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Posts Tagged ‘strategy’

Feeding The Social Media Beast

09.09.11

Ever felt a “need” to be active on Twitter? Do you feel guilty for not publishing to your blog for a few days?

Sometimes there can almost be a compulsion to keep feeding your social media accounts. Go away for a week and watch your blog plummet down the AdAge Power 150, your visitors fall and your RSS subscriptions drop off. Stop tweeting and watch the online discussion around your brand diminish.

So as a business, how do you deal with that time when you just don’t have any content to post?

Personally, I agree with others who have argued that the volume of content isn’t as important as the quality of content and its relevance to the audience.

So, here are a few thoughts on what you can do when your content well appears dry:

Re-assess your content
Listen to consumers
Converse with people
Ask what people want
Experiment with new ideas
Mine your internal resources
Wait for useful content

Re-assess

Take advantage of the extra time you have right now to take a cold, hard look at what you’re doing online. Is it working? How do you know?

Take a look at the kind of content you’re posting. Is one kind working better than another? Is one medium reaching more of your audience than another? Could you experiment with something new? Perhaps there’s a potential source of content that you haven’t yet tapped.

Listening

Social media doesn’t have to be all about broadcasting your content (frankly, it shouldn’t). While you’re in this lull, consider placing additional focus on listening. What are people saying about you? Are they discussing your product or company? Are they complaining? Complimenting you? Inquiring? Who is saying these things?

Take the time to reassess where you are against the baseline you set at the outset (you did do that, right?)

Converse

This sits nicely alongside your listening. When people talk about you, do you respond? Perhaps now is a time to get the buy-in you need to start. Maybe it is; maybe it isn’t. Think about it.

Ask

When was the last time you asked the people who care about your company what they want from you? Have you ever done that? You may be making assumptions. Remember – building strong relationships with customers (and I don’t just mean in an online forum) means making it about them, not just you. Ask for input, and ye shall receive.

Experiment

One of the great aspects to social media (to online communication in general) is that you can experiment at little cost. Maybe it’s a new promotion; a new contest; a new feature on one of your social networking properties. That means you can test out ideas, stick with what works and discard what doesn’t. Instead of searching for that big idea to kick-start things, consider trying out a whole bunch of small ideas to see what works.

Plan

Do you have a content plan? How are you using each of the channels on which you have a presence? If you don’t have a plan for them, consider creating one now.

Mine

Just because you work in communications (or marketing, or whatever function you’re in), it doesn’t mean you can’t look elsewhere for help. Whether you’re communicating online or offline, you probably have a wealth of resources right under your nose. Ask around within your organization. Does your customer service, IT or product function have information that you can mine? You don’t know? Ask. Some of your biggest resources may be sitting there just waiting for you to find them.

Wait

You want to be heard. You want to build your community; to get results. Remember, though, that people may not want to hear you as much as you want to be heard. Don’t get me wrong – results are absolutely critical, but spamming people when you have nothing to say won’t help you to get those results.

As I mentioned earlier, look to speak when you have something to say rather than for the sake of it. If that time isn’t now, then wait.

What have you done when your company or your client struggles to find useful content? What would you add to the list?

(Image: Shutterstock)

Posted in: social media

Tags: content, conversation, listening, social media, strategy

44Comments

In Defense of the Devil’s Advocate

09.07.14

One of my favourite parts of agency life is getting the chance to collaborate with a bunch of really smart people on a daily basis. Whether it’s my colleagues (who I learn from every single day) or clients, every day sees at least a couple of discussions from which I learn something completely new.

In the face of this constant flow of ideas coming from these people send me, I tend to play another role: that of devil’s advocate.

Reading Kyle Flaherty‘s excellent (and now ex-)blog, he listed several reasons why he often plays the contrarian:

“I do it for one of three other reasons:

To determine if you REALLY believe what you just said;

To introduce another line of thinking that ultimately will shape your thinking;

To determine if I REALLY believe what you just said”

Wikipedia defines a devil’s advocate as:

“In common parlance, a devil’s advocate is someone who takes a position he or she disagrees with for the sake of argument. This process can be used to test the quality of the original argument and identify weaknesses in its structure.”

