Many thanks to our followers for keeping up-to-date with 2nd Head via the external blog thus far.
If you'd like to continue following us then please do so on www.2ndhead.co.uk/blog
Many thanks!
2nd Head
Friday, 29 January 2010
Thursday, 21 January 2010
Consultants - why we're not all bad
While furiously networking at an event the other day, it occurred to me that I do feel slightly embarrassed to admit that I’m a consultant. There’s something in that vaguely innocuous three syllable word that I’m sure sends shivers down many a spine.
Is it me, or can I see something in people’s eyes, which says: “Uh oh, prepare to be bored...”? Now I may be paranoid, but there is some truth in the rather unflattering reputation that precedes us consultants. We can be horribly officious and condescending in our manner and tediously dry in our approach to business.
I base this on my own experiences of the many consultants, who have tried to harangue me at exhibitions in the past. In one particularly chilling incident, an HR consultant attempted to prove his superior intellect with the opening gambit: “I’m going to ask you a question that you won’t know the answer to. But give it a go anyway.” And then proceeded to bear bait me for half an hour until I finally had to admit that yes, indeed, he was cleverer than I and no, I had not a fair clue what I was talking about. If I had been an onlooker, surely I would have rushed over with a zoo sized net and thrown it over this man shouting “No, no, no, no. That is NOT how you do business!”
Why did no-one save me from his patronage?
The greatest error that you can make as a consultant is to be a know-it-all - to sweep into an organisation/conversation/room, with all the tact and sensitivity of Katie Price. Surely we are better than that? A good consultant will recognise that yes, they do know their stuff. Indeed they should know a lot about business and their particular area of expertise. But they do not know everything and are certainly no better than the people or businesses they’re trying to assist.
A good consultant should recognise that they are an enabler and by quashing a person’s confidence they will never help that person or their business succeed.
What I hope is that 2nd Head will practise exactly what we preach, that we will provide the support and objectivity that businesses need to plan for growth. But we will do so sensitively and with empathy.
We enjoy working in businesses and the challenges they present. So I hope you don’t mind, but we intend to have fun too.
Is it me, or can I see something in people’s eyes, which says: “Uh oh, prepare to be bored...”? Now I may be paranoid, but there is some truth in the rather unflattering reputation that precedes us consultants. We can be horribly officious and condescending in our manner and tediously dry in our approach to business.
I base this on my own experiences of the many consultants, who have tried to harangue me at exhibitions in the past. In one particularly chilling incident, an HR consultant attempted to prove his superior intellect with the opening gambit: “I’m going to ask you a question that you won’t know the answer to. But give it a go anyway.” And then proceeded to bear bait me for half an hour until I finally had to admit that yes, indeed, he was cleverer than I and no, I had not a fair clue what I was talking about. If I had been an onlooker, surely I would have rushed over with a zoo sized net and thrown it over this man shouting “No, no, no, no. That is NOT how you do business!”
Why did no-one save me from his patronage?
The greatest error that you can make as a consultant is to be a know-it-all - to sweep into an organisation/conversation/room, with all the tact and sensitivity of Katie Price. Surely we are better than that? A good consultant will recognise that yes, they do know their stuff. Indeed they should know a lot about business and their particular area of expertise. But they do not know everything and are certainly no better than the people or businesses they’re trying to assist.
A good consultant should recognise that they are an enabler and by quashing a person’s confidence they will never help that person or their business succeed.
What I hope is that 2nd Head will practise exactly what we preach, that we will provide the support and objectivity that businesses need to plan for growth. But we will do so sensitively and with empathy.
We enjoy working in businesses and the challenges they present. So I hope you don’t mind, but we intend to have fun too.
Friday, 15 January 2010
2nd Head website now live
We’re pleased to announce that the 2nd Head website is now live! After just a few months of brand development and the hard work of a few faithful suppliers we finally managed to get there.
Having a website is the absolute basic requirement of any business as many of will know, so in some ways it’s quite ironic that it’s also one of the trickiest things to get right. Especially when you consider that it’s usually developed within a hot pot of other marketing activity that demands equal attention and tender loving care.
After all the effort that’s been poured into developing the 2nd Head brand, I thought I’d impart a few (hopefully) wise nuggets of information on ways to develop and nurture a fledgling brand and within a reasonable timeframe.
In the beginning
Right back in the beginning all we had were good intentions and some great ideas. We knew roughly what services we wanted to deliver and why, but we needed to articulate this.
Before we did anything else we met up as a team to talk about our aspirations for the business and what we stood for. What were our values? What was going to make us different to other consultancies and most importantly, why would businesses want to work with us? From this we were able to draw up not only our ethos, but everything that constituted the 2nd Head brand.
We formalised our brand model using a tried and tested structure that roughly included: vision statement, brand essence, positioning (our strapline!), key messages, personality and principles. Once we had all of these in place we were able to develop them into two key brand areas: tone of voice and visual identity.
