IABC Colorado Workshop
University of Denver CO
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
1

Describe an example of an outstanding and

successful communication strategy
Why was it successful?

What indicators did you use to conclude

that?
2

How would your CEO have described success?

By what indicators?

3

You will learn and appreciate:

 How to integrate practical measurement strategies
into your communication plan
 How to design and implement your measurement
strategies
 How you can apply measurement strategies to the
use of social media
What objectives do you have for today?

4

Section Content Time
Introductions 8:30 am
Module one The measurable communication plan 8:45 am
Break 9:30 am
Module two Measurement tools and tactics 9:45 am
Break 10:45 am
Module three What lies ahead? 11:00 am
Summary Trends and tips 11:50 am
Adjourn 12 noon
5

Starts with your organization‟s
plan
6

7

8

9

Credibility
Well
researched
strategy Respect
=
+
Well
Trust
documented
results
Power
10

Strategy
 Management plan for completing objectives;
 Procedures to be implemented to do
something.
 Actions calculated to achieve an end
11

“Build a simple, reliable car, a car that average

American worker can afford”
“Obstacles are those frightful things you see

when you take your eyes off the goal
Henry Ford 1908


Google‟s mission
Organize the world‟s information and make it

universally accessible and useful
Southwest Airlines
 Dedication to the highest quality of Customer
Service delivered with a sense of warmth,
friendliness, individual pride, and Company
Spirit

Kellogg‟s values
We act with integrity and show respect

We are all accountable

We are passionate about our business, our brands and our food

We have the humility and hunger to learn

We strive for simplicity

We love success


Mandate for Communication
 The organizational territory it occupies
What communication delivers
The contribution it makes to success
Example:
The Communication Division Mandate
 Design and execute communication strategies
that:
 Build supportive relationships with stakeholders
 Support the successful achievement of organization
goals
18

Guiding principles for communication
 What we stand for
 The values we hold for communication
 The values we share with the organization
 The values others will see in our behavior
As the communication team, we believe…………

Example
 The Communication Team believes in two-way
communication with stakeholders that:
 Is passionate and innovative
 Fosters integrity, trust and respect
 Demonstrates compassion, best practices and efficiency
19

RESOURCES
•People
• Materials
•$
ROI
20

The indicators of success lead
you to measurable objectives

Case Study One
British Columbia Automobile
Association (BCAA)
22

BCCA – the organization
Number of members 750,000

Mission: Provide members security and peace

of mind through:
 Automobile support services
 Travel agency
 Insurance agency
Three year plan

 Aggressive growth and increased sales
23

A survey of 550 Sales Division
employees revealed:
Chaotic, untimely communication of sales

information
 Too much interdepartmental email;
 Uncoordinated distribution from four
departments
 Contradictory information
 Long rambling messages; inadequate subject line
 Confusion between fyi and action messaging
 Messages not searchable or retrievable
24

 The result:
 Sales lost
 Customers lost
 Sales reps frustrated
 Staff dissatisfied
25

The starting point of a measurement strategy

The communication

goal:
 Maximize sales
26

The goal:
Maximize sales with better communication

If you were the CEO, what two indicators of
1.
success would you expect?
Create a measurable objective from each of
2.
these indicators
How would you measure success?
3.
27

(This was an IABC Gold quill
winner)
28

The Goal:
Maximize sales
Indicators
Objectives
Strategies
Measures
The results
29

Impacts – what the organization needs to achieve

 More sales
 Increased sales revenues
 Increased operating profits
Outcomes– what the audience needs to achieve

 Staff knowledge
 Value to staff productivity
Outputs – what we need to create

Access

Readership

Readability

Accuracy

30

Increase the access, readership, timeliness

and readability of sales communication
Ensure sales staff can easily retrieve

information about sales opportunities, plans
and customer performance
Ensure all sales staff are knowledgeable

about and understand the information
customers look for or need to know
31

Publish one daily Sales Division e-newsletter

 Publish at outset of each workday
 News item summaries with links to the intranet
Single divisional editor; four dept. publishers

 Each publisher posts items to intranet;
 Summaries and links to forwarded to editor for posting
All items archived and searchable, on intranet

 Common templates and subject line protocols
32

The outputs – we achieved

 Increased access and readership – up 20%
 Increased timeliness – 79% satisfied
 Easy to read format – 78% satisfied
The outcomes – the audience achieved

 Staff ratings
76% better informed

70% found the newsletter more useful

85% found the information more accurate

72% found retrieval and access easier and improved

The impact – the organization achieved

 Sales revenues increase; more sales offices needed
 BCAA celebrate best-ever operating profit
33

What did the CEO use as the
measure?
BCAA celebrated its best-ever operating

profit
Sales revenues increased

34

You deserve a 15 minute break
– enjoy the networking
35

Communication
measures everyone
understands
(including you!)

