By Dan Fisher, Menemsha Group

If you are like most sales and recruiting professionals in the staffing industry, you’re probably sick and frustrated with hearing your prospects and customers tell you “we’re not hiring and we have no budget.” How does one overcome such an objection? Better yet, how does one even engage in a meaningful conversation when you know your prospect or customer is operating under those circumstances? Here is an idea that has worked for me… and hundreds of others. (more…)

Findings from the TechServe Alliance Annual Conference & Tradeshow Women’s Luncheon

Picture if you will, a packed room of 60+ women all who work for or own IT services and staffing firms. Can you see it in your mind? Now, visualize that these women are all actively participating in lively and interactive discussions examining critical and provocative business issues relative to the IT services and staffing industry. (more…)

As we usher in another season of holiday parties, holiday shopping and holiday overeating, so too do we dive into holiday card and gift time — a trickier undertaking than most realize. While the uninitiated may conclude it to be as simple as tossing off a couple lines of warm wishes on a snowman picture, this isn’t the case when it comes to the fine art of the company holiday card or gift. (more…)

Testing should not be taken lightly

I know you’ve all been waiting with baited breath for the finale of this email trilogy! Before we get into it, let’s recap what we talked about in part 1 and part 2 of Email Marketing Should Still be a Part of Your Marketing Mix.

• In part 1, we reviewed the major email marketing vendors such as Campaign Monitor, StreamSend and Vertical Response and why you should choose one over another as well as best practices for improving your email marketing including: using pre-header text, table of contents, buttons and links and logos and images (and image blocking).
• In part 2, we continued with best practices for improving your email marketing including integrating social media, creating emails for mobile and using plain-text emails.

In this final blog, we’re taking a deep dive into email testing (which in my opinion is the most important thing you can do to ensure success). So, let’s get to it! (more…)

Making a Case for Strategic Social Media

The other day I was riding Chicago’s “L” and saw an ad for a local business which promoted its social media links. To distract myself from the commute, I pulled out my smartphone and went to their Facebook page. To my surprise, despite running an ad that promoted social media, the company hadn’t updated its page in over 6 months and only had a handful of followers. The same was true for its Twitter account. I found myself thinking that this company wasn’t social at all. I felt duped. (more…)

Why integrating social media, creating emails for mobile and using plain-text is important

In part 1 of Email Marketing Should Still be a Part of Your Marketing Mix, we discussed the major email marketing vendors as well as talked about implementing best practices into your emails including: using pre-header text, table of contents, buttons and links and logos and images (and image blocking). To continue our email marketing best practices discussion let’s talk about integrating social media, building emails for mobile and using plain-text emails. (more…)

Choosing the right email vendor for you and implementing simple best practices

Should email marketing still be a part of your marketing mix? The short answer is YES! Email marketing is just one of many communication tools you should be using to continually connect with your prospects and clients. From event announcements/invitations to monthly e-newsletters, email marketing is an easy and affordable way for your brand to stay top of mind. Like many online tools, email marketing is rapidly changing, and by implementing a few, simple best practices, your emails can make a large impact. (more…)

By now I’m sure, like me, you’re used to regularly seeing QR codes. They’ve become mainstream. From billboards and magazine ads to the more unconventional restaurant take-out menus and the sides of buses and taxi cabs, QR codes are everywhere. Heck, by the end of 2011, airline carriers will be required to provide QR codes on mobile boarding passes for all international flights. (more…)

Seems like almost everyone these days is on Facebook (well, except for my best friend). Facebook even came out with the ability the other day for people expecting a baby to list their unborn child, along with due date, as a family member. So what’s holding your company back? (more…)

Everyone in the staffing industry is thrilled to find a HOT, HOT, HOT! job candidate. But what happens when you’re trying to place that highly desirable talent and hiring managers aren’t moving quickly enough to green-light the placement? (more…)

To text or not to text: that is the question many staffing firms are pondering in today’s “how many tools does it take to reach a candidate” market.

As the surge in social recruiting hits unprecedented levels, how far will recruiters go to connect with candidates? From LinkedIn and Facebook to Google ad campaigns, some companies are now turning to text-based (or SMS) campaigns as part of their mobile engagement strategy to reach candidates in real time on their mobile phones. (more…)

A client of ours, Harvey Nash USA, recently released the results of their annual global CIO Survey which assesses the current direction of IT strategy and trends among IT leaders around the world. Now in its sixth year in the U.S. and 13^th globally, the CIO Survey is held in high regard in the industry. But this did not happen overnight. A great deal of time and energy went into capturing a high response rate and thus validity of the results. This year the global report had more than 2,500 responses and in the U.S. alone, 42% of responses were C-level. (more…)

The Fine Line between Getting it Right vs. Getting it Done

Early on in my career I learned a very valuable lesson about getting it “right” versus getting it “done.” As a junior PR rep, I was tasked with congratulating a local media reporter on a recent promotion. All that was needed was a short congratulatory note. The goal, of course, was to express well wishes, as well as to begin to foster a relationship between the firm and the reporter. Easy peezy, or so I thought.

