MARBLE ARCH — I was visited by a charming man from Brussels yesterday called Hugh.  We had a nice chat about PR, communications and change management.  We talked about schools in Kenya and wine in Kuwait and real estate in Cirencester.

When it came to the subject at hand — work — Hugh blushed a bit [...]]]>

MARBLE ARCH — I was visited by a charming man from Brussels yesterday called Hugh.  We had a nice chat about PR, communications and change management.  We talked about schools in Kenya and wine in Kuwait and real estate in Cirencester.

When it came to the subject at hand — work — Hugh blushed a bit and said “I am here because, I am afraid to say, I googled ‘change management’ and your company came up.”

And I think that was the best thing I have heard so far in 2009.  (Granted it’s not been a such a great year.)

There was a day when businesses like ours would try to find the biggest shingle they could and hang it above the front door.  Or you might offer the “best deals” or some kind of AMAZING results or solutions.  I know companies that have gone to great lengths to get in the papers or appear on TV.  But today there’s one business directory that counts ahead of all others, and that’s Google.

When we started this business in September 2008 we had a lovely website that no one could see.  But we didn’t figure that out until earlier this year.  When we did, and our South African SEO (look it up!) guru tweeked a few things, everything changed.  We climbed the ratings literally over-night.

Part of this is about technology, but part is also about noise and focus.  We have tried hard to make our business offering both broad and specific.  We found some words that we wanted to own, and we set about owning them.

At the same time we made as much noise online as we could.  Blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn… We appeared at conferences and made sure the name was spelled right.

Has it been the making of us?  So far, not really.  But it can’t hurt.  And it’s better than trying to lift that big shingle.

/df

LONDON — There seems to be quite a bit of excitement out there about Google Wave.  Here’s a blog I was sent to earlier today.  Look how many comments there are in a few hours.

There’s a lovely short video here too that will show you what Google Wave is all about.

To me it looks quite [...]]]>

LONDON — There seems to be quite a bit of excitement out there about Google Wave.  Here’s a blog I was sent to earlier today.  Look how many comments there are in a few hours.

There’s a lovely short video here too that will show you what Google Wave is all about.

To me it looks quite similar to the demo I saw in August of Microsoft’s OneNote.  A lovely guy from Pfizer explained to a group of us how it’s should change their project processes.  And I find both quite compelling.  Here’s a video about it too.

In many respects I am dying to try both out. 

In many other ways I suspect that I won’t and I can’t.  My brain is already programmed to using email and other software.  I recognise that this is better.  I even suspect that in a few years or month I will be using it.  But I can’t get excited now.

The Google Wave video says “email was invented more than 40 years ago, Google Wave is what we would do if we invented it now.”  Well, I was invented 40 years ago and I don’t think I have out-stayed my welcome yet. 

In fact, I am still quite keen on writing letters.  You know, start at the top and work down from left to right on a piece of nice paper?  I like that too and people are still doing it (although not in Britain with a Royal Mail strike).

/df

LONDON — I am delighted to see that people are still talking about last month’s CommsFlashMob.

Liam and his buddy Paul have both written about it recently. 

It seems like maybe the CommsFlashMob should keep on rolling.

Ideas?

/df

LONDON — A few of us got together in one place today and made an effort to quickly update the “Internal Communications” page on Wikipedia.

We learned a lot in the process.

All tolled there were 28 amendments made to the page, and more are still being made now.  Some people watched.  Some emailed, texted and tweeted [...]]]>

LONDON — A few of us got together in one place today and made an effort to quickly update the “Internal Communications” page on Wikipedia.

We learned a lot in the process.

All tolled there were 28 amendments made to the page, and more are still being made now.  Some people watched.  Some emailed, texted and tweeted us to say “you missed X”… and some just went on and did stuff themselves.  It’s still a long, long way from perfect.  But it is better than it was.

Hopefully improvements will continue.  Why not have a look and make a change now?

What an interesting experience.  At the same time we noticed that the Corporate Communications page is even worse.  Should that be next?

/df

LONDON — It started as an idle comment on Twitter.  Either Rach or Lee started it.  Well, actually Wedge started it…  Maybe I should start again.

