FIR Podcast Network

In our April 2018 EE Voice podcast, Sharon and I asked our listeners: Are you ready for the employee activist?

Because if you weren’t prepared last year, you better brace yourself for what’s coming. In the last year, we’ve seen #GoogleWalkout,  #WayfairWalkout and most recently, #AmazonWalkout.

In this episode of EE Voice, we dive back into the fascinating topic of employee activism with two comms experts:

*  Terry Hart, a corporate comms expert in B2B marketing, corporate communications and change management and

* Mike Klein, principal of Changing the Terms and a well-known voice on employee communications based in the Netherlands.

Tune in to hear our discussion on:

* What’s driving renewed activism – and how this differs from past periods

* The role of the employee communicator in employee activism (hint: it’s a new comptency we’ll all need to hone)

* How international activism differs from what we see in the U.S.

* Views on the recent #WayfairWalkout

* And if we’ll see a new type of union in our future workforces.

It’s not too late. Now’s the time to discuss your employee activism strategy – and Mike and Terry offer some intriguing insights and practical advice for employee communicators.

Take a listen and then tell us what you think.

On this week’s Inside PR, we consider the implications of an Algorithmic Accountability Act, rebalancing the freedom of companies to capture and use our data with our right to informed consent. Plus: Protect your privacy against hidden cameras during your next business trip.

Many agencies offer content marketing and related services, and a new study from the Content Marketing Institute attempts to uncover just how it fits in to the overall service mix.

Chip and Gini glean insights from this recent review of how agencies are selling and delivering content marketing to clients.

Resources

* Content Marketing Institute 2019 Agency Survey

* PESO model

Quotes

* Gini: “We have a client who always says common sense is not so common. And really, to get in the minds of your buyers, you have to actually talk to them. So creating content that appeals to them is where it should be. And it doesn’t have to be that you’re creating as much content as you can. But you’re creating really quality high value content.”

* Chip: “When I look at a survey like this, where someone’s asked to self assess extremely, very, somewhat, etc, successful, you know, I sort of view that as asking someone what their weight in that they’re not going to outright lie, but they’re probably going to shave it just a little bit. And so to me, I sort of I tend to skew everybody back a step from where they say they are.”

* Gini: “Three fourths of the agencies that are offering content marketing services, are advertising, marketing content and digital — only 9%, are PR firms. And that, to me, is a huge red flag because PR is communications. Communications is storytelling. Storytelling is content. And this is what we’ve done for the entirety of our industry is content, it may have been called something else, but this is what we do, and it just infuriates me.”

* Chip: “The survey said 56% [of agency revenue] was retainer based, 41% was project based, 3% was unsure — and I’m just unsure about those respondents. If you’re an agency leader, and you can’t tell me what most of your work is, I’m a little concerned for the health of your agency.”

[read the transcript]

Referrals are often considered the cream of the crop in any service business.

They come to you directly, have already been vetted, and the best part? Prospects are ready to buy.

This helps clear out time for you to focus on the clients you already have and you don’t have to worry about sticking a specific business development plan.

Many organizations claim to be completely referral grown. That’s awesome for them if it’s true, but it’s usually not a strategy most would recommend.

With Referrals, You Have No Control

You can’t control when referrals come in and that makes it hard to plan for the future.

Of course, none of this is to say you shouldn’t accept referrals, because you definitely should.

Just be sure to not rely on referrals and referrals alone.

Clients are the best place to start when you build your networks.

Plus, you can make it easy and even fun for them to refer you.

When you have a plan, you can increase the chances of clients and partners actually referring you, and then you can count on referrals to represent a good chunk of your growth.

The Spin Sucks Podcast

In this week’s podcast you’ll learn about:

* The myths about referrals

* How to ask for referrals strategically

* How to time your referral requests

* Real-world examples of great referral requests

What’s your take on referrals? Do you have any tried and true methods for referral requests? We’d love to hear about them!

Tell us here in the comment or join the Spin Sucks Community on Slack.

Clients may end their relationship with your agency for a variety of reasons, many of which you have no control over. On this episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast, Chip Griffin and Gini Dietrich suggest the best ways to protect yourself, your work, and your finances when the unexpected happens.

Quotes

* Chip, on thinking ahead about what happens if the relationship ends abruptly: “If this relationship were to terminate suddenly, what would I lose access to? What do I need continued access to what should I be keeping backup copies of?”

