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New services depend
on measurement
The Counselors Academy spring meeting, held last week in Key West, Fla., hit on all the major issues impacting busi-ness communications. But two themes resonated throughout the program: measurement and brand impact.
In a hypercompetitive marketplace, the message was that agency owners and managers not only must grow their media services, but con-
vince their clients of the value of PR, particularly when it comes to the growing influ-ence of earned media. As one attendee put it, for PR agencies jockeying for media budgets, it’s all about “table stakes,” as the cost of entry gets increas-ingly more expensive.
The two-day event, which attracted 126 PR executives, covered a wide range of issues, including identifying more effective ways to build online communities, the growing mobile channel, and, of course,
Page 6 ▶
Critical PR Issues Debated at Counselors Academy Event
How to Listen for the ‘Digital Echo’ Earned media more
important than ever
The lines continue to blur between news delivered through traditional channels and through social networking. While many people are now getting news from social media, much of that news is shared from traditional media sources.
It’s true that some details of breaking news stories are being reported by average citizens through both main-stream social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as specialty platforms like CNN’s iReport. Still, more people are sharing main-stream media reports than
reporting news on their own in real time.
There are notable examples of citizen journalism, from one of the earliest and most infa-mous photos by a passenger of downed U.S. Airways 1529 in the Hudson River, to a tweet about the helicopters that par-ticipated on the raid in which Osama Bin Laden was killed.
Social media is most often used as an impromptu news channel in crisis situ-ations. A case in point: Last year’s bombing at the Boston Marathon, where the Boston Police commander demanded: “I need somebody up there to get on social media….”
Even though citizen jour-nalism can impact news cov-erage, most people aren’t doing
it yet. According to the Pew Research Journalism Program, only 14% posted their own photos of a news event, and only 12% posted a video.
On the other hand, 50% reported they had reposted news stories, images or videos; and 46% had discussed a news issue or event.
Reddit is a good example of a social network and aggregator whose users specialize in the curation of links from news organizations and blogs.
NEW TOOLS In an interview for the Twitter blog last year, Andrew Miller, Guardian News & Media CEO, said
Page 7 ▶©2014 Access Intelligence LLC. Federal copyright law prohibits unauthorized reproduction by any means and imposes fines of up to $100,000 for violations.
May 12, 2014 prnewsonline.com Issue 19 Vol. 70
DID YOU KNOW
1. The so-called “iGen” will likely bring more radical changes to PR. (p. 1)
2. People repost news items more often than they post their own content. (p. 1)
3. When rebuilding a city’s image post-disaster, don’t dwell on the past. (p. 2)
4. Corporate reputation requires constant nurturing by PR managers. (p. 3)
5. During live events, use real-time messaging via your social channels. (p.4)
6. Mobile PR starts with assessing your audiences’ social media activities. (p. 6)
7. To enhance the value of PR, start building integrated leadership teams. (p. 8)
▶ PR Measurement By Kami Huyse
SPRING FLING: A few members of this year’s Counselors Academy (PRSA) leadership team gather for a group picture during the Counselors’ spring meeting. From left to right: Mike Neumeier, Arketi Group, Chair; Abbie Fink, HMA Public Relations, Chair Elect; Tom Garrity, The Garrity Group, Conference Co-Chair; Chuck Norman, S&A Cherokee, Conference Co-Chair.
In the last decade New Orleans has been struck by two major disasters that brought major blows to the city’s brand, visitor perceptions and the travel economy as a whole: Hurricane Katrina and the BP Oil Spill.
The tourism-dependent city has made a remarkable recovery, going from 80% underwater and many visitors questioning the future of the destination to one of National Geographic Traveler’s Must See Places for 2014.
Tourism means big business for New Orleans. Approximately nine million visitors spend more than $6 bil-lion annually and account for nearly 80,000 jobs. Recovery of the city was contingent upon the resurgence of tourism, which is an industry driven by image and perception.
PR played a critical role in convincing visitors to return despite intense negative media attention. Uninformed ques-tions abounded, such as “Is the city still underwater?” and “Is it safe to eat the seafood?”