Asking tough questions won’t always make you popular, but nonetheless I think it’s an important role for every team to fill, whether one person or the team as a whole fulfils it. It’s not a role to play for the sake of it – it’s a vital part of team dynamics. Here are six reasons why:

Sound strategic development: It’s all too easy to let tactics drive a strategy. That’s like letting the cart lead the horse. I think it’s important to ensure that a strategy doesn’t get formed around a bunch of tactics – that tactical ideas are filtered through a mesh made-up of carefully considered objectives, audiences and considerations.
Staying on that strategy: Good public relations programs are strategic. They link with the company’s business objectives, sync with it’s target audiences, consider the organization’s external influences… all of the things I discussed in my eBook on communications planning. Sometimes we have good ideas which don’t fit the strategy. It’s important to identify those cases.
Ensuring measurement is considered: I don’t know about you, but I’m finding that clients are more and more interested in measurement recently, likely due to a scarcity in resources in this economy (we could debate the measurement of a TV spot, or a magazine/newspaper ad, but that’s for another post). That means we need to build measurement into our programs from the ground-up, and a simple MRP report may not suffice.
Avoiding groupthink: It’s all too easy, in any group, to avoid conflict and agree with everything to make life easier. This rarely has a happy ending, as ideas end up poorly considered and half-baked. Asking the right questions can help to avoid this.
Convincing others: Some ideas are well thought-through. Others are off the top of someone’s head. Both have an important place in brainstorming sessions (which is not the time or place for playing the devil’s advocate), but only one has a place in a communications strategy. Getting people to think their ideas through helps, at the same time, to narrow ideas down to the good ones.
Convincing myself: I often take convincing before I “see the light” of a new idea. I need to look at things from multiple angles; to see how they fit in with other approaches; to consider how multiple stakeholders will view them. In order to reach that comfort level, I ask the questions that I can’t answer myself.

The role of devil’s advocate isn’t an easy (or necessarily popular) one. You’re asking tough questions, and you can sometimes find yourself saying “yes, but” when others are all gung-ho. A few tips for reducing the pain:

Be constructive – don’t be “that guy” – don’t just shoot ideas down. Ask questions constructively.
Don’t do it just for the sake of it – if you’re convinced and an idea is well thought-out, your job is already done.
Explain yourself – explain what you’re getting at with questions, so people understand why you’re asking.

What do you think? Do you play this role? What tips would you offer on playing it more effectively?

Posted in: communications

Tags: planning, strategy, teams

28Comments

There’s Nothing Magical About Social Media Principles

09.05.28

We often hear how social media is “different” – how it changes everything about your communications. How you have to throw the old rules out the window when launching into social media tools. I respectfully disagree.

Too many “social media experts” treat these kinds of principles as though they separate social media from other forms of communication, probably because they’ve never practiced those other forms and only have preconceptions to go on.

There’s nothing magical about the principles people discuss for social media – there are just nuances in their application.

Here are a few principles that get banded about as “social media” principles, but which apply across different forms of communication and across different channels:

There is no silver bullet solution
Target your audiences
Messaging matters
Customer service affects your image
Tailor your approach
You rise and fall on relationships
Measurement is key

There is no silver bullet solution

Whether you’re launching a traditional media relations campaign, a store-based promotion or a series of advertisements, there’s no single solution to your problem. Social media is no different.

There’s no stand-alone “kit” to solve every problem – just as with every other communications discipline, you need to create it based on the situation.

Target your audiences

Every so often I see people opinionating about how targeting is an obsolete concept in digital communications. I really want to talk to those peoples’ clients.

When you’re formulating a communications plan, tactics come close to last in the development process. You think through the context, through your objectives, through your audiences and through your strategic approach before reaching your tactics. Why? Because your tactics should vary depending on those factors.

Is the audience for your raw iron ore on Twitter? Maybe (I haven’t done the research), but I doubt it. Regardless of whether you’re looking online or offline in your communications, you need to figure out how best to reach the people who are important to your business. If you think targeting doesn’t matter, you go ahead with that Twitter outreach on iron ore. Just don’t send me your resume when you’re fired.

Fail to target your audiences, and your communications will fall short regardless of whether they’re social media tactics or not.

