I know what you’re thinking (and reading), but in spite of the criticism that has pummeled Google+ for months, the network still provides many opportunities for the clever brands out there.

In the 11 months since the launch of Google+, it seems that everyone has taken a swing at the network, panning everything from user experience to past attempts such as Google Buzz. In spite of these criticisms, Google+ success stories are bubbling (or perhaps more accurately, +1-ing) to the top.

We’ve seen a number of updates to Google’s search offering, which illustrate that Google+ is not so much a copycat social network, but a social layer – blanketing many of Google’s offerings, increasingly integrating search and social in each update. Google+ offers more than just another status box to update: here are five reasons why you should reintroduce your brand to Google+.

1) Search Rankings

A quick search on Google, and you’ll notice that the search engine giant is favoring its own social network in personalized search, as well as the newly added Knowledge Graph.

In the days that followed the debut of Google+’s brand page offering in November 2011, companies that jumped on board saw their Google+ pages appear on page one of search results, outranking other pages and domains that had spent years building search credibility.  This development is key to any brand looking to own its first page in search results.

It has also become apparent that Google’s algorithm factors a Google+ presence into organic search rankings. Tests have shown that links shared and +1’d through Google+ increase placement amongst organic search results, especially when the brand has a high number of followers. These factors can be leveraged with blog posts or new products.

2) New audience

According to a study by Temple University, Google+ users are young (50 percent are younger than 24), mostly male and love to share status updates. Facebook, on the other hand, finds that most of its users are above the age of 45, are 57 percent female and very engaged with photos. These differences in demographics allow brands to reach a different audience on Google+. Consider using unique messaging for each social property with the platform’s demographics in mind.

3) Investment of Resources

The backlash of negative G+ reviews has done little to dampen Google’s investment in the network. We have seen redesigns, new hires, refreshed features, and search launches (Search Plus Your World, Knowledge Graph) which demonstrate that Google is committed to Plus and will continue to improve the product.

One recent product of note for brand purposes is the revamped Hangout, now called Hangouts on Air. Hangouts, already a hit with PR pros (including our own Richard Edelman), as well as musicians, fantasy football leagues and anyone else looking to connect online, has ramped up allowing Hangouts operators to broadcast publicly, evaluate viewer volume and record/re-share the hangout later. Hangouts on Air has implications for any brand looking to span the transmedia cloverleaf and access national, or even global markets.

4) Consumer Experience

The Google+ user experience is improving daily, with the continuous goal of encouraging it’s vast membership (170+MM users) to engage on a regular basis.  A few examples:

• Mobile Integration: The Google+ app automatically uploads photos and videos from your phone with Instant Upload. Additionally, Mobile Messenger allows for group messaging and even the bonus functionality to turn group chats into Hangouts.
• Incorporated into Gmail: Google+ posts from your friends are appearing in Gmail correspondence more often.
• Circles: A clear differentiator during the launch of Google+, this feature remains a strong point, allowing users to segment their online interactions – keeping mom and dad out of the conversation when necessary.

5) Third Party Apps to Manage and Measure

Six third party apps have partnered with Google+, helping community managers securely publish messages, manage circles and measure effectiveness through engagement indicators with Google Analytics.  These tools, plus the multiple admin option on branded pages, streamline how these pages are managed.

According to Google, “[The partnership] companies were selected based on their extensive experience helping brands and businesses manage and assess their presence on social networks.” These measurement tools will help answer the all-important, “What’s the return on my investment?”; a key component to any social campaign.

Google+ isn’t the final answer to all your social media needs, but its capabilities and support from Google can address some very important online branding strategies. Go on, dust off that Google+ login and see what the social network social layer can do for your brand.

Image Credit: Sean MacEntee

A few weeks ago, I presented the concept of social business at a conference in Orlando to a group of grocery retailers.  One retailer in particular told me that he had hired a team of Six Sigma experts to test and optimize new processes that will get customers through the checkout stands more quickly efficiently.  The problem they were facing was extreme growth and they did not have enough space to expand and build more checkout aisles. He also didn’t want to increase his overhead by hiring more cashiers.

