LT Public Relations

 Every once in a while, there’s a column that MUST be circulated far and wide. 

LT Public Relations uncovered the following PR Week column authored by Universal Health Services’ CEO Alan Miller that validates what we’ve been preaching for years…executives need to take a more active role in the company’s communications efforts.

In good times and especially in bad times, it’s incredibly important that the leader of the company speak often and speak with an authoritative voice.  This constant communication builds trust.  It builds understanding.  It builds customer loyalty…and much much more.

So attention All top executives out there, please read the following column, pay attention to the message…and get out there and communicate to your audience. 

Need help…give us a call…503-477-9215.

COMMS IS NOW PART OF A CEO’s JOB DESCRIPTION

By Alan Miller

There’s no such thing as a local story, a trade story, or even purely internal communication anymore. Everything has the ability to circumvent the globe at light speed, and corporate leaders are starting to become aware of this.Given this backdrop, the natural instinct for some leaders has been to be less communicative and engaged with the media and other audiences. Why risk saying anything when we have less control over the outcome and the audiences it reaches? Hiding behind a virtual moat and letting others do the talking would seem the easier and safer route, so the thinking goes.

Perhaps. But it’s also less credible. Stakeholders want to hear from business leaders – in particular CEOs – on a regular basis. They want to know what we’re thinking, and not just about our own company, but about the larger industry we represent, the communities we serve, and the world we live in. We have a unique vantage point in that we represent the broadest set of constituencies. Invariably, that vantage point shapes our views.

Shareholders, employees, industry leaders, the media – they’re all interested in hearing our point of view on issues, and it’s part of the job of the CEO to communicate. My advice to aspiring CEOs out there: Take the role of communications seriously because it’s a requirement of the position. You can’t rely on the CEO’s letter in the annual report and a few canned quotes in press releases to do your communicating any longer.

I make it a point to speak with the media on a regular basis, and not just around earnings, but on broader issues, too. Whether we have a good or a bad quarter, people want to know what I’m thinking and they want to know that I’m engaged. It’s easy to talk to reporters when things are going swimmingly, but it’s probably more important to communicate when things aren’t always on plan. I think consistent communications with reporters – not hiding behind press releases – builds credibility over time with analysts, employees, the media, and other stakeholders. It also accrues in a positive way to a company’s reputation over the long run.

I’m in the healthcare industry – my company owns and operates hospitals around the country. This has been an interesting time for the healthcare sector, to put it mildly. Healthcare reform has been the dominant conversation in our national dialogue for months, and will likely remain that way through the end of the year.  Even the economy has taken a back seat to this discussion – something that doesn’t happen very often.

Not surprisingly, the media and other stakeholders are curious to know what I think about the healthcare reform debate.  As a leader in that sector, it’s important to be engaged in the conversation; it would strike an odd chord if I wasn’t. I’ve been on CNBC, Fox News, and Bloomberg Television numerous times over the past months, giving my perspective on what healthcare reform could mean for my company, the sector, and the economy at large. I’ve spoken to print reporters, and I even penned an Op-Ed in The Wall Street Journal – something I’ve done on occasion over the years.

In fact, the Journal piece has led to a book that I’m finishing up on healthcare reform, which will be out in late November. I never imagined that I would write a book, but I felt compelled to expound on my thoughts. It’s been a fun, challenging, and creative process, and has really forced me to think through the issues in a much deeper and critical way.   

To aspiring executives, I repeat: Communications is a growing part of the job description. You can no longer lead a company without communicating your leadership, plain and simple.

Public relations firms and professionals were some of the first to adopt the power of social media and leverage it for the businesses they represent (and if they haven’t, then they seriously need to wake up).

At LT Public Relations, we’ve blogged about the power of social media almost ad nauseum over the past few years and have offered many useful tactics on how to apply the tools for communications purposes, but we still stumble across some very important topical articles, clips and quotes we deem important to share in their entirety, than just simply posting on our LT PR Twitter page.  

So here you go.  We’ll keep you posted as more “cool” information arises…

QUOTE

“Calling social media a trend at this point is foolish.  The question should no longer be whether social media should be used in marketing plans…but how.” –Erica Iacona, Editor, PR Week.

VIDEO

ARTICLE

What impact will social networks have on search marketing strategies? Erik Qualman, global vice president of online marketing for EF Education, offers insights on this and other business trends in his new book, “Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business.” I interviewed Erik in advance of the SES Chicago conference in December where he will participate on the panel, “PR, Social Media and Search.” This interview is a part of a continuing series of columns that highlights speakers at the upcoming SES conference. (ClickZ and SES are both part of Incisive Interactive Marketing.)

Stewart Quealy: Has social media really overtaken porn as the number one activity on the Web?

Erik Qualman: Wow, nothing like starting off with a loaded question. According to a Huffington Post interview with Bill Tancer from Hitwise, yes.

SQ: Facebook and Twitter have gained millions of users practically overnight. Can this “viral expansion loop” continue to grow at such an exponential pace?

EQ: By the time this interview is published, Facebook will have more members than the population of the United States — making it the third largest country in the world if you compare Facebook member data to country population data. Social media will continue its growth, but it will not be at its current exponential pace.

SQ: In “Socialnomics,” you write that social media will force the hyper-acceleration of better search results. Can you give us an example?

EQ: You are already seeing this. Google has recently launched four products that are social in nature: Google Sidewiki, Google SearchWiki, Google Hot Trends, and Google Wave. Google understands its main competition is going to come from social media. That is why in October we already started to see search deals being cut between Microsoft and Twitter/Facebook. This is only the beginning, but it is happening much sooner than I thought.

