Six Tips for Communicating Change

Over the years, I've been charged with communicating change with masses of people. Difficult changes, like impending mergers & acquisitions, staff reductions and dissolution of major business partnerships.

Here's what I learned: unless the change is an increase in fortune or free desserts for the remainder of time, the first reaction to change is almost always defensiveness and alarm. Human nature, perhaps, but over the years I've learned a few tricks to ease transitions and make change a bit easier:

Six Tips for Communicating Change:

1. Determine why change is needed. This develops your focus for communications and helps clarify there is an important benefit to the change. (You'd be shocked how many changes are made just for the sake of switching things up. Almost always a dumb move.)
2. Identify ALL of your audiences. Last year my daughter's school implemented a major overhaul to the carpool system. They failed to communicate the new system to the kids and failed to communicate with parents so we could review with our kids at home. The result was lots of confused, sweaty, hungry, often crying small children packed into a small space at an elementary school. And a whole batch of unhappy parents. Sounds fun, yes? Make sure you've thought through every single audience the change will impact and develop a strategy for communicating with each one.
3. Communicate their benefit first, not yours. Starting a communication with "how this change helps the company" just stirs a sense of injustice amongst the masses. You must first communicate how this change helps your audience. Give 'um a cause they can get behind -- or at the very least not argue against. 
4. Communicate early. Get cracking on a clear communication about the change, along with a timeline, as soon as your strategy is set. The longer people have to wrap their heads around change, the better they tend to accept it. 
5. Communicate often. Update your audiences on the process. Share the victories, address the issues, and ask for continued patience. When people hear updates, they are more likely to support the change throughout the process. 
6. Welcome feedback. Give your audiences an opportunity to voice concerns and offer suggestions -- then address those concerns and suggestions. You don't have to respond to every single complaint, but make an effort to let your audiences know you hear them. Even if you don't make the changes they request, it helps them to know you are listening.

Have you recently had a change (maybe from your company, your bank, or your kids' school) communicated with you? Did they do a good job communicating the change? Why or why not?

Taming the Social Media Beast: 5 Easy Steps to Social Media Success

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Whether you are starting a tiny business from your basement or you're a brand manager for a major conglomerate, anyone responsible for getting the word out about a brand has a vague sense they should be using social media much, much better.

Thing is, social media is overwhelming. You could always be posting more, tweeting more, updating your Facebook status more. Then you get to thinking "Is anyone reading this stuff? Is this really making any sort of impact, or would my time be better spent on traditional marketing? Or maybe just having a margarita and catching up on The Good Wife?"

I am sad to say, from a professional marketing and branding perspective, an effective social media strategy is paramount for connecting with your audience, and thus, you'll need to pour out that margarita (it's 9 a.m., for heaven's sake) and get cracking. Good news is, it's easier than you think to devise a winning social media strategy. In fact, I've broken it down into 5 easy steps:

TOSS the elaborate plan. Many social media efforts fail before they get started because there's too much planning. Nail down what you want to accomplish, make sure it benefits your audience, then GO.

FOCUS your efforts where your audience is most engaged. This isn't an all-or-nothing endeavor. Pick one place to focus, whether it's a blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram or whatever and focus your efforts.

STICK to a schedule. Determine how much time you realistically have to spend on social media, put it on your calendar, and stick to it 100% of the time. Period.

CREATE an ideas file. There's that little "I had writer's block" problem solved.

HIRE it out. Maybe social media just isn't your thing. Pay someone to do it for you. Investing in marketing is always a good investment, and a smart social media campaign will build your business.

See? Easy.

(This post is a recap of an article from my newsletter. Read the full article "5 Easy Steps to Consistent Social Media Success" here. Sign up for the quarterly Amy Mac PR newsletter here.)

Photo Source: chicagonow.com via ROAR pro on Pinterest

Free Publicity Tip: How to Hitch Your Star to Today's Headlines

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Now, an explanation for why Prince William is on the Amy Mac blog ...

Whether you’re a small business owner, a blogger, a photographer or a corporate professional with a dream of opening a lovely antique boutique, it is imperative to develop a publicity plan to keep your name top-of-mind with your target audience.

And while occasionally posting a snappy promo on your Facebook status is a great supplemental publicity tactic, you must take the time to develop other avenues of getting the word out about your business.

An easy way to do this is what I like to call Bandwagon Publicity. That’s right, go ahead and hitch your star to somebody else’s news wagon. Why? Because this makes an editor’s job really easy – you’ve created a new angle to a story that’s proven itself newsworthy.

