Posts RSSSmart people hire people who are smarter than them
By Justin Goldsborough | November 3rd, 2010
Everybody has a mentor. You may not use that term, but everyone has one. Or more than one. And mentor means different things to different people. For me, it’s someone you’re always learning from.
That’s what I think of when describing my mentor, Laurie. She was my boss at my first job — Applebee’s; she originally hired me as her admin 
— and she brought me over to Fleishman-Hillard last year.
I’ve learned a ton from Laurie, but one of the things that sticks out over all others is something she said to me when I’d only been at Applebee’s a few months — “I always look to hire people who are smarter than me.”
Now, Laurie is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. So I don’t think what she suggested was really that easy for her to do. But the rationale behind it makes all the sense in the world. Weak leaders focus on control. They need to be the smartest person in the room and they ask their employees to specialize instead of generalize.
Strong leaders look for the best people they can find because they’re always focused on the long-term goals of the client and the team. They give up control in order to achieve success and they’re always willing to learn. The furthest thing from a know-it-all.
When you think about it, you have to be a strong leader to be an effective mentor. Because being a mentor is far more than just a one-way street. The best mentorships are actually partnerships where both people involved are learning from one another. It’s not about the elder statesman (or woman) apprenticing the entry-level employee just out of college. Really, you just need two people who are eager, passionate and willing to learn from one another. Age, rank aren’t always that important.
What I value so much about my mentor relationship with Laurie is that we never really sat down one day and said, ok, you’re my mentor and I’m your mentee. That conversation never happened. What did happen was that I was lucky enough to land on a team of incredibly smart people at my first corporate job with a leader who was smart herself and put all these smart people in place so we could all become smarter. Say that three times fast.
But seriously, it’s true. I gained a mentor because I found a strong leader. Someone who encouraged my eagerness and passion and never tried to put me in my place, but instead helped me define my place.
When you were a kid, you probably played follow the leader. And then when you grew up a little, your parents probably encouraged you not to be a follower and to be a leader. Well, I’m going to confuse the hell out of you in an attempt to make a point — you can most definitely lead by following. When you find smart people, when you find a strong leader, follow them and work with them as much as you can. But also, follow their example. Mentor, leader, friend…call it what you will. You’re going to be a lot smarter for following smarter people.
And that’s something any great mentor will tell — or in Laurie’s case, also show — you.
- What makes a strong leader in your mind? A weak leader?
- Do you have a mentor? Are you one? How do you know?
- Do you seek opportunities to work with smart people? Why or why not?
Why I won’t be recommending Groupon to clients
By Justin Goldsborough | October 27th, 2010
I won’t be recommending Groupon to any client anytime soon. Just thought you should know. Because, you see, I feel like Groupon is a tactic my clients are going to have to convince me makes sense for their brand.
I know, I’m in a sales business. But I’ve had way too many conversations lately with clients, peers, etc. where the rationale for considering Groupon is as follows — everyone I talk to loves it.
I don’t curse on this blog very often — but no shit they love it. It’s a site that gives consumers food, spa treatments, tickets, furniture and God knows what else for 50 percent off or more. What’s not to love? That’s not enough of a reason to spend money on a tactic. In fact, that sounds an awful lot like the arguments I used to hear (and still do every now and then) for why an organization thinks it should “do” social media.
Sure, there’s the Gap and the Blanc Burger Groupon case studies. Headlines like Groupon Smashes Nationwide Sales Record with Gap Deal sound great. But take a closer look at the Mashable story at that link and you’ll find the following feedback from Augustine Fou, chief digital officer at Omnicom’s Healthcare Consultancy Group (full disclosure: Fleishman-Hillard, where I work, is also an Omnicom company):
Gap is receiving a lot of word of mouth and press, sending more buyers to the deal. This may seem like good news for Gap, but Fou argues, “The more press they get, the more money they lose.” With the current sales of around 300,000 Groupons, that translates into a $7.5 million revenue loss for one experimental campaign. That’s a hefty lump of cash, and the deal isn’t even over. “It’s still a better use than wasting $7.5 million on TV ads.” Fou added, “At least they did capture the other half as ‘money spent [by customers],’ and consumers will eventually go into the stores. For TV advertising, there is never proof anyone ever saw it, let alone went to the store.”
