Chelsea H4H helicopter

The beauty of flowers can stir the soul, even at first glimpse.  However this year there is one display in particular that, even now, some 2 or 3 weeks after the event I still think about every so often. It somehow stirs an emotional response within me that consequently reminds me of the message the designer was intending to convey in his work.  The stand I allude to is the one created by Birmingham City Council to raise awareness for the Help for Heroes charity.

The garden was created for the returned but injured hero – somewhere to recuperate and pick up the pieces of his or her life.  Hovering above it, made completely from flowers and plants, is an imposing chinook helicopter – the workhorse of the conflict in Afghanistan.  The juxtaposition between the delicate flowers and the machine of war is so striking.

The language of flowers and the passion of a garden designer’s creativity engenders in me a feeling of pride in our soldiers and compassion for the undoubted sacrifice the wounded and the fallen (and the families they have left behind) have made on our country’s behalf (whatever you might feel about the conflict itself). This has prompted me to encourage people to sign up for the Help for Heroes magazine, which we produce at theblueballroom, and I will now offer my support whenever and wherever I can – which might even be as simple as putting my money in a collecting jar when I next see a fundraiser or maybe one day something more challenging!

Mission accomplished – and I think, for years to come, even when the war is over.

My point? Communication of a message doesn’t have to be in the form of the written word.  A powerful image, object or experience can be as effective in communicating a message as the more traditional print or even the ’sexy’ digital media so in vogue today. An alternative approach is sometimes worth embracing!

Denise, Finance Manager

One of the winning images in DHL’s employee photo competition

At the conference, we heard about the photo competition theblueballroom built for DHL employees, which scored huge global hits and generated real conversation and fun, celebrating the company’s 40th birthday while keeping an eye on cost. We also heard how Telefonica’s work with disadvantaged children was movingly captured on Flipcamera by employees who had been taught how to shoot and edit an engaging video. Rio Tinto told us how they successfully manage their reputation online, proactively using Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms. And the list goes on.

Several key themes came through from the conference. One is that companies have to put their trust in their employees – and they will be rewarded. Another is that you can’t impose a new corporate culture through social media alone: rather your culture will be reflected through the social media. One thing is clear: those companies who have the most engaged employees are those with the most connected employees, and social media is a simple and cost-effective way to capture that magic.

We’ve tried and tested social media in internal comms and we know about its upsides and why communicators are wary of it. For more on social media in the workplace, have a read of our research or give us a call.  Also, the Institute of Internal Communication is running a course on social media in internal comms on 10th June, given by myself, MD of theblueballroom, with Benjamin Ellis of Redcatco.

Sheila Parry

At 18 I entered the graphics industry. Computers gradually started being introduced and the paint brushes at home started accruing dust – in fact 30 years of dust. I decided to resurrect my old hobby last month and replaced the dried up paints, dusted off the brushes and gradually taught myself the colours, how to mix them and how to apply them again.

It’s been a fantastic and refreshing experience in this world of electronic gizmos and tweeting, but there’s one thing that I would love to be able to do when I am painting, that I never even knew about 30 years ago, and that is command Z (’undo’ or control Z for all you PC users). I have got so used to being able to undo any design tweaks that I don’t like, that when I’m painting and do something wrong, in my head I can feel my fingers want to go to command Z. I now realise how different life is and how techie I have become.

Gill

In internal communications – well, in our daily lives, let’s be honest – it’s usually all about just putting one foot in front of the other and getting from A to B. But what if we injected some fun into things once in a while?! We have to get a job done, certainly, but sometimes we could take a route that’s more fun, although no less professional. Yesterday I phoned a big hotel chain to book a room and the people I spoke to were extremely polite and efficient, as befitted the hotel’s brand, but I have to say I found it a bit clinical and would have preferred a more lighthearted approach.

I’m not suggesting that we have to be facetious with the content we have to communicate, but maybe we could get our message across in more fun ways. Like maybe bringing employees together for a team challenge event and delivering company messages there, or by getting everyone to take part in an online photo competition (we did this and it was a huge success), or learning a new group skill such as drumming and learning in this way how to work together, or even by making sure the words we put together for our employee publications don’t fall into that dreaded dry corporate speak.

Wouldn’t it be amazing to do something like this at the next management conference?!!

Sharing information is an excellent way of using social media as a knowledge distribution tool. Thanks to social bookmarking sites such as Delicious, we can tag and bookmark interesting articles, posts and videos – in one word: content. Those of us who spend several hours online daily can create a library for their team, themselves and everybody with similar interests.

Although networking is not a direct result of sharing information on this channel, it will indirectly attract the interest of your Twitter followers, blog and website visitors and even Facebook friends if you embed it into your already existing social media platforms. Learn how to combine your different communication platforms and add value for your community by sharing your opinion, views or information. Networking is a constant effort, an ongoing effort requiring content with value and conversational skills. Basically it requires one main skill: being social.

That is why you should take my advice seriously. Do it, and do it as often as possible. Don’t get rusty!

Our agency’s bookmarks can be found here. Be our guest!

Our top five from the last two weeks are:

How Social Engagement is Changing

Great illustration of what is happening in the Internet’s social community — how people are communicating, what is changing, and where people are doing the talking.

How Twitter and Facebook Make Us More Productive

Excellent article explaining why for knowledge workers charged with transforming ideas into products — whether gadgets, code, or even Wired articles — goofing off isn’t the enemy.

Create a CEO blog that works

Believe it or not, there are still companies out there who do not consider a CEO blog for leadership communication. This blog post explains four basic rules to follow, if you plan to add this channel into your corporate communications strategy.

The CMO’s guide to: The social landscape

This pdf provides a great matrix overview on some of the most used social media sites in terms of Customer Communication, Brand Exposure, Traffic and SEO.

