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Lucy Nixon

Lucy Nixon

The Brand Champion Exit Strategy Redux – Lessons from Apple and Steve Jobs

Back in October 2008, I wrote a post on Corporate Eye about an incident when a false report online stating that Steve Jobs, the leader of Apple, Inc., suffered a massive heartattack caused his company’s stock to drop 5.4%.  I mentioned in that post that the value of a brand champion who becomes the physical embodiment of a brand can be immense, but I also questioned what happens when that brand champion exits the company he or she has championed for so long.  Apple got a dose of that reality back in October, and now, the inevitability for Apple is back in the press again.

When Gizmodo.com reported a rumor on December 30, 2008 that Steve Jobs’ health was failing after the announcement was made that he would not attend this week’s popular Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Apple’s stock price instantly dropped by $4 per share (4.5%).   Ultimately, Steve Jobs had to issue an open letter addressing his health issues to quell the panic related to his absence and what that might mean for his company.  Once his letter was made public, Apple’s stock price rose again. [Read more…] about The Brand Champion Exit Strategy Redux – Lessons from Apple and Steve Jobs

Words and How “Live Blogging” Can Affect Your Corporate Sales

Words are very powerful. The things we say can bring lots of joy…or not so much joy. Our words have the power to change nations, change the lives of people and carry the ability to shape the future, simply with the words that we speak.  Sounds poetic, doesn’t it? However lofty sounding it may be, it is true.

Basically, the things that we say and write, and the things that are said and written about us, make a difference. They can often make such a significant difference in our businesses world that it is well worth the effort to take the time to ensure that what’s being said is at least accurate. Although there is no way to completely control what the opinions of others are (and you shouldn’t want to), what you can do is to ensure that 1.) the facts are presented, 2.) there are no unanswered questions or ambiguous thoughts and 3.) you don’t actively contribute to the speculation pool of gossip with your actions.

Just how powerful are words? Imagine having your every word typed immediately onto a platform that allows the world to instantaneously know what you’re saying. Imagine that even your funny stories, uhm’s, ahh’s and bad jokes are all on display for others to edit, discuss and dismiss. Now imagine having all of that affect your bottom line.

Live Blogging

A while back, I blogged on the idea of corporate media live blogging and just recently did a search to see how popular this idea was/is. It is quite popular. Live blogging implies just what the name suggests – – Live Blogging. Blogging while you are right in the middle of an event, a speech, a workshop or seminar. A live blogger or a live blogging episode allows the writer to instantaneously relay information as it happens. The cool part about this type of blogging is that you get information right away. The not so cool part of this type of blogging is that you get information right away. I’ll explain why later. 

Corporate Blogging

Corporate blogging has an unfortunate reputation of being stale and sometimes boring. Numbers, statistics, dry news reads, etc. Although this is not the case in every type of corporate blog, it can take a lot to convince readers to participate in a corporate blog forum. The reason why is because they’re usually uneventful and contain information that often doesn’t pull the reader in. So, the challenge of a corporate blog is to get traffic to the site and to engage the readers so that they will want to read more and come back again and again.

Live Blogging + Corporate Blogging

Bringing together live blogging and corporate blogging in one setting can prove valuable for a company. Although this is my opinion, and quite relative, what I am referring to specifically is the recent live blogging event of Phil Schiller’s keynote speech from Apple. SF Gate had a live blogging platform going on from the MacWorld ’09 event. There has quite a buzz on the internet over the past few weeks about Schiller’s keynote, the absence of Steve Jobs and the effect of that, the speculation that Apple would unveil a new product, etc. etc. No one knew what to really expect from Apple or the leaders there. Since the brand is so popular and interesting, followers are quite interested in what happens at the events, especially if they are unable to attend. Enter – – live blogging.

