B2E Comm

Even though some of us live and breathe “social business,” we find that many of the employees and senior leaders we work with are not familiar with the term. In a recent post, we defined “social business” as the point where how we work, what society expects and emerging technologies come together.

That intersection is where many of us in employee communications are now focused, partnering with digital and emerging technology teams to enhance employee work tools. Not surprisingly, employees are beginning to expect these tools, and rightly so. Social business tools remove barriers and enable connections to make way for limitless creativity, product innovation and information sharing.

This is where the industry is heading. With that in mind, it helps to get senior executives to understand the differences between social media and social business — especially if your C-Suite still equates social media to Facebook’s legendary Farmville app.

Here are a few ways social media differs from social business:

It’s now more common than ever for employees to go to work in their pajamas.

According to this Forrester report, 66 percent of information workers in North America and Europe work remotely. Recent growth of the mobile office stemmed in part from the economic downturn and the accompanying need for operational cost savings. Supplementing that growth is a continual stream of emerging mobile business technologies, which make it easy to collaborate in real time with co-workers across the globe.

And, it seems to be working well for both parties. Not only does the virtual office create greater work-life balance for employees, there are big benefits for companies.

While technology has paved the way to a more flexible working world, communication between employers and their workers has never been more important. Without direct interaction with the organization, their supervisors and colleagues, remote workers can easily feel, well, remote – even with technologies like telepresence, wireless devices and the cloud. In fact, the absence of face-to-face communication and direct supervision can lead to issues like lack of motivation, lower morale and message misinterpretation. Luckily, most such issues are preventable.
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Is your company planning to update its brand or introduce a new strategy? The next time your organization makes a change, consider the impact on your most valuable customers – employees.

A recent Communications Executive Council study of more than 1,400 global employees found that communications have a significant impact on driving employees’ ability to adapt to organizational changes – twice as much impact, in fact, than typical areas like compensation and rewards. If employees are not “in the know,” they’re less likely to acclimate on their own, let alone encourage others to adjust.

So whether you’re unveiling a new initiative or updating your corporate reputation strategy, make employee communication, education and training the first step in change management.
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The past six months have flown by! We hope you’ve enjoyed our posts and insights about internal communications or, as we like to call it, business-to-employee (B2E) communications. We have a lot more planned, but wanted to take a moment to thank you, our readers, for helping make B2E Comm a success.

There seems to be a lot of buzz about Millennials lately, but it’s for good reason – one in three Americans today is a Millennial, or someone who came of age during the new millennium (typically between the ages of 18 – 34).

Chances are, many of the employees in your organization are Millennials. (Full disclosure: I’m one, too!) Understanding how Millennials think and work is essential, then, to your employee communications strategies.

Here are a few tips on effectively communicating with this generation.
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“What is social business? And why is everyone talking about it?”

As part of what Nielsen and NM Incite define in their U.S. Digital Consumer Report as the “Connected” generation, I am especially interested in how 24/7 digital communications and emerging social networking sites are changing how we communicate and how we search out information.

Gone are the days of spending hours at an overcrowded mall to find a fabulous new pair of pumps. Now, just hop online and you pretty much have any store at your fingertips. And, according to this Forrester, shoppers seem to love it. E-tail – online retail – is expected to increase 62 percent by 2016.

This instantaneous information delivery also applies to consumer reviews. You no longer have to call friends to ask for dining or entertainment suggestions; just do a quick search on Yelp, or any other user-generated recommendation site , and VOILA! – instant feedback. Think online recommendations don’t matter? These stats might make you think twice.
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Whether you’re naming a committee, a product, a company or a child, it’s essential to capture both personality and imagination. After all, our names are our identity. And, like it or not, names are almost inextricably linked with our reputations. The right name – and successful protection of it – can make or break a company or a career. (Moon Unit Zappa notwithstanding.)

That’s why companies pursue copyright infringement – or perceived infringement – so vigorously. It might also explain why star music couple Beyonce and Jay-Z filed to trademark daughter Blue Ivy’s name within weeks of her birth.

Here are a few tips to consider as you mull over your next internal program or campaign naming project.
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When you think about all the stories you heard growing up, what comes to mind?

You might recall the story of The Little Engine That Could that chugged along saying “I think I can, I think I can,” as a valuable lesson in optimism, or The Boy Who Cried Wolf as a powerful example of the importance of honesty and credibility.

These childhood stories – and many others – provided guidance for us when we were young. There was a moral to each story – a life lesson that we learned along the way – to help guide our actions and direct how we should behave.

While the storyline may have changed, stories can still provide guidance to us as adults.
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A great story is dynamic. It engages the audience, illuminates a need or opportunity and inspires an action or response.

It’s no wonder then that more and more companies are using storytelling to help drive behavior, mindset and culture change within their own organizations. When done well, storytelling can show employees at all levels of an organization exactly how you need them to think, act and behave.
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Greg Smith’s very public resignation from Goldman Sachs is an employer’s (and employee communicator’s) worst nightmare come true. Regardless of whether there is truth to his claims, his incendiary letter amounts to the cultural equivalent of a major product failure or safety recall in a product-driven organization.

Most communicators are prepared to deal with an external crisis. As internal communicators, we’ve found many of the same principles can apply to cultural crises. Here are a few applicable lessons learned from the recent Goldman incident.
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