Lets me know if I did a

good job
Provides evidence that I did

a good job for my boss
Informs my plans to make

my program/service more
effective

Keeps me connected to

others in my
organization
Enables others to

communicate what they
need
Facilitates organizational

dialogue

Impacts on the organization
Outcomes of the influence
Communication
„stuff‟ generated

40

41

Benefits sought
Purpose
In-depth discussions
Exploratory research 

Participant interactions

focused on specific subject
Broad understanding of

matter staff needs
Staff ideas and suggestions

Scope
Use
In-depth examination of

Pre-cursor to questionnaire
issues and range of 
development
opinions
Generate hypothesis to test

in quantitative research
Participants
Generate new

Representatives of specific ideas, concepts for testing

interests in the issue feasibility and desirability
The focus group
The focus group plan
outcomes
42

Impacts
• ROI
Input Output Outcomes
• Changed
Measurement • Cost • Tallies • Attitudes
lives
• Measures • Time • Counts • Behaviours
• Influence
• Tools • People • Visits • Preferences
• Profit
• Balance • Clients • Surveys
•Performance
sheet • Score assessment
Sheets

Your company‟s sales are down, the stocks

are down and there are to be cuts in staff and
services to customers
Your goal is to preserve:

 The goodwill of your most profitable customers;
and
 The loyalty of your most productive employees
45

Choose one of these two audiences
Action Customers Employees
•Identify one strategy that will
achieve the goal
•Name one indicator of success
for your audience
(your measurable objective)
•Identify the one key measure
1.
for: 1.
2.
2.
Outputs
3.
3.
Outcomes
Impacts
•Name the tools you will need for 1. 1.
2. 2.
each measure
3. 3.
46

The customer goal: The employee goal:
Preserve goodwill Preserve loyalty
Indicators Indicators
Objectives Objectives
Measures Measures
Tools Tools
47

Best practices for effective
surveys
48

People value the ability to

provide anonymous feedback.
Less enfranchised people need

communication opportunities.
People need to feel safe to

provide candid feedback.

High performing companies use employee
surveys
64% of high-performing companies report

using employee surveys on a regular basis
Best Practices LLC (2005)
74% percent of high-performing companies

use employee surveys at least once per year
Industry Week‟s Best Plants 2001-2004 (Gibbons, 2006).

Most companies believe in the value of surveys
95% of businesses believe that gaining feedback from

employee surveys and customer surveys will positively
impact their business.
18% of businesses conduct annual customer surveys or

employee surveys.
Why the gap?

 Not enough time
 Insufficient resources
 Lack of in-house expertise
(Surveywerks.com 2008)
51

Anyone conducting an
organizational survey should
appreciate that the very act of
surveying itself influences attitudes
(Walters, 2002).

Create the strategic frame

 The survey communicates what is important to an
organization.
 What is asked and responded to creates a social contract.
 The process tells people you care about their issues and that
you are willing to do something about these issues (Church
& Oliver, 2006).
The survey then sets the limits or boundaries for a

creative and innovative discussion around continual
improvement.

Publicly demonstrating the steps taken to

achieve the plan - will impact stakeholder‟s
perceptions of trust (Gibbons, 2006)
It is expected that: :

 Stakeholders will be more satisfied
 Management will have better information for
making decisions
 The organization will have the means to check on
collective progress.

People feel they gained a voice in decision

making
The results of the survey can identify

current strengths and challenges
Each participant can focus and move

towards a shared vision.

When stakeholders don‟t think anything will

change
The questions are not relevant to their

immediate experience
Senior management receive and use the

results but the results do not impact the day-
to-day life of the participants

With raised expectations, the importance of

action exceeds that of the feedback itself
(Kraut, 2006).

The survey itself is a powerful

communication tool
See the process through the

eyes of the audience.
Take demonstrable actions

Communicate

 Follow-up during implementation
 Report progress after
implementation
 Tie the communication back to
the survey process.