Long after the immediate danger had passed, and the des-tination was ready to welcome guests, travelers stayed away because of misperceptions.
So, when Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines last year, the country’s tourism leaders reached out to the image and disaster recovery experts at the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB).
We recently traveled to the Philippines to meet with tourism stakeholders in Manila, Cebu and Boracay, to share recommendations for bringing back tourism and conventions to the Philippines.
The PR lessons shared include:
▶ Over-communicate with internal and external stake-holders. If there is advance warning of a crisis (such as a pending hurricane), inform all key audiences in advance about how and when communica-tions will be issued throughout the crisis situation. It could be a daily email blast, a special web-site, newsroom or text messages.
▶ Capitalize on disaster
tourism. Yes, there will be some visitors who choose your des-tination specifically because of the disaster. Tactfully use them as brand ambassadors without exploiting them. They will be the first group to rebuild a rela-tionship with your destination, a relationship that will likely be stronger than the average visitor because of their motivation.
▶ Don’t wait for media, go to them. Take your desti-nation on the road to major media markets armed with key spokespeople, high-res images and B-roll. To counter concerns about New Orleans’ seafood, we brought an executive chef
along for interviews and cooking demos serving up savory examples of Gulf sea-food products.
▶ Change the conversation. Leverage the media attention your des-tination is receiving to shine light on the recovery efforts. While many media outlets will want to
publish the most disparaging news, give them the positive content, such as how many homes have been rebuilt, the number of volunteer hours dedicated to relief efforts, stories of resilience and over-coming obstacles. In New Orleans, we said “soul is water-proof.” Change the message from disparaging to uplifting.
▶ Update your media toolkit. Unless you provide fresh images, the media will continue to use the ones highlighting dev-astated areas. Invest in new video and photos showcasing the city.
▶ Have a plan for post-crisis recovery. At a certain point, it will be appropriate to resume busi-ness as usual. It is important to welcome visitors, journalists and customers back to a destination.
▶ Don’t dwell on the past. Recognize when it is time to put the disaster to bed. Tourism in New Orleans is no longer being affected by the BP Oil Spill, so we no longer include references to the spill in our messaging.
The relationships formed during the international New Orleans/Philippines mission continues. The New Orleans CVB has committed to help spread the message that the Philippines is open for business. Communications played a major part in making it happen. PRN
CONTACT:Brad Weaber is executive VP of New Orleans CVB. He can be reached at [email protected]. Kelly Schulz is head of communications at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and former VP of Communications at New Orleans CVB. She can be reached at [email protected].
2 prnewsonline.com | 5.12.14
Rebuild a City’s Image
▶ How To...
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PR News ADVISORY BOARD Paul A. Argenti - Tuck School of BusinessMary Buhay - Gibbs & SoellNed Barnett - Barnett Marketing CommunicationsSteve Cody - PeppercommNeal Cohen - APCO Carol Cone - Edelman Peter Debreceny - Gagen MacDonaldChristopher L. Hammond - Wells FargoMike Herman - Communication SciencesLaura Kane - AflacKen Makovsky - MakovskyMichael McDougall - McDougall CommunicationsLarry Parnell - George Washington University Mike Paul - Reputation Doctor LLC Deborah Radman - Senior PR ConsultantBrenda C. Siler - Best Communication StrategiesStephanie Smirnov - EdelmanHelene Solomon - Solomon McCown & Co.Mark Weiner - PRIME ResearchPR News BOARD OF CONTRIBUTORSDave Armon - Critical MentionAndy Gilman - CommCore Consulting Bruce Jeffries-Fox - Jeffries-Fox Associates Angela Jeffrey - Salience InsightRichard Laermer - RLM Public RelationsRichard Levick - Levick Strategic Comms Ian Lipner - Lewis PR/YoungPRpros Katie Paine - Paine Publishing LLC John Roderick – J. Roderick Inc. Rodger Roeser - The Eisen Agency Lou Thompson - Kalorama Partners Reid Walker - Dir. of Communications, United States Senate Tom Martin - College of Charleston
By Brad Weaber and Kelly Schulz
“Yes, there will be some visitors who
choose your destination specifically because of the
disaster. Tactfully use them as brand
ambassadors without exploiting them.”
