Adverts for newspapers are encouraging us to be "Great, Britain" in 2012. Such an important comma between those two words but how do we become 'Great' in the world of PR and Communications? What are the new challenges that we as PR professionals and the businesses we communicate on behalf of, must overcome to be 'Great' in 2012.
Is it time to throw away the comms text books? Perhaps not but it is time to tear out whole chapters and insert new ones. Social media isn't a new idea in PR but its place is ever evolving and presents new challenges to businesses and PR professionals alike.
PR used to be judged by how many column inches were secured. There have always been flaws with that such as the value people present are always based on 'rate card' advertising prices. The Advertising Equivalent Value is £XYZ the PR Manager/Director would bellow executives as a justification of their worth. 2011 was the year that such measures of judging comms/PR finally became ineffectual and, worse than that, wholly misleading.
It could be argued that the best PR professionals are now the hardest to gauge. A dilemma for a business - for these professionals can make one Tweet, one Facebook post and make things happen for your business. They can set a ball rolling that you will never fully realise but will certainly feel the effects of either directly or indirectly.
I recently made a simple video filmed mostly on my iPhone. It gained masses of tv, radio, online a physical press as well as over 3000 YouTube hits. It would have been a incredible figure based on old school advertising value equivalent figures. So much of that exposure would not have been picked up though. Not one of those YouTube views would have been calculated by any "cuttings service" though, not one of my tweets would have been attributed any particular worth. How useless a service then that cannot gauge the effect every tweet has every day, hour, minute, second? Furthermore, not one relationship building tweet that led to other opportunities would have been recognised by these methods.
These are different times and PRs need to morph quickly, if they haven't already, or leave the arena. Some will advocate new roles (for themselves to fill of course) but it won't be the same. The "old school" may accuse you of being self-serving, self-promoting but pay no attention. Those that cannot keep up have always sought to "have concerns" over how the innovators do things - the once vilified Steve Jobs at Apple anyone?
The other day a comms person in my industry, that should know better, accused another of being self-serving - I was gobsmacked. I really rate the person they were referring to. It's a shame the person that made the comment so obviously doesn't "get it." It's essential we all do.
Great comms people today will still use all the traditional tools of their trade though. No comms professional should ever arrive at your business unable to hit the PR ground running. The best PR have always come with a host of contacts that are either relevant, or can put them in touch with people who are. If they don't have that the smart businesses always smell a rat.
These days businesses can buy in contact information. It costs thousands, though has some uses, but it will never be a replacement for actually knowing your contacts. There's also a case to say that such purchases are unnecessary for those that can be bothered to build their own. After all, you are already speaking to the media aren't you? You know where to look don't you?
The savvy PR will engage directly with the media, customers and other key stakeholders via social media, picking up a phone, going to see them. The less savvy turn themselves into professional administration managers and comms of a bygone age. Sure, still professional - but more admin rather than comms focussed.
Comms teams can still use alternatives like email newsletters, for now, but be smarter. Embed video links, use 'one liners' to encourage click through. The click through should then land on your website or socmed portal and so drive up hits to your website and YouTube channel alike. This will increase consumption of your messages and your improve your search engine optimisation.
Do all of the above though and soon enough you'll see others in your team get results, perhaps even bigger results than you, if they care enough about what they are doing even if they've been unable to previously. After all, PR does not mean posting an article yourself on the website belonging to someone else and those that just employ this or traditional methods will find it hard to exist in modern PR.
The modern day PR needs the trust of their CEO and company if they are to be 'Great.' They need to be allowed to innovate, shoulder criticism from others that do not really understand or fully use social media, cope with others stealing the credit for their ideas and be part of a 24/7 business. Businesses, embrace those in your teams that do this. Don't ostracise them as you can bet they are the ones that want the best for your business if they are going to these efforts and they are the ones that can deliver too. PR professionals, it is our job to "Get it" then "Get on with it."
Be brave in 2012 everyone. Be 'GREAT.'
.
