Storytelling in the time of coronavirus pandemic

Photo by Javardh on Unsplash

The coronavirus pandemic has emphasised the importance of local experts. As most of the storytellers are either fearing to travel or not getting a go-ahead from their organisations for travelling to field sites, the collection of stories, photos and videos have all fall upon the shoulders of local storytellers. 

Accused of not being able to see the bigger picture and lack of skills and creativity, the local experts were never in more demand than in this pandemic. And if you’re a communicator, you might have felt the same. I too, from the start of the pandemic, have been involved in helping the local experts enhance their storytelling skills. So that they can collect the content and send us stories from the project sites. 

Locals know the situation and problem much better than any outsider and given a chance, they can churn out authentic stories. Comic Relief, a major charity based in the UK, has decided to employ local filmmakers with a ‘more authentic perspective’ for its fundraising. Sir Lenny Henry, the charity’s co-founder in an interview with the BBC, said: “…it’s time for young black and brown filmmakers to take charge and say, ‘I want to tell you my story’.” 

But how to coordinate the process? Let me share with you some simple steps you can follow to get good content from your project sites. Since you'll need to contact local experts online, make sure they are able to connect either through an internet service provider connection or mobile data.  

First, find out the skills and equipment the local experts have. This will give you an idea of the type of content you can expect from them. If needed, you can help them improve their storytelling, photography and videography skills. A quick run-through of basic storytelling and photography rules will do wonder. Knowing the equipment – camera or smartphone – will allow to get the best from them. Not most of us use all the features of the smartphone or camera we carry all the time. 

Second, orient them on your storytelling framework and content collection template. Since, a story can be told in different ways, It’s always good to stick to a framework that works best for your organisation. For me, ‘Put a man on a tree, throw stones at him, get him out of the tree’ works best. It exactly fits the development narrative – you talk about the background, problems and then finally the solutions. However, I’ve seen organisations starting from the good news – the positive outcomes and then talking about the problems and interventions. 

In both the cases, make sure you have a template of content collection ready with you. And don’t forget the essentials of the template – 5W, 1H (What, who, when, where, why and how) along with the name of the interviewer, links to consent forms or audio, photographs and videos. It’s always easier to fill up the templates and be consistent. (I’ll talk about it in the next post.)

Third, set a timeline, follow up and feedback. We all are busy and doing something for someone else needs extra effort. And we all tend to forget. So, it’s always good to agree on a timeline and there’s no harm in following up with the local experts whether they have collected the stories and pictures or not. Once you get the content from them, analyse them and don’t forget to feedback. This will help them get better at content collection and you’ll get the right content. For example, while taking the pictures, they might miss taking different shots (close-up, medium and long shots), orientations (portrait and landscape) and applying general rules (e.g., rule of thirds). As a communicator, you need all varieties of shots for uses in different media and it won’t be good on your part to ask them to visit the same community member again and reshoot the pictures. And you can avoid this by giving them feedback on their initial assignments.           

Finally, look for something interesting in the story. All stories are interesting, provided you tell them in an interesting manner. Ask the local experts to tell stories behind names, tradition, culture and even mundane chores and household items that might be of interest for people living in different parts of the world. For instance, while traversing the Chepang Trail, we stopped at a place called Hattibang and were fascinated to learn from a local that the place has been named after a huge boulder. In Chepang language ‘bang’ means a stone and it resembled the head of an elephant. The Nepali word for an elephant is ‘hatti’. Including such small details make the stories interesting. And believe me the readers will remember them for a long time! 

Most of the above learning comes from the September - October 2020 content collection trip for Turn the Tables on Climate Change campaign. Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer. 

How frequently should you use hashtags to engage with your audience properly

Image from Flickr user Esther Vargas. (CC BY-SA 2.0)

With the ever increasing use of social media, hashtags have been ubiquitous. The pound (hash, #) sign turns a word or group of words accompanying the sign into a searchable link. It makes your post more searchable, allows you to follow a certain ongoing conversation in social media and search user-generated content.  

However, in spite of the usability of hashtags we’re often not sure on how to use them properly – how frequently use them in our posts in different social media platforms. As suggested by social media experts, each platform has its own specialty and we need to add hashtags to our posts accordingly.

Facebook
Facebook posts without a hashtag fare better than those with a hashtag, recommends Andrew Hutchinson in SocialMediaToday.

