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Lucy Nixon

Lucy Nixon

Reputation in Financial Services

Reputation in financial services.

Insert your favourite joke about our least popular professions – traffic warden, estate agent, lawyer, banker – here.

Except it isn’t a joke, is it?

Financial services companies continue to be reviled by the public and the media. You might be unsympathetic… but like it or not, the financial services sector is a core part of the UK’s economic system. Their reputation matters to us all – and even if you don’t work within the financial sector, their experience in dealing with these issues may hold useful information that you can use in your own sector.

Communicate Magazine are hosting the 3rd annual conference for corporate communicators in the financial sector this week (Wednesday 29 June), to discuss strategies for rebuilding trust. As always, there will be a range of speakers with different perspectives on the topics under discussion: there are over 25 of them (find out more about the programme).

Sessions include discussion of corporate sponsorship, sustainability reports, managing activist risk, crisis management and brand valuation. The keynote speaker will be Stephen Hammond MP, chair of the Parliamentary Group on Wholesale Financial Markets and Services.

And at least one of the sessions will involve audience participation. Do you, like me, dread being called out from the audience for obligatory fun (read: deep embarrassment)? Having acted as scribe for our group at the Social Media in a Corporate Context conference, writing up our thoughts for the Build an App in a Day task, I can tell you that that genuinely was entertaining, and not too strenuous. I’ve no idea what they have in store tomorrow, though!

Interested? Get in touch with Communicate as soon as possible…

Your Jobs In Their Hands: Mobile Recruiting

With over 14 billion downloads of apps for Apple devices so far, it’s not surprising that companies are looking seriously at how apps could be used as part of their corporate communications strategy.

At the #truleeds unconference last week, Dave Martin (AllTheTopBananas) used his iPad to show me the US PepsiCo app which they’ve developed. It’s been available in the States since late January, and will be launched here in the UK within a fortnight.

And I thought it was excellent.


Click to enlargeIt’s a recruitment app, and it includes video , blog posts and tweets, so the visitor can find out more about PepsiCo; and it is possible to interact with the company from within the app – tweeting, for example.

There is also – crucially – a job search feature. This search can be done by keyword (e.g. ‘manager’); there’s a map showing where the current job vacancies are; and the visitor can set up alerts to get notification of new jobs based on the chosen keywords.

Found the job for you? For the Pepsico app, the visitor expresses interest and is then emailed a link to apply (routing them to the central application system). Other companies enable application right from within the app itself.

Nice.

The content for the app is taken from the corporate site (though I imagine you could create app-specific content), and auto-updates: so it doesn’t necessarily create an additional hungry mouth calling for more content.

And these apps can be integrated with your applicant tracking system. If the visitor has already registered, then they will be able to log in to see the status of their application and make any necessary updates to their details.

Thinking that no-one would ever find your app? Obviously you’d advertise it on your corporate site, just as Pepsico do (the page shown above is available from their main Careers navigation) but it would also be findable via the iStore / apps-search functions. Plus, just as your site currently ‘sniffs’ to learn what device your visitor is using, to present them with tailored content (it does do that, doesn’t it?), if they are on an iPhone/iPad, then they could be presented with notification that the app exists, and the opportunity to download it.

Naturally, the company can see statistics about what the visitors are doing with their app. And it seems to work: Pepsico have filled 12 posts through the app already.

AllTheTopBananas have created 35 apps for job boards so far, and 40 for corporates. There have been 550,000 downloads of their apps to date, so there’s clearly a demand, and a growing one:

  • by 2013, there will be more internet access from mobile devices than from desktops.
  • Google searches conducted on a mobile device show different results than those conducted on a desktop: for those searchers using a mobile device, mobile optimised sites are presented first.
  • And interestingly, the top keywords for job searches using these apps are: manager, driver, warehouse. It isn’t just white-collar job seekers using these tools.

So if you aren’t working on optimising your site for mobile – at least, and possibly offering mobile content via an app as well – then you’re at risk of falling behind, no matter who you are trying to attract.

U.S. Department of the Interior Turns to Crowdsourcing for New Logo Design

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of the Interior published a call for new logo design entries on CrowdSpring.com, a crowdsourcing site for logo design, web design, and writing. The current logo (referred to as a ‘seal’)  for the U.S. Department of the Interior (shown with this post) is nearly 100 years old and features what could easily be mistaken as a clip art buffalo. This is a logo redesign that is long overdue.

However, the existing seal won’t disappear. Instead, the new logo will be used with the existing seal. The main purpose for the new logo is for use on hats, T-shirts, jackets, and so on. The existing seal is complex and as any production person will tell you, not conducive to economic printing. Unfortunately, this is a mistake that companies still make today.