Showing posts with label Lee O'Hanlon Bromford Communications. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lee O'Hanlon Bromford Communications. Show all posts
Monday, 2 January 2012
Saturday, 3 December 2011
Trusting in you at Bromford
Colleague engagement: two words that strike fear into the breast of many a manager, and indeed their employees. But for us, it is very simple. We believe that to be happy at work we must help our employees to feel comfortable enough to be themselves in the workplace.
We encourage our colleagues to bring their personalities to work, not foster a persona that bears little relation to their life and relationships outside the job. To stifle someone's personality at work is positively Dickensian; why, as a business, include personality description in a job specification and then fail to make use of it? You wouldn't buy an expensive computer system and then leave it standing dormant.
Our internal social media platform, Yammer, has no rules and actively encourages our people to say what they think about their work. It provides an informal link for everyone who wants to join in, including the most senior colleagues in the organisation.
We encourage customer service staff to be themselves in their relationship with tenants. We ask them to give honest, no-nonsense advice, make the most of every conversation, recognise everyone's differences and show enthusiasm and individualism.
Equally, we don't prevent the use of social media at work but actively encourage it. If you use it at home, we trust you to use it here – just make sure you think before you tweet. We encourage a culture where it's OK to break the rules when it's the right thing to do. We don't want to find our people hiding behind policy and procedure.
Who we are, our experiences, our ideas and our interests are all part of what makes us individuals and the employees we become. We identify this in people right from the start of the recruitment process, where we'll just as likely gain an insight into the real abilities and motivations of a candidate by playing a board game with them as discussing their CV.
Once in post, we encourage colleagues to take ownership of their role and help to steer the future of the organisation. We motivate everyone to be an active, not passive, member of the Bromford community. Nothing is more motivating to colleagues than to know their ideas matter and there is a mechanism to make sure those ideas are heard throughout the organisation.
Our advice to others is: be a 3D business. Engage your people in what you do, how you do it and why you do it. Learn from other people and unashamedly incorporate the best of those ideas into your business. Most of all, ban the words "staff" and "department". Nobody spends lives their life in a department and shares lunch with staff. We are colleagues, and we work in teams.
We encourage our colleagues to bring their personalities to work, not foster a persona that bears little relation to their life and relationships outside the job. To stifle someone's personality at work is positively Dickensian; why, as a business, include personality description in a job specification and then fail to make use of it? You wouldn't buy an expensive computer system and then leave it standing dormant.
Our internal social media platform, Yammer, has no rules and actively encourages our people to say what they think about their work. It provides an informal link for everyone who wants to join in, including the most senior colleagues in the organisation.
We encourage customer service staff to be themselves in their relationship with tenants. We ask them to give honest, no-nonsense advice, make the most of every conversation, recognise everyone's differences and show enthusiasm and individualism.
Equally, we don't prevent the use of social media at work but actively encourage it. If you use it at home, we trust you to use it here – just make sure you think before you tweet. We encourage a culture where it's OK to break the rules when it's the right thing to do. We don't want to find our people hiding behind policy and procedure.
Who we are, our experiences, our ideas and our interests are all part of what makes us individuals and the employees we become. We identify this in people right from the start of the recruitment process, where we'll just as likely gain an insight into the real abilities and motivations of a candidate by playing a board game with them as discussing their CV.
Once in post, we encourage colleagues to take ownership of their role and help to steer the future of the organisation. We motivate everyone to be an active, not passive, member of the Bromford community. Nothing is more motivating to colleagues than to know their ideas matter and there is a mechanism to make sure those ideas are heard throughout the organisation.
Our advice to others is: be a 3D business. Engage your people in what you do, how you do it and why you do it. Learn from other people and unashamedly incorporate the best of those ideas into your business. Most of all, ban the words "staff" and "department". Nobody spends lives their life in a department and shares lunch with staff. We are colleagues, and we work in teams.
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
National Influence - what's that all about?
In my last blog (read it below the one) I touched on vision. In this blog I'm going to talk about national influence and the type of vision required achieving that. I’m not going to bore you with the complexities but rather briefly signpost the way forward.
To even begin to reach a position of national influence in communications for any organisation, it has to decide what that means to them:
• Is it a supporting role to bridge the gap between the core business and political lobbying in which it can top and tail the efforts of an executive board?
