Inside Nissan's social media command center

“The social media space moves so rapidly,” says Nissan’s senior manager of social media and customer strategy, Bryan Long.

In a recent presentation, he talked about the past, current and future state of Nissan’s social media program to explain how they’re developing the customer experience.

Long’s department started in 2012 with four people. Since then, they’ve grown to have six to eight agents at any given time-six of those, Long says, are “strong-willed millennials.”

Although his team is steeped in customer care, he says it’s a little more complicated than just being a part of the call center. Long calls it a “hybrid model” of customer service.

“We’re based in the headquarters building, but we’re not a part of consumer affairs-we’re not even in the same vertical. We’re not in marketing, and we don’t report to PR, but we listen on behalf of the entire organization,” he says.

Although they concede it’s an unconventional model for a big brand, he says it’s worked well for his team.

Their initial workflow was not without issues. Here’s how it has progressed from September 2012 to now and where they see it going:

The state of social media: A customer experience approach, presented by Bryan Long  SocialMedia.org

“In the past, it was absolute craziness. Everybody had to have their finger in it, and it was nuts trying to route information. Moving forward, we’ve simplified it quite a bit as we’re taking on more work and finding better, easier ways,” Long says.

[ATTEND FROM YOUR DESK: Learn social media “next practices” from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.]

“In the future, we’d like to have the opportunity to talk to customers directly. Is this last workflow oversimplified? Absolutely. But will we get there? Hopefully.”

In 2015, the team launched a social media command center, which is physically structured to be wide open and accessible. When you get off the elevator on Long’s floor, you’re right in the middle of it. He says the command center is helping them get to their future state of social media, because it’s helped his team sell ideas internally.

“One unintended benefit of the command center is that we’ve held 40 different presentations bringing in different groups to give them a tour and explain what we’re seeing,” he says.

Image here

They also host a “social media monthly” meeting inviting anyone who has an interest in social media to learn about what’s trending, what they’ve posted and what they plan to promote.

“We try to integrate ourselves into the business as opposed to them integrating themselves into social media,” says Long.

He says that to move forward, they have to think about things a little differently: “We don’t have the time to take it slow. We have to leapfrog and get social into the business, and the way we do that is to speak the language.”

Long says that entails showing how social media can increase revenue, decrease risk and reduce cost:

• To increase revenue, Long’s team is looking to foster communities (like the emotional segments in their half-ton class of trucks) and expand their lead management capabilities.
• To decrease risk, he says the biggest thing they can do this year is focus on protecting Nissan’s reputation. That includes governance, getting employees up to speed on social media compliance and creating training groups.
• To reduce cost, they’re using tools strategically across channels and the organization and resisting the push to adopt a new technology or platform from every agency they work with.

In the end, Long says they’re focused on bringing different pieces of the organization together for a better customer experience.

“The automotive industry spends a ton of money in advertising, and we’re still big spenders in TV. The worst thing that can possibly happen for us when we’re spending those kinds of dollars is to have the message break down somewhere,” Long says.

He explains that there are lots of places for that potential breakdown: advertising, native websites, consumer affairs, dealer websites and the dealership lot.

Long says: “There’s not a better tool to manage and connect all of those pieces together than social media. That’s our goal-to make sure we’re tying those pieces together.”

You can watch Long’s full presentation here. A version of this article first appeared on SocialMedia.org.

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Survey: Emotional compatibility drives hiring decisions

Do you want to attract and retain top performers? It might be time to start looking more closely at how you foster relationships. Candidates are driving the job market in 2016 and they are increasingly making professional decisions based on emotional compatibility with their prospective employer. In fact, according to a recent survey of American office workers, positive emotional connections and work relationships are no longer just a luxury for employees and job seekers—they’re a necessity. This priority on relationships is forcing employers to rethink their strategic approach to hiring, candidate retention and growing corporate culture. Relying on emotional intelligence factors and personality data are driving the American workplace to become a new emotional workplace.

Applying the science of personality and emotion.

Survey data shows that compensation alone is no longer enough of a singular selling point for top performers and job candidates. There needs to be a promise of connection and autonomy, coupled with responsibility on behalf of the employer to identify what can be controlled and improved when problems arise. When asked to rank the top three reasons they look for a new job employees cite friction with managers, poor internal communication and lack of empowerment via workplace/cultural policies. The theme of problems arising through strained relationships can be heard loud and clear.