The U.S. Department of the Interior Logo Design project was posted and opened for entries on the CrowdSPRING website on June 1, 2011. The call for entries offered the following guidance:

“We’re looking for a logo that is both elegant (simple) and meaningful. DOI is a cabinet-level agency with responsibility for land management, energy production, conservation, and more. The design must appeal to both our internal and external audiences. More specifically, the logo must appeal to the 70,000 employees of Interior, as well as (in alphabetical order) cattlemen/ranchers, coal miners, conservationists, farmers, fishermen, historians, hunters, Native Americans & tribal entities, offshore oil and gas producers, recreation enthusiasts (boaters, hikers, campers) and others. We recognize that this is a lengthy list and include it for a sense of the breadth and scale of our missions.”

The call for entries cited the top 3 things the logo should convey as:

  • Stewardship of the land
  • Conservation of our natural resources
  • Goodness of purpose

That’s a tall order. The call for entries closed on June 15, 2011. A total of 617 logo entries were submitted, and a final decision has not yet been announced. The designer of the selected logo will receive $1,000 and the top two runners up will each receive $250.

Crowdsourcing is a great way to keep costs down and involve a larger audience in a company’s (or government agency’s) initiatives. And of course, risk is reduced because there isn’t a significant upfront investment. If the ‘right’ logo design doesn’t come from the crowdsourcing effort, it’s easy to pick up the pieces and try again. No one wants a repeat of The Gap’s logo fiasco of 2010.

What do you think of crowdsourcing logo design? Love it or hate it? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Is There Hope for Yahoo?

I’m still holding out hope for Yahoo! I want this brand to find its way and live a long life. However, this brand continues to struggle and recent rumors of leadership changes don’t necessarily mean that the right changes will be made to sustain the brand.

This is a brand that has lost direction and is grasping at a host of straws to find a way to remain relevant and stay afloat. I wrote about keeping the Yahoo! brand alive here on the Corporate Eye blog in November 2010, and little has changed in the 7 months that have passed since then.

Is Yahoo! a display advertising company? A search engine? A media company? The company claims to be about personalized content, but that’s not necessarily the message that consumers are getting. The content on Yahoo! could be found on just about any other site, and the addition of content from Yahoo!’s network of contributors sourced from its acquisition of content mill Associated Content aren’t helping the brand’s reputation. Crowdsourcing is a viable strategy for media sites, but that crowdsourced content must match the brand promise. What is Yahoo!’s brand promise?

The big question about Yahoo! is this: why should people visit the site each day? The answer isn’t obvious in people’s minds. Their perception of Yahoo! isn’t clear and there are other sites that are the go-to places for the same type of content that Yahoo! offers. This is a challenging time for media companies, and if Yahoo! wants to be a content provider, they face the same battles that all media companies are facing. How to deliver content that audiences want in a way that makes them choose your site over other similar sites. It’s a tough nut to crack, and Yahoo! has its work cut out for itself.

The lesson to learn from Yahoo!’s struggle is this: don’t forget your brand promise and when the time comes to revamp your brand promise, be ready to commit to that brand promise even if it means making significant changes to the way you do business.

The online audience isn’t going to slow down, and Yahoo! is running out of time to catch up. What do you think the future holds for Yahoo? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: stock.xchng

The Network and the Corporate Audience

What do you think about The Network?

No, it’s not the latest dark cyber-thriller, but the newly launched newsroom on the Cisco site.

Unusually, it was launched with a YouTube video with cartoon characters and explosions; I don’t know of any other corporate site section launched on YouTube, do you? (If you do, please let us know in the comments below!)

There’s lots to like:

  • The design is crisp and clean, and there is a range of good integration of social elements: Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, and a list of links to coverage of Cisco elsewhere. There’s even a widget showing news that can be embedded on your own website, should you want to. And comments are enabled.
  • The topics covered are appropriate to the company, and there is an impressive list of contributing writers – each with a bio, links to their own online spaces, and a list of the articles by them available on this site (with dedicated RSS feed available).
  • There’s a Topic Page Manager, who is named, and their Twitter handle provided. There’s even an image of each, though sadly, the videos have been removed from YouTube. This is a nice touch, and makes the topic pages more welcoming.
  • And on the All News page, there’s a good range of filters, to make tracking down items of interest easier.

When you click through, some of the links go to newly designed pages (press releases and articles), and some (the blog links) to the pre-existing pages. This smart new design does make some of the older pages look a little dated in comparison…

What’s in it for the journalist?

The new press release pages include sections for Related Information (mostly photos) a link to the RSS feed, and Supporting Resources (though on at least one of the releases I looked at, these go to home pages rather than directly to useful information).

Note the record of the number of shares… while I have seen the number of likes, tweets and visits before, a record of the number of people who have emailed the page to another is unusual.

The Press Contacts page is nicely handled, with a dedicated email address and phone number for each contact, and an explanation of their interest area – so the visitor is more likely to find the right person. And the filter option here is a good idea, given the number of potential contacts.

