The PRISM Newsletter

The PRISM newsletter is one of the many benefits of IABC/Chicago membership. It is your newsletter, so let us know what content you'd like to see. Do you have suggestions for stories or ideas for information that will help you on the job? Perhaps you’d like to volunteer as a contributing writer for PRISM or a Web-exclusive story? Contact the PRISM team via Email prism@iabcchicago.com.

Web-Exclusive Content
With each issue of PRISM, you'll find on this page additional content relating to the print articles.  The current issue of PRISM includes:

So You Think You Can Freelance by Kirsten Lambert
ServiceMaster Prepares for Major Initiative at IABC Summit
Business Research Tips by Scott Winterroth
Business Basics Learned at MBA Day Camp by Tony Monterastelli
A Primer on Emerging Social Media Technologies by Tom Keefe, ABC

Letters to the Editor Guidelines

For more information, be sure to read the print version of PRISM.

So you think you can freelance
By Kirsten Lambert

I meet all kinds of people in my work, and every so often somebody will sidle up to me at, say, a luncheon. “I’ve often thought about freelancing someday,” the person will confide in hushed tones. “What’s it like?”

If next month, next week or next year finds you resolving to quit the rat race in favor of making your own hours, here are some insights.

Do the round-the-clock rumba. Sure, you may be able to waltz into your office at noon. But you may be working at midnight. And although e-mail and voice mail make it easier to work remotely and outside usual business hours, you’ll still need to be available by phone and for meetings.

Pick some steps and stick with them. I have a certain process I follow in trying to land new clients. It involves meetings, phone calls and follow-up notes. A colleague of mine prefers to rely on direct mail and listings in freelance directories because she’d rather take a less-intrusive approach.

Wiggle your toes. When I launched my business, a veteran salesperson told me I should be meeting with people at least once a week. This could mean going to a business luncheon, attending a reception — even doing some networking at your local Starbucks.

Find a partner, do-si-do. You’ll need some good vendors; to start with you’ll want an attorney and an accountant. You’ll also need a telecommunications provider, an Internet provider and a bank. You may also want to form alliances with vendors such as designers and Web developers.

Don’t miss a step. When you’re deciding on a phone setup for your business, please, please don’t go entirely wireless. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been talking to someone who uses a cell phone exclusively — and have missed half the conversation because of poor reception.

Keep up with the beat. As a communicator, you should be used to juggling multiple projects and facing conflicting deadlines. Don’t expect that to change, if you decide to go into consulting.

Don’t step on the IRS’s feet. No matter how your business is structured — whether you’re a sole proprietor, a partnership, a corporation — government agencies will expect you to report to them regularly.

Get up and stretch. If you’re working at home, you may discover that a couple of hours have gone by since you left your office chair. You may also find yourself eating lunch at your desk. But nibbling in front of your computer isn’t always such a great idea. Take it from someone whose keyboard is full of crumbs.

Put on your dancing shoes. Still think freelancing sounds glamorous? Then get yourself some business cards and make the leap. As for me, I have to ditch my pajamas and get dressed for a trip to Staples.

Kirsten Lambert is principal at Watermark Communications, where the dress code allows wearing pajamas to work. This article originally appeared in the January 2007 issue of Nonprofit Communicators Update, a monthly online newsletter published by Ragan Communications.

***WEB EXCLUSIVE***

ServiceMaster Prepares for Major Initiative at IABC Summit
IABC/Chicago member Bridget Glavaz attended the IABC Corporate Communication Summit held in Chicago last November. She is Vice President of Communications at ServiceMaster Co. (NYSE: SVC) in Downer’s Grove. (The ServiceMaster family of brands includes American Home Shield, MerryMaids, Terminix, and TruGreen ChemLawn.) In this interview, Glavaz shares a few key lessons from the summit with PRISM.

PRISM: First, tell us a little bit about the communications goals you have in your current position at ServiceMaster.