However, social media experts recommend using 1 or 2 sensible hashtags, especially industry specific, event specific or campaign specific (if you’re using it for a campaign) for maximum interaction.

Instagram
Use of branded (specific to your brand or company) and community hashtags are a must to interact with your followers on Instagram. While the branded hashtags help you get most loyal followers to engage and improve brand awareness, community hashtags help you make your content more discoverable and build your audience.

However, you make sure you bundle up all your hashtags at the end of the post rather than putting them in between the post.

Experts suggest using more than 10 hashtags in your Instagram posts, but make sure you don’t use more than 30 tags. As Instagram Help Center suggests, don’t use more than 30 tags on a single photo/video. If you do so, your comment won’t get posted.


Twitter
Don’t use more than two hashtags in a Twitter post and keep your hashtags relevant to what you’re tweeting about.

Make sure to generate your own specific hashtags during special events so as to track the ongoing conversation and engage with like-minded people.


LinkedIn
Though it was useless using hashtags in your LinkedIn posts earlier, I would suggest using 1-2 hashtags in a LinkedIn post. LinkedIn Help suggests: “There are no limits to the number of hashtags that can be added to each article, but you should choose your hashtags wisely, so they reach the most suitable members for that article.”


Want to know more? Here’s a pin detailing the use of hashtags.

How to live-tweet and reach a wider audience

Image from Flickr user hjw223. (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Thinking of live-tweeting during one of your much awaited conferences?

Though it seems a simple task, if not planned well it can go haywire. So proper planning is a must to reach a wider audience.

Decide on a hashtag
Before you jump into tweeting, decide on a hashtag to be used during the programme. Keep it simple – for example, if it’s a report launch, keep the hashtag as #ReportNameLaunch. Since the hashtags aren’t case sensitive, it can be typed as #reportnamelaunch, but the former one provides better readability.

Make sure the live-tweeters use the hashtag in each of their tweets.

Assign the tasks
It’s always better to form a team and assign the tasks rather than everybody tweeting the same thing.

At least two dedicated tweeters are a must to spread the word. Rest of the team can re-tweet and comment on their tweets. The two of them can meet beforehand and decide on how to go ahead with the tweeting – things like who takes care of which part of the speaker quotes.

Get the technology right
Make sure the live-tweeters are well connected to the WiFi or have enough balance in their cellphones to tweet throughout the session.

At least one live-tweeter should use TweetDeck so that they can follow the hashtag conversations with much ease.

Don’t forget the language and grammar
Check the spellings and the sentences before you push the ‘tweet’ button. Since you can’t edit the tweets later, it’s wise to check the sentence structure.

Refrain from using the shortened forms like 2day, 4U, etc. – now you don’t have the 140 characters restriction on Twitter any more.

Get to know the speakers
Research a bit about the speakers, collect their Twitter handles and put them on a spreadsheet with short bio and links to their articles published online. It will be handy to link them to their relevant quotes.

Make sure to add the hashtag and speaker Twitter handle while tweeting. It will make the tweet credible and help start a conversation.

Before clicking the pictures, taking the videos and tweeting them, make sure to talk to the speakers beforehand. Some of them might not be comfortable being tagged in the tweets.

Finally, some handy tips
Use speaker quotes and add their Tweeter handles. However, if you’re starting with the speaker handle, don’t forget to add a dot (.) before the handle (.@SpeakerHandle) so that it reaches everybody.

If you’re not a fast typing person or lose track of the conversation, don’t panic. You can write a note on a notebook or pad and tweet it later during the session.

Ask tweeters to send their questions during the session. Feel free to approach the speakers to get the answers and then tweet it to the person who sent the question.

You can also take some short videos or quotes from the audience and tweet them.

Retweet others. It is a good idea to set up a stream in your dashboard. It’s easy from there to share and comment on what people are tweeting.

Thanks to the Global Voices Summit 2017 social media team. A large chunk of this piece has been prepared from the notes and guidelines circulated to the live-tweeting team.

If you deliver a consistent product, place and promotion don’t matter much

The chicken leg pieces are lip-smackingly good.

The other day, I was going gaga over the accessibility factor to make your products reach more and more customers. And I fell flat when I visited this eatery in a remote corner of Mid-Western Nepal.

And let me share with you this gem of wisdom: You don't need to be stationed at an accessible place if you deliver consistent taste to your customers!

