Corporate Eye

...compare, compete, excel

Archives for February 2010

SKF Little Glitz, Lots of Content

SKF is one of the leading global suppliers of products, solutions and services within rolling bearings, seals, mechatronics, services and lubrication systems.

skf-homepage-sm
Click to enlarge

Industrial products – so I expected a more serious corporate website without the “bells and whistles” you see on consumer products and services companies.

Right? Well, not entirely… The company has a video and some interactive items on the homepage, and there are plenty more “bells and whistles” elsewhere. Plus, they do a good job of integrating product information with corporate material here (not always easy).

But the real story is how they present the company.

skf-about-sm
Click to enlarge

First, the About Us section is called This Is SKF. This is only a portion of the page — the company offers too much information to display in one image.

So let’s see the menu on this page:

Pretty comprehensive, and there are bells and whistles all over the place: see Living the Vision and the Power of Knowledge Engineering, and do go to look at the history timeline. The In Focus section has loads of information about the various components of the company (very interesting). And “This website” is something I have never seen on a corporate website: it describes the organization of the website. Much better than a site map.

skf-corpgov-sm
Click to enlarge

Next a visit to Corporate Governance.

The theme of rich content continues here but, unlike other sections, there is too much use of PDFs rather than online sources for my taste.

Suggestion for SKF–apply your overall content strategy in the Corporate Governance section as well as elsewhere.

Despite this minor quibble, SKF’s website is content rich for stakeholders.

Something for everyone…

Three Views on Employment Happiness

Dilbert

In a recent Harvard Business Review post, The Problem of Forced Fun, guest contributor Grant McCracken makes an unexpected and fascinating observation:

When we commandeer the emotional lives of our employees we waste a valuable resource. Left to their own devices, employees represent a wonderful variety of attitudes, interests and activities. They are in fact a very good opportunity for the corporation to survey what is happening “out there” in the world. When we ask them to be outward facing ambassadors for the corporation, we flatten their naturally occurring variety, making it much more difficult for them to serve as inward facing ambassadors for the world.

McCracken, a research affiliate at Convergence Culture Consortium at MIT, is the author of Chief Culture Officer—in which he makes a convincing case that corporations need someone who’s focused on understanding popular culture and anticipating trends.  In the HBR post he suggests that using employees to put a happy face on the company has unexpected consequences.

Worth considering:  Employee testimonials on the Careers site may seem more authentic if they reflect diverse attitudes and orientations.

Careening to an entirely different viewpoint, we can look at the Scott Adams theory of job satisfaction, as expounded on Dilbert.com:

My theory is that your degree of job satisfaction is largely a function of who you blame for the necessarily unpleasant job you have. If you blame yourself, that’s when cognitive dissonance sets in and your brain redefines your situation as “satisfied.” To do otherwise would mean you deliberately keep yourself in a bad situation for no good reason, assuming you believe you have options. Your brain likes to rationalize your actions to seem consistent with the person you believe you are.

The post goes on to expound a circuitous method for improving employee satisfaction by convincing workers there are better jobs elsewhere.  Worth a read—and don’t skip the comments, which include some surprisingly long, serious responses.

Finally, a few facts about happy/unhappy job-holders.  According to the most recent Conference Board report on job satisfaction in the United States, only 45% of those surveyed were satisfied with their jobs . . .

“While one in 10 Americans is now unemployed, their working compatriots of all ages and incomes continue to grow increasingly unhappy,” says Lynn Franco, director of the Consumer Research Center of The Conference Board. “Through both economic boom and bust during the past two decades, our job satisfaction numbers have shown a consistent downward trend.”

Job satisfaction is also at an all-time low in the United Kingdom, according to a recent report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) report.

None of which is surprising, in light of findings from the 2009 Employee Job Satisfaction Survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).  The top five determiners of employee satisfaction:

  • job security
  • benefits
  • compensation
  • opportunities to use skills and abilities
  • feeling safe in the work environment

All those factors are in increasingly short supply, so there may not be much room for employers to improve the situation at that level.  However—the next five determiners offer a lot more room for positive action:

  • relationship with immediate supervisor
  • management recognition of employee job performance
  • communication between employees and senior management
  • the work itself
  • autonomy and independence

So . . . maybe Careers sites should focus more on communicating positive messages about the second set of desirables?

Social Networking and Client Communications

Being in the business of online content production in various platforms can be both rewarding and laborious at the same time. Depending on to whom you speak and in what context you discuss it, being online can be a huge benefit for some but a nuisance for others.

Social networking is the booming choice these days for companies who are trying to reach potential customers in various demographics and buying patterns. No doubt that any company will tell you that they want as many customers they can get. They want to attract long-term clients and build solid business relationships that they can enjoy for years to come. How do they propose to get this business? Will old marketing systems still work just as effectively?

The Importance of Networking

Social client networking is critical and necessary for effective client communications. There isn’t any way that a corporation can be effective in the online community without establishing a presence that anchors them in the business world. Customers don’t only rely on brand names or household names anymore as their sole reason for doing business. They want to know what other customers think. They want to know what others clients’ experiences have been. They want all of the information they can obtain before they make a buying decision, whether that’s to buy a widget or to make a long-term financial investment.

Communicating in Networking

Communication is important in any business. Social networking has flung the door wide open for corporations and small businesses to build their network of loyal customers. There are online communities, discussion groups, Twits and fan pages that all serve to sing the praises of any business who has chosen to work online. In order for the business to be successful in their communication efforts they can implement the methods of several ideas:

1.) Set up a social networking platform, whether that’s a blog, an online newsletter, a Facebook page or a Twitter account. Do something to establish a presence in the online world.