Anyone interested in social media and communications will know that Wikipedia, while fantastic on the marriage of Britney Spears, is not so great on topics like Internal Communications.

In fact, the [...]]]>

LONDON — It started as an idle comment on Twitter.  Either Rach or Lee started it.  Well, actually Wedge started it…  Maybe I should start again.

Anyone interested in social media and communications will know that Wikipedia, while fantastic on the marriage of Britney Spears, is not so great on topics like Internal Communications.

In fact, the patchwork of an Internal Comms page was started by Wedge many years ago, but he takes no responsibility now.  Acknowledging that it’s a mess.

Earlier this summer we fell into some idle conversation about fixing it.  Social Media superstar Rachel Allen, former CIPR head Lee Smith, communications dean Liam Fitzpatrick, tech-god Wedge and I.  Soon Twitter’s only permanent resident, and Virgin Media Internal Communications head, Abi Signorelli was also involved.

We pledged to get together in one afternoon and “fix it”.

Tomorrow afternoon (Thursday 20 August) from 3 pm to 5 pm BST (10 to 12 EST) etc. we will gather and try to take a crack at it.  We hope that others will join in online.

A few people have had to drop out for reasons ranging from travel to ‘real work’, but we will persist.  Some others have already written their sections and all that remains is to post them.

You know, it may not work.  Wikipedia works in mysterious way.  They may dump us out entirely.  But we will soon see.

I hope you’ll come by and have a look.  Write a bit… Or even simply follow us on Twitter at CommsFlashMob.

/df

I am excited about an event that I am running with Neville Hobson tomorrow.  He’s already blogged on it.  And, being Neville he’s put it on Twitter and created a hash-tag and all.

So, if you are social media savvy you can follow along.  We were plotting today a bit and it was clear that our [...]]]>

I am excited about an event that I am running with Neville Hobson tomorrow.  He’s already blogged on it.  And, being Neville he’s put it on Twitter and created a hash-tag and all.

So, if you are social media savvy you can follow along.  We were plotting today a bit and it was clear that our combined ideas will be better then they are alone. 

There are great presentations lined up from United Utilities, Pfizer and BAT.  So I am looking forward to that alone.  The event details are here.  You could probably still call the organisers and come if you wanted to.

Otherwise have a look on Twitter.

/df

LONDON — There’s a website associated with Antony Gormley’s latest artwork.  The ‘work’ is called ‘One and Other’ and it’s strangely addictive.  It is a programme for 2,400 different people to stand one hour on the fourth plinth over the space of almost 3.5 months.  Have a look at the site.  But I warn you, [...]]]>

LONDON — There’s a website associated with Antony Gormley’s latest artwork.  The ‘work’ is called ‘One and Other’ and it’s strangely addictive.  It is a programme for 2,400 different people to stand one hour on the fourth plinth over the space of almost 3.5 months.  Have a look at the site.  But I warn you, it is strangely engrossing.

This afternoon there was an ordinary bloke on it in a suit and tie and a bicycle.  He was quite good actually.  He seemed to have thought about what he’d do for the hour.  Nice pink socks and pink tie.  But he also had a bunch of websites added to his profile.  Always willing to follow a random lead, I clicked on a few.  They were, pleasantly enough, links to charities and associations the man supported.  But the one commercial site — a bicycle company — has a big band across the site saying “sorry, we are closing June 10th, but we’ll open again on June 14th”.

Yikes.  That’s almost a month ago.

Clearly none of us are always totally on the ball.  But I suspect that company got as many hits on its website today as they have all year.  And they weren’t ready.

Are you?

/df

PARSONS GREEN — It’s a question that journalism students ask.  And indeed I had to answer when I was a news desk copy editor at a tabloid owned by Robert Maxwell in the 1980s.

I’m not sure I always like the answer.

Surely Avian Flu was bad.  But this is worse.  Isn’t it?

Well, [...]]]>

PARSONS GREEN — It’s a question that journalism students ask.  And indeed I had to answer when I was a news desk copy editor at a tabloid owned by Robert Maxwell in the 1980s.

I’m not sure I always like the answer.

H1N1 (that ‘killer’ flu thing)

Surely Avian Flu was bad.  But this is worse.  Isn’t it?

