So why are there such significant differences in the mood and temper of the state electorates? Why are those who follow Rugby League so pissed off, while those who watch AFL are so seemingly content?

Dissatisfaction with the Keneally and Bligh Governments will most likely lead to significant Labor losses in NSW and Queensland, where polling suggests they will lose four seats and eight seats respectively. Gillard has done what she can to distance herself from the NSW Government in particular. But the people of the marginal seats of Western Sydney seemingly don’t care.

The mining tax debacle and the knifing of their own PM mean the state of play in Queensland is even grimmer. The pollsters are tipping Bonner, Petrie, Leichardt, Forde, Dawson, Flynn, Dickson and possibly even Brisbane will fall to the Coaltion.

The Government will do well in progressive Victoria and possibly even South Australia, but cannot afford to lose the NT seat of Solomon. If the ALP is behind when the polls close in WA, then it’s ‘so long, farewell’ to the Gillard Government as the seats of Hasluck and Swan are tipped to swing to the Coalition.

More than Facebook and email

For all the planning and strategising done by parties before a campaign, they are unpredictable, uncontrollable events with a momentum all of their own. This was supposed to be the health and economy election, so the prominence of broadband has been a surprise to many.

The issue was a late game-changer for the Government, allowing it to promote its future-focussed bona fides against the Coalition’s apparent disinterest in the technology of tomorrow. The Coalition announced it would scrap the NBN as part of its $6 billion broadband policy, but Tony Abbott’s absence from the announcement and his later stumbles on the issue made him look out of touch and out of date.

By contrast, Julia Gillard flew to Tasmania to launch the commercial start of her $43 billion NBN, and four days later used the Labor campaign launch to link the NBN with the future health of Australians through online consultations.

Moving forward with real action

No doubt a majority of TV viewers were relieved to see the broadcast blackout kicking in on Wednesday night, especially after an intense final week of negative advertising. If you are still undecided, rest assured, online and social media advertising will continue on until tomorrow, thanks to a blackout loophole.

With the 2010 Federal Election TV advertising all wrapped up and in the can, it’s time to revisit some of the highlights and lowlights:

• First round of positive ads featuring their leaders talking about their priorities – Liberal’s Action contract ad (with that rather dated “Real Action” jingle) and Labor’s Moving Forward ad (featuring some sloppy writing).
• Labor’s series of negative advertising – Tony Abbott’s record as a health minister, economic record, and tax hikes, and “Don’t risk with Tony Abbott”.
• The Coaltion’s negative advertising saw the return of “Kevin O’Lemon”, also “Same old Labor” followed by “Same old Julia”, South Park-esque ads featuring Gillard and Keneally, Another boat and Stop Labor’s carbon tax.
• Third party advertising – with the ACTU sticking with an anti-WorkChoices theme, GetUp!’s series of commercials most notably on Abbott’s record on women’s issues, and the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies’ anti-mining tax ad.
• Perhaps the ad that generated the most buzz didn’t broadcast at all – the fake Greens ad by Republic of Everyone on Gruen Nation – If you think, vote Greens generated close to 100,000 views on YouTube.

Best quotes of the campaign

Oakes: “What do you think when I say Mark Latham?”
Gillard: “Unfortunately at the moment Laurie I think Channel Nine.”
Oakes: “Well that’s a fair cop Gov.”
- The PM and Laurie Oakes, Weekend Today, 1 August

“We really are a cross-section of the community, albeit some of the more colourful sections of the community. We’re not exactly the ‘gray suits’.”
- Fiona Patten, President of the Australian Sex Party

“Bob Hawke… had a tax summit, now if we had that today, happen before people’s eyes – ‘Oh – tax summit, imagine doing that? Imagine getting people to Canberra? Oh – why would you bother talking to anybody? Why don’t get on with leading it’ – tweet, tweet, tweet and so on.”
- The PM at yesterday’s Press Club event.

“Nice to see you Mark, and I hope you enjoy your life as a journalist.”
- The PM to Mark Latham, 7 August.

“Just as the Prime Minister says, I say as well that I’m no Bill Gates here and I don’t claim to be any kind of tech head in all of this.”
- Tony Abbott on the 7:30 Report, 10 August.

“There are some things that can’t be measured.”
- The PM on Mark Latham, Q&A, 9 August.

“Wayne Swan is to surpluses what Paris Hilton is to celibacy. They remember it once existed but they’ll never see it again.”
- Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey, 20 July.