(more…)

Actually, when I grew up I wanted to be a veterinarian, but gave up that dream after sixth grade when I read Where the Red Fern Grows. For those of you who haven’t read the book, it’s a tale of a young boy and two coonhounds (Little Ann and Old Dan), that after a battle with a mountain lion, Old Dan loses his life. Having such a soft spot for animals, I couldn’t finish the book since I was crying so hard. That is when I knew I wasn’t cut out to help sick animals. I’ve always been fascinated with ads on TV, radio and magazines, so when it came time to pick a major in college I felt marketing/advertising was my destiny. I know it’s a far stretch from veterinary medicine, but all kids have pipe dreams, right? (more…)

Building Your Business on Referrals and Word of Mouth

It wasn’t cold and snowy enough here in Chicago, so I traveled to Minneapolis at the end of January to present to the Minnesota chapter of TechServe Alliance. My presentation titled, “Marketing for Where You Want to Be: 10 Proven Ways to Strategically Grow,” triggered a lively discussion that generated a great deal of debate. (more…)

In part 1 of Blogging Tips from the Expert, I shared with you the first three blogging tips to get you started including how to determine topics, tips for writing your blogs and then ideas for successful Search Engine Optimization. Now it’s time for the final three tips.

4. How to address comments, or more importantly how to GET people to comment. One question we are asked most by our clients is, “How do I get people to comment on my blogs? and How do I address them?” This is a tough one and an area I thought worthy of sharing some additional resources. I found this blog by Darren Rowse (creator of ProBlogger.net) called 10 Techniques to get Readers to Comment on your Blog. The advice that stuck out to me is to be open ended by asking questions and inviting comments. And when you do get comments, be sure to interact and reply. When someone leaves an insightful or interesting comment, comment back. The idea being more people will add comments and what started as a static piece of content becomes a dynamic conversations between readers.

5. Length, frequency and promotion. Other questions we get asked a lot!

• How long should my posts be? There is no rule, but rather generally accepted guidelines. Usually, the shorter the better. A blog can be two sentences to 4,000 words. But a few hundred words are typically the sweet spot. I am the worst culprit of not following this ‘guideline’. But, if your blog is longer, break it up into a series (which is what I did here). This way, you’ll have more than one blog to post!
• How often should I blog? You’ll want to blog as often as you can. For larger companies two-to-three blogs per week is a good number, for smaller companies, one blog per week. You can use Twitter to supplement your blog postings, but strive for no less than every other week. Once you get a good base of blogs, you can even refresh your older blog posts if they are still relevant. This way, you have new content without writing new content!
• How do I know when and what to post? Create an editorial calendar and share with all involved to keep everyone on schedule for creating and posting content. Include the intended date, topic and author/source. Add any upcoming events/announcements, holidays and story ideas. Be strategic and organize thematically. A good way to spark topic ideas is to follow other blogs that are in your industry. This is a working calendar that can change as new topics/ideas become available. However, remember that blogs aren’t always planned topics! So while it’s good to have a schedule, try to be spontaneous too!
• How do I promote my blog? To promote your blog, use everything in your arsenal including: e-mail signature, business cards, tradeshows, your website, your newsletter, all social media pages and word of mouth. For example when you post a new blog, tweet about it, post it on Facebook and so on. Make sure an RSS Feed is added to your blog so people can automatically receive content (most often this comes automatically with blogging sites). Comment on the blogs you’ve subscribed too, driving traffic to your blog! Register your blog with sites such as Technorati. Furthermore, don’t stop at promoting your blog as a blog, promote it to help catch the eye of reporters (you’re a subject matter expert they can interview on specific topics!) and pitch for public speaking opportunities.

One last thing I want to leave you with. No matter what you blog about, what tools you use to blog (i.e. WordPress, Blogger, Moveable Type) and how often you blog, the point is that you are blogging, getting your name and your brand out there. Keep it up! The more you do it, the more you will learn and the more you will be well on your way to becoming an expert.

Since you know I am not an expert myself and this is not the end all be all of blogging best practices, I invite you to share your tips that you’ve learned along the way so we all can be perpetual blogging students!

So, I have a confession to make… I may have actually overstated the title of this blog―I’m not exactly an expert blogger. I’m more like the perpetual blogging student eager to learn and share my wisdom with others. How do you become an expert blogger? It’s not as hard as you may think and today my goal is to impart my lessons in what makes a blog successful based on research, client experiences and my own personal blogging.

First and foremost, I want to reiterate what you may already know, but it’s an important point. Why does blogging matter? Blogs are one of the fastest, easiest and least expensive ways to communicate today. It provides direct, unmediated communications with prospects, clients, fans, curious bystanders, and even critics and skeptics. Blogging is a way, as a professional, to establish your own digital persona and set yourself apart. As a company, blogging builds your brand and demonstrates its value. Furthermore, blogging is a great way for companies to address any negative issues that may arise, and keep everyone updated and informed. Blogging can give your company positive content during crisis, and can help mitigate any negative news results coming up in search engine queries about your company.

Now, I want to take you through the first three of six best practices I have learned along the way about blogging.

