The Five Keys - say what?

"The five keys" form the elements of a proprietary process that I'd been kicking around for a long time but which really crystallized a couple of years ago. It's a process that I encourage clients, whether start-ups, young companies or seasoned businesses to embrace and seek to implement where appropriate. There’s nothing cerebral about the process - much of it is common sense. However, it’s surprising how many organizations are, understandably, immersed in their everyday operations to the extent that they rarely take time to review how and what they project outwards and internally.

The process takes us along a logical track, first assessing how an organization or business is perceived. What do the ways in which it projects say about it? Do those projections reflect how it would want to be perceived? Engagement in self-awareness takes us further into analysis. How often do we 'step outside' and look at the bigger picture? How is that measured, and how does that organization react and seek to enable change and growth?

We then look at the relationships present within the business, both internally and externally, reviewing and strategizing in order that these be improved and optimized. Consistency, across all that an organization does, is the next stage. Working towards this, from brand to sales collateral to customer service and so on across the business generates a unified customer experience. Finally, strategic communications pulls everything together and provides a template for forward momentum within an organization. Strategic communications takes many forms and embraces an increasing number of platforms.

Key 1: Perception

‘First impressions count’ – how many times have we heard that? Yet, it’s as true today as it ever was. When we meet, speak or interact with a person, organization or other entity, our synapses go into hyper-drive as we process information to form a perception, a viewpoint, which often shapes our participation in future conversations or interactions. It’s human nature that we seek to categorize, assess and form an opinion, often without realizing it. 

If I was to go all ‘textbook’ on you, I’d say that perception “is the process through which people translate sensory impressions into a coherent and unified view of the world around them. Though necessarily based on incomplete and unverified (or unreliable) information, perception is equated with reality for most practical purposes and guides human behavior in general.” In short, awareness and an understanding of perception and how that can impact a business is the starting block for development and growth.

Whether we know it or not, we are all constantly perceiving, processing and interpreting information as we receive it. Sorting, classifying and working to make sense of this information, we make thousands* of decisions each and every day, consciously and subconsciously. Our first impression, that is, what we perceive about an organization, a product or service, a person or an experience, forms our reality.

How do we form perceptions?

How humans perceive the world around them has historically dictated humanity’s direction. At birth we, our make-up is defined by a default set of electrical impulses and chemical/hormonal responses. From birth, we absorb information, processing it, categorizing it, assigning physiological responses to it and building our ‘world view.’ Life experiences and environmental influences continue to shape our perceptions and the process of environmental influence on our mind begins. This environmental influence is the foundation on which the building blocks of our perception of the world are stacked over time for the rest of our lives. Environmental influences and these building blocks are what we, as communicators, must understand and have front of mind when targeting the ‘sweet spot’ within our audiences.

Leveraging Perception

• Hold this thought: All engagement with an audience is public relations, in that it relates to a public.
• All public relations is geared towards shaping perceptions to raise awareness, encourage engagement, build relationships and ultimately, drive sales.
• Perception is based on our individual cultural and environmental influences and experiences, both our own and that of others.
• Perception is, to varying degrees, a result of all of the senses - what we see, hear, touch, taste and smell. Perception is also emotionally driven, instinctive and not always rational.
• Creating a positive perception requires a sustained commitment to sending out messages that resonate with a target audience. You are providing something that they need, that will enhance their lives, will solve a problem and/or will enable progress. 
• The goal is to make every engagement positive. It’s extremely difficult (though not impossible) to turn a negative perception in a positive one.
• One key element in shaping perception is took step outside of your organization and look inwards as an outsider. If you knew nothing about your business, what would your impression be?

Wouldn’t it make sense, therefore, to ensure that how we, as individuals and businesses, are perceived by others (be they customers, colleagues, employees, partners, suppliers, peers or the media) accurately projects the reality that we want it to?

*According to the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, the number of thoughts per day in an average human brain is 70,000. Blimey!!

