The following post also appears on the IAOC blog site where it is part of a week long discussion lead by Elizabeth Albrycht, entitled "Towards a New Communications Model." Let me know if you agree -- or have some other ideas.
When
I first started to explore how the Internet and new communications technologies
had impacted our own profession, I was really doing so with the idea of
catching up with the industry. I had been too busy with clients to spend much
time researching technology for my own business needs. But the economic
downturn in
Silicon
Valley, gave me both the time and the opportunity to invest in my own knowledge
base. As I began to understand the true scope of the technological
changes that came out of the dotcom boom (and bust), I was amazed. I felt
like the legendary Rip
Van Winkle who after going to sleep one night, awoke 20 years
later to find that his world had changed.
Had
I not been running my own high–tech marketing and PR firm for these past 17
years? Had I not been engaged in some form of communications each hour of
each working day? How could I have missed the way technology and communications
had impacted my work, my business--my life? Talking about it in
theoretical terms for a press launch or brochure was one thing, but learning
about the application of technology on a personal level was a revelation. The
more time I spent, the more I was astounded. The world as I knew it was
shifting right beneath my feet.
What
a pleasure it was when Elizabeth
Albrycht invited me to participate in The International Association
of Online Communicator’s (IAOC) blog
to explore some of these technological changes with those of you who are,
perhaps most attuned to a new way of thinking. Thank you Elizabeth (and
Dan)
for creating this platform. As someone new to blogging, it is an honor
to join in “the conversation”.
Today my post will highlight
some of the seismic changes that are already underway as our country shifts
from our roots as an industrial society to a knowledge-based economy.
I’ll discuss how these changes are being played out in four critical
arenas: micro marketing, new digital technologies, the
“internetworked” enterprise, and measurement and analysis capabilities.
Then I will explore how these are being applied at one company, Cisco Systems
Communications. Finally, I will present a table of both old and new
communications models for discussion and debate. (see the
attached file at end of this piece)
Transition to a Newer
Concepts of Micro Marketing
“It is fairly widely accepted that the developed world is changing from an industrial
economy based on steel, automobiles, and roads to a new economy built on
silicon, computers and networks….There are new dynamics, new rules and new
drivers for success.” (Don
Tapscott, Digital Economy)
This shift mirrors a similar change from older concepts of mass marketing--selling
to large targeted audiences through the vehicle of mass media (radio, TV,
print)--to a new system based on micro marketing. Micro marketing
allows companies to reach more finely targeted market segments through
narrowcast technology (email, webconferencing, blogging, podcasting), and
tailor content to those very specific needs. This move to “1-to-1”
marketing—the holy grail for marketers--would be cost prohibitive if it weren’t
for Internet technologies, which offer cheap, fast and effective
communications.
The Internet-worked Enterprise
As marketing has fragmented audiences into smaller and smaller segments, new
digital technologies have created bridges between disparate groups, and allowed
organizations to be more connected then ever before. From internal
communications between employee work groups and departments to external
connections amongst a network of partners, vendors, customers, investors,
analysts and press, digital technologies have opened channels that until a
decade ago, were still swimming in a sea of paper. This extensive network
of rich connections extends the concept of the enterprise to one which is streamlined,
integrated and global.
Digital Communications
These connections have been brought about and hastened by powerful new digital
technologies, i.e. the Internet, search engine optimization, and RSS
that both supplement and replace
traditional means of communicating. While businesses still rely on
personal contact, digital technologies have provided alternatives to the
constant, disrupting stream of meetings, memos, and telephone calls that were
an indispensable means for business interactions. (Tapscott)
The most simplistic analogy
illustrates the profound impact of digital technology: the bricks and
mortar post office versus email. Not only is email faster, more
convenient, and less costly, but email can be saved, archived and accessed in
ways that are impossible for traditional mail. Further, email can provide
an accurate and permanent record of communications.
These benefits are
compelling, but as just as vital is the impact digital technologies have had on
human interaction, collaboration, and communications. Individuals can now
be located anywhere in the world and collaborate in real-time, as a team. New
social networks are redefining networking and social interaction – virtually.
Measured for Impact
Perhaps most importantly for those of us in marketing and communications, new
media and digital technologies allow us to measure the results of our
efforts. Marketing programs can be measured for impact, tested, refined,
and then, tested again. The ability to get feedback while a program is in
progress and make adjustments is invaluable in creating the most effective
marketing initiatives. In addition, measurement gives marketing
professionals the ability to prove the value of an initiative and demonstrate
marketing’s effectiveness at improving the bottom line.
This is the helicopter view
and a simplification of some of the profound changes affecting every aspect of
how we live and work today. What I’d like to do is explore how some of
these changes are playing out at Cisco Systems communications. I am not a Cisco
employee or beneficiary—my opinion is strictly a third party observation, from
several interviews I recently had with the head of the news portal at the
company.
An Example: Cisco Communications
About four years ago, Cisco’s Communication department decided to streamline
operations and communications. They wanted to respond to a growing demand
for information from press and external requestors that was beginning to strain
scarce company communications resources. Moreover, the communications team
wanted to insure that Cisco would present a single, consistent voice throughout
the company and around the world.
The company decided on a two
pronged strategy: 1) an extranet
or news portal to streamline and organize external communications, and 2) a
communications intranet
to improve internal operations. The two would be connected. While the
news portal, News@Cisco, was built first and the intranet 2 years later, I will
discuss them here in reverse order.
Cisco’s PR Organizer
Intranets are often the poor cousin of a company’s web site, generating neither
money nor customers. However, an intranet can transform how a company
communicates, improve operations and contribute to the bottom line.
