eCommunications for global organisations

…still, it seems to be quite an organic growth with no pre-defined output…

…To become a climate ally!

Just seen this campaign initiated by Kofi Annan:

Download the song at www.timeforclimatejustice.org and become a climate ally. Music and movie stars come together in a new campaign for climate change.

We are at day 2 and I believe this campaign gets all the ingredients to become the holy grail of the viral marketing.

1. a universal quest
2. great ambassadors
3. a song
4. several viral mechanisms built on typical WEB2.0 platforms
5. an original way to sign the petition by downloading the song
6. the right time with the Cop15 window
7. an excellent production (who has done this?)
8. participation features such the “upload your tck and put it on the map”

This will be a huge success.

As you can see, I am very enthusiastic about it.

Back to wisdom to get back on track…I was very inspired by the first part of Barry Schwartz speech and was ready to write about why big organizations were not wise and why they did not know how and when to make an exception to every rule, with some juicy cases on guideline compliance. I then went through the entire video and just decided not to do so. His message is much more deep and fundamental than whatever I planed to write and there is much more value just passing the idea. Just take a 20 minutes break to hear a truth you and your company might have lost for a while.

Twitter spreading the “gfails” message faster than ever and seriously impacting the brand in just a minute…

Twitter search on Gfail

This is a serious challenge for communication as time to react is getting close to real time. Not only the speed to market but also the source of information is switching from key stakeholders to the online community, creating a buzz or destroying your corporate image while you just had time to organize… a meeting.

The rules are changing and so the communication consultant have to adapt.

More on the Gfail issue on TechCrunch

but do you know where does it come from, why Google did it or what does it do…

Here is an explanation of the Google Chrome plus…

This video highlights the tactics and attitude that make Steve Jobs’ presentations so impactfull.

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This is my most interesting and useful finding over the past 6 months. Xobni is just saving painful searches, opening new networking opportunities and has very nice features like telling my open slots for the 5 next business days in 1 click. Take a look, it’s worth investigating further:

[youtube]amRkMds177A[/youtube]

The recruiting process is becoming more of a challenge than ever before for big companies especially when trying to attract the best candidate to fill a position. A company’s marketing strategy can no longer be limited to just clients but needs to target potential candidates as well which is often a new or growing challenge for many HR departments.

Accenture has taken a step in the right direction starting with Backstage at Accenture www.backstageataccenture.com. This is an excellent example of a recruitment site that is really making an effort to attract potential employees rather than creating the usual text-based pages. Firstly, the campaign has succeeded in grabbing the audience’s attention, there is also a human touch with real Accenture employees on the website and most importantly Accenture is presented as a forward-thinking company using innovative communication techniques.

Although I really like the campaign, I think they missed out on the true potential by not adopting a more cutting-edge communication strategy or Web 2.0 principles. Despite the message of openness, there is no true interaction with the visitor; for example, Accenture could have added a chat feature or a blog to answer candidate’s questions. There could also have added a first qualification phase to explain the mandatory skills required and the company philosophy. This feature would have been a first automatic qualification filter and using a video format is a better way to deliver the message.

Finally, from the content point of view, the work environment description is really missing. So in my mind, Accenture has adopted a cutting-edge format but did not go through the requested paradigm shift to real language from real people. The only way to deliver a true and credible message. I am still looking for Accenture’s human face.

Part 2 to follow: what I would recommend as a truly cutting-edge recruitment programme.

A recent visit on LinkedIn allowed me to see the new Q&A function that captured my attention. The workflow is smooth and this is the best way to connect your network for an information request I have seen so far. On his ConversationBlog I recomend, Philippe Borremans took the time to describe the functionalities in the article LinkedIn starts business related Q&A service. Have a look.

Also, if you are not LinkedIn savvy or if you would like to deepen your understanding and use of it, Guy Kawasaki published a clear and crisp “manual” that you can check here: Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn

After iTune, the sector of music continues its long tail development gathering availability and filters (long tail conditions) together with Web 2.0 functionalities. For the end of 2006 and Christmas, the winner is www.musicovery.com, a web radio allowing the user to trim the tempo, the period, the style of music, the dancing feeling and other criterions that make the music fit your the atmosphere. Try it, you will like it.

If you don’t know the long tail concept yet,… hey, hurry up! Take a look here at the blog and order the book now. This is the best economic analysis I have read about how Internet changes your business model. http://www.longtail.com/