Messaging matters

Messaging still matters. The words you use affect how people perceive you. However, communicators need to realize that in traditional media, in advertising, in social media and in other communications, repeating the same messages over and over again (politicians do this especially badly) doesn’t work. People, both journalists and potential customers alike, tune it out.

Customer service affects your image

Experiences matter more than the words in print. You can blather away all you like to that reporter from the Globe and Mail; if you’re leaving your customers on hold for an hour, they won’t care what they read in the paper. Your words will ring hollow.

The same applies to social media tools. Do a Twitter Search of your company name. What are people saying about you? Do a search on Facebook too, and one on Google Blogsearch, and on BackType, Technorati, IceRocket, EveryZing and so on. Are people complaining about your appalling service levels? Same effect as above.

Unique to social media? No. Important everywhere? Yes.

Tailor your approaches

When you pick up the phone and call an editor at the Toronto Star, that conversation is informed by all of the prior conversations you’ve had with him. You know that he’s interested in certain kinds of stories, that Wednesday is a bad day to call him and that he’s a visual learner who likes to see things for himself. So, tailor your approach to him. When you call his counterpart at the Toronto Sun, you know she approaches things a different way so adjust accordingly.

Blogger relations isn’t some mysterious black hole. The principles remain the same as good media relations. Know your audience; tailor your approach to them; give them content that helps them.

You rise and fall on relationships

It takes a long time to develop relationships, and you can burn them in an instant if you abuse them.

Online or off, the people who succeed are the people who build relationships with other people. It doesn’t matter if you’re calling a client, a colleague, a journalist or a blogger – those conversations are built on your past interactions.

The same goes for your customers, too – do they have transactions with you, or is it an ongoing engagement?

Anyone who suggests that this is unique to social media is in need of a clue as to how to succeed in the real world.

Measurement is key

If you tell me that measurement doesn’t matter in traditional media relations, I’ll laugh you out of the room. Now, as much as ever, companies are being forced to justify their budgets in all areas. Whether you’re producing ads, pitching journalists or building an online community, if you can’t measure your outcomes then good luck renewing your budget.

Closing thoughts

There are plenty of other examples I could give. Shel Holtz and Todd Defren - two guys with way more experience than me – both wrote interesting posts on the subject of “campaigns” yesterday. Again, as they’ll agree, while short-term initiatives work it’s always been more effective to build coverage over time than to go through constant, expensive one-day wonders.

These aren’t social media principles – they’re communications principles.

What do you think?

Posted in: pr, public relations, social media, strategy

Tags: communications, social media, strategy

12Comments

Macro, Not Just Micro

09.02.13

In a digital world where more and more focus is (rightly) being placed on analytics and measurement, it can be all too easy to lose sight of the big picture.

Focus less on the trees – remember to think about the forest too.

Take this blog, for example. If I glance at the daily analytics for this site, I see this:

Micro

Up, down, all over the place. Useful to an extent, for reflecting on posts that resonated, but it doesn’t give me any real idea of what’s going on overall. Contrast this with the picture I get when I step back a little and look at trends over months:

Macro

With the exception of a dip during the holidays and a freakish StumbleUpon event a few months ago, there’s a consistent trend here. I can see that, overall, traffic is going up. That’s one of the metrics I look at to determine whether I’m going in the right direction with this post.

So, your client was featured in the Globe & Mail today, or you got them a hit in Engadget. That’s great, right? Actually, it could be irrelevant if it has no bearing on their goals, or if the tone of the piece wasn’t positive.

The point? Try not to focus purely on the little things.

Posted in: pr, public relations, strategy

Tags: communications, focus, strategy, trends

4Comments

3 Steps To Better Objectives

09.02.09

“Increase sales” isn’t a good objective.

Neither is “increase web traffic,” or “increase awareness,” or “more customers.”

Why?

Because you have no way of measuring success. If you can’t measure success, then what use is your goal?

I have to bite back a visceral reaction whenever I see vague goals in a communications plan. They’re toothless, they’re meaningless and they turn what could be a selling point for us (compelling objectives) into a waste of space. Sure, they provide a vague focus for work, but there’s no spine to them.