When a company like Apple creates such a strong brand and an almost cult-like following as they have, everything they do will be magnified and criticized. There’s just no way around it. The same thing can happen with a corporate blog, minus the cult. If corporate companies entertain the idea of live blogging, how significant would their sales change? Even if the CEO is not a Steve Job’s, or even if the product the company manufacture’s doesn’t have a digital interface or touch screen and even if it isn’t quite clear what the brand is, corporations have the ability, the power with their words via their blogs to impact their consumers. Sure sales can NOT increase, but they can also decrease. It can all hinge on what’s going on or not going on at your event. And, it can hinge on the blogger and their take on the whole program.

Live blogging can be great for sales. It can create a buzz with customers concerning any new products. Customers like to be a part of the action, to feel that they are “in”. Once they feel connected, they will follow your product, your brand, your label and your stats. Whether your company is performing favorably or not so favorably, your resource to connect cannot ever be replaced nor should it be undervalued. What can you live blog about today that will make a change, even a small one in your business? What can you offer to your customers that will make them want to watch your company’s every move? What can you do to affect your company’s bottom line?

Satisfaction for All Comers on IR Websites

We’ve discussed the idea of who the target audience of an Investor Relations website is before.  From employee and retiree shareholders, to retail investors, to analysts, and the financial media, an IR website can be expected to cover a lot of ground.  That is why Investor Relations departments try to mash so much information onto a single webpage.

Quick Investor Relations

Cisco is one of the world’s leading networking companies.  Its hardware runs inside the networks of companies big and small.  That means that it is on the minds of many people both in the technology industry and not.  Interest can jump quickly based on numerous events including media coverage that concerns the company either directly and tangentially.

The Cisco corporation can also be considered a fit for numerous investment categories, technology, networking, hardware, telecommunications, and even plain old large cap U.S., which means that in addition to a spot on the public’s awareness radar, it also commands a spot in many stock screeners or other investing tools that return companies based on various criteria.

Just how to provide useful investor information at once to the savvy retail investor or professional analyst, and the event driven investor, or investors looking for “a technology company”, can be a design and logistics nightmare.  Those who come to a company’s IR site frequently, don’t want to be bogged down with a long list of links burying the specific information they came to get, while those who are new to the site don’t want to have to figure out which menu has what, just to get a quick look at the company.

Company Fact Sheets
Cisco Systems - Overview The investor relations webpage is accessible from the Cisco homepage, though it is not visible until one clicks on Quick Links (tsk, tsk).  From there, an information packed and useful IR landing page greets potential and current investors.  All the usual information is readily accessible, stock quote, regulatory filings, financials, even events and presentations.  Additionally, a Fact Sheet link commands a prominent space in the left side menu.

The fact sheet at Cisco is, like many other companies, actually an offering of the “news” section of the Cisco website, but it contains a treasure trove of information for new investors who want to take a quick look at Cisco and decide if it is an idea they wish to pursue further.  But, since those investors are likely to arrive via the IR site, they may never find this source of information which may fit their needs better.

The easy to find link on the IR menu ensures that all arrivals have the opportunity to decide that their needs might be best served by a fact sheet rather than fully navigating the information available on the IR side.  By offloading these potential investors to this one-stop shopping style information page, the Cisco IR department can focus on building its Investor Relations web pages and navigation to suit those investors who may be making one of many returns to the Cisco IR information.

IR Best Practices

For the fact sheet to be a useful way to provide “at a glance” information to potential investors, it needs to contain links to the most commonly requested information.  Use your own experience by leveraging the knowledge of those who serve as investor contacts at your company.  They will likely be able to rattle off a small laundry list of items which are the most frequently requested by callers and email.  Position those items on the company fact sheet as well as other information that you would like quick hitting information seekers to find.  On the Cisco fact sheet for example, the company lists its many awards so that anyone viewing the sheet will see them regardless of their intention to seek out a list of such kudos.

By creating a quick and easy way for users looking to go through a lot of information one click after another, you make life easier for them.  At the same time, you relive the burden of sifting through a unruly stack of links from frequent IR visitors, creating a win-win situation for all potential and current investors.

Who are your business spokespeople?

Who speaks for your business? Who represents you in public?

Is it top level management? The public relations team? Nominated business spokespeople? Or everyone?

Who should it be?

