For any business owner or leader (and their PR person), a PR crisis is not something you want to deal with! With lots of crises in the news lately, there are many examples of how these things can take on a life of their own. Certainly, BP got lots of black eyes during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. #kaizenblog’s co-host, Valeria Maltoni shared in her post, Live Crisis in Digital a few other situations that need some PR finesse.

But the spotlight really goes on Danny Brown, our guest host for #kaizenblog, this past Friday. His post, Saving Face When Your Company’s Doors Are Blown Off, began the conversation that was lively and full of resources and advice of what to do when things go haywire publicly for your business. You can find all of the tweets and links here in the transcript Transcript for #kaizenblog – SavingCoWhenDoorsBlowOffpdf

We jumped into the conversation with our first question…How does social media really change the playing field during a PR crisis?

Brown explained, “It helps immensely. Folks look at negatives, but SM offers huge scope to “correct” crisis.” Perhaps this answer was not what most people expected as one thinks how stories can go viral online. However, it can give you an opportunity to connect with people in real time. He also added, “It allows you to address negativity head-on, and on the “complainers” turf – great pacifier”

Other perspectives that were offered:

• Same Day Repair (@samedayrepair) “It’s vitally important that solid relationships are built before a crisis happens.”
• Amber Cleveland (@ambercleveland) “Q1 gives fast, responsive way to state position and fast track cos PR during crisis”
• Stephen Denny (@Note_To_CMO) “Social media gives a crisis a human face with immediacy. A 1 to 1 opp to have a dialog in the midst of the noise”
• Heidi Cool (@hacool) “SM also lets biz speak directly to customers/public not just to (and through) media”
• Mitchell Schecter (@MSchecter) “As a brand, I think it can help to tell your side of the story if you are already there and have a relationship.”
• Patrick Prothe (@pprothe) “SM offers immediacy of response, but it also requires one to stay on top of it; you must engage or others will take the floor”

These seemed to really resonate based on the number of retweets and comments that went back and forth. Amy Fowler (@amyfowler) added this caution, “Social media spreads crisis info like wildfire — but in “telephone game” way. What’s being spread isn’t necessarily true. But fortunately, you can monitor all those “telephone game” messages and respond, instead of just wondering.” Go Media Center (@goprotools) added “SM is having a conversation with the consumer not at the consumer…two way conversation! Listening is required”

With the frequency of messages focusing on relevancy of messages and listening to consumers, it seemed to make sense to ask the next discusssion question. What can you do while you evaluate the situation? Responding with too little information or from an angle that leaves people feeling unheard or disrespected tends to provide fuel for a difficult siuation to get magnified. So responding properly is important but frequently information is needed to make the best choices. Brown recommended that you “Be open as to what you’re doing (as far as you can legally) and show progress all the way through” Not being sure if he was referring to a specific area of legality, I asked him to elaborate. He reminded us that there may be “people’s privacy and livelihoods” as well as intellectual property issues.

This was echoed by others in the chat:

• Caroline Di Diego (@CASUDI) “listen first. understand second. respond third”
• Meg Fowler “Monitor key voices, gauge tone, check where messages spread fastest, and then start there.”
• Laura Crum (@LauraLCrum) “A2 – don’t stop communicating. traditionally it’s looking down upon to be weak, to be wrong, but SM should be more open”
• Heidi Cool “1st thing is to publicly state you are evaluating the situation. Keep folks updated step by step. “
• Amber Cleveland “Let people know you are assessing, that you are trying to get to the bottom of a given situation (then figure it out FAST)
• Deb Morello (@debmorello) “Ah, listen, listen, communicate internally – Respond, listen again, respond again. Repeat”

Danny Brown summed up this way, “I’d rather be dealing with a company that screws up but acknowledges and talks to me where I am (where poss) and collaborate with the key “complainers” and work with them, their audience, to work and resolve.”  