This is a good problem to have.

The first question I asked was if the cashiers in store were a part of the decision-making process.  After all, they are the ones dealing with customers daily and are also active participants in the sales/check out process. Of course, many front-line employees tend to sit at the lower end of the organizational structure, meaning their perspectives and opinions are often overlooked.  But if you think about it, some of the best sources of customer research can come from employees who are the front lines of customer interaction – waiters, flight attendants, sales people and customer support staff.

He didn’t respond. But it got me thinking about all the untapped talent and creative thinkers that live behind the firewall that never get discovered because of leadership’s lack of trust.

But a true social business has to be built on trust not just words. When employees are given the opportunity to collaborate and work together, a multitude of very awesome business outcomes will surely follow:

• An increase in employee morale and productivity
• A faster, more efficient product development life-cycle
• New ideas for existing product features, or even brand new product ideas
• Optimizing existing processes or creating new ones

Employee innovation is smart business.  For one, it rallies the troops to work together towards a common goal. There is a sense of ownership and accountability when employees are actively involved in creating something together, as a team.  And, often times, it can give birth to new found motivation and excitement.  It also creates personal relationships between colleagues as well as executive management that might not have occurred otherwise outside of the day to day business operations.

One conclusion from the IBM Study that was released yesterday are that organizations are beginning to realize the power of tapping into employee innovation; and CEOs are creating more open and collaborative cultures—encouraging employees to connect, innovate, learn from each other and thrive in this fast paced business climate. Other key findings include that:

• CEOs are changing the nature of work by adding a powerful dose of openness, transparency and employee empowerment to the command-and-control type organizational culture that has plagued business since the beginning of time.
• Companies that outperform their peers are 30% more likely to identify openness - often characterized by a greater use of social media as a key enabler of collaboration and innovation – as a key influence within organization. Outperformers are embracing new models of working that tap into the collective intelligence of their employees and its networks to devise new ideas and solutions for increased profitability and growth.

And yes, after I read the IBM study, I sent it over to the grocery retailer.  Hopefully he read it.

Image credit: ReillyButler

You might not have account experience, so getting solid advice is key to knowing how to handle the intricacies of being a fresh graduate on his or her first PR internship. At Edelman, some interns are hired on as Assistant Account Executives after their internships. Here is some of the advice that got them to where they are now:

Lauren Wisniewski, AAE Digital

“Immerse yourself in news related to the accounts you work on. Knowing current industry news will allow you to make valuable recommendations and become more involved within your teams.”

Liz Fort, AAE Digital Health

“Take initiative and try to anticipate your team’s (or a project’s) needs! Keeping in mind your team and the client’s overall goals will make the transition to AAE much easier.”

Jillian Collins, AAE New Business & Marketing

“Utilize your network during your internship. Find an area of the company you’d be interested in learning more about and reach out to job shadow or take them out to lunch! You never know where your connections may lead you.”

Bill Mrazek, AAE Corporate Affairs

“Learn how the business side of the agency works. Asking leadership of different departments questions about how their department or position ties into the overall operation of the agency will set you up for growth.”

Charlotte Dretler, AAE Health

“Try to find something you’re good at, and take ownership of it. If everyone knows you’re the person who’s checking Google alerts and is on top of media monitoring (for example), it’ll make you indispensable to your team.”

Caroline Seume, AAE Digital

“Office culture is an important aspect of your experience, so make an effort to get to know your team members and develop open professional relationships with them.”

As for my advice? Be ambitious, both on your teams and in your ideas. Don’t be complacent on the amount of responsibility you currently have, and don’t be afraid that your ideas might not win out. Sometimes a project or responsibility comes along that will make you a bit nervous or overwhelmed at first, but you’ll get better and it will show you have confidence and a mind that excels under pressure. Confident, ambitious thinkers tend to find success wherever they go.