It is standard practice for a corporate website to provide an archive of interviews, speeches and other presentations made by senior staff – some as documents available for download, some as webcasts.

Some of the better corporate websites link to these speeches from the board biographies, so that it is easy to find out, for example, what the Strategy Director thinks about future trends in their business (see Microsoft).

Often, the main contact for journalists on the corporate website will be the public relations team, who have phone numbers, email addresses clearly and easily available (see British Energy for a good example). Sometimes, there will also be contact details for nominated business spokespeople, with some explanation of their area of expertise (see Scottish Widows for an example). This is good – we like to see experts within the company available to speak.

On the other hand, the business conduct guidelines for most major companies play heavily on the idea that all employees are representing the company, and require individual employees to behave in an appropriate fashion. And this is quite right: employees, particularly those dealing day to day with customers, do represent the company, and their actions significantly affect the brand and image of the company.

Yet often, these employees have been taught to refer all requests for comment upwards, or across to the PR department. So are they only representatives in the way they look and behave?

For some companies the nature of the spokesperson for the company has been changing, and has become more devolved. As people within the company embrace social media, and blog, tweet or otherwise engage with people outside the company, these people are increasingly representing the company by what they say (or write), not just by their behaviour or dress. They are becoming ‘accidental spokespeople‘, and as a result, there is potentially a loss of control by the company.

So, how should you deal with that?

One option, of course, would be to ban employees from social networking at work … either completely or partially, leaving the official social media team to do all such activity. Cutter Consortium point to some interesting tactics of permissible hours for such activity. This keeps you safely within the old pattern of ‘refer upwards or call PR’, but may mean that you miss out on some of the benefits of social media.

Another option is the Zappos approach, which seems to work well for them:

For our culture, we just want to make sure that our employees are always exhibiting our core values. As long as that’s happening, we don’t really see the need to “police” what employees are saying, which is why we encourage our employees to Twitter and publicly post what employees are twittering at: http://twitter.zappos.com

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, quoted at Pierce Mattie

And there’s the approach taken by IBM and Intel, of providing clear guidelines on the corporate website, and tying these in with the code of conduct. (I notice that IBM has separate guidelines for behaviour in virtual worlds).

… we believe social computing can help you to build stronger, more successful business relationships. And it’s a way for you to take part in global conversations related to the work we are doing at Intel and the things we care about.

The choice to participate in social media is yours. If you do, please follow these guiding principles:

  • Provide unique, individual perspectives on what’s going on at Intel and in the world.
  • Post meaningful, respectful comments – in other words, no spam and no remarks that are off-topic or offensive.
  • Reply to comments quickly, when a response is appropriate.
  • Respect proprietary information and confidentiality.
  • When disagreeing with others’ opinions, keep it cool.
  • Know and follow the Intel Code of Conduct and the Intel Privacy Policy.

(from Intel – IBM’s available here)

Both these are good summaries of how to behave, and it is commendable that they are published on the corporate website.

Notice how Zappos, IBM and Intel all bring this back to the corporate values, ethics and codes of conduct. This demonstrates the importance of the corporate culture – if the culture of the company is such that you can trust your employees, then you can trust them to represent you in public in all aspects: in what they say or write as well as in how they look and behave.

And if you don’t trust your employees to interact appropriately with people outside the company, then I suspect you may be facing bigger issues.

5 Reasons Why Businesses Should Blog Through the Recession

Should you give up on the idea of a corporate blog now that we’re entering into a global recession? Is it one of those nice-to-have extras that a company can afford in the good times, but not in the bad?

I invited Tom Walker, who is a blogger for Cartridge SAVE, to give us his view on this …

Good public relations is one of the most important elements to any marketing campaign a company has at its disposal. But not all public relations are equal: some campaigns involve massive outlays of cash, while some other methods can be extremely cost effective!

Blogging is at the forefront of publicity mediums in today’s connected world, giving anyone or any business the opportunity to get their message out around the world. And with the recession hitting companies hard, it’s more important than ever to find cost effective ways to attract new customers and increase revenue.

