Virtual Vantage Points » Reputation

What Do Employees Really Want?

Bill Dalbec — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:45:22 +0000

In our third annual Employee Engagement study, which APCO Worldwide conducts with our friends at Gagen MacDonald, we chose to focus on the influence of social media on employee engagement in the workplace. Maril MacDonald recently wrote about the importance of executive leadership in internal communications broadly and internal social media (ISM) specifically. But what exactly is internal social media, and how do we know what employees really want?

In our recent survey of 1,000 employees at companies with at least 500 employees, 51 percent of respondents say their company is using internal social media tools to communicate with them. The primary tool employed is an intranet (71 percent of employees say their company has one); but about half have blogs, two-fifths use wikis and one-third deploy Facebook-like sites. Clearly, social media tools are making their way into the internal communications environment.… Read more »

The Iowa Caucuses, Des Moines Register and the Value of Good Polling

Bill Dalbec — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:08:05 +0000

There were some clear winners on Tuesday night in Iowa. Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum topped the field in the caucus voting, with Romney subsequently snagging the endorsement of 2008 GOP nominee John McCain and Santorum adding $1 million to his campaign coffers on Wednesday. But it was perhaps the Des Moines Register and its final pre-caucus Iowa Poll that was the big winner. Political observers and pundits eagerly awaited the release of this venerable poll, which has consistently predicted the results of caucuses. And astute readers of the poll were not disappointed: the survey captured both Rick Santorum’s surge and Ron Paul’s slippage. The results of this poll set the stage for the political coverage of the tight race for the top spot and correctly predicted a late night for political junkies. So, what are the lessons we can take from this survey and what does it mean as one watches the rest of the primary season?… Read more »

Universities Need to Protect Their Brands, too

Virtual Vantage Points — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:02:42 +0000

Athletic conference realignments altering cherished rivalries within college sports. Alleged acts of pedophilia by coaching staff against children in their care. Compliance violations and a range of sometimes controversial penalties assessed against member schools. This is the context for which the NCAA and several of its marquee institutions enter into the previously hallowed football bowl season. Lack of preparation and poor decision-making have resulted in several senior administrators becoming a part of the anticipated December unemployment statistics instead of leading their schools or departments. This will indeed be a winter of unprecedented criminal investigations, litigation and adverse media coverage.

As daily stories regarding the aspects of these events have unfolded on our TV screens and social media, several friends and journalists have called to ask how or if any of this could have been possibly prevented. Of course, no one can fully prevent horrendous judgment committed by individuals within an institution if a person is intent on engaging in morally reprehensible or criminal acts. However, more than ever before, boards of directors of corporations and university trustees are asking their senior executives to ensure that their institutions have a fresh crisis plan and that all the requisite stakeholders in the enterprise are equipped to operationalize it when the inevitable mayhem visits their doorstep.… Read more »

Corporate brands must add value to society

Virtual Vantage Points — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:12:44 +0000

In my previous posts, I made the case that corporate branding is out of step with the reality of the market. Why, when given the ability of companies to adapt quickly to technological change, would corporate brands be out of step?

To some degree, I think companies have been forced to adapt their operations and product marketing to technology because it has hit them over the head like a sledgehammer. The market quickly makes winners and losers, but the corporate brand doesn’t cry out in the same way. It is harder to diagnose the harm a brand suffers from being left behind, making it less likely to get attention.

There is, however, very tangible science available that documents the value of the corporate brand and its ability to predict things like sales, customer and employee loyalty, and even market capitalization.… Read more »

It’s time for corporate brands to step up

Virtual Vantage Points — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 20:02:20 +0000

Corporate brands need to step up. Now is the time to rethink your corporate brand in light of the new expectations and interactions it faces.

Once upon a time, we could categorize stakeholders by their occupations. Today, stakeholders can create themselves by their level of advocacy, and the tools to create that advocacy have become much more democratized and scalable. Individuals can become influencers quickly and with global reach. Their advocacy may be aimed at a particular product, but as often as not, they pierce the corporate veil and go straight to the corporate brand. Why do this? Because people are smart. They understand that products don’t make decisions, companies do; products don’t run afoul of labor standards, companies do; and products don’t have environmental problems, companies do.… Read more »

Brand comms strategies must evolve with technology

Virtual Vantage Points — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:37:08 +0000

Let’s talk about brands for a minute. I think this may be an area where semantics have overtaken common sense. I’ve read heated online exchanges about the difference between brand and reputation, but the difference when discussing corporate brands seems only one of perspective. The brand is the promise, the reputation is the success in delivering on that promise.

When we talk about corporate brands, what are we really talking about? It is the promise those brands are making to a range of potential stakeholders about what they can expect from the company. With that in mind, I am always stunned when a company gives short shrift to its corporate brand under the delusion that “no one is buying the corporate brand – they’re buying the products.”… Read more »