Of course there were times during this process went it felt as if it would have been easier to just get on with the ‘important things’ like writing the brochure or putting together web copy, or even making some sales calls. We agonised for weeks over our strapline: we disagreed on what sounded good; we came up with embarrassing suggestions and we spent several meetings trying to tactfully appraise each other’s ideas. Never an easy job!
But it was worth it. Spending the time on the basics was essential in galvanising our thoughts and helping each of us to understand what we were aiming for. Without these conversations the next stages of the process could have been both unnecessarily time-consuming and incredibly painful. Every word we threw out, every time we had to explain ‘why’ we liked something, was integral to the moment when we could finally declare: ‘This is our brand.’
I found this process most useful when explaining our brand values as part of the brief for our graphic designer. It was an excellent means of providing direction and clarity to our visual identity.
Consistency is key
There are two types of approach to producing corporate literature. You can either create specific materials based on an idea of how the brand should look, or you can take the time to create a corporate colour palette and other imagery to be used both for current and future design work.
The former approach allows for a ‘quick and dirty’ solution and arguably enables those that are working against the clock to meet deadlines more easily. Yet if you use the latter and admittedly, more expensive approach, then you lay the foundations for a clear visual identity that can be picked up by any designer in the future. It may take more time now, but it will save time later.
As with the development of brand values, the conversations we had around the aesthetics of the brand were essential in ensuring consistency and meant that very little of our design was arbitrary. Naturally there were certain elements that simply appealed to us for no fathomable reason, but in the main if we agreed on a colour or design element, it was because it seemed to say the right things about our brand. Therefore it was consistent with our tone of voice and brand values.
Working with people you trust
Identifying the right people to work with is one of the hardest things to do when you’re starting a business. Anyone you contract work to, hire as a freelancer, or even employ, is an investment for your business. So you need to know that you can trust them to deliver the goods.
Think about any old contacts from previous organisations, who may be interested in working with you. And if your network of contacts doesn’t include the skills that you’re looking for, consider asking others if they may have the right contacts for you.
There are never any guarantees, but recommended contacts often save you time in searching for what you need and are more likely to meet your expectations.
The devil’s in the detail
Spending time on reading and re-reading copy, gauging the opinions of others and continual testing, is all essential in preparing for ‘Go live’. Even if it’s for just half an hour each day.
I prefer to allocate testing time to either first or last thing – the times in the day when other things are less likely to demand my attention. This works differently for everyone, but it’s important to know when you’ll have the time and stick to it. This way you’re far less likely to discover unpleasant errors and mistakes later on and ones that others may well have noticed before you. All of which could compromise the professionalism of your brand.
Have a plan
The detail of brand development is all well and good, but you need to know that once you have the materials in place, you’re ready to get moving with them. Think about your PR and marketing strategy so that you’re prepared to get going almost immediately.
That’s not to say that you won’t change your mind about certain activities or events during the course of the brand development process. But do be aware of what needs to be done and when. This should prevent any nasty shocks later on.
Be firm but flexible
Once you’ve made decisions about the brand, do try to honour them. For example, once you’ve chosen a strapline, or produced final brochure copy, try not to change it unnecessarily. Last minute changes can sometimes lead to inconsistencies and often draw out a process longer than is healthy for the brand. If you spend too much time over-thinking and re-working then you can lose the freshness and clarity of your original work. Make this clear to your colleagues so that they are aware of the implications of doing so.
Having said this, alterations will always be needed. Don’t be so rigid as to allow glaring anomalies to pass through the net. Know that sometimes the right word only occurs to you at the end of a process and typos will somehow have evaded you despite constant re-reads.
It’s all about balance.
Finally
My experiences this time around, as before, tell me that pride is everything. Care about what you do and make sure that when it’s completed you’re proud to shout about it.
You can only ever do your best, but make sure that it is and you’ve given your all.
If you're reading this from our external blog, please access the website at:
www.2ndhead.co.uk
Having a website is the absolute basic requirement of any business as many of will know, so in some ways it’s quite ironic that it’s also one of the trickiest things to get right. Especially when you consider that it’s usually developed within a hot pot of other marketing activity that demands equal attention and tender loving care.
After all the effort that’s been poured into developing the 2nd Head brand, I thought I’d impart a few (hopefully) wise nuggets of information on ways to develop and nurture a fledgling brand and within a reasonable timeframe.
In the beginning
Right back in the beginning all we had were good intentions and some great ideas. We knew roughly what services we wanted to deliver and why, but we needed to articulate this.
Before we did anything else we met up as a team to talk about our aspirations for the business and what we stood for. What were our values? What was going to make us different to other consultancies and most importantly, why would businesses want to work with us? From this we were able to draw up not only our ethos, but everything that constituted the 2nd Head brand.
We formalised our brand model using a tried and tested structure that roughly included: vision statement, brand essence, positioning (our strapline!), key messages, personality and principles. Once we had all of these in place we were able to develop them into two key brand areas: tone of voice and visual identity.
Of course there were times during this process went it felt as if it would have been easier to just get on with the ‘important things’ like writing the brochure or putting together web copy, or even making some sales calls. We agonised for weeks over our strapline: we disagreed on what sounded good; we came up with embarrassing suggestions and we spent several meetings trying to tactfully appraise each other’s ideas. Never an easy job!
