eCommunications for global organisations

A few clips of interviews we collected from the event we organised last week at the AirMuseum on the impact the volcanic cloud has had on social media. Some nice insights from the EU commission on social media that works and quotes from Aurelie @Euroocontrol and Simon McDermott and myself.

Recently, many of us in Europe felt the effects of Eyjafjallajökull’s eruption. During this, social media proved itself to be useful outside of letting people send information home. It saved weddings from disaster, sent news stories around the world, and got a selection of stranded passengers a free breakfast in Bangkok.

Aurelie Valtat of Eurocontrol maintains that social media’s “human touch” is essential in a crisis. “People are happy to know that you’re listening to them. Be human: it doesn’t hurt to be a normal person. Be in tune… show that you care. ” She dealt information out to stranded passengers every two minutes, watching the organisation’s number of followers grow from 300 to 7,000 in a few days.

ZN’s Phil Weiss, who used Facebook to rally passengers stranded with him in Bangkok to demand treatment according to their rights, agrees with Aurelie.

“The key is to know who you’re talking to, and give them the information that they need. Eurocontrol’s efforts placed them in comparison with other organisations, like some airlines and the European Commission, which face big challenges in forming similar strategies for similarly effective communication.”

Both were speaking at an event hosted by ZN, which took place on 22nd June 2010 in the striking surroundings of the Brussels Air Museum. They discussed how the eruption had an impact on social media, with Simon McDermott, co-founder of Attentio, and the European Commission’s Gilles Gantelet.

The emphasis of Eurocontrol’s Tweeting was on crisis management rather than a communications revolution: “normal”, pre-volcano service has since resumed, in case the organisation is seen as a “super travel agency… there is a detailed plan in place, but every ash cloud is different.” Simon McDermott’s advice for organisations yet to embrace social media was simple: “Use it: learn it!”

Gilles Gantelet said that “[the Commission] has been impressed by Eurocontrol… we are also aware that there were some things that we were unable to organise in terms of communication.”

Photos, videos (of the event and of interviews with the speakers) and discussions will shortly be added to the IABC community. In the spirit of social media, questions and comments were Tweeted live into the event: you can find them under #ashcloudbxl on Twitter.

We’d like to invite you to check out a show we are working on called Brussels Sprouts (so far). The show below is a trial run, so if you have a few minutes to spear, have a look and tell us what you think, so we can make the next one better.

I am hosting it with Helen Dunnett (@hdunnett) The idea behind each show is to focus on emerging trends and topics online with a special focus on Brussels. This is the first show (the Beta Version Zero Pilot Show) so they are open to suggestions to make it better next time, but they decided that the best way to get this show on the road was to…get the show on the road….

Last year, I introduce the eBook ‘Your Online Journey Starts here’ at an event in Brussels, with Toyota, Microsoft and VCE (Volvo Construction Equipment) who shared their own experience with online communication.

We have captured a summary of my presentation which gives an overview of some of the key topics of the ebook.  It is intended as a simple introduction to how the internet is changing communication for global communicators, and what they can do about it.  To find out more check the video (below) or download the ebook (below).

Apologies for the poor sound quality!

The social network that was created last summer for IABC (the International Association of Business Communicators) is one of the best ways for communicators in a corporate environment to experience ‘social media’ and online communities first hand.  We are using a ning platform (a site that allows you to build your own ‘facebook’) and enables members to share information, videos, presentation and discuss a range of topics. It is also very practical to organise events and keep your network aware of recent news.  Those interested in discovering more about this should join: http://be-iabc.ning.com/ or watch the video where I discussed the kind of conversations that take place there.

Here’s a short video of me – explaining a bit the IABC ning in one of our ZN events.

(This is a cross-post from Steffen’s blog)

Four words I’ve ruthlessly hijacked from a pamphlet I read this week. Four words which neatly explain a significant part of why the way in which organisations operate and communicate is so drastically different now compared to just a few years ago.

How? Power, influence and impact are not necessarily derived from how far up the proverbial food chain you are, but increasingly by how good your network is. The two are often aligned, but often not; someone can build and influence a network without having climbed too far up the traditional ladder. Meaning that the blogger who builds up a huge readership can be as relevant as a mainstream publication; or that the smart lowly employee who engages with the right people online can have as much of an impact on perceptions of his employer as the CEO.

What does this mean for organisations? It’s both a threat and an opportunity. A threat in that it’s harder to keep control if everyone has a megaphone. At the same time, it’s a stunning opportunity. An organisation’s combined talents are far more likely to be shared and harnessed in a world of networks; while an individual’s talent is far more likely to be exposed. Result? Potentially, a more creative, innovative and ultimately successful organisation.

And for the people tasked with communicating on behalf of organisations? Gone are the days of rigid messaging and press conferences. Added to the mix is harnessing the best of what the internal networks have to offer by handing them the mic. Don’t just use your CEO or Comms Director to represent you: use the intern, the engineer, or (even better) the guy who doesn’t actually work for you but loves what you do. Whoever has the best story to tell, frankly. But for communicators, networks go much farther than that. Whatever your sector or issue is, there’ll be a network of people engaging about it online in some way, and you’ll need to make sure you’re listening to what they’re saying and responding to it. That’s how you keep on the ball and avoid communicating in a void; and it’s how you try to make sure you’re engaging with the people who matter even if they’re not in the higher echelons of some hierarchy.