Let’s say your initiative – your communications; your ad campaign; your promotion – resulted in one additional customer. Is that success? Maybe if you’re Boeing or Bombardier, where one additional customer means multi-million dollar deals. If you’re McDonalds or Lays then perhaps not.

While the the kumbaya/let’s-all-get-along discussion inside the blogosphere might find that kind of objective acceptable, if you’re competing in real life with marketing/advertising agencies and other corporate departments for limited dollars, you need to be more specific and you need to talk outcomes, not outputs.

Creating better objectives

A credible goal needs to have three components:

Change – What will you improve?
Quantifier – How much will it improve?
Deadline – When will you do it by?

A call to action

Corporate folks

If your agency walks in and says their goal is to increase your sales for next year, ask them by how much and by when.

If they say they’re going to improve your reputation online, ask them how they plan to measure that.

Let’s face it, times are tough. You need to know that you’re spending your dollars in the right areas.

Hold your agency to account.

Agency folks

Pre-empt this discussion. Walk into the room with your goals fleshed-out.

As anyone in PR knows, the end-goal effects can be hard to quantify so don’t shoot yourself in the foot and aspire to something you’ll end up not being able to prove. Use proxies.

You may not be able to directly prove sales, but you can certainly find a way to draw a line between things you can affect and the big-picture end-goal.

For example, instead of “improve your online reputation,” try something like:

Goal: Improve [brand X]‘s online reputation by:

Increasing the proportion of positive online comments about the company, compared to negative and neutral comments, by 10 per cent over the next six months;

Increasing the volume of mentions of [your brand] online by 15 per cent by March 2010;

…

Yes, external influences occur. Yes, they’re unpredictable. Just be ready to discuss those when you review your program after the deadline. Don’t let them prevent you from setting useful objectives at the outset.

What do you think?

Posted in: pr, public relations, strategy

Tags: goals, measurement, objectives, public relations, strategy

16Comments

My Top Twelve Posts Of 2008

08.12.27

My life, and my career in particular, is drastically different now compared to this time last year. If numerous comments from other people are anything to go by, this site and the posts I write are very different now too.

Looking back over all 220+ posts I’ve written this year, you really can see my life reflected my posts.

So, here’s a quick look back at my 2008 via my favourite davefleet.com posts from each month in the year. These aren’t necessarily the most commented-on posts (I’ve listed those too); these are the ones that I like and which reflect what was going-on at each time.

January – How to use Twitter Packs – and Twitter – Successfully

Twitter played a huge role in my social media activity in 2008. In January, Chris Brogan created a new site to help new users find their feet on the service.

“The idea behind Twitter Packs is simple – create lists of people with shared interests, geography, etc, so that new users can find a few good people to follow and help them get up to speed on Twitter. Chris decided to use a wiki to let the community contribute to the lists.

Great idea in my book.”

Most commented post this month: 42 Top Social Media Tips and Tools

February – Using Social Media To Support Cancer Research

On February 21, the day before PodCamp Toronto 2008, I announced an effort to use social media tools to raise money for cancer research as I ran the 2008 Boston Marathon. In two months, we raised $2,400. This was one of my proudest – and most satisfying – achievements for 2008.

Most commented post this month: I’m Done with Social Media

March – Enough with Blogger Strategies!

“Social media is about more than blogging or blogger relations. These are two great tactics, but just as with any other communications project you should take a look at the situation and pick the appropriate tools.”

My frustration with social media buzz-words led me to flesh-out and articulate my ideas around a sound ‘baby steps’ approach to the area.

Most commented post this month: Scoble’s Dead Wrong about Twitter

April – Five Tools To Base Your Online Life Around

Throughout 2008 I struggled with finding a social media/life balance. Later in the year I started to find a comfortable middle ground; these five tools largely continue to form the foundation of my online presence:

Google Reader
Twitter
Delicious
iGoogle (this has largely dropped off my radar)
Blog search engines

Most commented post this month: 6 Ways to Make Your Life Easier With Delicious

May – How To Write A Good Communications Plan – Part 1 – An Overview

My first post in May 2008 kicked-off a series of posts on how to write a good communications plan. Later in the summer, I edited and compiled these into a free ebook on strategic communications planning.

This post is still consistently among the most-viewed pages on this site.