These results may be ok for a national brand like The Gap, especially if its leadership team ID’s the budget spent on Groupon as a marketing/advertising expense. But what about brands — specifically small businesses, which Groupon caters to — looking to drive increased sales, traffic and (gulp!) loyalty off their Groupon campaigns?
- Chicago Bagel Authority sold nearly 10,000 $3 vouchers worth $8 of food and lost $65,000
- “This will end up being the year of the Groupon for us, and that’s not a good thing,” CBA Owner Greg Gibbs said. “We’ll count it as a loss. “
- Posies Cafe sold 1,000 Groupons and lost $8,000 after being told they couldn’t cap their Groupon sales and was surprised by how many Groupon buyers tipped on what they owed, not the value of the coupon
- “When you sign up for Groupon, you are agreeing to sell as many as get sold… and why would Groupon want it any other way? They get half of the earnings,” wrote Poises owner. “There came a time when we literally could not make payroll because at that point in time we had lost nearly $8,000 with our Groupon campaign.”
9 times out of 10, Groupon is NOT a good deal for the brand, IMO, especially small businesses. It is ALWAYS a good deal for the consumer and Groupon, which according to my research and reading, generally takes about 50 percent of the Groupon sales. I can see how Groupon makes sense for large brands like The Gap, at least to some extent. It’s like a mass traditional or digital ad buy and if viewed as such, can add value. I’m with Fou there. Plus, companies like The Gap or Blanc Burger are more likely to have a CRM system in place they can use to track customer loyalty to see just how many of those Groupon buyers come back to the store. But big brands are not the typical Groupon user, at least from what I’ve seen. The Gap’s are the exception to the rule. With that in mind…
If you think you’re going to make money of the Groupon sales, don’t do Groupon.
If you think everybody’s doing it or Groupon sounds cool, don’t do Groupon.
If you think you’re going to coupon anyway, so why not, don’t do Groupon. At least you can set the rules for your own coupons.
If you think Groupon will build consumer loyalty, pass me what you’re smoking and don’t do Groupon. You build consumer loyalty with the service, experience and product you provide.
If you think Groupon makes sense because you want to compare some of your more traditional tactics to this new tactic and you have no expectation the Groupons will make you money, let’s talk about it first and then maybe I’d say do Groupon.
But do not forget this, whatever you decide. Groupon is a business and they’ve created an A-plus model for them and the consumer. You’re going to have to convince me it’s an A-plus model for your business goals and objectives before I’ll sign off.
Great expectations are set expectations
By Justin Goldsborough | October 24th, 2010
I’ve been told I’m slightly passionate about sports. Heck, some people say I’m a bit nutty — those are the ones who’ve heard me yelling at the TV during games :). So to say I was disappointed Saturday watching my Northwestern Wildcats blow a 17-point lead at home to undefeated Michigan St. would be an understatement.
But once I got over the initial frustration and went from “how could that happen” to “maybe it will make them better” mode, I started thinking about what the expectations for this team really were this year. And it really did make me feel a little better. Northwestern is a younger team with a first-time starter at quarterback. Fans were told to expect some growing pains this year. Next year was supposed to be the chance for a special season. And we’re still 5-2, one game away from being bowl eligible for the third straight season, which has never been done before in school history.
See, expectations are a funny thing. They don’t stop us from wanting the national championship each year, but they help us bring ourselves back to the bigger picture and see long-term goals. I bring this up because too many times lately I’m seeing or hearing about unrealistic expectations from companies that are in the beginning stages of using social media.
Say it with me: Social media is NOT most effective when used as a short-term consumer acquisition tactic. eMarketer recently posted a study of US marketers from the Direct Marketing Association and COLLOQUY that made the following point — social media was seen as most effective in generating brand awareness and customer loyalty, while “customer acquisition through social media is less important.”
