In the age of information overload, connecting with an audience requires knowing exactly what they want – and how to give it to them.
by Greentarget
It’s the first week of March and on your commute to work you read that new cases of the coronavirus were identified in the United States.
Some days later, you receive an email from your boss that the office is closed and that you’ll be working from home for the foreseeable future.
Working parents wonder what they’re going to do with their children – how am I supposed to be their teacher and lead this conference call? – and millennials, thought to be ‘comfortable in their usage of digital technology,’ cringe at the notion of virtual happy hours.
“At least it’s just temporary,” most of us thought.
Yet fast forward 15 weeks and here we are, many of us still at home, reflecting on how far we’ve come, how our routines have evolved, and whether this will be our new normal. The fact of the matter is that for many of us it will be. In a recent survey conducted for our client, Littler, 50 percent of employers said they were considering requiring more employees to work remotely to reduce physical office costs, and most said they were amenable to accommodating work-from-home requests.
And contrary to what we’d feared in the pandemic’s early days, what many are finding – despite this monumental evolution – is that people at work have remained collaborative, innovative, and creative.
How? At least for us here at Greentarget, we can chalk it up in large part to our core values. Here’s a glimpse at how we’ve applied them to our new work lives.
- Work Hard. Embracing a work-life balance – when work is literally in your own home – may seem more challenging than ever, but we willfully accept that challenge by remembering that we are fulfilled and energized by embracing serious work on serious issues and achieving results that exceed expectations. As part of Greentarget’s commitment to wellness and in an effort to recharge so we can reengage purposefully, we hold quarterly yoga and mediation sessions for all employees, among a slate of additional wellness initiatives.
- Be Authentic. At Greentarget, being authentic means that we listen with empathy, and seek to understand each other, our clients, and the world around us. The need for compassion, particularly for those struggling to balance the needs of their families and work, has never been greater. Offering to dive in or lend a hand when a colleague needs to pull away for a few hours isn’t deemed cumbersome, it’s simply our dedication to one another.
- Embrace Curiosity and Drive Creative Thinking. The shift to work-from-home, while it may have been familiar to a handful of organizations, was novel to many. Businesses and individuals alike found themselves searching for new ways to learn, grow and challenge conventions. At Greentarget, we’ve launched a completely virtual internship program, have ditched the conference line and replaced it with video meetings, and held an informative webinar for nonprofits seeking to have their COVID-19 story heard, just to name a few examples.
- Embrace the Stretch. The last several months have pushed us outside our comfort zones, introducing new routines and habits, but that discomfort has fueled growth. In April, each member of the team submitted a picture of how they have been embracing the stretch during their time in isolation. From learning how to play the keyboard to setting up an indoor 9-hole golf course, it’s safe to say we have a pretty fun and creative group.
- Grow as Individuals and as a Team. Despite adversity, we can surely say that we’ve come together to ensure we continue to deliver the service and counsel our clients have come to know and expect, and we’ve grown as individuals, as a company and as a partner to our clients as a result. To celebrate, the team has been challenged with individually growing an herb – cilantro, chives, dill, mint, oregano, etc. – provided by Greentarget, which will be used for a cooking or cocktail competition once the shoots start coming in. We also put together ‘The Greentarget Cookbook’ last month, where everyone submitted their favorite recipe – who doesn’t benefit from that?!
Sure, COVID-19 and the subsequent stay-at-home orders brought confusion and frustration, but it also taught us that even as businesses evolve, corporate values – if they’re a true reflection of your business and your employees – should always ring true, both inside and outside the office.
The past few months have seen communications professionals reaching for their crisis manuals over and over. Yet while these manuals may serve as constructive guideposts to start, their use is limited: how many playbooks, for instance, contain guidance on “abrupt, plague-induced lockdown” or “mass anti-racism movement and worldwide protests?”
Some fundamental crisis tenants, like communicating with empathy and transparency, apply in any scenario. But if these latest crises have shown us anything it’s that there’s no one way to plan for everything. Instead, the sudden lockdown and the pressure organizations felt to respond to last week’s events underscore why today’s communicators need an improvisational mindset.
Defining an improvisational mindset
To be clear, improvisation does not mean quickly coming out with vague platitudes and hollow statements expressly designed to meet the expectation for some sort of response. Nor does it mean – in this context, at least – moving ahead heedlessly, without any thought at all.
Rather, an improvisational mindset encourages communicators to pivot fast to meet changing conditions, move the conversation forward, and back up words with action – the way a musician or comedian adapts to the scene or song at hand and acts in ways which progress it.
Frank Barrett, author of Yes to the Mess: Surprising Leadership Lessons From Jazz, summarizes the challenge well:
We live in a high-velocity world with so many cues and signals that don’t come to us with clear messages. We are always facing incomplete information, and yet we have to take action anyway. Improvisational mindset means you have to leap in and take action to say yes. If you’re just in a problem-solving mindset, your imagination is going to be shrunk. You have to have a mindset that says ‘yes’ to the possibility that something new and interesting and creative can emerge.
What’s more, we perceive improvisations as truly authentic not simply because they’re made up on the spot. But it’s precisely because the performers are so practiced and credible that they can improvise effectively.
In the corporate world, authenticity tends to stem from a company’s track record. Nike, for example, could quickly improvise an ad denouncing racism because it had “built equity with its inclusion of Colin Kaepernick in a 2018 ad campaign.” For many others, the better choice was to donate to relevant groups or outline steps to improve their own diversity.
Embracing “yes, and…”
The “yes, and” approach that drives improv is always useful, but especially in today’s increasingly unpredictable business environment. Fortunately, in the past few months we’ve seen our clients embrace this mindset. Here are a few examples.
