Unpersonalized communication in our relational times

SPAM. Unsolicited emails. Unpersonalized invitations. Untargeted press releases.

Odds are you received some of these types of communication in the last couple of hours. You may have received a message that might have the appearance of being personalized, yet a quick scan shows that it was the simple use of a mail merge. I receive all too many of these types of messages, and I find it mind boggling in a social era in which relational transactions prevail.

According to Forrester Research, 70% of US online adults trust brand or product recommendations from friends and family; 46% trust consumer-written online reviews; while just 10% trust ads. Yet still, many brands are still living in a period in which they think unsolicited messages positively influence consumers.

I continue receiving unsolicited, impersonal correspondence from a particular hotel brand where I stayed a year ago. I had a positive experience at the hotel, but this brand would be far better off devising strategies to connect with consumers such as myself on a personal level. Find out something about me based on my previous experience with your brand and send me a targeted message. If you don’t have the means to put that type of effort into consumers such as myself, then that is fine and understandable, but then don’t send me things I don’t want. It only decreases any positive perception. This particular hotel brand would be better off providing a first class service to others guests and intimately understanding their experiences. These same guests will then – potentially – write positive reviews and thus influence my and other consumers in the future.

In my role as a public relations professional, one of my stakeholder groups is journalists. Several years ago when I first started working in higher education communications, I would send out my schools periodical newsletter to journalists via a mass mailing without a personalized note. I heard crickets. I then learned from others and came to the conclusion that rather than sending to the masses and hearing nothing, it would be better to focus on a select group with personalized messages.

Now when I send this particular newsletter, I always include a personalized note. I will highlight the piece of content that would be most relevant to the particular journalist based on my understanding of his or her beat. Often times I will get responses back in which the journalist will ask me to assist him/her for an entirely different story. That is all part of the goal of building positive media relationships, and so I view this particular form of communication as a valuable touchpoint. I should also mention that when I first send this newsletter out to this group, I mention that I will only continue sending it if they are interested. Thus, they can opt out to ensure that I won’t be sending them unwanted communications that only clutters their inboxes.

This relational form of communication not only applies to public relations practitioners, but most any other professional. You buy a new car not from a dealership or a brand per se, but rather through a particular sales person. You don’t solve customer service issues talking to the telephone recording, but rather an individual. You connect with others on social media not to be spammed, but to engage, learn and network. Corporate relations isn’t done brand to brand but ultimately person to person.

In our fast paced work environments, the urge is to get information out quickly to as many as possible. Resist the temptation to impact the masses and instead think about what you can do to deepen relationships and establish win-win collaborations on a 1-to-1 basis. I believe it will help reach business objectives more effectively. And for me, developing personal relationships is a far more rewarding and enjoyable experience!

Integrating the university communications role into the student experience

Look at any university / school communicator job posting and odds are you won’t see any mention on how the role correlates to improving the student experience. Performance reviews doubtfully will highlight how communicators can actually help educate students.

Often overlooked, I believe university communicators can play an important, direct role in students’ education. I was fortunate to join 25 MBA students from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business during their Global Academic Travel Experience to Brazil and Argentina last month. As part of my role in leading the school’s public relations activities, I organized some media interviews in both countries for some students and the professor leading the trip.

Prior to the interviews, I spent a good bit of time explaining to the students some media training basics. I was grateful for their involvement, and was pleasantly surprised when each student came back to me, thanked me for the opportunity and detailed how the experience was a real eye-opener for them. I have organized many interviews and briefings for students over the years, but for the first time it really dawned on me that I could play a more direct role in helping students learn media training skills as part of their education.

The reality is that most of the MBA students I work with aspire to be future leaders of organizations and will therefore likely have the opportunity to take part in interviews. Students in other domains may not be future spokespeople, but can also benefit from the insights gained from such an experience. I would argue that this applies to students as young as high school all the way to managers taking part in an executive education course.

Media relations is just one example of this student involvement in communications. Social media, personal and corporate branding, and blogging would be other obvious ways (and I will explore each of these areas in future blog posts). Media fragmentation necessitates that organizations mobilize ambassadors to tell the brand’s story. For schools and universities, our students are valuable first-person storytellers.

There is a great potential for a win-win as curriculum in many specialized fields of study pay little attention to communications and public relations. Meanwhile, there is a great need for increased emphasis on communications in our education. Lack of trust permeates our society and shoddy communication practice is one of many contributing factors (see the Edelman Trust Barometer). Reputable organizations like Partnership for 21st Century Skills highlight that the 3 R’s need to be supported with the 4 C’s (creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication) in primary education.

The role of the communications professional is constantly evolving. Just think about how brand journalism and owned media are so much more a part of the DNA of a communicator than a decade ago. While this change has been well communicated and accepted, I don’t believe that we have thought through and effectively articulated the role a university communicator can play in educating students (I would argue that communicators outside of an academic context can also serve this role of an educator within their organizations to a certain extent).

