• Embed Doc
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
22
 
very simple(but effective)communicationsstrategies...
 
24
Listening, and paying attention to what you hear, isthe essential first step in your approach to HorizontalInfluence. If you’re not already doing this, any activity that you currently plan and implement to help you adapt tothe changing landscape exists in a vacuum. You haven’testablished the benchmarks you need to assess the impactand longevity of your activities in this space. And aboveall, you don’t know how, when, and where to respond.Before you start planning any activity, you must map thelandscape of Horizontal Influence as it applies to you, and your marketplace. You must listen to what’s being saidand you must create or access comprehensive historicalarchives of digital content that will inform benchmarkingand research.Be sure that you understand the key issues that define theconversations around your category.Know who your high-priority stakeholder communities are,what roles they play, and what they currently think, feel,and say to other people about your organisation.Listen to and value anecdotal evidence from your staff: theybring you news from the front line.Make information from customer touchpoints (retail centres,call centres, websites etc.) immediately available across your entire organisation, and encourage everyone to use it.Invest in technologies that scour blogs, forums, wikis,newsgroups, email lists and websites, for mentions of yourbrands, your competitive set, and the key issues that affect your market.Develop a list of key words and phrases that should alert you to opportunities and threats, and use them to triggeractivity when they turn up in consumer communications.Cross-reference online activity and customer-relationsinformation with mainstream media coverage, and othermarketing activity. You should be able to identify themainstream media stories that create the most onlinebuzz, and the online stories that eventually surface in themainstream media.Track these stories as they ebb and flow over time,and learn to identify the trigger points that affect theHorizontal Influence news cycle. These will differ frommarket to market, from brand to brand. This is some ofthe most important competitive knowledge that you willever gather because:

  your customers are saying about you, and about your competitors.

potential trouble spots.

effectiveness of marketing campaigns, events, andmedia-relations activity.
1. Listen
 
26
If you know something, and don’t act on it, you might aswell have never known. Listening isn’t enough. Once youhave put in place the tools and processes, you need toknow what the Horizontal Influencers are saying about you. You must quickly establish a response strategy.We recommend that you build this around four key ideas:
i. Be Fast
Timeliness of response is essential: news spreads muchfaster on the web than it does in traditional media. Theglobal Internet audience is “always on”, and doesn’tadhere to predictable news cycles. Stories can blow upquickly as audiences in different time zones and countriescome online. Plus the Internet doesn’t stop working atweekends. However, a good monitoring system shouldalways give you enough advance warning to respondspeedily to both good news and bad.So you need to be prepared: establish clear policies andcrisis management procedures that describe who shouldrespond, under what circumstances, and the nature of theresponse. Above all, establish clear responsibilities.
ii. Be Honest
Honesty is essential when trying to encourage, or respondto Horizontal Influencers. Spokespeople must maketheir position clear, and not pretend to be anything, oranyone other than they are. Painful experience showsthat the public are much better at uncovering commercialactivity masquerading as grassroots communications thanorganisations or agencies think. Do not underestimatethem. Furthermore, spokespeople must be honest in whatthey say and the way they say it: their response will bepicked over by many readers and commentators.Bear in mind, too, that each and every employee of thecompany will be perceived as a spokesperson. In mostcases, they will be your best ambassadors to the HorizontalInfluence because they are real people, and real peopleare what drive Horizontal Influence. Blogging policies andsocial media policies should make it clear to them that theymust
always
identify themselves as employees, even whenthe views are clearly their own.
iii. Be Relevant
The world of Horizontal Influence is a globalconversation, where you should follow the usual rulesof polite society: don’t interrupt or try to change thetopic. You should be sure that what people are saying isrelevant and adds value to what has already been said,not simply cut-and-paste a pre-agreed company line.Above all, you must take their time to familiarise yourselfwith the opinions, attitudes, and conventions of thecommunity or blog in which you are responding.
iv. Be Personal
Understand and adhere to the basic principal of netiquette,“remember the human.” Be personal. Just as you should tryto get to know the person, or community before they beginto respond, you should work to make yourself known, andestablish yourself as a real person.People respond better to people than they do toanonymous positions or roles, and that’s part of theattraction of Horizontal Influence. Phone conversations,or even physical meetings with key Horizontal Influencestakeholders will help develop personal relationships thatwill afford your responses better reception.
2. Respond
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...