Corporateinklings

Part of the Pitch

2009-11-06T10:39:38-05:00

Has anyone else been inundated with email from ‘Facebook’ or ‘The Facebook Team’ for the past week?

Over the past 4 days I’ve received 20 Facebook phishing emails – taking a variety of approaches to try to get me to open a file or click on a link to reset my password or update my account (I’m still getting them now as I write this blog post – increase the tally to 22).

The first one that I got was late on the October 26^th. By about mid-day on the 27^th I started to get really annoyed until I realized…this is a pitch!

I did a quick search online and sure enough, this was a story that was a perfect fit for one of our clients. Our team huddled and got a quick breaking news pitch out the door.

You never know where an opportunity will come from. Usually, we’re scouring the news morning, noon and night for the latest breach – but in this case it was right in front of my face. We take an incredibly aggressive approach to media relations, and finding creative ways to tie our clients into breaking news stories is one of our biggest differentiators. Being a part of the pitch gave me a jumpstart on the news and at the end of the day we had some nice wins for the client.

- By Dan Brennan

Trust Your Gut. It Works. Really.

2009-11-03T11:47:47-05:00

Are you quick to make a decision?

On a daily basis, I pick up the phone and go to toe-to-toe with the industry’s best to talk technology and information security. I have to think on my feet and engage quickly with the next question to find the perfect fit. Sometimes these conversations lead to a surprising opportunity, where I need to decide in real-time if it’s something worth my client’s time and resources.

As a result, I’m learning to rely more and more on my gut than on analysis. My tried and true pros-and-cons approach doesn’t always account for the unknown: an opportunity of great value that evolves through dialogue.

Tackling tasks that I’m unsure of no longer frightens me. And at the end of day, I feel empowered – like I actually changed someone’s mind or found something no one else thought of.

Take it from me: Next time you find yourself holding back – take that leap of faith. You might surprise yourself and find something new, exciting and valuable.

- By Amelia DeCesare

First Page of 1,000-Page Novel

2009-10-26T12:32:08-04:00

How’s this for a Monday afternoon project: Write the first page of a 1,000 page novel. What would you say? Where would you begin?

Or how about this one: Write something – anything – and then leave it somewhere. Anywhere, as long as it is within a 2-minute walk of your office. Connect what you write to the place where you’re leaving it. It can be about anything, to anyone, in any form.

When there are no limits, what do you write?

I don’t know if these ‘assignments’ are being wasted – but they were among the first dished out to a handful of students taking a seminar with Jonathan Safran Foer. Like many recognized writers, he’s also teaching, in this case, to unformed 18 year olds who probably think they know more than they do, but that may be just fine.

It made me realize how creativity gets short shrift, almost everywhere, and especially at work. When’s the last time you heard something that inspired you? Much less read anything related to work that spoke to your soul?

If you think it’s a ridiculous question, that’s part of the problem. I’m sure we’re guilty of it, too, even here, at a small company, where news and currents move easily. We’re rushed, cryptic, too focused on the 140-character synopsis.

Maybe we’ll start asking our candidates to write their first page of their own 1,000-page novel? Or a message to anyone, about anything, left in a random place? Though we should probably start with us.

- By Amy Bermar

Work Smarter by Working Less

2009-10-16T14:10:59-04:00

Ahh, the Wall Street Journal: Gotta love it. Last month, the Work& Family column told us we can work smarter by working less. Not a bad idea, right? But read between the lines of the Boston Consulting Group survey that spawned this hardly new observation, and it’s really quite frightening.

It seems that BCG is worried its consultants don’t have enough of a life. They’re working too hard, and keeping their b-berries on too long. So they made a new policy: 12 separate teams would have to ‘take a block of predictable time off every week.’ This ‘groundbreaking four-year study’ is set to be published in the Harvard Business Review this month under "Making Time Off Predictable--and Required."

I’ll admit, I was expecting something noteworthy that we could apply here at Corporate Ink. From what I’ve seen in the past 15 months, the more the economy has suffered, the harder everyone is working. Too many of us work nights, and weekends, certainly in dribs-and-drabs. While it’s all rather compelling, even addicting, I have learned from my own experience that a true break is the rest we need.

