Why we need a new “Comm”-versation
Now that the social media revolution is well under way, I don’t feel especially inspired to evangelize adopting Web 2.0 in this blog. If you are here, odds are you’ve already drunk that particular Kool-aid, as my friend Bob would say. Besides, there are much better evangelists out there. You might even be one of them.
But the flurry of activity around social media and my participation in it has prompted me to start a new conversation online. Or “Comm”-versation. (Insert groan here).
I’ve seen a lot of words published about the need for social media. What I have not seen much of is candid explorations of how the communication function needs to evolve. Where is the conversation about what new practices, strategies, and competencies communicators need to have today beyond knowing how to use social media tools to be effective? In short, how do corporate communicators remain strategic and relevant in the social media era?
In my opinion, communication is a leadership accelerator – the most powerful contributor to the success of an organization after that first brilliant business idea and the ability to execute on your objectives. Strategic communication is about facilitating conversation and using it to engage customers, build a brand, attract talent and motivate your teams. Strategic communicators build business value and advance the organization’s agenda. We are (or should be) leaders, innovators, facilitators and partners contributing to that end goal, rather than just good writers or experts on the latest post-Twitter phenomenon. Too often, however we don’t talk about how to make that happen. We keep revisiting the old conversations – getting ‘a seat at the table’, or becoming an ‘expert’ at social media. (more on my opinion of the short lifespan of that role in future posts).
We need to start talking about shaping our futures and the future of our profession as a strategic part of organizations. It’s time for a new conversation.
This weblog will explore developing the future communications organization (or fixing the ones we have today) and how we need to re-think the communication function’s contribution to the enterprise once Web 2.0 is a mainstream part of our lives rather than a hotly-debated new phenomenon. I’ll also cover some strategies related to CIO communications and marketing the IT function – a somewhat unique subject area that I have been lucky enough to explore in my career.
Thanks in advance for reading – I hope you find what I write here interesting, engaging and thought provoking. More coming soon.
March 29th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Hi Jeff,
It’s good to see you back on the blogging track. I’ve been sidetracked myself for a while. I’m glad that you have been busy thinking about worthy topics like the future of communications. We can brainstorm about what’s to come; however we might find ourselves missing the mark if we look too far down the line.
One thought that came while I was reading your post: In the past, communicators were the professional writers, editors and designers who often took facts and ideas supplied by others, and then shaped those facts and ideas into a publication, webpage, speech or event.
Some “social media” tools and techniques have provided opportunities for those “others”–e.g., company executives and coworkers–to skip the professional communicators and take their facts and ideas directly to their audience(s). While we communicators understand the value we bring to the process of creating, implementing and measuring the impact of communications, an executive can decide to cut us out of the loop.
On the other hand, do social media tools and techniques give a new level of power and influence to communicators? Except for the greater visibility and trust that we can build with these tools and techniques, the overall increase in power and influence won’t shift our relative positions within companies.
So whatever new tools and techniques come along, they won’t necessarily shift the value of a communicator’s skills and experience when you look at the overall balance of power and influence within an organization.
This is a generalization, but I think it fairly represents the bulk of communicators in North America and Europe. What do you think?
March 30th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Jeff, I’m glad to see your thoughts and they are expressed well. Personally, I believe that social media offers different channels but is NOT the one-stop-shop for communications. I remember back in the eighties — (go ahead, roll your eyes, get it out of your system)– Macintosh debuted and soon prognosticators were claiming that ANYONE can create a newsletter or newspaper with Pagemaker. And people tried, they really did. But all Mac did is teach us different ways to discern the amateurs from the professionals (and inspired some amateurs to get more training).
April 1st, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Hi Cheryl,
You raise a good point – better tools do not make you a professional. I lived through those “Apple=now we are all desktop publishers” times too, so no eye rolling here. However, one effect these tools do have is empowerment. There is a lot to be said about how web 2.0 tools have opened up the communication space to everyone. If you are a communicator today, you need to be on board, or someone with half your training and experience might think you are expendable. I think that the danger isn’t that everyone will think they are a professional communicator, and thus all communicators will be fired. But when everyone can make a blog we all need to raise our game. In a world with more talented amateurs, the pros need to do more to stand out and demand actual payment for our services. That means new skills for communicators, and stronger, more strategic mandates for communication departments. And better sensitivity to changing norms and not slavish commitments to oxford commas and corporate style guides that many no longer care about one bit.
April 1st, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Hi Tom,
Thanks much for your comment. I think that the arrivals of social media tools – and the potential for disintermediation that cuts communicators ‘out of the loop’ – are an opportunity to re-examine our role in organizations. Social media is driving a change in standards, as are other technologies for reaching and collaborating with people far and wide. What was once the province of the professional writer is now the domain of the eager hack – and for many companies, that’s ok. Once upon a time Emily Post dictated that we send a hand written thank you note after attending a dinner party. Today, a hasty email or text (“GR8 PRTY JEFF-THX!”) is more the norm. Whether that’s sad or good is an individual judgment. But I think the group norms around what is valuable in communication are undeniably changing.
IT organizations are facing the same challenge. Once upon a time, the enterprise CRM system had to be bulletproof, in-house, supported internally 24×7, etc. The CIO’s role was manufacturer and service provider. Today, CRM may come from a software-as-a-service app like salesforce.com and email support within 24 hours. Some downtime and limited features are ok – like the typos and not quite perfect structure or grammar on the corporate blog. Now we view the CIO as broker, vendor manager and security sentinel. Or we let them know AFTER we bought something that IT has a new service to support. It’s not happening everywhere, but it is in enough places that Forrester coined the term ‘tech populism’ to describe it. Will these new tools shift our value or position in the organization? Absolutely. The game has changed, and we have to change with it, because more and more companies are discovering that disintermediation is cheap and less than perfect prose is acceptable.