The Communications Vault

It’s been a long overdue task posting here on the Vault and I welcome the invite! I’m a geek by trade as most of you know (or are about to find out). Actually we spell it G33K - the 3’s make it geekier by nature! I’ll try to tone it down a bit, but consider this your warning prior to reading on that this is a g33ky entry.

Often in a normal work week I get asked many questions regarding web development. These questions are on a wide range of topics including Flash, Accessibility, XHTML, CSS… you get the idea. With more and more companies becoming enlightened in the ways of existing content management frameworks, a question that comes up often is: “Which is the right solution for me, a pre-built content management system like Joomla!, Drupal, WordPress (for blogging), or Ektron…or a custom tool that JPL would code specific to my needs?”

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The old adage “Know thyself” is not as valuable as “Know thy audience” when communicating to others. So many times we make creative or content decisions based on our own window to the world. I was at lunch with my peers last week and a fellow producer commented on a commercial that is on the air for a casino. He thought it was ridiculously bad, but his dad loved it. Guess what? Dad, a senior, is the target audience for that commercial. It doesn’t matter what we think about the message, it’s all about being effective with the audience who is receiving it.

At JPL, “Who’s the audience?” is one of our first questions we ask our customers. When the client says the target is “everybody” or “middle-aged men,” that’s not much to go on. We dig deeper. The more accurately we define who is receiving the message, the more effective we can be in shaping the message to their needs and interests.

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This past weekend, I was in Atlanta meeting with a group of integrated communications and media production executives from all across the country called e-CAMP. While these companies share much in common, we also have evolved differently based on our clients, markets and the passions of the leaders.

Some of the companies have expanded into producing original programming for television, DVD and the Internet. Some have even started new divisions to focus on these types of opportunities. JPL has experience with original programming, producing Cars at Carlisle for Carlisle Productions and the Speed Channel, producing educational documentaries for the Pa Veterans Museum and recently completing a program on the Harris Cup, a renowned miniature golf tournament. Other companies in our group who have expanded into original programming include Mills - James in Columbus, OH, Interface Media Group in Washington, DC and AMS Production Group in Dallas, TX.

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In the first two posts in this series, I talked about developing your corporate blog strategy and defined the different types of corporate blogs. I’ll conclude this series with some tips on marketing your blog and some helpful notes before you start blogging.

Marketing Your Corporate Blog

So, you have defined your target audience. You know everything about your demo - what they like to read, watch, and eat. You have developed a strategy for your blog. Now it’s time to get your blog out to the masses. Remember that your blog is an extension of your brand and you should market this tool as you would your website. Some quick marketing tips:

• Email your customer base and inform them about the blog.
• Post a banner or link on your current site to the blog.
• Send a postcard or do an offline campaign promoting your blog.
• Submit your blog to the blog search engines and social networks such as Digg or Technorati.
• Plug your blog at presentation and trade shows.
• Encourage your employees to be enthusiasts and advocates of your blog.
• Add your blog link to your email signature.

There are some great articles on the web about marketing your blog. I recommend Googling the topic and reading some of these articles.

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People read blogs for multiple reasons. A recent survey by Vizu Answers and Advertising Age revealed that 65.7 % of the respondents read blogs for entertainment; 42.5 % read blogs to learn more about their personal interests/hobbies; 32.5 % for education; 13.1 % because they have a relationship with the author; and 12.3 % read them for work or business needs.

There are many different types of blogs. We can group blogs by media delivery, such as a text blog, a video blog (vlog), a mobile blog, or a photo blog. We can group blogs by subject matter or genre, such as industry, political, travel, etc. And we can group blogs as “personal” or “corporate.” In this post, I’d like to discuss the different types of corporate blogs.

Corporate Blogs

According to Wikipedia, 40 (or 8%) of the Fortune 500 companies are blogging today. JupiterResearch estimates that nearly 70% of all large companies use blogs in some way. There are three main types of corporate blogs: internal communication, external company insight and external subject matter experts. Read the rest of this entry »

Lately, I’ve been receiving a lot of inquiries about blogs. These questions are justified as blogs become more and more popular. Blogs are the place where people are getting their news, expressing their views and releasing “behind the scenes” info. But the real questions are, “Is a blog right for you and your company?” and “How do you use a blog to advance your corporate brand?”

I’m going to make an assumption that if you are reading this post you are familiar with blogs. If not, Wikipedia offers a great definition. I like to define “blogging” as:

• An e-Marketing tactic that should be used as a part of your overall e-Marketing and web site strategy in conjunction with other tactics such as SEO, PPC, e-mail, etc.
• A tactic that should be aligned to complement your traditional media program in timing and in content.
• A PR tool that serves as a voice for a subject-matter expert.
• A form of CGM (consumer-generated media) and Web 2.0.
• A viral marketing technique.
• Finally and most importantly, an extension of your corporate brand.

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Recently, I spoke to a group of training professionals who are members of the local chapter of ASTD (American Society of Training and Development ) about current use of learning technologies. As part of the program, we used an interactive response system to engage the attendees and gauge their experiences and attitudes on the subject.

While 85% of the participants said they were currently using learning technologies, only 10% said they were using them consistently to reach more learners and make the content more memorable.

So, what’s getting in their way? The attendees sighted the following as barriers to the adoption of learning technologies: “vision of leaders in the training/learning area, technology infrastructure, lack of success and too many other priorities.” Here, I was surprised to see that no one selected organization management. At least with this group, they felt that their management understood the potential value of e-learning in their organization and were more supportive than in the past. Read the rest of this entry »

Where do good creative ideas come from? How do we maintain a fresh creative approach? How do we keep our work from becoming predictable?These are tough questions that creative professionals face every day. Developing good creative is more than just thinking up cool ideas. It’s an organic process that grows out of a specific business need to change a target audience in a particular way (see my post, “Making Change”).

Actors can provide great insight into the creative process. Their work in plays and films forces them to make thousands of creative choices. Every line, every look, every gesture requires a conscious choice.

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As we all reflect on the passing year, I can’t help but think about my accomplishments as a human resource professional, and the amazing talent we have added to our team. As I’ve been flipping through the recruiting files, I noticed how many of our new talents have come from outside the Central PA area. This fact caused me to ponder what drew these creative experts to our humble abode (besides the amazing HR director at JPL). As we are constantly expanding our quest to find outstanding team members, it is important to understand what selling points we can leverage to bring more talent to our market.

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Here’s a news flash: Things aren’t always what they seem.

This reality gap is especially true in communications. As business people and communicators, we have messages to distribute and stories to tell. The goal of our messages is to create change in a target audience… to get them to believe, buy, understand, act or learn.

So if we tell them what we want them to know, why don’t they listen? Why don’t they act? Because what we think we said isn’t always the reality of what our audience heard. Read the rest of this entry »