Internal Communications

What is it?


Internal communications is everything that is communicated within a company, and how it is communicated. Because of the changing environment, today’s workforce is different than it was in the past. There are longer hours, work from home, and greater workloads, more emphasis on performance and values are different. The way a company communicates within the business can make or break how the employee feels about the company, and this will correlate the amount of performance that is taken and the amount of revenue gained.

First Step in Communication Process


The first step in figuring out how to implement internal communication within your business is to see how the employer feels about the company. You can do this by giving and audit, and by the audits results develop a solution to the communication problems.
Problems know…now what?
Now that you know what the problems are you must figure out how to fix them. This can be done by having a meeting and discussing ideas for implication, simply coming up with a plan and enforcing it. The way you go about figuring what you should do in the communication process differs from a big organization to a smaller organization. The bigger organization will simply come up with a plan and implement it. The smaller organization can communicate with all employees in one-on-one meetings, or in meetings of small groups to get everyone involved which will make them feel stronger about fixing the communication problem.


Ways of Communicating


There are many ways of communicating:
· Up and down
· Face-to-face
· Online
· Employee-Oriented Publications
· Visually
· Internal Branding
· Grapevine


All of these types of communication are good for different situations. It is always best to have up and down communication in any organization. This keeps everyone from the janitor of the company to the C.E.O connected and creates a more peaceful and understanding work place.
Face –to-face communication creates a since of caring. This shows that you are important as an employee and that you are involved with every aspect of the process.
Online communication is the easiest way to communicate with many of your employees. It is an easy way to also communicate an employee-oriented publication. An employee-oriented publication is a way to keep the employees updated on the important happenings throughout the organization/company. They can read articles, stories, and information within the company, about their clients, and even about fun stuff like a Christmas party.


Real Life Experience


I have a few job experiences that involve internal communication. I am the assistant swim coach as I have stated in previous blogs. For our program we send out news letters to recruits, parents, swimmers and people interested at the University. In this news letter we communicate what is happening, what is going to happen and even include some videos of meets/practices we have had. This is a good way to keep everyone informed and with all the same information. Also Coach Villa and I have individual face-to-face meetings with each kid on the team (43) of them each 3 weeks. This makes it easier for them to trust us and know they can come to us and talk about anything and everything.

While working at an internship at an advertising firm (Prodigal Media), we had a lot of internal communication. Every Monday we would have a meeting with every person in the business. The creative director, the AD, the C.E.O, the graphic designers, and the accountant. WE would all go over every project that was active, through around ideas and get on the same page. This was a great idea. We also had breakfast every Monday in these meetings together which also brought the moral up in the company.

Other links:


This link also explains what internal communication is, the process, and the implementation of internal communication. It was a good resource for me to continue understanding the process.
http://performance-appraisals.org/Bacalsappraisalarticles/articles/comstrat.htm

Co-Founder of Gatehouse has a blog all about internal communication within his organization. This blog was a great way to see other examples of internal communication at its best.
http://www.talkingic.typepad.com/

Media Relations

What is it?

The media is a part of our lives whether we like it or not. We are influenced by the media even if we try to stay away from it. The media can make or break you. They take it to the extreme, and usually advertise the worse news. Some people say that even bad media is good media. But the thing is, in the business setting it can ruin your reputation and the trust that your constituents have in your business.

Media Relations is a very important aspect of a business. If you do not have a good relationship with the media the media can tear your business apart. Your reputation can be ruined on the spot just by a simple interview.

How to Create Relationships with Media

To build better relationships with the media, organizations must take the time to create meaningful relationships with the right people in the media. To do this someone should be hired for the organization as the media relations coordinator. This person will be the representation of the organization. This is the face that the media always sees, the person who knows all the answers and if they do not know the answers they know how to avoid or redirect the question into a positive light. This media relation coordinator must have a personality and look that is attractive to an audience. They need to be able to talk in public well.

It is good to have lasting relationships. These lasting relationships can be a positive in the future. The contacts you make will trust you to be fair, they will let you pick people for interviewing and not go behind your back to sabotage if that relationship is solid.