• Is it part of the overall strategy to grow a business and bring new business on board either directly or indirectly?
• Where a business has multiple brands, is it to help grow awareness of them and the work they do/ products they have?
• Should you turn your back on the brands and concentrate on the core business?
To do the latter would surely be to the detriment of both brands and core business. That said one can only do so much so we have to ask ourselves how best to spend our time.
A huge part of national influence can be achieved through talking and listening. A very difficult thing to qualify so it takes a brave and trusting organisation to charge someone with that role – to understand there is no mathematical or work evaluation that can identify where, or even if, it is having an impact. Nonetheless, for those brave enough to enter this arena the unseen rewards can be endless.
Profile = national influence. Don’t underestimate the importance of a simple tweet exchange between your communications professional and the media.
These days some of my most effective work is done via private DMs (Direct Messages) on Twitter and Facebook.
I’m presently working on a temporary contract at Bromford Group and it’s really refreshing to see the trust they put in all their colleagues. They take the view that they trust their people with the most vulnerable in society and to going into other people’s homes, so they have decided they should trust them online too. It takes a brave business to do that but a wise one nonetheless.
It is as much about talking to people face to face, by telephone, email or social media as it ever will be about your next press release.
So to the questions posed at the start:
• Yes it can top and tail to any lobbying and increase its effectiveness.
• Yes it should be part of your overall business strategy and can bring new business.
• Yes it should include growing awareness of brands.
• Of course it should play a key role in brand communications.
Allow your communications professional charged with national influence to cherry pick the projects they work on to the benefit of national influence – trust them like Bromford trust their people with social media – have vision.
The future’s bright – the future’s influence.
To even begin to reach a position of national influence in communications for any organisation, it has to decide what that means to them:
• Is it a supporting role to bridge the gap between the core business and political lobbying in which it can top and tail the efforts of an executive board?
• Is it part of the overall strategy to grow a business and bring new business on board either directly or indirectly?
• Where a business has multiple brands, is it to help grow awareness of them and the work they do/ products they have?
• Should you turn your back on the brands and concentrate on the core business?
To do the latter would surely be to the detriment of both brands and core business. That said one can only do so much so we have to ask ourselves how best to spend our time.
A huge part of national influence can be achieved through talking and listening. A very difficult thing to qualify so it takes a brave and trusting organisation to charge someone with that role – to understand there is no mathematical or work evaluation that can identify where, or even if, it is having an impact. Nonetheless, for those brave enough to enter this arena the unseen rewards can be endless.
Profile = national influence. Don’t underestimate the importance of a simple tweet exchange between your communications professional and the media.
These days some of my most effective work is done via private DMs (Direct Messages) on Twitter and Facebook.
I’m presently working on a temporary contract at Bromford Group and it’s really refreshing to see the trust they put in all their colleagues. They take the view that they trust their people with the most vulnerable in society and to going into other people’s homes, so they have decided they should trust them online too. It takes a brave business to do that but a wise one nonetheless.
It is as much about talking to people face to face, by telephone, email or social media as it ever will be about your next press release.
So to the questions posed at the start:
• Yes it can top and tail to any lobbying and increase its effectiveness.
• Yes it should be part of your overall business strategy and can bring new business.
• Yes it should include growing awareness of brands.
• Of course it should play a key role in brand communications.
Allow your communications professional charged with national influence to cherry pick the projects they work on to the benefit of national influence – trust them like Bromford trust their people with social media – have vision.
The future’s bright – the future’s influence.
Sunday, 27 November 2011
IDEAS - it's not a dirty word.
I started this blog and, after posting a couple of press releases I liked, stopped. The reason being, a blog is not really the place to copy and paste press releases no matter how excited you are about their content. After all I send them out to anyone I would want to/need to see them. Secondly, I wasn't sure what this blog should be about. I wanted to write one but is that reason enough? I decided the answer was no.
So instead, I will write about things I care about. I'm now 8 weeks into my career at Bromford and rather than the much touted 3 month window of opportunity to see where changes could be made, the ideas seem to be growing. Equally, I feel like I’ve been here years yet also like I’m on day one. In part that is because I can see how much enthusiasm being on the radio and television has brought to many colleagues.