Melcrum Social Media Conference for Internal Communications – Day two

The standard of the content, presentations and debate on the second day of Melcrum’s Social Media conference for Internal Communications was very high overall. I was madly scribbling notes all the way through. Meanwhile, others were tweeting madly to share the gems they were picking up, with a prize being given to the person who tweeted the most throughout the day.

The conference was opened by international keynote speaker Euan Semple, with his entertaining mixture of dry Scottish wit and insightful observations. These included the need for organisations, and particularly leaders, to think less in terms of justifying ROI when it comes to social media and more in terms of justifying COI, i.e. Cost of Inaction – that is, not allowing it to happen.

The first case study was from a high profile professional services firm who is using social media to successfully encourage innovation and sharing of ideas by employees through an ‘Idea Zone’ on their internal website. It also turns out that this organisation has the largest Yammer community worldwide with 3,000 employee members. Their governance approach includes a social media steering committee and also a social media response team.

Next we heard from Robin Crumby, Managing Director of Melcrum who flew in from the UK to speak. He took us through some of the key findings of Melcrum’s 2010 global research into social media adoption internally by large corporations. It was interesting to hear that half of the 2,600 respondents (19% from the Asia-Pacific region) feel that the business case for social media is clear while the other half feel it is not clear. It seems the business world is still completely divided on this point. The research revealed what communicators believe to be the three most effective uses of social media internally:

1. Getting employees to talk, share information and collaborate
2. Building communities
3. Connecting to and learning from Generation Y employees.

After lunch, Lizzy Geremia, Brand Strategy Manager at NAB talked us through a very interesting case study on the use of online event technology to engage employees in the Personal Banking part of the business in the new brand promise. Using an easy to navigate and visually interesting online conference platform, employees were able to listen and watch a recording of the business head talking in an auditorium about the brand promise and then wander through to other booths to listen to other leaders’ ‘talking heads’. Employees were able to put questions to leaders via chat functionality, as well as talk to each other, and also provide online feedback. The results were great with the event reaching nearly 50% of the population and 95% of those who completed the feedback saying they had a better understanding of NAB’s brand focus as a result.

A final highlight of the day was the case study presented by a large banking, insurance and investing services organisation. I particularly liked how they measured the levels of employee engagement with social media tools and were able to group them into champions, advisors, members or just ‘missing’. The organisation identified the need to be more collaborative and grouped their communication tools under four groupings:

Connect – online portal

Share – video channel for employees to use

Discuss – Yammer and Microsoft Office Communicator

Innovate – Magazine

A lively panel debate closed what has been an interesting and engaging conference. Perhaps the next one will take place in a virtual setting?

Melcrum Social Media Conference for Internal Communications – Day one

The two-day Melcrum Social Media conference for Internal Communications started today. So far, the most interesting thing I have got out of it is the reinforcement in my mind that appetite for social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter, or Yammer – the internal version,  is a personal thing. There’s no right or wrong, good or bad about it.

It was also encouraging to hear fellow internal communicators voicing what we already know: the more you learn about what the different tools can be useful for, the less afraid you are to use them.

The focus of the afternoon session by UK-based presenter, Euan Semple, was essentially about understanding the opportunities for harnessing the way employees are now communicating online, both inside and outside the organisation.

The session reinforced some important things:

• It’s about conversations: We emphasise all the time that great employee communication is conversation-driven. And unsurprisingly, it’s the same with social media. Social media tools are not terribly complicated. They’re really just a way of having more person to person conversations.

• Control to influence: He reinforced what we’ve also found, that one of the fears organisations have about using social media tools internally is that they appear to be disorganised and lacking in control systems – yet this is actually what makes them user-friendly. Because they are created and evolve organically, based on what the employees are interested in and want to talk about. This also means the business has more, not less, opportunity to influence what is happening. The internal communications team can tap into existing successful employee-led forums to seed questions and topics of discussion, rather than trying to push a ‘corporate’ version.

• Ask for forgiveness, not permission: Again, supporting our counsel that piloting tools and giving them a go is advisable for companies wanting to dip their toe in the social media pool. Rather than feeling that it’s absolutely necessary to first build a social media strategy and get buy-in from the whole senior team before launching a new tool, sometimes it’s just best to go out there and try it. Get a few people involved who you know are interested, for instance in a wiki or an online discussion forum, and then see how it grows. If there’s appetite for it and it turns out to be popular, it becomes a hugely useful source of knowledge and information for the organisation.

