Talk Internal Communication

It’s that time of year. Edelman have just published their 2012 Trust Barometer. Unsurprisingly, trust in government has massively dropped. But what’s the score for businesses and the implications for internal communication? There are a few significant findings: 1. There has been a dramatic increase in trust in social media – it is now at almost the same level as corporate information sources. This is a important consideration for internal communications as employees now have ready access to information about the company from external social media sources. 2. There has also been a massive drop in trust in CEOs, the most trusted resource within an organization is the average employee (60 percent). This highlights the importance of face-to-face communication as well as employee "communication champions". 3. The average person needs to hear a story three to five times from different sources before they believe it. This reinforces the fact that our internal messages have to...

On average, however, usage is fast outpacing effectiveness. While the use of social media has expanded over the last 12 months for all, highly effective communicators are more than twice as likely as the least-effective group of companies to have expanded their use of social media. This online article highlights results from Watson Wyatt on the use of social media in organisational communication.

There are many self proclaimed social media ‘experts’ in the market place at the moment. The following are a number of warning signs that your ‘expert’ doesn’t really know what they are talking about. 1. There are social media icons in their email signature, but when you click on the links you they haven’t updated the page in weeks or months. 2. The social media icons on their website, lead to social streams that haven’t been updated. 3. They don’t appear to have actually used the tools they are advising you to use. 4. They don’t talk about engagement with customers when they talk about social media tools. 5. Their heir Klout scores is very poor. 6. They have no suggestions about how to measure success. 7. They guarantee immediate results. These tips and more can be found on Andrew Worob’s blog at PR at Sunrise . Andrew has worked in PR for ten years.

Responses from over 600 presentation recipients highlights the top five things that people find most annoying when watching presentations.  They are: The speaker read the slides to us – 73.8% Full sentences instead of bullet points – 51.6% The text was so small I couldn’t read it – 48.1% Slides hard to see because of color choice – 34.0% Overly complex diagrams or charts – 26.0% For full details of the survey results check out  http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/articles/annoying_powerpoint_survey_2011.htm

In an article, "Why concrete language communicates truth ," the author states that when you speak and write using unambiguous language, people will believe you. Choosing words that reinforce the concrete nature of your statement make it more credible . Here are some examples: 1. Be specific with nouns.. Instead of "cars," say "Thunderbird" and instead of "breakfast," say "steak and eggs." Use more action verbs. Use fewer adjectives and adverbs, and stick to concrete nouns and verbs. You won't sound as if you're exaggerating and your credibility will shine through. 2. Avoid ambiguity. Read your lines aloud to a friend this will help you will hear the words that may confuse confusion for your audience. Aim to use simple, universal terms. 3. Use concrete verbs: Use solid, concrete and unambiguous verbs for example verbs like 'count' and 'write'. Avoid verbs that are less clear such as 'help' and...

The man who started Apple computer in a garage died just two months after resigning as CEO. Not surprisingly, #RIPSteveJobs became an immediate trending topic on Twitter. Many tweeted quotes from Jobs, such as “Stay hungry. Stay foolish" and "Your time is limited so don't waste it living someone else's life." Both are taken from Jobs’ 2005 commencement address at Stanford. For those who haven't heard Jobs' Stanford address you can check it out on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D1R-jKKp3NA# !

Has an employee ever come to you with a problem to which you helpfully answer, , “If I were you, I would…” You may feel satisfied that you have helped but you may well be storing up trouble for yourself.  The reality is that when this employee came to you they had a problem. You helpfully took ownership of that problem and relieved your employee of responsibility for solving the problem themselves. As a manager this type of action trains your staff to come to you with their problems instead of trying to resolve the issues themselves. This can lead to you becoming embroiled in office politics taking you away from your role as a leader. Beware! The key is to actively listen and allow staff to think through, analyse and arrive at solutions themselves.