New Disclosure Regulations May Spur Better Communication With Employees

Within the past five years, two significant pieces of legislation have created new challenges for communicators: Regulation Fair Disclosure and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. While these laws were enacted only in the U.S., their implications for communicators worldwide are worthy of discussion.

Matalucci, Paul. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Financial

New Media Answers Old Questions for CEOs

How do you scare a CEO? Whisper the words "new media" and wait for the trembling to begin. But new media can also help CEOs address old issues in their role as chief communicators for their organizations.

Furiga, Paul. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Management>Business Communication>Social Networking

New Toys or Tactics for New Communication Challenges?

New technologies are changing the ways we can achieve excellence in communication. Three new web-based communication tools have caught the imagination of innovators and early adopters. Blogs and wikis are proliferating all over the Internet, and podcasts look like they will soon be commonplace.

Williams, Tudor. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Web Design>Blogging>Podcasting

The Newest Online Communication Tool: Collaborative Web Pages Anybody Can Edit

A wiki is a web site that anybody can change. You may have already visited a wiki without even knowing it. Wikis are poised to become one of the most important online communication tools we’ve seen in a long time. While blogs are justifiably getting most of the attention paid to the online world these days, wikis are quietly weaving their way into both the external and internal communication world.

Holtz, Shel. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Web Design>Collaboration>Wikis

Offshoring: Outsourcing Goes Global

Outsourcing has been a routine practice in the communication field for some time now—fully 20 percent of IABC members are self-employed or have a communication/PR consultancy. The last economic downturn strengthened this trend even more. Offshoring is being studied everywhere from Washington, D.C., to the academic world to well-known consulting firms such as McKinsey and Mercer. The general consensus across the board is that offshoring is a growing phenomenon that won’t go away, jobs lost to offshoring are unlikely to come back, and the trend may affect as many as three million jobs in the U.S. by 2015.

Recca, Lee. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Management>Outsourcing>Offshoring

Old Claims with a New Twist: E-Harassment in the Workplace

Many companies carry out portions of their business via an intranet or the Internet. Other companies grant access to the Internet to some, if not all, employees. The ease with which these systems allow employees to communicate with each other and with the outside world presents obvious business advantages. Unfortunately, employers now realize that the advantages gained by these technologies bring with them the risk of a new wave of harassment claims based on the alleged misuse of these modes of communication. In order to reduce these claims, or at least attempt to minimize exposure to such claims, employers will have to adjust to meet the new dynamics of a changing workplace.

Towns, Douglas M. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Discrimination>Email

One Message, Many Cultures: Best Practices for Global Communication

Corporate communication is the lifeline of any organization—crossing cultures, perceptions and language barriers to reach employees around the globe. Messages must be delivered accurately, while strengthening the organization’s position, building trust between the organization and the employee, and communicating a message that is not only current to local issues but relevant to each employee.

Stokes Thomas, Annita. Communication World Bulletin (2008). Articles>Communication>Globalization>International

Organizing for Effective Communication During a Crisis

Little of existing risk communication advice addresses the management of the communication function during a crisis as opposed to before a crisis. Drawing from my own career experiences, I think it important to address the former.

Freimuth, Vicki S. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Risk Communication>Crisis Communication

A Paradox in Shaping Corporate Reputation

Why are some companies regularly recognized as the nation’s most admired even when their across-the-board performance is inconsistent? Why are other companies that demonstrate solid, consistent performance often ignored? In two words, the answer is awareness and performance. Wal-Mart ranked at the top in a number of corporate reputation lists, yet the company was dogged by the discovery of undocumented workers in their stores. How does a company such as Wal-Mart succeed in light of such news?

Weiner, Mark. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Public Relations>Marketing

The Partnering Game

If you work for a large corporation, you don't have to worry about who handles the invoicing, pays the bills, or manages pesky clients. But if you're a small business owner, all this quickly becomes your concern. Anecdotal evidence suggests that entrepreneurs are increasingly linking up with colleagues to work on specific projects or to create virtual agencies.

Steigman, Daria. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Careers>Management>Collaboration

A Passion for Excellence: Building a Consultancy Into a PR Empire

Molly Matthews started a consulting business in her basement 18 years ago after losing her job in a corporate restructuring at Children’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. Like many women, she looked up and saw a glass ceiling and figured she could certainly do as well on her own. In fact, she did a whole lot better.

Steigman, Daria. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Careers>Consulting>Public Relations>Case Studies

Picture This

Film is dead. The history-changing miracle that made it possible to accurately reproduce anything the eye could perceive is now itself part of history. The cause of death? Digital imagery. But no one is shedding tears. It all began innocently in the mid-1980s when digital photos were a geeks-only, barely noticed novelty. It has since spread around the world in pandemic fashion. In its wake, entire industries have been killed off as more and more people succumb to the digital bug.

Salvo, Suzanne. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Design>Graphic Design>Photography

Politics Goes Blogging

New technology is changing the face of internal and external organizational communication. Blogs are evolving at a tremendous pace and are not simply the stuff of boring journals and ideological rants. If you feel as if you’ve been caught napping while blogging has taken off, fear not. Blogs provide a way for organizations to bypass the media, to get quick feedback and to take on issues they would otherwise ignore or miss entirely. For an individual, a blog can be a way to set one’s own agenda and be heard. But it’s the political blog that’s fueling the trend so far—an intelligent PR tactic.