But it was worth it. Spending the time on the basics was essential in galvanising our thoughts and helping each of us to understand what we were aiming for. Without these conversations the next stages of the process could have been both unnecessarily time-consuming and incredibly painful. Every word we threw out, every time we had to explain ‘why’ we liked something, was integral to the moment when we could finally declare: ‘This is our brand.’
I found this process most useful when explaining our brand values as part of the brief for our graphic designer. It was an excellent means of providing direction and clarity to our visual identity.
Consistency is key
There are two types of approach to producing corporate literature. You can either create specific materials based on an idea of how the brand should look, or you can take the time to create a corporate colour palette and other imagery to be used both for current and future design work.
The former approach allows for a ‘quick and dirty’ solution and arguably enables those that are working against the clock to meet deadlines more easily. Yet if you use the latter and admittedly, more expensive approach, then you lay the foundations for a clear visual identity that can be picked up by any designer in the future. It may take more time now, but it will save time later.
As with the development of brand values, the conversations we had around the aesthetics of the brand were essential in ensuring consistency and meant that very little of our design was arbitrary. Naturally there were certain elements that simply appealed to us for no fathomable reason, but in the main if we agreed on a colour or design element, it was because it seemed to say the right things about our brand. Therefore it was consistent with our tone of voice and brand values.
Working with people you trust
Identifying the right people to work with is one of the hardest things to do when you’re starting a business. Anyone you contract work to, hire as a freelancer, or even employ, is an investment for your business. So you need to know that you can trust them to deliver the goods.
Think about any old contacts from previous organisations, who may be interested in working with you. And if your network of contacts doesn’t include the skills that you’re looking for, consider asking others if they may have the right contacts for you.
There are never any guarantees, but recommended contacts often save you time in searching for what you need and are more likely to meet your expectations.
The devil’s in the detail
Spending time on reading and re-reading copy, gauging the opinions of others and continual testing, is all essential in preparing for ‘Go live’. Even if it’s for just half an hour each day.
I prefer to allocate testing time to either first or last thing – the times in the day when other things are less likely to demand my attention. This works differently for everyone, but it’s important to know when you’ll have the time and stick to it. This way you’re far less likely to discover unpleasant errors and mistakes later on and ones that others may well have noticed before you. All of which could compromise the professionalism of your brand.
Have a plan
The detail of brand development is all well and good, but you need to know that once you have the materials in place, you’re ready to get moving with them. Think about your PR and marketing strategy so that you’re prepared to get going almost immediately.
That’s not to say that you won’t change your mind about certain activities or events during the course of the brand development process. But do be aware of what needs to be done and when. This should prevent any nasty shocks later on.
Be firm but flexible
Once you’ve made decisions about the brand, do try to honour them. For example, once you’ve chosen a strapline, or produced final brochure copy, try not to change it unnecessarily. Last minute changes can sometimes lead to inconsistencies and often draw out a process longer than is healthy for the brand. If you spend too much time over-thinking and re-working then you can lose the freshness and clarity of your original work. Make this clear to your colleagues so that they are aware of the implications of doing so.
Having said this, alterations will always be needed. Don’t be so rigid as to allow glaring anomalies to pass through the net. Know that sometimes the right word only occurs to you at the end of a process and typos will somehow have evaded you despite constant re-reads.
It’s all about balance.
Finally
My experiences this time around, as before, tell me that pride is everything. Care about what you do and make sure that when it’s completed you’re proud to shout about it.
You can only ever do your best, but make sure that it is and you’ve given your all.
If you're reading this from our external blog, please access the website at:
www.2ndhead.co.uk
Thursday, 10 December 2009
Pre-budget disappointment
It seems that the pre-budget report has failed to impress. You only need to scan through the responses of business media to see that opinion is certainly not weighted in Darling's favour.
A common thread is that Darling isn't thinking big enough and is instead trying to palm us off with lots of little and therefore ineffectual measures. As Matthew Gwyther from Management Today states: "For an event that had the potential to be one of the more seismic economic policy announcements of the 21st Century, it was about as much fun as doing your tax return. And rather less rewarding. Where was the stirring rhetoric, the grand gesture, the bold decision making?"
This disappointment is echoed by Marc Barber of smallbusiness.co.uk, who expresses concern that the 50% tax on bankers' bonuses is more of a gesture to keep the tax payer at bay, rather than a move that will have any great impact. He says: "It seems this decision was designed to assuage voters’ anger at the fat cats clawing at our money, although it is more useful as a deterrent to the bonus culture than a serious effort to offset our debt."
There is also much criticism of the 0.5% increase in National Insurance, seen to be yet another slap in the face for the self-employed and smaller businesses. And of course speculation is rife that delaying cuts on public spending is a pre-election tactic, that as one blogger accuses: "...leaves this for the next government to deal with."