This soft old, welsh fool is so heartened by when I see colleagues telling each other they are "stars" now that they have been in the media. It's great and inspires so many ideas and the reason to help push the company on in the great work we do for the people that need us. We talk to them about being empowered and what could be more empowering than seeing people inspired by something you have contributed to?
Some of the ideas I come up with I have to stop and check myself. I know they are just too grand or the timing is maybe not quite right. I encourage my colleagues and friends in the media to talk, to bounce ideas around, to support each other. Let’s have a million ideas. It doesn’t matter if we reject 999,999 of them if that one idea we carry forwards makes a difference. My apologies if that sounds a little airy-fairy but trust me it works.
Colleagues and media friends have been so nice about the No Postcodes video http://bit.ly/qi1s6F but there were so any people that were important to that. I wouldn’t have had the idea if others hadn’t started the process of talking and doing. I remember it being a small mention about an event we were going to be putting on, being told to list the event on the NHF website. The vision can be greater thought I.
I’ve heard people say we were “lucky with the timing.” We weren’t – we spotted an opportunity for the people we support – we showed vision of where we could take it, we added a bit of us - add a bit of you in what you do.
We need vision, we need to encourage people to have vision, we need to be prepared to fail – if there is vision and an understanding of what we can achieve then I would never criticise a colleague that stuck their neck out to that aim. A friend at work the other day spoke to me about a project he is working on and said: “I need my No Postcodes Lee. What can we do?” - so refreshing.
He has seen that there are opportunities beyond what we have done historically. One of our directors was really encouraging when he wrote a comment about getting on and doing. That's what it's all about for me - what it's always been about and now I'm somewhere that encourages that. "Uh oh," thinks I. There are 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week and there is much to be done but we can achieve it all together. We can work smart and achieve the world – never lose that view of the world. We get older, put on suits with pin-stripes and it can disappear, people can even begin to view it as childish naivety. Keep the belief inside you though and it will shine outside.
We need to understand the comment “So what?” Don’t feel rejected if someone says that but instead think good point. If you can’t answer the question with complete conviction then it’s back to the drawing board not to the corner of the room to hang your head. Always believe the next idea is a great one. Looking back at this text I can see I’m at risk of becoming evangelical – I try not to be. I don’t want to drag anyone with me, I want people pushing me up the hill. I want to be in awe of you and your ideas. The MD of Bromford Support was saying "So What?" about something we were discussing the other day. He was right. So what? Who cares? Who are we telling? What are we telling them? Where is the end goal?
I believe in strategy - some people feel the need to write that down, others need to read about it, others just get it and get on with it. Of course we need to produce strategies, and it is important to be able to convey what we are trying to achieve to colleagues involved, but what is more important is always the doing – the implementation.
It is natural that some people will be against change but that is no bad thing. Those people provide the opportunity to check yourself - consider the flaws in any idea. It's the easiest thing in the world to come up with amazing ideas - harder to think why they wouldn't work or shouldn't go ahead. Some people will naturally feel threatened by ideas. They really shouldn't. Embrace them, challenge them, go with the flow - contribute.
There are many ways you can benefit the organisation you work for. I have an idea for re-structuring the team I work in and how they work to the better benefit of not just the team but the entire organization and how to assist in achieving its key objectives. It’s not my job role to do that but I’m going to put them forward as the colleague engagement at Bromford encourages you do that - how good is that? Very good I'll tell you.
At Bromford I feel I can do that – that, on the whole, my big size 12s are nimble enough not to tread on too many toes just by sharing an idea and it will be welcomed in the creative and well intentioned way it is meant.
Ok so I’m starting to move from evangelical to advertorial but it’s true. Every organisation can learn from what how Bromford is operating and every organisation can learn from each other.
So to the end of my advertorial/evangelical blog today.
I’ll write another blog soon - I'm off to talk my wife into moving to Hampton Lucy not Shenstone - wish me luck.