Do your clients agree? Better question: Does your organizational approach coincide with this study? We as PR/Marketing pros have got to do a better job of setting expectations up front with our clients when using these tools. And I’m looking in the mirror first and foremost. This is something that will be at the top of my performance plan next year. Because when we don’t set expectations, our clients completely miss the point of social media and we often fall in step along with them because we’re, no surprise, trying to generate results for our clients.
It’s natural to migrate to numbers when judging success. And it’s natural to think short-term. Organizations do it all the time. But when we put fans and followers numbers up in neon lights or allow conversations to be confused with coupons and Groupons, we aren’t doing ourselves any favors and we’re just making our jobs harder. This happens too often and I’m convinced it’s one of the reasons why we continue to see social media channels used almost solely to broadcast. Plus, just yesterday, Kris Colvin shared that the Express has paid to have it’s CMO’s account (@ExpressLisaG) promoted on Twitter to gain more follows. Who is advising these people? And why are so many of us still advocating number chasing?
What we need to bring to the table is a more in-depth conversation about the expectations of today’s consumer, long-term goals and how not understanding the etiquette of social media can get you burned. We need more creative measurement — one of the best examples I heard at Blogworld was comparing listening to insurance and asking clients if they believe insurance is important. We also need to fight the online/offline WOM double standard.
Nothing sucks worse than going to present results to a client and they turn to you and ask “Is that good?”And if the client has nothing to compare to other than its millions of impressions, it’s going to be an even worse conversation. It’s easy to get in a hurry, to forget not everyone lives and breathes Twitter, to accept the head nod from a client and walk out of the room celebrating the new business or the just-finished campaign. I venture to say most of us have done it. But next time, let’s try taking it a step further. Ask the client if he/she understands how social media can best be used to benefit the brand. And if the conversation revolves solely around short-term goals, consult your client that social media may not be the best way to go for a number of reasons.
When you first tried riding a bike, your parents said you would fall a few times, didn’t they? Maybe they bought you shoulder and knee pads (yes, I have some sweet pictures of that :)). Probably a helmet. If no one had set expectations, you might have thought it would be just as easy as riding your big wheel, or whatever way-cooler motorized contraptions kids have these days.
Expectations conversations can be tough. The client’s finally excited about social media and you don’t want to put a damper on things. But if you skip the expectations, you aren’t doing anyone any favors. And you’re likely to be having a much tougher conversation come results reporting time.
- What tips and tricks do you use for setting expectations?
- Have you ever had a client ask “Is that good?” about social media results? How did it go?
- Do your clients number chase?
Twitter tips from the Veturis sisters at Blogworld
By Justin Goldsborough | October 21st, 2010
People. It’s the reason I went to Blogworld and the reason I’d go back. Two of the people I got to meet IRL at the conference were Rochelle and Chelsey Veturis from San Diego. Rochelle is a savvy PR pro who works for a green architecture firm and Chelsey is finishing up her college at Concordia University.
Both Rochelle and Chelsey took some time to tell Arik Hanson (cameo alert) and I how they are using Twitter specifically in their everyday jobs to conduct outreach and build relationships. The video is kind of long, so if you’re in a hurry, start here:
- Rochelle on how Twitter DMs and hashtags make outreach and follow up with targets easier (1:40-3:15)
- Rochelle on using Twitter lists to keep track of outreach targets and their tweets (4-5:30)
- Chelsey on why Twitter is for building relationships, not followers (5:45-6:30)
Top 10 things I learned at Blogworld
By Justin Goldsborough | October 20th, 2010
Photo courtesy of Blogworld Facebook page
For the record, I didn’t want to do a top 10 list. Top 10 lists were so played out, so last year. But then I thought, I click on just about every top 10 list post I ever see. And they’re super-easy to follow :). Even the most math-averse (that’s me) can count to 10.
So with that, I give you the top 10 things I learned at Blogworld. And I would say some of these were newly learned, but many were solid reminders that are easy to forget when we get in the weeds with client work and our everyday jobs.
