Market and Brand Communications

Jooble is a search engine specialized in job search. It works as Google, Yahoo or Bing in a very fast and easy way. So above is the logo of the running rabbit positioning the company attributes. Who knows when we will need it?

"Engaging employees through effective communication is what smart organisations  do. Communicating effectively means being open and transparent, proactive and visible in sharing the organisation’s strategic course, and explaining what’s taking place and why, and  always addressing the ‘What’s in it for me?’ imperative." More to read? Visit: www.ogilvy.com

Following a discussion about internal communications and credibility recently at the LinkedIn website lead by Alejandro Formanchuk (President of the Associación Argentina de Comunicación Interna - AACI) I realized that people follow examples and atittudes more than words. And that´s how internal communications can become like a beautifull package in the outside, but completely empty inside. The name of the game is credibility and when leaders loose their credibility everything collapses. Moral, team building, purpose, ethics. People is tired of being seduced by words and internal "advertising" - workers need good examples from the bosses. Behaviour talks louder than speeches and great companies must have coherence as the main base to build internal communications systems.

"What are you doing?" asks the slogan of Twitter. It seems a great tool to connect people by microblogging inside and outside the companies but it is also a way of controlling employees productivity hour by hour. As a digital time sheet, as a corporate kind of George Orwell´s Big Brother - isn´t it? So, what do we do in our office? Talking to a client, making a business plan, attending a conference call or a business meeting...or having a cup of coffee, talking with friends, going to the bathroom. Imagine a company where Twitter is used to guard employees on a daily basis. If someone goes to the bathroom too much, for example, the boss will know it. Isn´t possible to happen in some companies? Private or state ones? On that account, it is not the tool, it is the way the company operates that would make difference in using this amazing channel in a positive way. Not for controlling, watching or guard over but for productive dialogue, colaborative work and instant search for so...

Reputation Institute's 14th International Conference on Corporate Reputation, Brand, Identity and Competitiveness will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from May 19 to May 21, 2010 at the Sofitel hotel at Av. Atlantica, 4240 on Copacabana Beach with generous sponsorship from Cemig, Itaú, Nestlé, and Petrobras. This year's theme is "The Sustainability Imperative: A Strategic Role for Reputation Management." Visit:www.reputationinstitute.com/rio2010

People follow behaviours - I have read this in Didier Marlier´s blog (http://blog.enablersnetwork.com).Didier is a leadership engagement expert who has worked with some big companies in the world and I do always visit his home page. My opinion on this is that the "walk the talk" coherence is also a question of perception: what we do is much louder then what we say. And leaders are in the spotlight - the hole nation, the hole organization and the hole company is looking at them. They are role modelling examples and behaviours. It is important to notice that in many organizations the internal communications are just producing more and more information without a chance to make the dialogue really happens inside the companies and that´s why in my opinion acts and facts are much more stronger than words. Because who is listening? A few ones. But who is watching, seeing, perceiving? Everybody!

Is there any possibility to control the use of social medias by the employees? I think that it is a wrong question althought this issue is making a lot of HR managers (not only them) worried. Technology is on an incredible evolution and there is a new generation of employees (the so called generation Y) that breaths digital technologies and social medias net working connections. And a lot of companies are still thinking as they can work by the old way of "comand and control". But that is a natural step by step evolution: many companies still have not enough matureness to face it. And that´s okay. No one should dive in unkown waters without understanding the new environment and the way it works. It´s a question of living within a new culture with new behaviors and new mental mondels. No one will be left behind on this but it is like a wave that takes time to reach all the coast. And comand and control management style are a step behind. What is essential is to start talking an...