[FREE DOWNLOAD: How do you communicate with employees who are on their feet all day?]

So how can employers guarantee solid relationships between employees and a collaborative, productive work environment? Getting actionable insights, like the business world has grown so accustomed to, out of these three pillars may seem like a daunting task. But there is one critical though often overlooked tool employers can employ: personality data.

Related: Four tips to land top talent for your company.

If used properly, personality data gives the employees extremely valuable insight into their colleagues, managers into their reports and executives into their companies as a whole. This allows employers to re-think their strategic approach to hiring, candidate retention and growing corporate culture for lasting success.

Personality assessments that are built to hone in on an employee’s work style, examining workplace motivators, triggers, etc. are a valuable first step for gaining insights into employees. Taking an analytical look into these traits can make it easier to implement a meaningful, proven strategy for improving the emotional intelligence, corporate culture and bottom line of a brand. Here are a few ways this data can be used to a business’ advantage.

Make sure each employee feels company-wide respect.

Employers need to understand their employees unique work style, habits and environmental needs. Taking into account how employees derive satisfaction and view accomplishments on the job will go a long way, as not everyone translates achievement, success or failure in the same way. With personality data, you can parse out how each personality style responds to a spectrum of job factors, and use that data to inform business structure and build a better emotional workplace.

Related: The CEO’s checklist to keeping employees happy and fulfilled.

Re-think team structure, based on personality and work style.

Don’t forget to think about how you can help employees build strong relationships with colleagues. Top performers place a lot of value on having a cohesive team that works well together and understands each other’s needs. Making sure they are matched with peers who balance their style or jive well—even if they’re a different personality type—will increase productivity for individuals and teams and mitigate avoidable job snafus.

Learn the difference between management style and preference.

Train managers to know and take into account how each of their direct reports works best, and acknowledge the differences. Place importance on matching the right mentee with the right mentor. Having a strong rapport with their boss and/or supervisors will make employees more satisfied and lead to better business outcomes for all involved.

Related: The strengths and weaknesses of your leadership style.

Employee retention will be defined by emotional connection.

50 percent of American office workers have stayed at an unsatisfying job because of positive emotional relationships. Conversely, 65 percent say they would look for a new job because of poor internal communication. The unifying factor in both of these responses is the importance connections played for workers. It’s a strong indicator that companies need to re-think how executives, managers, and employees convey emotional intelligence in the workplace.

In the candidate-driven market this becomes especially important, as companies will live and die by emotional intelligence. They will increasingly need to learn what makes their employees feel emotionally fulfilled at work on both an organizational and personal level—and implement policies, processes and technologies that can help facilitate such experiences.

Jason Wesbecher is CMO of Mattersight and CEO of Docket. A version of this article originally appeared on Entrepreneur.com. Copyright © 2016 Entrepreneur Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Campaign denies plagiarism in Melania Trump speech at RNC

In marketing, imitation campaigns are often seen as forms of flattery.

In speechwriting and public speaking, lifting the words from another source is called plagiarism.

Accusations of “cribbing,” “plagiarism” and “word stealing” were flying within minutes after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s wife, Melania, spoke Monday night at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

From Time:

A passage Trump read about her upbringing borrowed heavily from the structure and phrasing used by Michelle Obama in her 2008 convention speech.

“They’re nearly identical,” wrote former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau, in response. “Somebody is seriously fired.”

Journalist Jarret Hill tweeted the initial accusation, which opened the floodgates online:

CORRECTION: Melania stole a whole graph from Michelle’s speech. #GOPConvention
WATCH: https://t.co/8BCOwXAHSy http://pic.twitter.com/zudpDznGng

— Jarrett Hill (@JarrettHill) July 19, 2016

Here’s the portion of Trump’s speech that raised red flags and prompted the derisive hashtags #FamousMelaniaTrumpQuotes and #MelaniaSpeeches to trend overnight:

From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life: that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise; that you treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily life. That is a lesson that I continue to pass along to our son, and we need to pass those lessons on to the many generation to follow because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

The Trump campaign’s response: Denial

Very early Tuesday morning, Trump camp’s senior communications advisor, Jason Miller, issued the following statement:

Statement on Melania Trump Speech http://pic.twitter.com/80KgS0jxXz

— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) July 19, 2016

Campaign staff continued to deny the allegations in an additional interview on CNN.