Puri Leg Pieces, a small eatery at an awkward place, defies all the theories of marketing. This restaurant is located at Khairapur which is almost an hour's drive from Nepalgunj in Mid-Western Nepal and the roads aren't great either. However, people flock to this place to taste the chicken leg pieces, fried in cooking oil with spices added to enhance the taste. They serve the pieces with tomato chutney and let me tell you it's amazing!

The lady running the place said, "We sell 40 chickens and make 50,000 Nepali rupees ($ 500) every day." They have introduced some interesting recipes which isn't found at other places. In addition, they make money from selling liquor and beverages.

Her family migrated from the hilly district Dailekh to Bhurigaun in Bardia some 10 years ago and they had rented the space with a small building in Khairapur to run their business.

When I asked about the recipe of her success, she said, “It’s all hard work and the consistent taste is paying off.” But she didn’t divulge her trade secret. “Does Cocacola share its secret?” she asked.

Within an hour’s stay at the famous Puri Leg Pieces, I deduced these nuggets of knowledge.  

Quality product is the key to attracting customers. It should be different than what others are offering in the market. Something ‘out of the box’!

Consistency of the product is another step towards success. The customers come to you for that special attribute of your product.

Ability to deliver the demand is a must trait to retain the customers. If they come to you and you’re not able to cater to their demands, they won’t return again.

Controlling the willingness to grow is another factor that will always help your business grow with time. It’s always good to have a bigger pie in the industry but you must be sure that you’re well established before you spread your wings. I remember the wise words of the lady at the restaurant. She said, “Ghati herera had nilnu (meaning: cut your coat according to your cloth).”

Trade secret is something you’ll need to maintain although it’s all about sharing in today’s world. Why in the world would anybody come to you if they find the same thing everywhere?

Word of mouth advertising is still the best way to sell your products. People have returned to the ‘referrals’ and it’s still a huge hit in this age of social media boom.

Simplicity matters

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci

I always had the feeling ‘simplicity is the most beautiful attribute’ and whenever I was asked to coordinate the design of either a book cover or an annual report, I would opt for the simplest designs. But, the units placing the orders would want to go ahead with jazzy, colourful and heavily designed stuff. And I sometimes struggled to convince them how simple designs work better.

However, I had with me this simple but highly effective advertising campaign to show them. I have been a great fan of this campaign since my working days as a copywriter in an advertising agency.

 Artwork by Doug Lyon, Lyon Advertising. Used with permission.

The campaign was created by Doug Lyon of the Lyon Advertising to generate awareness for Austin’s newest hair salon.

The website states: “RESULT: Campaign has been running for over 10 years and has won numerous industry awards.”
See why and how simplicity works!

Are you now convinced that simplicity matters?

Have your ever thought about these hidden messages in brand logos?

Designers and advertisers are creative, crazy and cryptic. And while designing a logo for a brand they try hiding some key messages in the logos. Not always, but they try their best to do it!

So why do they do it?

As Thompson’s rules of ad-making say, they try to do something different; they draw; and they train their eyes to see. They see patterns in everything they glance at.

And that’s why they try to hide messages related to the product in the logo, attracting the subliminal mind to the product.


Some of the most talked about brand logos with hidden messages are FedEx, Amazon, Toblerone, Baskin Robbins among others.

If you look carefully between the ‘E’ and ‘x’ in the FedEx logo, you’ll see a white arrow pointing to right. It signifies forward motion.

In the Amazon logo, a yellow arrow runs from ‘a’ to ‘z’ trying to say that they sell everything from A to Z.

In the Toblerone logo, you’ll see a dancing beer in the mountain. It has been dedicated to Bern, the city of bears, where the chocolate was developed.

Now look at the Baskin Robbins logo. The pink and blue ‘BR’ has pink ‘31’ hidden in it. It denotes the 31 flavours the ice-cream brand offers – one for each day in a month!

Want to know more?

Here is a list of brand logos with messages hidden inside them. 

How to avoid too many emails and work duplication in your team

Getting too many emails from your team members? Being invited to too many meetings? Do your team members end up doing same work?

Now there’s a solution to all these. And your team will just need to install ‘Slack’, a messaging app for teamwork.

I have been using Slack for the last one year and find it extremely useful.

The best thing about Slack is you can create channels for a project, a topic, a team or for anything that needs to be discussed in your team.

At our workplace we have separate channels for each team and whenever a team member has to announce anything related to the team, she or he can give a shout in the channel. No need to send emails to all team members!