▶ Data Points
Contact us today and start working with the industry leader to streamline your firm’s media monitoring efforts!
At Daily Buzz, our customers rely on us to deliver the most accurate tracking of their mentions—meticulously edited by our professional researchers—so they can focus on their clients’ PR needs. We provide dedicated account management with 24/7 support.
Make Our Team YOUR Team.
E D I T E D A C C U R A T E O N T I M EEEE DDD III T ET ET E DDD AAA CCC C UC UC U RRR AAA TTT EEE OOO N T I MN T I MN T I M EEE
prnewsonline.com | 5.12.14 3
Nurturing Reputation Communicators know that building a solid corporate reputation could take years—and vanish overnight if the company slips up. That’s why it’s so important for PR pros to play long ball. ▶ Slow and Steady Wins the Reputation Race: Corporate reputation can be like the Santa Ana winds, ranging from hot to cold, depending on the prevailing temperatures in the area. There are myriad factors affecting reputation, of course, such as customer service, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and, of course, stock price. Whatever the case, it takes time to nurture corporate reputation, as indicated by corporate reputation tracked during a five-year period by brand con-sulting company CoreBrand. “Reputation is earned,” said Jim Gregory, CEO of CoreBrand. “It is based on what you have done and how you are perceived for what you have done.” Gregory stressed that the com-
panies listed below have been able to improve their reputation during the last five years. “Some companies, like Tyco, were rebounding off a crisis, which explains the growth, [while] others are rebounding from an industry recovery.” He added that corporate reputation can some-times be a bit of mystery. “In some cases, the growth of reputation is hard to explain—the cause for Jacobs Engineering Group’s growth, which has grown the most in the past year, is not readily identifiable—which proves the point that sometimes you can grow your reputation by focusing on your business and doing well.” PRN Source: CoreBrand
Metrics that are helping to define the communications field.
Positive Movement 1-10 5-Year Overall Reputation VariationCompany Industry Sector 2013 Rank 2012 Rank One Year Variation 2008 Rank Five Year VariationTelephone & Data Systems Telecommunications Telecommunications 96 161 65 507 411
Jacobs Engineering Group Building Materials Industrial 118 202 84 480 362
Edison International Electric Utilities Utilities 41 83 42 396 355
Pepco Holdings Electric Utilities Utilities 10 24 14 346 336
Google Internet Technology 44 82 38 371 327
Tyco International Diversified Industrials Industrial 168 208 40 484 316
NASDAQ OMX Group Diversified Financial Finance 155 173 18 468 313
Hartford Financial Insurance Finance 32 59 27 333 301
Consolidated Edison Electric Utilities Utilities 68 106 38 359 291
Limited Brands Retailers Consumer Cyclicals 78 116 38 357 279
Dance clubs play into
the brand reputation
Since its 2001 debut Zumba Fitness has grown from a branded fitness class into a multi-faceted lifestyle brand with universal appeal. The fitness class, which caters to more than 15 million people in 180 countries, fuses entertain-ment and culture into Zumba’s signature dance-driven workout. “One of Zumba’s mottos is that it doesn’t matter where you are, you can take a Zumba class anywhere in the world,” said Allison Robins, PR director of Zumba. “So why not break into a space that fits so well into the brand and
the culture of Zumba: music, lights and sounds.”
Indeed, with their dance floors and built-in sound systems, night-clubs would seem to be a natural extension for the Zumba brand.
So, in the summer of 2012 Zumba partnered with PR agency MWW, celebrity DJ Lil Jon and celebrity Zumba instructor Gina Grant to create the Zumba Nightclub Series, a four-city, six-show tour high-lighting the Zumba experience.
The series, which kicked off last summer, brought the Zumba experience to night-clubs in Boston, Pittsburgh, Queens, N.Y and Cincinnati.
“We wanted to pick cities which had a good base of [Zumba] instructors and could use an injection of Zumba,” Robins said.
The effort, dubbed “Experience Zumba in the Club,” was designed to:
• Build awareness of the Zumba workout.