* Gini, on protecting yourself as an agency owner: “But really looking at the relationship, at the very beginning of the relationship as if it may end in divorce, for lack of a better term, because things happen, and relationships don’t always work out. And so you have to protect yourself from a contractual perspective, so that when a client does get a bee in his or her bonnet, you are protected.”

* Chip on the importance of contracts: “Ultimately, that’s the only reason you have the contract. Nobody ever pulls out the contract and says, ‘Everything’s going great today, I just think I’m going to look at our contract to see what it says.’”

* Gini’s advice: “The moral of the story is, protect yourself, protect yourself, protect yourself.”

[read the transcript]

You’ll be hard pressed to find a company that doesn’t tout their customer service skills.

All of them say it and all of them believe it.

If that’s the case though, why do so many of us have personal customer service horror stories?

Why is bad customer service such a common gripe?

It’s mostly because customer service is a lot easier to talk about than do.

It only takes a few seconds to type out a sentence about how great your customer service is, but actually providing that customer service over an extended period is a much bigger challenge.

It’s still possible and that’s what today’s podcast is all about.

Ways to Maintain Customer Service

Let me guess. Your customers are never upset with the quality of service you provide.

In fact, they’re talking about it with every person they happen to meet.

Right?

No way. Nobody is perfect.

Everyone makes mistakes and sometimes those errors involve less than stellar customer service.

But there’s hope.

Here are five ways you can consistently provide the possible service over time.

Customer Service and the Big Picture

So often the way serve our customers is further down on our list of priorities than it should be.

We all spend so much time attracting new customers that it’s easy to forget how much value the customers we already have bring to the table.

Make sure you keep your current customers happy and serve them to the best of your ability.

Establish Boundaries

This might sound confusing.

But whatever service standards you agree to become your boundaries, and you should work to maintain those boundaries.

Stick to your schedule.

If you’re closed on evenings and weekends, try not to answer emails or phone calls during those ties.

Have you agreed to a certain number of deliverables? Great! Provide that number and not more.

Maybe you have specific times blocked out for meetings and direct communication.

If so, that’s how long you should spend on it.

This helps add to your customer service in a few ways:

* It means you’re clear about what you’re doing and when you’re doing it. Everyone loves clarity.

* Boundaries require your customers to respect your time. (It’s MUCH easier to be nice to someone who respects your time!)

* Having boundaries preserves your energy as well as your team’s. This means they can devote their full attention to delivering great customer service.

Be Consistent In Your Communication

Like most industries, the communications world has its own vocabulary.

Within those industries, companies use their own terms and definitions for different concepts.

On top of that, organizations have their own methods for dealing with questions, collaboration, and feedback.

Imagine how frustrating it is to not understand how you should get support on an issue you’re experiencing.

It’s annoying and that annoyance tends to be talked about quite a bit.

We have to remember that most of our customers aren’t used to the same industry jargon we use in our everyday work-lives.

And they shouldn’t have to know our language. They have other priorities.

It does mean, however, that it’s on you as their service provider to be clear and consistent so they know what to expect.

The Curse of Knowledge

It’s important to also remember you have the curse of knowledge.

This means because you’re front and center with your industry knowledge, it’s easy to forget that everyone else is operating on the same level of knowledge as you.

I like to use the grandmother test.

I find that if I can explain something I’m doing to my grandmother and she understands it,

On this episode Glenn Gaudet is joined by Casey Hall, President of Lumberjack Social. He works with larger corporations on enterprise social strategy, employee advocacy and executive social activation. Find out how Casey went from law degree to social media consultant.

In this podcast you will learn about:

* The power of listening

* Thinking about the language your audience is using

* Activating employees that are closer to the customers

* Executive level employee advocacy

* Why content needs to resonate with both employees and audience

* Content to build brand affinity without discussing product

* Programs that help your employees will be more successful

Connect with Casey via email at [email protected]

Chip and Gini discuss how agency leaders can better engage junior employees and provide them with the training, resources, and guidance needed to succeed.

From simple things like taking junior employees to client meetings to more formal training programs, a range of options exist to build better employees and future managers.

This is an episode that agency leaders will want to share with the rest of their teams because it offers lots of good advice for junior employees on how to find that training and guidance they’re hungry to get.