Some of the tweets were starting to trend towards what is happening internally within the company with the crisis. Kristin Judd (@kwjudd) noted, “Co’s seem to feel it’s not okay to say, ‘We don’t know but we’re committed to finding the answer.’ ” A sub-question of the second discussion question sought to illuminate what’s going on. What are the beliefs/thinking hazards when your company when your company experiences a crisis?

• Amber Cleveland “1 limiting belief is that in an emergency everyone needs to be running around screaming. Focus and calm are key.”
• Stephen Denny “Co’s need more than acknowledgement of crisis. Need to provide movement, accountability + commitment to fixing”
• Heidi Cool “A2 – make sure to involve more than top execs in response strat. cust svc., sales and others may have better feel for audience
• Cathy Larkin PR (@CathyWebSavvyPR) “Q2a - beliefs/hazards – If co gets to defensive, “lawyers up” too early = equals suspicion from other side”

It seems that it is important to not let emotions run your decision making and send out the wrong message. This goes for non-profits as much as for-profits. Cathy Larkin tweeted an interesting situation she was involved with when she worked for a non-profit. Also, keeping flexibility in the plan makes a difference as well. Crises don’t really lend themselves to cookie-cutter responses so listening to your market audience helps you engage them in a conversation that leads to solutions.

It’s a given that companies don’t always get it right when interacting publicly during a PR crisis. How do you recover from a botched reaction? Danny Brown advised, “First, allay fears that you are taking seriously and looking into it, and if it *is* your fault, own up”

There were a lot of tweets that suggested that a botched reaction could be salvaged:

• Stephen Denny “The public has the attention of a fruit fly. If your 1st response is wrong, make your 2nd and 3rd right. Learn from it”
• Meg Fowler “You admit your mistake to  the depth of your mistake. Don’t self flagellate on your customer’s behalf”
• Patrick Prothe “RE: Q3 – apologize, admit the botch & move on-helpfully, authentically. But never w/ more spin. The cover up=what gets you”

At the end of the chat, Brown reminded us that we can ”…feel safe that in knowledge that you’re not first, you won’t be last. See how others dealt and act accordingly.” Taking the time to review the process after the crisis has passed seems like a practice that would make sense. If you’re interested in being in business for a long while, you’re bound to encounter a crisis. It could be small or large. The question is, how do you want to handle it?

How do you answer the discusssion questions?

What would you do if an A-lister blogger or media person talks about your situation?

 

One of the great things about co-hosting #kaizenblog is how much I get to learn! This week’s Twitter chat was no different! What do you think about branding for your business? Can you say if your brand is self-defining? Stephen Dennywas our guest host for this week. He had written an intriguing post about Eigen Values and branding, “This Sentence has 5ive Words”. According to Denny, Eigen Values are “a concept from the field of cybernetics that describes a thing that is self-defining.” In fact, Eigen is a German word for innate.

This has relevance for business as well. Denny explained in his post that “Eigen Values are what we, as businesspeople, do when we’re doing our best work.  We produce work that is synonymous with our brand values, our mission and our strategy. Always. In everything we do.” But how do we share that with our customers or even the world? And is this beneficial?

So we asked the #kaizenblog folks to explore “Make Your Brand Self-Defining.” There were a lot of interesting ideas exchanged during the conversation so it’s a good idea to check out theTranscript for #kaizenblog – SelfDefiningBrand_! Also throughout the chat, people offered examples of brands the do and do not self-define like Apple, Southwest Airlines, 3M, and many others.

How does creating a self-defining truism help/hurt your brand’s process of creating outputs? Stephen Denny began the conversation by explaining, “Self-defining outputs-websites, logos, etc.-that are absolutely unique/like fngerprint solidify a brand’s ID.”

• Caroline Di Diego (@CASUDI) “A self-defining truism like logo/slogan can help distinguish your brand from all others ~ like biometrics”
• John Reddish (@GetResults) “the more effort committed to brand clarity thru self-defining stmts the easier 2 remember brand’s central focus”
• Joe Sanchez (@sanchezjb) “Self-defining ‘truisms’ communicated externally, will be judged on authenticity and consistency. That can help/hurt”
• Eric Tsai (@designdamage) “branding=communication & meaning of ur communication is the response u get, visuals r subjective, words/actions mean more.”
• Chris Fife (@chrisfife) “With different medium limitations, selfdefining gets tricky. Like personalized license plates/handles are often misunderstood.”

