The Podcaster

Archive for June, 2010

Image source: http://www.chiff.com/science/hurricane-pictures.htm

With the hurricane season already started the various Government departments are co-operating and actively using social media alongside traditional media to get their public safety messages across.

Coke and Pepsi have been active in social media for some time but have now taken it to the next level.

An article in the Harvard Business Review discusses how these global brands are using social media to build a ‘Trust Bank’ against potential customer issues in the future.  The idea being that if anything negative occurs they will have a ‘reserve’ in the ‘trust bank’ to draw-down on.

A New York  restaurant due to open in July is using crowdsourcing as a way of creating a menu. It is also using other social media techniques to engage with prospective customers.

David Cameron has made his first podcast focussing on ‘Government Transparency’ and an update on action taken to date and news on what is happening next. The fact that it was recorded while he was on the way back by train from a meeting in the North adds to the sense of urgency and multi-tasking.

What can business learn from this?

• Podcasts can be an effective way to commute information on plans and activities (surveys by CIPD and other employer organisations still show many employees feel senior management do not communicate with them)
• Great use of time – pulling all staff together or trying to message customers is time consuming and expensive. A podcast can be recorded on the move and with careful planning done in a single take without need for edits and a lot of post production.
• Simple messaging in quick time – in under 4 minutes you get a clear picture of what is happening across multiple departments and where the focus is and why.

As promised in the podcast – the ‘cloak of secrecy’ is being taken away. Accountable and visible government started today with the publishing of some of the salaries of senior civil servants.

As an ex-Executive Communication coach and writer of many speeches the words used in the podcast itself were interesting. As I mentioned the recording on the train with resultant background noises was effective. (Maximum use of time, on the move, multi-tasking, on way back from a ‘major speech’.)

In a future blog I will have a look at what sub-text messages the PM delivered in the podcast by using the words and phrases he did.