While I'm tempted to agree with many of these sentiments: yes, taxing bankers' bonuses doesn't address the root cause of the financial crisis; no, increasing VAT and National Insurance is unlikely to help small businesses, I wouldn't want to go all out and jump on the 'bash the budget' bandwagon.
As Marc Barber concedes, Darling has kept to his promises and included measures to help small businesses, including the deferral of the 1p corporation tax rise and the ‘time to pay’ scheme. The measures are there, it would just take nothing short of a miracle to satisy all the talking heads in the middle of a recession. Surely, even if Darling gave his own home to drive money back into the economy, it wouldn't be seen as enough. Coupled with an imminent election, it's no wonder that the cynics are out in force.
This is not to say the report is beyond criticism, far from it. As I've already stated, more could have been done to protect businesses from increases in tax and the banking crisis does seem to be on an endless loop that sickeningly repeats itself. However, from a business perspective, if finances are so tight as to be toppled by a relatively small tax increase, what does this say about your ability to safeguard profit and cash flow? Any business leader worth his or her salt should know that a business will always be subject to external factors, whether that's a slowdown in the market or a tax increase.
Not so long ago, the papers were falling over themselves to proclaim Great Britain a nanny state. But when the chips are down we're all quite happy to demand more hand-outs and berate the government for not doing more for us. You can't have it both ways. The reality is, if you refuse to take the necessary precautions when times are good and/or refuse to adapt to changes in pressure, then maybe you shouldn't be trading full stop.
It's tough love. But someone's got to say it.
A common thread is that Darling isn't thinking big enough and is instead trying to palm us off with lots of little and therefore ineffectual measures. As Matthew Gwyther from Management Today states: "For an event that had the potential to be one of the more seismic economic policy announcements of the 21st Century, it was about as much fun as doing your tax return. And rather less rewarding. Where was the stirring rhetoric, the grand gesture, the bold decision making?"
This disappointment is echoed by Marc Barber of smallbusiness.co.uk, who expresses concern that the 50% tax on bankers' bonuses is more of a gesture to keep the tax payer at bay, rather than a move that will have any great impact. He says: "It seems this decision was designed to assuage voters’ anger at the fat cats clawing at our money, although it is more useful as a deterrent to the bonus culture than a serious effort to offset our debt."
There is also much criticism of the 0.5% increase in National Insurance, seen to be yet another slap in the face for the self-employed and smaller businesses. And of course speculation is rife that delaying cuts on public spending is a pre-election tactic, that as one blogger accuses: "...leaves this for the next government to deal with."
While I'm tempted to agree with many of these sentiments: yes, taxing bankers' bonuses doesn't address the root cause of the financial crisis; no, increasing VAT and National Insurance is unlikely to help small businesses, I wouldn't want to go all out and jump on the 'bash the budget' bandwagon.
As Marc Barber concedes, Darling has kept to his promises and included measures to help small businesses, including the deferral of the 1p corporation tax rise and the ‘time to pay’ scheme. The measures are there, it would just take nothing short of a miracle to satisy all the talking heads in the middle of a recession. Surely, even if Darling gave his own home to drive money back into the economy, it wouldn't be seen as enough. Coupled with an imminent election, it's no wonder that the cynics are out in force.
This is not to say the report is beyond criticism, far from it. As I've already stated, more could have been done to protect businesses from increases in tax and the banking crisis does seem to be on an endless loop that sickeningly repeats itself. However, from a business perspective, if finances are so tight as to be toppled by a relatively small tax increase, what does this say about your ability to safeguard profit and cash flow? Any business leader worth his or her salt should know that a business will always be subject to external factors, whether that's a slowdown in the market or a tax increase.
Not so long ago, the papers were falling over themselves to proclaim Great Britain a nanny state. But when the chips are down we're all quite happy to demand more hand-outs and berate the government for not doing more for us. You can't have it both ways. The reality is, if you refuse to take the necessary precautions when times are good and/or refuse to adapt to changes in pressure, then maybe you shouldn't be trading full stop.
It's tough love. But someone's got to say it.
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
A little bit technical
Let's face it, nowadays you're just not allowed to be untechnical. Time was, I could quite easily get out of anything remotely complex by flogging the old "I'm just not technical." line. Website management: "Why would I know? I'm not technical."; setting the video: "You'll have to do it, it's too technical for me."; or even turning on the oven "Goodness these buttons are all a bit too technical." But if I tried that these days I'd be laughed out of the kitchen, the living room, my job! In short: I wouldn't survive.
To give you a working example of how technology has infiltrated my life: in the last half an hour I have created an Open ID and discovered how to 'whitelist' email addresses. I've even enabled the macros in a document (I hear the techies amongst you shudder with disbelief). Hardly complex or revolutionary, but for a natural technophobe like me, these sorts of achievements feel like climbing mountains. Albeit small ones.
The problem is that with all these changes in technology, we just can't afford to ignore all the tools and tricks that allow us to get by on a daily basis. So integral to our lives has technology become, that saying you aren't technical is akin to saying you can't write in your mother tongue. Of course there are different levels of aptitude: in the same way that some of us can write in full sentences but can't spell, whereas others of us are journalists, copywriters and novelists, technical skills range from base to brilliant. The point is that we should all have them to some degree, or we'll soon start to struggle.