It also avoids work duplication. If one of your team members has already started working on one of the documents and sends a message across the channel, none of you in the team will work on the same document. However, if any team member wants suggestions or comments on any document, she or he can drag and drop the document to the channel and request feedback. The document can also be placed online and the link can be shared across the channel. It’s easy!

Just like any other instant messaging app, Slack has a provision of sending direct messages to your team members. And it can be either to an individual or a small group with not others peeking into the issue.  

Even direct calls or video calls can be made in any channel or direct message group from the app itself.

As I mentioned earlier, the drag and drop facility is very handy in sharing any documents or links with your team or team members.

So, if you haven’t used Slack yet, start using it and save your time!

The below infographics, though a little old, explains why people are using Slack.

Can you train your brain for better productivity?

What do you do to boost your creativity?

The answers differ from individual to individual. Some like to meditate. Some go on a lonesome walk. Others listen to music. Then some get a kick out of watching movies.

So, can you train your brain to be more creative?

The answer is – yes, you can obviously train your brain for better productivity.

Want to learn more?

Here’s an infographic by Wrike that tells you how to focus, save time, prioritise and get motivated for better results.

7 tips to improve your media relations

Image by Flickr user Justien Van Zele.CC BY 2.0

Do you regularly churn out stories in the media? Do your news get covered in the mainstream media regularly?

If your answer is “YES”, you are faring well in your profession.

Read: How do you get your stories out in the media?

If your answer is “No”, you need to strengthen your media relations. 

So, how do you build relationships with journalists?

Follow the journalists on social media
Thanks to the internet, it’s easy to follow the journalists on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Find out the journalists writing on the issues that matters to your organisation and send them friendship requests. It is likely that they will accept your request. However, if they don’t accept your request, you still have the option to follow them, comment on their articles or blogs and start conversation by replying to their tweets or retweeting their tweets with your added inputs. The conversations will help you build an online relationship helping further to build a real life relationship.

Have a chat over a cup of coffee
Meeting journalists over a cup of coffee will help you know them personally and allow you to talk about your organisation and your projects. Make sure to meet the journalists in person with whom you have built a good online relationship.

Organise a monthly get-together
Don’t just call the journalists during the press conferences, try inviting 2-3 or more journalists once a month for a chat over a cup of coffee or have a lunch meeting with them. The journalists are busy and might not respond to your invitation, so don’t get disheartened. Also, don’t expect them to cover your news or run your stories in return. However, you can make the meeting interesting by inviting somebody from your field who can talk about the work he or she is doing.

Take them on a field trip
The easiest way to get your stories in the media and build relationship with the journalists is to take them on a media trip. As you accompany them for the whole period, you not only get to know them personally but also get to know their preferences and interests. In the future, it will help you pitch stories that they would be interested to feature. However, don’t ask them to write stories the way you like. It is up to them to write the stories. Give them the liberty to pick the issues and write independently. But make sure to give them an overview of your work, guide them as per the itinerary and help them identify the beneficiaries whom they can interview.

Read: 7 media trip essentials

Make sure to invite them to important seminars and workshops
Journalists are always in the look out for interesting news, data and any sort of innovation about which they can write. Whenever you organise any seminar or workshop where something new and interesting is being discussed, make sure to invite some of the interested journalists. Also make sure to invite them to any talk show or interaction if some experts are invited to your office.

Train the journalists on technical issues
Another important thing that can help you build relationship is organising trainings to build the capacity of journalists. For example, if you organise a training to familiarise or educate journalists on climate change buzzwords, it will not only benefit the journalists but will also help you advocate for your issues. 

Award the journalists covering your issues
Though it’s a very expensive way of building relationships, it will let you advocate for your issue. And the awarded journalists and his friends will always be positive towards your organisation and your issue. However, make sure the panels choose the right candidates without any bias. Otherwise, instead of doing good, it might backfire. 

And finally, continue with the relationships...

Just like in real life, once you build relationship, make sure to give continuity to it. Whether you want the journalists to cover your news or not, don’t forget them. Always keep in touch. Let them know that you are not after them only for getting your stories covered. And it will help you build long term relationships, for sure.

Why is it so important to follow up with the characters of your success story?

Think twice before lionising a success.
Designed by Freepik

I wrote a success story. It donned the list of top 10 popular posts of IFAD social reporting blog for a considerable time.

Everybody was happy with it and I was showered with lots of appreciation.  