You deserve another break
– enjoy the networking
59

Communication
measurement in the
world of social media
60

Increased opportunities for

collaboration, access, sharing
and integration
Consistent, strategic measurement

more complex
Growth of conversational

communication strategies
61

Social media connect people, share
information, build knowledge.
The outcome of use is collaborative.
The result is the wisdom of crowds.
62

63

64

Social media tools - a year ago

 Half of IABC members were using them to share
information
 40% said their organizations were ready to use them
 20% had strategies that used them
 Less than half said they had plans to use them
 40% had no budget to use them
IABC social media study 2008
65

Excellence in communication is achieved through

relationships
(Reference: IABC Foundation Excellence Study, 1991)
 Depends upon:
Difficult using traditional media
 sharing and collaboration
 face-to-face and interpersonal conversations
 Social media enables relationship building through:
 virtual conversations,
 sharing and collaboration
66

Boomers are sticking with email

Xers use everything

Millennials have adopted social media

 Millennial influence is increasing
Facemailing?
67

Facebook: Usage Statistics
Sources: Google Insights & Google
Adplanner
http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/
2008-social-network-analysis-
report/
•More than 120 million active users
•Facebook is the 4th most-
trafficked website in the world

Tracking Social Media Usage
http://server-uk.imrworldwide.com/pdcimages/Global_Faces_and_Networked_Places-
A_Nielsen_Report_on_Social_Networkings_New_Global_Footprint.pdf

70

PRSA.org
IABC.com
71

72

73

74

Insights into behaviors
lead to innovation
Technologies change –
humans do not
Human nature does not
change,
human behavior does
75

Impacts
• ROI
Input Output Outcomes
• Changed
Measurement • Cost • Tallies • Attitudes
lives
• Measures • Time • Counts • Behaviours
• Influence
• Tools • People • Visits • Preferences
• Profit
• Balance • Clients • Surveys
•Performance
sheet • Score assessment
Sheets
76

Two questions to consider as you plan

your measures:
Did I design my social networking

programs to accomplish specific
conversational objectives?
Did I deliver on those conversational

objectives?
77

Engagement
Contribution
Behaviours
Advocacy
Feelings
The results of using
social media
Financials Source: Measurementcamp
http://measurementcamp.wikidot.com/what-are-
we-trying-to-measure
78

Behaviours To be measured Outputs Outcomes Impacts
Engaging Friends 
Conversions 
Involvement 
Visits/reading 
Downloads 
Contributing Content creation 
Voting 
Reviews 
Tagging 
Participation 
Volume of inputs 
Variety of topics 
79

Behaviours To be measured Outputs Outcomes Impacts
Advocacy Brand loyalty 
Recommendations 
Virality 
(potential for web sharing)
Feelings To be measured Outputs Outcomes Impacts
Conversations 
Sentiment 
Positivity 
Word of mouth unit 
Promotion score 
Authority 
80

Financials To be measured Outputs Outcomes Impacts
Revenues 
Profit 
ROI 
Sales by source 
Leads/enquiries 
Bottom line impacts 
Raw numbers 
81

Breakout group assignment 3
15 minutes
CEO‟s daily interactive blog

 Topics - Current business issues
 Strategy – establish conversations with customers
 Support with video clips and PowerPoint
 Share the messages on your company‟s three
social networks
82

Create your measurement strategy around

one output, one outcome and one impact
 Name:
 your indicators
 your objectives
 how you would measure each
83

84

85

86

Seven trends in internal communication
Democratization of information
1.
Strategy shift – information to influence
2.
Tactical shift – distribution to conversations
3.
Focus on engagement and loyalty
4.
Focus on ROI
5.
Simplicity
6.
Personalization
7.
87

Five trends in marketing
Customer empowerment
1.
Atomization of media
2.
Fixation on ROI
3.
Integration of marketing communication
4.
Conversational marketing
5.
Quest for the cult brand
6.
88

Top Tips for Measurement
Link to organizational strategy
1.
Measure strategically – measure what matters
2.
Always explain what and why you are measuring
3.
Focus process on the future
4.
Ask questions that matter and yield actionable data
5.
Act fast - the value of data decreases with time
6.
Involve decision makers in the research process
7.
Measure often to track change
8.
89

Peter Block
Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff Rick Levine, Christopher Locke et al
Don Tapscott
(2008) (2007)
90

 “All
indicators are flawed whether
qualitative or quantitative…..
What matters is not finding the perfect
indicator but settling upon a
consistent and intelligent method of
assessing your results – and then
tracking with rigor”
Jim Collins
Good to Great and the Social Sector
91

Tudor Williams
Principal, TWI Surveys Inc.
Tudor@twisurveys.ca
@Twitter.com/tudorwilliams
Office:604 948 8888
Direct: 604 838 6000
92