• Risk v reward: One of the things we know is top of mind for our clients when it comes to using social media is the perception that inappropriate conversations could pose a risk to the organisation’s reputation. Particularly if sensitive or damaging information gets out. And who has the resource to monitor all of this? It’s worth remembering that a) emails are not screened, yet they too can be damaging, and b) if you don’t trust your workforce, then you have a management issue, not a communication issue. Meanwhile, encouraging free and open discussion (based on a good social media policy and user guidelines) can only help to demonstrate the trust you do have in them.

• It’s not just the young who are interested: Statistics seem to show that the level of interest you may or may not have in using social media is not based on your age at all, but simply on your way of thinking. For instance, a large proportion of Facebook users are women over 30, not the typical twenty-something Gen Y-er we all might imagine.

I’m looking forward to hearing and sharing more tomorrow.

IABC World Conference 2010 – Day Three

So to the last day.

But before I get to that, I must make mention of the very enjoyable gathering that happened last night. About 18 like-minded communications folk from Australia and NZ gathered for a quick bite and a few drinks. This posse included one lady from NZ who’d won a Gold Quill of Excellence for her media relations work with the NZ potato industry. In a clear, but unintentional bid to damage international affairs, I managed to call her Potato Woman as I was trying to introduce myself. Good work Tam.  At which point, to negate any damage to Aussie/NZ relations, I tell her I’m actually British as a reason for my bumbling. She’s happy.  We move on.

Potatoes aside, the chatter round the table did lead us all to one important conclusion.  From all the sessions/idea jams/keynotes we’d attended, and content we’d absorbed, we know our work is up there with the best strategic and creative campaigns we’d seen. Something not recognised enough by our industry. With Australia taking 15 Gold Quill awards of this year’s 103 awards  – that’s just shy of 15% of the total award haul of all international markets – it’s clear, we’re delivering the best there is to deliver.

So… back to the final day, well it was half a half day, but it did not disappoint.

I first attended a session entitled Pirates of the Intranet (Arrrr Jim Lad) led by UK publisher Marc Wright (he of www.simply-communicate.com fame – a useful case study resource for internal communicators).

We explored the challenge organisations face with the internet opening up opportunities for what he called ‘pirate sites’, as employees set up websites for employees. Marc’s most pertinent point being if you don’t invest in your own intranet, make sure your own internal communications are working, these pirate sites can become the source of truth, or ‘untruth’ for employees.

He also emphasised the vital and rising importance of developing and embedding guidelines around social media behaviour, something many of our Impact clients are investing in at the moment.

Conversely, he talked about the challenge brands face when passionate consumers start to ‘take over’ your brand online. Do you leave it, or do you do something about it? Case in point. Michael Werch, formerly known as @HJ_HEINZ on Twitter, was a big fan of Heinz Tomato Ketchup and was tweeting many sweet nothings about ketchup. However, the company decided he was violating their trademark policy.  They took a heavy handed approach and successfully had his Twitter feed changed to @notHJ-HEINZ. This back-fired for Heinz.

He was not harming the brand, but is no longer tweeting about the product.  Were they right or wrong to do this? Food for thought. For more – see http://www.culture-buzz.com/blog/Being-HJ-Heinz-Lessons-Learned-from-Brand-Squatting-2522.html

The conference closed with incoming IABC chair, Shelley Bird, committing to raising the visibility of the association to its 15,000 members worldwide and to ensuring it moved ahead of what is now a rapidly changing profession.

She introduced a great keynote speaker, entrepreneur and venture capitalist – Guy Kawasaki. Guy is ex-Apple, dynamic, engaging and presented his 11 points to innovation.

He emphasises something we in the internal communications world already know. Mission statements are too long and cited the following ‘mantras’ as strong, memorable and clear for employees – Nike – ‘Authentic athletic performance’; Wendys – ‘Healthy fast food’; Fedex – ‘Peace of mind’; Ebay – ‘Democratise commerce’.  This is not new, but important to remember.

Before I close, it’s also worth noting, particularly in light of our own passion for this space through our work with our OgilvyEarth brand, the IABC has done a really good job this year of expanding its environmentally and socially responsible practices. So, it warmed the cockles of my green heart that I did not see reams of paper everywhere. Participants were encouraged to download only the information they needed, recycling bins were prominent and most marketing materials from exhibitors were online. There was also the opportunity to take part in a local community program with the Evergreen Bricks Works.