• Bring consumers into the fold who otherwise might not be familiar with the brand.
• Expand the job opportunities for Zumba instructors, who have an entrepreneurial bent.
INTEGRATED PACKAGINGZumba and MWW got the ball rolling by announcing the Zumba Nightclub Series at a Zumba Instructor conference in February 2013. From a communications standpoint, Zumba wanted to kill two birds with one stone.
“We knew we had the talent (instructors) already there, photographers and our social media messaging set up,” Robins said. “So it made sense for a pre-announcement on when tickets would go on sale (early 2013).”
The campaign got the word out via numerous media channels, including email blasts, video, social media and messaging at countless
▶ Case Study
4 prnewsonline.com | 5.12.14
The introduction of Zumba classes in the nightclubs marked a new category through which the brand could further grow its reach and expand into new territories. Penetrating a new market also helped Zumba Instructors, or “ZINs,” expand their own businesses. Here are a few rules for PR pros to follow when they need to imple-ment a multicity PR campaign.
▶ Know the market. Every city is different and so are its consumers and media. When mapping out your campaign and the cities you want to target, do your research so you know what to expect. For this campaign, we made sure we chose cities with a great media presence and high traffic of our licensed Zumba instructors to help elevate our story. We also made sure to make the event feel organic to the city, choosing
venues that were relevant and popular with local residents, and could provide the ulti-mate “Zumba in the Nightclub” experience.
▶ Create a VIP experience. Creating a mul-ticity campaign brings new opportunities to the table, but make sure you are creating a memorable experience for each city. By hiring a famous DJ, and bringing along one of the top Zumba instructors, we gave fans a one-time-only authentic experience, positioned as “a tour” blending Zumba’s distinct style and brand personality with a VIP nightclub. From lighting and sound to music choice and class set up, the effort aligned stylistically with the Zumba brand and gave fans a turbocharged Zumba class experience.
▶ Leverage resources beyond PR. It takes a lot of manpower and time to execute a multicity campaign, so look beyond PR and
leverage your resources to get the results you want. From choosing a venue, to finding part-ners, launching ticket sales (and a microsite) and on-site production, being able to have resources at your hands is an extremely valuable tool and really makes the cam-paign a 360-degree experience.
While launching a multicity experiential campaign can be daunting, the Zumba Nightclub Series gave us an opportunity not only to share a new chapter of the Zumba brand story on a larger scale but also expand our business in the nightclubs cat-egory both in the United States and abroad.
This sidebar was written by Allison Robins, PR director at Zumba Fitness LLC.
Celebrity Zumba Instructor Gina Grant, alongside Lil Jon on the turntables, leads a Zumba class at Amazura nightclub in Queens, N.Y. (one of the many stops in the Zumba Nightclub Series).
‘Nightclub Series’ Gives Zumba a Brand New Beat
Photo courtesy: Z
umb
a Fitness
80 Number of media articles (at the national and local levels) generated by the Zumba Nightclub Series.
Allison Robins
Communications Tips for Multicity Campaigns
prnewsonline.com | 5.12.14 5
Zumba classes throughout the country. Another way to promote the various events: a steady of stream of tweets from Lil Jon and Gina Grant plugging the four-city tour.
“What proved very effective in driving the success of the campaign was an interdisci-plinary approach to promote the events before, during and after” the individual event, said Joe Cohen, senior VP at MWW.
He added: “Zumba did a really good job of spreading awareness both internally as well as through different communications channels and online forums that reach Zumba instructors.”
Robins stressed that internal communication was mission critical. “It’s impor-tant to support our instruc-tors and make sure they get the inside scoop” on Zumba’s PR and marketing activities, she said. “We want to attract new people and have instruc-tors bring their colleagues and friends” to Zumba classes.
MEDIA CALISTHENICSMedia relations was also key in promoting the nightclub series, which took place last summer. In each market, for example, the PR crew identi-fied select reporters who got a VIP Nightclub experience. This included bus transporta-tion to the events, with Zumba instructor chaperones, who conducted media interviews during the ride to the club.