It would be worthwhile for university communicators to pause and contemplate this reality. Ideally, any individual working in academia has some degree of noble pursuit in knowing that his/her efforts are playing an important role in educating the next generation. This goal should also be a motivating factor in thinking through how we as communicators working in academia can further impact the student experience. The communicator as an educator enables us to add greater value to our institutions, brings even more credibility to our roles and addresses an issue plaguing society, such as the lack of trust stemming from poor communications.

Here are some questions to consider:
- How can university communicators more effectively tell our institutions’ stories by further involving students?
- Where are the opportunities to bring communications education to students?
- Are there opportunities to integrate student involvement in university communications as part of existing curricula?
- In what ways we can we provide stand-alone workshops and trainings that benefit the student and the university’s communications objectives?

These questions are just a starting point. Are there other questions here that I am missing that can serve as a foundation for further exploring this in more detail? I would be grateful for all ideas and will be exploring this theme in more detail over the upcoming months on my blog. I would also be interested in hearing examples of university communicators who are already successful in this area.

Perhaps one day in the future, it will be the industry standard for hiring managers to ask university communicator job applicants how effective they are at integrating their day-to-day role into the student’s educational experience.

Communications advice to all the people giving Marissa Mayer communications advice

It has been interesting, entertaining and alarming to see all the criticism coming at Yahoo and CEO Marissa Mayer following the leaked internal announcement from the company’s HR director to ban all telecommuting. Numerous “experts” have voiced their dismay at how the communications was handled.

Many of us enjoy being pundits and giving our opinion. Here is mine – unless you have inside information, have worked as Marissa Mayer’s communications coach, written a case study on Yahoo’s internal communications or have detailed performance evaluations of Yahoo’s different groups, it is probably best to be quiet.

External communications is one thing. Opining on how an article is written, an interview is conducted or a crisis is handled is fair game to criticize. For internal communications, unless one has real insider information, shouting out opinions from the social media and blogging rooftops is foolish.

I understand that there are many pros to telecommuting. I also know that despite all our technology and the communications tools that exist, face to face interaction can in many cases spur creativity and innovation better than any other means. For some organizations, telecommuting may make most sense. For others, it doesn’t.

Much of the criticism has been based on how morale amongst Yahoo’s telecommuters may be destroyed. Did these same people consider how effective these telecommuters have been to the company? Perhaps this group of telecommuters was underperforming and the goal of this communication was to encourage them to leave the company. For all the criticism, I haven’t seen any analysis of the telecommuters’ performance. Without knowing this, any further analysis is baseless.

Part of strategic and effective communications is knowing when to stand by and be quiet. In many cases, the best way to handle communications is to say nothing at all. Think about every time Apple launches a new product and nobody within the company says a word publicly until the product unveiling at a trade show. Or that sometimes, it makes sense for a leader to refrain from doing interviews. In some cases it is best to respond to criticism about one’s brand on social media, while other times it is advisable to stay silent.

As our mothers taught many of us, if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all. While there is no catchy phrase that I am aware of, our mothers would also instruct us on when to give our opinion based on the facts and when we should stay quiet. Too many people – especially communications experts – have forgotten our mothers’ words of wisdom in criticizing Yahoo.

What is your social media storyline?

Hypothetical – you are planning a trip to Bora Bora. You can spend hours reading books, watching videos and asking your friends about Bora Bora. Surely this will provide some insights but nothing compares to being there in person. Ditto for exploring any social media channel. Strategizing will only take you so far and sometimes you just need to dabble to learn more. That said, it is important to have a guiding framework when thinking about social media.

I attended a conference recently and heard a brilliant analogy from an engaging speaker named Lydia Leavitt on how to approach social media strategy by comparing it to a movie or television program’s storyboard. This involved defining a goal, premise, characters, audience and overarching story theme related to your brand. The storyboard then serves as a guide to ensure that your voice and story are on message.

To exemplify this, Lydia used the example of the Jersey Shore. By way of background, I have never watched this show. From what I have read and heard, the shows represents much about what is wrong with our society. That disclaimer out of the way, Lydia described the Jersey Shore’s goal, premise, characters, audience and overarching story theme. In a nutshell, the show’s main objective is to use alcohol-induced party situations to consistently engage a young audience. The show cancelled when one of the main protagonists gets pregnant and the other enters alcohol rehabilitation as the partying environment targeted to young adults went off script.

The message for brands is to stick to the storyline. Every social media update is a means to further engage the target audience and tell the brand’s story. At the same, there is also the risk to damage your brand by going off script.

I have thought this through for both my workplace brand as well as for my own individual professional storyline. For the latter, my work in progress storyboard is as follows:

Goal: Highlight trends in global communications and learning development.

