Now maybe your CEO, CTO, MD, and Managers already regularly publish their personal and professional thoughts on an external or internal blog – so your company may well be ahead of the rest of us. Technology companies tend to be ahead of more traditional companies when it comes to open communication and un-planned un-reviewed publishing.

Not all senior management feel comfortable addressing the unwashed masses. Staff morale might be low, management may not be appreciated and a wrong word could lead to negative feedback and grapevine grumblings. Communication is crucial to the credibility of the Board, but it has to be good communication, crafted with the audience in mind.

Enter the Internal Communications department, stage right.

It’s no secret that Internal Comms directs messaging – we shape messages and consider the themes that need to be addressed. This in no way means we’re leading the business, but it does mean we’re involved with engaging with people across the company, and helping to shape culture, morale and even productivity.

How the Internal Comms department can help shape your CEO’s messages

• By listing themes s/he should cover;
  Internal Communications may well be ‘closer to the ground’ than the CEO, and with all the feedback channels, they may well know what’s on people’s minds. The CEO’s articles should address the issues that the staff are concerned about.
• By reviewing and amending the language and content;
  While leaving the personal ‘voice’ of the CEO intact, an Internal Comms specialist can polish the vocabulary to make it more accessible and meaningful to the audience. The review can ensure that the audience is kept in mind so that nothing is said, while innocent, that could inflame a situation on the ground.
• By writing the first draft of the whole message and asking the CEO to amend, expand and customise the article;
  This puts the responsibility on the Internal Communications department, and it’s quite possible that the article might not ‘sound’ like the CEO or might not tackle the topics that the CEO is actually involved in. If the Internal Comms specialist has a good relationship with the CEO then writing the messages can be a collaborative effort.

I’m saying ‘message’ but I could mean an internal blog, an intranet article, a speech, a presentation or simply a 40 word ‘quote’ for the internal magazine.

Not everyone is a writer; not everyone is a communicator. I wouldn’t know the first thing about running a large company and juggling share holders and finances, and I don’t expect serious business people to know everything about tone, voice, relevancy, context, timeliness and how messages can ‘land’. That’s my job.

I do expect serious business people to recognise the importance of communicating with people across the company, and the enabling power of good clean honest comms. I expect great things from our leaders, and they should expect great things from our Comms teams.

If you’re a manager at any level in any size company, a good way to impress and motivate your teams and departments is through good communications. Imagine how your career might develop if your teams and departments share your vision and goals? Get the Internal Communications department involved with your objectives and comms, and see how fast your career takes off! Imagine how managers above you will feel when they see you creating better results for the business! Ignore the power of Internal Comms at your peril!

If you would like to share or tweet this article, the Short URL is: http://kilobox.net/1003

Photo credit: * hiro008

I realise I’ve just opened with three geeky nouns that may make no sense to half my readers; I’ll start again.

‘TweetCamp’ was the name of the Twitter get together that I attended and participated in on Saturday. It was hosted by GumTree in the GumTree / eBay / PayPal offices in Richmond.

As it was a ‘Camp’, the day was fairly unstructured, with a good deal of the content being provided by attendees, who were all active participants, rather than passive ‘attendees’. The organisers had worked with various sponsors to provide food, drinks and treats for everyone, so there was a good buzz going right from the 9:30am breakfast with mymuesli.

We were all there to talk about our use of Twitter; I first heard about TweetCamp on Twitter (tickets arranged through EventBrite) and I signed up without really knowing what it was all about. I was excited to think I might meet some of my friends and followers from Twitter.

As it turned out it was a privilege to meet four Internal Communication professionals that I dutifully follow on Twitter.

@AbigailH had volunteered to help out during the day, and it was great to hear her thoughts in the various conversation circles we shared.

@DanaSML and I had expected to meet, and it was so good to see her face to face and learn about her Canadian background.

@JenniWheller advises Blue Ball clients on Internal Communications, so it was fab to hear how companies can and should use social media with staff throughout a business.

@AbiSignorelli dropped in too to see what was going on, and reminded me of how important audio communications can be for a workforce.