Zumba music—featuring Lil Jon’s tune, “Work,” was piped into the bus while healthy refreshments were made avail-able to media reps.
Reporters were also given multi-dimensional press kits that included Zumba apparel and accessories, press materials and an advance copy of “Work.”
Media reps also got back-stage passes during the pre- and-post show activities and were able to conduct interviews and photo shoots with Lil Jon and Gina Grant.
What is more, to secure media at every stop, PR reps deployed the “Experience Zumba in the Club” strategy and made each show a media event. Take the Zumba gig at Amazura, a night-club in Queens, N.Y. The week of that event Lil Jon was featured as a guest DJ during the fourth hour of NBC’s TODAY show.
The PR team was also careful to promote the nightclub series in real-time, including videos and still images from the events that were posted on Zumba’s Facebook page, live tweeting from every site and the dissemination of the hashtag #ZumbaNightclubSeries.Zumba instructors were also encouraged to tweet, post and spread the word via their own social media channels.
“One of the things to look at when you do a campaign like this is to take existing resources to create more buzz,” Robins said.
The campaign also deployed a post-event strategy, reaching out to reporters who covered the events and providing them with video (raw or pre-pack-aged), images, metrics and follow-up interviews.
THE RESULTSThe Zumba Nightclub Series was deemed a success, with all six shows selling out in just two weeks. The series established a new category for Zumba and a new channel for its instructors. Specifically, the series generated:
• More than 185 million impressions that were secured
via 80 articles that ran in both local and national outlets.
• Coverage of the series ran in several major media venues, including The Boston Globe, Huffington Post, In Touch Weekly, the New York Post, SELF, as well on a handful of broadcast outlets.
• The campaign had KPI (key performance indica-tors) of 87.5% pull-through (as measured by the inclusion of the term “Nightclub Series” and/or link to the ticket-purchasing site).
The series also helped spur the number of Zumba classes as well as participants, Robins said. “If I had known how successful this would become I would have
expanded in more locations and made it a lot bigger,” she added. “When you have a really good concept and get people on board, you have to trust your instincts and go big.” PRN
CONTACT:Joe Cohen, [email protected]; Allison Robins, [email protected].
The Zumba Nightclub Series generated solid returns for Zumba Fitness.
Courtesy: Z
umb
a Fitness
“What proved very effective in
driving the success of the campaign was an interdisciplinary
approach to promote the events before, during and after the experience.”
6 prnewsonline.com | 5.12.14
Counselors Academy ▶ Page 1
how to engage millennials and the “iGen” (people born in 1994 or afterward).
Expanding and enhancing PR services were discussed at length and with great insight in several sessions.
But with brand managers watching their every penny, offering new services is predi-cated on how to measure them.
MEASUREMENT UNIT“Measurement doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” said Kelly Womer, VP and partner at LinhartPR. Womer hosted a work ses-sion on how to bake mea-surement into agency culture and sell it to clients.
“We were struggling with evaluation and needed to give employees better questions to ask about measurement, stra-tegic planning and reporting,” she said.
Earlier this year Linhart created its own branded mea-surement program, called Linhart PRoof. The tool fea-tures a seven-step process designed to boost the agency’s ability to measure its commu-nications efforts.
The process starts off with “Mission and Objectives,” which includes such questions as: What is the client trying to achieve? What does success look like? Who are you trying to reach? It also includes
“Strategic Planning,” focusing on the scope of work, time-line and budget, and “Success Metrics,” which delves into specific metrics needed to monitor the work.
According to Womer, the measurement approach also identifies metrics that matter most to clients: exposure, influ-ence and conversion.
“There’s a consistency factor” now in measuring PR campaigns, Womer said. “By our team talking about mea-surement and sharing mean-ingful results and analyzing data, clients can see the value in what we do.”
PURPLE GOLDFISHLinking measurement tools to the PR process is one way for agencies to boost their standing with clients and demonstrate that they can move the sales needle.
Another way for com-municators to fundamentally change their mindset is to stop targeting eyeballs and earlobes and start providing a superior brand experience, said Stan Phelps, founder and chief mea-surement officer of 9 INCH Marketing, who delivered a keynote during the conference.