And so I now head to New York for a few days to join other Ogilvy Impact colleagues.  I leave the conference with even more confidence (if that were possible) in the bottom line value our work brings to organisations, large and small.

Good work IABC.

IABC World Conference 2010 – Day Two

Day two was surprisingly unfuzzy given last night’s awards dinner. A good thing given there was more great conference content to come.

Today, I had two specific conference highlights: The first, hearing from a spritely pair of internal communications professionals from a company called SAS, a privately-owned global business analytics company, with a head office in North Carolina, and approximately 11,000 employees across the globe.

They spoke about how effective internal communication has helped them succeed. They were credible from the outset as they’re currently ranked No 1. on Fortune magazine’s Best Companies to Work For list – http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2010/snapshots/1.html.

They spoke about how they’ve built an extremely impressive culture of trust, one based on open communication between executives and employees (importantly two-way, not top down). They’ve ensured their people have a strong voice in the organisation, no matter how remote they may be. The architect of this rare corporate culture? CEO and founder (and one with a delightful name), Dr Jim Goodnight. Goodnight had previously worked for the tightly governed NASA and decided early in his career, if he ever was to own a company, he’d do something about the work place to ensure it drove productivity.

To further support the business benefits, the people turnover was less than 2% in 2009.  Put simply, people do not leave this extremely successful business, which also bucked the trend during the last year’s turbulent economic times.

More impressively, SAS has been one of the few companies at this year’s conference which has really embraced internal web 2.0 strategies and can tell the tale of reaping the business benefits. With the help of an energised and active team around the world, its  Global Communications Council have not only utilised traditional internal communications channels, but have really made online channels work.

An impressive and tailored intranet, RSS feeds, polls, quizzes, competitions and one of the best blogging communities I’ve seen. It has built camaraderie, a strong sense of trust and a united force across a disparate business. Most importantly, the company executes with a sense of fun wherever they can – a strong lesson to those organisations choosing a more serious tone to engage.

My second highlight today was listening to the very engaging Bill Quirke – a UK consultant and author of Making the Connections: Using Internal Communication To Turn Strategy into Action. Quirke echoed much that was delivered on day one around trust and the serious focus leaders need to place on rebuilding this going forward.

He reinforced that leaders, as we know, are THE most influential channel in an organisation, and that they’re most influential when they think they’re not communicating (i.e. when they’re outside the town hall meetings or in the corridor). He highlighted the critical need to ensure they know they are ‘on’ 24/7.

Amusingly he highlighted one challenge common to many businesses: Leaders know communication is important. They get it. They say it is fundamental to business success.  And they truly believe that. They know they set the tone and the agenda. However, when asked how much time they really spend on talking to their people, the answer is usually none or very little. This is totally disproportionate to the need and to their belief in its importance. Again, something as communicators we need to address with leaders, knowing we are the facilitators, but they have to execute.

Today, however, was really topped by a young Canadian called Craig Kielburger, who I think probably put many of our own personal social responsibility efforts to shame. He spoke about he and his brother’s ‘Me to We’ philosophy, developed after more than a decade of humanitarian work www.metowe.com.  Their work has driven real social change. Very very impressive.

As internal communicators, we know the important role CSR programs can play in engaging a workforce in a company’s ‘higher intent’ and I think many of us left conference day two wondering how we too can find ways to inspire employees amongst the mundane.

There Craig stood in front of us today and what we saw was real authenticity…

IABC World Conference 2010 – Day One

This week, the home of the Blackberry (the phone not the fruit), Toronto, sees the world conference of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) which had its fill of Ogilvy Public Relations.

Scott Kronick, president of Ogilvy PR North Asia, represented us in speaking about “Brand Building in China”. Scott’s insights reflect his 19 years in Asia, complete with success stories and failures of brand building efforts. The thirst for knowledge about China was evident through a very well attended session.

However, I am here to attend sessions on employee engagement, communication and change – hear and possibly bring back new thinking.

Day one saw various themes running through a packed agenda of sessions – change management, employee communications and leadership communication.

From the first sessions, the most obvious issue presenting a significant opportunity for improvement for internal communicators, is that there is now a recognised lack of confidence in senior leadership from employees.

This problem has grown since 2003, as cited by Professor Veronica Hope Hailey, from Cass Business School in London, who has been researching change communications for over 20 years (including Australia). Interestingly, she sees real danger in 2010, that leaders will attribute the reason for this breakdown in trust to the economic downturn. And, more importantly, going into recovery will NOT rebuild trust in organisations. Leaders need to invest time in improving the way they communicate and engage, and do it better than they ever have before.