It can of course go too far one way and I appeal directly to all those companies that knowingly or not have penalised the very elderly by making it mandatory to access services online, thereby making some services inaccessible to those that desperately need them. Unforgiveable, even in this day and age.
Having said that, for the rest of us, with regular access to PCs, mobiles, blackberries, iphones and the like, we simply need to accept that we can't ignore technical advances anymore. Technology is an integral part of our language and we need to embrace it.
What this really means is accepting the pace of change. Accepting that knowledge isn't fixed and confined to reference books. Knowing that despite what we knew last year, we always need to build on it, expand it, challenge it and keep apace with a mutable technical economy.
This is often to our advantage of course. New technology means new ways to reach people, faster ways to access what we want and most importantly, the opportunity for expansion, innovation and growth. For anyone that's stood scratching their heads over the 'opportunities' section of a SWOT analysis, this is where technology gives you all manner of options. Staying ahead of the technical game makes you leading edge and often inspirational.
But remember: it's not for long. Look up McKinsey's 3 horizons of growth and you'll understand that improvement is a constant process. I'd even go so far as to say, much as I'm loathe to quote anything I've read in the gym: 'success is a journey, not a destination.'
And finally, to the person who recently decried my efforts to understand social media: It's most definitely not about sex, I promise.
To give you a working example of how technology has infiltrated my life: in the last half an hour I have created an Open ID and discovered how to 'whitelist' email addresses. I've even enabled the macros in a document (I hear the techies amongst you shudder with disbelief). Hardly complex or revolutionary, but for a natural technophobe like me, these sorts of achievements feel like climbing mountains. Albeit small ones.
The problem is that with all these changes in technology, we just can't afford to ignore all the tools and tricks that allow us to get by on a daily basis. So integral to our lives has technology become, that saying you aren't technical is akin to saying you can't write in your mother tongue. Of course there are different levels of aptitude: in the same way that some of us can write in full sentences but can't spell, whereas others of us are journalists, copywriters and novelists, technical skills range from base to brilliant. The point is that we should all have them to some degree, or we'll soon start to struggle.
It can of course go too far one way and I appeal directly to all those companies that knowingly or not have penalised the very elderly by making it mandatory to access services online, thereby making some services inaccessible to those that desperately need them. Unforgiveable, even in this day and age.
Having said that, for the rest of us, with regular access to PCs, mobiles, blackberries, iphones and the like, we simply need to accept that we can't ignore technical advances anymore. Technology is an integral part of our language and we need to embrace it.
What this really means is accepting the pace of change. Accepting that knowledge isn't fixed and confined to reference books. Knowing that despite what we knew last year, we always need to build on it, expand it, challenge it and keep apace with a mutable technical economy.
This is often to our advantage of course. New technology means new ways to reach people, faster ways to access what we want and most importantly, the opportunity for expansion, innovation and growth. For anyone that's stood scratching their heads over the 'opportunities' section of a SWOT analysis, this is where technology gives you all manner of options. Staying ahead of the technical game makes you leading edge and often inspirational.
But remember: it's not for long. Look up McKinsey's 3 horizons of growth and you'll understand that improvement is a constant process. I'd even go so far as to say, much as I'm loathe to quote anything I've read in the gym: 'success is a journey, not a destination.'
And finally, to the person who recently decried my efforts to understand social media: It's most definitely not about sex, I promise.
Monday, 30 November 2009
The power of brevity
The Global Language Monitor has declared the word 'Twitter' the top word of 2009, according to IT Pro. This is in a top ten that features words as diverse as Obama and Vampire and is based on a global survey of words used by English language speakers.
If you're wondering how this is worked out, languagemonitor.com explains that GLM uses a Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI), which it describes as "...the proprietary algorithm that tracks words and phrases in the media and on the Internet, now including blogs and social media. The words are tracked in relation to frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets, factoring in long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum and velocity."
The top ten (I'm sure you'll be interested to know) looks like this:
1. Twitter — The ability to encapsulate human thought in 140 characters
2. Obama — The word stem transforms into scores of new words like ObamaCare
3. H1N1 — The formal (and politically correct) name for Swine Flu
4. Stimulus — The $800 billion aid package meant to help mend the US economy
5. Vampire — Vampires are very much en vogue, now the symbol of unrequited love
6. 2.0 — The 2.0 suffix is attached to the next generation of everything
7. Deficit — Lessons from history are dire warnings here
8. Hadron — Ephemeral particles subject to collision in the Large Hadron Collider
9. Healthcare — The direction of which is the subject of intense debate in the US
10. Transparency — Elusive goal for which many governments are striving
If this survey is to be believed (it can't of course track everyday speech, which may contain quite different words), it says a lot about how the power of micro-blogging, as opposed to just social networking. Note, Facebook and other sites that fall under the same social networking umbrella as Twitter don't feature here.