Stephen Denny reminded us that “Truth is, we’re (as consumers) very busy. We don’t care much abt “brands” So consistency/Eigen behaviors R critical.”

There are often side threads that deepen the conversation about a topic. This follow up post by Stephen Denny picked up some interesting thoughts, ”Three Keys On Creating Self-Defining Brands-Kaizenblog, Eigen Values, + the Crucible of Public Debate”       

To make this conversation clearer, it seemed that examples would help. Which brands are so consistent that their stuff is identifiable even when you don’t know it’s theirs? Apple came up several times as was previously mentioned. Other brands that were mentioned were Tiffany’s, Target, Rolex, Starbucks, Mercedes, BMW, Google, and Beano.  On the other hand, Lois Martin (@LoisMarketing) and John Reddish noted that brands like Xerox and Kleenex have lost their ability to be identified in a unique way because we use the brand names as a generic reference to like products.

When is it okay to break away from from your core brand elements? This seems to be a process that has to be thought out as it can disconnect companies from their markets. There were a lot of thoughts about whether breaking away was a productive or destructive act for your brand.

• Amy Blake (@BlakeGroup) “Q3 Must have dedicated users, huge branding identity. Your brand is like “seal of approval” when extend products/services”
• Mary Ann Halford (@MaryAnnHalford) “Innovation and market changes make it ok to break away – e.g. IBM from mainframe to enterprise solutions”
• Tamsen McMahon (@tamadear) “A3: When what you are or what you do is no longer relevant. A good brand is an evolving brand.”
• Chris Houchens (@shotgunconcepts) “When you break away from core brand elements, you have broke the brand.”
• John Reddish “Launching new brand is often function of perceived market permissions – if + =brand extension, if – =new brand”
• Tom Asacker @tomasacker) “Brands are evolving, living ideas that add meaning and value to people’s lives. Nokia started in boots, paper.”
• Sametz (@Sametz) “Core elements aren’t a  brand prison. They are a brand foundation. You can pretty much build anything on a solid foundation.”

It was clear that everyone agreed that a brand reflected the organization. Becoming self-defining depends on interaction with one’s target market so you are distinguished from others like you. Your Eigen value depends on what happens internally as much as how you interact with the customer. Disconnects can happen with how you provide customer service as well as when you break away from your core brand elements. Stronger brands are consistent with their Eigen values because you know what you get when you interact with the business from pre-purchase to customer support.

Where can you make your Eigen Value stronger in your organization?

If your brand is really defined by you and your customers, how is your organization identifiable?

What’s your opinion about breaking away from your core brand elements?

iStockphoto VCTStyle

Influence is an interesting thing. You can shape behavior when you make a recommendation. In some places, age gave one influence. Sometimes social status (financial and/or class) bestowed A automatic must-listen environment.  A carefully built reputation of solid results could give you a megaphone. I still remember the old E. F. Hutton ad, “When E.F . Hutton talks, people listen.”

The effect social media has had on how one builds and maintains influence is simply tremendous. Small to big businesses are trying to figure out how to get influencea and how to use it. So, influence is greatly sought after and is probably one of the least understood aspects of how one is perceived online. We try to measure our influence by the numbers of followers (or friends or connections) or with sites like Klout. But is this it? Does this define all of our influence?