The women in the story were inspirational. I thought they could have a snowball effect on similar farmers. So, I didn’t leave any stone unturned to share the story in my social media networks.

Read: Women unlock chains of development in rural Nepal

And then came the most important part of the story.

For better or worse, I like following up with the characters of my story. So, I went to the Nari Ekata (Women United) cooperative to find out how they were doing.

Seeing their good work, Shanta Oli, a member of the cooperative had been invited to the Learning Routes programme organised by IFAD and Procasur.

In addition, they had been awarded with an innovation plan grant to start mushroom farming for income generation which would benefit 40 households.

I was really happy to hear about these. However, my happiness turned sour when I saw the dwindling patches of vegetables. The land which was laden with vegetables during my first visit had turned into small patches of vegetables here and there – as if they were demonstration plots!

When I enquired, I came to know that they had been continuing with the vegetable farming, however, the quantity had declined. And so has their motivation.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

At least the cultivation was being continued and whatever I had written earlier about them had not turned 100 per cent wrong. I noticed that they needed a follow-up from the organisations that had motivated them to start the vegetable farming.

This taught me few important lessons:

Check the facts well before publishing a success story.

Make sure you ask the futuristic question at the end of the interview – “What are your future plans?”

I am sure you got my point. Don’t hurry to write success stories. Write the stories only after you are convinced with what the interviewees say and what others say about them.

And don’t forget to follow up with the characters in your story after a certain interval.

How do you get your stories out in the media?

Image by Flickr user Damian Gadal. CC BY 2.0

Believe me, most of the time, communicators are busy thinking of strategies to get their stories in the mainstream media.

Sometimes, the stories are newsworthy and the journalists come on their own to get information from the communications team. However, most of the times, it’s the other way around. I have seen communications people calling journalists frantically at the last moment to make them attend their press conferences. And it’s obviously to get their piece of news out in the media – be it print or electronic.

Difficult it seems, but if planned well, getting out the stories in the media is not an invincible task. You just need to make sure you expedite every option that leads to getting your stories there. Here are a few of them.

Use your social media network to track journalists and pitch your stories
Gone are the days of press releases. Try to find out journalists writing on the subject. Social media has made it much easier to get your message across. Send short pitches – succinct ones with interesting angles to get the initial attention. Once they show interest to your proposal, be prepared to pitch the whole story.

Believe me, it works better than sending the press releases and contacting the journalists to write about it.

If you haven’t already read this legendary piece “Die! Press Release!, Die! Die! Die!” by Tom Foremski, make sure to go through it before you consider continuing with the ages-old ritual of getting your stories in the media.

Pitch you stories to community blogs
Community blogs are one of the most visited and widely read sites, especially visited by the people interested in that particular subject matter. Suppose you are writing something on a recent biogas intervention by your organisation and want it to reach a wider audience. The first and foremost thing you need to do is search community blogs on energy, their popularity and check whether they allow guest blogging or not.

Contact the administrator and pitch your blog. Once it gets published, share it widely in your social media network. Sometimes, journalists come searching for you reading about your interesting interventions in the community blogs.

Try jotting down opinion pieces for popular daily newspapers
This requires time, detailed research on the subject and your personal opinion as well. It might get your issue in the media but not certainly your organisation’s name in the piece. The editors at the other end try to make sure it is an opinion piece and not an advertorial promoting a certain organisation.

However, as the editors receive hundreds of submissions every day, you will need to wait. Make sure you submit the write-up at least a week ahead of the date you want it to be published. But above all, the piece should be interesting and thought-provoking, written for a general audience.
Write joint articles with your colleagues

Have you ever tried writing a joint article? Two is always better in the eyes of an editor and if you can write about an issue together with your colleague who can supplement your thoughts, it’s more likely to get space in the publication. 

Write a letter to the editor
It’s an old trick but it works most of the time. Pick any recent pieces related to your theme published in the newspaper and write to the editor, putting forth your views about the author’s idea. Meanwhile you can also talk about your alternative view and about your project or work related with the published issue.

Interestingly, people read the “Letters to the editor” and it is likely that your views will attract eyeballs. 

Send press releases and follow-up
While I started by saying “do away with press releases – gone are the days of press releases”, make sure you do this every time you organise workshops and seminars where some interesting issues are discussed and it needs to be disseminated to a wider audience.