Premise: Individuals aren’t fully harnessing the power of social media and the internet for lifelong learning; people / brands need to further realize their ability to communicate directly with global audiences.

Audience: Colleagues within my workplace and industry; individuals generally interested in various aspects of communication and education.

Characters: Myself; individuals within my workplace and the business school industry; respected peers in the communications and education worlds.

Story: From my reading, listening and experiences, my perspectives on public relations, global communications, social media, and learning can benefit others.

While I am passionate about my Christian faith, sports and politics, I generally stay away from these topics as delving into them may not be relevant to my target audience and isn’t related to the end goal.

What about you? What is your storyboard? It is well worth thinking this through either for yourself individually or if you represent an organization on social media.  Answers can help you define a voice and keep you away from off topic content.

Restoring trust through open communications

Do you trust banks’ press releases? When a Fortune 500 CEO gives a talk about the company’s outlook, is he/she believable? Do you think organizations’ claims about being sustainable and environmentally friendly are really accurate? Do you feel that your superiors and senior leadership are honest?

If you reflect public opinion, odds are your answers to all these questions are an emphatic no. Edelman’s 2013 Trust Barometer released on January 22 revealed that less than one-fifth of the general public believes business leaders and government officials will be honest when dealing with a difficult issue. The trend is rather universal as the global public relations firm surveyed over 31,000 individuals in 26 global markets.

As a communicator, I ask myself what our profession can do to help restore the trust of different publics. After all, we as communicators and public relations professionals are responsible for managing the reputations of the organizations we represent. While visiting Switzerland, I discussed this topic with communications expert and executive coach Susan Goldsworthy, the former Vice President of Communications at Tetra Pak and the co-author of a new book entitled Care to Dare.

The research and the contents of the book delve into this subject. She believes that it starts at the top, and often times CEOs and senior leaders are not trained in communications and fail to understand the consequences of different words and actions. Our system itself doesn’t facilitate effective communications. Ingrained early on in life through our educational system, we are led to believe that authority figures (teachers) dictate what are the right and wrong answers.

“The old system emphasizes the importance of not showing weakness,” explains Goldsworthy. “But actual research reveals being human and showing empathy brings about engagement, while the leader who ‘has all the right answers’ may actually repel others.”

Goldsworthy talks about the importance of leaders showing care (a sense of belonging) while also demonstrating dare (emphasizing a need to achieve). This isn’t easy when all too often the board dictates orders to the CEO and then he / she cascades this ultimatum down to managers and throughout the organization. “If there is a threat, there is no trust. Managers won’t take risks and this stifles creativity and innovation.” Instead of top-down cascades, we should think of communications in waves, flowing back and forth, across all parts of the organization, says Goldsworthy.

As we are all unaware of blind spots, Goldsworthy notes that feedback, dialogue and the ability to listen our critical. “To use a sporting analogy, think about if Roger Federer is making tactical mistakes in a match during Wimbledon. The coach will tell him the mistakes right away rather than waiting six months. Yet in organizations, we rely on once a year feedback in the form of annual evaluations.”

It is my belief that communications professionals can play a role in being that coach when it comes to regularly advising senior leadership on communications matters negatively impacting the organization. All too often, we place emphasis on training senior leadership for media interviews and communications to external audiences. While we indeed need to evolve in how we support senior leadership in external communication in our social media age to help restore trust, we also need to consider how we can advise leaders in some of these subtler forms of internal communications.

This is no easy task. Providing senior leadership (the bosses) with honest feedback about how different communications may be coming off negatively requires diplomacy, tact, confidence and trust. It certainly isn’t a comfortable conversation. But we need to find a way to get to this point.  It is in the organization and leader’s best interest. Such guidance and feedback could go a long ways towards restoring internal trust, which is a step in the right direction towards re-gaining the public’s confidence. As the Edelman Barometer reveals, we have a long ways to go.

Bucking the western trends – the media landscape in India

Contrary to the media landscape in much of the west, Indian publications are seeing increased readership numbers.

Trivia – which newspaper listed has the highest circulation?

a)     The Times of London

b)     The New York Times

c)     The Wall Street Journal

d)     The Times of India

Ok, you probably guessed correctly letter “D” as the title of this blog post gave away the answer. However, I would assume that the average person on the street would answer incorrectly if they didn’t have such a clue. (The actual daily circulation numbers during the week are Times of London 400,120, The New York Times 1,586,757, The Wall Street Journal 2,092,523 and The Times of India 3,140,000). Yet for many PR agencies and organizations, generating coverage in the Times of India wouldn’t nearly hold the same traction as the other three outlets mentioned.

Obviously, media relations goals should be aligned to the organization’s overall strategy. Nevertheless, I think it is worth weighing in India’s unique demographics and evolving media landscape when thinking through your overall public relations.

