Stephen J Pain's blog
Age of Good® - it's game-changing stuff
posted 10 August 2010
Sometimes, in all this good busy-ness you see or hear something that reminds you today's communication environment is game-changing stuff. Depending on how you look at it, of course.
I had the pleasure and privilege to be one of the speakers at Richmond Events' Communication Directors' Forum a while ago (my presentation's on this website so have a look if you get a chance). I attended an intriguing session by Matthew Jeffery of Electronic Arts. He used a quote that stuck in my mind. It amplified my notion of communcation being what you say and reputation being what others say about you. The quote, from Mike Arauz, strategist at Undercurrent is, 'If I tell my Facebook friends about your brand, it's not because I like your brand, but rather because I like my friends.'
Translate this into the world of corporate communication and it puts a different spin on it, doesn't it? Makes you think. We are now in the realms of the empowered stakeholder. A person, or a community of individuals, that we must seek to inspire so that they pass on a postitive message. So that they take action and support us because we create the right environments for them to engage with us - and encourage them to engage with others of their choosing. This is all much more sophisticated. We are moving on again, we are no longer inspiring our leaders and organisations only to say the right things, we are asking ourselves how must we behave to inspire positive actions among those with whom we seek to engage.
We can measure those actions too. And that takes the research agenda onto a whole new and more meaningful level. The Age of Good® as predicted here is proving to be one of the most exciting times imaginable for brand, communications and reputation management. Things are happening so fast we're all google-eyed, I mean goggle-eyed. Looks like we'll have to stay that way. Can't afford to blink and miss it.
Social media: blessing or curse in the Age of Good®?
posted 30 April 2010
Is social media a good thing?
A seminar in Manchester organised and promoted by online publishers How-do and sponsored by b2b marketing specialists ias, focused on the role of social media in b2b marketing. Being on the panel to debate the subject was a fascinating experience. The discussions were far broader than b2b. We strayed into territory which is still uncharted for many organisations: role of social media, interface between online and offline campaigns, the next generation of applications and so on.
One thing was abundantly clear: the technology is here to stay. The choice? Get to know it, grow up with it, harness it if it adds value to you and your organisation or make a conscious decision that it's OK to run the risk of getting left behind.
The digital revolution offers new, relevant tools to help encourage direct relationships, develop new communities and build trust and advocacy. There's a leadership dimension too. Can social media produce competitive edge, increased awareness, enhanced reputation - and more sales? It's a generation game as it always has been: to have a chance of achieving you just have to keep on playing.
Age of Good® one step closer as CBI Director-General puts boardroom focus on long term-relationships and reputation management
posted 1 April 2010
In his speech at the inaugural RSA/Sky Sustainable Business lecture series, CBI Director-General, Richard Lambert, signalled that ‘Jack Welch capitalism' was ‘drawing to a close'. The focus for companies, post-financial crisis, he argues will be on addressing the decline in public trust, increased regulation and the need to safeguard reputation because, ‘if you concentrate on maximising value to shareholders over the short term, you put at risk the relationships that will determine your longer-term success.'
I couldn't agree more. Sustainable relationships and a ‘good' reputation - whatever that might mean to you/your organisation - are, surely, two of the key components of sustainable business. In this currency, if pennies are good stakeholder relationships then investor pounds ought to look after themselves.
It seems that boardroom debates are going to get a lot more complicated in the future. Professor Michael Sandel in his Reith lectures last year, has already flagged up ‘the moral limits of markets' in his lecture, 'A new politics of the common good.' According to Richard Lambert, today's CBI members ‘recognise that public confidence in business has been shaken by the events of the last two years' and ‘a positive outcome for all this, they suggest, will require a change of mindset, behaviour and communications.'
Amen to all that.