So that was us, all Internal Communications professionals of one sort or another, having a chat about Twitter and social media from behind the firewall. For my part, I was curious about policies and guidance, as my company doesn’t feel the nebulous (to them) value balances the high (to them) commercial and reputational risk. I know that sounds bleak, but let’s agree that it’s easier for high tech and media companies to embrace new media, while older, less tech orientated companies still like to feel that all they need is a good relationship with ‘the Press’ and a few dull press releases…

Later in the day (thanks for lunch guys) we arranged further conversations, and again people would flit from group to group, participating as they felt able. For myself, I was a ‘little rough’ from a team night out the night before so I don’t think I participated as best I could, but I listened intently and spoke to several individuals. I only wish I had more to bring to the group discussions. I did try to help facilitate discussion, I think, as we were of course mostly strangers to one another, and we were a diverse bunch.

The organisers took a lot of feedback about the structure, and you can bet that if they were to host TweetCamp again it would flow a little easier.

For me, the benefits were meeting people I follow on Twitter, and people who are involved with Internal Communications. I enjoyed the day, but I’m unsure what I got out of the discussions. Of course I learned a little as people shared news, views and ideas (I’m a fan of Audioboo and I learned of a wider system called Ipadio) but I’m unsure what I took away from the day other than a good feeling and some better relationships with people I listen to and admire.

You can learn more from TweetCamp’s blog.

You can read people’s TweetCamp conversations using the #tweetcamp hashtag on Twitter (Search). yes, people were tweeting through the day, and nobody was worried that so many people’s heads were down, staring at their iPhones while others were talking!

Find photos from TweetCamp on Flickr.

Here’s a few blogs about the day – @Wedge if you have another to add:

• sourceress.co.uk
• claireatwaves.tumblr.com
• WavesPR
• NevilleHobson
• MurrayNewlands
• BillyAbbott
• AmySampleWard
• EventManagerBlog
• MurrayNewlands
• BenjaminEllis

Many thanks to the organisers:

@BenjaminEllis @cyberdees @farhan @jonin60seconds

[Wedge]

If you would like to share or tweet this article, the Short URL is: http://kilobox.net/1142

Photo credit:  Benjamin Ellis, used under licence.

Jules is a friend and colleague; she volunteers her time and energy to run FirstSigns with me, and it’s great to have her perspectives on writing and communication here at kilobox communiqué.

I am on holiday in France right now, so it’s great to have a guest post from Jules. Standby for more posts from guest luminaries :)

I’ve learnt a lot about communication in the last couple of years since I’ve been working for Wedge’s voluntary organisation, and I think one of the most important things Wedge has taught me is how to respond to criticism and / or hostility (and indeed whether to!)

I’m an impulsive person, passionate, fiercely loyal and quick to anger, which makes for an explosive temperament that I’ve had to learn to control when dealing with other people. Sometimes I get emails that are pure hatred, and there was a time when such things bothered me greatly. I’d get upset and angry, and I’d respond similarly – which only really served to fuel the other person and convince them they were right to tell me what a bad person I am. These days I ignore such things completely. It’s not easy, but instead of getting upset I just laugh at them, quickly click delete and then push them from my mind completely.

Sometimes though, an email will arrive that isn’t so much hatred, as criticism, accusation and aggression. The senders of these emails aren’t deliberately trying to upset me, they are expressing (badly) their concerns and thoughts, and they need a response. Such an email arrived to my inbox this morning.

Anyone following @Wedge on Twitter may remember a few weeks ago he asked how people felt about emails without a friendly salutation. Today’s email just said: Jules. No ‘Hi’, no ‘Hello’ – just Jules. I immediately went into ‘defensive’ mode before I’d even started reading the email. This person didn’t sound friendly, they were shouting at me and I wasn’t expecting nice things.

As it turned out I was right – the email was critical and accusatory, and it made me angry, but my hackles had already been raised so I wonder whether I would have felt quite so bad if the email had begun in a friendlier fashion? Would I have read the email differently if I hadn’t been on the defensive? A year ago I would have responded to the email immediately; I too would have avoided a friendly salutation and my words would have been sharp. But another thing Wedge has taught me is that such situations need time for reflection – and I think I’ve finally learnt how to reflect! He’s also taught me that being nice to nasty people completely unbalances them, and throws water on their fire.