QUOTES

* Gini: ” I thought Kathryn Mason’s response on this was probably one of the most valuable. She said …I always take my junior employees with me to media interviews, radio interviews, press interviews, because they need to see what goes on after they’ve pitched and how it all comes together. “

* Chip: If you help your junior employees advance, “not only are you going to have better luck with having them as future middle managers, you will actually be able to retain your juniors at a much higher rate. If they see that path to progress, if they see colleagues moving up, if they see that previous people in their position have moved up.”

* Gini: “One of the things that I always say is, I don’t want to hear about a problem unless you have three solutions.”

* Gini: “Look for reasons to have conversations with the people you’re not talking to every day that don’t directly report to you. Because they’re going to learn a ton, but you are too.”

* Chip: “if you can teach them the way that that you want to do things, if you teach them the way that you look at things, you will be able to mold someone [and] you will end up with that more senior employee down the road who really is part of your culture, who thinks about things in a way similar to you, and carries out the mission of the agency in a consistent way.”

RESOURCES

* Setting KPI’s for agency employees

* Spin Sucks Community

* MasterClass

* Zoom

[read the transcript of this episode]

Chuck Hester is a senior integrated marketing executive with deep experience in B2B and technology. He has worked in-house and on the agency side, so he brings a strong understanding and great perspective to this episode of Chats with Chip.

As the author of Linking In to Pay It Forward, Chuck provides advice to communicators on how to use LinkedIn effectively. In addition to his current role as Director of Strategic Communications for Fountain Forward, Chuck provides 1-on-1 advice for agency executives and on-site or virtual training for agency teams.

QUOTES

* Chuck on how individuals should see LinkedIn: “LinkedIn is not an online resume, it’s it’s really an online portfolio.”

* Chuck on video opportunities: “If you’re an agency, and you’re trying to promote the fact that you know how to market [then by] having video on LinkedIn you’re showing customers and potential clients that you know how to use that platform.”

* Chuck on LinkedIn company pages: “I’ve always quite frankly, looked at a LinkedIn company page, unless your Microsoft or whoever it may be as kind of an online brochure, more than anything else.”

* Chuck on whether you should subscribe to LinkedIn Premium: “if you are a recruiter, if you’re a business development person, or if you’re a giant, executive job seeker, then LinkedIn premium makes a lot of sense for you. If you are not, it’s not necessarily the case”

RESOURCES

* Chuck on LinkedIn or Twitter

* ChuckHester.com

* Linking In to Pay It Forward

* Fountain Forward

[read the transcript of this episode]

Being in marketing and communications, you’re often considered to be “the expert” in your field.

Whether it’s colleagues, clients, family, and friends, people rely on you to be on top of the latest and greatest in your industry.

Of course, that’s easier said than done, because who can keep up with the constant changes on digital and social media?

We need to stay current, get our work done, and still have a bit of personal time. But how?

Here are five strategies we use at Spin Sucks.

Talkwalker Alerts

If you haven’t tried them, check out Talkwalker Alerts.  (We think they’re better than Google Alerts.)

Talkwalker is easy to use: just enter your keywords, choose how often you want to be notified, and they send you links.

It also integrates with Hootsuite, Slack, and other software to make your life incredibly easy.

Subscribe to Newsletters

Email is far from dead, and one of the best ways to reach customers is through relevant, helpful, and easy to read newsletters.

Not too long ago, we asked our readers, and they shared a few of their favorites.

Having a trusted source doing the heavy lifting, discovering, filtering, and adding context, keeps you up to speed and saves you time.

Social Media Monitoring 

You’re probably already doing this, but monitoring journalists, influencers, and bloggers who cover your industry, is always a great source for news.

Client and Audience Questions

Another resource you may not have considered is people—as in clients, customers, prospects, brand loyalists, and even detractors.

During your client calls, in internal meetings, or when you’re engaging online, keep an eye out for what they’re sharing.

The links are often worth a deeper look.

Have You Asked Your Team?

Every member of your team likely has their own go to sites.

Talk to them, find out what they’re reading, and either subscribe, or curate a list your entire company can use.

Bonus Tip

OK, we have one more suggestion to add.

We have so many lively and informative conversations in the free Spin Sucks community on Slack, and you’re always welcome to join.