10. Empower community managers to help the consumer (via @CC_Chapman). Too often the folks on the digital frontlines want to help customers and they’re trying as hard as they can to do so. But if they don’t have the resources they need, they don’t have the resources. Consumers expect that any employee can access their account and solve their issues. Companies need to react to that expectation.
9. Avid social media users are influential when it comes to raising awareness around causes (#beatcancer). For the second year in a row, sponsors tapped into the Blogworld attendee well to raise awareness — and money — for cancer support. Social and causes go together like PB&J, especially when the request of consumers is action to trigger awareness or donation.
8. Puppy problem (@jtobin). Here’s how the analogy works as Jim explained it. Each Facebook fan page, Twitter account or any online presence for that matter is like a puppy. Don’t give your clients a puppy if they aren’t going to walk it and feed it. And do your best to set expectations on what it will cost to care for the “puppy.” Most companies don’t know.
7. When it comes to social media channel management, focus on how more than the who (@armano). Asking if you’ve heard the discussion about whether an agency or client should manage a branded social media presence is like asking a millenial if he’s heard of Facebook. But what’s more important than who is how the channels are being managed. If your company truly being a social brand? Or are you just using social media channels to broadcast key messages and marketing? It’s hard for our clients to be informal and social with customers, but research shows consumers want brands to be social and they don’t trust “corporate speak.”
6. Livefyre has a an awesome new blog comment feature coming soon (@jkretch and @jennalanger). Got the chance to check out Livefyre’s new commenting feature and I liked what I saw. Think Facebook commenting for blogs. You’ll be able to notify someone you mention in a comment via a tweet or a Facebook notification. Comments will update real-time. If someone comments and mentions you while you’re writing your comment, a notification will pop up and you’ll see it. Contact Jenna or Jordan for more info and hook up your blog today.
5. There is no holy grail of social media measurement, but social media will never win the impressions battle (@davidalston and @donbart). Stop looking for the silver bullet unless you enjoy Coors Light. Hey, that cooler box thing was pretty cool. Understand that client objectives are where we should start with measurement. And using social media channels to listen and engage might help us get consumers to do what our clients want them to do. That said, impressions and short-term goals like acquisition only tell a piece of the story with online WOM. Sometimes, the value we provide by using social media isn’t about ROI — e.g. the money and negative perception that crisis planning saves a brand.
4. If you are a crappy PR person, you’ll probably be a crappy social media person (@prTini). Solid reminder here from my #pr20chat co-host that in the end, PR hasn’t changed that much. PR 2.0 is still about building relationships. We just use different tools to make it happen.
3. Consumers will pay 10 percent more for customer service (@jaybaer via @MariSmith). The definition of customer service continues to change and PR and marketing are playing in the space. The consumer could care less what department the brand reps helping him/her are in. What he/she cares about is the experience. That’s what will lead to brand perception and that’s the story that will be told via WOM. Isn’t PR responsible for perception? Doesn’t marketing attempt to facilitate WOM? You can see how the lines are blurring. But does your company see?
2. People do business with people they like, know and trust. And they spread “awesome,” not key messages (@unmarketing). One of my favorite things to advise clients is to”take it offline.” Would you just walk up to a prospect at an industry event and throw business cards? Would you talk to someone at a conference F2F in key messages? Have real conversations with people and don’t expect anyone to rush to share your corporate-sounding corporate announcement with quotes that no real person would ever say. Do you share crap like that? Be real, earn trust, give people a reason to promote your brand.
1. People (too many to list). If Blogworld didn’t have any tracks or sessions at all and it was just a gathering of the people who were there — one massive tweetup — I still would have gone and paid the same amount of money. The relationship building was “off the hook.” I can’t emphasize how important I think it is to know and build relationships with smart, fun, creative people and there was a plethora of them at this conference. A swarm to the nth degree.
- So what were your biggest takeaways from Blogworld?
- Who did you meet, hear that you’d recommend others follow?
- Are you hoping to attend next year?
The double standard between online and offline WOM
By Justin Goldsborough | October 18th, 2010
Measuring the value of efforts to listen and engage through social media can be hard. And showing a direct line to ROI is often damn-near impossible.