Fernando, Angelo. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Communication>Blogging>Politics

Practical Tips for Merger Communication

When two companies merge, the complexities, emotions and often sweeping changes behind the deal can hinder effective communication to key stakeholders. Yet a well planned and implemented communication strategy contributes to the very success of the merger itself. How can you overcome the obstacles to developing and delivering on a merger communication strategy?

Fagan-Smith, Barbara and Ruta Skelton. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Financial>Workplace

Preparing Your Organization for Pandemic Flu

In the past few weeks, articles appeared on the inside pages of The New York Times and other news sources, with reports from Indonesia of human-to-human infection by avian flu, such as Elisabeth Rosenthal's article "Human-to-Human Infection by Bird Flu Virus Is Confirmed." Another article by Donald McNeil in the Times reported that mortality rates for avian flu are higher in young people, which was also the case in the devastating Spanish flu pandemic of 1918.

Matalucci, Paul. Communication World Bulletin (2008). Articles>Management>Risk Communication>Biomedical

Press Releases Are a Colossal Waste of Time: Mail the Media a Letter Instead

I haven't sent out a traditional press release in the last 10 years. But I have placed stories about my clients in The Wall St. Journal, New York Times, ABC News, The Today Show, Good Morning America and just about any other major media outlet in the United States. Editors surely don't need me or any other publicist to write their stories. They need me to point them in the direction of a good story, succinctly give them the facts as I see them, the sources I know and then get out of the way so they can write their own stories. I do those things by writing pitch letters, good ones.

Ochman, B.L. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Public Relations>Press Releases

A Primer on Financial Statements

One of the major challenges facing corporate communicators is understanding the financial statements of public companies. First, there is the math. Then, there is the matter of all that unfamiliar jargon. The purpose of this column and its next few installments is to give you an overview of the primary financial statements—the balance sheet, the income statement and the statement of cash flows—and how they are generated, so that you can make sense of a public company’s financial documents.

Gentry, James K. Communication World Bulletin (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Financial

Privacy Laws and Communication

With the advent of the Internet and the ability to send personal information to many places in very little time, privacy has become an important issue for businesses across the globe. How to retain the free flow of information without violating an individual’s right to privacy is a difficult balance to strike and one that different countries approach in various ways.

Turbeville, Heather. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Privacy>Email

Promises of a Global Intranet

Did you know an intranet could actually be more global than the Internet? The interactions within an intranet are more intense and frequent, and anonymity is replaced with specificity—your real name, job title and location. Company management often believes that a unified employee communication intranet site will foster a community, a shared corporate culture and a universal standard. But a review of two U.S.-based global intranets reveals that today’s reality may fall short.

Lopez, Joselito T. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>International

Quantifying the Impact of Communication on Your Organization’s Bottom Line

Consider this scenario: You’re making a pitch to the CEO that calls for more focus and resources on internal communication, citing recent studies that demonstrate that organizations with more effective communication have higher performance. And you get this response: “Great, I’m sold on the importance of communication. Tell me which communication channels have the greatest impact on our bottom line, and put together a strategic plan that will lead to increased revenues.” Did you get a little more than you bargained for? While the CEO’s request certainly sounds challenging, rest assured that it can be done.

Williams, John A. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Assessment

Ready for Life in Transparencyville?

Before you jump up and down about social media and the wonderfully transparent world it is creating, consider the consequences. There’s just no way to prevent those outside your walls from looking in. Leaky information, errant e-mails and inappropriate instant messages now have the capacity to become very, very public. If there's one lesson that communicators need to take away from the new social media, it's how to operate in a world of transparency.

Fernando, Angelo. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Web Design>Collaboration>Social Networking

Rebranding at a Deeper Level

Too often companies perceive rebranding as a shallow cosmetic exercise. New PMS colour here, tweak of the logo there and throw in some nice TV ads. Done deal. Not so. In order to compete, be differentiated and sustain a competitive advantage, organisations need to push the brand much deeper to their internal core: their people.

Craner, John. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing

Reinventing the Media Interview

The media interview seems like a pretty cut-and-dry experience. Reporter calls source. Reporter interviews source. Reporter uses portions of the interview in a piece and a lot more as background. Those of us who have been in PR a long time or have been interviewed by the press frequently know the drill. However, the media interview as we know it is going through a radical transformation, and it's starting not with the reporters but with bloggers.

Rubel, Steve. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Interviews>Blogging

Response Mechanisms—The Key to ROI

ROI still eludes many B2B communicators, despite the increasing pressure to prove it. What is the amount of revenue your company gains as a result of your communication after you’ve subtracted expenses? This is especially good to know if you integrate your marketing communication. What part of the mix is working, and what isn’t? If you know that, you can eliminate the duds and rev up the elements that really bring in revenue. Ultimately, over time, you can increase the return on your marketing investment by knowing how well the components of your program perform.

Elrick, Merry. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Assessment

Revive Employee Publications with New Technologies

You would think that if the humble print employee newsletter hasn't been killed off in the Internet explosion of the past decade, then it must have more than just its reputation going for it. It must actually meet a fundamental business need to inform and engage a workforce.

Schmidt, Belinda. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Workplace>Newsletters