Business Best Practices: Kudos, WOWs and All That Good Stuff

(Post by Jessica Killenberg Muzik, APR, Vice President – Account Services)

Meetings … love them or hate them, they are an essential part of doing business.

But what if meetings were something your team actually looked forward to or, at the very least, didn’t mind attending?

Yes, it can happen.

At Bianchi PR we have a standing (albeit flexible) Thursday morning staff meeting and toward the bottom of the agenda is always a bullet point titled “kudos.”

During the kudos portion of the meeting, our leader acknowledges each team member’s achievements for the past week.  Sometimes the achievement is a major media hit for a client in a key publication, sometimes it’s scoring a big media interview, and sometimes it’s just stepping up on those everyday tasks that keep things humming along for the firm and our clients.

The key point: giving positive recognition to each team member for “things gone right.” It encourages and reinforces positive behavior. And beyond that, it helps close the meeting on an upbeat, sometimes inspirational, note.

Now, above and beyond the kudos, we also celebrate “WOWs.” A WOW is an acknowledgement for those times when a staff member has figuratively “Walked On Water” for a client.

Although our clients are unaware of it (until perhaps they read this blog), WOWs actually come directly from them.

Any time a client takes the time to write an unsolicited email or note of thanks to the agency for a job well done, our agency CEO generates a WOW certificate for that staffer.

The certificate itself isn’t anything fancy.

It’s simply a piece of paper prominently featuring the acronym WOW along with a brief description how the staffer wow’ed the client.

It’s presented at the next weekly staff meeting, and the recipient posts it near their workspace, as a pleasant reminder of an appreciative client and a grateful employer.

Now, who wouldn’t want to attend a meeting that promises kudos, WOWs and all that good stuff?

When you end a staff meeting on a high note, it encourages your team to continue to do great work. And isn’t that what best business practices are really all about?

What have you done to make your meetings more enjoyable or to encourage great work among your staffers?

New Tools, Old Rules: Social Media Policy

(Post by Jessica Killenberg Muzik, APR, Vice President – Account Services)

When asked about social media policy, I once heard a PR executive sum it up in this way: “It’s just new tools, old rules.”

Social media has indeed given professionals a new set of tools in our collective toolbox and with that comes the need for proper use guidelines. The key is developing a social media policy that will help regulate, but won’t smother, the personal and open nature of new media within your company.

Here are five key points to keep in mind when establishing a social media policy:

1. A policy with a purpose. Your social media policy should have a positive purpose behind it, focusing on the things that employees can do, rather than what they can’t do when it comes to posting.
2. Identify roles for consistency. In any organization, certain individuals are responsible for certain tasks. Pick an administrator (or more than one depending on the size of your company) for your social media sites. The administrator will be responsible for making significant, consistent announcements on behalf of the organization, responding to questions or complaints, and resolving issues.
3. Encourage good judgment. Social media sites provide a place to be professional and helpful, not an open forum to complain or insult. Employees should be encouraged to post, but to use common sense when doing so. And, if questionable, they can always run a potential post by the social media administrator for approval before posting.
4. Respect copyrights. Giving proper credit where credit due is a must. Employees should be made aware that they must have permission to use others’ material (with attribution, if necessary) before it is posted.
5. Prepare for problems. Just as with any policy, there should be basic steps to follow in order to recognize and fix problems to your social media sites in a timely fashion. Again, this is where having an administrator comes in handy.

Bonus tip: Make your policy a living document. Changes and additions should be made as more is learned and experienced. When updating or revising your guidelines, keep communication open between your administrator and employees to leverage feedback. See feedback as an opportunity for continuous improvement.

For some examples of social media guidelines from various companies, see the Social Media Governance website, which has an online database of more than 200 social media policies.

A Picture is Worth … 53% More Likes and 104% More Comments

(Post by Jessica Killenberg Muzik, APR, VP – Account Services)

We have said it before … “everyone reads pictures.”

And according to a recent study by HubSpot – which evaluated 8,800 Facebook posts from B2B and B2C companies – posts with photos on Facebook pages received 53 percent more likes than the average post. In addition, photo posts attracted 104 percent more comments than the average post. 

The findings of this social media engagement study emphasize a big opportunity for business.