Thank you Captain Obvious.
So as I’m getting ready to start on a social media measurement presentation, I’m sitting here wondering about the best approach. And I’m thinking that as usual, taking the conversation offline might be the best way to level set. Here’s where I’m going with this.
Word of mouth (WOM) has long been considered the most effective form of marketing. Yet WOM has also long been the hardest form of marketing to track. But has that stopped marketing and PR pros from developing campaigns targeted at capitalizing on it? In two words…uh, no.
In fact, the PR industry at one time thought so much of offline word of mouth that we decided to develop a multiplier to factor in the pass-along rate of newspapers and magazines. It’s the whole, “hey, the epic story about brand X on page C4, you gotta read it” mentality. And then I pass along my paper to you and you read it.
The multiplier premise is flawed in several different ways, including the “this may shock you, but I don’t actually read every page of the newspaper when I get it” premise. However, many companies still use a traditional media multiplier today or they implicitly reward offline word of mouth by correlating large impressions numbers – paid and earned – to successful message distribution, because the larger the number the more people who MUST be talking about our product, right?
This rationale doesn’t exactly draw a straight line between impression numbers, offline WOM and ROI. The lines are more squiggly than one of those awesome rainbow-colored silly straws. But that hasn’t stopped marketing from raking in multi-million dollar budgets year after year to buy those guaranteed impressions and supposedly set off the offline word of mouth domino effect.
Fast forward to the social media measurement part of the conversation and I’m having a hard time understanding why I am supposed to be able to draw a straight line between my consumer engagement on Twitter and ROI. Isn’t that request unrealistic, not to mention a double standard, considering the history of our industries?
Just weeks after the Old Spice Guy did all the video responses to consumer Facebook questions and tweets, the company saw a spike in sales. If that spike had historically come after a new ad campaign or a New York Times front pager, marketing and PR would have gotten the credit. Yet a majority of the public sentiment in our industry was that it’s impossible to draw a straight line between the Old Spice videos and the rise in sales.
Really? Any less impossible than it is to draw that squiggly line between the guaranteed impressions you net from a strategic ad buy, the offline word of mouth our industry grants that it generates and the company bottom line?
Online word of mouth is held to a standard we have never held offline word of mouth to before. Analytics enhancements and the ability to follow the trail of online conversation have led us in search of a measurement holy grail that David Alston from Radian6 recently reminded us at Blogworld does not exist.
Now does that mean we shouldn’t keep trying to tie our tactics back to our objectives, and even to the bottom line, as directly as we possibly can? Nope, not saying that. To do so would be flat out lazy.
But as an industry, let’s also not ignore what the research about online WOM says – that consumers trust recommendations from experts, friends, peers much more than they trust advertisements and “key messages” from the brand. And let’s not keep encouraging this mindset that we should be able to tie a tweet or a Facebook friend back to dollars and cents. Instead, let’s give online WOM the same benefit of the doubt we’ve given offline WOM for years.
- Do you think all forms of WOM are treated equal?
- What can we do to avoid over-promising ROI?
- How do you answer clients when they ask you for the “holy grail” of social media or online WOM measurement?
Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day — Watch the video, raise money for BCA
By Justin Goldsborough | October 13th, 2010
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I’m always amazed at how many people are actually touched by this disease. For me, it was my friend, Rob. His mom got breast cancer when we were in college. She had a long battle, but it finally went into remission. Rob quit school and came back home to KC to work full-time and help support his mom and family. I remember the look of relief on his face when he thought her cancer was gone. And I remember the look of pain and sadness on his face when it came back within a month and she was gone.
Through our work at Fleishman-Hillard with one of our clients, Genentech, I’ve become aware of a specific type of breast cancer that impacts more than 155,000 people in the United States — metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Breast cancer is considered metastatic when it has spread from the breast to another part of the body, such as the bones, liver, lungs or brain. Currently, there is no cure. And since MBC is an advanced stage of cancer, most people who have it will remain on treatment for the rest of their lives.