Twitter's popularity seems to arise from its simplicity - as yet it isn't cluttered with adverts, photos and all the other paraphernalia that dominate Facebook and the like. Its main function is sharing thoughts and links (to other sites, articles, photos etc.) in no more than 140 characters. Despite such a tight restriction, it continues to be incredibly popular. Somehow people like the discpline. It may not have exceeded facebook yet in terms of users, but the fact that people are talking about it shows what a hot topic it's continued to be.
Arguably, the popularity of Twitter's enforced brevity reflects an increasing intolerance of irrelevance and waffle. With so much going on in our lives, quite often we simply don't have the time to read long emails and weighty attachments. Twitter says: "Tell me what you want to say as quickly as you can." and we do. Of course with so many links to articles, the truth is that we're still taking the time to read things that interest us, we just don't need to wade through paragraphs of unnecessary explanation to find out if it's of interest in the first place.
Whether Twitter will continue to discipline us remains to be seen and I predict that sooner or later the powers that be won't be able to help themselves and will start introducing advertising features and other peripheries that add little to the medium.
I only hope that this trend towards succinct forms of communication continues. That people use it for their emails, their web copy, their mailshots and other forms of advertising. Maybe one day we'll stop using words to baffle, confuse and over-complicate and see simple, straightforward communication as the way forward. I sincerely hope so.
If you're wondering how this is worked out, languagemonitor.com explains that GLM uses a Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI), which it describes as "...the proprietary algorithm that tracks words and phrases in the media and on the Internet, now including blogs and social media. The words are tracked in relation to frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets, factoring in long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum and velocity."
The top ten (I'm sure you'll be interested to know) looks like this:
1. Twitter — The ability to encapsulate human thought in 140 characters
2. Obama — The word stem transforms into scores of new words like ObamaCare
3. H1N1 — The formal (and politically correct) name for Swine Flu
4. Stimulus — The $800 billion aid package meant to help mend the US economy
5. Vampire — Vampires are very much en vogue, now the symbol of unrequited love
6. 2.0 — The 2.0 suffix is attached to the next generation of everything
7. Deficit — Lessons from history are dire warnings here
8. Hadron — Ephemeral particles subject to collision in the Large Hadron Collider
9. Healthcare — The direction of which is the subject of intense debate in the US
10. Transparency — Elusive goal for which many governments are striving
If this survey is to be believed (it can't of course track everyday speech, which may contain quite different words), it says a lot about how the power of micro-blogging, as opposed to just social networking. Note, Facebook and other sites that fall under the same social networking umbrella as Twitter don't feature here.
Twitter's popularity seems to arise from its simplicity - as yet it isn't cluttered with adverts, photos and all the other paraphernalia that dominate Facebook and the like. Its main function is sharing thoughts and links (to other sites, articles, photos etc.) in no more than 140 characters. Despite such a tight restriction, it continues to be incredibly popular. Somehow people like the discpline. It may not have exceeded facebook yet in terms of users, but the fact that people are talking about it shows what a hot topic it's continued to be.
Arguably, the popularity of Twitter's enforced brevity reflects an increasing intolerance of irrelevance and waffle. With so much going on in our lives, quite often we simply don't have the time to read long emails and weighty attachments. Twitter says: "Tell me what you want to say as quickly as you can." and we do. Of course with so many links to articles, the truth is that we're still taking the time to read things that interest us, we just don't need to wade through paragraphs of unnecessary explanation to find out if it's of interest in the first place.
Whether Twitter will continue to discipline us remains to be seen and I predict that sooner or later the powers that be won't be able to help themselves and will start introducing advertising features and other peripheries that add little to the medium.
I only hope that this trend towards succinct forms of communication continues. That people use it for their emails, their web copy, their mailshots and other forms of advertising. Maybe one day we'll stop using words to baffle, confuse and over-complicate and see simple, straightforward communication as the way forward. I sincerely hope so.
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
A guide to improving internal brand perception
You may be an internal communications professional, a CEO, a marketing executive or even a brand manager. But whichever category you fall into, you’re likely to have met resistance to internal brand communication at some point.
This could be down to the sheer volume of employees you work with (there’s always going to be some people who can’t stomach the brand), problems with internal politics, or simply neglect over time.
Whatever your issues, promoting the brand is never an easy task, so we got to thinking about some of the simpler tricks you can use to improve brand perception and smooth the process of brand communication across the board.
It’s not about you
One of the more common misconceptions about branding is that the brand belongs to marketing. What this often means, for brand professionals and employees alike, is a divisive way of thinking i.e. if I don’t work with the brand then I don’t need to worry about it and vice versa.
For many ‘pro-brand’ people this can lead to transparent brand touting exercises, which try to convince people that the business’s brand must be accepted at all costs, regardless of people’s individual brand perceptions.
While people who are new to the business will need to gain an understanding of your brand values, your employees should also understand that they are instrumental in sustaining the brand. So rather than just telling people what the business stands for, ask people for their (honest) interpretations. This way you can make brand building an inclusive process.