Using photos to increase likes and comments, can increase a businesses’ EdgeRank – Facebook’s visibility algorithm – helping to boost page content to appear in the news feeds more often.

And increased visibility, in all forms, is key when it comes to marketing a business.

Here are five tips gathered from our staff and Inc. magazine on using photos to boost your company’s online engagement:

1. Use the Right Stuff. Make sure the photo is interesting, good quality, pertinent to your business and customers, as well as appropriate for your audience. Also, if you use someone else’s photo, make sure you have permission and provide appropriate credit.
2. Show Your Stuff. Use photos of your product or service to bring your words to life and provide a descriptive caption that will interest your audience and lead them to a link where they can find more information.
3. Show Your Staff.  Using photos of your employees on the job or participating in community, charity or civic activities can help your customers and prospects connect on a more personal level with your company.
4. Make it Tight and Bright. Make sure the photo’s subject is well lit and that the key subject fills the frame, so that the product or person is easy to see in the online thumbnail.
5. Make it Searchable. Replace the image’s original, unspecific file name (i.e. IMG0123.jpg) with the name of your product or service and optimize it for online search algorithms, so the right people find the photo.

Do have any photo posting tips to add to this list? Come on, shoot …

Part 5: Creating Social Media Content and Process for the Business Professional

(Post by Jessica Killenberg Muzik, APR, Vice President – Account Services)

So you’ve created your professional social media accounts … now what?

Continuously creating content is one of the biggest challenges in successfully implementing social media tactics for the business world. In the final two parts of this six-part series, we’ll share some thoughts on content, what to promote, the process, consistency targets and social media measurement.

In order to create content, here is a list of questions you can look to as a guide to help you:

• What kinds of topics or content would motivate customers / potential customers to engage in a conversation or get in touch with you?
• What kinds of problems or issues are they tackling? Can you or your company offer tips or advice?
• What articles, blogs or videos have you seen that might be newsworthy or helpful to share?
• Are there any issues or topics that you would like other’s people input or insight about?

Mix those general topics and helpful information with content about your company, but be careful not to make it all about you. When promoting yourself and your company via social media, here are some suggestions on what you might want to consider posting, intermittently:

• News releases / event announcements;
• Videos / photos (as we often say to our clients “everyone ‘reads’ pictures”);
• Community involvement stories or photos;
• Positive media coverage about your company or your industry;
• Start a discussion on industry trends and issues; and
• Ask questions / solicit feedback / conduct a poll or survey. (One of our most popular posts is based on an annual survey of identifying the most-hated business buzzwords for communicators and marketers.)

To be consistent with your social media efforts, we recommend establishing a process that you’ll follow time and time again. First, when linking to another source (website, article news release, etc.) shorten the link’s URL by using one of the many URL shortening sites. We like www.bitly.com, as it offers real-time link tracking to measure your social media efforts. Then develop your actual post to accompany the link, writing something that’ll grab attention. And we recommend drafting the post in Word first, so you can do a spell check.

Now you’re ready to post the content to your social media pages. And, yes, post it to all of them. Although it may seem a bit redundant, your various contacts, followers, friends and fans have different preferences for the social media they use — some turn to Twitter, some follow Facebook, and others  like LinkedIn. By hitting all your outlets, even though you may customize the posta bit  to fit the unique qualities of each platform, you can ensure that your content isn’t missed.

• For LinkedIn, we recommend posting to your personal account first, then to your company’s business page and finally to all appropriate groups you belong to.
• For Twitter, remember to make sure your Tweet comes at 130 or fewer characters, so it can be easily re-tweeted by others and still meet the 140-character limit. Use a shortened URL to save space, and consider using a hashtag for increased searchability.
• For Facebook, again use a catchy headline and shortened URL, as well as pictures and video.

Now, the big question is: as a professional, how much time should you dedicate to social media?

We’ll cover that in our final part of this series, as well as measurement and some closing thoughts on social media for business.

Part 4: Blogs for the Business Professional

(Post by Jessica Killenberg Muzik, APR, VP – Account Services)

A business-oriented blog can help you connect with new prospects, position you and/or your company as an expert in your field, and drive traffic to your content on other social media or digital properties.

