Communication and technology
G’day and welcome to another video about business communication. Today I want to let you know about recent work from my favourite business communicator, Shel Holtz.
Shel is based in California and has been at the forefront of business communication and technology for decades. His podcast ‘For Immediate Release’ is mandatory listening for business communicators and reaches hundreds of listeners, no mean feat for such a conservative community.
In his chapter in the IABC’s latest book on organisational communication, Shel lets us in on the secrets that have helped him and his consultancy, and then his full-time job, stay connected and relevant in today’s fast-shifting communications world.
Now, Shel is not alone in decrying the conservative nature of business communicators. I tried getting Australian communicators interested in the implications of artificial intelligence. I went broke. Communicators responsible for managing the inward and outward communication focus of their organisations seemingly only embrace new technologies when a great many others have proven the technology’s worth. Marketing and PR, for example, saw early on the value of messaging mediums like Twitter and Slack. Not so most business communicators. But let us put that aside and hope that you, the viewer of this video, if you are in a position of power and influence, can introduce some of the technologies I am going to talk about.
Shel, in his chapter, argues that there are some key questions that need be answered if new technology is to be introduced to the communication mix. Those questions are:
- Is there a problem it can solve?
- Will collaboration improve because of using it?
- Can we use it safely and securely?
- What will it do for customer service?
- Is it likely to be a viable product in 5 years’ time? 10? (Admittedly, that’s hard to tell, especially given Google’s history of supporting great products then suddenly dumping them for no observable reason)
- How steep is the learning curve?
- Is it scaleable?
- Are we prepared to ensure the software is upgraded in a timely manner?
- Does it help the company achieve its business objectives?
- Is it compatible with our other tools, systems and networks?
- Is there a plan for how it will be used? Is somebody in charge of that plan?
- Is there a plan for introducing the tool? Who’s in charge?
and finally, are employees interested in using it? Customers? Other stakeholders?
As Shel points out regarding that last point, nobody was clamouring for a better mp3 player when Steve Jobs introduced the iPod. And no-one was clamouring for a tablet when he introduced the iPad. Both products changed the world as we knew it. To quote Shel: “The fact that your employees are not demanding a consumer-grade mobile app for internal communications does not mean they will not embrace it when it is introduced.”
Some of the tools available to we communicators include for live streaming video vMix, Streamyard, and social media-based tools on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.
For social management systems we have a smorgasbord of tools like Hootsuite, Sprinkler, Planable, HubSpot, Sprout Social, Loomly, Buffer and Later.
For surveys we have Survey Monkey, Zoho, Google Forms, Typeform and Microsoft Forms.
For photo editing there’s the graphic designer’s number one tool, Photoshop. But for those of us with less of a hold on the intricacies of the sheer, raw power of Photoshop there is Easil, and the wonderful Australian tool, Canva. Valued at US$15 billion, you can understand why when it makes graphic design so incredibly simple even the computer-phobic can produce quality outputs given half an hour and a cup of French Earl Grey. And let’s not forget an early internet favourite, PaintShop Pro, a *very* viable alternative to Photoshop if you don’t agree with Adobe’s expensive subscription models.
There’s presentation tools like the ubiquitous and either loved or loathed PowerPoint and Keynote—I’ll be creating a video soon on how to *not* make boring slideshows, but here’s a hint: don’t ever use transitions, or make words or images fly in from the side.
There’s also the slightly-tougher-to-get to grips-with Prezi.
There’s audio editing tools like GarageBand, Adobe Audition (a favourite of corporations) and my personal favourite, Audacity. Favourite because it’s free but still extremely powerful. Both Audition and GarageBand are full-featured and simple to use after a cup of French Earl Grey.
Video editing is also well covered with applications. For starters, there’s Camtasia, the king if you want to share your screen, there’s Adobe Premiere Pro, which is so powerful they create movies with it, real movies you see in a cinema or streamed onto your device or computer. I use Corel’s VideoStudio, which has enough features that I’ll never use in my lifetime, and green screen capability which I need for my own videos. And it’s a lot cheaper than Premiere Pro, but sadly without the audio editing finery that Premiere Pro is rightly known for. For example, if your audio is slightly over to one side of the stereo field, Premiere Pro can handle it, VideoStudio can’t. But my solution to that problem was to simply nip into Jaycar and buy a cheap new stereo mic. Simples. And it meant I didn’t have to rent the expensive Premiere Pro. Because on YouTube no-one can tell your $500 RØDE and your $15 Jaycar microphones apart.
For teleprompting with your iPad there is Teleprompter Pro, Parrot Teleprompter, PromptSmart and my personal favourite, ProPrompter Studio. A short note: the scroll speed control on these products, usually handled by your iPhone, doesn’t seem to work with the latest iOS. No workarounds at this stage, but the techs are working on it.
On to thinking strategically about your socials. Lots of communicators I talk to say things like, “I can only cope with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. There’s no time for anything else.” Which to me whispers that the communicator hasn’t thought strategically about the tools, they’ve just gone with the most popular and are hoping that something sticks.
Shel Holtz gives us a useful look at the difference that strategic thinking makes. Imagine your organisation is recruiting top talent and university graduates are going to comprise a large part of the audience. Rather than post away on Facebook—where graduates aren’t—pick one of the following legion of options: Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok. You’re more likely to hit your target demographic if you think about what social channels your target market is playing in.
Which brings us to some questions you can ask if you are about to launch a strategic planning process:
- Who is your target audience?
- What might your audience be looking for on a website?
- What specific features should your website include?
- Who are your main competitors or peer organisations and what are they doing with their website?
- What differentiates you from your competitors?
As a side note, any junior communicator who prepares themselves by answering these questions with provable facts will quickly win valuable kudos from senior management. Worth doing, if you ask me…
A final word on strategy, and how not to introduce new technology to your organisation, comes from Shel in the aforementioned chapter in the IABC Comms book. Says Shel, “Far too many organisations introduce new technology using what I have come to call ‘The Godspeed Method’. The new technology suddenly appears one day, and the company tells its employees or customers, ‘This is our awesome new technology. Godspeed!”
The Godspeed method is a recipe for failure. Introducing a new technology requires a mix of marketing and training. Marketing prepares people for the upcoming launch and explains why the technology is so amazing while training ensures your audience understands how to use it.”
Well, this is the end of the blogpost. Take care, take some communication risks because you never know what’s going to pay dividends, and always ‘communicate with passion!’ Godspeed!