Interviews

The representation for an interview must prepare. They must prepare in various ways. They must have a put together look, their hair should be flawless, their clothes the right color, size and texture, and (if a woman) their make-up touched up. Just the physical look of this person can cause uproar by the media. If you are watching someone on T.V. representing a company and they look like they are not put together, than the company will seem not put together. You will not be hearing the words they are saying but you will only be thinking about their outward appearance.

The words you use can be interpreted in various ways. You must choose the right words, with the right grammar when in an interview. Silence is good in an interview, you must make sure you are not letting the silence get to you and filling it with unneeded information.

Experiences

When I work swim camp our first week is a week of rules upon rules upon rules. One of the big rules is not to talk to the media if a problem where to arise. Our boss told us a story about another swim camp that went up in flames because of an incident, and how the media destroyed the camps reputation. The story was that some counselors were consuming alcohol in the dorm where they live with the kids. One of the kids needed help one night and he could not get the attention of the counselors because they locked their intoxicated selves into a room away from the kids. The media got a hold of the story the next day, and the entire community was in an uproar. The director of the camp was not ready for the media to attack their reputation; he did not know how to handle the situation. This just goes to show that in any organization they must be ready to answer to the media if needed.

With my GA position, I am told that if there is any NCAA investigation I am not to say a word; the Athletic Advisor is our media relation coordinator. It is not my job to talk to outside sources. My job is to tell my story to the AD and he will relay the message to the media unless there is a specific investigation with myself directly involved.

Other links:

This link goes into detail, just like the book about the operation of media relations. It goes through the steps needed and every aspect involved. This helped me out in creating the information in my blog.

http://www.porternovelli.co.nz/media/ns9/35_1977_2894.pdf

This link is to a blog. The blog asks questions about media relations and then people that have real like examples answer and give their advice. This is a good way to get real experienced examples.

http://wordpress.com/tag/media-relations-strategy/

Corporate Advertising

What it is…

Corporate advertising is a companies attempt to advertise the image of the company rather than a product or service. It is a way to use the company’s money and media to seek benefit for the short-run or for the long-run depending on the situation at hand.

These corporate advertising plans must be strategic-which means looking toward the future of the company so the company is able to continue to thrive. Also it must be consistent- which means that the images of the products and the messages must fit within the corporate vision of the company.

What kind of Corporate Advertising

There are different reasons for a company to have a corporate advertising plan:

To advertise to reinforce identity or enhance reputation.

This is used to strengthen their identities following structural changes. When a company merges or adds a new company they must specify who they are, their vision, and the strategy of the image of the company.

Advertising to attract investment.

This kind of corporate advertising is used to stimulate interest by potential investors to increase the companies stock. Some corporate advertising assert that a strong financially oriented corporate advertising campaign can actually increase the price of a company’s stock.

Advertising to influence opinions

This type of corporate advertising is also called issue or advocacy advertising. Issue advertising usually deals with controversial subjects it is a way for companies to respond to challenges to their company’s reputation. This type of advertising is a way to respond to threats from the government or special interest groups.

Delayed reaction

There is a delayed reaction between corporate advertising and sales, compared to product advertising and sales. The reason for corporate advertising is not to sell a product but to sell the idea of the company. So constituents have a warm feeling when they think of the company. For this reason it is hard to get a company to understand the effectiveness of corporate advertising and its positive effect. This type of advertising is not immediate or directly satisfying so to those who do not understand it, do not understand the need for it.

Creates a strong reputation

One of the biggest reasons for corporate advertising is to create a strong reputation for the company. By letting your constituents know what is going on in your company, and what the organization is all about, is beneficial to the company. The reason is the community now knows what they did not know, and have a better understanding of the business.

Recruiting and retaining employees

Corporate advertising is a big reason why it is easy to attract employees. The company attracts the best and the brightest both at the entry level and higher level positions. A good campaign can create an excitement for current and potential employees. The campaign explains in simple terms what the company is made of, and what it is all about, which helps employees as well is the outside constituents know exactly what the company is there for.