Well, I dunno.  I am married to a microbiologist and immunologist, so I am well aware of just how bad it can be.  I even avoided the pub a few times and sat at home feeling stupid and angry.  But what’s the news?

We clearly need to be prepared and you can see internal communicators exchanging ideas for their H1N1 Crisis Communication Plans.  It’s best to be prepared, surely.  But how long can humans be on high alert?

Not very long.

Give us some perspective.  We can’t ignore the real one… when it comes…  but is this it?

Michael Jackson

I am wrong, I suspect, but this whole thing leaves me quite agitated.  What an overblown, self-indulgent schlock-fest.  I eventually told my children that they couldn’t watch it.

Who knows how history will treat his ‘art’, but there’s no denying that the man was a pitiful figure… and worse.  In my part of London a paedophile has been seen sneaking into schools, following young girls on school trips and was recently arrested in a children’s nursery changing room.

How can you deal with the horror of that …while there’s a global broadcast in honour of a man who many times was brought up on charges of something similar?

My feeling is that few people even fell comfortable asking that.

And there is a link here to internal communications.  How can we provide ‘news’ if it is always ‘good’?  Everyone knows that no news is always ‘good’.  Stories that are too good are just not credible.  But we are often required to leave out the part of the story that makes for more compelling reading: the conflict.

UGC and conversations

I am a bit disillusioned with Social Media.  I am not sure I was ever illusioned, if I am honest.  Blogs, like this one, are a means to an end.  YouTube, Facebook, MySpace are like old shopping malls where the customers often seemed to have moved on.  And I still think that while people are using Twitter to talk about… Twitter… it is not really a new means of communication.

But there is no doubt that User Generated Content (UGC) is something that businesses and other organisations will need to grapple with.  At the moment news organisations seem to be coming around to it a bit.  Getting control.  But in the process they have lost a whole bunch of readers.  Some people will never again go to traditional media for news.  And this will also affect internal communications.

I guess that’s why we still have so much faith in talking about ‘conversations’.  Businesses need to be able to talk to people in a healthy and consistent way, if they are going to stay up to speed with the world.  Conversations are more honest and both parties learn something.  News flows in both directions.

No one will put their faith in the great and powerful Oz in the future.  Everyone will insist on looking behind the curtain.  How prepared are we for that?

/df

SOUTHWEST LONDON — We have been entering the lottery for Wimbledon for 10 years.  And we got our first tickets this year.  I just opened to see we are about 7 rows back, near the net.  So it should be even better than I had hoped.

I’ll take my phone along and update Twitter on odd [...]]]>

SOUTHWEST LONDON — We have been entering the lottery for Wimbledon for 10 years.  And we got our first tickets this year.  I just opened to see we are about 7 rows back, near the net.  So it should be even better than I had hoped.

I’ll take my phone along and update Twitter on odd observations as we go.  See you there.

/df

“MySpace today announced its intent to restructure its international operations and refocus personnel around a smaller number of territories, while retaining a robust global consumer presence.”

That’s what News Corporation’s MySpace said in their press release yesterday.  According to the Flesch-Kincaid reading ease measures that sentence requires about 15 years of formal education to understand it.  The average age of [...]]]>

“MySpace today announced its intent to restructure its international operations and refocus personnel around a smaller number of territories, while retaining a robust global consumer presence.”

That’s what News Corporation’s MySpace said in their press release yesterday.  According to the Flesch-Kincaid reading ease measures that sentence requires about 15 years of formal education to understand it.  The average age of a MySpace user is hard to be entirely sure of (younger users have always needed to sign in as 17 or older and many are listed as 99 years old), but to assume that they all have the education required to make sense of this seems ambitious.

In fact, assuming anyone has the interest to read it, is a stretch.

Along with the people who write policies for insurance companies, brochures for banks, and nutrition information on cereal boxes, MySpace now seems to have joined the brigade of businesses who obfuscate to avoid saying things they don’t want to.

In tennis it would be a penalty for time wasting.

Statements like those written above are most likely written for the business media.  Journalists and analysts are in the business of decoding this kind of business-speak.  So the headlines said:

Website axes two-thirds of international jobs

MySpace to lay off a further 300 international staff

I think they might have got a better result if they’d made the information simpler.  Maybe focused on talking in ways that their users might recognise?

/df