SQ: Are consumers really in a commercial mindset when they’re on social networks? I’ve read that 95 percent plus of all tweets are non-commercial.

EQ: Dell has sold over $3 million dollars worth of computers. Gary Vaynerchuk did a test between billboard, direct mail, and Twitter. He not only sold more wine via Twitter, but the cost was also the lowest. Ironically, I have sold numerous copies of “Socialnomics” by leveraging Twitter. The key to Twitter and all social media is to not start selling right away. That’s analogous to going up to a stranger on the street and saying here’s my business card and let me tell you why I’m great. As I outline in the social media escalator, there are four steps: Listen, interact, react, and soft sell.

SQ: Clay Shirky is fond of saying that communication tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring. Do you agree?

EQ: I believe one of Facebook’s main advantages is that they now have the “mommy” crowd, hence to Clay’s point they have been able to simplify a technology offering. Once you have this type of mass scale, the switching costs are a little higher for a baby boomer than for Generation Y (think how many boomers are still on AOL mail). It will be interesting to see how Google Wave does, as the product is a bit complex for a general user.

SQ: One of Google’s vice-presidents for engineering, Udi Manber, recently said his job is to do rocket science that will be taken for granted. How do you suppose social media fits into that rocket science?

EQ: A lot of success is dependent on execution rather than idea. Think of how much “high school reunion” activity Facebook has captured. Why didn’t this all go to classmates.com a decade ago? I agree with Manber in the sense that you want to be “cutting edge” rather than “bleeding edge.” The end user doesn’t care how things work, they just want them to work.

SQ: A recent article in Wired magazine noted that people behave differently on Facebook than anywhere else online. They use their real names, connect with their real friends, link to their real e-mail addresses, and share their real thoughts, tastes, and news. By contrast, what does Google know about its users other than their browsing activity and search history?

EQ: Hence the pressure on Google and why they will continue to morph into a more “social” company. One of the key maxims of “Socialnomics” is that we will no longer search for products and services, rather they will find us via social media. If I’m planning a trip to Bermuda and want to know what hotel is right for me, it’s invaluable to see that 10 of my friends have stayed in the same hotel, and that those same 10 friends give it a top rating. That is what the main difference will be and why Google will be pushed by social media. Humans care more about what their friends think than what an algorithm thinks. Also, with humans given the ability to help catalog the Web (via meta data), the accuracy of relevancy increases.

SQ: Marshall McLuhan once famously observed that “The future of the book is the blurb.” Is social media eroding our collective attention span and ability to concentrate? Seems like our mind has been conditioned to absorb information the same way Twitter distributes it: in a rapidly flowing stream of bite-sized updates.

EQ: Often people believe that evolution is a negative thing. On the contrary, it’s just a different thing. People today are used to contributing, collaborating, and multi-tasking — that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It reminds me of an old saying…I didn’t have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one. The fact that we are getting better as a society at getting to the “essence” of things quickly should be celebrated rather than frowned upon. However, there has been some erosion in terms of interpersonal communication skills and that’s a trend I hope stops. Ninety percent of all communication, or whatever the most recent stat is, is non-verbal, hence social media should be used as an “and” rather than an “or” when it comes to communication.

SQ: Throughout “Socialnomics,” you emphasize that middlemen are removed in most instances as a result of the social Web. How does this impact the process of job recruitment?

EQ: If there are 10 people on your team and your collective networks are stronger for your specific area of expertise (e.g., SQL database programmer) than any possible recruiter/headhunter you can possibly hire, then odds are you will probably leverage a tool like LinkedIn. After all, many recruiters/headhunters first stop is to do advanced searches in LinkedIn. LinkedIn wouldn’t be able to charge for “In” accounts (ability to send e-mail to people you aren’t connected with) if recruiters didn’t find it helpful. So, if your team already has a network of trusted individuals, there is no reason to seek help. Great recruiters will survive and thrive, but I do see there being less of a market for recruiters as a whole.

SQ: Simon Dumenco recently opined that the most successful Twitterers and the most-friended users of Facebook with really active news feeds are reverting to a rather pre-Web 2.0 paradigm: broadcasting. The “few” speaking to the “many.” Is he just being cynical or is there some truth to that statement?

EQ: There is some truth in the sense that Ashton Kutcher can’t respond to all 3 million of his followers. But, the real exciting thing about these tools is the ability for anyone (companies, individuals, celebrities) to listen to the “water cooler” conversation around you or your brand. Not only that you have the ability to interact and join this conversation. The fact that someone posts a tweet, whether it is good or bad, about “Socialnomics” and I can see that and, if I want, respond to it, just amazes me.

SQ: There has been a lot of chatter lately about non-traditional search engines like WolframAlpha and the future of semantic search. Any predictions on how this will tie into the social equation?

EQ: A search engine can’t properly answer: “good Italian restaurant in the North End of Boston that has a kids’ menu,” but your social graph can. Users want this semantic ability, so it will be an important part of the “mashing” of search & social.

SQ: Microsoft recently struck deals with Facebook and Twitter in an effort to gain an edge over Google in searching real-time information. Is real-time search where it’s all heading?

EQ: Real-time search is part of it, and an important part. However, the other two important pieces are semantic search (previously mentioned) and also tapping into purchase/opinions of your social graph. Meaning, search results that showcase to me past purchases and ratings of my friends/peers around products I’m interested in is extremely helpful. The technology is there — so this could be soon. Facebook Beacon had some of this, but was rolled out poorly.