Policy tool for the masses

So much talk about the risks of social media is not letting many companies understand the chances of social media until it will be too late for them. Social media policies should be a guideline for employees instead of a list of don’ts. Can a policy tool help you?

Jenni: To me, agency life is very different and one that is possibly hard to explain to those that have been in a corporate role throughout their career. The pace of the business, the constant focus on internal communications and the passion you feel for the agency are exceptional. Working for a full service internal communications agency has made me look at the sector as a whole rather than an individual channel or provider.

Variety comes through contacts with clients and I have been able to get under the skin of so many different companies and industries, each with so many different requirements. Working with a creative team that have almost too many ideas and brainstorming to the extreme has been a breath of fresh air, and something I will miss when the days of budgets and sign offs are back on my agenda.

The positive appeal of returning to the corporate environment is about having the ability to make decisions and working in the hub of a company, taking communications directly to them and for them, wearing a different hat for each department, each audience and each stakeholder.

We are a small team at theblueballroom and we know what it means to pull together on a project, to get behind a client’s requirements to deliver the best solution.  It has been great, and you can be sure that theblueballroom will be the first agency on my pitch list!

Sheila: Having worked on both sides of the fence, I fully appreciate the appeal of an in-house role, although my strong personal preference is firmly fixed in agency life. What I love is bringing together several strategic and creative minds and the challenge of delivering another concept or another campaign – whether it is to a company we have worked with for ten years, or a completely new client with a different set of issues. Like journalists, we are only ever as good as our last byline.

True, as agency people, we never create that new budget or make that final decision, but our work can be the element that really makes a difference to our clients’ business. At the same time, it can raise the profile and reputation of good communications practice within our clients’ organisation.

Ultimately, the transfer of people from agency to corporate and vice versa is very healthy – it means we understand each other’s priorities and challenges. Many of our team have worked in-house and Kate was even a former client. Jenni will learn a lot from another stint in-house and I doubt she is hanging up her agency hat forever. I can only hope that she will be as good a client as she was a BDM – we will miss her.

What do you think?

Sheila and Jenni

• A great number of employees are not PC-based and can’t easily go online during working hours
• Receiving a magazine is much more of an ‘event’ than receiving yet another e-mail or online newsletter, and you can’t just hit delete
• A magazine has more longevity than online comms
• Getting your name/team/project in print often has more perceived value than a quick mention on the intranet
• A magazine is portable, so it can be read at a desk, in the staff canteen or at home.

Having said that, if it’s a bad magazine, clearly no-one will read it. So what makes a good employee magazine? I spoke to Wendy, our award-winning editor to get her top tips…

Content-wise, it should:

• Excite, inform and inspire staff about the organisation
• Foster a sense of community and corporate pride
• Be open and honest so that readers trust it as a source of credible information
• Show people how they fit into the bigger picture
• Set out the company direction and reflect the vision and values
• Have a good mix of business and people stories
• Make employees the heroes
• Be easy to understand and free of jargon and corporate-speak
• Encourage two-way communication.

Design-wise, it should:

• Say ‘read me’ with eye-catching photos, headlines and pull-out quotes
• Have a mixture of short, snappy articles balanced with longer features
• Follow brand guidelines
• Be easy on the eye with a mixture of two, three or even four-column grids to break up the page.

theblueballroom writes, designs and produces employee magazines for a number of clients, including Roche, Help for Heroes, Deutsche Post DHL and Initial. We’re proud that a number of them have won awards too. They’re going from strength to strength and even though these organisations, like many others, use various evolving channels to communicate with employees, their magazines look set to stay the course.

Cara

There were many things I was looking forward to about the conference (check out the ipadio interview I did earlier this week) and I was keen to hear how other companies are implementing social media inside an organisation.

It was a busy event, with over 150 delegates but it was clear early on that the majority were not using social media that much and there were few tweeters on the day.

The case studies given showed brilliant examples of how social media can be applied in business – using blogs, wikis, internal twitter feeds, employee generated video but it still seems that all important measurement and ROI are missing.

So, to highlight some key discussions throughout the day;

• Facebook/Twitter banned in the workplace – if they are, they shouldn’t be as people can access them on their mobile. Interestingly when I tweeted to ask if people found this to be the case it seems that Facebook is blocked, but Twitter is ok!
• If you’re a brand on Twitter, talk to your audience – don’t just use it as a broadcast tool
• We have to take responsibility for our own networks and manage them to be selective and not become overwhelmed with information
• Introducing social media in baby steps will increase the company’s willingness to trust what you’re doing
• Talking interactivity with video… How interactive should it be? Stop, start, comment, navigate through it, there is lots to consider
• You have to treat people as adults when using social media, trust them
• Make sure the content is good – the tool can be exciting but if the content is boring people will switch off
• There are normally two groups of people in the business when you’re talking about social media, those who look at the security risks, reputation and feel it is time wasted; and those who look at it as an opportunity to share knowledge, increase productivity and collaborate
• Sometimes word of mouth can work – great example about the use of yammer spreading throughout an organisation without any formal communication
• And an image many internal communicators can relate to from Tina the Tech Writer

And some questions to consider….

• Are employee generated videos taking over the more professional big budget productions?
• Has social media revolutionised internal communication?
• Will intranets ever become unnecessary as lines blur between internal and external comms?
• Does SharePoint create a common platform or silos?
• Will internal communication become unnecessary as ‘middle men’ in the organisation?

The audience at the event left with a plea… if anyone has any examples of where social media tools have boosted productivity please share them with the community – it’s what everyone needs to get the Management on board and these new tools part of an everyday toolkit!

You can see the full Twitter feed on #melcrumsmc

Jenni

Sheila