Glavaz: We have three primary goals for the communication function at ServiceMaster. First, create a line-of-sight for employees to the business strategy so that employees understand how their daily roles fit into the larger picture. Second, develop a clear understanding among employees of how they can impact and help accomplish their department deliverables. If employees are not living the business plan, the messages we develop simply becomes corporate rhetoric. And last, to ensure that the senior leadership of the company deliver messages that are well understood by several different stakeholder groups, ranging from the technicians who spray lawns to the analysts who follow our business.

PRISM: What new realities are you facing at ServiceMaster that you sought to address at the summit?

Glavaz: We recently announced that the corporate headquarters facility was being relocated from Downers Grove, IL to Memphis TN. Attending the IABC forum was an opportunity to connect with other senior leaders and learn about what success means to them in their organizations related to communications. Most importantly, my goal was to understand what barriers other senior leaders have faced in the area of transition and change communications. Also, I wanted to learn how other senior communicators are successfully cutting through the clutter and ensuring their messages are being read.

PRISM: How important is strategic communication planning in your activities moving forward?

Glavaz: If it’s not strategic, measurable and considered valued by the organization, why would any communications team be working on it? We are only as good as our last measurable result.

Recently, we revised and re-launched our four Corporate Values at ServiceMaster. The implications of this have been significant. The company was embarking on a major culture change which required executing an internal communications campaign to reaffirm with all associates what the corporate values are, why they exist and what they mean. The goal was to create basic awareness and reach proficiency in applying the values in the context of basic decision making everyday. The intended audience was over 40,000 associates throughout North America with varying levels of business literacy, language and educational levels. Furthermore, we have 11 Business units, each with its own management structure and specific culture.

Extensive research was conducted to understand how the values shaped our past and present and the role they would play in our future. Data was collected by thousands and tested. External facilitators led a series of group and one-on-one interviews, brainstorming sessions, and workshops to help employees understand how to use the Objectives as context for basic decision making.

Employees received this information through a variety of channels starting with their immediate supervisor. A website portal was also provided with additional information, to provide instant access to any tools needed to help educate and create awareness.
Results of a quantitative electronic survey to date have indicated 93% of respondents were trained and understand the four ServiceMaster Objectives.

PRISM: What was the major lesson you learned about crisis communications from the summit?

Glavaz: A key learning is the importance as senior leaders and communicators to ensure we have a seat at the table. It’s also important that we acknowledge that senior management often overlooks the role of communications in the early phases of strategic planning. We as communicators need to be asking the pertinent questions that enable us to gather information, and communicate effectively to a variety of audiences. Also given today’s business climate is challenging and chaotic, maintaining focus during times of change is critical to success.

***WEB EXCLUSIVE***

Business research tips
By Scott Winterroth

In my first year working in a public affairs firm I have used many tools acquired during my college education that have helped me to operate effectively as an entry-level communicator. Like reporters, public relations practitioners have to be resourceful in gathering information from clients and writing press releases that will make the news. Below are resources I use to help fill that dreaded white space:

• After reading all collateral from the client, including the client’s Web site, I try to interview the client, preferably at their organization, to get a feel for their business. Using the reporting skills I acquired in college, I probe for the answers to questions that may lead me to the real news within the story. Finally, I compile the information and create the story’s angle.

• I also research the client’s media history in a newspaper database service like Lexis-Nexis and read everything that has been written about them. Additionally, I ask the client if they have prior relationships with reporters. Previous clips may support the current story and can be highly useful.

• In addition to the client’s Web site and online newspaper databases, the Internet offers a variety of sources related to the client or to communication practices. Any given day I use the Internet in some way to research a specific topic for a client.

• One of the best online resources for entry-level practitioners is a Yahoo Group called Youngprpros.com (www.youngprpros.com) founded by Ian Lipner. This site offers a forum for entry-level communicators to meet and offer advice and support on various working topics.

• Consult the old college text book: I keep my public relations writing textbook handy for inspiration. It may not offer ideas for what to write for the specific client, but somehow I always find inspiration in this book.

