Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

Who do I love? Duke Corporate Education.
 
You know what I love?  Well, besides diet soda of course, I love the feeling you get seeing a site that you put your heart and soul into finally launch live on the Web.  Dukece.com launched on Wednesday, check it out if you have a minute.  
 
As we all know, working day in and day out on a project can cause one to get buried in the trenches of day to day project management.  Stepping back from the flurry of activity post launch Wednesday night (with a Coke Zero in hand), I consulted the Blueprint to assess where we finally landed compared to where we started this project almost a year ago.  Looking back on this experience, I fully realize not only the worth of pleasing our clients but also the true value in sticking to strategic objectives defined in the discovery phase.  
 
Thanks to everyone who touched this project and to those who make it possible for us to do work that explores the avenues of imaginative navigation techniques.  Each and every one of you deserve an ice cold Diet Dr. Pepper.  I’m buying.

The Olympic Torch is probably feeling burned out right now.  A jaunt around the globe sounds romantic, but not with thousands of protesters dogging you.  Plus, it's hard to get 'fired up' with folks checking your carbon.  Here, Slate.com analyzes the Torch's green credentials ... http://www.slate.com/id/2188876/

Reading the report, it dawned on me: this isn't a Torch issue, this is a call-to-action for the entire marketing industry. For a long time, we've made hay with the grand goodwill gesture.  Often this involves sending some special something-or-other and attendant VIPs traveling around a state, a country, the world.  That's understandable; tours and events can be effective ways to get out a message.  

Four years ago, I played a big role in launching a p.r. tour that helped a lot of people.  I'm still proud of that, but today I know that any message, any gesture will be measured against its environmental impact.   Four years ago, I didn't give that a second thought, unfortunately.  Today, I'd look at buying carbon credits to off-set the impact of my p.r. barnstorm or at going completely virtual with it.

There are lots of viable options, but ignoring the dilemmas and trade-offs isn't one of them.   And the grand goodwill tour is just one of the classic tactics we marketing folks need to wrestle with.  Just check out all the paper that goes into an annual report!   

 

To me the goals of the corporate blog are to develop our employees as thought leaders in their individual practice areas, attract the attention of new clients, and engage current clients in dialog. While talking to ourselves is fun, I see the primary audience as our colleagues and clients.

But this is, as a whole, the blog of an integrated marketing communications company and it is a beast of many colors. We have people blogging about programming, PR, lobbying, design, and more.

In a world where there are specialized blogs that talk about the most niche subjects, how can a blog that talks about everything from Python programming to peep jousts be relevant (as a whole) for anyone but ourselves? So while search engines may pick up specific posts that may reach specific audiences, can you imagine anyone outside of Capstrat subscribing to our general RSS feed?

So I ask, is part of our strategy to get people to subscribe to the blog? Or do we want to focus on search engine pick up of specific articles?

If so, can you imagine anyone subscribing to a blog that covers such a broad range of topics (besides ourselves)?

Do we need to categorize our posts and feeds so readers can see more relevant discussion?

If so, what mechanisms can we devise to do this?

Granted, we’re not five anymore. And true, no one gives me allowance for doing my daily or weekly chores. But, don’t you miss that little easy-to-accomplish responsibility? Don’t you miss the kudos from Mom and Dad (and the quarter they placed in your hand) after you dusted off all the shelves?

Sometimes, in the hectic daily schedule of meetings, strategies brainstorms and budgets, I want something mindless to do. I want a task that I can do with others, have simple conversation and step back and say, ‘Yep, I did that. And I did it well.’

So, friends and coworkers – I propose chores. Capstrat chores.

 Here’s how it may work:

1. You all break into teams, based on the number of chore categories.
2. You name your team, because it’s fun and improves the experience.
3. There’s a chore jar, or some means to ‘pick’ your team’s chore for the week.
4. And then, imagine this, for 15 minutes on one day each week, you get your team together and do your chores. Ok, more like 5 minutes in some cases.
5. You feel great. You stepped away from your desk and escaped the hustle and bustle. You chatted it up with your team, unfroze your brain and did something good.

 Proposed chores:

1. Lint brushing the conference room chairs. (It’s about time! Admit it - they can be kind of gross.)
2. Transporting the white paper from around the office into the appropriate recycling bin.
3. Unloading the dishwasher.
4. Straightening the kitchen and media bar.
5. Wiping down all the conference rooms tables with Lysol wipes.
6. Passing out wipes to everyone to clean their desk areas. (Come on, you know we share germs far too often!)

The possibilities are endless. Personally, I would welcome the opportunity to have a chore or two. Will you?

If you've heard it once, you've heard it a hundred times:  Corporations no longer control the message.  Consumers do.  Or the bloggers do.  Or the social media do.

Hang on just a minute.

That premise assumes corporate message is disconnected from corporate behavior. Such is not the case with the companies we work for.

If a corporation is straightforward with customers, is fair and honest with employees, is transparent with investors, then a corporation doesn't have to "control" its message.  It "lives" its message. 

In my experience, if a corporation has at its core a higher purpose, a purpose other than making a profit, it is more likely to live its message.  Few corporations - outside of presentations to institutional investors or stock analysts - communicate a message of profitability only.  But a corporation that communicates one message and lives another way day-to-day, that organization eventually will lose credibility.

It's just like a person.  Stress invades a person's life when he or she acts in ways that are disconnected with his or her beliefs. A corporation communicates authentically when it doesn't have to worry about crafting a message that is out of alignment with its behavior.