Phelps is the author of “What’s Your Purple Goldfish,” which centers on differentia-tion via added value, or giving consumers a little something extra that—depending on the execution—could result in enhanced lead generation and fond feelings for a brand or organization.
A superior brand experi-ence could mean providing consumers throw-ins, and/or samplings and making a solid impression before and after transactions. The Hard Rock Hotel San Diego, for example, has a program used at guest check-in, where cus-tomers are given a Gibson
guitar (sans amplifier) to noodle around with during their stay. Can’t play the guitar? Well, there’s a 24-hour TV channel providing a tuto-rial on how to get started.
“Marketing is not about impressions,” Phelps said. “It’s about making an imprint. It’s not about what you say the brand is but the beliefs by con-sumers and how those beliefs are grounded in the experience with the brand.”
He added that the onus is on communicators not to chase the “thousands in the bush but take care of the ones in the hand.” The payoff, he said, is that “happy customers drive growth via retention and referrals, because word of mouth is the most trusted form of marketing.”
Earnings consumers’ trust was the focal point of a presen-tation by Stefan I. Pollack, pres-ident and CFO of The Pollack PR Marketing Group, who spoke about how communica-tors can engage with the “iGen,” or the “disrupted” generation.
“It’s hugely about trust,” Pollack said. “For years they’ve been told by their parents not to trust anyone online. So you have to develop those circles of trust before you can engage them.” PRN
CONTACT:Stan Phelps, [email protected]; Kelly Womer, [email protected].
15% Total percentage Linhart PR
recommends allocating of client program budgets to
measure influencer-related activities and results.
LinhartPR
GOING MOBILE: During the Counselors Academy spring meeting, attendees were provided with some tips on how to fuel their mobile communications.
Source: The Garrett Group
Key roles and mobile objectives
The four-step approach to mobile
Twitter drives traffic for breaking news stories to the U.K.-based newspaper com-pany. Miller said that 10% of the newspaper’s traffic now comes from social media.
When the Guardian broke the news about whistleblower Edward Snowden on Twitter, the story set a one-day traffic record of almost seven million unique visitors.
Reporters look to Twitter and other social networks to discover news. They are using tools like Storyful to search for specific topics and cut though the noise.
Storyful searches for breaking news and inter-esting stories for further development by reporters. Earlier this month Facebook launched FBNewswire, where breaking news stories are shared.
And, according to a study by NORC in February, people are looking to media outlets, both online and offline for news, with six in 10 saying they
prefer news to come directly from a news organization.
And three-fourths of all Americans said they still see or hear news daily, including 6 of 10 adults under age 30
THE DIGITAL ECHOFor the public relations pro-fession, this suggests that earned-media placements and bylined articles in pres-tigious publications might mean more than they ever have before.
Articles that may seem lackluster on the webpage of a news organization, with very few comments, may take on an entirely different life on social media.
One way to show more value to the client or boss is to measure the spread of the article beyond its initial place-ment and the potential impres-sions based on the publication’s readership.
Many news articles are shared widely, either organi-cally or by the PR team, on social media. This should be captured to show the true value of the placement and the hard work of the team.
You can get a very quick read on the digital echo of a story by using some free tools in the marketplace, such as Muck Rack’s Who Shared tool (muck-rack.com/whoshared) or the Velocity tool (www.tomjepson.co.uk/social-velocity).
As an example, a bylined article, written by Swanee Hunt for the prestigious magazine Foreign Affairs, about how Rwandan women rebuilt their country after the genocide, appeared not to have much trac-tion. The online version only generated two comments.
However, a quick look at the stats show the article had a healthy number of shares
in social media, with it being shared across five social net-works a total of 2,281 times (see graphic nearby).
By pasting the URL of the article in the search bar, these tools give a simple read of how many times the article was shared on social media, and across which networks.
This digital echo brings to light an area in which PR professionals who work on tra-ditional media placements can show more value.
Paid tools, such as Tellagence, can help you pin-point who shared the link, determine which communi-ties were most engaged, and determine which individuals may have been the most influ-ential. By understanding the context around the sharing of the article, the organization can determine which messages and information is resonating most.