So what can we do to help? Well, today (Oct. 13) is Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day and for every view today of the video below, Genentech will donate $1 to MBC initiatives up to $20,000. The video, Faces of MBC (#FacesofMBC) tells the emotional story of four women living with MBC and how it impacts their lives. Please watch and share the video with your friends and people you know who have been impacted by breast cancer, metastatic or otherwise. Let’s help make a difference today!
Don’t be that guy online
By Justin Goldsborough | October 10th, 2010
Imagine this scene. You’re at a tweetup and a guy walks in, asks for everyone’s attention and stands up on a chair. The room goes silent and everyone turns around trading looks and anticipating what he has to say.
That guy announces his name, the agency he works for and the client he’s representing. People start whispering under their breath and it’s apparent no one knows the guy. Then he busts right into what he’s selling without taking a breath. He’s even got a list of key messages, bulletted out nicely on apiece of foam core board. He holds it up and does a few 360s so everyone can see. The only thing rolling faster than that guy making circles and his key messages are the eyes of everyone in the room.
Next, he announces he has coupons. Most people have already forgotten what he’s selling, but he assures the anyone who’s still listening that these coupons are can’t-miss deals. He promises to drop them off by the door so everyone can pick one up on their way out and rush right to the store. Is that guy for real?
He is. And he’s not done yet. While the audience members shift from laughter to feelings of embarrassment, then pity, that guy reaches deep into his pocket and pulls out his grand finale — a huge stack of business cards. The rubber band holding them together doesn’t stand a chance. He rips it off, smiles really big and starts throwing the cards up into the air toward each table.
“Contact me when you’re ready to buy,” he says. After all the business cards have been thrown and the floor is covered with the latest in corporate identification, that guy hops down off the chair and walks out the door. There isn’t a lot of talking amongst the tweetup attendees since most are picking their chins up off the floor. But the ones who can talk are whispering some variation of “Who does that?”under their breath.
Ok, stop for a second. The visual is ridiculous, right? If this guy really existed, the whispering, talking under your breath and hashtag pile on would be at all time highs. Heck, I feel bad for that guy and he doesn’t even exist. But let me finish the story. We aren’t quite done with that guy yet.
That guy leaves the tweetup and goes back to his office. He launches his computer and starts working on the results report for the client he was representing. Under the new leads generated column, he writes 100 — the exact number of attendees at the tweetup.
Now before you start shaking your head or saying no one would really “be that guy,” ask yourself these questions:
- Do you know any companies that only “talk at” their consumers online?
- Have you ever seen a brand use social media solely to share “can’t-miss deals?”
- Know any organizations that only use their Web presence to “throw business cards?”
Calling BS on the twintern
By Justin Goldsborough | September 27th, 2010
It’s been more than a year since Pizza Hut started the “twintern” madness. You remember right? The biggest pizza brand in the world said our customers want to engage with us via Twitter and we think those customers are so important that we’re going to put our relationships with all of them in the hands of an intern.
Sounds ridiculous when you put it that way, doesn’t it? Show me a company that would hire an intern to run its customer service department and I’ll show you a company that won’t be around for long. But that’s just one way to look at it. Pizza Hut also wanted to put portions of its PR and marketing strategies in the hands of an intern as well. No wonder the internship was so popular. Who wouldn’t want to put on their resume coming out of college that they ran PR, marketing and customer service for Pizza Hut?
So if this happened in April 2009, why are we still talking about it? Because companies are still doing it. All the time. In fact, these days the only job descriptions you’re not likely to see ask for 3-5 or 7-10 years of experience on are the ones for social media manager, social media expert or *shudder* twintern. Why is this happening? Because companies are too channel focused and resistant to change when they should be focusing on who their customers are and how they want to communicate with their brand.
The down economy plays a role too. Most companies think they have to hire someone new to manage Faceook, Twitter, blogger outreach, etc. Obviously they can’t reprioritize and dedicate existing resources to these newer channels to better reach consumers? Blasphemy (#sarcasm). So they look to do bring on new help the cheapest way possible…and entry-level positions or interns usually make the cheapest salaries. The math is not that difficult.