Most commented post this month: Same as above. Next-most commented: Why Apple Doesn’t Need Social Media

June – It’s Time to Grow

June marked a turning point in my year, as I made the decision to accept a position at Thornley Fallis and end my time working for the Ontario government. In hindsight, I still have no regrets – I greatly enjoyed my time in the public service but the last few months have been among the most satisfying, rewarding and fun of my career so far.

Most commented post this month: Same as above. Next-most commented: How To Set Up A Simple Online Monitoring System

July – Molson Gives A Crash Course In Relationship-Building

In the summer of 2008 I attended a (award-winning) blogger relations event held by Molson, which started a chain of events leading to a bit of an online storm around blogger relations. I was always amused that no-one who was actually involved in the event (as an attendee or an organizer) had anything bad to say about it; all of the criticism was based on second or third-hand accounts of events. The controversy continues to this day.

This continues to be a useful reminder that it’s all to easy to jump to conclusions when you don’t have the full picture.

Most commented post this month: Same as above. Next-most commented: 13 Tips From My First Year of Blogging

August – PR Does Not Equal Publicity

PR-bashing was a popular theme throughout 2008. All too often, the bashing revealed a complete lack of understanding of what public relations entails. Many people seem to view public relations professionals as little more than publicists. As I wrote in this response to yet another anti-PR rant:

“What about issues management and crisis communications? What about event planning? What about internal communications? What about building relationships between an organization and its publics?

…

Perhaps part of this common misperception is due to the fact that a lot of public relations happens behind the scenes. You never (or rarely) see the planning behind the issues management process. You don’t see the detailed logistical work needed to pull off a good conference or media event. You rarely see internal communications materials.”

Most commented post this month: Strategic Communications Planning – A Free eBook

September – Anatomy of a Bad Pitch

Towards the end of the year, I found myself thinking more and more about blogger relations. As my blog became more popular, I found myself on the receiving end of increasing numbers of pitches. Meanwhile, I found myself being asked to give input on a number of blogger relations efforts as part of my day job.

In September I received a particularly bad pitch. Rather than just deleting it, I decided to dissect it and offer my feedback on a better approach in the above post.

Most commented post this month: Are Twitter Conversations Dying?

October – Social Media Outreach Won’t Work for Everyone

As my thinking around social media applications for businesses continued to evolve throughout the year, I began to realize more and more that these tools really don’t apply to everyone in the same way.

Some businesses just aren’t yet ready to reach out to their customers online. Some need to take it slower, and begin by listening rather than talking.

Most commented post this month: Twitter As A Hyper-Local Emergency Information Tool?

November – What If People Say Bad Things About You?

Short and simple, this post captures something that can be difficult to communicate to organizations that are wary of involvement in social media, and which I had to explain several times towards the end of 2008.

“”What’s your response to the people who say, “you’re telling us we should get involved in social media, but what if people start to say bad things about us?”

My response to this (any real-time screw-ups aside):

“They already are; you just can’t hear them.”"

Most commented post this month: Top 10 Most Irritating Phrases in PR

December – Social Media Isn’t Anti-Social

The more I become embedded in the social media community around Toronto (and wider), the more I find that social media is adding to my social like, not detracting from it. This post was my response to someone who suggested to me that social media is anti-social. Let’s just say I didn’t agree.

Most commented post this month: 5 Lessons About Self-Promotion In Social Media

Posted in: blogging, miscellaneous, personal, social media

Tags: 2008, blogger relations, communications, Molson, pr, social media, strategy, Twitter

11Comments

Integrated Communications – Not Social Media – Won The Election

08.11.05

Jennifer Leggio wrote today that Obama won the election – not social media:

I believe the big snake oil spotlight shines down upon us brightly — and justifiably — whenever we try to credit social media with a success that isn’t really a rightful success for it to claim. The 2008 election, and President-Elect Barack Obama’s triumph, is one such example.

Once again, as Jennifer often manages, she got me thinking. Ultimately I both agree and disagree with various parts of Jennifer’s post.

Social media didn’t win the election

To claim that social media won the election for Obama would be ludicrous. As Jennifer points out, the economy, candidate choices, platform positions and other factors had much more of a direct impact (in my humble opinion) than the videos, networks and other forms of media that the Obama campaign used.