• Ask fellow practitioners: When I have a question regarding general practices I will often ask someone who works in the field. Experienced practitioners can be a wealth of information and are generally available to share their experiences. I have had the opportunity to work for, as well as meet, some of the best mentors.

Preparing to fully understand a client requires several steps. With help from the client, as well as other online resources, a communicator can find the information necessary to educate and send the desired message.

Scott Winterroth is an account representative at Scofield Communications in Chicago.

***WEB EXCLUSIVE***

Business basics learned at MBA Day Camp
By Tony Monterastelli

We business communicators are an educated lot. Armed with degrees in journalism, English, communications, public relations or the liberal arts and real-world experience, most of us understand communication, but how well do we understand the business part?

How well do we understand business strategy and marketing? Do we know the difference between a balance sheet and an income statement? Do the CEOs, vice presidents and other executives who we work for see us as knowledgeable consultants on business communications issues? Or, in their eyes, are we simply journeymen who churn out newsletters, press releases and Web copy without understanding or participating in real business issues? Of course, most of us would rather be seen as business-savvy communicators, rather than simply as communications-savvy worker bees.

At times, when we feel we’re falling behind in understanding business issues, some of us think about going back to school to get the Master’s in Business Administration degree (MBA). With each new semester, many a communicator takes this path. But before any professional communicator spends thousands of dollars on MBA school, he should know that all MBA programs are largely the same.

From Chicago to Shanghai, MBA students around the world study an essentially standardized curriculum. What if we could pick up the basics in one afternoon? Would the degree be necessary for most of us? I thought about this issue when I attended the MBA Day Camp here in Chicago, a one-day seminar intended to impart the most important concepts that MBA students learn in two or three years. In my view, the MBA Day Camp accomplishes its mission, thanks to an elegantly designed curriculum delivered during one enlightening day of classroom discussion.

Every MBA curriculum breaks down into four components – strategy, marketing, accounting and finance. Here’s a slice of what I learned in MBA Day Camp:

Strategy: Three strategic frameworks are currently in vogue at MBA schools:
• P.E.S.T. (political, economic, social, technological);
• Harvard professor Michael Porter’s “5 Forces”;
• SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats).

The most important thing I learned about business strategy is what it is not. No matter which framework we use to break down a company’s strategy, a business strategy is not about innovation or customer satisfaction or empowering individuals or virtually any of the other non-monetary concepts that are bandied about in the business media. A business strategy is about one thing: making money. This lesson reinforced to me that – as a professional business communicator – I must be aware that a company’s communications efforts (newsletters, publications, reports, Web site, etc.) should support the underlying goal of making money.

Marketing: Marketing is best learned through studying business cases and, like nearly everything else in business, it is not an exact science. Yet a surprising amount of objective, verifiable quantitative thinking goes into corporate marketing efforts. Marketing is more than advertising. In most firms, marketing plays a tactical role in sales, advertising, public relations and nearly every contact point between the company and its potential customers. The basic building block of marketing is a story. Marketing is the company’s effort to tell its story to the public or to its target audience in a compelling way. You may not have heard of the Ford Ka, a compact car introduced in Europe in the mid-1990s. Ford successfully launched the car by appealing to the needs of a Europeans who had previous driven cars from Renault, Opel, Peugeot and Volkswagon.

Accounting and finance: In the lifetime of any business, accounting covers what has happened in the past, while finance deals with what will happen in the future. The role of accounting is to summarize a company’s financial condition at a specific point in the past. When a company goes over the cost of goods sold during the first quarter of 2006, this is accounting, whereas finance deals largely with the time value of money. In general, a dollar earned today is more valuable than a dollar earned next year, because today’s dollar can be invested in new products, facilities or in financial instruments to make more money. Every action or project taken by a company should be evaluated in financial terms. Finance also involves the inexact science of valuing a company for investment purposes. As we see with the stock market, the value of a company to investors is often open to debate, and investors are continually buying and selling shares in companies as they reevaluate company valuations.