If your company is one that’s planning to hire a millenial to manage the brand’s social media presence because they’re the only ones you think “get” the technology and because they are low cost, I’d ask you to consider the following questions:
- Why are you looking at social media as a position you have to fill?
- Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc. are channels. They should be part of an overarching strategy to engage with consumers where they are when it makes sense for your organization.
- What does the millenial you want to hire know about strategic communications?
- The answer may be a lot. I know several millenials who understand strategy better than some boomers I’ve worked with. But just because someone is in his/her early 20s and has 1,000 friends on Facebook doesn’t mean he/she understands how to use the channel to target and engage with your consumers.
- Would you ever dedicate minimal experience and resources to a key portion of your PR, marketing or customer service programs?
- Let me ask it a different way. Would you ever put an entry-level employee in charge of your brand perception, advertising or customer service? That’s what you’re doing when you hire a twintern or someone who’s new to the professional world to manage one or more of your key online consumer touchpoints. Try putting that last sentence in a PowerPoint deck as your strategy and present it to your boss. Then let me know what the reaction was if you still have a job.
What amount of resources and time to dedicate to social media is a much tougher question and there isn’t a universal answer. A better way to look at it is: What are your company’s overall goals, strategies and objectives? Can you use social media to achieve those objectives? Is social media better-suited to help you reach your goals than some of the other channels and tactics your team is executing? If the answer is yes, begin to devote more resources (money and employee hours) to those channels. Pick a starting point like 10 hours a week and continue to re-evaluate from there.
But don’t try to sell your employees and consumers a bill of goods about how important your brand thinks social media is and then hire someone who’s still in school or just out of school to manage that strategy. Because your consumers, employees and your peers will all think one thing — What a bunch of BS.
This just in…again: Employees are a company’s most valuable asset
By Justin Goldsborough | September 21st, 2010
Where do you get your most reliable information about a company? Ads? Website? Branded social media presences? Online news, blog posts about the brand?
Did anyone say word of mouth (WOM)? Or more specifically, WOM from people you know?
Nielsen has been telling us since 2008 that consumers trust peer recommendations more than advertisements. And a recent Invoke Solutions research study shows the most trusted source of information when it comes to social media are blogs, Facebook posts and tweets from people we know.
So based on those facts, it should come as no surprise that Hewitt Associates found the following in its recent employee engagement research:
Companies with high levels of engagement (65 percent or greater) outperformed the total stock market index and posted shareholder returns 19 percent higher than average in 2009. Companies with disinterested employees (40 percent or less engagement) had a total shareholder return that was 44 percent lower than average.
That revelation shouldn’t shock anyone, from corporate executives to entry-level employees. Run the self test like we did at the beginning of this post. Do you look for peer recommendations from friends when making a purchase? If you were going to buy a new cell phone and you knew someone who worked at AT&T, would you get their opinion first? I can’t tell you how many times this happened to me when I worked at Sprint. And it didn’t matter that I didn’t work on the product team. People still felt like I might have insider info I could share.
This should be an exciting times for employee communications professionals. Social media has opened so many doors and shown the potential of a brand ambassador army — hello, Best Buy. But corporate America is still ignoring the research and dedicating multi-million dollar budgets to advertising, marketing and even PR.
Now I’m not saying those areas don’t deserve their fair share of dollars and resources. And which should get the most is a conversation for another time. But internal communications budgets don’t even sniff the million-dollar range. There’s a better chance of the Royals winning the World Series.
And yet the most influential capital asset any company has is its employees. And most of the time, this group is just asking to be empowered and looking for guidance on how to help the team out in any way it can. The question is, when is corporate America going to start listening to employees and the research data that supports investing in them?
Consider this: Corporation A just scored one million impressions with a paid TV ad that ran in several markets, while corporation B invests in making sure its employees know how to sell and assist the consumer through online and offline conversation. You can have your TV ad. I’ll invest in B any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
- What companies do you see doing a great job with internal communications?
- Does the Hewitt Research on employee engagement surprise you?
- Why don’t brands often change behavior based on research?