1. Determine your topic. What is your purpose for blogging (primary news channel? thought leadership? customer stories?). You can focus on all of these, but put your editorial hat on vs. your marketing hat. Ask yourself: Who is our target audience? And what do we want to convey the most to them? Think broadly, meaning your blog can be about news announcements, comments on industry trends/issues, events, presentations, acknowledging glitches, changes in direction, etc. Which brings me to one point, when you do address issues, be timely in your response, acknowledge the problem, promise updates and aim for candor and humility when mistakes happen. This makes you sincere, direct and will instantly build trust.

2. Writing a blog. I admit it is tough for me to write blogs sometimes. But it doesn’t have to be! For me, it starts with the headline, which helps me create the intro paragraph that flows into the second paragraph and so on. I aim for short, descriptive titles that capture attention. Be consistent in your writing style (i.e. capitalize every word in your title). Have the blog come from one author unless there is a good reason for it to come from more than one author. Also, this is when you establish your voice. Strive for informal and conversational (it’s the one marketing medium where this is OK, so be sure to take advantage of it), be direct and use clear language. Be humble and make benefits understandable. Provide examples to explain complicated ideas. Don’t use corporate jargon that your readers won’t understand. But most importantly, have fun with it!

3. Smart writing. Meaning, making your blog SEO (Search Engine Optimization) friendly.

• Include links to other sites, called a “blogroll”. Blogrolling provides your readers with content they might find useful and will also add to your content. If you enjoy the content you are linking to chances are your readers will too.
• Include website keywords whenever you can and categorize your blog according to the subject.
• Finally, add Google Analytics to track clickthroughs, visits, monitor popularity and compare effectiveness of your blog over time. This way, you can adjust your blog as needed so it is optimized in a way to make it easy for people to find you online. If you’re using WordPress it is automatically built-in, which you can find on your dashboard.

In part 2 of Blogging Tips from the Expert, I will share with you the final three blogging tips spawned from questions we get asked from our clients. These tips include how to respond to comments (and how to actually get people to comment), recommended length for blogs, how frequent you should blog and most importantly how to promote your blog.

If you have any ideas on blogging, I encourage you to share them with me and all our readers.

Whew, you’re done with your webinar. Congratulations! Now the real work begins.

You’ve gone this far, don’t quit now
Following up after a webinar is where most companies drop the ball, not realizing how they can turn the event into so much more after it’s done. I would argue the follow-up is the most important piece of webinars. This is where you really get a chance to reach out to your audience, gather feedback and ultimately get those meetings!

After the webinar you’ll get a list of the attendees and non-attendees. To attendees, send a “thank you for attending” e-mail that includes even more value-added content. Use the webinar content and turn it into a blog, online FAQ, podcast, etc., that can be included in your follow-up message. Also be sure to include a clear call to action statement such as doing a one-on-one presentation with people on their team who didn’t have a chance to attend the webinar. Then, follow this e-mail up with a phone call! For non-attendees, send a “sorry we missed you” e-mail that gives a brief overview of what was covered, include insights gained from the polls conducted during the webinar, link to a blog, online FAQ, podcast, etc., and again, include a strong call to action statement.  And, you guessed it, follow up with a phone call.

In both e-mails you can provide a link to the presentation and offer setting up a meeting (a one-on-one presentation). Either way, you can post the presentation on SlideShare to easily share your slides either publically or privately. Once your e-mails are sent and your phone calls are made, take further advantage of your “value-added” pieces. Post your follow-up materials on your Web site and your social media pages, link to them in your e-mail signature and use them in your e-newsletters. Encourage your sales team and others in your company to share it on their personal Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter pages as well.

Finally, poll your audience after the webinar to find out what they thought. What did they like about it? What could have been done better? Most webinar tools offer survey features, but if they don’t, consider using survey tools such as Survey Monkey or Zoomerang. You can use this to improve your webinars as you continue to do them.

Even YOU can create and present successful webinars!
There is a clear difference between webinars that stay with your audience, and those they wish they could forget. By creating a comprehensive plan that accounts for all the details prior to, during and after your webinar, you will set yourself up for success. Use your first few webinars as a learning experience, focusing on your topic, your audience, your presentation and your presentation style. Don’t forget to look at every opportunity to follow-up and qualify the leads coming through your webinars. With lots of practice and a little luck, you’ll have mastered the art of using this online technology to expand your connections with clients and prospects!

I want to encourage you all to try these tips, and send me any feedback or best practices that work best for you and your company.

You’ve gone through your webinar planning, asking yourself the questions you need to ask. Now that you’ve gone through your webinar planning, you are ready to present. Well, almost…

Now is the time to practice and engage
The headline says it all, NOW is your time to practice the webinar and engage your audience. First, you need to get a webinar tool. There are several great tools out there, including Adobe Connect, Go to Webinar and WebEx. The tool you choose is really a matter of preference, required features (polling, auto-registration, operator assistance, etc.) and budget, so do your research.