The heart of Cisco’s
communication intranet, or “PR Organizer,” is a scheduling tool, which connects
to an online calendar. All Cisco communications events, press releases,
trade shows, analyst briefings are scheduled using this tool. When a
communications person plans an announcement, it is entered into the scheduler
and immediately impacts the online calendar and database, alerting individuals
and departments and providing team members the opportunity to comment on event
timing and their participation. This ensures that the calendar is always
up-to-date and that everyone in communications will have access to the same
information. An approval tool then automatically generates requests for
feedback on any corresponding documents, such as press releases and briefing
materials
When the approval process is
complete, an oversight tool automatically alerts those with final review
authority for accuracy, legality and consistency of voice for all press
materials. Once approved, a distribution tool will send the item to the
web site team who will enter them into all databases, the news portal and send
them out to the news wire services. The tool will also alert the system
when an item has been sent out.
The time and labor savings
from this approach are enormous, as anyone who has had to coordinate even a
single major release can attest. But there are other benefits as
well. As a result of the new system, Cisco can today create one piece of
content and use it many times over, customizing the information for product,
region, or industry. Because of the tool’s ability to track comments as
well as changes, the communications intranet also helps to build consensus.
More importantly, all
communications materials and information can be saved, searched and
re-used. In the past, content at Cisco was lodged in “silos” of
information with no easy process for their retrieval. Today, Cisco’s
communication intranet provides a single searchable database that everyone on
the team can access, 24/7, from anywhere in the world. In an emergency or
crisis, Cisco can--as it recently did with the tsunami in Southeast Asia--coordinate
a single, comprehensive, global response.
Utilizing the latest in
database and networking technologies, Cisco Communications now has more control
over its content, information and voice. Content can be created once –
and used everywhere. Operations are streamlined, providing greater
agility and responsiveness. Coordination has dramatically improved,
and content, and even pitches and presentations, are routinely saved,
searched and re-used. The Communications team reports that it sent out
300 in 2004, compared to 500 releases in 2003. The difference is due, in
large part, to the use of digital technology, new media formats and Internet
communications technologies—all of which have resulted in a substantial savings
in productivity.
News@Cisco
Like so many companies today, Cisco had primarily used its online news room to
archive releases and provide contact information for the press. As demand
for company information grew, it began to strain limited PR resources.
The company found itself sitting on a veritable mountain of information most of
which, as we discussed, was inaccessible, stuck information silos away.
In addition, Cisco
Communications was concerned about its ability to reach an increasingly
fragmented and diverse audience of customers, employees, partners, investors,
analysts and reporters--from all over the world.
There was also the growing
need to tailor information for a specific region or product or country.
Further, the communications team wanted to respond to news directly affecting
Cisco, its customers and partners as it occurred, and with a rich array of new
media.
To accomplish this, the company
transformed its online news room into a news portal built upon a powerful
database, that takes advantage of powerful new digital media, and streaming
video and audio. Now, users can search for very specific information by
product, country or customer, and access their information in a wide range of
new ways. In FY 2004 the company provided over 630,000 video streams per
quarter, and the number is growing. In addition the Media resource room
on News@Cisco not only provides press releases and information, but also offers
images, photos, company logos, and, for broadcast media, b-roll and corporate
videos.
Cisco now provides over 350
RSS (a web syndication protocol that allows for the sharing of content over the
Internet) feeds that any reader can receive by subject. Now Cisco
partners, customers or any external user can select the exact information it
needs, and post that information to a specific department or reseller
website. Editors can elect to pull in all Cisco news that relates to an
area of interest. And Cisco can use the RSS feeds to alert customers to issues
of security.
Not only have communications
dramatically improved with the introduction of the new portal and intranet,
Cisco Communications estimates that it has saved over $5.1
million in 2004 in productivity and headcount costs, deferred calls and a
reduction in wire service use. And, the company reports a 44% increase in
unique website visitors; from 2.3 million in 2004 and a total 17.4 million page
views or 1140% increase over 2003.
The one area the company
still needs to address is tracking, measuring and analyzing the impact of its
content, media and delivery systems. This final element of the new
marketing mix is perhaps the most critical, in establishing and quantifying the
value of marketing and communications, and in demonstrating in no uncertain
terms the contribution both make to the bottom line. Right now the use of
RSS does not allow for analysis and for tracking who reads the feeds, but
it will.
Cisco still relies on
traditional forms of mass marketing as a foundation for marketing
communications: advertising, PR, and direct mail. However increasingly
these traditional tools are being used to complement new micro marketing
practices and the use of powerful new digital technologies, internetworked and
measured for impact. It’s hard to imagine these traditional marketing
techniques will disappear. But, the fortunes of many companies will depend on
how well they adapt to a new economic model in the chaotic transition from an
industrial society to a knowledge-driven economy.
Towards a New Communications
Model
As marketing has fragmented audiences into smaller and smaller segments, new
digital technologies have created bridges between disparate groups, allowing
organizations to be more connected then ever before. This extensive network of
rich connections extends the concept of the enterprise to one which is
streamlined, integrated and global.
These
connections have been brought about and hastened by powerful new digital technologies
that both supplement and replace traditional means of communicating. Most
importantly these new digital media can be measured for impact and contribution
to the bottom line.
While
older mass marketing methods and tools won’t disappear they are being
supplemented and often replaced, by newer methods and media. Below is a
table of how these two paradigms look in the transition to a new communications
model for discussion and debate.
Based in Silicon Valley, Robin Stavisky provides strategic counsel to high technology companies combining new online media with more traditional forms of marketing and communications.
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