Secondly, (and unsurprisingly) all sessions I attended highlighted the strong need for authenticity in leaders. As communicators we must work with senior leaders enabling them to communicate strategy and direction in a real, authentic manner. Only then will we ensure we turn business strategy into action.

Lastly, as with all our work, driving interaction and conversation will be fundamental for success as leaders trying to engage employees in business critical initiatives.

One particular first day highlight was hearing keynote speaker, Kevin Warren, CEO and President of Xerox Canada. A leader who truly lives and breathes employee communication and engagement and one who directly attributes positive outcomes on the bottom line to their investment in this area. Even better was his inspiration – a sign he’d seen on the wall of Ford Motor Company – “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”, emphasising your strategy is nothing if you can’t get the people piece right.

Another highlight for our team must be our attendance at the prestigious IABC Gold Quill Awards dinner which saw us collect our two Gold Quills of Excellence for work with Bayer ANZ and Ford Australia, as well as a best of the best award for the Ford work. No other consultancy took as many awards and proved again, Australia and particularly Ogilvy Public Relations punches well above its weight on the world stage.

So far, Toronto has treated me well, and I’ve also managed to catch the BlueJays vs the New York Yankees before the conference started. Given Toronto is also the city of choice for this year’s very imminent G20 frivolity…  if they coped with an Ogilvy PR invasion, they’ll be OK.

More from day two to follow…

“Of course you’ll have this blog by Thursday…”

Like that statement, some lies are easier to see through than others. In PR, in fact, most lies will come back and bite you. And even in your personal lives, technology is increasingly available to contradict the confident statement that you’re “stuck at your desk and can’t get away for dinner with your mother… honest.”

A recent article discussing the ‘top ten lies’ told by men and women, below, got me interested.

In amongst the white lies  designed to curb hurt feelings (and large bums) and the guilty mutterings explaining away expensive purchases, it’s obvious that most of the time people lie about where they are.

How will this behaviour be affected by the increasing vogue for location-based social networks? FourSquare, Gowalla and even Facebook are rolling out apps to share your surroundings with the world, so what’s stopping your significant other (for example) checking up on that telephone conversation where you absolutely, definitively weren’t in the pub?

In fact, you have to be especially careful with Foursquare it seems – one user narrowly avoided a domestic after the site awarded him the ‘Hookup’ badge (given for checking in to two hotels in a short period of time, rather than any more lascivious activities). There are even sites that let burglars know you’re not at home, ostensibly set up to warn punters about the dangers of publicly shared location-based services.

Of course, a bit more honesty in the world wouldn’t be a bad thing, and the information you give is largely voluntary at the moment. But it’s still worth sparing a thought for your FourSquare footprint next time you’re “stuck in traffic”.

Twitter, PR and a New Starter at Ogilvy

We have a newcomer to the Ogilvy PR Australia team who hasn’t dabbled much with Twitter in the past. I’ve taken him under my wing and been running through a few ideas to help him become a meaningful contributor in the Twitter medium.

I wanted to emphasise to our new-comer how fantastic Twitter is for conversing with PR professionals and how effective the tool is for sharing links, building relationships and providing thought leadership. As all social media advocates say – you need to be a part of the conversation!

The process has helped me clarify just what I think makes a PR professional a worthy person to follow on Twitter. After scrolling through my list of Twitter PR’s that I follow, it was easy to see which people added value to my Twitter experience. They all seemed to follow the same Twitter value rules:

Represent your personal brand. It is important to have a good balance between professionalism and personality. We want to know about your interests outside of work as well as your specialty within the PR industry.

Provide content for your followers. Your followers expect you to share links to industry-related news stories or announcements. It is important that the links are credible, relevant and recent.

Engage with your followers. We all know that PR is about 2-way communication and it is no different in Twitter. Retweet, @reply and follow back.

It goes without saying that authenticity, transparency and accountability are essential in ethical Twitter practice.

So without further ado, I would like to introduce Koby Geddes ( @kobygeddes ).

Koby joins Ogilvy PR Australia after a year and a half at OMD as a print trader, buying ad-space for large Australian corporations. He is extremely active in social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and MySpace. He is obsessed with music and fronts a punk band outside of work hours.

In my opinion @kobygeddes will be someone to watch on Twitter!

If you have any Twitter tips for Koby or any recommendations for Twitter PR’s to follow, please let us all know!

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