No matter what webinar tool you use, always do a dry run of the webinar so you get comfortable with the presentation and timing. Even if you are a really great public speaker, webinar presentations are a whole other ball game. A live audience is replaced with your computer screen. If it helps, imagine your computer in its underwear (just kidding). Practice will also help you learn the ins and outs of the webinar tool, test your phone line, and resolve any technical glitches you may have. If possible, involve people on your team (remotely) to provide you feedback. Finally, learn how to open the phone lines to the audience for the Q&A session. By opening the phone lines instead of solely relying on the chat feature, you encourage interaction with your audience.

While creating your presentation, keep in mind these best practices that we’ve learned along the way:

• The number one reason webinar attendees drop off in the first five minutes is because the presentation is too sales oriented. Keep the sales pitch out of the content as much as possible! Save the sales pitch for after the event in your follow-up meetings.
• Aside from a brief introduction to establish credibility, the audience typically doesn’t care about what you can sell to them. This doesn’t mean that you can’t talk about success stories from your clients; it just needs to be presented in an educational way.
• Teach don’t preach. Your webinar should add value to the audience. They want to walk away with insights, knowledge and tips that can help them in their daily jobs, so create your content around this idea.
• Unless the webinar is promoted as a product or service demo, stay away from the temptation, otherwise your webinar may come off as too salesy and you will lose interest.
• Leave enough time (15 minutes or so) for a Q&A session. This way all questions get answered and no one leaves the webinar feeling they weren’t heard.

As for the structure of your presentation, we have found that breaking it up into three parts is the easiest way for your audience to stay attentive and really learn. People digest information better when it’s broken into three’s (hence this blog having three parts!).

1. Introduction (2-3 minutes) — the first section is used to introduce the speaker, describe and set up the topic of the webinar.
2. Presentation/Examples (30 minutes) — this section should be the “meat” of your webinar, providing answers to the issue, solutions and tips. A great way to present this section is the use of lists (like a top 10 list). After you’ve presented your topic, be sure to provide examples. This is where you talk about case studies and success stores to really drive home your point and establish even more credibility.
3. Q&A (15 minutes) — to help prepare for the Q&A session, show people on your team the presentation, what types of questions do they have, what’s missing?
4. Poll Questions (5 minutes) — I know I said there were three steps, which there are, but during the webinar, it’s always a great idea to poll the audience to help keep them engaged throughout. Don’t just poll for polling’s sake, use the information during and after your webinar. Polling allows you to get to know your audience from the outset. You can then start to use this knowledge to customize your content. Most webinar tools have this feature built in and you can see the data instantly. In addition, the results are available after the event which gives you some ammo for follow-up. Very cool, huh?

At the end of your presentation, be sure to promote your next webinar. People will then keep it in the back of their mind and be more apt to register when they receive the next communications. Finally, leave 5 minutes or so in your presentation for buffer time. This will help you overcome timing issues if (and when) technical difficulties happen (and yes they do happen, so its best to build this time in)!

In part 3 of Yes YOU can! How to build and present successful webinars, you’ll learn everything you need to know about following-up after the webinar, which some would say (and I completely agree) is the most important component to achieving your desired ROI.

Catchy headlines anyone?
Three rules when writing webinar headlines that will demand attention

1. The headline should always be benefit-oriented (what will the user gain?), use strong language
2. K.I.S.S. – you know the old adage – keep it simple silly
3. For e-mails, keep the subject line no longer than 50 characters (and that includes spaces too) – this is important for the entire subject line to show up in inboxes/PDA devices

Examples of some successful webinar titles:

• Become the social media guru in your office
• Flip-cam it! Low-cost workshop on low-budget video
• Get in the driver’s seat with Facebook for PR webinar

There is no doubt about it, webinars—a presentation, lecture, workshop or seminar that is transmitted over the Web—are on the rise. I myself have attended numerous webinars over the years and there are plenty that have given me valuable information and practical “on the job” advice. There are also webinars that have left me confused, sleepy and even ones that—I hate to admit—I have dropped off after only 10 minutes into it.

Having recently worked on an award winning webinar series, this got me thinking, what’s the difference between the webinar that gave me great advice and the webinar where I just couldn’t stay engaged? The short answer is preparation. The long answer is the reason for this blog and what I believe separates winning webinars from an all out snooze fest.

First, let’s take a step back and talk about why companies even want to do webinars. In my experience, the biggest reason—and for obvious reasons—is business development. Webinars are a great way for a company to reach a geographically dispersed audience, especially if their sales force is limited. If done right, (and I do stress IF done right) webinars do a great job of building credibility and they bring value to your audience. After all, that’s why people attend webinars, because they want to learn something. This keeps audiences’ engaged and coming back time after time for more webinars (and hopefully as a client!).

In my experience in creating and participating in webinars, the simplest way to breakdown how to build and present a successful webinar is in three phases, 1) pre-webinar, 2) during the webinar and 3) post-webinar.

In this first part of a three-part series I am going to focus on everything pre-webinar. The next installment will focus on the best practices for during the webinar and the third installment will be on, you guessed it, what you should do after every webinar.

First, it’s your chance to reach out
While planning your webinar there are four questions you need to answer, 1) what’s the topic?, 2) who’s my audience; 3) how do I get people to attend; 4) what is my follow up and expected return?

