This article from Fast Company offers tips for implementing and maintaining an employee volunteer program. As more and more organizations offer employee volunteer programs, these programs have evolved and become more advanced. Now, many organizations are offering what the authors call “skills-based volunteering (SBV)” programs. These programs seek to tap employee’s most unique and valuable …More
CW Observer Blog
Business communication insights, innovations and perspectives
Study reveals that many retailers ignore customer questions on Facebook
Have a customer service question? According to a recent study, it will most likely go unanswered if asked on Facebook. STELLAService, a customer service evaluation company, tested how quickly retailers respond to customers by posting questions to the Facebook walls and entries of 20 major retailers. Though some performed well—one company, B&H Photo, responded within two …More
Switch to digital textbooks meets resistance in South Korea
The Washington Post reports that South Korea is reigning in its plans, announced last summer, to replace all traditional textbooks with electronic ones. The plan called for the digitizing of all elementary, middle and high school classrooms by 2015. But, the government has now scaled back the project after educators voiced concerns about the potential …More
The value of social sharing
According to an article in Ad Age Digital, a study conducted for GE has proven that shared content has a greater positive effect on consumers than content that appears in paid placements. In late 2011, GE made its “The GE Show” videos available for sharing on BuzzFeed and paid for display placements. When attitude change was measured, …More
Digital Darwinism: The biggest threat to your brand?
In an unpublished appendix to his new book, The End of Business as Usual, Brian Solis discusses the growing importance of brands in light of technology. According to Solis, Digital Darwinism is “the evolution of consumer behavior when society and technology evolve faster than some companies’ ability to adapt.” Think Blockbuster. What’s the difference between brands that …More
Encyclopedia Britannica ends print version
In another sign of the growing dominance of the digital publishing industry, it was announced this week that the Encyclopedia Britannica would end its print version after 244 years. An online version of the publication, however, will still be available. And while many on social media mourned the loss of the legendary publication, others were surprised the print …More
KONY 2012: Do’s and Don’ts
What can communicators learn from the KONY 2012 video about Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony? In the blog post, KONY 2012: Social media and crisis communication lessons learned, Shel Holtz contends that whatever your opinion of Invisible Children, the organization behind the video, this campaign has been a social media success. As of today, the video has been viewed …More
How to become a powerful visual storyteller
Social media now offers brands the ability to communicate with a number of audiences over a variety of channels. So it’s not effective for brands to merely tell who the are anymore, they must now engage with their audience. One way to do this is through the use of stories. This post from the Smart Blog on Social Media …More
Global IT survey highlights workplace enthusiasm for tablets
Cisco, a San Jose, California-based company recently published the results from a global survey of 1500 IT managers and executives in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, Germany and Spain to assess attitudes, fears and hopes for tablet use in the workplace. The following excerpt from the report highlights some of the findings: Tablets vs. smartphones: …More
Are communicators still the first to go?
According to AllThingsD, Yahoo! is set to announce significant layoffs. Among those on the rumored chopping block: public relations and marketing staff. Communicators have often lamented that they are the first to be cut during tough times. In 2009, when many of the world’s economies were in the midst of recession, IABC and Mercer Consulting conducted …More