Social media did play a part

With that said, I do believe that to claim that social media had no part in the victory is also false. Consider the Obama campaign’s ability to motivate young people or their astonishing ability to raise donations through small individual contributions. Social media likely had an impact on these factors, which in turn had an impact on the broader campaign.

The importance of Obama’s tightly-integrated communications strategy

It would be almost impossible to single-out one thing that won the election. The political environment alone, with an unpopular president and an economy in disarray, likely had a large impact. The choice of Sarah Palin as McCain’s running-mate was another. Neither of these was under Obama’s control.

Like it or not, the best policy in the world can be useless if it’s not communicated effectively. One thing was clear – that Obama’s campaign featured a tightly-integrated, well-produced communications campaign from start to finish.

Todd Defren described the Obama campaign’s roll-out as “meticulously planned” and I have to agree. As Media Bistro’s PR Newser noted today, it was disciplined and on-message throughout. That strategy (not just the social media) enabled his team to ride over the bumps, to capitalize on his opponents’ mistakes and to communicate his messages effectively.

I’ve argued for a while that social media can’t stand alone; that it has to be integrated with other communications tactics to increase the chance of it being successful. Social media was an integral part of Obama’s campaign – it was integrated throughout the strategy.

Social media didn’t win the election. However, a tightly-integrated communications strategy, of which social media was an important part, went a long way towards it.

Posted in: social media, strategy

Tags: communications, election, integrated, McCain, Obama, strategy, tactics

4Comments

Twitter As A Business Continuity Tool?

08.10.24

My ex-colleague Lara Torvi sent me a Government Technology article yesterday entitled “Twitter is a Continuity of Operations Tool, State Agency Discovers.”

The gist of the article is that the Washington State Department of Transportation, alongside using its Twitter account for mundane things like traffic alerts, is using Twitter to ensure continuity of operations in an emergency.

“”In an emergency, people will come to our Web site, [www.wsdot.wa.gov] en masse to the point that it overwhelms our servers — we’ve had that happen during snowstorms and other major weather events,” [spokesperson Lloyd] Brown said. Because the Web site is a popular source of traffic updates, sometimes it can’t handle a sudden spike in page hits, he said. During an emergency, WSDOT is considering the option of posting a “neutered,” bare-bones version of its Web site that contains a Web link to the Twitter feed.”

Government? Twitter…?!

Before I get into any more detail, I have to say it’s great that Washington State is looking at tools like Twitter. So hats-off to them for pushing the boat here.

I’ve never made a secret of the fact that I’m a big fan of Twitter. I’m frustrated beyond belief by ongoing technical and customer service issues, but I’m still a fan of Twitter and its potential. I’m far from a sceptic here.

With all that said (even setting aside the dreadful case study of governors’ offices pumping out news releases, cited at the beginning of the article), I have some concerns about the department’s using Twitter as a business continuity tool.

Twitter is no bastion of reliability

Happily, Twitter seems to have overcome the constant reliability problems that plagued it a few months ago. However, services are still regularly compromised or disabled.

Would you put your business continuity plan for your website in the hands of a site with those problems?

It’s not clear whether Twitter is the only part of the site left up in an emergency situation, or if the state is using it as a way to get quick updates up as a small part of the site. Regardless, I’m not sure you can rely on it… yet… in an emergency.

Twitter has a 140-character limit

A year ago, I advocated using Twitter as an emergency management tool, but alongside other online tools – not replacing them.

Twitter’s 140-character limit makes it unsuitable for communicating effectively as your primary tool in an emergency. Emergency news, information and instructions doesn’t always boil down to 140-character snippets.

Twitter could make a fantastic addition to your emergency communications plan, but it’s an inferior replacement for your other tools.

Twitter has no revenue model… yet

Why should we care that Twitter has no revenue? Because that means it has no cash flow. That means that, eventually, it will run out of money, even given its $15 million cash infusion earlier this year.

Hopefully the time when they run out of money will never come. Still, do you want your business continuity model to rely on a tool that could go under any day?

Why not build your own version?

With the release of the open source Laconica application, it became relatively easy for organizations to produce their own in-house version of Twitter.

