A Great Personality

How might you describe your handbag if it were a person?  Creative?  Vivacious?  Down-to-Earth?  And how about your toothbrush?  Would you call it friendly?  Or intelligent?

And why is that?  A lot of how we see the products we buy stems from their marketing and branding campaigns.  I know this isn’t news, but it’s also not something we tend to think about.  And here’s something else we haven’t been thinking about:  for decades, larger companies have been establishing brand attributes through magazines, TV, billboards and radio.  But now that social media is thriving and available to all, many smaller companies without this advertising experience are diving in without considering their unique brand personality.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is, there’s no better way to express who you are as a company than through social media, and it’s not too late.

I’m here at the Digital Matters conferences in Singapore, and it’s offered a lot of insight for just about anyone navigating the digital media landscape in any way.  One of the more valuable sessions was called, “Moving Forward with Social Media”.  It was made up of an impressive panel, including Thomas Crampton, Asia Pacific Director – 360 Degree Digital Influence, Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific; James Miner, SVP, Digital, ESPN; and Doug Fraser, Operations Associate from Facebook.

The biggest take-way for me was that before starting any social media campaign companies need to sit down with their stakeholders and determine what they are all about.  Do they want their business and products to be seen as hip and flirtatious?  Reliable and conservative?   Brazen and tough?   Think about traits you would use to describe a person, not necessarily descriptors you would use for the merchandise or service.

Then, once you know the brand personality, keep that in mind with every social media engagement.  When it comes to establishing a brand, there’s nothing worse than inconsistency.   Then, in the words of one of the panel members, “build on the campaign, and see where it takes you.”  As long as you are saying true to the brand you have a guide, and this can make engaging in social media more fun, too.

A Leader Works in the Open

Veronica Skelton, Darlene Gannon, Alan Mulally, Graham McKenna, Vadim Brenner - CES 2011

It’s the first week of the month which usually means we at Concept Communications are busy compiling press coverage reports, calculating expenses and generally reflecting on the past 30 days or so and what we’ve accomplished for our clients in that time.  As it turns out, January 2011 was an epic month for us and our accounts, filled with international trade shows like CES and MIDEM, press conferences and media events, and opportunities for us to meet and/or listen to high level executives in the various industries in which our clients play.

It occurred to me that of all the influential people I’ve had the fortune of encountering over the past month –including celebrities like 50 Cent and the heads of the digital divisions of all the major record labels – it might seem unlikely that the one, very brief moment I had with Alan Mulally, the President and CEO of Ford Motor Company, made the biggest impression on me.

It happened when Darlene and I were at a large media event at CES in an area set aside for Ford and its partners – representing our client Gracenote, a Ford technology partner for years.  We were suddenly told Mr. Mulally may be coming by, and moments later I noticed him out of the corner of my eye.  What immediately struck me was that although he is not a particularly large man, his vivaciousness, his confidence and just his sheer *energy* made him an enormous presence in what was literally a hotel ballroom.

And, when he approached our group and he looked at me, I felt like the only person in a crowd of almost 1,000 people.   He looked me square in the eye, he shook my hand warmly, he asked me questions, he made funny comments – none of which I can remember, but it doesn’t matter because for one minute, I felt significant, I felt special, I felt acknowledged by the leader of one of the most important businesses in the United States.  He asked our group if we wanted a picture and then stood next to us and put his arms out.  At that moment, it felt as though we were posing for a team photograph for the yearbook.  A winning team.  A positive team.  A team that was coming off a phenomenal season and was strong, in shape, and ready to do it all over again.  It made me proud to be associated, if even remotely, with the Ford brand.

How did this happen?  How did this man I’d never met make me feel this way over the course of what can’t have been more than three minutes?  Theodore Roosevelt once said, “People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. . . The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert.”  I think the secret lies in Mr. Mulally’s sincerity.  In his genuine interest in the American people and what they want.  And I thank him for reminding me that in life, not just in business, success lies in one’s ability to make meaningful connections, one person at a time.