So what did BCG come up with? They’d start with one night a week on their own, with no email or expectations of work. Which means, of course, that it was still fine – even expected – to work six nights a week.

It’s no surprise that these highly competitive folks feared losing something – an edge, a promotion, a bonus – if they didn’t stay plugged in. But why didn’t anyone – at the Journal, or BCG, or HBR – call out the lie here? Improving work life balance doesn’t mean working 6 nights a week, instead of seven. It means having a real life, with real dinner, 7 nights a week, ideally. And when you tell your employees you believe in work-life balance, mean it. And make it possible.

- By Amy Bermar

Taking Wednesdays Off

2009-10-14T14:28:42-04:00

Earlier this year, I started taking off one afternoon a week. Why? After 20 years of running this business, which typically means 10-hour-plus days, with little time to stop, I found my spirit, and energy, flagging by Thursday. That didn’t just have an impact on me; since culture starts at the top, and ‘the boss makes the weather’ – it was apparent to me that sustainability meant finding a way to sustain myself, too.

At first, I felt like a shirker, leaving mid-day. Often, I called in, checked email, let people know they could definitely reach me. Often, I didn’t take the time, and felt perversely proud of it. When I did take it, I sometimes felt squeamish, like I wasn’t using it wisely enough. The Wednesday afternoons I managed to leave though, were all I’d hoped them to be; unstructured, empty, open. The following morning was almost consistently high-energy, and I contributed a buzz that certainly took up the slack for anyone waiting for the weekend.

In truth, I don’t manage to take it every week, and some days, I barely get out an hour early. The guilt persists, too, especially when I see everyone else working so hard.

It’s not fair, I suppose, when the boss gets bennies that the staff can’t share, especially in a small company. What would happen if we let everyone take an afternoon off? Would clients object? Would the team be more productive? Less? Is it still valuable if you have to get the same amount of work done?

Could we make it elective?

Is anyone else doing this?

- By Amy Bermar

A Blog in Search of an Audience

2009-10-06T16:37:28-04:00

As the newest member of the CI team, this is my first blog post. I’m hoping you find mine informative, thoughtful and maybe even funny. So, here goes.

If you believe the social media junkies, blogs (and other self-generated messages) are the best way to reach your audience. Well, that may be true, but first your blog needs an audience. Which is disappointing news to a lot people out there – who launched a blog and post and post and post, only to the vast space of blog-dom. Nobody is reading. Nobody is posting back.

So here’s my question: How does a blog find an audience?

It’s actually pretty simple. What do the people who you want to read care about? That’s right: not what do you care about. What do they care about?

Here’s the thing: search engines have made it possible for people to search for the most esoteric of things – a solution to a problem.

So there’s your answer. Think back to your most recent new business pitch or customer meeting. What were the re-occurring challenges or problems that they were asking you to solve?

That’s what your blog should be about. In 200 words or less, including hyperlinks to relevant sources, tell a story about how you solved a customer problem. I guarantee that there are many more people out there who are facing the exact same challenge, and you just proved that you can help them too. Your blog, your audience, it’s a beautiful thing.

- By John Connolly

Saying "No" to Colbert

2009-10-02T17:13:56-04:00

This week, we found ourselves counseling our clients to turn down national media. The first was The Colbert Report – a venue most of our clients can only dream about being on. The second was 60 Minutes.

Are we crazy for not wanting to reach a national audience – of influencers, no less? Are we nuts for saying no?

Actually, it didn’t even take much deliberation. We suspected from the outset that neither show would do right by our clients. If you’re Steven Colbert – the point is to be funny. Our client is already finding that not all publicity is good publicity – and the risk of being the target of humor in an emotionally charged debate was too high. Sometimes – quite often, actually – saying no is the smarter approach. How do you know? Consider the audience – is it a match? Consider the media contact – where does your story fit with theirs? Now consider your own agenda: Why do you want to say yes? How much of it is the pure, personal thrill of being able to say you were there?

That last point is at least 50% of what these producers count on. It’s why people say yes when the bookers call – and fly to New York to sit in the green room of the Today Show, or the Tonight Show, for hours, waiting for their 90 seconds in the limelight, even if it does nothing for their story, or their message, or their life.

