20 Hats: Thinking Cap

Blog Policy Police

Clients and reporters alike have asked me recently whether I think a business should have a blog policy in regards to its employees’ postings (both on personal sites and the company’s site) about the organization..

I have mixed emotions on this topic.

I believe strongly in freedom of speech and its protection. However, I also think that any organization has a right to monitor and control what its employees are publishing about that organization.

This is especially true if the information is libelous, proprietary, or in violation of another employee’s or client’s privacy.

I think the best blog policy is simply an extension of your employment agreement. It should remind employees that harassing behavior, sharing of trade secrets, disclosure of proprietary information, etc., whether made verbally or electronically, is not tolerated. Many fields, such as health care, deal with patient or client information that must be kept confidential, and those restrictions should apply to blogging as well.

A good policy should also remind employees that the personal image they portray on the Internet will impact the public’s perception of their employer. In particular employees of non-profit organizations or organizations that work with children, should be careful of what they say and who they openly associate with on the Internet.

Charlene Li of Forrester Research, provides the following sample policy on her blog:

1. Make it clear that the views expressed in the blog are yours alone and do not necessarily represent the views of your employer.
2. Respect the company’s confidentiality and proprietary information.
3. Ask your manager if you have any questions about what is appropriate to include in your blog.
4. Be respectful to the company, employees, customers, partners, and competitors.
5. Understand when the company asks that topics not be discussed for
   confidentiality or legal compliance reasons.
6. Ensure that your blogging activity does not interfere with your work commitments.

Age Defying Branding

At the age of 5, my son can “read.” Okay, maybe not read, but recognize every retail logo on the face of the earth. He can also tell you the names of three of the biggest ice cream chains in the country.

How can a kindergartener that only recently learned how to tie his own shoes, readily identify hundreds of logos and tell you what each company offers? BRANDING.

Not advertising. BRANDING. My son has never seen a Starbucks ad (Starbucks doesn’t advertise), yet he knows that you buy coffee at Starbucks.

What Starbucks has done so well that a 5-year-old can grasp it is to establish a brand and stick to it.

Most organizations feel the need to tinker with their logo, tagline and messaging every 12 to 24 months. This tinkering confuses your customers.

Al Reis writes in his book The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding that a brand is not built overnight. Reis says that success is measured in decades. For example, BMW has been the ultimate driving machine for over 25 years.

Reis also suggests that a brand should own a word in the mind of the consumer like Starbucks owns the word coffee.

What one word do you own?

Marketing Budgets

I’m often asked how much a company should budget for marketing. People expect to me have the answer, but I don’t.

Why? Because no two organizations are alike. What works for one wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) work for another. Just because your competitor spends 10 percent of sales each year on advertising doesn’t mean 1) its effective or 2) that you should.

I prefer zero-based budgeting for the following three reasons:

1. You have to have a marekting plan. You can’t justify how much you’ll need without a plan in place and tactics outlined.
   
   
2. You’ll trim the fat. Planning from zero each year makes you ruthless. You’ll take the time to evaluate and cut programs that didn’t work.
   
   
3. Better ROI. By having a plan and having to justify your activities, each dollar you spend is a “smart” marketing dollar that is an investment toward achieving specific, measurable objectives.

Relationship or Transaction: What do you want from your outside consultants?

At 20 Hats, we've spent a lot of time during the past few months discussing the attributes of our firm's "ideal" client. One of the biggest things we've discovered is that we want to work with clients who view our engagement with them as a relationship and not a transaction or one-night stand.

What's the difference?

When a transaction happens, you have two parties involved. One provides a product or service, and the other pays for it. End of story.

According to David Maister, building a relationship with clients leads to many benefits: less fee resistance, more future work, more referrals to new clients, and more effective and harmonious work relationships with the clients.

My guess is that most clients would also say they want a relationship with their vendors and consultants. However, many of them seem to make their buying decisions based on project cost and short term impacts - the very essence a of one-night stand.