Our Top 10 Rules for Effective Internal Communication

I had coffee on Tuesday with Michelle Glover, who was my boss when I was in Corporate Communications at Intuit. Michelle and I worked on internal communications for the company, which at the time had more than 7000 employees. She’s now at ROI Communications, an agency that specializes is internal communication, and the firm is going gangbusters.

I can’t help but believe their success, aside of course from the incredible talent they’ve acquired, is because companies – no matter how big or in what stage of maturity they may be – are starting to realize how important effective employee communications are to the bottom line. In an age when there are countless ways for executives to connect and have a two-way dialogue with their employees, a good internal communication strategy has never been more critical.

Every year, Fortune magazine comes out with its 100 Best Companies to Work For as well as its famous Fortune 500 list, and year after year, there is tremendous overlap between the two lists. Why is this? The classic book about employee relations, Contented Cows Give Better Milk, put it best:

From the start, the exceptional organizations have differentiated
themselves as employers of choice, thus enabling them to hire and
retain top-drawer people, and then differentiated their products and
services in the marketplace. Think it’s a coincidence? We don’t.

And neither do we. There are hard facts about the return on investment that comes with effective employee relations. However, being successful at it requires much more than an occasional email from the CEO, or quarterly all-hands meetings. Below is our “Top 10 List” for impactful employee communication:

1) Be Open, Honest and Direct. Believe it or not, most employees already know the truth, and half-truths only hurt your credibility.

2) Know the Current Employee Climate. Make sure your internal communications team, PR team, and/or HR team is taking a regular pulse on what your employees care about.

3) Prepare for Questions. Remember employees are looking for the “why?” and “what does this all mean?” every time you communicate.

4) Listen. Have a way to hear back from and respond directly to employees.

5) Be a Storyteller vs. Just a Teller. Bring your ideas to life, break down barriers and move people to action with stories that mean something to you and your employees.

6) In Times of Change or Crisis, Communicate in a Timely Manner. If there are rumors circulating, stop them before they fly. If you don’t know the answer, say so.

7) Say ‘Why’, Not Just ‘What’. In times of change, explain the root cause and impact of the change. Employees need to understand the importance.

8 ) Less is More. Be clear and consistent to communicate with employees on a practical level.

9) Communicate Your Passion. This can be a powerful emotional tool that enables you to connect with your audience and move people to action.

10) Maintain a Schedule. Have a plan that guarantees consistent communication (be that quarterly, monthly or weekly) to keep the group’s goals fresh and so that employees feel a part of the team.

Truth in Public Relations

A couple of weeks ago I attended a cocktail party in downtown San Francisco, hosted by one of our newer clients, real estate search engine Roost.  The party featured fabulous wine from Peay Vinyards, poured by vineyard co-founder Andy Peay himself.  Before the party started Andy and I were chatting about the fact that they’ve focused on Pinots from the very beginning, even when they weren’t trendy.  When I remarked how interesting it is that all industries go through their trends and people scamper to take advantage of them – be it wine, fashion, publishing, technology – Andy simply said, “That’s why it’s so important to be true to yourself.  Then, you build an audience based on your core beliefs.”

And then, you never need to waver from them.

My partner Samantha and I have been reflecting on our core beliefs as we celebrate a milestone anniversary for Concept. It was this week five years ago that she and I had a summit at her house in Seattle, out of which came the agency as we know it today. And in the past five years, many PR tactics and agency philosophies have come in and out of fashion. Yet despite working in an industry renowned for taking liberties with the truth, we’ve always remained true to our clients, to the media, to each other, to our employees, and to ourselves – as people and as a company. Our reporter friends appreciate it, and so do our clients.

We believe our principles have guided us to do our best work – isn’t that what your principles should do? —  and why we appeal most to clients who subscribe to our core principles of Integration, Integrity, and Imagination.  It’s also why we’ve had a continuously strong business that has thrived during boom years and is weathering the current economic downturn, and why great clients like Gracenote and ARCHOS have been working with us for years. 

To everyone who has supported us over the past five years, we thank you for believing in us.

Veronica Skelton
Co-Founder and Managing Director – San Francisco Office
Concept Communications