inCommunicado - eric eggertson

Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble tells anyone who will listen that Microsoft hasn’t been doing a very good job of listening to its customers.
"But I hate Microsoft and don’t want to help you out," he says, putting words into some of his readers’ mouths.
I’m trying to think of an organization that wouldn’t have fired him […]

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An apology has incredible power, as Jane Genova explores in her posting Apology As Totally Disarming.
She offers tips: 
1. Just observe.  When anyone makes a sincere apology, we listen.  I
landed an assignment in the mega competitive hospitality industry by
recognizing that even the most unhappy guest will be turned around by
an authentic and detailed apology.
2. Give […]

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I’ve been guilty of the kind of tunnel vision I warned about over corporate blogging.
In my case it was a corporate extranet for key member organizations.
I decided our organization needed an intranet/extranet. I pushed the project through in advance of the IT department and our main audience. We ended up with a very robust tool […]

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Getting the CEO to include "Let’s do a blog" on their to-do list might be the worst thing you could do.Focus on your organization’s strategic direction, and the relationships you need to maintain to achieve your goals. Then determine the tools you need to strengthen those relationships.
If the result is "Let’s do a blog", then […]

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Elizabeth Allbrycht picks up on the concern about the growing number of choices that consumers face, and applies it to public relations.
She refers to "Consumer Vertigo", an article by writer Virginia Postrel, and as commented on by John Hagel:
Although she doesn’t develop this further, Postrel has hit on something really significant here that helps to […]

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So Microsoft is extending its Spaces weblog service to China, and has decided to refuse the use of certain red flag words that smack of dissent or political opposition to the Chinese government.
A sensitive response to cultural differences, or an ethical cop-out by a company that can afford to put its money where its ethics […]

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Leave it to a communications firm to remind us that corporate tech security is as much about human nature and personal behaviour as it is about firewalls and other safeguards.
Steve Kerns of Bite Communications describes a day spent asking people on the streets of San Fransisco for their passwords. In exchange for this key to […]

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We’ve all spent too much time at conferences filling time when we wanted to be challenged, enlightened, or at least entertained.  Jeremy Wright calls for a little activism by conference attendees, and some better practices by conference organizers.
His suggestions include:

Create an open room for attendees to host a 30-minute session on a subject of […]

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Lynne Viscio has the right idea with her piece Positive Deviance: Stop Focusing on What Went Wrong and Start Focusing on What’s Going Well.
She explains that the tendency to focus on mistakes can sabotage change efforts in organizations:
"We see an 85 percent approval rating, and immediately begin unraveling
the mystery of the 15% who are dissatisfied […]

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Lee Lefever describes a business need for consolidated blog/Internet information about a company, so businesses can monitor their e-profile:
"Often, businesses don’t know there IS a conversation going on, much
less how to be aware of it. I see an opportunity for a service that
could provide businesses with custom packages of RSS feeds for their
area of focus. […]

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There are many ways for corporate leaders to lose the trust of their employees, and some of them are quite complex.
However, one simple way of letting your employees tune out the CEO’s messages is to have them appear at random times, with no consistent theme.  Nothing makes people roll their eyes more than yet another […]

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