Influence has been a topic of recent conversation due to events like Fast Company “The Influencer Project”. Between Valeria Maltoni (@ConversationAge as well as founder and co-host of #kaizenblog) and myself, we have read a number of posts about influence. I guess you could say we’re influenced by our friends and colleagues as we read a lot of different blogs. For framing posts, Valeria wrote “Connecting With Real Influence” and “Like It Or Not, You Want Influence”. When I tweeted an invitation to my friend, Danny (@DannyBrown) to chime in on this topic, he pointed me towards a post by Susan Murphy (@SuzeMuse) which really fit into our theme like a glove, “Why Are We So Hung Up On Influence?” We did notice that this was a topic people had a lot of thoughts and opinions about as we had 627 tweets and 81 contributors by the end of the conversation. Here is the transcript: Transcript for #kaizenblog – Influence

With the stage set, we began talking about “What Defines Influence in Business” in our latest #kaizenblog chat with our first question, What is deeper purpose of influence? While there were some answers, there were also a lot of questions that referenced popularity, targeting an audience, and how our numbers do play a role.

• Sean Williams (@CommAMMO) “Q1 Influence is the ability to gain a hearing for your perspectives, when then changes someone’s thinking or actions.”
• Stephen Denny (@Note_To_CMO) “A1 Deeper purpose of influence? Compliance? (Cynical?)  We want influence so we can direct the actions of others?”
• Caroline Di Diego (@CASUDI) “A1 Influence bringing about action cos people are inspired to do it ~ (not forced to)”
• WDYWFT (@WDYWFT) “So hopefully it’s compliance and significance.”
• Joel Foner (@JoelFoner) “Q1-”So what is the deeper purpose of influence?” | Many mention actions. Influence key results  changes opinions and beliefs too.”
• Scott McWilliams (@macengr) “Deeper purpose varies according to the individual and goal of same. Could be good or bad.”

There was some back and forth between several participants about whether or not influence is limited to changing beliefs and opinions or includes action. By the end of this thread, there seemed to be agreement that changing how someone thinks about something could lead to action or inaction, depending on the message. Alfonso Guerra (@huperniketes) reminded us of that the “Whuffie Factor discusses the importance of influence in social capital, how to earn it and spend it.” This certainly would play a role in how effective an influencer might be to inspire action or refrain from action.

I also posed the question if influence could be more than something used for marketing. Diane Court (@dc2fla) suggested mentoring and it was pointed out that there are people in our immediate circcle that we influence and are influenced by (e.g. parents).

There was also a fascinating theme about popularity and influence. Are they synonymous? Does being popular lead to greater influence? This discussion threaded its way throughout the entire chat. There seemed to be some who outright rejected popularity as having any part in influence. Others didn’t completely reject influence. As John Reddish (@GetResults) pointed out, “Celebrity and/or popularity does impact influence, in varying degrees & among different groups – it’s selective.” However two names came up as effective influencers in their spheres, Ashton Kutcher and Oprah Winfrey. But…aren’t influencers effective in their particular spheres? Joe Crockett (@JoeCrockett) tweeted, “But if you put popularity and influential together in 1 spot you have a powerhouse”

So, we returned to the discussion of influence and business with our next discussion question, What is the bridge between your business vision and becoming an influencer?

Tom Asacker (@tomasacker) pointed out that “influence more subtle process today. Experts disagree, so people don’t trust experts.” If the process is more subtle, that could make things very challenging for accepted influencers to maintain their positions while up and coming influencers may find a skeptical crowd saying, “show me.” What does it mean to be an expert now? Do you need different strategies to create a critical mass so people start to talk about your core message? Stephen Denny offered Jim Koch of the Boston Beer Company as an example, “Bridge between biz vision and influence. Jim Koch/Boston Beer Co. ‘Want to change how American public thinks of beer.’ “

Other thoughts about the bridge between one’s business vision and becoming an influencer:

• Amber Cleveland (@ambercleveland) “Q2 The bridge between business vision and becoming an influencer is the mission of the biz and the vision of leadership.”
• Caroline Di Diego “Doing excellently or in our design business ~ one of a kind design/leader/influencer of new”
• Alfonso Guerra “Building on your relationships, inspiring confidence in your values and decision, building trust”

For the #kaizenblog participants, ethics and mission seemed to be important to influence whether the mission was to change how American public thinks about beer or some great humanitarian cause. Influence is less about ego and more about urging minds to change and actions to follow. Meg Fowler (@megfowler) cautioned, “many think influence=a lot of people paying attention…but trainwrecks attract attention too.”