What advice would you share with new PR professionals?

Image Credit: o5com

This week I met with Bradley Horowitz, who is now in charge of Google+, in addition to his work on Google News and other brands. Google+ is trying to differentiate on the basis of integrating social with search. As noted in a recent Fast Company article, Google+ allows you to share privately.

I was impressed by Google+ Hangouts as a public relations innovation. Horowitz sent a note to his circle (a huge number of pals) and within a minute, had organized a discussion with seven people spanning from Australia to Northern Michigan. The notification for this video chat goes into the Google+ feed and you switch immediately into a brainstorm or other.

Horowitz said that the optimal length of time for a Hangout is about 20 minutes. He suggested that the customer support function is a natural; Michael Dell dropped into a Google+ Hangout the other day for his company. Yesterday in Brazil, a hundred sports and entertainment figures did Hangouts, with large numbers of global participants. And this week the New York Times hosted a hangout with Susan Rice, US Ambassador to the UN. It was promoted on the paper’s home page (image at bottom).

He added that the brand work is still exploratory. He showed me brand pages on Google+ put up by Burberry (seemed mostly to be photos and one or two videos) and Cadbury (again photos, not so much chat, one video). He noted that there is also a hangout for chefs that may show a way forward.

A few journalists are taking the platform on air. Sarah Hill, who is a TV personality at KOMU-TV and a professor at University of Missouri Journalism School, is the best example of how to work across the media cloverleaf. This moves a journalist from local market to global.

I asked him about crisis management. We agreed this is opportune for a CEO only if agile on air and accustomed to the give and take approach witnessed in the question period in Parliament in London.

Politicians are already using Google+ Hangouts. Horowitz showed me a hysterical short video of a young female Republican challenging President Obama to show off his dance moves…which he politely declined.

Image Credit: Zack D. Smith

In addition to integrating with VW’s existing process, we were also tasked with ensuring that social media escalations would adhere to the TREAD Act (Transportation Recall Enhancement Accountability and Documentation), which mandates that all automotive manufacturers track certain customer-reported issues and report them to the National Highway and Transportation Agency. This regulatory accountability process was prompted by the infamous Firestone Tire quality issues in the late 1990s and is designed to surface product defects so recalls be made proactively. Volkswagen’s Michigan team was already handling these issues for other communications channels, and as a team we decided they could also take on this tracking for social media.

With these parameters in place we worked to determine the right toolset for our community managers, keeping in mind our existing process and being mindful that the increased load would not disrupt or negatively impact other teams within the organization.

Desk.com was selected as the most efficient platform for moderation and escalation within social channels. In partnership with their team, we developed a solution in which every incoming post is monitored by our community managers – those which are appropriate for escalation must include first and last name, vehicle model and year and zip code prior to escalation.

Desk.com allows us to respond to every Customer CARE issue within social media; the Michigan team researches the customer, vehicle and incident to formulate a response that our community managers post back to the customer. Desk.com merged seamlessly into VW’s existing process and the effect has resulted in a direct increase in brand sentiment. More importantly, in our first seven months with Volkswagen the team monitored over 1.5 million posts and escalated nearly 1,500 cases to the Customer CARE team. Those customers would have been invisible to VW before we deployed our social Customer CARE program.

Consumers frequently write back after we resolve an issue to express thanks; we are now tracking this post-resolution sentiment and report it back to Volkswagen on a regular basis. Additionally, when we see a comment that would be of interest to Volkswagen’s product planners we escalate it internally so that team can spot trends that lead to strategic decisions based on what our community is saying. Volkswagen’s recent decision to bring the Golf R model to the United States was the direct result of consumer and enthusiast feedback; if enough people lobby on social media, that feedback could potentially lead to a similar change in the product lineup.

The feedback from Volkswagen has been incredibly positive. Our ability to answer customers so efficiently within social media and even shift sentiment is very effective. Most importantly, it demonstrates Volkswagen’s commitment to its customers and the products it sells in the United States.