- Internal stakeholder coaching – We’re helping several clients coach their lawyers or consultants on how to leverage earned COVID-19 media coverage and content in client conversations and outreach. The thinking here is that the “last mile” of client outreach, which happens one-on-one, is most impactful – and now more than ever. They’ll have to be ready to think on their feet and lead with their humanity. If your organization’s professionals are unaccustomed to this type of touchpoint, an improvisational approach can help make them more effective in off-the-cuff situations.
- Flash surveys – A few clients of ours quickly pivoted their quantitative research efforts to better understand emerging client needs and concerns. One law firm, for instance, launched a flash survey of its clients because they had been conducting a survey that felt suddenly, if temporarily, irrelevant. We moved fast to help them generate a new survey that yielded relevant results and insights. Ultimately, the flash survey findings grabbed media headlines in top tier HR trades and national business media.
- Online focus groups – Similarly, we have several clients launching virtual focus groups as a way to obtain qualitative measures/feedback on various issues and offerings. These insights are critical in empathizing with particular audiences, and in avoiding tone-deaf positioning of products and services.
- Agile content production – For another client, we developed a three-part podcast series about the impacts of COVID-19 on the energy industry. The process, which would typically take at least a month, was finished in about a week. Similarly, we improvised to quickly edit a survey report – originally fielded before the world was sheltering in place – so it could elucidate how the findings became even more relevant and useful in light of COVID-19.
It’s unlikely we would have conceived of these projects in typical times – but then, atypical times require atypical responses. As communicators, it’s our job to say “yes, and” to new situations and find creative ways to address them head on.
Our Director of Social & Digital and Director of Content & Editorial Strategy provide a roadmap for using LinkedIn to help professional services firms garner leads and improve their social selling capabilities. In our latest video installment, they offer tips and strategies in the following areas:
- Effective Thought Leadership
- Optimizing Your Profile
- Connecting with Potential Clients
- Creating Content
- When & How Often to Post
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Amid this unprecedented crisis, reporters crave access and new stories to tell. Individuals — patients, healthcare workers, nonprofit leaders, small business owners or any number of people in need — have the stories those reporters are looking for. Yet many think connecting with reporters is some mystical process that only people “in the know” can master.
We’re providing some resources for nonprofits and others who want to get their COVID-19 story heard — but may not know where to start. Below you will find our video presentation around the media relations process to help you and/or your organization:
- Find the right reporters to reach out to — and write pitches that get their attention
- Create compelling op-eds, blog posts and other content
- Design social campaigns that gather and build momentum
We have also put together a convenient one-sheet to pass around to your teams:
Any questions? Feel free to email Joe Eichner, leader of Greentarget’s Community Investment initiative, at jeichner@greentarget.com.
Podcast listenership, at least for now, is another victim of the coronavirus pandemic. But a time will come when daily commutes are once again prime time for podcasts – and smart organizations can use the current moment to strengthen their audio storytelling efforts.
In fact, some difficulties imposed on the working world by COVID-19 provide opportunities for organizations to shine (or, at least, regroup) when it comes to podcasting. Here’s a quick list of our recommendations.
Effectively Plan Content Around the Story of the Moment
For podcasts that have been around for a while, now is the time to look back through the archives and resurface episodes that might be particularly resonant amid the pandemic – perhaps about topics like telemedicine or the consolidation of rural hospitals. It’s a good idea to do a bit of recasting or updating to explain the rerelease, but that can be done without changing much of the original content.
Other pieces of audio content produced by your organization, notably webinars about COVID-19, might work for your podcast series. Under normal circumstances, audio quality could make that a nonstarter. But given the need to get compelling information to key audiences, an edited version of a webinar might work well, or well enough.
In fact, audio that’s a little rougher around the edges than normal might be appropriate right now, and to a point, listeners will understand.
Be Willing to Reconsider Format – at Least Temporarily
Given how quickly things are moving amid COVID-19, throwing out your podcast rulebook might make sense – at least to a point. For instance, series typically try to produce episodes of similar lengths, often around the time of the average American commute (25 minutes). But, as noted, fewer listeners are commuting, so consider shorter episodes to keep up with breaking news and points of view..
And while multitasking is common for podcast listening, it likely is even more so now, particularly for busy working parents. That means techniques that we always advise for hosts – flagging key points, summarizing when appropriate – are more helpful. Releasing full transcripts of episodes, which is always a good idea, could help listeners catch up on their favorite podcasts in front of their laptops instead of on the train.
The Benefits of (Effective) Remote Recording
If you’re a regular podcast listener, you know that recordings are often conducted with participants in multiple locations. But it probably happens more than you realize. Smart podcast producers combine high-end software, insightful guidance for participants and professional editors to create episodes that are near studio quality – even when the studio is a web browser.
In addition to the best practices listed above, in our experience we’ve found preparation is key – making sure hosts and guests know what they need (a quiet room, a strong internet connection, etc.) well before the “tape” starts rolling.
And who knows? Maybe guests who were pipedreams six weeks ago can be convinced to record a quick interview now that they’re stuck at home. Certainly, booking podcast guests has become generally easier, and with much of the world getting a crash course in communicating over Zoom or Teams, it’s hard to imagine that anyone would find the requirements of a remote podcast recording daunting.
Time to Regroup?
Finally, with listenership down, now might be the time for a series to regroup and plan for calmer days, especially for series with niche focuses that have nothing or little to do with COVID-19. That process starts by looking at downloads and other analytics to assess content focuses and distribution strategies. Other feedback, like reviews on iTunes, might be extremely valuable.
Podcasts have steadily grown in popularity for years, and they were especially impactful for busy decision-makers. That can still be the case amid COVID-19 – and it will definitely be the case when some semblance of normalcy returns.
Make good use of this current pause and your audience will come back even hungrier for your perspectives and guidance.