Earlier this month, I was able to experience “Incredible India” first-hand when I attended a media conference in Mumbai. It was truly amazing to see the masses of people and street vendors throughout the city.  Mumbai makes New York City seems like the countryside!

The country surely has many challenges (Ed Luce brilliantly highlights these challenges in his book In Spite of the Gods). One cannot feel overwhelmed by the poverty and slums. But India also has many positives going for it, including a young populace. Over 50% of Indians are under 25; in 2020 the median age in India will be 29. This fact, together with India’s economic growth in recent years, explains why Indians are becoming more connected. India has the second most Facebook users behind the United States. In an interesting piece entitled Predicting the Indian Market for 2013: How Will Apple, Google, Facebook, Samsung and Amazon Fare?, Vinodh Bhat looks at why India is an ideal country for consuming mobile content and why this will accelerate in the years ahead.

As a result of some of these demographic attributes, India is defying many of the trends in the media space that developed western countries are facing. While publications like The Rocky Mountain News and Oakland Tribune in the United States are resting in peace at the graveyard, India has seen an explosion of new outlets in recent years. Within business publications for example, Mint newspaper was launched in collaboration with the Wall Street Journal in 2007, Fortune India started in 2010 and Forbes India hit the newsstands in 2009, among others. These three outlets have established strong readership numbers in their short respective existences. Wikipedia’s entry for Newspapers in India reveals a massive overview of different publications. Newspaper sales and mobile in-take continue to rise. In contrast, visit the web site Newspaper Death Watch to see a far different reality in the United States.

Visibility in these Indian outlets reaches a range of different socio-economic classes. While there is obvious and heart-breaking poverty in India, there is also considerable wealth. India has 61 billionaires according to Forbes’ blogger Naazneen Karmali. The country produces about twice as many engineering and computing graduates as America, according to a piece in The Economist. In addition, Indian expats around the world still flock to their home media outlets. According to the 2010 US Census, Indian Americans (over 3 million people; 1 percent of the American population) had the highest household income of all ethnic groups in the United States. Indian Americans are far more educated than the American average.

My suggestion: don’t overlook a country like India in your media relations efforts. Perhaps there will be a day in the future when clients make the Times of India a priority to the same degree they would the New York Times!

Communications advice from Mexico’s Tourism Secretary – “Focus on your Assets”

Gloria Guevara Manzo speaking at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Let’s play word association – what is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word Mexico? Do you think of Mexico’s beautiful beaches? Immigration? Danger? Or do you think about some other unique and positive attribute of Mexico?

Gloria Guevara Manzo contemplates such questions as the country’s Tourism Secretary. She’s had to alter perception about Mexican tourism to emphasize more than just beaches while also overcoming the perfect storm of the global financial crisis, the swine flu disease, and security issues that was keeping tourists away from the country back in 2009.  She led a number of initiatives that have helped Mexico shatter its previous records for national and international tourism and generate 18 consecutive months of growth in the industry. Key to this was proactively communicating the unique attributes of Mexico and countering any negativity head on.

I had the opportunity to speak with Guevera when she was at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business Latin America Student Symposium held on November 14. She discussed with me the keys to Mexico’s tourism turnaround and provided some tips to MBA students, many which apply to individuals trying to promote either their corporate and/or individual brands. Here are some of these key insights:

1) Engage stakeholders and collaborate in communicating a unified message. Guevera discussed the importance of getting others to tell the positive Mexican tourism story. These stakeholders ranged from Mexican President Felipe Calderon – who declared 2011 as the year of tourism in the country – to celebrities, tourists, expats and CEOs. “Be inclusive. Along with communicating proactively yourself, also be sure to collaborate with others and have them help in delivering a unified message,” says Guevera.

2) Focus on your assets. Communications and marketing campaigns countered some of the negative news and highlighted the unpublicized aspects of Mexico, such as its culture, gastronomy, adventure, and sustainability. “We told our story,” she said. “We used testimonials to set the record straight when necessary and to tell unique aspects of Mexico. We engaged in an aggressive PR strategy in conjunction with the Mexican private sector that led to more than 800 interviews and also complimented this with ad campaigns. We took a holistic approach and combatted fire with fire.”

3) Embrace uncertainty. In facing some of the perception obstacles and external challenges several years ago, Guevera shared an interesting quote:  “When it is dark, one can better see the stars”. She explained the importance of going after opportunities that others can’t see because of the conditions and noted that “you can never have all of the information at your disposal, but you can be clear on the end goal and not lose focus of it.”

So in conclusion, which stakeholders could you bring on to help you tell your story? Are you focusing on all your assets in your communications? Are there positive areas that are being overlooked about your brand, be it corporate or personal? Are you embracing the unknown and potential opportunities that could result? Just as was the case for Mexico’s tourism industry, I trust that heeding these lessons will help all of us increase the chances of achieving key goals.