“To think that she would do something like that knowing how scrutinized her speech was going to be last night is just really absurd,” campaign chairman Paul Manafort told CNN. “There’s no cribbing of Michelle Obama’s speech. These were common words and values. She cares about her family. To think that she’d be cribbing Michelle Obama’s words is crazy.”

Many are calling the speech similarities undeniable and are asking Trump to apologize.

[RELATED: Speechwriters, join our new LinkedIn group and meet the world’s best executive communicators. Get free tips and strategies, too.]

From Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass:

The Trump campaign is now the 8-year-old boy with chocolate cake all over its face, telling mom he didn’t have any snacks before dinner.

During an Illinois delegation breakfast early Tuesday, Chicago Tribune statehouse reporter Monique Garcia reported that Trump’s former manager, Corey Lewandowski, said staffers responsible for the Melania Trump speech must be held accountable.

Kass adds what many are echoing online:

Now the Melania issue isn’t just about a speech, but about how Donald Trump may govern if he’s elected president.

You don’t wing a speech at a convention. You make sure it wasn’t taken from someone else. Not doing so raises legitimate questions about whether you have any idea how to run a national political campaign.

And you don’t wing it in the Oval Office. The smart thing to do would be to present the metaphoric head of Melania Trump’s speechwriter to the media.

Online chatter

By mid-morning Tuesday, Yahoo Finance reported that the verified account belonging to @TheJusticeDept tweeted a link to CNN’s coverage in what users dubbed “trolling.”

Although the tweet was quickly deleted, it was retweeted by a reporter for The Atlantic:

The Justice Department weighs in… http://pic.twitter.com/QJkuC1FZsd

— Matt Ford (@fordm) July 19, 2016

In response, media relations pro Brad Phillips tweeted:

Just what you need when the Justice Department’s neutrality is being called into question. #headdesk https://t.co/0HayfMbL3t

— Mr Media Training (@MrMediaTraining) July 19, 2016

Yahoo Finance attributes the flub to a staffer confusing the Justice Department’s Twitter account with a personal account:

So why exactly is the Justice Department, which normally only uses its Twitter account to announce serious policy and criminal justice matters, making remarks about Melania Trump? The answer, as Twitter users have pointed out, is almost certainly that a staffer, who has access to the agency’s social media tools, inadvertently tweeted from the @TheJusticeDept account rather than his or her personal one. These sort of foul-ups are not uncommon in the corporate world, where social media marketers have tweeted embarrassing messages from official brand accounts.

Last words

Tuesday afternoon, CNN reported that the Trump campaign has no plans to “fire anybody on the campaign or to take any disciplinary action against anyone.”

Here’s more from CNN:

As campaign chairman Paul Manafort indicated at his morning news conference, the campaign’s posture is to simply move on from this without addressing it any further.

Sources familiar with the campaign’s handling of Melania Trump’s speech identify top Manafort deputy Rick Gates as the person inside the campaign who oversaw the entire speech process for Melania Trump. Gates is denying he oversaw the Melania speech process.

The office of the first lady has yet to respond to the comparison of her 2008 speech.

What do you think, Ragan readers? Was the Trump campaign right in dismissing the similarities in the two speeches, or should campaign staffers be held accountable? What effect might this have as the controversy festers?

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Why 'sticking to key messages' is not always good advice

The prevailing wisdom in PR has been that you should keep hammering away at the key messages you’re trying to get across in a media interview, no matter what.

Is the reporter asking you a completely unrelated question? Doesn’t matter—repeat your key message.

Do they want to speak to you about an issue or topic your key messages don’t even cover? Doesn’t matter—repeat your key message.

Is the interview a fairly relaxed conversation about your company’s strategy, rather than a reputation-destroying crisis? One size fits all—just repeat your key message.

If you do this enough, this line of PR thinking goes, your points will stick and the reporter will repeat them. The industry even gave this approach a name of its very own: “block (the reporter’s actual question) and bridge (to your key message).”