Give an interesting angle to your story including an attractive headline that catches the attention and a first paragraph describing the 5W (what, where, when, who and why) and 1H (how) of the whole story.

Email the press-release (the journalists would sometimes copy-paste your content and edit it a bit only to save their precious time), fax it (interestingly, some televisions and radios still prefer the faxed press releases) and call them whether they received your release.

Keep your social media channels abundant with stories
Last but not the least, make sure your organisation is present in all popular social media channels (presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram is a must, rest depends on your team’s ability to manage them) and you are adding fresh stories every now and then to those channels.

Maintain a regular blog roll of your work, staff experience and opinion pieces from your staff and guest contributors. This attracts journalists and bloggers to your work and it’s likely that they will contact you to get insights on your work – most probably to write unbiased pieces on similar work being done by others. And it’s for sure – there will be a mention of your work!

Leave no stone unturned to capture the tacit knowledge from your staff

Tacit knowledge is hidden and remains with an individual.
Water vector designed by Freepik

Fully and clearly expressed knowledge aslo called explicit knowledge is only a tip of iceberg. More than 95% of knowledge remains within your staff member – like the bottom of the iceberg. And it’s becoming extremely difficult to retain quality staff these days. This means, all the time you are at the risk of losing a major chunk of organisational knowledge built both by the perseverance of your employee and the money and time you spent on his or her capacity building. Keep aside the learning that comes to him or her with the work delivery.

So, how do you extract the knowledge from your staff? Is it good to start nudging him or her as you get the hint that the person is on the verge of leaving the organisation?

The answer is NO. The knowledge extraction, I would better say, knowledge percolation should be planned from the day one – the joining date of the staff. However, embedding it in the job description won’t fetch you a 100% result. And there’s no full-proof method either!

However, still there are few methods that can help you tap some of the staff wisdom.

Sharing sessions
It’s simple but effective. Organise sharing sessions and multi-stakeholder sharing platforms regularly at your office and invite your staff and others to present their learning and knowledge. It will not only make them feel important but other staff and your organisation will also benefit from the sharing. Get the sessions recorded and transcribe the speech. Keep the video in the archive and make sure it is available to all staff all the time – upload it in the intranet.

Write-shops
While write-shops are organised to get reports and publications completed in one-go, they can be crucial in capturing the learning and experience of your staff. Like in the sharing session don’t forget to record the whole session. Any day, any time, the shared experiences might be handy for the organisation.

Exit interview
This is the most common practice to extract the tacit knowledge from a member of staff before he or she leaves the organisation. It’s useful and helpful but not a full-proof method to capture the knowledge, learning and experience from the defector. Also, as the employee is in the process of leaving and joining another organisation, there’s no enthusiasm in him or her to share the learning
and experiences. However, it’s a must-to-do process to get out whatever-you-can from the deserter. 

One-to-one meetings
One-to-one meetings in informal settings are another method of getting out the learning and knowledge from your staff. It works better if it is done with a cup of coffee in your hands – you can term it as coffee hour or coffee chat. So, who should be responsible for doing this? It’s obvious – either the HR person or the internal communications person in close coordination with the knowledge management team. 

Organisational intranet
Make proper use of intranet – make it mandatory to upload the field trip reports (with lessons learned), meeting minutes, work plans, draft reports, project progress and completion reports, and outcomes of brainstorming sessions. Though it seems clumsy, cumbersome and a process-oriented affair, it will in the long run, help you gather nuggets of knowledge, at least to some extent.

Make sure you have an opinion, lessons learned or takeaway section in the reports. It’s the part where the writer jots down his learnings and recommendations.

Mobile apps
What has a mobile application got to do with extracting knowledge from your staff? It sounds absurd but it’s becoming a reality. Teams are more and more depending on different mobile apps to accomplish their tasks in a timely manner and they have been using a variety of mobile applications and services to serve their purposes.

Take example of Trello, Yammer, Slack and a slew of mobile applications helping teams to converse and collaborate. Personally, I have been using Yammer and Slack and during the conversations with team members, sometimes unusually, find great shares by colleagues. I don’t mean to say that you should be scouring the conversation threads to extract the learnings, but taking note of some key spurts of knowledge sharing and opinions can prove to be a crucial piece in your jigsaw called knowledge management.

Have you got something more to add to this list? It would be great to hear your ideas on gleaning knowledge from an individual.

Are you following the 80/20 rule of social media sharing?