2.) Work and develop your online presence. It’s a great thing to have a Facebook page, but is it being put to use? Interact with other social marketers. Answer and ask questions that pertain to your niche. Become the preferred “go-to” person or corporation when someone is looking for information on your subject of specialty.

3.) Vary your social networking platforms. Don’t be narrow-minded: not everyone is on Facebook and Twitter. They just happen to be popular name brand sites that you hear everyone buzzing about. There are other sites that are just as effective and have many users in your demographic area. Find out what groups fit your company’s mission and become an active part of the community.

4.) Keep a polished presence. This counts for both your blog and website and any other forms of communication that you have established. Be as professional as possible at all times. Make sure your site and blog(s) are clean, easy to read, engaging and offer value. Make sure everything about your online presence is outstanding because your readers may visit your site only once, and first impressions are lasting impressions.

Social networking and communicating are both efforts that have to be maintained and tweaked when necessary. They can’t be set on auto-pilot and be expected to work on their own. A few dedicated minutes per day or a couple of hours per week should be sufficient to ensure that your corporate blog is getting the attention it needs and exposure for your body of work. In the long run, the dividends are invaluable and the initial investment of time and skill will have been all worth it.

The Future of Marketing Communications and Social Media

According to a new report from Gartner, companies will learn to embrace social media in the future not only for external marketing and brand-building but also for internal communications.  Earlier this month, Gartner released its five predictions for social software in 2010 and beyond.  They are:

  • By 2014, social networking services will replace email as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communications for 20% of business users.
  • By 2012, over 50% of enterprises will use activity streams that include microblogging, but stand-alone enterprise microblogging will have less than 5% penetration.
  • Through 2012, over 70% of IT-dominated social media initiatives will fail.
  • Within five years, 70% of collaboration and communications applications designed on PCs will be modeled after user experience lessons from smartphone collaboration applications.
  • Through 2015, only 25% of enterprises will routinely utilize social network analysis to improve performance and productivity.

You can get more details about the Gartner predictions in this press release.

In terms of marketing and branding, the most interesting prediction from Gartner is the first one listed above — within 4 years, social Web tools will replace email as the primary tool for communications for 20% of business users.  The shift is already happening as companies move marketing budgets from email marketing to social media initiatives.  I’m actually surprised that the 20% prediction isn’t higher.

The third prediction, that over 70% of IT-dominated social media initiatives will fail through 2012, doesn’t surprise me though.  I can’t imagine that anyone will fully figure out the perfect way to leverage the social Web from an IT, marketing, or any other discipline’s perspective within the next two years.

I also find the fourth prediction listed above to be very interesting, which states that 70% of collaboration and communications applications designed on PCs will be modeled after lessons learned from smartphone applications within five years.  The move from computers to smartphones for an incredibly wide variety of tasks is already happening so quickly since the iPhone hit the market.  The 70% prediction doesn’t surprise me at all.  I wonder how many businesses are prepared for that shift?  If it’s not already on your radar screen, it should be.

emarketer_social_networks_policiesGartner also predicts that companies will become more open to employees using both business and personal social networks for business purposes, but with that change in policy will come the need for companies to create specific guidelines for use.  According to a study by Manpower (via eMarketer), only 20% of companies worldwide had formal policies for how employees could use social networking sites in 2009 (see the chart for a breakdown by region).

It’s amazing how quickly the social Web has caused the business landscape to change, and these predictions are just a small sampling of additional changes to come as more people and businesses around the world fully embrace the tools of social networking and collaboration.

What do you think of Gartner’s predictions?

Search Engine Brands Attract Unique Audiences

A study by WPP of 17,000 search engine users reveals quite a bit of information about search engine brand loyalists.  The complete report will be released later this month, and is certain to bring some interesting insight that could help advertisers connect with more targeted audiences.

search_engine_adoption_chart

For example, take a look at the chart above which shows that innovators and early adopters are most likely to use Bing as their preferred search engine.  Given that Bing is the newest search engine of the top three, this finding isn’t shocking.  However, the study also reveals that Bing users are more likely to shop at Walmart than any other search engine users while Google users shop at Target and Amazon.  Also, Yahoo! users choose AT&T and Sprint as their wireless providers more than other search engine users.  It’s these pieces of information that advertisers are likely to eat up!

Here are a few highlights that show how demographic and behavioral attributes vary online based on the search engine people choose:

Google

  • More likely to shop at Target and Amazon
  • More likely to book flights online at JetBlue.com
  • More likely to make travel reservations on HotWire
  • More likely to research the Lexus car brand
  • Tend to be the “average consumer”, conventional but open to trying new things, rule followers

Bing

  • More likely to shop at Walmart
  • More likely to research the Toyota car brand
  • Tend to be middle-aged, highly educated, tech-savvy

Yahoo!

  • More likely to choose AT&T or Sprint as wireless providers.
  • Tend to be 55-years of age or older, reserved, less independent, skeptical about future and about trying new things

AOL

  • Tend to be 55-years of age or older, less intellectual than peers, responsible spenders, use dial-up modems, pessimistic about future

But that’s not all!  The study will also reveal how people who prefer different search engines are more or less likely to actually make purchases on the Web sites they find.  That’s a connection many marketers may not have realized existed, and it can certainly help advertisers.

What do you think about these study results?

Source: AdAge.com