When deciding on a topic, don’t just pick one that YOU are interested in. Instead, consider your audience and what it is they want to know more about. Take an informal poll of your sales and delivery teams. What questions are they getting from their clients and prospects? What value are they communicating about your products, services or solutions? What push back are they giving your team on the products, services or solutions you are selling? What challenges are they facing? Additionally, don’t be afraid to ask clients for insights either. And always know what your competitors are doing (not to do the same thing, but to ensure your topics stand out). Answers to these questions will get you well on your way to developing an interesting and engaging topic your audience will want to listen to and more importantly, learn from.

The second piece of the pre-webinar plan that’s important to the event’s success is getting people to attend. There are several approaches you can (and should) take to get attendees. First—and I really can’t stress this enough—is making sure your list is current, and contains people you want to target. I won’t go into this in detail, but check out this blog for more information on list development.

How do you get your list of contacts to attend your webinar? Try and reach them in as many ways as you can. Send a few e-mail blasts, post it on social media pages and your Web site, add a link to your e-mail signature, send a personal note along with a copy of the invitation and make phone calls. Ask any associations you are affiliated with or your partners to promote your webinar as well. This way, you leverage their database and reach their contacts too (genius)!

In your communications, tell the audience what they will get out of attending the webinar and make registration easy (1-click maximum). The more channels you use and the more benefit oriented the communications are, the more people you will get to register. The key here is don’t just rely on the e-mail blasts to get registrants, a joint sales and marketing effort is critical.

We often get asked by our clients how to get registrants to actually attend the webinar. There will always be important meetings or deadlines that come up during your webinar so it’s normal not to have 100% of registrants actually attend the webinar. However, I believe personal touch goes a long way. While you’ll want to send out a reminder e-mail one or two days before the event, or even the same day (depending on the tool you use, you can set it up so this automatically happens), consider having your sales team call the registrants the day before or day of to thank them for registering thus reminding them of the webinar. Also consider sending a meeting request to registered attendees so it appears on their calendars and they don’t schedule anything over it.

Three additional ways to attract attendees is first, think about a co-sponsorship with another firm or one of your business partners. If you co-sponsor your webinar this may help reduce some of your costs, establish more credibility and open up your webinar to even more contacts (as I said before).  Second, if it’s in your budget, include a high-prized giveaway such as an Apple iPad or an Amazon Kindle. Who doesn’t like winning a cool prize? Give the prize to one attendee and announce the winner at the end of the webinar (this makes people want to stay too). A giveaway is a great tool to use as a follow up (here’s your chance to set up a meeting, by calling the winner to make sure they received the giveaway, or bring it to them if they are near you).  Third, and this is also if it’s in your budget, hold an internal contest. The team member who gets the most registrants/attendees will receive a free lunch, night on the town, etc. This not only increases your attendance, but it increases company morale too.

Finally, come up with some metrics to measure. Figure out how many people you want to register, and how many people you want to attend. It may take a few webinars under your belt to get the desired registrants/attendees, but stick with it, if done right your numbers will increase. Your metrics should also go beyond just the webinar. Decide how you want to follow up after the webinar (discussed in detail later) and what you want to get out of it (i.e., number of meetings).

Don’t be disappointed if you get only a handful of people to attend your first webinar. Use it as a learning experience and leverage all of the follow up communications I will be talking about later to promote on your Web site, through social media, etc. The best part is that your attendees don’t have to know how many people are on the webinar!

In part 2 of Yes YOU can! How to build and present successful webinars, I go through best practices for creating your presentation and how it should be structured. Do you have any ideas on how to attract webinar attendees? Please share your best practices too.

About three years ago, Megan McCann, Vice President of Geneva Technical Services, and Jane Gilligan, Vice President of Professional Services at Harvey Nash, and I started a quarterly Executive Women’s Networking Dinner. It started as an informal group of women executives in the information technology (IT) industry gathering at our favorite restaurants in Chicago to relax and talk shop. It grew into something we never expected. Now drawing around 30 women ranging from CIOs to heads of professional services organizations, the connections we have made and opportunities we created have truly surprised and heartened all of us.

For our most recent dinner, on April 6th, I dug deep into my Journalism roots and came up with the idea for a special format: on-the-record with Brad Spirrison, Sun-Times Monday Tech Columnist and editor for Appolicious, and off-the-record with Jennifer Scanlon, Vice President and CIO of USG Corporation.

Over a delicious dinner at new restaurant Prairie Fire, Jennifer shared important career lessons, focusing most of her time on the absolute importance of communications. Here are three gems she shared with us:

• Form follows function.
When presenting to executives, skip all of the data and analysis up front and go straight to your recommendation. Of course have the information to back it up, but always make your opinion clear (and tell it often). And always give them a heads-up. This is important: You never want to surprise an executive; always, always give them fair warning before presenting something in a group environment. Jennifer mentioned a story about: Grandma’s on the roof! I won’t go into details, but essentially, sometimes before you get to the big news, you need to take a few baby steps first (element of surprise doesn’t work well in business!).