Instead of responding straight away, I closed down my emails, turned everything off and went into town to buy a new rug for my kitchen floor. On returning, I made a cup of tea, took a few deep breaths and sat outside with my iPod to read the email again. This time I was able to read between the lines and through the criticisms, and get to what the person was really asking me. And you know what, it’s really not so bad. The person is clearly confused and ignorant of the subject matter, and has difficulty expressing hir concerns eloquently, which resulted in an aggressive tone. I do know and understand the subject matter, so I’m confident I can respond in a pleasant, understanding, informative and professional manner.

And what’s more, I’m going to be starting my email with ‘Hello’!

[Jules]

Photo credit: Randy Son of Robert

About the author

Jules runs the largest eraser emporium in the world (AFAIK) and you can find out more at originalerasers.co.uk – follow @Julesxv or @OriginalErasers on Twitter.

Jules also runs FirstSigns with me, and is a keen writer with an eye for detail like an electron microscope.

I maintain a publishing schedule, a pipeline of urgent and upcoming stories, and so I’m constantly living in the future, mentally speaking.

I wonder if journalists feel like this. Their mother says, “gosh, look what happened with the MP expense scandal today” and the journalist offspring thinks “heck, I wrote that yesterday Mum”.

I talk to content authors about the date their article is scheduled for, but somehow the dates don’t seem ‘real’ to me until we’re actually into the relevant week. There’s so much going on each week, I don’t let myself think about next month for fear that I’ll get things confused. This means I have to have a solid schedule, and it’s crucial to me that I can trust my diary and schedule.

The file I keep my schedule in is open all day long, and I refer to it frequently through the day, and update it a couple of times due to the shifting priorities of our company.

Like, today is Thursday; I know that only because I’ve just had an important Friday deadline brought forward to today – so if tomorrow was Friday, today must be Thursday! But I didn’t wake knowing it was Thursday, I just got up in zombie mode and had my body get me on to the train and bus that make up my gods awful commute.

It doesn’t feel like a Thursday to me, I’m already worried about Monday’s main story (from an Exec Board member of course) and the manager’s cascade slides I’ve got to put together for tomorrow and Monday.

Time matters, comms must be timely, but I myself don’t care what ‘today’ is – today’s deadline is tomorrow’s news story, so for me, the weekend is the only ‘now’ I have.

[Wedge]

If you would like to share or tweet this article, the Short URL is: http://kilobox.net/1126

Photo credit: rh303 a.k.a. genitopower

One of the reasons I don’t go to the gym or night school is because I’m so tired and busy all the damn time.

I really would like to spend more time in my home office, working for the voluntary organisation I founded back in 2002. I would like to spend more time online networking with professional communicators, but it’s all I can do to keep up with my Twitter connections.

I spend most of my time in the office, in bed, and on my commute to the office.

I wish I had time to join a body, like the International Association of Business Communicators or Melcrum or the British Association of Communicators in Business (or even the Chartered Institute of Public Relations) but I fear that I’m already overwhelmed with my communications duties. You’ll notice there’s no lunch break shown on my pie chart :(

Half the time I reckon I should do more online, increase my blogging, launch a company, publish my novel and plunge further into professional networking, maybe on Linked In. The other half I think about unplugging, reading more books, writing, and ignoring the transient online hullabaloo. What’s a boy to do?

[Wedge]

If you would like to share or tweet this article, the Short URL is: http://kilobox.net/1118

But, it’s human nature to gabble on isn’t it? Some people just have a need to fill the silence, to hear their own voice. I know I can twitter on and on if I feel like I’ve got a captive audience ;)

Sometimes, I feel that people offer their opinions when what we’re asking for is their professional assessment and for their action. Sometimes, I feel people should just get on with the task in hand rather than express their personal preferences.

Too often, we mistake ‘I don’t like it’ gut feelings with ‘this won’t work because of X’ professional assessments. Even in big business, we champion that which we like, sometimes regardless of the practical evidence.

Internal and External Communications can suffer from this wind-bag pontificating too I fear. Some time ago, I was asked to publish an intranet article celebrating the ‘birthday’ of one of our computer systems. OK, that’s fine, but you see, the article had no story, no news, no messages.