It happens to me all the time. I spend almost 80% of my time doing 20% of a task and in the last remaining 20% time end up rushing forward to get the rest 80% work done.

Does it happen to you also?

Well, I have discussed this with lot many friends of mine and most of them agree on this 80/20 hypothesis.

So, how do you do this in the social media?

Like in the Rule of Thirds, keep aside 20% for your original content. Make sure that only 20% of your content promotes your brand. Rest 80% should be for interesting content from your industry.

To make it clear, if you share 10 contents, only 2 should be about your organisation or your brand and the rest 8 should be some interesting stuff from the industry. 

The below pin further divides the 80% into 50% and 30% to make your job easier!

Apologies: The above mentioned pin has been deleted by the user. Sorry for the inconvenience.

It’s not only for photographers but also for social media users – the Rule of Thirds

Rule of Thirds. Image by Flickr user John Watson. CC BY-NC 2.0

Have you been posting too much of your content in the social media? Or are you just sending out your organisational messages in your network?

Well, if you are doing either of the above two – you are in deep trouble. Doing the first will make you a Narcissus while the latter will reduce you to a sycophant.

So, what’s the best way to avoid the both?

Social media gurus say that you should adhere to the Rule of Thirds. If you know photography basics, then you must be familiar with this rule.

It’s just like putting the subject to be photographed in the one-third part of the imaginary photo-frame divided into three imaginary parts either from the top-to-bottom or from the left-to-right.

Likewise, you need to promote your content into one-thirds: one-third of your content promoting your organisation and its objectives, another one-third sharing stories from think tanks in your field and the last one-third talking about your personal experiences.

So, why share somebody else’s content? Won’t it make you a copycat? Well, the answer is NO. While sharing the good things about others, you are not only spreading the message but also giving a signal to your followers that you are up-to-date with your industry knowledge. And for this, your followers will like to keep an eye on your posts – to get the latest news from your industry.

When you talk about your experiences and your ideas, it provides personal touch to the messages – so that your followers know that there’s somebody knowledgeable doing the messaging and not a robot!

Last but not the least as you push forward your organisational messages along with the above messages, people digest it easily. They get absorbed by your followers and if you are lucky or your messages are outstanding, they get liked and shared to wider audience.

So, next time you are posting a Facebook status or a tweet, make sure you have the Rule of Thirds in your mind!

And how do you do this?

Find and follow your influencers and competitors, listen to what they are saying and share the relevant information. To know more, here’s a blog by Sam Milbrath.

Are you with the brand managers of Shiva Pale Ale?

Let me start with an interesting incident from the Shiva Purana, one of the 18 genre of Sanskrit texts in Hinduism.

When the gods and demons were churning the ocean (Samudra Manthan), Halahala (deadly poison) was produced and its venomous poison started killing both the gods and demons. To save them from the consequences, Shiva drank the poison. 

A can of  Shiva Pale Ale. From Anand Chaudhary's Facebook post.

Now let me relate this with Asheville Brewing Company’s Shiva India Pale Ale.

I came to know about this after one of my friends posted a picture of the ale can in his Facebook timeline. As soon as saw the image, I was scouring the Internet to know more about the drink.

Here is what I found.

The brewing company’s website says:

A crisp, citrusy India Pale Ale with a light color, Shiva will destroy all your preconceptions of an I.P.A. A transcendentally simple malt bill accents a generous helping of Columbus hops, lending an intense floral aroma with hints of grapefruit and a pleasant bittering quality. Your palette will be lifted to higher planes of consciousness with a bittersweet finish.

It seems the brand managers in the West have a fascination with Hindu gods. Earlier, owing to protests from Hindus, Burnside Brewing Company, a Portland-based American brewery, postponed the limited release of "Kali-Ma Beer" in 2012.

Rajan Zed, President of the Universal Society of Hinduism, had called for an apology and the removal of Shiva’s image from the ale’s packaging.

Likewise, a petition was filed in Change.org for the removal of Shiva’s image from the beer bottles and cans.

So, while knowing the consequences, why are brands created around religion?

Is it the fascination for the powerful gods as described in the holy books? Or is it all about cooking a controversy and build a brand around it?

For me, the first and foremost thing, it gives the brand a strong personality and it’s easier to explain the product benefits.

Shiva, the god of gods, connotes power and the drinker (if he or she knows about Shiva) would be elated to grasp a can of beer named Shiva. For those who don’t know anything about Shiva, it’s always some fascinating Hindu god. And obviously, it fascinates the drinker. But for Hindus, using the image of a revered god is a complete No-No.