There’s no shortage of commentary around Facebook as the smoke literally builds around it’s engine while the social media rocket prepares for IPO liftoff. This piece won’t be full of rational analysis but rather gut intuition. Here are a few things to chew on as you think about the global future with or without Facebook.

Zuckerberg Isn’t Steve Jobs, But He’s Jobs-Like
Mark Zuckerberg gets social like Steve Jobs got design. Furthermore, both share a core foundational value which is irrationally committed to making products and experiences which please their own sensibilities first and the market second. Does this guarantee Facebook’s success? No, but it does guarantee that there will always be a vision and if you look up Facebook’s governance structure, you’ll realize that it’s a company being set up to be purpose and vision led. Bottom line, you’re not betting on or against Facebook, but really Mark Zuckerberg.

Facebook Is Today’s Telephone, E-mail & Internet For Many
Think about how you use Facebook, how your children use it (if you have them and they are old enough) and how your parents use it. It’s already moving past “social network” status and moving toward something which looks more like lifeline to the outside world. In conventional wars of the past, communication lines such as telephone would be cut so the enemy could not communicate. If conventional war broke out today—generals would plan to take the Internet out because of platforms like Facebook. Think about it.

Ecosystems Trump Products
Facebook was never a product from day one—it started as a social network and it’s been steadily building up an ecosystem ever since. It’s on our mobile devices, it connects with our Websites, it offers it’s own line of credit, it has apps and developer communities built around it and it’s spawned hundreds of start ups that employ thousands of people who would not be in their line of work if it were not for Facebook. The company has already gotten to this point with a significant advantage in that it looks more like an octopus than it does a shark gobbling up everything in it’s path.

Big Business Is Built On Addictive Behaviors
Facebook is extremely addictive and one can find themselves spending a good chunk on their day there either working, playing or doing a combination of the two. Gambling became big business because of this. Drug trafficking, while illegal in most cases is big business and so are food industries built on menus with addictive items. As long as Facebook remains addictive to use, it will find a way to build business around it.

Global & Local Are The Future
While Facebook is still working on markets like Russia and China—there’s no dispute that it’s well into the process of being a global phenomenon and in addition, it can be especially relevant in local markets. Any local business which is self sustaining or part of a larger company can have a presence and run it with the local knowledge of their own markets. It is this combination which positions Facebook as something of a “virus” with the ability for it to “infect” markets through the people who use it.

Personally, I would not bet against Facebook. Even GM which announced this week that they were pulling out of Facebook advertising spending concedes that they are committed to other ways of integrating it (via content etc.). GM isn’t betting against Facebook as much as deciding display ads weren’t working for them. Of course, I could be wrong on all of the above—but intuitively my instincts are telling me, “don’t bet against Mark Zuckerberg”.

Image credit: markopako

Here are five things to watch out for if you are targeting a youth audience (under 18 years old):

1. Know Your Stuff When it Comes to COPPA and TRUSTe Compliance.

COPPA guidelines should serve as framework for any kid-focused promotion or campaign to ensure that it’s legally acceptable and protects the privacy of participating children. Another factor to consider is whether your digital properties are TRUSTe compliant. If using any TRUSTe compliant digital properties, you will need to work with a representative from the company’s Compliance team to make sure its privacy and safety standards are met as well. Doing the upfront work to make sure you are COPPA and TRUSTe compliant will make your company’s legal team extremely happy and ensure you are protecting the privacy of the children involved.

2. Don’t Collect Children’s Personal Information Online or Work With Partners or Businesses That Do.

If you are focused on kids under the age of 18, it is not advisable to collect any information other than what’s reasonably necessary for a child to participate. ”Personal information” is typically defined as full name, home address, email address, date of birth, telephone number or any other information that allows someone to identify or contact the child. The information you collect will dictate the stringency of the guidelines that you, and any third-party vendors you are working with, need to meet. Furthermore, parental consent will be needed regardless if a child is under or over the age of 13, and there is significant legal liability tied to the company’s brand in the event that children’s’ identities are made vulnerable.