Here are five reasons why business blogging should be an intrinsic part of your marketing mix during the downturn.

1. Marketing Has Moved Ahead With the Times

In days gone by the consumer would wait to have a flyer drop on their doorstep to read about the latest news, deals and offers available to them. Today millions of people subscribe to regularly updated blogs and use their feeds to stay abreast on everything from news and current affairs to sport and fashion. There are thousands of websites tailored to niche industries, each appealing to a particular demographic. While some of these blogs and websites are created by hobbyists, many are created by businesses who use them to turn visitors into leads and ultimately sales. Consumers are becoming more tech-savvy, especially as major online properties such as the BBC and New York Times embrace and subsequently promote new means of distribution such as podcasts and RSS to their visitors. So it is absolutely necessary for businesses to keep up with the trend and become multi faceted in how they interact with the public.

2. Relatively Low Barriers to Entry

Designing and launching your blog is very easy, you don’t need to be an HTML whizz to set one up. However, as with any other marketing campaign it is essential you invest in a plan to add value with clearly defined goals and ways of reaching them. If you don’t keep your blog regularly updated it can actually have a negative effect on your business reputation, making it appear stale and slow to act.

While there are many free blog hosting services available such as WordPress, Typepad and Blogger, which can of course be used to help boost your online profile, any serious business is strongly advised to incorporate their blog with the rest of their website so that corporate branding and voice are as consistent as possible.

3. Control Over Your Communication

Starting a blog gives your business the opportunity to inform customers of upcoming products, services, conferences, trade shows or even to give an insight into the day to day running of the business. It allows you to become your own news reporter and gives you control over what reaches the public domain. Blogging isn’t all a bed of roses though and there are many pitfalls, chief among which is the failure to be unique enough to differentiate your corporate blog from the over 20 million other blogs on the internet today. Take time to research the competition and how they use this platform. Don’t copy anyone, make your own niche!

The beauty of blogging is that it encourages interaction between potential customers or other businesses and yourselves who are able to leave comments that you might address in a later blog post. By adding questions or provocative statements in your blog, you are in effect inviting subscribers to leave feedback. Here are some tips on how to elicit more feedback:

  • Reflect the style of your business in the tone of your blog
  • Write in the first person so there will be a conversational style
  • Make it easy to subscribe: place an option to subscribe via RSS or email prominently on your blog
  • Keep blog posts short and concise: it’s the most effective way to get your point across
  • Show who is responsible for the blog post: a headshot of the post author adds a face to the voice

4. Grow Your Customer Base

Another way to get your message out and also drive traffic is to post comments on other people blogs. If they are writing about something that directly relates to yours you can post a comment with your link and details of your own blog. Don’t shamelessly advertise yourself in these comments though as this may get it deleted. There is evidence to suggest well written blog comments that add to the conversation with valuable and insightful commentary attract significantly more attention than even the main post itself! Clearly there is scope for businesses to therefore brand themselves as an authority to people outside their own circle of influence.

5. Beat The Competition To It

If your competitors don’t have a blog and you do, that already puts you ahead of the game. You will be immediately at an advantage from a media and public relations stand point as potential customers will be more likely to hear of you first. If you are lucky enough to have an extremely successful blog there is no end to its ability to accelerate the growth of your business as readers link to it from their own blogs and social network profiles.

Governance Visualization — An OCEG Masterpiece

In one of my posts I wrote about a standout Corporate Governance organization Open Compliance and Ethics Group (OCEG). Another post covered Corporate Governance Visualization, the use of graphics to convey and explain Governance matters. I’d like to combine the two themes.

Corporate Eye has received permission to link to OCEG’s seminal visual on Corporate Governance. Think of it as “everything you wanted to see about Governance.” This is a landmark effort and visually shows all Corporate Governance practices and stakeholders, and all relationships and linkages.

You may access the visual here.

You will need to register for free subscription: well worth it you will get access to the visual and more. Also don’t worry about e-mails, OCEG respects your privacy.

For those who have an interest in Corporate Governance, OCEG and the visual is a must.