Are there exceptions?  Sure, there are exceptions to any rule.  Just like people, corporations are subject to unwarranted and unsubstantiated attacks from competitors, former employees, interest groups or the news media.  But the best inoculation against those attacks is living the message. 

‘Tis that time of year. Every holiday season, companies send out messages of peace and goodwill to their clients and customers. As a newbie at Capstrat, I was pleased to discover that we don’t just spout warm fuzzy wishes about holiday cheer. We back our warm fuzzies with cold hard cash.

This year Capstrat clients will receive a “give certificate” worth a monetary donation to a charity of their choice. We selected our six nonprofit groups from local, national and international organizations as well as different categories (i.e., children, poverty, disaster relief, animals, etc.). In this way, people can personalize their giving. Capstrat is donating the cash but our clients and friends decide who will receive it.  

When I joined Capstrat six months ago, I found out very quickly that mine was a generous company. Welcoming me on my first day of work was a 1lb. bag of peanut butter M&Ms (my favorite) sitting in the middle of my desk. A small thoughtful gesture that was only an introduction to the spirit of giving that lives here.

Employees aren’t the only beneficiaries of Capstrat’s generous nature.  From clients to causes to our community, Capstrat heeds the old proverb, “It’s more blessed to give than to receive.”  

But there is another wise saying that applies to the Capstrat principle of giving: “You reap what you sow.” It just makes good business sense to invest time and resources into our employees, our community and our society at large. Being a responsible corporate citizen means fostering growth, advancement and prosperity. And generosity is a proven way to achieve those goals. Plus, it just feels good.

Interactive or Web Strategy at the enterprise level is like braiding a giant squid. First you have to dive to incredible depths to find it. Once found, the challenge becomes keeping your hands on the tentacles long enough to wrangle them.

My team is working on braiding a giant squid right now. The principal challenge is braiding the corporate initiatives, priorities, goals, objectives, vision, current features, a history of enterprise successes and failures to consider along with everything their end-users want in an experience to make their lives easier and more rewarding. Tie all that together and you got yourself a plan, right?

How you tie all that together is what's remarkable to me. Our team's allegiance to the User-Centered Design (UCD ) approach makes this project so much more doable. I remember trying to accomplish enterprise Web transformation for a major financial exchange in Chicago the late 90's before I knew specific strategies about framing enterprise Web around users. I am a little ashamed to admit that I have little idea how our team pulled it off without stricter user-concentrated goals. Back then it was understood that your publish content based on organizational lines or strategic business units. And you were happy to have accomplished that. 

What I've learned is that with the right people and approach, even the most daunting of tasks can be much easier. This enterprise Web transformation project will be a giant and frankly is the third one our team has jumped on. We will follow a methodology whereby each strategy, tactic or left-field feature idea will consider user interactions through testing and will be measured not only by its ability to please end-users but also by its liklihood to serve its corporate goal.  

And while sometimes it feels like we are braiding a giant squid, its more apt to say, we are making sure that all tentacles are accounted for before we set it free.   

Contempt for the traditional corporate Web site?

I read a great article by a Web strategist I have grown to like and trust named Jeremiah Owyang , who is foretelling the end of the Web site as we know it.

I have to agree on some points and disagree on others.

I agree the corporate Web site as a marketing institution will erode and its relevance will slowly give way to a more conversational mode but having been in the corporate Web site development biz for 14 years, I believe the change will go as slowly as everything else has. 

Recall how blogging's maintream entrance was celebrated? Then lagged and lagged and now, with RSS being understood and adopted, blogging is the light and the new way. 

Jeremiah makes the point that the corporate Web site is irrelevant today. I know what he is saying and I too am on the futurist side of the argument but I have a few dozen corporate clients with highly engaged customers who are no where near ready for this shift. In fact they just started to get the corporate Web site thing in that last year or so. At the risk of sounding like a slow-adopter or a curmudgeon, my bet is that the corporate Web site will continue to thrive while  more conversational or "social" approaches to corporate marketing begin to succeed. I believe this will take at least 3 years if not longer. 

 

As corporations shift Web marketing money toward the social Web, I imagine they are asking themselves a few hard questions. 

As corporations become hip to the idea that social media is worth the energy and attention, they are setting up shop and looking for good thinkers and writers to help them hang the corporate Web 2.0 shingle. Some have been doing it for years, like Cicsco , Sun and a company I've been lurking at called Coudal Partners .

Several things come to mind. First, corporations are starting to ask themselves the buy vs. build question. Should they buy a small blogging outfit who understand everything about getting the platform developed. Team and workflow, design, content management, video and sound and so on. They are also realizing that they have to either solicit good writing and thinking from internal folks or hire on someone capable of extracting the subject matter expertise from the internal ranks. This is the build. Perhaps there is an internal Interactive team ready to go and a bunch of people that are willing and able to enter their cogent thoughts into a blog on a daily or weekly basis. Perhaps neither option works and they have to outsource it until they gain enough comfort to go it alone.

The second thing that came to mind is that there is the whole strategic part that corporations' corp comm folks often overlook. The whole reason a corporation would venture into this space is to join the conversation. It would seem they want to get a message out there and have people engaged, right? Well that takes some strategy. For instance: search, linking, relationship building. Also, blatant marketing blogs are not handled very well in the conversations that attract people. They are typically blacklisted. This means there is likely more risk in alienation than chance of success unless there is a real good strategy to keep the ship afloat. 

I wonder how many corporations have quietly (with or without intention) emerged onto the blogosphere fully equipped to engage thousands only to find no one showed up.