Conclusion
I recommend the MBA Day Camp for any business communicator. Even if you have decided to go back to school, the camp offers a good overview of what you will be learning. Otherwise, the camp should help any communicator sharpen her business acumen. Fellow students in the class I attended included consultants, finance professionals, engineers and others. There were no other communications professionals in the session I attended, which suggests that more communicators should attend this class. For more information on MBA Day Camp, visit www.mbadaycamp.com.

Attend an upcoming MBA Day Camp session.

Tony Monterastelli is manager of resource development and publications editor at the Strategic Account Management Association (www.strategicaccounts.org). He can be reached at 773-852-2234 or tony_monterastelli@yahoo.com.

A primer on emerging social media technologies
By Tom Keefe, ABC

We sometimes focus so sharply on the person riding the crest of the newest communication technology wave that we forget to look at the person standing on the shoreline, hesitating about dipping in a big toe. A veteran IABC/Chicago colleague recently reminded me that many chapter members aren’t sure how to dive into the social media discussion and remain uncertain of what social media can do for communicators.

So consider this article a brief primer on the various components of “social media,” along with some points to help you focus your planning and discussions regarding how these components may, or may not, fit into your communication strategic planning.

The concept of social media is quite simple. Social media tools allow people to create and share information and opinions in digital format through channels that include the Internet, company Intranets, and software that acts like an “automated messenger service” to find and deliver information electronically.

A stumbling block for some of us non-techies has been the non-intuitive technical implementation of some social media tools—and the difficulty in seeing the benefits of these tools. The water is further muddied because “social media” can include:

• The written word (the primary form of communicating on blogs, wikis, instant messaging)
• The spoken word (primary on podcasting, videoblogging)
• Digital images (photographs and graphics posted on photo-sharing sites)
• A combination of graphics, audio and messaging (common on sites such as MySpace, YouTube, Second Life)

You can keep it simple in your mind by remembering that the unifying link is the electronic sharing of information and opinions—regardless of the medium used. It’s called “social media” because these tools and technologies allow people to collaborate and engage in conversations. Those collaborations and conversations might be in real time—as in a conversation with a coworker using instant messaging, or they may occur over time - even without the participants having ever met - as in a series of comments on a blog post.

A related but distinct technology that typically is included in any discussion of social media is RSS. This technology allows you to subscribe to information from different websites and gather that information in one place. This is the “automated messenger service” I mentioned earlier.

I have created a chart where I’ve listed some of the more common social media tools and technologies, provided information on their cost, and then shared examples of how they can benefit a communications professional. You’ll see that the “entry fee” is nominal to exploring the emerging world of social media. The next step is to think about how it all applies to YOUR business.

Letters to the Editor Guidelines

IABC/Chicago's PRISM editorial team welcomes letters and email messages from members about articles in the PRISM newsletter or the chapter Web site. The best way to communicate with PRISM is through email (prism@iabcchicago.com). The email feedback mechanism provides an opportunity to offer appropriate opinions, ideas, perspectives or criticisms.

Any submission received by PRISM may, at our discretion and without notice to or permission from you, be: (a) published in PRISM or elsewhere; (b) otherwise shared by the chapter leaders of IABC/Chicago or with other persons within or outside of IABC; and (c) used by IABC/Chicago and IABC International for any purpose.

PRISM reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to refuse to publish or respond to any submission for any reason. For example, PRISM may, at its discretion, refuse to publish or respond to any submission that it deems to be untrue, abusive, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, indecent, in violation of copyright, trademark or other laws, or discriminatory or offensive on any basis including, but not limited to, on the basis of sex, color, national origin, race, age, religion, sexual orientation or disability.

PRISM reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to edit any submission in any manner including, but not limited to, editing for length, space, grammar, clarity and spelling.

Notwithstanding anything set forth in this standard, you are solely responsible for the content of any submission you send. PRISM is not responsible in any manner for the content of any submission. The opinions expressed in any submission are those of the party who submits it and are not the opinions of IABC/Chicago or IABC International.

By sending a submission to PRISM, you acknowledge and agree to the terms set forth in this standard.