Great—except it rarely works.

[RELATED: Think like a journalist to get your story covered at our PR Writing Conference.]

Without a doubt, messaging is vital to PR success. Your spokesperson or leader should know the story they want to tell, how to tell it and why. However, that’s very different from the “block and bridge” definition of a key message: a narrowly worded statement, aimed exclusively at promoting the speaker’s self-interest and repeated ad nauseam.

Leaders are counseled to “block and bridge” when they speak with reporters because of the illusion of control it creates. After all, if every single one of your answers contains the same one or two points you’re trying to convey, the reporter is bound to use them somehow.

You’re also creating a simple script for your spokespeople to follow, which makes missteps less likely. Nothing bad can happen if you talk only about how great you are or how well your company is doing, right?

This logic might make sense at first blush, but I have seen it in action both as a reporter and during my communications career, and the results just don’t bear it out. Here are a few reasons why this approach doesn’t work most of the time:

It erodes trust and insults the reporter.

Imagine a reporter asks you about the economy’s impact on your business, and you answer by saying, “That’s a good question, but the real point here is how well equipped we are to continue to deliver sustainable earnings growth.” Block, bridge, key message. Great.

Of course, what’s really happening is you are openly showing that you don’t understand or care about what the reporter is trying to do and why you’ve been given the opportunity in the first place. You’re also implying you think you can defeat the reporter’s professional-grade spin detector through brute force alone. You can bet the reporter knows this, and it can cost you interview opportunities down the road, in addition to destroying any existing trust.

Years ago, while working as a journalist, I called a soft drink company for a story about the industry. I wanted to speak to someone in marketing about the sales decline in one product category. The company could have offered someone who was willing to acknowledge that the market had changed, and who could talk about what the company was doing about it.

Instead, I was treated to a “block and bridge” interview about how everything was completely, unequivocally great. Rather than a conversation, the exchange felt as though the spokesperson was reading a set of two or three key messages to me, over and over again, regardless of what I was asking. It was a frustrating waste of time. I never used any of the comments, and didn’t bother calling the company for future industry coverage.

It hurts your brand and authenticity.

Even if you succeed at jamming your key message in the reporter’s face enough to get them to print some version of it, there is a good chance your quote will be highly incongruous with the rest of the story, or taken out of context altogether. I’ve also seen many instances in which interview subjects were perplexed as to why a journalist paraphrased what they said and parked it at the bottom of the story—or did not quote them at all.

Quite often, repetitive, lazy and blatantly self-promotional “block and bridge” key messages are to blame. I recall reporter colleagues complaining of being “key messaged to death,” which was synonymous with a wasted interview.

You also have the audience to consider. The customers, prospects, investors and other stakeholders who read, watch or hear your interview could see you as absent, inauthentic, unrealistic or thoughtless. This can have long-lasting, negative ramifications for your brand and your stock price.

It wrongly assumes all media requests the same.

To be fair, “block and bridge” can work when you’re facing a legitimate crisis, with little available information early on, as well as a rapidly evolving storyline. For example, if an equipment failure at your company causes a power outage, you will only be able to tell the media that you’re investigating, at least until you have more information, no matter how many questions they ask you.

The same is true when you’re trying to protect your reputation in a news cycle during which rumor and inaccuracy have tainted the coverage. When you’re trying to set the record straight, factual repetition can be key.

However, in the vast majority of media interviews, adopting the “block and bridge” strategy comes across as needlessly wary, cautious and even paranoid.

For example, if a new competitor to your business emerges and a reporter comes calling, you shouldn’t assume they are “out to get you.” It’s great that you’ve been given a chance to insert yourself into the story. It’s an opportunity to talk about what sets you apart, how your leaders have shaped the industry thus far and how you will innovate to stay ahead.

There is a better way.

Experienced and confident leaders know when to ignore the “block and bridge” counsel, and savvy communications advisers who truly understand the media very rarely invoke it.

Good spokespeople and their advisors know the story they want to tell and, notably, how to tell it authentically, transparently and in a compelling way. Again, it’s important to know and understand your messaging, rather than to drill home a set of rigid “block and bridge” key messages.