Key 2: Self-Awareness

Innovators rarely, if ever, stand still. One common trait is that they refuse to accept the status quo. They question, challenge, prod and poke. They are hungry. They generally do not fear change, but rather create and embrace it. They learn from good and bad experiences.

Innovators regularly review and analyze, both internally and externally, assessing their own business and the competitive landscape openly and objectively. An organization that is self-aware is open to growth, as it has a clear perception of its personality, including strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs, motivations, and the emotions it elicits.

Self-awareness enables companies to solve issues, evolve, refresh, change markets and even create new ones. Innovation has many faces. For example, it could be a new technique, improved processes, new products or services, new ways of thinking or simply making life easier.

The most successful companies are always looking ahead, fully engaged with the present and learning from the past.

Raising self-awareness

An honest and transparent review and assessment process breeds self-awareness within an organization, and can include any and all elements of a business. This process typically encompasses market research, competitive analysis, brand and awareness research, product/service review, assessing external facing elements (for example, website, media relations, collateral, social media), the customer engagement/sales function and the customer fulfillment function. The self-awareness process can be broken into several distinct areas. For example: 

• A brand assessment includes a brand audit, brand strategy, brand analysis and the creation or review of a brand roadmap. 
• A communications assessment examines and evaluates marketing strategies, materials, media and communication channels.
• A sales assessment examines all of the routes to market, the materials presented, the messaging broadcast and the various customer engagement points (face to face, website, social media channels.
• Simply talking to people!

Key 3: Relationships

Relationships are everything in business. They are a catalyst for innovation, growth, feedback. They can also bring a company to its knees. How companies behave, what they say and what is said about them are analyzed and scrutinized by an increasingly informed, active and vocal society. Companies must be accountable, ethical, transparent and responsible.

Life, and business in particular, revolves around relationships. That may sound simplistic, but our interactions and networks, our 'tribes,' are the lifeblood of an organization, and the quality of those interactions is a sound barometer of success. Good relationships can cut through the noise, stimulate interest and trigger informed decision-making. They help an organization effectively convey its message and values.

In this age of 'big data' and always on connectivity, we are all bombarded by information. We are constantly connected and consuming data, competition for our attention is intense. Chatter is constant - instantaneous communications, 24-hour news cycles and social media.

There's a great deal of 'noise' out there and we have learned to filter it to a degree. It's here that relationships have even greater importance. Our time is limited. Our attention span is limited. Therefore, to forge a positive relationship with our audiences, what we say needs to resonate, be relevant and timely, and be of some perceived benefit.

Consider the amount of data out there:

• WorldWideWebSize.com – As of June 10 2015 the web contained around 4.66 billion pages.
• There are more than 800 social media networks, apps and digital services. There’s a huge selection listed by Traffikd - https://traffikd.com/social-media-websites/ 
• Add to that broadcast and print media. Multiply it by the number of ‘screens’ we use to take in content – smart phones, tablets, smart TV, laptops, desktops - and the number of potential interactions is almost infinite.

Building Tribes

Seth Godin defines a tribe as “a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea that inspires their passion.” Whether we realize it or not, we are all part of a number of tribes.

We are in the age of ‘opt in’ or permission marketing, where building distinct tribes requires research, planning and clarity of purpose, allied to well thought out, targeted and timely outreach, through whatever channel we use to connect (print, broadcast, advertising, events, social media etc.). Defining the tribe's journey, goals, interactions, future, and how teamwork will get the tribe to where they want to go in a story that epitomizes what the tribe is about.

Social Media (and the right social media) provides a rapid and direct platform through which to attract ‘fans,’ ‘followers’ and generate ‘likes’ through personalized content. Consistency, commonality, value add and relevancy are key in everything we do. Ultimately, we want ‘buy ins’ to build our tribe and direct them. 

Key 4: Consistency

Consistency across a business is a vital element to its success. For example, if we are buying a product or service, we have certain expectations or criteria that it should meet, and we expect that to happen consistency. That's why certain companies are perceived as 'premium' - they meet or exceed expectations consistently. The same applies with public relations. Our interactions, our brand, our tone, our visual identities, need to be consistent. We need to be unified.

