The End

Hello class,
We are finally here at the end of the term. It has been a awesome journey and to those that graduated or will graduate this summer I wish you good luck out there in the world. I hope that this program has enlightened you and that you have found what you were looking for in graduate school. For our final blog posting we have three videos from TED featuring Daniel Kraft, Sheryl Sandberg, and John Maeda. My favorite out the three is John Maeda. He talks about how art, technology and design inform creative leaders. He talked about how art, technology and design intersect, overlap and how he's looked to combine the four areas into a synthesis. He talked of the early stages of technology like the Apple II computer and how the pattern we have been following all these years his been text, video, audio, etc. As someone who was born in the 1984, I have seen technology advance in a way I never thought possible. When I was growing up we didn't have internet in the palm of our hands now we've got smart watches, cars with wifi built in and it is just an amazing time to live in now as you get to experience this ever expanding growth of technology. We all in this are future strategic communicators and I implore you to go out there and make a difference. There are so many things to do in this field such as creating news, pushing information to the public, delivering news and media to the public and studying the interplay of media and society. I hope that you all find the place that you want to be. I will be continuing my blog long after I graduate. I have found it to be alot of fun. Good luck to you all.

Measuring strategy

Hello class and welcome to my week 8 blog. Our term has winded down very quickly and there is only one more blog posting after this one. This week we will be talking about the measurement of communication strategies, how our body language affects how people see us.

Body Language says alot

First off lets talk about one of the TED videos from Amy Cuddy, who is a social psychologist. She shares and and easy way that anyone can change not only other's perceptions of them, but the way they feel about themselves. I know I find myself being under alot of stress constantly and Amy's research showing adopting the body language associated with dominance for just 120 seconds can increase testosterone by 20% and decrease stress by 25%. I think this could definitely help me when I'm going to job interviews because I like alot of other people get really stressed when you are at a job interview. Nowadays you have more than one person in the room being interviewed and watched by them all at the same time. You have to build trust with people by demonstrating competence and power while also demonstrating your warmth. You must be able to relate to them. Using Obama for a as an example, the president does a great job at being approachable and warm natural smiles even breaking into song with a little bit of Let's Stay Together by Al Green, He comes across as strong without being an over-aggressive alpha. When it's it time to be really powerful non verbally and when it's time to play it down a little bit, he knows how to do it well.

Creating strategy

Marketing demands a new measurement mindset to wrestle with the new kinds of data generated. For years marketers have relied on the pre-post lift analysis of the standard for evaluating a marketing campaign. Some projects now require a more iterative approach to match performance-oriented marketers. So establishing a measurement strategy begins with a drafting a strategy. You can compare that to writing down what you already know. You need to think about role data plays into it. There are four steps to consider when creating a measurement strategy.

First you must Align the plan. Establishing goals and measures at the start of the project ensures ways to evaluate the success of a marketing project. By aiming for an acceptable outcome can inform the subsequent understanding of success. You must draft a measurement plan by linking goals and measures to a measurement plan b ensuring an ability to evaluate progress. The steps include identifying the date sources to be used in inform the goals and measures, defining the parties responsible for capturing and delivering the data, the frequency and method of delivery, the recipients of the data and the decisions the date will inform. Selling the strategy would be the next step. By replacing time-driven conversations about deadlines with conversations around the actions being taken to deliver against results. Position projects with the language of increase instead of talking about launching a website. Simple shifts in language remind the team about performance. Finally, the last step is to revisit the strategy. Always make sure to revisit your measurement strategy at regular intervals to discuss which data is useful, which data is missing, and which data we no longer use to inform the work. Take time to determine if current frequencies fit the current operating rhythm of the team.

Measuring strategy

After developing your strategy plan and having a clear road map designed your next step is to put your plan into action and manage the process as well as the plan's performance. Creating good, solid measures is the next step to developing your performance scorecard. Measures should be relevant to the goal and strategy, placed in context of the target to be reached in an identified time frame, capable of being tracked period after period and owned by the person who's responsible for the goal. Now if you really break it down there are different types of measurement. They are efficiency, outcomes, quality and project measures. Efficiency measures are productivity and cost effectiveness measure as ratio of outputs per inputs. Some examples include turnaround time per application processed and number of students graduating to number of students enrolled Outcomes measures are the end result of whether services meet proposed targets or standards and demonstrate impact and benefit of activities. An example includes the percent increase in internships and the application to enrolled yield rate. Quality measures are gauge effectiveness of expectations and generally show improvement in accuracy reliability, courtesy, competence, responsiveness, and compliance. Examples of this are quality measures including number of audits with no findings or within a range of accuracy. Lastly, project measures show progress against an initiative that has a terminus. It is usually stated as the percent complete. Determining measures can be difficult. You don't have to stand over and finding the best measure. Start with the most obvious and easiest to collect. As you work with your plan you can refine your measures.
Fostering an organizational culture that values data starts with having a plan. The trend towards an increased emphasis on leveraging data will only increase. As budgets tighten and scrutiny increases, marketers can continue to develop strong relationships with their customers in new and exciting ways.