The word “blog” is a contraction for “web log” — a term used to describe a website that maintains an ongoing chronicle of information. Many blogs focus on a particular topic. For example, our Bianchi Biz Blog focuses on useful information and perspective on PR and social media, especially for the business-to-business community.

The Basics: To set up a blog, you can select one of the many blogging sites out there. We use WordPress for its functionality and ease of use. To set up a WordPress account, go to www.wordpress.com and click the “Sign Up” button. You will then be directed to a page where you will need to choose an address for your blog, username and password. After you provide your email address, an email will be sent to you to activate your blog … and you’re in business!

So you’ve created a blog, now what? Here are some key things to keep in mind:

• Your blog is not a commercial about you or your company. You can draw upon your experience, but tie it to helpful, useful information to keep your readers coming back and perhaps even sharing your content with others;
• People like bulleted lists, as they pack a lot of info into a small space. Some of our most popular posts are bulleted lists that offer tips, how-to info or facts.
• Just as much as people like bulleted lists, they also like “reading” pictures. So offer up images, video, charts or infographics to supplement your words. For example, we used screen shots to explain how to use Facebook in part three of this blog series, Facebook for the Business Professional
• Tie your topics to the latest trends and issues. For example, our Pinterest’ed In Today’s Hottest Social Media Site? was one of our most-read blogs to date;
• Make your headlines catchy. We’ve found fun or sensational headlines like The Sneaky Seven: How to Avoid Media Interview Pitfalls, helped increase visits and solicit feedback from our readers;
• Be sure to post regularly, perhaps every week or every other week. Consistency in frequency and quality is important to building and maintaining your blog audience;
• Create and build a rolling list of potential blog topics, and write a few extra blog posts so you’ll have a few on the shelf and ready to go when you’re pressured for time or lacking inspiration;
• Build community by checking out and subscribing to other blogs, linking to other blog posts that augment your post and inviting guests you respect to contribute a guest post;
• Promote your blog via posts on your other social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, LinkedIn groups, etc.), as well as on your website, your email signature, advertising, enewsletter, etc. Invite your contacts to visit and follow; and
• Have fun with it!

Now that we’ve covered the basics for LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and blogging for professional use in the first four parts of this series, the next two parts of this series will focus on creating content, the process, consistency targets, measurement and more.

Part 2: Twitter for the Business Professional

Created in March 2006, Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as “tweets.”

The Basics: To create a Twitter account go to www.twitter.com. Click on “Sign Up for Twitter.” Type in your name, email and password. Create a username (typically your name). Click “Create my Account.” Upload a photo. And finally, write a brief summary about yourself (up to 160 characters).

So you’ve created your professional Twitter account, now how do you leverage it? We suggest the following:

• Begin following top influencers in your industry segment / field to learn about breaking or industry news and trends, in turn they may just start following you;
• Keep your message to the 140 characters allotted (to enable a full re-tweet), use a URL shortener (like www.bitly.com) and consider using a hash tag for increased searchability. A hash tag is simply a way for people to search for tweets that have a common topic (i.e. #PR);
• Steer followers to company or customer-posted news, blogs, sites, etc. by posting links or retweeting;
• Generate media opportunities by following journalists and positioning you or your company as a possible expert source;
• Get feedback on your products / services and review updates, view comments, questions and / or possible criticism;
• Post video and image links tied to promotional campaigns and encourage users to follow along to receive exclusive information; and
• Posting on-site, real-time updates and insights from conferences or trade shows you may be attending.

Here is an example of a profile and a series of Tweets:

After creating and leveraging your own Twitter account, if you’re interested in learning more about how to create a corporate account and how to best utilize it to build your business and its brand, check out our tipsheet, Think Before You Tweet – Writing Tweets Worth Sharing.  Also follow Bianchi PR on Twitter for an example of how we’re utilizing the site for our business.

Next week: Part 3 – Facebook for the Business Professional

Our Top 5 PR Blog Posts for 2011

Although social media seemed to be the hottest subject in the PR world throughout 2011, it was interesting to note that four of our five most popular blog posts on the Bianchi Biz Blog last year were NOT about social media.

Our most-read posts were more about relationships, the practice of PR and, of course, those business buzzwords that drive all of us bonkers.