3. ”Going Social” Gets Tricky

The most popular online destinations (e.g. Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter, etc.) do not allow children under the age of 13 to register with their sites, but this doesn’t prevent them from joining anyway. Roughly 7.5 million users on Facebook are kids 13 and under who have registered with incorrect birth dates so they can gain access to the site. Technically the onus falls on the technology social sites use to verify the child’s age, the child to be honest when registering and parents to be aware of the social sites on which their child has registered.. Huge gray area, right? Yes, there is some wiggle room here, but from a legal and COPPA compliance standpoint it’s not recommended to encourage kids to visit social sites to engage with your brand. If you want to incorporate a social element check out kid-focused networks (e.g. Club Penguin, Togetherville, What’s What) and see if they fit your needs.

4. Don’t Forget the Parent Audience

Regardless of their level of involvement, it’s important not to ignore the parents who are keeping track of what their kids are doing online. Think through the messaging that will be sent to them and if it’s appropriate to engage them any further. Even if they will just receive participation notifications, be sure to clearly explain the child’s engagement with the brand and any pertinent information that will make the parent comfortable with his or her child’s participation.

5. Be Wary of Offering Shiny Things

Today’s youth are likely to engage with your brand if you can offer a fun game for them to play or a prize. Offering prizes will drum up excitement, but remember you must follow COPPA guidelines to execute a giveaway. Steps of execution that will need to be thought through include where to host the giveaway, defining who is eligible to participate and prize fulfillment. If the giveaway is open to kids under the age of 13, Facebook is out as a hosting option due to its terms of service, and a parent must be involved to approve of his or her child’s participation and provide any personal information needed for fulfillment, regardless of where you are hosting the program. Consider the cost of execution and potential COPPA compliance hurdles before committing to a giveaway.

There are more logistics to work through when speaking to young consumers, but tapping into this burgeoning group of tastemakers and influencers can be invaluable to a brand.

Do you work with a brand that wants to reach out to young consumers? If so, what experience have you had working in this market segment?

Image Credit: James F Clay

How does your company treat its employees? The answer matters. According to the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer, an organization’s reputation as an employer is critical to its overall trustworthiness: “Treating employees well” is the third-most important action a company can take to build public trust, behind only listening to customers and offering quality products. Indeed, a track record as a trustworthy employer bolsters a company’s broader corporate reputation with audiences beyond current and prospective employees.

To that end, companies often ask us what they should do to make any number of “best places to work” listings. The reality is that there’s no quick ticket to the top: A company’s employer brand develops over time and reflects the overall relationship employees have with your organization. If your company is serious about building its reputation as an employer, first take an honest look at your organization’s employee experience:

• Are there specific things that need to be addressed before your company deserves a spot on an employer of choice list?
• How strong are the connections you’re forging – between leaders and employees, between employees and their peers and between employees and customers?
• What data do you have, such as engagement surveys or exit interviews, that indicate areas to improve or amplify?

Once your company is confident its reputation as an employer is solid, seek out external recognition frequently and proactively. Here are six actions you can take, starting with your own employees:

1. Initiate a Conversation About What Makes Your Workplace Unique

Ask your own employees what brought them to your company – and what has kept them there. Ask managers to nominate employees who aren’t afraid to speak up– they’ll know who they are– and tap participants in leadership development programs or solicit input openly on your intranet or an internal social media platform such as Yammer. Such stories make powerful proof points when seeking external visibility. Conversely, should your company experience challenges in the future, these stories can serve as “reasons to believe,” small nuggets of evidence that the organization can stick it out and succeed. Think about interesting ways to communicate these anecdotes – what about asking employees to submit videos of their kids explaining what Mom or Dad does at work, or having employees post “why I work here” to the company’s Twitter feed in under 150 characters?