As the public relations industry starts to use some of these more meaningful mea-sures, the tools will evolve to support the trend, as well. PRN
CONTACT:Kami Huyse is the founder and CEO of Zoetica Media, a digital content agency. Follow her on Twitter, @kamichat, or Google+. She can be reached at [email protected].
prnewsonline.com | 5.12.14 7
PR Measurement ▶ Page 1
Courtesy: P
ew R
esearch
Percent of social networking site users who have...
Th
e Ri
se of R
wanda’s Women from foreignaffairs.com
Total social media shares:
2,281
Social media plays an increasingly important roie in spreading content.
8 prnewsonline.com | 5.12.14
Work with departments
you’re not familiar with
As the steward of the brand, communicators need to deftly move among the various leaders in the C-suite to understand and engage their work. Today’s communicators need to practice a kind of inte-grated leadership that allows us to collaborate with others and see the connection points in everyone’s role.
Here are five tips to help you break down the silos and work with different people throughout a company—from IT to human resources and beyond—so you can integrate all the assets to build a suc-cessful brand.
1. You’re only as smart as the conversations you’re in. To learn what is going on throughout the organization, place yourself in as many con-versations and meetings as pos-sible that are not related to com-munications so you can learn first-hand about key initiatives and strategies.
At Kaiser Permanente, our communication special-ists attend meetings and con-ferences focused on various aspects of our business.
For example, we attend our organization’s quality confer-
ence, diversity conference and innovation summits to find out what kind of work is happening within the organization and how we can better serve our clients internally and tell our story externally.
2. Broaden your horizons. Expose yourself to a broad level of subjects in order to understand all aspects of a company’s brand. This means learning new technologies or trying different approaches to gain new insights. Last year I judged a code-a-thon put on by our IT department. Despite not knowing a line of code, I was inspired by the format of non-stop work to solve a problem and come up with solutions designed to enhance our delivery of care and coverage.
Later, we held our own design-a-thon, where we engaged with the community. Brand communication part-nered with IT to brainstorm technology that could engage diverse consumers.
3. Stop and listen. Sometimes we get so busy telling people what we need that we forget that they have some-thing to say. Fred Cook, CEO of GolinHarris, recently published a career-advice book, titled “Improvise.” In one chapter, “Listen to a Guru,” Cook writes about how while traveling
through the Himalayas he met a man who introduced himself as the “Hippie Guru of Darjeeling.”
As the guru talked about his mastery of the spiritual world, Cook wanted to impress him with his own knowledge of Eastern religion and launched into a debate about an obscure English author.
The guru responded with a left hook to Cook’s jaw. Cook writes that the incident taught him a valuable lesson: “Sometimes you should just shut up! … If you’re not talking or texting, a miracu-lous thing happens—you actu-ally hear what the other person is saying.”
4. Invite people to meet-ings with no agenda. I meet monthly with leaders from various functions to keep me connected, not only because we serve them, but also to learn about their areas of expertise. In a large organization, these are people we may see occa-sionally yet engage with pri-marily on conference calls. But by meeting face-to-face with no particular agenda, except per-haps topics of shared interest, it helps build relationships.
5. Build an entourage. Cook offers another piece of advice: “I have learned from experience that no matter how good you think you are, you will
not be successful without the support of your peers and your team.” This is so true.
I surround myself with communication experts who have their own particular expertise, and with whom I feel comfortable sending out to represent me.
If we build our team with executives who have skills we might not have, such as a deep knowledge of information tech-nology metrics or public policy, they can support us when we’re working with departments we may not be familiar with, and in the end help us look smarter.
So the next time you hear about something happening within your organization and you think it’s not your responsi-bility as a communicator, think again. Our world is getting smaller, and our reach is get-ting wider. Every informational tidbit we learn helps inform an integrated approach to telling our story. PRN
CONTACT:Diane Gage Lofgren is chief communication officer and senior VP of brand communication at Kaiser Permanente. She may be reached at [email protected].
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By Diane Gage Lofgren
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