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Archives for 2008

Procter & Gamble Seeks Creative Input from Consumers

In a growing trend, Procter & Gamble is turning to consumers to help create a tagline for its new Crest Whitening Expressions toothpaste flavor through a contest on YouTube and supported by a print and television campaign filmed in American Idol-style with Emeril Lagassi as one of the judges.  The campaign was created in part by Saatchi & Saatchi New York (TV) and Digitas New York (online).

In an article in Brandweek, Blake Cahill, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Visible Technologies Seattle was quoted as saying that the campaign is an example of how brands are relying more and more on consumers to provide creative content as ideas from consumers prove to be, “many times more creative than what their own agencies deliver.” [Read more…] about Procter & Gamble Seeks Creative Input from Consumers

How Corporations Can Get On “The List” As Blogging Forces

What message does your company have or what product does it offer to consumers? Is it worth talking about or sharing with others? Corporate blogs are becoming increasingly popular as a part of the media package that companies are using to reach the public, investors, consumers and even their competition. Corporations are using blogs as a way to reach out and share a message, tell a story or simply to increase productivity.

Starting a corporate blog requires more than just desire. Although desire and energy are optimal for its success, the blog must also serve a business purpose in helping the company to achieve certain objectives and also in furthering their mission. Most companies that start a corporate blog have ideas of writing or blogging that will invariably skyrocket their business or take their business into a new phase of commerce. Generally, this doesn’t happen with corporate blogging, at least not right away, as effective blogging takes time to build and requires careful consideration of the blog’s style and tone. It also takes time and diligence to find bloggers who can appreciate hard work and have the ability to produce quality, consistent content that engages the audience. Doing these things on a regular basis will help the blog in achieving its goals for the corporation. 

Reasons to Start A Corporate Blog

Before a company decides to start a corporate blog, several things should be considered: 

  • Who is the businesses core audience?
  • What is the ultimate goal for blogging? To entertain? To educate? What is it that the business wants to accomplish?
  • Are there any capable, passionate bloggers on staff, or will the organization need to outsource to freelance writers? 

In most cases, these questions have either already been answered or everything is already in place for the organization to start a blog. However, there may still be reasons for you to question whether or not a blog is right for your company. Consider the following reasons as to why companies start corporate blogs:

To Discuss Current Events

As a part of the corporation’s social responsibility to the community, many corporations start and maintain a company blog to show their awareness of current events. If they are supportive or perhaps non-supportive of the message in any current events, companies often use their blogging (voice) to show concerns, displeasure or simply to give their opinions. This is also why it is imperative to use professional, efficient and passionate bloggers who have detailed research capabilities. Bloggers who stay involved in current events seem to be able to connect to the audience more, engaging them in the conversation and keeping their interest as they relay news and information.

To Create Credibility

Organizations who wish to establish themselves as authorities in their field readily publish professional blogs to instant credibility. The organization’s popularity increases, as does their brand name and recognition as they begin to garner attention as leaders in the industries and become the preferred first contact for consumers. Companies also create credibility when they exhibit social responsibility, handle controversy in a professional manner and address issues that are debatable for their industries. All of these things show that the company is not afraid to venture out and has a voice when the subject matter is sensitive. Issues that require a sensitive voice in blogging have a fine line with which to establish their credibility, therefore must be handled carefully, methodically and consistently so as not to alienate the blog’s audience. 

To Facilitate Interaction Between Employees and Customers

This by far has to be the biggest perk of a corporate blog. Getting the interaction going between your employed bloggers and the customers that you wish to reach can be a match made in heaven. Take a look at the blog maintained by McDonald’s hamburgers. What is consistent about their corporate blog is their openness and willingness to discuss issues of all subjects; community responsibility, questions on the nutrition of their food products and information on current events on local and national levels. From glancing at their blog and scanning a few articles, you can see that their blog is very engaging, succinct and makes the reader want to come back for more information.  

To Increase Performance on Search Engines

Finally, the likeliest reason for most corporate blogs is to potentially increase their performance on major search engines. This is perhaps the main reason why corporate websites invest numerous financial and human resources in order to have their websites compete for the top search engine rankings. If a website seeker searches for information that is high relevance for a corporation’s blog, the corporation covets to be the top search in that specific subject. Blogs that are maintained on a frequent basis have an increased chance in ranking well and high in the top search engines. Bloggers know this and strive to write fresh, compelling and engaging content that will keep the interest of the blog’s audience.

Incorporating these measures into any new or even existing blog on a corporation can be extremely helpful in the beginning stages of any company’s new media role. These reasons and suggestions can also be beneficial in helping any corporation make it to lists of corporate blogs who want to establish themselves in Internet commerce and awareness. Blogging is a key step in achieving that goal.

Has your company started an interactive blog to increase awareness or increase business? What are some things you’d like to see included on corporate media blogs?

Good Corporate Governance – Ethics Hotlines, But…

BusinessWeek published its Best Corporate Practices in January. I noted with some interest that the #6 best practice was an Ethics Hotline.

All employers talk about ethics, but the ones who provide a way to report misdeeds are the ones most likely to catch problems. Confidential ethics hotlines allow employees to anonymously report bad actors without taking their chances on the dreaded “chain of command.”

This has implications for Corporate Governance.