Finally, we ended the conversation with this question, What has worked for you to build influence?

• Scott Williams “Developing personal relationships (trust is key) and demonstrating competence”
• Marketwire (@marketwire) “To build influence=provide interesting, relevant content, be authentic, build relationships first’
• Stephen Denny “What has worked for me to build influence? Building relationships, 1 at a time.”
• Tom Asacker “Passion and other focus at the expense of self”
• Derek Edmond (@derekedmond) “Demonstrate expertise and successes while being available to help, coach, and/or provide assistance”
• Diane Court “Worked for me? learning from being a parent – learning to listen to my children (seriously)”

It’s clear that relationships are important. It would have been interesting to learn why relationships build influence specifically but we ran out of time. Knowing your specialty fully seemed to also add credence to messages you send out to your audience/customer base.

This is one of those chats that had so many interesting side threads that it would be well worth your time to read through the transcript.

How would you have answered the discussion questions?

What is specifically important about building relationships that adds to one’s influence?

 

 

There is this client I’m working with who is trying to come up with a more interesting elevator pitch. Crafting a more interesting message has become more important as he brings his business to a more organized and sophisticated level. Before he could just explain his technical skills and that was effective but it’s not working as well now.

Another client is focused on shifting out of the role of chief technical expert/team leader to more of a CEO-type leader. The way he leads meetings, the questions he chooses to ask, and even how he provides accountability to his direct reports is undergoing a major change. The way he frames his messaging is two-fold: 1) establishing himself in his new role and 2) clearly communicating the day-to-day expectations of the organization so his people can effectively do their jobs.

What is common with both of these business owners? Knowing their core competencies supports how effective they are at communicating. It is always easier to operate from a position of strength since you’ve already honed these skills anyway. People respond better when you are confident.

In this week’s #kaizenblog chat on Twitter, we focused on this topic: “Know Your Core Competencies For Better Biz Messaging.” Messaging is more than marketing to your customers. You also have to pay attention to internal messaging. But Valeria Maltoni (@ConversationAge) and I got curious about what relationship knowing your core competencies had on business messaging. As usual there are bits of wisdom and side conversations that could be Twitter chats of their own so here is the Transcript for #kaizenblog – Core Competencies for you.

It seemed to make sense to start at the beginning, How do you know your core competencies?

It is tempting to focus entirely on the marketing view of messaging and there is value in that since it can be a great place of learning since we had tweets that described core competencies in terms of relationships with clients and customers. However, we also had tweets that described flexibility has being a part of implementing our core competencies effectively.

• Karimacatherine (@karimacatherine)-”Core competency comes from experience and dirty hands, as well as ability to be flexible.”
• Stephen Denny (@Note_To_CMO)-”Core competencies=the intersection of what you are passionate about doing and what others think we do well.”
• Danny Brown (@dannybrown)-”As long as your core competencies are fluid so you can adapt as needed.”

The conversation seemed to morph into a recognition that some environments and people have different expectations. The desire to have a niche for one’s business was acknowledged. It may even be that flexibility is a core competency that one may need to cultivate.

• Mr. Brown tweeted, “Niche is good for for “bread and butter” but needs to be more flexible to offer to more outlets.”
• Mr. Denny stated,”…w/ F500′s/MNC’s, deep specialization helps. Domain or functional expertise req’d.”

Which led us to our second question, how do we keep message focused on what we really do?

• Danny Brown-”Re. Q2: By setting your stall out from start (ethics, business practices, people skills) & living them each day.”
• This seemed to be echoed by Tom A. Sacker (@tomasacker), “Q2 How do you keep message focused on what you really do? Do it! Actions speak louder than messages.”
• Joshua Pearlstein (@jpearlstein), “Clear communication within your company and your clients.”
• Mark Chidwick (@markchidwick),”Do what you’re good at…and not one thing more.”
• Lizzie Pauker (@lizziepauker) further elaborated this point,”Q2-U need solid understanding of what u really do & what that means to ur target market in order to keep ur message focused.”
• Valeria Maltoni reminded us to use self-awareness,”also, listen to yourself. When do you light up when you are explaining what you’re about.”