• Simple is elegant.
It’s been said that simplicity is the cornerstone of elegance. When sharing technical information, you need to state it in terms easy enough for your mom or dad to grasp. Business people don’t care about cloud computing and other IT jargon. Keep it simple. When writing, really think about what needs to be communicated to get your point across, and then eliminate everything else (very difficult for me to do as a writer, but the point is a good one). For more on this, Jennifer recommended “Why Business People Speak Like Idiots: A Bullfighter’s Guide” by Brian Fugere, Chelsea Hardaway and Jon Warshawsky, and “Say It With Charts: The Executive’s Guide to Visual Communication” by Gene Zelazny.

• Confidence wins.
When speaking publicly, you have to project confidence. And if you don’t, do something about it—Toastmasters has been known to work miracles. Other simple tips you can use to your advantage when addressing an audience:

1. Write a script. You don’t have to memorize it; just having it to fall back on will help you combat the jitters.
2. Write your script BEFORE you tackle your PowerPoint presentation, will keep it on point!
3. Use quotes sparingly, definitely not back-to-back.
4. Know your style and use it effectively to make yourself memorable. Make a statement (and yes, sometimes a statement can be as simple as your shoes!).

It was no surprise that Brad came with his new toy in tow, an iPad that he obligingly showed off for everyone. Brad carried the communication theme through dessert (the best chocolate molten cake ever!) with an insightful discussion on social media, its impact on the business community and the different generations that are now occupying the same workplace.

Now the first and only honorary male member of our group, Brad returned the compliment with an observation that our dinner was the first networking event he had ever attended where no one tried to sell anything. I can’t imagine a better remark, as this is very much the atmosphere we have strived to create from the beginning: a close-knit gathering where we can relax and not worry about the “salesy” environment that is more often than not present at networking events.

The day after our event I read a CIO Magazine article, ironically, about “The Shrinking Female IT Workforce”, and was surprised to find: While male CIOs earned an average of $177,843 in 2009, female CIOs earned $148,965. This affirmed for me how important it is for women IT executives to support each other—as well as the upcoming generation. Whether it’s through networking associations or by reaching out as mentors or industry liaisons to female students about to enter the job market, building a supportive community starts with us.

Special thanks to Jennifer and Brad for the enlightening conversation. To the women in our group: Thanks for participating in our unique (and completely hush-hush) dinner group, and all of the wonderful opportunities you’ve presented to some of my closest colleagues. I cannot wait for our next dish together.

Did you hear about the recent faux pas the HR VP at Carat, Aegis Group’s media-buying company, committed?  I read about it in the article, Carat Missive Goes Astray, in the Wall Street Journal. Basically Carat’s senior management team had been preparing materials to announce a restructuring, including significant layoffs. Instead of sending the working drafts of the communications to its intended audience of select few, the VP of HR sent it to the entire company. It was recalled by the IT department, but the damage was done. In fact, the messaging documents have made their way outside the company and even been published online by Advertising Age.

Yikes! My initial, knee-jerk reaction was not unlike those who posted messages in response to the AdAge.com article. How careless? How could she? It immediately reminded me of a similar situation. In August 2006, RadioShack communicated layoff announcements by e-mail. Approximately 400 employees walked into work on August 29 and received the following message in their inbox: “The workforce reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately your position is one that has been eliminated.” 

However, having been the author of layoff messaging in a past life, and one of a handful of individuals with the technical permissions to distribute company-wide e-mails to several thousand employees, I quickly began to empathize with Carat’s VP. After all, one false slip of a keystroke and that could just as easily have happened to me. I don’t believe she maliciously distributed the draft documents by e-mail in advance of a planned formal announcement. It was most certainly an accident.

And that’s when it struck me. The RadioShack and Carat layoff situations are actually quite different. Though both companies, it appears, developed thorough communications plans and messaging to share the unfortunate news, RadioShack purposefully chose e-mail as its method for making the announcement. RadioShack’s decision to alert affected employees that their positions were eliminated by e-mail resulted in a number of not-so-positive headlines.  RadioShack defended its actions saying it had forewarned employees at its Fort Worth headquarters about the impending layoffs and that they had told employees they would learn about their job status via e-mail.  Given the open office environment, RadioShack felt it was the best way to preserve the person’s privacy and dignity, as opposed to walking through cubicles and tapping people on the shoulder to call them into the office.

Many of the outplacement experts cited in the numerous articles written on the topic said the approach was inappropriate. In a New York Times article, Derrick D’Souza, a management professor at the University of North Texas, said he had never heard of such a large number of employees being notified about a layoff electronically.  He said it could be seen as dehumanizing.  “If I put myself in their shoes,” Mr. D’Souza said.  “I’d say, ‘Didn’t they have a few minutes to tell me?”’

I believe most workers have come to accept that workforce reductions are part of the normal course of business.  While it still won’t be easy for the employee being let go, the person delivering the news, or those left behind, taking a timely, honest, personal approach will do a great deal to minimize animosity.  No matter how large or small your organization is, creating a cohesive internal communications plan that addresses how, when and to whom you’ll make your announcements will allow you to coordinate the organizational changes face-to-face affording employees the dignity they deserve.