I firmly believe that PR success for companies hinges on healthy, respectful, give-and-take relationships with reporters and editors. That means an open and mutual understanding of each other’s goals, and of what makes a good story.

“Block and bridge” tactics almost never have a place in this sort of worldview. When a good storytelling relationship exists between an organization and a media outlet, there is no room or need for repetitive stonewalling with irrelevant key messages to hammer home a point.

Focus on storytelling.

That doesn’t mean leaders and companies should abandon any hope of telling a strong, positive story about their businesses. Quite the opposite—narrative arcs in which adversity is overcome can be truly compelling, especially if they’re anchored around human, multi-dimensional characters. Are you telling a good story? That should be the focus.

In addition, if you build trust with reporters, over time they will become more willing to listen to the story you’re trying to pitch, just as you will become more interested in listening to their queries when they come calling. They’ll also be more receptive to hearing your side when crisis hits.

So, as you get ready to act on your next media interview, think about more than just your company’s key messages. Begin long before then: Connect with the reporters and bloggers who cover your company, and see what they find interesting about you and how you can help each other.

Wojtek Dabrowski is the founder and managing partner of Provident Communications, a boutique corporate communications firm based in Toronto. A version of this article first appeared on LinkedIn.

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5 mistakes to avoid when sending LinkedIn requests

Given the expanse and importance of LinkedIn, most people try to add and accept meaningful connections on the professional network.

Still, there are reasons why you might not be making the connections you are hoping for:

1. You’re not sending a personalized message

If someone walked up to you at a networking event and said, “I’d like to add you to my professional network,” you would probably give him a confused look. Sending a generic LinkedIn invitation to a stranger without introducing yourself is a big mistake.

Instead, check their profile and find a meaningful interest that you share. Start by introducing yourself, and then mention the thing you have in common. Your potential connection needs to understand who you are. It is also crucial that they see how they, too, can benefit from this professional connection.

2. Your profile is lacking significant information

If you don’t have a headline or a professional profile photo, chances are your connection requests are going to be ignored. Having a complete LinkedIn profile and optimizing it for search help potential connections to know that you are legit.

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How can you make sure that your LinkedIn profile is complete? Make sure you have these important components:

• Headline. Describe what you do and whom you work for.

• Summary. This is arguably the most important element on your profile. The LinkedIn algorithm searches for keywords on your page, so take full advantage of the 2,000-character space to tell people what you do. Jazz it up by adding mixed media, such as images and videos.

• Experience. Your profile will seem incomplete and humdrum if you don’t go beyond what’s on your résumé. Adding relevant images, videos, presentations or articles will help your profile stand out and enhance your credibility.

• Endorsements . Unfortunately, our competitive society loves numbers. Opting out of endorsements or having very few will make your profile seem suspicious. Reach out to family members or co-workers to boost endorsements.

• Connections. When someone is considering your invitation, they think, “How will this connection benefit my network?” Ten to 20 connections is a small, unimpressive network. Try connecting with friends, co-workers, family members, neighbors, fellow alumni and former colleagues before you send connection requests to prospects and recruiters.

• Customizable LinkedIn URL. You can create your URL based on your first and last name or the industry in which you are knowledgeable.

Although there is no one right way to craft a LinkedIn profile, you will be more likely to connect with prospects and recruiters if your profile is complete and optimized.

3. Your spelling, punctuation, and capitalization is flawed.

If you have improper spelling, punctuation and capitalization, people will be inclined to delete your request. Most prospects and recruiters will call you out for it every time. On a professional network, you must clean up your mistakes and have a polished profile.

4. You’re spelling their name wrong.

Check and double-check the name of your potential connection. If you misspell their name or call them by the wrong name, you will be ignored.

5. You’re trying to sell something.

If you want to sell something to a prospect on LinkedIn, do not try to do so on your initial request. Many prospects and recruiters want to cultivate their professional networks. They don’t want you sending some crappy sales pitch to all their connections. Try having a more meaningful conversation rather than sending a template sales pitch.

No matter how you change your approach to connecting, some people will not accept your request. Don’t take it personally; users have varied philosophies. It might just be an indication that your targeted person isn’t seeing what they would gain by connecting with you.