Hmmmm, does that mean that many organizations have been burned in the past and are no longer willing to commit to more than a quickie with their outside consultants? Probably.

If we as consultants (or even as clients) want to be treated with the respect, we better start treating each other with the love and respect you gave your spouse while you were dating (before you got too comfortable). Be on your best behavior. Be honest. Be supportive. And most importantly, be trustworthy. According to Maister, you must do something for the other person to give them the evidence on which they can base their decision to choose to trust you. You must be willing to give in order to get.

Posted by Danielle Ezell, APR

Brochure Burnout

One of the most frequent requests we get from clients is that they need a new brochure. Sure a brochure is an appropriate form of communication for some circumstances, but many people, especially sales people, attribute way too much power to this multi-colored, tri-folded, sheet of paper.

If a member of your team is telling you that they need a brochure in order to do their job, they may not be the right person for the poosition! People, not a sheet of paper, make sales. If they can’t close a deal without marketing collateral, they won’t be able to make a sale with it either.

So when do you need a brochure?

Trade shows and other events when you won’t have time to talk to each prospect individually.

As a leave behind. Provide marketing collateral to a prospect at the end of an appointment AFTER they are already interested in your service or product. The piece gives your contact the opportunity to learn more about you while also giving them something to show their boss when they go to him/her asking for money for your product or service.

As reference material. This is especially important if you’re selling products or services that may have a lot of different options to chose from and the buyer needs to time to ogle over the various options. Remember the last time you bought a car? I bet you took the brochure home first and repeatedly looked at the colors and options that were available.

by Danielle Ezell, APR

What reporters want: Online news rooms

With last minute deadlines looming over their heads, reporters don’t have time to put hours of research into finding a good public relations or communications contact when writing a story. To save time, many reporters are using the Internet as a research tool. However, they are running into the problem of not knowing exactly where to look on a company’s Web site for basic company information or public relations’ and communications’ contact numbers.

Companies often build Web site content around potential customers or investors. These Web sites will more than likely include a brief history of the company, list of services, whom to contact to purchase a product and a customer help-line number. While this information is exactly what your customers may be looking for, it’s not quite enough for reporters.

The best way to guide reporters to the proper information is by having an identifiable media room on your company’s Web site. The most important thing about the media room is making sure it has the information reporters may be looking for. Some of these items include:

• Public relations/communications contact information
• Recent news releases
• Company history
• Brief explanation of company activities
• Company fact sheet
• Bios on the organization’s key people
• Photo gallery
• Annual reports (for business reporters)

Finding these items in a central location allows reporters to research an organization at their own depth and pace. It also relieves the stress of having to call five different departments just to get in touch with a public relations professional.

Here’s what local experts have to say about media rooms:

Paul Monies, business reporter, The Oklahoman: “Media rooms are usually either the first or second place I visit on Web sites of companies I'm not familiar with … nothing is more frustrating than seeing a press release with no contact information at the top, or just an e-mail address. Despite everything being high-tech and people being tethered to their BlackBerries, I'm still looking for phone numbers above all else.”

David Page, reporter, The Journal Record: "I often visit company media rooms for different levels of research – to determine if we want to do an article, for historic information about a company and to see previous releases. I also use media rooms to localize national wire articles, such as finding out how many stores a national company has locally."

Shane Kempton, Phase 2 Interactive: "Most of the Web sites we develop have some type of media room. The trend we’re encouraging our client to be a part of is providing interactive media like audio and video files. It’s often more effective to have Web site visitors view your latest commercial or listen to a PSA than have them read lots of press releases. High-speed Internet connections and seamlessly incorporating video into the Web site experience have allowed us to further explore this type of interactive communications."

Jennifer Mock, reporter, The Oklahoman: “I go straight to the media part of a company's Web page. I read recent press releases and read about the company. Good media rooms have clear press releases, sortable by year and month. They also have an ‘about us’ section that gives the media a quick snapshot of a business they may have never heard of before.”

by Megan Myers