As you would expect, Carat has received some harsh criticism in the press.  While it’s still too early to tell what the exact fallout will be from the Carat VP’s mistake, I doubt it will be much more than a stomach flip at the thought of it happening to you and a reminder to always double and triple check the To:, Cc: and Bcc: boxes of your e-mail when distributing sensitive documents.  RadioShack on the other hand continues to serve as a good example of how not to communicate workforce reductions to employees.

Jessica Elliott
Marketing Director
ClearEdge Marketing

I just ended a phone conversation with a colleague.  We were discussing the Yin/Yang of public relations activities.  As a long-time PR person and a journalist, I have a nuanced view of media coverage and it is best described as the Yin and the Yang.

Let me explain.

The Yin
Good PR people often counsel their clients against pursuing the one-off “big story.”  You know the “I-want-to-be-in-the-Wall-Street-Journal” story.  And the reason is simple, most clients are not very happy the first time their company is covered in the Wall Street Journal precisely because the reporter has done a good and fair job. 

I know this from experience.  In the 1990s, I was a PR director at a large IT services company and when we finally got the CEO quoted in the local business journal, all hell broke loose.  To say the CEO was angry was an understatement.  He was furious because the story was “fair” and it covered the market, not just us.  He knew the scope of the story going into the interview, but somewhere along the way, he thought that the story would make us look like angels and the others like the devil. 

In reality, the story was good, and we did come off well, but it wasn’t exactly as he would have worded it, more importantly many of our competitors came off well too. 

It’s important to understand when we undertake a proactive media campaign that the story will — NEVER, I repeat, NEVER — read exactly as we hoped it would. 

The Yang
With practice and realistic expectations, we can reverse this perspective and find ourselves very satisfied with a story EVEN when the reporter doesn’t include all our “best stuff.” 

The key to being satisfied, even happy, with an article is simple. 

Every interview deserves a planned, disciplined PR approach.  The PR person should vet the reporter and determine the nature of the story.  The PR person should talk with the spokesperson in advance to ensure that he/she has all of the information needed and a precise way of stating it.  The PR person can/should sit in on the interview (physically or by phone) and clarify or offer additional information as needed.  And post interview, the PR person can and should check in with the reporter to see if anything was missing or more detail is needed.

Preparing for a media interview is as important as preparing for a job interview.  You get one chance to make a good impression and simultaneously present relevant information.  It’s an opportunity and a challenge and should be viewed as such.

Laura Field
PR Director
ClearEdge Marketing

While studying Communications in college I worked part-time for a nationwide retail company. Our store manager would hold monthly meetings to go through the laundry list of directives being handed down from corporate. All of these important “must do’s” were supposed to support the company’s goals. What were our goals? I’m sure I read about them in a training manual at some point, but I can’t recall ever hearing about them again.

Fast forward to present day and I’m still amazed at how infrequently companies discuss their business goals. I know many companies spend months creating them, send out an e-mail about them at the beginning of the year and then don’t talk about them again until the end of year—when it’s time to tell their employees they didn’t achieve them. Employees don’t intuitively know what management has committed to achieving. You have to tell them. And tell them again. And again.

Given the multiple priorities of today’s employee, it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger objective and get caught up in oiling the squeaky wheels. In most cases, your employees want to help the company succeed. Not only is there a personal sense of pride in having been a part of that success, there is also a strong motivation in the form of job security. It’s up to business leaders to ensure their employees know what they can do to meet the obligations that have been made to customers, the financial community, the board of directors and other important stakeholders.

In my communications and marketing roles, I’ve been able to make good on a personal commitment I made to myself back in my college days, “If I ever get the chance, I will make sure employees in the field don’t feel isolated.” What I’ve learned in practice is:

• Inject the company’s objectives into every relevant communication that goes out from senior management. You can use different language to make it feel fresh, but don’t assume that because it’s getting old and repetitive to you, that everyone shares that feeling. At the very least, employee turnover is enough of a reason to repeat the message.

• Consider the office that’s furthest from your company’s headquarters. They don’t have daily, weekly, monthly or in some cases yearly access to the company’s leadership team. The employees in that office want to know that you have them in mind when you talk about where the company is headed.

• In every communication effectiveness survey I’ve conducted, employees look to their managers first and foremost for information about the company, their role and how the two come together. Look to your managers to deliver on the expectation.

• Managers will filter the message. If you want the whole message delivered, you have to remind managers that employees aren’t “in the know.” It’s their job to connect the dots and to help employees understand the company’s goals and where employees fit into that picture.

As you approach the end of the first quarter of 2008, consider the effectiveness you’ve had in discussing where you want to be at the end of the year. Is everyone on the same page? If numbers are off, if customers are unhappy, if partnerships are strained, perhaps the lack of a shared focus is a symptom. If it is, the remedy isn’t all that hard to administer. 

Jessica Elliott
Marketing Director
ClearEdge Marketing

Hypersociality is a term I read about in a Network World article by Mark Gibbs, and it’s one that immediately reminded me of the impact technology is having on our daily personal and business interactions. Gibbs’ article does a good job exploring how mobile technologies designed to facilitate communications are transforming how we socialize and even creating some antisocial behavior. Along the same lines, but from a business perspective, I feel it’s critical that businesses consider how compulsive and unrestrained use of mobile technologies could damage their sales and business networks.