So we said no, nicely. Because some day, we might want to be swapping laughs with Colbert. For 90 seconds, anyhow.

(The 60 Minutes story is still in play.)

- By Amy Bermar

Lessons Learned from a Dying Hard Drive: There’s a Better Way to Communicate

2009-09-28T14:37:54-04:00

Hi. My name is Amelia and I am addicted to e-mail. Unlike my colleagues, who guzzle coffee or Coke to get started on their day, I can’t get going without checking my e-mail. In fact, it’s hard for me to get through any part of the day without e-mail.

If you told me I could live without e-mail – I would have said “never! I would have said “why would I want to? “

Or maybe I wouldn’t. In fact, two weeks ago, my personal laptop started acting up – blue-screen-of-death and all that. And it died. And I’m without e-mail.

I thought I’d go crazy, but I haven’t. Oddly, the conversations I have while in e-mail limbo are more engaging and surprisingly – much more effective – than those I have in e-mail. Decisions get made and plans get set in one call, not 4 e-mails. No one’s waiting for the reply.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ll still be booting up first thing in the morning and shutting down only when the in-box is empty. But in between, when getting the answer quickly matters, I’ll pick up the phone and try the power of the spoken word. If the past two weeks are any indication, I’m betting there’ll be much less in my in-box because I’ll get what I need the first time. Wow, a lesson in effective communication and productivity all from a dead computer – I knew I loved technology!

- By Amelia DeCesare

Tweeting for Customer Service

2009-09-17T10:53:31-04:00

I was stuck in the dentist office this morning, listening to my 65+ year old dentist rant about customer service – or the lack thereof. Once he got his hands out my mouth I said – “don’t waste your time with the 1-800 numbers or letters to the president of the company anymore –tweet about.”

Wow. I guess I’m really buying into this whole hype cycle. Me, who still checks books out of the library? Reads the paper in the morning? Writes and mails paper-based letters?

Yep. I am a Luddite. Except when it comes to bad service and crummy treatment of customers by companies who should have the common sense to know that it costs 10 times more to get a new customer than it does to keep an existing one.

So, in the spirit of practicing what I preach – I’m going to Tweet about how my cell phone provider charged me – a loyal customer of 10+ years – $18 to upgrade to data services. I’m anxious to see what happens. If it doesn’t work, there’s always a hand-written letter to the president of the company. Or maybe a new cell phone provider.

- By Susan Bassett

Fortune Favors the Tweeting

2009-08-20T14:38:22-04:00

The time: Late morning.

The scene: E-mail servers unresponsive - probably down.

The players: Co-workers hungry for information - and resolution.

The first IM flashed urgently on my desktop: Outlook wasn't able to connect to our email server. One quick check into my own Outlook confirmed the problem.

Time to call Crystal Tech, our e-mail hosting company. I envisioned long minutes of having to navigate through an automated phone maze. But I couldn't get through - their phone number wasn't even ringing. I figured I wasn't the only client calling in that morning. So I checked out their website's Live Chat. No luck there either - the pop-up window politely informed me that there were 107 people ahead of me, and that I'd be waiting for a while.

What to do?

Hearing my laments, one of my co-workers suggested I tweet about it - advice we often give to our own clients! At first, I was skeptical - what's my one tweet gonna do? Clearly I wasn't the only one trying to connect with them. My comment would just go unnoticed, lost forever in the Twitterverse.

Not so.

Within the hour, a Crystal Tech rep replied to me - a short note indicating that they were working to resolve the problem and linking me to a forum update on the outage. Two back-and-forth tweets later, she also informed me that they're going to figure out what caused the issue and send an update on that, as well.

Soon thereafter, our email was working fine.

Outages are to be expected - technology is imperfect. But I applaud Crystal Tech for not only starting an update feed on their website, but also monitoring Twitter for customer complaints. They just moved themselves up another notch on my "Hey-They're-A-Pretty-Good-Vendor" list.

Taking the time to communicate with individual customers in real time... well, here's to one more satisfied customer. And Twitter? Proving its value yet again.

- By Tatiana Rutledge