The department could, conceivably, solve the reliability, longevity and character limit problems of Twitter by producing their own application.

Of course, that system would suffer from not having the ongoing base of subscribers that the deparment’s Twitter account possesses and, along with it, the ability to reach those subscribers via SMS. However, with just 149 subscribers right now, that’s not a big loss.

Why not keep the other information there?

This one is based on the assumption that the Twitter feed is pretty much the only thing left up when traffic goes through the roof. Without knowing more, I can’t be sure that’s the case, hence this point is last in my list.

Bottom line: There are plenty of other websites out there that maintain their websites in a stripped-down version in case of emergency.

The San Diego Union Tribune, for example, has become a hub for information during Californian wildfires. They keep their site up by stripping the images out when traffic is high.

If the state’s website is reduced to essentially a Twitter feed, that’s a mistake. There’s almost certainly essential information there that you need to have available during an emergency.

Static text takes up very little bandwidth.

Credit for creativity

I’m coming across as pretty harsh right now, because I’m not sure how wise the department’s move is, however pure their motives.

With that said, though, I do applaud their willingness to think creatively, push the staid government approaches to emergency management out of the way and try new ways of keeping their systems going under pressure.

Twitter does have some useful features for this kind of use. The ability to push messages out via SMS (and eventually instant messenger) in an emergency is one example. Its simplicity is another.

As I said earlier, I’m not usually a big sceptic. I like to think that I’m not drunk on the kool aid – that I take a pragmatic approach in assessing these new tools, which results in me dismissing many of them – but I’m definitely open to new things.

In this case, though, I just worry that the department has chosen a risky way of approaching continuity. It just takes one ill-timed series of fail whales to render the whole experiment a failure.

What do you think?

Posted in: 301, crisis communications, Twitter

Tags: business continuity, emergency management, strategy

6Comments

Think: Strategy

08.09.24

It’s all too easy, especially in the world of public relations and social media where there’s a shiny new tool every week, to lose sight of the big picture and focus in on tactics.

David Usher and Mitch Joel: ask "why" not "what" When someone asks you for ideas about something, where do you start? Do you instantly get the creative juices flowing and start throwing out ideas for creative events and approaches? Or do you stop and look at the big picture first?

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending PodCamp Montreal. One thing I noticed upon reflecting on the conference was a subtle shift in the topics of some key sessions, away from tactics and towards strategy.

Mitch Joel and David Usher, for example, drew on the ideas of Seth Godin and Clay Shirkey to talk about the need to move away from tactical thinking about what you’re doing and towards strategic thinking about why you’re doing those things. Julien Smith talked about focusing on the big picture; about seeing the forest instead of the trees. Mike Kujawski, meanwhile, spoke about the strategic approach needed to introduce social media into communications practices in the public sector.

Similarly, as I was sitting in a brainstorming meeting the yesterday surrounded by great creative ideas, I had to stop, take a step back and ask, “what’s our overarching strategy here?” It wasn’t only after I’d asked myself (and others) that question that I was able to get my head around the issue.

Next time you find yourself reacting to a question with tactics, stop and think: Am I missing the bigger picture here?

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Posted in: podcampmtl, strategy

Tags: pcmtl, strategy, tactics

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Strategic Communications Planning – A Free eBook

08.08.06

Between May and August 2008 I published a series of posts on strategic communications planning based on my experience over the past few years. Due to popular demand (and prodding from the likes of Ed Lee, Ryan Anderson, Robert French and Karen Russell) I’ve compiled the thirteen posts into an eBook for your downloading pleasure.

The Strategic Communications Planning eBook is an introduction to effective strategic corporate communications planning. It features all of the posts from the original communications planning series of posts, edited to reflect feedback I’ve received and with some additional content added throughout.

The eBook is embedded below and you can download itas a PDF file via the embed, or from ~~Scribd or docstoc~~ SlideShare (the other sites began charging for downloads).

I hope you find this useful. If you do or if you have any suggestions for improvement, please let me know.

Strategic Communications Planning – A Free eBook

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Posted in: 101, best practices, communications, communications planning, pr, public relations, strategy

Tags: communications, plan, planning, strategic, strategy

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