Most discoveries of fraud are by employees. Since Sarbanes-Oxley there has been much interest in Ethics Hotlines. You might think that there would be an increased employee use of these Hotlines. Well no, according to the Ethics Resource Centers’ 2007 NATIONAL BUSINESS ETHICS SURVEY, employees seem to be reluctant to use these Hotlines.

Reasons why employees avoid hotlines include cultural taboos on “snitching” and lack of awareness. However the main reason is fear of retaliation. Even when the hotline is outsourced, there might still be the fear that anonymity cannot be completely guaranteed.

The key learning is that Ethics Hotlines must be viewed as one alternative in a menu of practices to report ethics violations. Companies should not think that once a hotline is in place that nothing else needs to be done.

Would Your Customers Wear Your Brand on a T-shirt?

According to an article in BrandWeek, ad agency David & Goliath surveyed pub-goers in California and asked them which liquor brand they would be willing to wear on a free T-shirt.  Jack Daniels and Corona took the top spots, but the interesting part of this unscientific study is how it can be applied to just about any industry.

Consider your own market.  If you surveyed people about your brand’s industry and asked them which brand they would wear on a T-shirt, what brand would they choose and why?  Would your brand be the one they’d be proud to display on their shirts or would they rather show off their loyalty or approval of a competitor’s brand? [Read more…] about Would Your Customers Wear Your Brand on a T-shirt?

SEC Interpretive Release Part 2 – Antifraud

One of the SEC positions taken in 2000 when they addressed company web sites was that companies are responsible for the accuracy of statements made on their websites that could reasonably be expected to reach investors or securities markets.  This in turn makes statements made on a company’s website subject to antifraud provisions of federal securities laws.  Noted specifically is Exchange Act Section 10(b) which prohibits making material misstatements and omissions of fact.

The Good News

In the 2000 Electronics Release, the SEC noted possible liability arising from accessing previously posted material on a company’s web site.  The SEC notes that “some companies” continue to be concerned about whether or not previously posted materials that are accessed later by web site users would be considered “republished”.  In 2005, the SEC addressed this issue, but only in the context of registered offerings under the Securities Act.  Now, it seems, the SEC is ready to put this issue to bed.

The Interpretive Release states that the SEC does not believe that “companies maintaining previously posted materials or statements on their web sites are reissuing or republishing such materials or information for purposes of the antifraud provisions of federal securities laws just because the materials or statements remain accessible to the public.”

Yippee!  A straight answer!  Maintaining historical materials on a company website is not considered republishing.  There is a catch, however.  In circumstances where it is not apparent to a reasonable person that materials are from an earlier date then things might be different.  So, previously posted materials should be identified as historical by dating them.  Most companies tend to do this already.  But, also, the SEC recommends that such materials be “Located in a separate section of the company’s web site containing previously posted materials or statements.”

Investor Relations Web Site Best Practices

Not all companies were taking the hard line approach discussed by the SEC in regards to posting historical materials on their web sites, but none the less, the elements contained within the Interpretive Release give some guidance as to how the IR portion of the web site should be constructed.

In addition to the items outlined from the first section of the release, we have two new items to add to the best practices list.

First, all items should be dated.  For the most part, all official materials are already dated.  However, by making a date a requirement for anything posted to the IR pages, a company can ensure continued compliance particularly with materials that are “current” today, but will be “historical” sometime in the future.  An existing date when the material is first published eliminates the possibility that materials will inadvertently be archived without a date later.

Second, all historical or archived materials should be kept in a separate area.  Though not explicitly stated, a separate page with a large “ARCHIVE” or “HISTORICAL” heading across the top will be a great way to prevent any “reasonable person” from being unable to distinguish between new and old materials.

Chances are most IR web sites are at least somewhat on board with these issues already, but for those that aren’t, your reason to make some changes has arrived.

Attracting Graduates: New Alternatives

Blurting out boring facts about your company is really not a good way to attract applicants especially if you are hoping to focus on graduate careers. The secret for attracting them? 

Being innovative as much as possible.

Instead of just enumerating information, how about presenting it with a twist? Creating videos or blogs about your company could work, especially if you are promoting the culture of the company and how the culture would be able to nourish the growth that these future employees want to achieve in their career life.

One good example of this comes from AstraZeneca. This firm does not just give a brief introduction about the company! It gives an over-all experience for applicants. The tour goes from the different career opportunities which you could join in and also the perks (company gym and bar) that you could also experience once you join the company. This virtual tour could really entice interested parties because they could visualize themselves working for your company. I personally consider this as the best “marketing value” for both the company and future candidates.

Aside from that, testimonials are also a great way to promote your companies. If you are targeting graduate careers, you could ask someone from the same educational institution to write an honest-to-goodness testimonial about their experience in the company. The testimonial could include any of the following topics: 

  • personal recruitment experience
  • present working situation
  • stability and perks of the company
  • future career and personal growth

Through this strategy, applicants could actually have that “connection” because these people that gave their own testimonial have the same background as theirs. This could give out a sense that they could actually relate to these people, and in the future they could also be like them.

Combining these two methods is a very good idea but companies should make sure that they maintain the standard and the real purpose of these strategies. Implementing a new twist in terms of attracting candidates could make a difference in a company’s sourcing goal but making sure that it still follows the mission and vision of the company should always be the main priority.