GO DIRECT, YOUNG PROFESSIONALS!
There’s a corporate America practice that has us flummoxed.
It usually doesn’t work 100 percent of the time for 100 percent of the people.
It requires lots of preparation and cajoling.
And it truly needs a major support system, bolstered in part by human resources, policies and procedures, and heavy-duty communications.
The culprit: Cascading information from managers and supervisors to staff and teams. Somehow, many times, information gets stuck in the middle.
Our solution? Straight from a Forrester Research survey, revealing (no surprise) that 66 percent of consumers trust recommendations from people they care about, while only 18 percent trust brand information found on Facebook, Instagram, and the like.
Instead of labeling it in the same league as the somewhat tarnished multi-level marketing, think of it as the friends and family kind of swap, using employees to ‘sell’ to other employees (in this case, to exchange data and info). Online and social media make it incredibly easy to sell to those you know; internally, most companies host communities and affinity groups on their intranets, encouraging conversations and collaboration. And if we plot out a well-defined influencer network and map, so much the better.
[Yes, we know the downsides: That kind of freedom makes brand and corporate messages so much harder to control. And timing would be, to an extent, loosey-goosey.]
Yet the power and meaningfulness of direct connections overcomes, to us, any objections. Your take, dear readers?
Tuesday, November 4, 2014 at 12:00PM | in business communications
Reader Comments (2)
There's no substitute for direct. Cascades simply do not work - and never have. Not because of anything magical or diabolical about middle management. Just the simple equation of knowledge being equated to power in large organizations.Being a gatekeeper still has its perks. However you are right - the benefits are there, and co-oping employees to make connections across boundaries at their own level is a great tactic. (See also the time honored coffee break room / water cooler effect) ESN and influence maps are a start. As for control of message? If you want to control your message, you have to have an influence plan for your employees and get them to buy in to staying on message. The' tell me' era is over The 'sell me' era is here.
Jeff: Thanks for your comment! Couldn't say it better ...