A fifty word article saying ’something has happened’ is not worth my time, nor that of our readers. Articles need to be relevant to the audience – there has to be some point to the article for a good section of the readers. The relevancy and richness can be improved by providing enough context about the subject matter, and about why it’s necessary to communicate about it.

Articles need to be succinct; sometimes they can even be short, but they must offer enough background information and ‘news’ so as to be interesting to the average reader, even if they are not personally affected by the news.

If some milestone has been reached by a team or passed by an application / system then it’s perfectly fine to say what the team or software does for the business, the trials and tribulations faced in the early days, the improvements that have been implemented and plans for the future. It can be great to slip in some hard numbers regarding cash spent or money saved. A decent ‘quote’ from the senior manager thanking the team goes a long way to pleasing people and filling space.

If you want a ‘news’ article that just says ’something has happened’ then you better make sure that it matters to people, or it shouldn’t get past your editor or onto your intranet or newsletter. If you have nothing to say, don’t expect your editor to say anything.

Good communications need to be:

• accurate;
• relevant;
• timely;
• concise;
• contextual;
• rich.

[Wedge]

If you would like to share or tweet this article, the Short URL is: http://kilobox.net/1111

Photo credit:  Laura Borges-Ribeiro

Or you can read my thoughts on podcasting within your company below – not an exact transcript, but identical content to the short audio blog.

The popularity of podcasting and video blogging, ala YouTube, must have some impact on the way we communicate within our companies. I know when I publish messages from our CEO on our intranet they are popular and valued, generating a wealth of feedback. There are many people within the company who don’t have access to the intranet though, so our CEO, and other execs, record the message on a phone line, so people can ring up and listen. Basically, it’s podcasting over the phone. Several people listen each week. Not a huge audience, but if they don’t have access to the intranet article, we have a duty to provide alternative communications.

But personally, I’m not sure the popularity of podcasting and video blogging on the world wide web should influence professional business critical communications too much.

My main concern, outside of the technological hurdles for the listener or viewer, is the signal to noise ratio.

Even in a high-quality podcast, packed with news, relevant information and clear instructions, it’s still incredibly time consuming to take in, and almost impossible to refer back to.

A 1000 word company news bulletin can be understood in under a minute, or scan read for the juicy bits in a matter of seconds. It’s always there to quickly refer back to as well.

A podcast of vodcast on the other hand, takes minutes to get to the crux of the matter, and is damn near impossible to refer back to a month later.

So why am I mini-podcasting (with AudioBoo) now for kilobox communiqué? Because this isn’t inside the company I work for, and I accept that podcasting reaches a different audience than the usual written method of communicating.

Prove me right and help me understand how new media can improve Internal Communications.

[Wedge]

If you would like to share or tweet this article, the Short URL is: http://kilobox.net/1104

“Hi Wedge, I’ve got a couple of podcasts I’d like to pop on the intranet for people to download and listen to.”

“OK”, say I, “send ‘em over or send me the link and I’ll take a look.”

Email arrives, stage left.

Wedge listens to the MP3s with a less than hopeful expression.

“Hi, yes, well. The podcasts were produced by an external, commercial, company, and therefore we don’t have permission to use them.”

“But I brought them from my previous company; we used them all the time there.”

“I see; you’ve brought stuff from your previous company into our company, aha. Your previous company may have had permission to use them.”

“I was given them during a training session.”

“For personal use then…”

“Well, yes, but can’t I share them online?”

“No, have you heard of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act? No? How about Napster? Pirate Bay?”

“…”

“This material is owned by someone else, and without express permission, we can’t share it. Our legal team are on hand to discuss such matters if you’d like to learn more.”

Sheesh. I mean, sheesh.

Everything is owned. Unless there is a clause that says ‘use me, share me, take me apart and use bits of me’ then you can’t just take written work, video work, audio work or anything from the Internet and plonk it on your intranet or website. It is not good enough to ‘give credit’ to the originator of the work, or hide behind the pathetic claim that you’re ‘not making any money out of it’. You wouldn’t photocopy a whole book and give it to your team, so don’t copy a podcast, video or article and slap it on your intranet.