Brand feedback can be gained in various ways and shouldn’t just be slotted into an induction programme. You may want to try annual employee surveys or workshops. The latter is a more positive, interactive medium for feedback and will also encourage people to see themselves as part of brand building, rather than simply brand recipients.
In groups, encourage people to think about all the different ways in which they represent and use the brand, so that they gain an understanding of how their actions, in particular how they communicate with clients, prospects etc. impact the brand. If people do express negative attitudes, explore these with them. Use their thoughts and feelings to discuss with others how to address poor brand image. If for example, your brand emphasises excellent customer service and your employees feel that this is contrary to the reality of the situation, look into the reasons and feed back to managers etc. as appropriate.
You aren’t responsible for how people behave within the business, but you can use your knowledge to positively influence others’ actions. Above all, remind yourself and others that the brand doesn’t exist in a vacuum and requires input from everyone to survive.
Brand champions
Identifying and utilising ‘brand champions’ i.e. those that like and endorse the brand, is an essential part of successfully communicating your brand.
As you might expect, many brand champions work in senior positions and/or commercial roles, such as sales, commercial development and of course marketing. However you will always find people in other departments who are equally pro-brand, they just don’t have the opportunity to show it in the same way that others do.
A good way to root out your brand champions is to ask for volunteers from each department to put forward a representative, who you can call upon for assistance in cascading brand messages. Make it clear that their involvement won’t be time-consuming (this is the most common reason people use not to get involved) and you should soon have a group of brand enthusiasts.
While a lot of brand communication will need to come directly from you, involving others in communication activities will gain you credibility. Employees are always more receptive to people they know and are therefore more likely to accept messages from your representatives at face value than they would from you.
Treat your employees as customers
One technique that brand professionals should always employ (and indeed any professional), is to deliver the same level of service to employees that you would to a customer. That is, not only in the level of courtesy that you display, but in your general responsiveness and the professionalism with which you communicate. This is how you create respect for your team and thereby positive associations with the brand.
Aside from impeccable one to one correspondence (well written, concise, not a typo in sight), your one to all communication will need to employ similar marketing techniques to those that are used for external marketing. For example, one to all emails need to be engaging, brief, easy to digest and in the tone of voice that reflects your brand. They must also display an appropriate use of brand graphics that don’t dominate the email’s message.
It’s also important to encourage senior executives and others who regularly send out correspondence to follow a set of guidelines that explain how to construct a brand-friendly email. Again, asking others to follow your example helps to make the brand applicable to everyone.
Creating an internal brand
It’s one of the lesser used tools, but developing an internal brand can go a long way to increasing employee engagement. By an internal brand we mean an employee-facing brand that is recognisable as belonging to your business, but offers a variation on colours, images and even tone of voice. For example, it may have a slightly friendlier tone, or use more fun images than those traditionally associated with the external brand.
To give you an example: an old colleague of mine, who is also an extremely experienced project manager, suggested to the internal communication team at her current employer that they use an internal brand for the roll-out of a new HR self-service system. Rather than welcoming the suggestion, the communication team was extremely scathing, sending her off with her tail between her legs and in the direction of its strict external brand guidelines. An attitude that was dismissive at best and foolish at worst.
The project manager I’m thinking of had worked with many brand teams in her time to ensure the successful implementation of HR self-service. Therefore she had first-hand experience in the value of internal branding for ensuring acceptance of new technology. And of course what works for technology can work for anything – give employees their own brand identity and you let them know that what you’re doing is about them and not just the business.
Accept the bah humbugs
It’s important to accept that you’ll always have moaners and back stabbers. Some people are anti-brand and will stay that way whatever you do. A good example of this came from a marketing ex-colleague of mine, who one particular employee had turned into his nemesis: challenging and complaining about any communication that related to the brand. Far from rising to his negative comments, my colleague just accepted that that was the way he was, responded politely and left him to it.
As she did, the best way to handle someone who dislikes your work on principle is to greet their objections with courtesy and sincerity. Welcome any suggestions, however provocative they may be and above all, assume the role of consummate professional. This way they have far less cause to challenge you.
Have a plan
You may not be an internal communication expert, but when rolling out large-scale brand exercises, such as a rebrand, always have a communication plan. Again, as you would with your customers and prospects, think of the best times and ways in which to reach employees, so that communication is as constructive and well-received as possible.
In summary
There’s no one single method that ensures positive brand perception. Brand building is a continuous and often challenging process that requires constant nurturing.
But with the right level and tone of correspondence, alongside good internal support, you can soon start to affect brand attitudes at every level of the business and make the brand of interest to everyone (well, almost).
This could be down to the sheer volume of employees you work with (there’s always going to be some people who can’t stomach the brand), problems with internal politics, or simply neglect over time.
Whatever your issues, promoting the brand is never an easy task, so we got to thinking about some of the simpler tricks you can use to improve brand perception and smooth the process of brand communication across the board.
It’s not about you
One of the more common misconceptions about branding is that the brand belongs to marketing. What this often means, for brand professionals and employees alike, is a divisive way of thinking i.e. if I don’t work with the brand then I don’t need to worry about it and vice versa.