Why do you accept or reject LinkedIn connection requests?

Melinda Lathrop is a PR major at Champlain College and a social media intern at Delta Marketing Group. You can see more of Melinda’s work at http://ift.tt/29OWUhf. A version of this article originally appeared on LinkedIn. ·

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Navigating AMEC's new framework for measurement

(Author’s note: In the interest of transparency, I run a consulting organization that designs measurement programs so I could conceivably profit from helping people fill out the framework. I’ve also developed a different framework that I use in my work called the 6-Step System for Perfect Measurement.)

The hottest thing in measurement this month is AMEC’s new integrated evaluation framework, unveiled with great fanfare at AMEC’s International Summit in London.

It’s an interactive version of the original AMEC framework, intended to make it easier for clients to implement Barcelona Principles/standards-compliant measurement in their organizations.

It features multi-colored squares. Each one requires you to provide information about your organization’s campaign or program. The seven squares are:

1. Objectives
2. Inputs
3. Activity
4. Outputs
5. Outtakes
6. Outcomes
7. Impact

When you click on each square it asks you questions such as, “What are the broad objectives of your organization?” and then, “What are your communications objectives?”

Visually, it is certainly an enormous improvement over the old framework, and its interactive nature is a lot less daunting than the old PowerPoint version. In the end, it will be just as challenging to fill out as the earlier version because all the problems inherent in the old framework still exist, despite the sexy new front end.

Sure, there’s a taxonomy that offers examples of the types of answers they’re looking for, but the confusion will persist because the very smart people who created the framework live and breathe measurement every day of their working lives. Many people, if not most, work primarily with large, sophisticated organizations that have at least some background in measuring results.

Unfortunately, that is not your typical PR enterprise. The vast majority of PR is for small to mid-size businesses, restaurants, NGOs and government agencies. These are the people who show up at conferences, attend workshops, and participate in webinars-and they’re asking far more basic questions than the framework will answer.

I filled out the new framework (twice) using a recent PR campaign. In this first round, I used the responses that members of the PR team gave at our first meeting:

 

The initial conversation left large gaps between what they saw as organizational objectives of the particular event. There was considerable confusion between inputs, activities and outputs, and no clear connection between the organization’s objectives and what the actual impact would be.

In working with the client, we did eventually identify target audiences and objectives. We connected the dots between the communications activity and the ultimate impact. Furthermore, they now have a wonderful working dashboard offering information with which to update management on what was a waste of effort (or not a waste of effort). It just took a bit of time to sort out the definition of “working” and “not working.”

I filled out the framework again, this time with the information I used to make their dashboard. After a long day of checking the taxonomy and making sure I had put everything in the right boxes, I have these tips for anyone trying to do the same:

1. Before you Google “AMEC framework,” do your homework.

What all measurement requires-regardless of what framework, tool or anything else you employ-is a thorough understanding of the organization’s business goals, such as, “What is the mission?” and, “How does it make money?” and, “What is the perceived role of PR in that process?”

For agency folks, this is your biggest weakness and one reason why PR gets no respect when budgets get tight. If you don’t have an agreed-upon definition of how PR contributes to the success of the organization, then you’ll never get past square one (literally).

So meet with your boss, your boss’s boss or whoever is asking, “What have you done for me lately?” and make sure you agree on what the organizational goals are and how PR contributes to them. Click here for a recipe that will walk you through the process.

2. Bake cookies to find your “inputs.”

Some answers to the framework questions about target audiences and strategy may lie in other departments. Depending on the size of your organization, information on specific target audiences/personas or even overall strategy may well lie in sales, marketing or customer intelligence. If you’re at a nonprofit, answers may reside in membership or development. In government agencies, there may be a data center or a committee that has the answers.

[FREE WHITE PAPER: Ninety-three percent of communicators think it’s important to measure the impact of internal communications.]

Visit whatever departments hold the clues-and bring treats. I’ve always gotten much more information with chocolate chip cookies than an email. Depending on their stress level, a good scotch can also be an excellent persuader.

3. Look at the communications budget for “activities.”

What you’re really doing with this framework (and any measurement program for that matter) is determining what efforts are worthwhile and which are not. The fundamental concept is “worth,” which implies a financial or resource commitment. Rather than offering a list of activities, which could quickly become a nightmare of random metrics, you should list only those activities that require either a significant amount of money, time or other resources. (You can get to the others later.)