Conclusion

As Strategic communicators, we will encounter a number of things whether it be failures, crisis etc. Our overall success is measured by how we handle these events and situations. I know already I have had my fair share of failures but rather then giving up, I have learned from those mistakes and have become better because of it. There is always so much more to learn about strategic communication and even long after this class is over and we graduate from this program we will continue to learn. It is critical that you measure the results of your content marketing activities so you can continually learn what your audience likes and use that information to continually improve. The result of that will bring happier prospects, happier customers and happier management.

What is the plan in handling a crisis, and how to adapt to an ever changing world

Hello class, (and fellow communicators) and welcome to my week 7 blog. There are just two weeks left in the term and to everyone who will be graduating next Friday from Troy University I say congratulations to you all. This week I will be discussing leadership, media strategies, crisis and change. I will mostly be discussing crisis communications and how leaders should handle a crisis and how to change to a rapidly changing technological world. So, what is crisis management/crisis communication?

Crisis Communication 

Crisis management is the process by which an organization deals with a major event that threatens to harm the organization, its stakeholders, or the general public. This is the most important process in public relations. The elements most common to a crisis are a threat to the organization, the element of surprise, and a short decision time. Organizations have to have a plan to deal with threats before, during, and after they have occurred. One of our videos to watch this week was from CIPR TV and they talked with Neil Chapman, founder of Alpha Voice Communications and formerly employed at BP, where his role was in the unified command center in the US and was responsible for responding to the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He discuses how this was a human tragedy because eleven people died and that it may not have been talked about as much had it not been also a huge environmental disaster. He went on to say that this disaster wasn't one that happened and the could PR it and deal with the results. The fact that it seemed like it would never end and there was an unending demand for information on how to fix this disaster. So, what could BP have done differently? Well for starters not acknowledging the problem initially. They consistently underestimated the magnitude of the spill by claiming to be out of the loop about decisions and processes on the rig. The company also failed to empathize with the plight of those most affected by the spill. This affected families because people died and it affected the livelihoods of people in the fishing industry.
The CEO should know how to deal capably with the public relations dimensions of a crisis. Simply stating that you don't deal with decisions on the rig and being out of the loop was not a good thing to say. It shows the disconnect that the corporate heads have with the work that actually goes on in the company they are supposed to be representing. A CEO should be knowledgeable about the basics of the company. It's impossible to learn every single detail about a company but at least they should have an idea of what's going on in the front lines.

Taking ownership and leading in a crisis

One of our articles of reading this week talks about leaders and how to lead in a crisis. This brings me to Nintendo of all companies. (I name them alot because I am huge video game fan since childhood) The president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, has taken a pay cut every couple of years when the company has suffered from a downturn in profit. The company has since returned to profitability with its combined Wii U and 3DS sales. We need more leaders that are willing to take ownership when something goes wrong with their company or if there is an issue. Leaders should know how to ask for help in solving problems and not try to do it all themselves. Just like Iwata taking ownership for the failures of his company other CEOs and presidents should be willing to sacrifice to before asking others. I've seen companies fail to the point of being shut down but the executives were still getting big bonuses while the employees down the leader were suffering.

Creating Communication strategies with social media

Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube have become a way for companies to communicate with the general public in a much faster way then doing press conferences etc. It has become imperative that companies have a team of people specifically for the purpose of monitoring online what people are saying about them and dealing with and addressing the issue immediately to avoid further controversies. The people that you hire for this position should be highly trained in the strengths of each site doing additional research if need be to determine relevancy. Find your ideal community by knowing who they are and where they like to interact. You should also know which social media tools your ideal community favors. Social media is a powerful tool for increasing your visibility and connecting with others that are not in your local area. Being consistent and real will expand your influence and connect you more quickly to those who need what you have to offer.

Keeping up with the times

Effective communication is key to having a successful company and effective leadership is key to your company remaining successful. Knowing your team, sharing your victories and defeats and being a good listener are just a few key items to being a good leader. Eddie Obeng in the TED video this week spoke about the world changing and that creative output can't keep up. He spoke on  companies having ideas about companies having ideas and delivering on them two years after its inception and becoming obsolete before these ideas are published into any book. "Global is the new scale" says Obeng in the TED video. You have to think of the future. "You can't solve last year's problems without thinking about the future" says Obeng. I agree with that. You have to be prepared and be certain that the problems that you solve now don't come back later in the future.

In closing I say this to you, our world has changed so much even in just the last couple of years. (You know I just read an article about NASA accidentally creating a wrap drive read it here http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/nasa-warp-drive-spaceship-mars/2015/05/01/id/641944/) Being a effective leader, having a crisis management plan when things go back and keeping up with the ever changing times are key to being successful and remaining successful.