So instead, I will write about things I care about. I'm now 8 weeks into my career at Bromford and rather than the much touted 3 month window of opportunity to see where changes could be made, the ideas seem to be growing. Equally, I feel like I’ve been here years yet also like I’m on day one. In part that is because I can see how much enthusiasm being on the radio and television has brought to many colleagues.
This soft old, welsh fool is so heartened by when I see colleagues telling each other they are "stars" now that they have been in the media. It's great and inspires so many ideas and the reason to help push the company on in the great work we do for the people that need us. We talk to them about being empowered and what could be more empowering than seeing people inspired by something you have contributed to?
Some of the ideas I come up with I have to stop and check myself. I know they are just too grand or the timing is maybe not quite right. I encourage my colleagues and friends in the media to talk, to bounce ideas around, to support each other. Let’s have a million ideas. It doesn’t matter if we reject 999,999 of them if that one idea we carry forwards makes a difference. My apologies if that sounds a little airy-fairy but trust me it works.
Colleagues and media friends have been so nice about the No Postcodes video http://bit.ly/qi1s6F but there were so any people that were important to that. I wouldn’t have had the idea if others hadn’t started the process of talking and doing. I remember it being a small mention about an event we were going to be putting on, being told to list the event on the NHF website. The vision can be greater thought I.
I’ve heard people say we were “lucky with the timing.” We weren’t – we spotted an opportunity for the people we support – we showed vision of where we could take it, we added a bit of us - add a bit of you in what you do.
We need vision, we need to encourage people to have vision, we need to be prepared to fail – if there is vision and an understanding of what we can achieve then I would never criticise a colleague that stuck their neck out to that aim. A friend at work the other day spoke to me about a project he is working on and said: “I need my No Postcodes Lee. What can we do?” - so refreshing.
He has seen that there are opportunities beyond what we have done historically. One of our directors was really encouraging when he wrote a comment about getting on and doing. That's what it's all about for me - what it's always been about and now I'm somewhere that encourages that. "Uh oh," thinks I. There are 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week and there is much to be done but we can achieve it all together. We can work smart and achieve the world – never lose that view of the world. We get older, put on suits with pin-stripes and it can disappear, people can even begin to view it as childish naivety. Keep the belief inside you though and it will shine outside.
We need to understand the comment “So what?” Don’t feel rejected if someone says that but instead think good point. If you can’t answer the question with complete conviction then it’s back to the drawing board not to the corner of the room to hang your head. Always believe the next idea is a great one. Looking back at this text I can see I’m at risk of becoming evangelical – I try not to be. I don’t want to drag anyone with me, I want people pushing me up the hill. I want to be in awe of you and your ideas. The MD of Bromford Support was saying "So What?" about something we were discussing the other day. He was right. So what? Who cares? Who are we telling? What are we telling them? Where is the end goal?
I believe in strategy - some people feel the need to write that down, others need to read about it, others just get it and get on with it. Of course we need to produce strategies, and it is important to be able to convey what we are trying to achieve to colleagues involved, but what is more important is always the doing – the implementation.
It is natural that some people will be against change but that is no bad thing. Those people provide the opportunity to check yourself - consider the flaws in any idea. It's the easiest thing in the world to come up with amazing ideas - harder to think why they wouldn't work or shouldn't go ahead. Some people will naturally feel threatened by ideas. They really shouldn't. Embrace them, challenge them, go with the flow - contribute.
There are many ways you can benefit the organisation you work for. I have an idea for re-structuring the team I work in and how they work to the better benefit of not just the team but the entire organization and how to assist in achieving its key objectives. It’s not my job role to do that but I’m going to put them forward as the colleague engagement at Bromford encourages you do that - how good is that? Very good I'll tell you.
At Bromford I feel I can do that – that, on the whole, my big size 12s are nimble enough not to tread on too many toes just by sharing an idea and it will be welcomed in the creative and well intentioned way it is meant.
Ok so I’m starting to move from evangelical to advertorial but it’s true. Every organisation can learn from what how Bromford is operating and every organisation can learn from each other.
So to the end of my advertorial/evangelical blog today.
I’ll write another blog soon - I'm off to talk my wife into moving to Hampton Lucy not Shenstone - wish me luck.
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