On a related note, know what people are saying about your company’s employee experience online via job-rating sites (Glassdoor, Hallway, Jobitorial, Vault, CareerBliss, Indeed) and social sites, including industry-specific forums such as CafePharma, FinBox or AbovetheLaw. You may uncover misperceptions that will shape the story you tell about your company’s work environment. And be sure to align your employer brand story with overall corporate positioning so that the face you present externally is consistent.

2. Tap Employees as Ambassadors

The Trust Barometer clearly indicates regular employees (especially those with technical expertise) are among acompany’s most trusted spokespeople. Seek out volunteers to serve as company advocates: Certify them to advocate appropriately via social media, offer them shareable, compelling content to post and feature them in your recruiting materials. Many companies make ambassadors available to chat with job candidates via the company’s recruiting Twitter feed or LinkedIn group. Others encourage employees to provide a “day in the life of” view into the company by posting photos, status updates and videos that illustrate their experience. Furthermore, from a reactive standpoint, ambassadors can step up and help defend the company from detractors.

Companies typically embark on such programs by first understanding the risks of encouraging employees to talk about the company online, then mitigating those concerns by introducing online behavior policies that ambassadors can easily comprehend and apply. Sometimes training (on company positioning, communication skills or online engagement) is helpful. From there, it’s a matter of equipping ambassadors with authentic, relatable content that they feel comfortable sharing with friends, be it on Facebook or at the store.

3. Establish Your Online Presence in the Places Job-Seekers Go

Yes, it’s important for a company to tell a compelling story on its own websites and channels. But increasingly, candidates are seeking information from a wider array of venues, including social networks, employer rating sites and the forums mentioned above. Make sure your employer brand shows up in all these places through a combination of paid advertising, employee ambassador outreach and multimedia storytelling that illustrates what working at your organization is all about. And don’t forget to reflect your brand in job descriptions, which often end up forwarded or posted on sites other than your own. Reading a position description may be the first experience a candidate has with your company, so seize the opportunity to convey your company’s employee experience, not just to list job requirements.

4. Don’t Forget About Media

New communication channels seem to emerge almost daily, yet traditional media is still highly influential. In our experience, employee of choice recognition alone is not enough to make a story outside of trade announcements. But such recognition can serve as a timely news hook to bolster an overall strategic media plan with key business media, HR trades and relevant local media.

Moreover, the employee stories you collect in pursuit of employer of choice awards or for your overall brand story can make for great local media coverage, particularly when it comes to job creation stories. What about the manager of your company’s local plant who started as a line operator and worked her way up? Or a group of young employees hired via a diversity recruiting partnership with an area university?

Similarly, if you’re prepping your CEO for a media interview, make sure he or she is equipped to at least make mention of the company’s employee experience – after all, your employer brand is inextricably linked to your organization’s overall reputation. Employer of choice positioning is also valuable when developing third-party advocates, particularly community leaders who want to know how your company is creating local jobs.

5. Meet Prospective Employees Where They Congregate

Just as you should connect with employees via online destinations they’re already visiting, seek to attend the events your prospects do, irrespective of industry. For example, in an age where many employers are looking to hire talent with strong digital chops, participating in premier digital events like SXSW Interactive can be incredibly valuable. To maximize your presence at such venues, incorporate your employee experience into speaking engagements, influencer meetings and conversations with other attendees. This effort should complement your company’s executive visibility and corporate reputation strategy.

6. Selectively Seek Out Employer of Choice Recognition

Naturally, many companies covet a spot on Fortune’s annual Best Places to Work For list, the U.S.’s most prominent such honor. Yet many other recognition programs may prove more achievable and effective in connecting your organization with the kinds of employees you need most.