Creative Commons is a wonderful idea, and helps people choose to share their work so others can use it. Anti-copyright or copy-left or work in the Public Domain can be shared and re-used et cetera,  but you can’t go uploading other people’s files on to your intranet. It’s rude, unprofessional and illegal.

I can’t stand it when people steal work from their previous company and bring it to use in their new company. It’s lazy, it’s cheap and it’s theft.

“But it was my work; I wrote it.” They plead in their defence. Sigh. You may have created it, but if you did so under contract, during the working day, then your previous company owns the work. You don’t get to keep a copy ‘for reference’. If this is news to you, or it’s too crazy to believe then please grow up and learn something about the country you live in and the contractual facts that govern your life. I truly think you’re an idiot if you’re so naïve as to believe that you ‘own’ anything that just happens to be on your hard drive of your computer.

[Wedge]

If you would like to share or tweet this article, the Short URL is: http://kilobox.net/1095

Photo Credit: Indigo Goat – used with permission under the Creative Commons agreement.

Have you ever written a fantastic first draft only to some how lose it? Perhaps something crashed, or didn’t save correctly. It felt hard to start again didn’t it. You knew what was needed to be said, but you couldn’t re-capture the zing of the first one. Everyone says your article is good, but you’re left feeling it’s somewhat insubstantial and lacking. You didn’t enjoy re-writing it from memory, and you don’t believe it has the spontaneity of your original work.

First drafts are precious. They may never see it into print or onto screen, but they capture your original frame of mind and speak from the heart. First drafts should be saved so you can refer back to them further along the review process, in case you think draft 5 is lacking in something…

Now, second drafts are cool too. If your first draft has been past the eyes of an editor, then either your second draft is their re-working of the article or it’s your re-draft based on the editor’s comments.

Perhaps the word count has been reduced and sentences tightened up. Maybe the order of paragraphs / subject matter has been jiggled to ensure the salient details aren’t buried at the bottom. Maybe the odd unsubstantiated or controversial ‘fact’ has been deleted to ensure accuracy and to prevent misunderstandings.

All that stuff is great and necessary, but it’s the third draft that is golden in my mind. The third draft allows the content expert to re-assert their objectives, and discuss the deletions in the second draft with the editor. It’s possible that the editor deleted what the author thinks is an important line, so that line can now be discussed on the phone. Maybe the editor didn’t realise it was an important line because the content expert, not being an experienced writer, buried it in a mass of text. The editor can now make a feature of that sentence, raising it up the article, maybe starting a section or paragraph with it. Or, the editor (who knows the ‘big picture’) can explain why the sentence doesn’t work or can’t be said in public yet.

So this makes the third draft golden; it’s almost ready to publish. When it comes to inconsequential publishing, perhaps online, it’s this third draft that I’d probably be happy going with. Like this article, it just gets published!

But there are two more steps you should go through if you’re serious about quality control, and they are absolutely necessary for print publications.

Sense check

Someone who hasn’t seen the article and knows little about the subject matter should read it. It’s their job to ask ‘what does this article mean? What’s its point?’. A sense check is incredibly important for complex matters; the content author, and to some extent, the editor, may know the subject matter inside out and have  read the article and surrounding supporting documentation numerous times. They can become ‘word blind’ to the subject – their eyes literally skip across the page as they scan read, letting their brain fill in the gaps. This is how big mistakes get past dozens of reviewers – they all know the subject so well that they don’t really read the article.

Proof-read

Proof-reading is a skill, not something that just anybody does. You can ask your Work Experience student or PA to ’sense check’ an article but you cant ask them to proof-read it unless they have some real experience.

Proof-reading requires an attention to detail that borders on obsession. Every space, comma, apostrophe, ise / ize needs to be processed by the brain, not just skipped over by the eyes.

Professional proof-readers use ‘printers’ markings’ to mark up a document with corrections – if you don’t know these markings don’t call yourself a proof-reader!

Amateur proof-readers like you and me can be helped to properly proof by reading the article backwards. If you read it forwards you’re probably just ’sense checking’ it while double checking commas, but if you read it backwards your eyes and brain will note each letter, paragraph spacing and indent.

