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Welcome to Melcrum's Social Media Newsletter.
In a recent article for The Internal Comms Hub, leadership and change expert Jim Shaffer suggests that 2008 should be the year when all communication management professionals should be resolute about eliminating the top-down approach to communication.
What tools can you use?
How can you use technology to get away from the one-way, top down, "at them" approach? If your senior management executives don't have the time or temperaments for a blog, the desire to start a podcast, or think Twitter is something about twits and you don't want to go down the age old route of the ghost-written column, there are other options...
Live chats – typos included
In a further upcoming Melcrum article, this time in Strategic Communication Management Richard Dennison at BT explains how his CEO, Ben Verwaayen, regularly uses live video conferencing and instant messaging to speak to thousands of employees, with great effect;
"For the last five years our CEO has chosen to set aside 90 minutes every six weeks to participate in a live online web chat. Anyone in BT can ask him a question on any subject for those 90 minutes. The questions aren’t screened and his answers aren’t edited – it all happens in real time. His answers are littered with spelling mistakes, have questionable grammar and punctuation and are often abrupt … and BT is a much happier and better place to work as a result! Thousands of people participate in these chats and it has helped build up a significant amount of trust that lends credibility to the many other ways he engages with BT employees."
Dennison goes on to say: "This 'micro-blogging' works perfectly for Ben – he only has to commit 90 minutes of his time every 6 weeks. In those 90 minutes he's exposed to the issues his employees are facing and what needs fixing – without communicators and direct reports 'shielding' him. And, he has an opportunity to get his point across simply and clearly in language his employees understand and appreciate … even if the answers aren’t always what they want to hear."
Definitely not “top down”
So, just 90 minutes, once every 6 weeks of unshielded live discussions with thousands of employees – spelling mistakes included. For authentic, two-way communication between a CEO and employees, this example is hard to beat.
Best regards,
Alex Manchester
Editor
alex.manchester@melcrum.com
How to use social media to engage employees is the ground-breaking report on integrating social media tools into your communications. Get the most up-to-date information on integrating blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasting and all the other social media tools with your communications. Don’t miss out on the chance to equip your team with one of our best-selling reports from 2007. |
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