Go after the awards that support your company’s recruiting and retention goals: Expanding your presence in a particular market? Apply for location-based awards (such as Chicago Tribune’s Best Places to Work in Chicago.) If you’re in an industry where the war for talent is especially fierce or need to recruit employees with specific skills, seek out sector-specific programs (such as ComputerWorld’s Best Places to Work in IT.) If you’re looking to diversify your workforce, aim for awards that appeal to the type of employee you need to recruit, such as Working Mother’s Best Companies for Multicultural Women or BusinessWeek’s Best Places to Launch a Career.

About Us

Edelman’s Employee Engagement Practice helps organizations accelerate business performance, delivered by highly engaged and trusted employees. We do this by making meaningful, trust-building connections — connecting employees with the company, connecting employees with each other, and connecting employees with the outside world. We have a global network of employee engagement specialists who can develop engagement strategy; deploy the tools and processes to deliver it; create the multimedia channels and content that support it; and design the insight mechanisms to measure it.

As we approach the end of the Spring conference season, and in the run-up to BlogWorld New York, I got to reflecting on how my approach to presentations has evolved over the last while.

Preparing a presentation for a conference is no mean feat (I’d estimate I spend at least 30 hours on each presentation I create for conferences; often more). With that level of time investment, especially if you’re creating multiple presentations each year, you need to make sure you invest your time well.

This year, I’ve started approaching presentations in a new way. I’ve thrown out the PowerPoint*-driven way of planning my presentations, and turned towards a more story-driven way of building them out. My goal: creating presentations that speak more directly and relevant to the people I’m speaking to.

Here, in seven steps, is how I’m preparing my BlogWorld NYE presentation. You can use these seven steps yourself, to improve your own presentations.

1. Decide on your topic.

Simple enough, sometimes. Other times, it may take a little more thinking.

• Who is the audience? Who is attending the conference, and who from that group do you want to attend your session? For BlogWorld, I actually broke it down to a few sample job titles of people I want to ‘speak to’.
• What do they want? Once you’ve figured out who you’re aiming to speak to, think about them more and figure out what they may want to get out of the event. Whether you’ve already figured out your topic or not, that will help you focus the meat of your presentation on them. Write it down, and refer back to this every time you sit down to work on the presentation.

2. Create your framework

The next step is to create the high-level framework for the presentation (I’ve taken inspiration from Cliff Atkinson’s book Beyond Bullet Points here).

Break down your session – what do you want to cover in the time you have? How long do you have to present? How long is the Q&A? Plot it out in a two-column table, with your main topic in a single cell on the left (as a reminder to ladder back to it) and multiple rows within this in the second column – you’ll build on this in later steps:

3. Flesh it out

At this point you already have a bare-bones outline of your persentation. The next step is to flesh it out. I do this with the addition of additional detail to the sub-topic column, and two new columns in the table.

Firstly, figure out how you want to prioritize your topics. You know how long you have and you know what you want to cover, so break it down. You can change it later, but it again helps down the road as you build your presentation.

Secondly, break each sub-topic down into components – this represents the narrative that your presentation will ultimately follow. As you do so, additional thoughts will come to you on soundbites, stats, reference points and even visuals. Note them in the final column here for future reference.

See what we’re doing here? We’re building a kind of hierarchy. By the time you’re done, the sub-topics should read as the key points within your presentation subject, and the sub-topics tell a more detailed story of those key points. Each row ladders back to the high-level topic, and each column tells the story of the presentation at a different level of detail.

By this point you should be finding that you’re forcing yourself to take a hard look at your presentation flow, identifying pieces that need to move around, either vertically or horizontally, within your structure. You should also be getting excited as the presentation takes shape.

4. Write it out

At this point, you’re at the stage of writing out your presentation. Yes, that’s right – write it out.

The level you take this to is up to you. You could just make more detailed notes on the breakdown of your detailed presentation elements, or you could write it out in full. The latter is more time-consuming, but can also give you a better idea of where you stand time-wise. While I rarely refer to speaking notes on-stage, I do prefer to write things out in full the first time so I can walk through it out-loud and see how it sounds.