For many ‘pro-brand’ people this can lead to transparent brand touting exercises, which try to convince people that the business’s brand must be accepted at all costs, regardless of people’s individual brand perceptions.
While people who are new to the business will need to gain an understanding of your brand values, your employees should also understand that they are instrumental in sustaining the brand. So rather than just telling people what the business stands for, ask people for their (honest) interpretations. This way you can make brand building an inclusive process.
Brand feedback can be gained in various ways and shouldn’t just be slotted into an induction programme. You may want to try annual employee surveys or workshops. The latter is a more positive, interactive medium for feedback and will also encourage people to see themselves as part of brand building, rather than simply brand recipients.
In groups, encourage people to think about all the different ways in which they represent and use the brand, so that they gain an understanding of how their actions, in particular how they communicate with clients, prospects etc. impact the brand. If people do express negative attitudes, explore these with them. Use their thoughts and feelings to discuss with others how to address poor brand image. If for example, your brand emphasises excellent customer service and your employees feel that this is contrary to the reality of the situation, look into the reasons and feed back to managers etc. as appropriate.
You aren’t responsible for how people behave within the business, but you can use your knowledge to positively influence others’ actions. Above all, remind yourself and others that the brand doesn’t exist in a vacuum and requires input from everyone to survive.
Brand champions
Identifying and utilising ‘brand champions’ i.e. those that like and endorse the brand, is an essential part of successfully communicating your brand.
As you might expect, many brand champions work in senior positions and/or commercial roles, such as sales, commercial development and of course marketing. However you will always find people in other departments who are equally pro-brand, they just don’t have the opportunity to show it in the same way that others do.
A good way to root out your brand champions is to ask for volunteers from each department to put forward a representative, who you can call upon for assistance in cascading brand messages. Make it clear that their involvement won’t be time-consuming (this is the most common reason people use not to get involved) and you should soon have a group of brand enthusiasts.
While a lot of brand communication will need to come directly from you, involving others in communication activities will gain you credibility. Employees are always more receptive to people they know and are therefore more likely to accept messages from your representatives at face value than they would from you.
Treat your employees as customers
One technique that brand professionals should always employ (and indeed any professional), is to deliver the same level of service to employees that you would to a customer. That is, not only in the level of courtesy that you display, but in your general responsiveness and the professionalism with which you communicate. This is how you create respect for your team and thereby positive associations with the brand.
Aside from impeccable one to one correspondence (well written, concise, not a typo in sight), your one to all communication will need to employ similar marketing techniques to those that are used for external marketing. For example, one to all emails need to be engaging, brief, easy to digest and in the tone of voice that reflects your brand. They must also display an appropriate use of brand graphics that don’t dominate the email’s message.
It’s also important to encourage senior executives and others who regularly send out correspondence to follow a set of guidelines that explain how to construct a brand-friendly email. Again, asking others to follow your example helps to make the brand applicable to everyone.
Creating an internal brand
It’s one of the lesser used tools, but developing an internal brand can go a long way to increasing employee engagement. By an internal brand we mean an employee-facing brand that is recognisable as belonging to your business, but offers a variation on colours, images and even tone of voice. For example, it may have a slightly friendlier tone, or use more fun images than those traditionally associated with the external brand.
To give you an example: an old colleague of mine, who is also an extremely experienced project manager, suggested to the internal communication team at her current employer that they use an internal brand for the roll-out of a new HR self-service system. Rather than welcoming the suggestion, the communication team was extremely scathing, sending her off with her tail between her legs and in the direction of its strict external brand guidelines. An attitude that was dismissive at best and foolish at worst.
The project manager I’m thinking of had worked with many brand teams in her time to ensure the successful implementation of HR self-service. Therefore she had first-hand experience in the value of internal branding for ensuring acceptance of new technology. And of course what works for technology can work for anything – give employees their own brand identity and you let them know that what you’re doing is about them and not just the business.
Accept the bah humbugs
It’s important to accept that you’ll always have moaners and back stabbers. Some people are anti-brand and will stay that way whatever you do. A good example of this came from a marketing ex-colleague of mine, who one particular employee had turned into his nemesis: challenging and complaining about any communication that related to the brand. Far from rising to his negative comments, my colleague just accepted that that was the way he was, responded politely and left him to it.
As she did, the best way to handle someone who dislikes your work on principle is to greet their objections with courtesy and sincerity. Welcome any suggestions, however provocative they may be and above all, assume the role of consummate professional. This way they have far less cause to challenge you.
Have a plan
You may not be an internal communication expert, but when rolling out large-scale brand exercises, such as a rebrand, always have a communication plan. Again, as you would with your customers and prospects, think of the best times and ways in which to reach employees, so that communication is as constructive and well-received as possible.
In summary
There’s no one single method that ensures positive brand perception. Brand building is a continuous and often challenging process that requires constant nurturing.
But with the right level and tone of correspondence, alongside good internal support, you can soon start to affect brand attitudes at every level of the business and make the brand of interest to everyone (well, almost).
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