Then, you should read it forwards out loud to check that sentences are the right length and flow in to one another correctly.

The spineless draft

If you find yourself on the 25th draft for a brochure article, then don’t be surprised. There are so many stakeholders (the service provider, marketing, managers, etc.) that each sentence will get tweaked. But if you’re writing for the web and you find that your article is on it’s sixth or seventh draft, stop and ask yourself if everyone involved knows the purpose of the article. Are all the stakeholders making changes based on their own objectives, rather than that of the article? An article can carry only so many messages, don’t allow diverse people to overload a single article.

Ensure reviewers and editors know the objectives and key messages of the article before you get drafting. Don’t let it get to draft 6 before you realise that the ’story’ has been ripped out of the article and there’s no longer any reason for a surfer to read it.

Did I just say that web publishing is less respected and easier than print publishing? No, I just recognise that people invest more money in print publishing (and therefore more effort) when they know that they can’t revise the brochure, book, magazine once it’s in the public’s / customers’ hands.

How many drafts?

I asked my friends on Twitter how many drafts it takes to get an article through a review. Obviously, it all depends on the medium, audience, purpose and stakeholders. Here’s what I heard.

@Jeff Parks said that it can take a lot longer with Governmental articles than Private Sector documents and that we need to clarify the objectives of the article with stakeholders first.

@StuartGH notes the importance of having a process to keep published content up to date.

[Wedge]

If you would like to share or tweet this article, the Short URL is: http://kilobox.net/1071

Amateur publishers tend to just create a paragraph for the question and a pragraph for the answer. But what’s the ’standard’ for FAQs?

Well, FAQs are a list of Frequently Asked Questions with the answers beneath. Online, sometimes you’ll see the answer smoothly slide out when one clicks on the question. Other times there will be so many FAQs that the surfer is presented with a list of the questions, and clicking on the specific question will either ‘jump’ you down the page to the answer, or take you to a new page with the answer.

I was wondering how best to present FAQs on my intranet, and got a good deal of feedback via Twitter.  I knew I wanted a numbered list, using standard ‘ordered list’ HTML code, but I was prompted to look into the lesser known ‘Definition List. It’s standard HTML code and with some styling via CSS it can become whatever you need.

I decided on the following FAQ format. Unfortunately I don’t know how to make a Definition List auto-number itself like an Ordered List, so the numbers you see are written by hand. Sorry if this isn’t ideal!

FAQ format

1. How can I gain access to Data that has been archived?

In the event that you require access to the archived data you will be required to request access.

2. How long will it take to restore my data?

The service level to restore data is 3 working days (30 Hours).

In the event the data is required urgently, we will attempt to restore your data as quickly as possible.

FAQ HTML and CSS code

<dl>

<dt style=”font-weight:bold; font-size: 0.9em; color: #333; margin-top: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.4em”>1. How can I gain access to Data that has been archived?</dt>

<dd style=”font-size: 0.8em; margin-bottom: 0.2em; margin-left: 2em”>In the event that you require access to the archived data you will be required to request access.</dd>

<dt style=”font-weight:bold; font-size: 0.9em; color: #333; margin-top: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.4em”>2. How long will it take to restore my data?</dt>

<dd style=”font-size: 0.8em; margin-bottom: 0.2em; margin-left: 2em”>The service level to restore data is 3 working days (30 Hours).</dd>

<dd style=”font-size: 0.8em; margin-bottom: 0.2em; margin-left: 2em”>In the event the data is required urgently, we will attempt to restore your data as quickly as possible.</dd>

</dl>

The bit that was new to me was to have more than one <dd> lines with the answer.

The styling should be done in the CSS; I’ve done it ‘inline’ within the code so you can see the style I’ve used.

If you’re a coder, this should be plain and simple to you, and you’ll know how to improve it. If you’re a writer and you like the format, just let your web / intranet publisher know you’d like your FAQs it use a ‘Definition List’.

I’m a busy writer, editor, publisher and web-coder, so the code above get’s the job done but may not be perfect. Your comments may well help me and others understand how best to improve such FAQs list. Fire away!

[Wedge]

If you would like to share or tweet this article, the Short URL is: http://kilobox.net/1058