Consistency across an organization - of brand, of message, of quality, of thought, of intent and objectives, of effort and of service - is one of the cornerstones of a successful business. Why?

Consistency establishes your reputation

• Business growth requires a track record of success.
• You can't establish a track record if you are constantly shifting tack, changing focus or trying new tactics.
• Many efforts fail before they get to the finish line, not because the strategy was flawed or goals weren't clear, but because the team simply didn't stay the course to achieve the objective.
• Consistent high quality builds trust and confidence in an organization

 Consistency makes you relevant

• Employees and customers need a predictable and consistent flow of information. 
• A consistent voice that leverages knowledge, and which adds value to an audience, invariably helps to position an organization as a respected information source, with expertise and significant relevancy.

Consistency maintains your message

• An organization’s audiences pay as much or more attention to what that organization does as to what it says.
• Practicing what you preach serves as a model for how employees, suppliers, customers, partners and the media behave.
• When something doesn't work, look back at what happened and ask some serious questions Did we shift gears too quickly? Did part of the team not deliver on a commitment? Was the expected outcome off base from the start?
• Most of the time, the reason tracks back to lack of consistency.

Consistency allows for measurement

• Until you have tried something new for a period of time and in a consistent manner, you can't decide if it works or not. Effectiveness cannot be measured if what you are measuring isn't performed consistently.
• It’s good practice to give new initiatives, processes, and organizational structures a defined period of time before judging them a success or failure. 
• More often that not, it’s minor tweaking along the way rather than major overhauls that make all the difference. 

Consistency creates accountability

• Management and employees should be accountable for their deliverables and goals, and work to establish consistent and recurring meetings when a project or aspect of the business requires attention.
• The simple fact that there is a set time to report on progress is often the catalyst that moves an initiative along to a successful end.

Key 5: Strategic communications

Strategic communications pulls everything together - perception, self awareness, relationships and consistency, aligns them with business and marketing objectives, and engages in outreach to communicate all of these elements in a cohesive program tailored to each target audience. It’s a cyclical process of assessment, goal and objectives, tactics and deployment, and analysis.

The overriding objective is to contribute to and achieve the desired long-term strategic goal of an organization. The strategic communication process shapes perspective and perception, builds and promotes self-analysis and awareness, maintains mutually-beneficial relationships and applies consistency to everything that an organization says and does.

Communication itself follows a cyclical process of assessment, the setting of goals and objectives, mapping out tactics and their deployment, and put measures in place for the analysis of the results. A comprehensive communications program is built, with both short- and long-term elements, that engage audience(s) by leveraging the most appropriate channels. The overriding objective is to contribute to and achieve the desired long-term strategic goal of an organization

Strategic communication elements 

• Perception management across an organization. Promotion of self-assessment and self-awareness and the processes for enabling this.
• Analysis and strategic planning based on perception management and awareness research.
• Defining, developing and managing key relationships.
• Applying consistency to all internal and external elements of an organization so that interactions with all stakeholders are on brand, on message and speak to the core values across the board - from employee communications, intranets, websites, social media, press kits, presentations, sales collateral to events management, speaking engagement, sales channels, customer service, and all points in between.
• Development and management of the narrative that tells the 'big picture' story.
• Information projection - News generation. Editorial generation. Initial audience outreach and connection building. Media briefings. Analyst briefings. Company and individual profiling. Reactive activities, which includes, for example, responding to market trends and developments and following editorial calendars. Proactive activities, driving the media agenda by creating news, articles, and stories. social media, crisis planning and management.

Much of this process is straightforward and easily implemented. Of course, there's no quick fix, no 'one size fits all.' Every company is at a different stage of its trajectory, and where it rightfully should be based on decisions made within it. It's no bad thing to look at your business through a critical lens. No organization is perfect, just as none of us are perfect. It's how we learn, embrace development and work to become better that leads to improvement and greater satisfaction.