Interestingly, there’s a ‘hands-off’ editorial approach, so it is much more of a news hub than a resource for those wishing to write about Cisco. Their aim is to create, curate and share content on relevant technology content, not simply to spit out corporate press releases.

The corporate resources are available via the footer, or by a small link in the top right services bar, which is where to find executive bios, contacts, and links to request B-roll and logos.

Typically, in a corporate newsroom or media section, there would be an image gallery, with images of executives, products, buildings… Alternatively, images of executives would be available for download with the executive biographies. Here, though, there is a PDF biography available, but not an image. This would seem to be a shortcoming, as it means that there is less that can be picked up and reused elsewhere. This may be part of the plan, though: their aim is to get repeat visitors, and to generate conversation on their site.

The YouTube-hosted videos can be picked up and embedded elsewhere, so it is really only the images that puzzle me. I haven’t found any indication that the images used as part of the press releases and on the site are available for reuse, but perhaps I missed something.

Curiously, the alerting service is hidden behind a small icon in the footer, and is SMS only, not email. Is this part of what seems to be becoming a trend, to reduce the alerting service options?

What do I think?

Overall, I like it, though I do wonder whether it provides enough of a resource for two key elements of their audience:

  • journalists looking to cover the company
  • bloggers looking to pick up and reuse content on their own sites

It will certainly provide a lot to mull over, for those of you responsible for maintaining the media sections of your own corporate websites.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below…

How should CEOs Engage with Social Media

A guest post today from Jerry Burrows: if you have a CEO who is keen to embrace social media, how would you advise them?

How Should CEOs Engage With Social Media?

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
Source

Forbes’ article, ‘Yes, CEOs should Facebook and Twitter’, provides a sound argument for why CEOs should abandon their traditional prejudices toward social media and hop on the bandwagon.

The idea certainly has the support of “Web 2.0 evangelists [who] argue that social software can be used to boost productivity. They say it can facilitate an open-ended corporate culture that values transparency, collaboration and innovation. Most important, it can be an effective way to build a customer-centric organization that not only communicates authentically but also listens to customers and learns from that interaction.”

Blogs and social media can facilitate that genuine conversation between CEOs and customers–and encourage those customers to become brand evangelists.

If you need one example of how company CEOs can use social media to their advantage, look no further than Tony Hsieh, founder and CEO of online shoe and clothing retailer Zappos. Hsieh’s Twitter following is massive. He has just under 2 million followers–clearly, the man tweets hard. And Zappos is a more than successful enterprise for the 37-year-old entrepreneur: it sells about a billion dollars worth of shoes and accessories a year. (And Tony’s not the only one who tweets; at least 440 other employees do, too.) There’s even a dedicated microsite. So how can you replicate his success? How is it done?

Be Careful

Yes, the goal is transparency, affability, and authenticity. But there are limits to that kind of sharing, too. Be casual, but if your personal life is especially tumultuous, you may want to leave the details out. The golden rule? Don’t speak ill of anyone. No, not your competitors, either. Recall the social PR disaster that occurred in 2007 when Whole Foods CEO John Mackey made comments on various finance forums under a pseudonym attacking rival company Wild Oats Markets, and predicting that it would fall into bankruptcy. The result was a permanent tarnish on the Whole Foods brand image.

Don’t Spam

In an interview with Kevin Morris for Wikinomics, Zappos’s Recruiting Manager, Christa Foley, writes:

“It wouldn’t be in our culture to be salesy/pushy so we’re not using Twitter to promote Zappos just for the sake of promoting Zappos. We’re using it for what I think it was intended, which is a social network that we all enjoy.”

If you want to follow in the successful footsteps of Zappos, make your interactions on Twitter and Facebook as genuine as possible by avoiding spammy language. Use your microblogging platform to post useful links about topics that relate to your industry, reply to questions from inquisitive customers (or direct them to the appropriate source), handle customer service requests, etc. Transparency is key; other potential customers that come across your social media profile will be able to view and appraise your customer service dealings without the traditional barrier of secrecy.

Show Leadership

As the CEO, you’re the face of your company. Remember that you’re also setting an example for the rest of your employees. That means that you should use your social networks to remedy problems and address widely-held customer concerns. No, it’s not the same as indiscriminately airing out your dirty laundry; but it helps to keep your brand’s image fresh and timely. Moreover, don’t be afraid to link to blogs and press releases that quote you as an authority. Encourage others to take actions on a social issue that is important to you.

Celebrate Your Fans

The Zappos brand likes to give their fans recognition for their loyalty. Hold contests and competitions for your followers (maybe something to the tune of how many followers can you get to follow you), call out loyal retweeters, etc. It’ll make them more appreciative, and know that they’re the center of your brand. Ask them for their input and they’ll feel appreciated–turning them into even more passionate advocates in the end.

About the Author: Jerry Burrows is a freelance writer for Tektronix. Tektronix is a leading supplier of test and measurement equipment like a digital multimeter or a pulse generator.