Because the Conclave on Social Media Measurement Standards has determined that you “earn” a share, I wouldn’t even bother with the “S” column; just include any shared data under “earned.” Also, note that “earned” doesn’t mean what you have already earned, but rather what you plan to do in terms of “earned” media-e.g., what you’re writing, the nature of the media outreach, speechwriting or anything that is going to require resources.

4. Outputs are what you’ve checked off your to-do list.

After you’ve listed all the activities, now you need to see what actually happened: Did any of that activity reach the agreed upon target audiences? This is where you can “count” the number of news items that ran or that you “earned.” Tally up the paid media placements and anything that was shared. Add the data on clicks, time on site or whatever metrics you’ve agreed are important from your web analytics platform.

If you’re measuring events, count the number of attendees, as well as anyone who used your hashtag. Whatever you do, try to avoid completely inaccurate definitions of “reach” and “impressions.”

5. If you don’t have good survey or engagement data, skip the “outtakes” section.

Essentially, outtakes are what your target audience actually takes away from all the stuff you’ve listed in step 4. In order to understand what a member of your audience actually “takes away,” you have to ask their opinion. In other words: Are they more aware or more likely to consider or prefer your brand? Although engagement is not the same as awareness, it may be an acceptable proxy for evidence of attention on the part of your target audiences.

6. “Outcomes” should be the same as your communications goals you listed in Step 1.

Go back to Step 1 and cut and paste your communications goals in the “Outcomes” section and change the tenses. For example, if the goal was “Increase preference in the new brand by 10 percent,” then the outcome should be “Increased preference in the new brand by 10 percent, as measured by pre/post testing.” If that didn’t happen, prepare a good explanation.

7. “Impact” should be the same as the organizational goals you listed in Step 1.

Go back to Step 1 to copy and paste the business goals in the “Impact” section and change the tenses. For instance, if your organizational goal is “Generate a 10 percent increase in qualified leads from communications activities” or, “Increase support for independence by 10 percent among Scottish women,” your impact should be “Increased support for independence among Scottish women by 10 percent as measured by an average of public polls.” If the impact is different, prepare a good explanation.

Ultimately, I love this framework, not because it is perfect, nor even particularly easy to use, but because it poses the kind of questions that I’ve been answering for 30 years.

What has been your experience using this framework? Please offer your insights in the comments section.

A version of this article first appeared on Paine Publishing.

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Facebook captures Prince Harry’s ‘groundbreaking moment for HIV’

Health advocates who promote safe sex to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS have to be pretty darn creative to garner 2.1 million views of a video.

Not the case, though, when @KensingtonPalace, the official Twitter account for the Royal Family, tweets.

To promote this week’s 21st International AIDS Conference, Prince Harry made social media history. The fifth-in-line to the throne underwent an HIV test live to show the ease—and importance—of being checked. 






NBCNews.com reported:

Video of the test, which included an unidentified health worker walking him through the procedure, was streamed live on the British royal family’s Facebook page. “It is amazing how quick it is,” the 31-year-old Harry said during his appointment at a London hospital. The famously red-headed royal added: “So whether you’re a man, woman, gay, straight, black or white—even ginger—why wouldn’t you come and have a test?”

Ian Green, chief executive of Terrence Higgins Trust, said in a statement: “Prince Harry’s decision to take an HIV test, live on social media, is a groundbreaking moment in the fight against HIV.”

Prince Harry appeared relieved in the video when the test was completed and the negative result was delivered. 

The prince was praised for his “genuine and personal commitment” to stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS. His advocacy is being compared to his mother’s legacy. Many news reports recalled images of Princess Diana in the 1980s hugging children suffering from the disease.

[ATTEND FROM YOUR DESK: Learn social media "next practices” from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.]

According to the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 1.2 million people are living with HIV. One in eight don’t know they have the condition. Over the last decade, the annual number of new HIV diagnoses dropped nearly 20 percent in the U.S.

Consistent marketing and public awareness efforts—like that of Prince Harry’s—can help further reduce the spread of the disease.

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