I had the chance to interview Vice Chairman of General Motors Bob Lutz a week ago. I posted the interview at the PRSA ComPRrehension blog since I was covering the event for them. But I think my readers would also appreciate the interview. I was not surprised that his main interest in social media was in how it could help his company get out unflitered messages to the public. It is immensely frustrating for communication professionals to deal with the often garbled understanding of an issue when it is filtered through read more...
The Strategist and Social Media
Strategy sometimes gets a bad name because it is viewed as manipulation - a killer for relationships. I mean, who wants to feel as if they are just a part of some grand master plan? However, too many companies are jumping into using the latest technological trends and emerging media opportunities without too much thought as to why they are doing it. I would like to submit that this can lead to a destructive outcome for members of social networks and businesses alike. My thought is that an organization or business should take stock of where they fit in read more...
Strategy: Become a Communication Artist
One of my most vivid memories of high school English was when the teacher would ask us to "diagram a sentence." I learned that there are three logical steps: Know the rules; Identify the parts; and Reconstruct and create the sentence. By following these rules, over and over, it became possible to see words, and their various constructions, as building blocks from which creativity could flow. In considering this, it occurred to me that the strategic approach to communication requires the same basic steps. Step 1: Know the read more...
CoolTools: New Tool Gives a Forrester Technographics Profile by Age
I am reading Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff's new book, Groundswell. I plan to do a full review of the book in the next week or so, but I wanted to share this nifty little tool that they are providing on their website. The only thing that would make it cooler would be an embed code for blogs. That said, here is the Technographics profile for someone of my particular age. In order to really understand what this means, you will need to go and read Charlene Li's Technographics blog post. read more...
Just in Time: The Filtered Economy Requires Communicators to Anticipate Needs
First, let me say that this post is a little off topic for a communication blog. However, I think that discussions about how we can cut down on the adversarial relationship between companies and their customers is critical to effective communication. I also fight the idea that a communication professional is only good at getting the word out and should stay out of the business of strategic thinking. I think that smart communications professionals, with their close contact and understanding of a company's stakeholders belong right in the read more...