For example, I have recently had several clients relate stories of how key business contacts were lost and/or untraceable because the business development professional was using text messaging to communicate with a prospect. Because retrieving content from cell phones is a limited function, key interactions and records easily vanish when texting is the communications mode of choice. While not necessarily the norm today, this method of client interaction does seem to be increasing.

And while I can personally testify to the value of BlackBerry and PDA tools that allow for greater accessibility and mobility, I can also testify to the inefficiency they can bring to business communications. Professionals writing in transit or between meetings often reply so fast and with such little thought to wording that their messages are indecipherable and often come across as being curt. Some people go as far as putting disclaimers in their BlackBerry signature lines alerting recipients that the message was sent from a BlackBerry, as if it’s an excuse for typos and misunderstood messages. I once received the following reply to an e-mail request for a meeting:

“Good be can’t for noon. See then 5. Be great.”

As much as I love a good riddle, this is ridiculous. Communications that devolve to this level for the sake of efficiency are only breeding inefficiency. I had to e-mail again twice to get a coherent response, which meant three times the work necessary for both of us. And don’t get me wrong. As a business owner, I don’t leave home without my BlackBerry. I am often abusing BlackBerry etiquette in public places (restaurants, movie theatres, etc.) for the sake of communicating with a client. But, over time, I too have learned when to put the BlackBerry down and wait for my laptop back at the office.

In the article mentioned above, Gibbs argues that too much technology-enabled communication enables antisocial interactions. I see evidence of this in business communications every day. In attempts to work faster and more flexibly, we are losing our ability to communicate efficiently and with admirable professionalism.

For maintaining strong sales channel communications, we at ClearEdge always recommend regular documentation of client and prospect interactions (or what we in marketing call “touches”). Thanks to technology, outstanding and cost-effective tools for managing sales communications and progress are available. If a client or prospect is sent a text message invitation, meeting request or piece of information, that interaction needs to be centrally documented so that other team members can trace the communication path. That way if a sales person leaves or must take a leave of absence, other staff members can step in and pick up the process. The critical process is ensuring that prospect contacts and lead generation activities are being recorded centrally (where the business can access them) and regularly.

When it comes to making sure written communications (whether in phone calls, letters, e-mails or texts) uphold professional standards, businesses need to focus on training and mentoring. Too many businesses look at the younger generations of workers and say, “It’s just the way they’ve learned to use technology. They are redefining workplace communications.”

My response? Only if you let them. Workers of all ages are open to learning and skills enhancement, but when it comes to high-tech tools, many people tend to default to the younger generation as knowing the best way to use gadgets today. In terms of speed, maybe. In terms of using PDAs and mobile phones with professional grace, we can all use some help in refining our skills. In the coming months, writers and the communications specialist from our ClearEdge team will share their insights on how to combat falling standards of professionalism while in a gadget-happy, speed-addicted, extraordinarily mobile work world. We look forward to reading and hearing your thoughts on the subject.

Leslie Vickrey
President & Founder
ClearEdge Marketing

I just read an article from CIO online titled, “How to Communicate in a Crisis” by Kathleen Carr. Carr reported what Edward Flynn, the former Massachusetts public safety secretary, told CSO magazine in 2005 shortly after he handled a media crisis related to a potential dirty bomb in Boston. All of what Flynn said is right, but what struck me was what he didn’t say. I have practiced corporate PR for 25 years and had my share of communications crises (environmental spills, accidental deaths, outraged community activists and angry shareholders). Flynn is right to say, provide accurate information, answer questions, tell the truth, be prepared, get involved, but in my opinion, he left out several very important steps. I would add to Flynn’s list: Set up a shadow crisis Web site in advance. When your company is in the midst of the situation, your web team can put it up and provide real-time updates. The recent Virginia Tech crisis is a good example. Journalism students kept the site up to date and the site became one of the primary communications tools for students, parents, professors and interested parties.

Set regular times for media updates. Schedule press conferences and let your media contacts know that you’ll provide updates hourly, twice a day, daily or whatever the situation calls for. Make the schedule widely known so that others in the company or in the situation can tell reporters when they will receive an update. Post the schedule on the Web site.

Name in advance who your spokespeople will be. Have a minimum of four or five identified. Tightly coordinate activities between spokespeople and information gathers and fact checkers.

Apologize. My legal friends will call me out on this, but if the situation is in any way your company’s fault, APOLOGIZE, completely and sincerely. If the incident results in human harm, contact immediately the families and friends, and apologize face-to-face, offer all the help you can to mitigate their pain and loss. There are many documented cases of the affected parties forgiving companies that admit to mistakes and correct them, the Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol crisis for example. What the public will not tolerate is a company that refuses to acknowledge responsibility.

I’m sure that there are more tips for crisis situations but these were the ones that stood out to me. The most important advice that Flynn and I agree on is to BE PREPARED. It’s not just for the Boy Scouts. Companies that have a crisis communications plan will recover more quickly and more completely from a crisis than companies that haven’t planned ahead.

Laura Field
Public Relations Director
ClearEdge Marketing