Here’s a perfect example: I follow the website Flashlight Worthy Books, which publishes lists of books readers compile and vouch that the book is good enough to keep you up at night. When Prince William and Kate announced their engagement, I knew the media would be saturated with news about their impending nuptials. So I created the list “Enlightening Reads for Today's British Invasion" and submitted it to FLW for publication.

Not only is the list currently on their website (and driving traffic back to my blog), but this list has legs – FLW plans to pitch it to a media outlet where they have a contact, and I can pitch it to a few where I have contacts. 

Everybody wins.

So take a look at what your favorite news outlets (mine are listed under Daily News Reel on the blog panel) are reporting. How can you tie your product or service into today’s headlines? Think about it, and we’ll talk more about creating an effective pitch soon.

'Til Thursday --Amy Mac

On Being Bookish (Or, how you can use best seller lists as market research in moments of desperation)

First, I should warn you I plan to talk a lot about books and reading this month. In fact, I shall officially declare this Amy Mac Reading Month. Or maybe Amy Mac Book Month. Or maybe Amy Is Procrastinating By Trying To Name A Month After Herself Month. Anywho …

Effective marketing, in its simplest form, is understanding what your target audience wants and communicating how your product fills that need. If we could take a gander at the marketing research budgets for advertising big-spenders like Apple, Amazon, and The Coca-Cola Company, I assure you we’d begin imagining the wonderful things we could do with that massive sum of money (for example, retire to a secluded beach and focus on perfecting our ability to do nearly nothing all day. But I digress….)

Most small businesses and non-profits don’t have an enormous chunk of cash to throw at learning the intricate mental workings of a 30-something stay-at-home mom who decides which detergent to buy, how much to spend at Christmas, and which type of vehicle to purchase to keep her family safe on the road.

Analyzing The New York Times Bestseller lists can be a superior way to home in on general trends. For example, a quick peek at the bestsellers for 2009 tells me:

• We gravitate toward the inspirational (The Last Lecture)
• We’re always searching for the edge for success in business and life (Outliers)
• We’re examining and growing our faith (The Shack, Have a Little Faith)
• Based on the number of zombie and vampire-related books, we like to be spooked (Pride & Prejudice and Zombies)
• We enjoy revisiting our youth by sharing our kids’ books (Harry Potter, Twilight, Diary of a Wimpy Kid)

Pinpointing what an audience is reading and why tells you a lot about what motivates them to buy, and translating a book trend into a marketing opportunity is easier than you think. For example, if I owned a home design boutique, I would load up on inspirational quotes on wall hangings and throw pillows (the non-cheesy kind, of course), I’d lean heavily toward religious symbolism for the holiday season, and I might display a few items that provide a little retro-flashback to when my target audience was growing up.

But only after I’d cleared out all the scary vampire and zombie creatures from Halloween.

Check out what is flying off the shelves at your local bookstore and use what you learn to incorporate a few ideas into your marketing plan. You can thank me later for saving you $8 kazillion on marketing research.

Xo- Amy Mac

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The Grape Debate (and your Free Publicity Tip of the Week)

If I forget to bring a snack into my home office while I’m working, I’m hopping up approximately every 47 seconds to find something to eat. Not a very effective way to get work done. Some might suggest medication to stave off this habit of jumping up and running around. “Pshaw!” I say (I have always wanted to work Pa Ingalls favorite saying into my writing. Mission accomplished.) I just bring snacks, and line them up on my desk like my own personal little convenience store.

Today, I decided to be virtuous and bring these grapes instead of the chocolate chip cookies nestled in the treats basket in my pantry. Those cookies, I swear they are screaming my name. They are loud. And aggressive. Quite pushy, and rude. The grapes are much more subtle, but it seemed like the right thing to do … so here they are.

Anywho, as I’m gobbling my grapes, I’m simultaneously preparing a client for an upcoming radio interview. Radio interviews are more relaxed than television interviews, if for no other reason than you don’t have to worry if your hair is doing something weird. But there are a few things you must do in a radio interview so you’ll sound like the intelligent professional I know you are. So here’s your free Publicity Tip of the Week:

In a radio interview (or television, telephone, or job interview for that matter) - slow down. Take a deep breath. When we’re a little anxious, we tend to talk faster. Eliminate the “ums” and “you knows” from your lexicon, if just for the few minutes you’re on air. And type up the main points you want to drive home, in a decent-size font, so it’s easy to get back on track if you lose your train of thought.

Now, to find a way to silence those cookies. I don't have a good feeling about this .... Happy Weekend!– Amy Mac