If you choose to write it out in full, a good guide to length is shooting for roughly 110 words for each minute you’ve allocated to a topic. Your speaking rate may vary, so adjust according to your own style.

5. Start the deck

Step number five of seven, and you haven’t even opened PowerPoint or Keynote yet! Well, now you can. The difference is, rather than creating a presentation based on slides, you’re now creating it based on a narrative. Go through your notes, and drop them into the speaking notes section of slides. Don’t worry about the front end; just the notes.

You can create slides based on the topical break-down you’ve created – the more straight-forward approach – or you can do it based on natural transitions within the speaking notes you’ve created – your choice.

The key part here, again, is that you’re building your deck based on the topic and not based on shoe-horning specific visuals into slides, which often happens if you let slides drive the topic instead of vice versa.

6. Visuals!

Now that you’ve built your deck, the final step is the visuals. Happily for the audience, with the way you’ve planned this out, your visuals now support the material rather than the reverse, and you should be able to avoid “death by awful PowerPoint slides”. Refer to your topic notes, refer to the visuals you jotted down throughout your process, and pick visuals that reinforce what you know you’ll be saying rather than the reverse.

7. Refine and rehearse

You’re almost there. The last step is editing – my least-favourite but possibly most-valuable step. Don’t close things down and wait for the presentation; go over your deck and make sure it works. Sanity-check it with a colleague (or, if they’re really tolerant, your partner).

Finally, rehearse the hell out of your presentation. There’s nothing worse than a presenter who umms and aahs his or her way through their presentation, and you’re not going to have slides full of 12-point font behind you as a crutch if you forget, so make sure you know your presentation inside and out.

You should know your presentation well enough that you can accommodate interruptions without getting flustered (because, as anyone who presents a lot will tell you, it happens all the time. Sigh…).

Conclusion

There you have it. I’ve used this approach for a couple of presentations, and found I come at them with a much more thoughtful approach than I used to. It takes a bit more of a time investment, and it means you need to know your stuff, but I think it’s worth it.

What do you think? If you give a lot of presentations, how do you go about planning them?

If you’ll be at BlogWorld, I’m presenting “Six Important Shifts in Social Media Strategy” at 10:15 on June 5 and let me know if you think this technique worked for my session! (If you haven’t registered yet, use the code “SDaveF10″ to receive a 10% discount on your registration fee.)

*Microsoft is an Edelman client.

Image credit: evablue

My name is Chris Rooney and I’m excited to be your new community manager for EdelmanDigital.com. I believe that great community management is a little like improv: it draws the community’s participation, keeps the conversation fresh and “goes with the flow,” so to speak. That’s the style I try to imitate.

Here are three ways community managers should imitate improv actors:

Always say “yes”

In comedic improv, the best players always agree to new directions for the scene. They accept new perspectives and ideas, which keeps the conversation fresh and moving forward. Likewise, in community management, when a member of your community introduces a new perspective, run with it! You might be surprised by the interesting new directions the conversation can go.

Be generous

Great improv players give generously to fellow players and the audience. There’s nothing worse than sharing an idea and seeing it rejected or even just lukewarmly accepted. Likewise, community managers should graciously encourage audience participation. Thank the audience for sharing their thoughts and opinions, ask questions and offer your reflections on their ideas—you’ll inspire great conversation.

Commit to the audience

As a community manager and improv player alike, you want the audience to connect with you and with each other. In the digital world, it’s too easy to detach from the conversation by never getting involved beyond the initial post. You want the audience to know that you have an interest in what they have to say and that you have your own thoughts as well, that you’re not just a brand mouthpiece. Commit to the community by participating, even when the conversation doesn’t specifically concern the brand. The members of your audience will keep talking to you in the long run.

I’m always looking for interesting views to cross-pollinate ideas across the Edelman network. Feel free to follow me on Twitter (@crooneys). Here’s to making new connections, sharing ideas and growing as a community. Thanks for having me on board!