Social Media

The art and science of telling a great (corporate) story

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on January 19th, 2012

Telling your organization’s story isn’t as easy as some would think, but it certainly isn’t hard. It does take some time and effort, but the results provide excellent return on investment.

The fact is, stories are being told about your organization all the time. Whether the stories are good or bad, they are being told by clients or customers, by service providers, employees and contractors (and their families and friends), by competitors, your board members, government officials and by the media.

When we start working with a client, we often do a little bit of research and find some of…

Crisis communications – the prequel

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on January 17th, 2012

This blog post isn’t about what to do should your organization be faced with an issue or a crisis. It is about what you can do today, proactively, even if there isn’t the slightest evidence that there might be a challenge in your future. (A word of warning: A small mistake by someone in your organization could get a lot of interest online and turn into a huge crisis. Don’t think a crisis would never happen to you. It can. And at some point, it likely will.)

Back to today’s post…

We are often asked to develop issues and crisis…

Blogging for business – part 2

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on December 05th, 2011

On Wednesday, I wrote about the CEO/President’s blog. Today we’ll have a look at the organization blog, the employee blog and the blend.

The Organization Blog

This blog is a little less about the person writing it than it is about the organization as a whole. Often there will be several writers who cover a range of topics and areas regarding the organization. It might be that different departments or division heads each write one blog post a week about news, events and interesting points relevant to their area.

In this style, it is more like local news…

It’s a two-way conversation

Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on December 02nd, 2011

In today’s AHA Fast Take Friday, Ruth talks about the importance of understanding what people want to talk to you about…not what you want to tell them.

Blogging for business

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on December 01st, 2011

Blogging has become a regular communications tool for organizations. One of the things that I have noticed is that when we work with the marketing department or agency of a client, there is a little bit of discussion over which area (communications or marketing) will develop and manage the campaign on Twitter and/or Facebook. There is never any discussion about the organization’s blog – it belongs firmly with the communications team.

Like any communications tool, blogging isn’t for everyone. It depends on the objectives, goals, overall strategy and, of course, the resources. It takes time and effort to produce a…

Our communications audits findings

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on November 28th, 2011

Recently, at the AHA office, we have been working on communications audits for several clients. One of the areas that we review is their use of social media. (We also research and analyze how other organizations in the same field use social media and provide them with best and worst practices during this process.) In our research, we discovered an interesting trend: many organizations have reverted to a more traditional approach of pushing information out through social media channels rather than engaging and starting or participating in conversations.

Of the five communications audits we have done in the past few…

Content matters

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on November 03rd, 2011

At AHA, we spend a great deal of time working with clients to create interesting, informative and engaging content. It isn’t about what the client organization wants to say as much as it is about what their community or stakeholder group is interested in hearing, discussing, and learning.

For some organizations, this is a big paradigm shift. It can, in fact, be culture shifting. There is a perception with the fast-paced, 24/7 cycle of user-generated content online, that organizations have lost control of their “message.” When in fact, the social media era (in my humble opinion) should be seen as…

Social media – how far is too far?

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on October 27th, 2011

I saw something on Facebook this morning that really made me sit back and think. I have quite a few “friendly acquaintances” on Facebook. For the purpose of this blog, I will call them “pals.” These are people I have met and like, but that I don’t connect with very much in the real world. Some I met through work, others from my personal life. Many of them I met while travelling.

I don’t hold the same political views as some of them. I have to admit, I have found some of the discussions and ideas put forward by a…

It’s not ALL about the numbers

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on October 25th, 2011

We recently spent time working with a client about social media and how it fits into their overall communications strategy. This organization had “dabbled” in social media (their words) but had never fully committed to it and they wanted to know a) if they should commit and b) if they should, then how.

The CEO is a smart person. He is connected within his industry, he is well-liked and well respected, and there are interesting things going on at this organization. The CEO has his own Twitter account, which has been silent for several months now. There are a few…

What’s your strategy?

Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on October 21st, 2011

In today’s AHA Fast Take Friday, Ruth talks about needing strategies for your communications initiatives.