Our group of followers is limited generally to those interested in business-to-business PR topics and tips, so we were delighted that we had 7,126 visitors to our blog in 2011 — nearly doubling our monthly average from 2010. If one of those visits was yours, thanks!

And in case you missed them, here are our top five blog posts of 2011:

1 10 Habits of Successful PR Client-Agency Relationships

2 Top 10 Bits of PR Advice

3 20 Business Buzzwords You Want to Kill

4 Top 7 Unfriendable Offenses

5 PR Retainers Are Long Gone. Aren’t They?

What topics would YOU like us to explore in the Bianchi Biz Blog in 2012?

Social Media: A New Set of Corporate Legal Landmines?

We often talk to clients about the use of social media in the business-to-business marketing realm. There’s no question, social media can be a powerful set of new tools to engage and build relationships with potential customers. The upside potential for connecting with customers is astronomical, but there is also some downside risk of the legal variety.

And even if your business has not yet jumped into using social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, the use of social media by your employees could already be creating unexpected legal issues for your company.

Considering that Facebook alone has more than 500 million users (if it were a country it would be the third most-populated in the world), and that it is only one of thousands of social networking sites, it’s a given that some of your employees are using social media. And if they’re using it on the job or talking about your company, they could cost your business big bucks without even trying!

How? Here are a few examples where social media can cause concerns:

• If any of your employees are checking social media sites like Facebook to learn more about job candidates without their advance permission (HR issue)
• If any of your employees are posting comments on social sites or blogs  and endorse your company or products without disclosing their relationship with your company (FTC issue)
• If any of your employees are using social media to talk about work, to complain about other employees or customers, or to discuss internal company concerns or policies (confidentiality issue).

How do you minimize the risk of social media use to your company? According to Steve Pallazzolo, an attorney with Warner, Norcross & Judd (http://www.wnj.com) who recently spoke at the Marketing in the 21^st Century 2.0 seminar, you start by putting a social media policy in place.

This policy doesn’t have to be 30 pages long, Steve says, but it should at least:

• Be written, understandable, distributed to employees and implemented
• Include standards of conduct (do’s and don’ts)
• Require employees to disclose material connections when endorsing
• Require employees to acknowledge they understand the policy
• Provide for notification of any training or monitoring that will be conducted, and
• Specify the consequences for violations of the policy.

Now, I’m no legal expert. For help, talk to your company’s labor and employment law counsel – or contact us for a referral to a qualified law firm.

But I do recognize that, as Steve noted in his talk, there is a whole generation of people who will reveal almost any detail of their private life (personal or business)  on the web without a second thought. And if you don’t think that poses a problem, think about the young Israeli serviceman who posted information on his Facebook page about a planned secret military raid (see the CNN story: http://tinyurl.com/25q4dl2). 

Most employees mean well. So most social media transgressions by employees are unintentional – but when all is said and done, the lack of intent does not reduce the potential damage to your company.

What will reduce your risk is the implementation of a corporate social media policy … one that will help your employees avoid such unintentional mistakes, protect confidential information and demonstrate your company’s commitment to abide by the law … while still enabling your company to harness the power of these popular new communication tools.

Fore-warned is fore-armed. For more info on social media policies, see our eNewsletter: “71 Percent of Companies Don’t! Should Your Company Have a Social Media Policy?” (http://r.hypercore.com/a/10125078/f/18930.pdf)

Building Your Business Blog

There’s lots of advice out there in cyberspace for bloggers. Perhaps so much that it makes you feel like a mosquito in a nudist colony – you just don’t know where to start!

Sometimes it’s best to take a step back and simplify. Based on our experience over the past year or so with business-oriented blogs, here are a few basics that can help you get your business blog up and running successfully:

1) Define WHO and WHY – identify the target audience you want to engage and the purpose behind your blog. Who are you trying to reach and what are you trying to do? Are you blogging to build awareness, start conversations, gain customer insights for new products and services or network with industry peers? These definitions will help you focus on the topics you’ll cover, the questions you’ll pose and the way you’ll promote your blog.

Our blog, for example, is about public relations and social media, so we avoid posting my personal perspective on supermarket lines, rude waiters or Beyonce’s latest hit.