(This is a cross-post from Steffen’s blog)

If there’s an issue that’s impacting your organisation around which you want to orchestrate a shift in opinion or behavioural change amongst a set of people large or small, it’s not enough to do the right thing and explain it effectively. Two factors play a part here:

1. People don’t trust you. Trust in pretty much every sort of organisation is at rock bottom and falling, so people will need to hear it from others to buy into what you do and say.

2. With regards to the web in particular, search. You can’t push your content, people will find what they want; such is the nature of the web – meaning that it’s quite likely that they’ll pick another site out of the thousands that show up in Google.

So what do you do about it? Beyond doing and saying “the right thing” (not so easy in itself) and a solid media relations set-up, you’ll need to become ubiquitous online. What does that mean? That your web tentacles reach far beyond your own web presence. Others communicating around your issue should be talking about you so that when people are on the aforementioned ‘other’ site on your issue that they’ve found on Google, you’re present too.

How do you make it happen? You’ll need to know who all the other players are on your issue and communicate with them in mind rather than hollering in a void. Reference their content or even feature them in person, comment on their content in your own output, and make sure you’re giving your input wherever you can on other platforms. Assuming – again – that your message is solid, people will take notice and will soon start talking about you, giving you the third-party credibility you crave (assuming they’re being nice!) and giving you airtime in other places where people might land.

Will it come easy? No, Rome wasn’t built in a day – it’ll be a slog, but you won’t regret it.

…and we are doing it in style!

April 1 is April Fools Day! And to keep up with the tradition, we decided to divert from our usual eCommunications-related blog posts to show you “ZN’s other side”.  Life in ZN wouldn’t be complete without spending some time for fun! So here’s a short video from one of our many good time moments.

Taken from our last team building activity, the team decided to put down their mobile phones and laptops and put on some climbing gears.

And in ZN we think that, as the title goes, every mission is possible. Enjoy!

Yesterday, I made a presentation on the topic of SEO (search engine optimisation) and its relevance to online communication.  It was a challenging subject as the meeting was hosted by IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) so you could expect people to be familiar with the concepts. My focus was to talk about how this very useful ‘tool’ should fit the communication mix – and not to discuss the details of the concept.

For those who are not familiar with the word, SEO (as well as SEM and SEA – search engine marketing and search engine advertising) covers the science and art of using search engines (such as Google, Bing or Yahoo) to get traffic to your website.

My main points on the subject were the following:

1. It’s really easy to get it wrong and most companies do so by default.  They treat SEO as an IT/technical project.  This means they see as a project that needs to be done (because traffic increase MUST be good).
2. They focus only on numbers (how much traffic will get and how many statistics can extract from this exercise)
3. They do it as a standalone project – often a company will choose to do an SEO ‘project’ before they have define what they wanted to online (let alone define a clear business and marketing strategy in which this fits)
4. They think it is the only way to get traffic to your site (or at least the easiest) - this can be plain wrong
5. Finally they feel it simply needs to be done

My suggestions (in a nutshell) to approach and formulate this web strategy (and discussing whether or not to hire an SEO company or do SEO internally) is the following

1. Get the basics right first – don’t start on these activities until you have gone through some key steps
2. Start from a clear business and communication strategy – make sure you have an online strategy that will deliver some clearly defined business goals and fits with your other marcom activities
3. Get the right tools to deliver your stories to your key audiences (is it a website, youtube channel, blog, twitter, event, press release?)
4. Create a content plan – define the key messages, products and the information that you need to communicate to your audience
5. Create an editorial plan – a plan on how to keep your story going over a period of time.  Plan the appropriate team and resources to deliver on this (launching a new site is easy, making it work over the long term is the hard part)
6. Create an activation plan – define a plan in which you define how you will get traffic.  This is the part of the project you look at SEO and how it fits in your campaign.  The first part of this process is to study what is happening online.  What are people searching on Google or Bing, and what are the relevant keywords for your audience.  The insights you can extract from this can be highly relevant to the kind of messages that might resonate with your target audience.
7. Find the right partners (Iprospect and ZN).  Tempting as it may be to learn the skills of SEO by yourself, you need professional help to get good results. Although some simple things can be done in house, to get a really effective SEO programme in place you need experts who know the latest changes to search engines and the best way to integrate the right tags at the right place.
8. Define KPIs (key performance indicators) and use them as a key business tool.  Most people are familiar with KPIs. However, few manage to use these as real business tools, keeping track of them, reviewing them on a regular basis and taking action according to the results found.  The key about setting good KPIs is to align them with your business objectives and to not simply focus on traffic indicators, and then ensuring that the data is useful.
9. Don’t do it if you don’t need to.  Finally and probably most importantly is it vital to ask yourself if you need to undertake such a project.  Often web traffic alone will not really bring value to your business, whereas targeted communication to key customers via email, having good content and relevant hyperlinks is what is needed.

One of our contacts from EUROPEN recommended this video which reflects in a viral - web friendly way the purpose of packaging.


When it comes to discussing sustainability and product development, packaging is often seen as an easy target for policy makers. There’s a public perception that packaging equals waste. So the more packaging, the more waste is being created. Only few people take into account that packaging also prevents waste and keeps the product safe in a purposeful way (if designed smartly).


Have a look at the video clip below developed by Elipso (the French plastic & flexible packaging association) that addresses this topic.

This is a crosspost from Ideaplants