Real life examples:

I got my undergrad degree in Advertising/PR. I have worked in an advertising firm, where I worked on many projects. Some of them were product advertisements and one project in particular that was a corporate advertisement. The corporate advertisement was not a print advertisement. I was actually in-charge of calling businesses within a ten minute radius of Pinnacle Health, the company I was working for. The reason for calling was to give the companies called a certificate for a free massage. The reason for this project was to get the word out of the company, what they were all about, what services they had available, and why they were there for the Youngstown community. After calling all of the businesses I personally dropped off the certificates to add a personal touch, to produce a trust for the company I was working for.

Another example is when I worked for the Red Cross. They had an event that was for the community of Toledo Ohio. It was a rib fest on the river with bands, food, drinks, and fun for all ages. The Red Cross did this to reach out to the community. They were not there to sell any products; they were there to sell themselves, as an organization. There were booths set up all over the place to get awareness to the community of what the Red Cross was all about and how the community can get involved. There were prize giveaways, and fun for all.

Those are just corporate advertising on a smaller scale that per say a Target corporate advertisement. But all the same, they were conducted for the same reason. There was no immediate effect on sales, or community involvement, but seemed to be a positive campaign.

Links:

I am attaching links that outline the steps in corporate advertising. The first one is the seven steps that AlphaTrade does its corporate advertising. It is nice to see exactly how a company uses corporate advertising. It helps in my understanding on the subject and I hope it helps you in understanding also.

http://www.alphatrade.com/pr-marketing-corporate-advertising.php

My second link is about how the Target Company is outshining its competition just by the way it advertises. They have a fresh look, a clean shopping environment, shorter waiting time, and the explanation that price is not everything. They do not advertise products, they advertise the company. Take a look, read and learn more on the subject.

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/4319.html

Identity, Image, and Reputation

What it means…

The way a company is thought of is through its identity, its image, and its reputation. Image--is a reflection of an organizations identity. It is the organization as seen from the viewpoint of its constituencies.
Identity—is the visual manifestation of the company’s reality as conveyed through the organization’s name, logo, motto, products, services, buildings, stationary, uniforms, and all other tangible pieces of evidence created by the organization and communicated to a variety of constituencies.
Reputation—comes from customer identity, community image, investors, and employee image.

Branding and Management makes good image and identity to have good credibility (reputation).

When consumers think of different companies, the feeling the person gets is due to the image the company portrays, the identity, and what the companies reputation is. The reason some companies thrive in the consumers minds is because they have a strong management team that increase the image, identity, and reputation of the company.

How Companies are recognized:

Companies are recognized by the color, and shape of the building, the color and image of their logo, and the words that make up their tag lines. They are recognized through out the world by all of these. They make up business cards, stationary, magazine, and television advertisements that use the color and design they picked to represent their company. There are many companies’ logos that are identified by just the logo that represents them, McDonalds, Wendy’s, FedEx, Ford, Ohio State Buckeyes mascot, and the Bud Light logo.

Examples:

McDonalds: When people think of McDonalds they first think about the Golden Arch. This is a sight that is known around the world for the company. It is the logo recognized by all, children, and adults.

McDonald’s reputation is good because of the things they do for the community including the Ronald McDonald fund. Ronald McDonald is another visual aspect that everyone recognizes as being linked to the company.




Ford: When people hear the word, they think of trucks. They think of men and the country. They link Ford with built strong vehicles that are safe. “Built like a Rock” is the tag line of Ford Trucks, this stands for a strong vehicle that will be reliable.

Links:



There are a few links that I am providing that have helped me better understand why image, identity and reputation are so important for companies. Image, identity and reputation can not be built in a day, or a week, or a year, they are a continual process striving to get the perfect logo to identify your company and making sure it works.


http://englishimpact.com.mx/Community_responsability/Corporate%20reputation,%20Image%20and%20Identity.pdf

http://www.morrisseyco.com/insight/pdfs/MVRv6_1.pdf