There was a fascinating side conversation that encompassed the process of learning one’s core competencies (trial and error) and using “unlearning” as a way to deepen one’s skills. Please check out the transcript for this part of the conversation!

When you know what you are most talented at, it makes sense to determine what truly brings the most value to your client and customers. What criteria do you use to determine the real value you bring to your clients/customers?

• Jeff Hurt (@jeffhurt)- “Q3: Answer-A level of self confidence needed that I & my service is worth my fee.”
• Karimacatherine-”Acknowledging core competency can take time. it can take falling, stumbling and sometimes, striking gold. do it w/ passion.”
• MaryAnnHalford (@MaryAnnHalford)- “Client WIIFM is definitely a critera cornerstone”
• Nancy Garcia (@digitalng)- “Value can’t always be measured in dollars. Van Gogh added value to society and culture.”

What did we figure out in our chat? Well, there is something to be said for self-knowledge. Core competencies are more than a set of skills. They are accompanied by passion and a process of self-discovery. Feedback from others aids in understanding of our true talents that also bring value. In the end, our messages are more powerful when we are willing to fail, unlearn, and develop relationships with other people.

What are your core competencies and how do you know they are?

How would you answer the discussion questions?

What do you wish we had discussed in more depth?

 

Tom Gray, The Evolving Internet Marketer, hosted this interview with Elli and had a great discussion on the process she uses to engage her clients in a dynamic partnership that creates business growth while restoring life balance. Elli also shared how she employs the power of networking, both online and off, to develop effective and rewarding business and personal relationships.

Listen in if you’d like insight into how to have it all; a great business that doesn’t require you to sacrifice family, friends, self, and community to the bottom line. And if you are considering whether a business coach makes sense for you this will give you a hype free view of the coaching process from a very passionate practitioner. 

Podcast

I want to sincerely thank Tom Gray for making this interview fun and easy. This is someone worth checking out! ~Elli

In the article, When Language Can Hold the Answer (The New York Times, April 22, 2008), Christine Kenneally writes about research done on language and perception. In a recent study at Cornell, Dr. Gary Lupyan added onto an experiment done with students at Carnegie Mellon in which he added words to describe pictures of “aliens” as friendly or unfriendly.  Dr. Lupyan discovered that all of the participants learned which label identified the “aliens.”  Most interestingly, the participants who used labels learned more quickly than participants who did not use labels.  Christine Kenneally sums up the debate with this question:  “Does language shape what we perceive, a position associated with Benjamin Lee Whorf, or are our perceptions pure sensory impressions, immune to the arbitrary ways language carves up the world?” Research has demonstrated that language and thought do have a relationship.  Language can enhance thought as an add-on feature to more primitive mental behaviors.  This is a good and bad relationship as language can enhance or interfere with our thinking.  Dr. Lupyan notes that language enables us to learn and understand completely new material and facilitate abstract thinking but it can also get in the way of how we remember specific objects.  Basically, how we put words and objects together in categories can be an aid or a hindrance. In research done by Dr. Dedre Gentner of Northwestern, she discovered that language gives us a structure to organize our thoughts. Steven Pinker of Harvard posits that, while a connection between language and thought exists, it does not force a particular line of thinking, refuting the theory set forth by Benjamin Lee Whorf and Edward Sapir. The debate may not have an answer yet but it is intriguing material as we consider how we use language in our businesses.  In business, we get advice about what to do in our elevator pitches, first impressions, and presenting a certain professional image. What do you do with this information? What words do you choose in your public messages? What words do you use privately with yourself? One client told me a story about how she was talking with a colleague about launching her business.  He jokingly told her to get some kind of counseling and reflected back to her that she frequently framed going out on her own as a negative. Give the same message consistently, it becomes believable. You can create a new reality for yourself, positive or negative. Self-fulfilling prophecies work both ways.  How do you want to be perceived?