2) Gear the content for your audience’s needs, not your own – if your blog is pure sales pitch or self-promotion, you’ll turn your audience off. Consider your audience’s interests and needs, and cater to them – with insights, tips and topics that will help them in their daily professional (or personal) lives. And be sure to read the comments your readers post, respond to them and thank them for engaging.

Some of our most popular blog entries revolved around public relations tips, delved into social media topics or enabled readers to sound off about their pet peeves in PR.

3) Fill the pipeline – blogs are like newsletters. The first one is easy, but subsequent installments are tough. Make the commitment to stick with it. At the onset, develop a list of topics and an arsenal of at least five or six blog entries before you launch, so that you always have something ready to go. Have members of your team help you continuously grow the list with new topics or completed entries, seek out guest bloggers, and as you build a following, ask your audience for topics they’d like to see covered.

We often blog about questions we’re asked by clients, prospects or students … or about responses we receive in polling or surveying our colleagues in the PR/marketing world. 

4) Let your passion and expertise show – if you don’t truly know and enjoy the themes and topics you’re blogging about, it will show. Find someone in your company who is informed and inspired about the key topics, and enlist their help. Successful blogs are all about being human and authentic … and about connecting.

We try to let our love for the PR biz, our penchant to help others and our ability to laugh at ourselves show in our blog.

5) Persistently promote your blog – it’s going to take a while to build a following, so hang in there. It helps to promote your blog every way possible – with links on your website, company Facebook/LinkedIn page and Twitter feed, ads, sales literature, e-mail signatures, online discussion forums and links to related blogs.  Apply some basic search engine optimization with keywords and topic tag your blog post. Also, comment on other like-minded blogs in your category and include a link to your blog post when appropriate.

We’ve found that by promoting this way, we increased our number of monthly blog visitors by 25 times over the past year.

We still have a way to go, but the momentum is clearly there. It’s proving to be well worth all of our effort, and the same could be true for you.

For more tips on enhancing your blog, see this helpful article by Jeff Bulla: http://jeffbullas.com/2010/02/21/30-tips-on-how-to-make-your-companys-blog-rock/.

What suggestions or questions do you have about starting a business blog?

Hello world!

    To blog or not to blog … that is the question for many communications professionals these days. I’ve heard it said that blogs “… are written by people with nothing to say, for people who have nothing better to read when they should be doing something else.”
     As a baby boomer who remembers life before the Internet, it’s interesting to be stepping into the world of social networking to see where it might take us. I’m hoping it will help start some conversations and enable us to discover some new things together.
     A college student who aspires to be a PR professional recently said that he blogs because he wants to share his perspective on things. I think that’s great, as I’m always interested to see what other people of all generations are thinking, and because we all have a lot to learn about how to use the new communications tools. And while I’m sure there are lots of people who appreciate this student’s perspective on things, perhaps his blog’s greater value will be as a catalyst to bring other people’s perspectives to him.
     One danger I see in blogging is that, if one is not careful, it becomes all about “me.” Some blogs seem to focus on talking without listening. They are simply monologues, not one side of a dialogue. And as we all learned (or should have learned) in Communications 101, that’s not communicating, that’s just pontificating!
      So, at the risk of seeming to pontificate a little myself, if there is one piece of advice I can give an aspiring young communications professional, it’s to force yourself to listen. By giving other people the floor, by letting the conversation be about someone else, and by making someone else the center of the universe for a few minutes, you’ll be amazed what you learn.
      How does one do that? Here’s an interesting exercise: try to take the “you” attitude for just one week. When conversing either in person or electronically, make the conversation all about the other person … and see what happens. Ask: “How are YOU? What are YOU working on? What problems are YOU facing today? What can I do to help YOU?” … and then, really listen. And then, ask more questions based on the person’s answers.
     You just may find that by changing the focus from “me” to “you”, you’ll actually be able to communicate much more effectively, because you’ll be enriched by the perspective, the insights and the opinions of others. And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?
     So, please help me turn this into a dialogue. Let me know what you think about blogs … and how they’re helping you. (And if you’re a student trying the exercise, please let me know how that works out for YOU!)

Thanks!    Jim Bianchi