So, did you get the message?

Be cautious and respect others’ sentiments before creating a brand around gods and goddesses.  

Why it’s necessary to convince your CEO to be active in social media

Image by Flickr user Sean MacEntee. CC BY 2.0

You must have faced it – it’s hard to convince your CEO to be active in social media. And even if CEOs start blogging or tweeting, it’s really difficult to ask them to contribute regularly. It’s simple. Their schedules are packed and it takes huge effort from their side to keep the creative juices flowing and jot down something that is relevant and interesting.

Besides, they are worried about committing any mistake in social media that can right away tarnish their reputation and put the organisation’s goodwill at stake.

So, how do you convince the CEO? That’s the big question.

A survey by BRANDfog found that 83% of the US respondents and 73% of the UK respondents believe that CEOs participating in social media helps building better relations with customers, employees and investors.

The survey also came up with the finding that executive use of social media raises brand awareness.

People like to hear from the top authority. And the CEOs should use their authority to provide updates about their organisations.

In an interview with Forbes, Weber Shandwick CEO Andy Polansky says if done well, using social media can be a compelling way to enhance the company’s reputation, business results, employee communications and tell stories around innovation.

If your CEO is not comfortable with social media, help them to get on board and once they start doing it on their own, move away.

However, some CEOs are naturally social. Richard Branson with millions of followers posts multiple times a day.

CEOs like him can be an inspiration to your CEO.

So, just ask your CEO to blog and tweet. It has lots to offer to your organisation.

Perfect image sizes for your social media posts

You must have come across this. You are doing a social media post and when you upload an accompanying image, sometimes it bleeds off and sometimes looks like a tiny button on a handkerchief. Then you keep on with trial and error till the Eureka moment.

That's frustrating. Isn't it?

Thanks to Jamie for the below cheat sheet explaining the social media image sizes. He has re-created and updated the 2015 cheat sheet. It keeps you updated on the forever changing image sizes and formats for different social media platforms.

2016 Social Media Image Sizes Cheat Sheet

MakeAWebsiteHub.com

Don’t risk your reputation on rude front desk staff

Teach your staff to be polite. Flickr image by user KoiQuestion. CC BY-SA 2.0

Recently I was at one of the famous guest houses in Thamel of Kathmandu to meet one of my friends from India.

He had called me from the guest house landline and I could not grasp the room number correctly. When I asked the front desk staff, he fumbled through few pages, could not find the name and threw the ledger to me. I scanned through the pages but could not find the name.

The staff showed no interest at all to help. Instead, he claimed my friend might have lodged with some other hotel.

I took out my cellphone and showed him the number. Luckily, it was dialed from the guest house. Then the next person at the front desk came forward and checked in the computer’s log. And there he was – in the room no 308.

He dialed the room and handed me the phone. I thanked the man for his kindness. However, from now onwards I would never recommend any of my friends to stay there.
                 
                  ****                ****                ****                ****

A reputed bank in the heart of Kathmandu, known for its customer base and profitability, has no dearth of customers. However, one thing that it lacks and which makes its service sucks – is again, the front desk staff manners.

Recently, I was at the bank and was a victim of snobbish behaviour of a front desk officer at one of its branches in Maharajgunj. As I was in a hurry to collect the statement, I rushed to the twenty-something guy and asked him where I can get the statement. To my astonishment, he behaved with me as if I was a schoolboy asking him irrelevant questions. Not even looking at me, he pointed me to a teller and said, “Can’t you see, it’s written over there – in BIG letters?” And literally, he was pouring his frustration on me.

When I enquired at the counter, the officer once again politely pointed me to the same guy. I was miffed to be directed to the same rude officer. However, this time, he yelled the guy’s name and asked him to hand me the envelope.

As I got to the front desk, he asked, “NAME?” When I told him my name, within a minute, he took out the envelope, handed it to me and said, “Why didn’t you ask me to search the envelope?” And again he was rude as earlier, as if I had asked him to fetch the three golden apples.  

Dumbfounded, I returned from the bank and decided not to continue banking with them.

                          ****                ****                ****                ****

Incidents like above happen all the time – even at so-called reputed organisations. And they only bring bad names to those organisations. In the past, nothing much happened to such rude front desk staff and the organisations. However, things have changed and with the return of word-of- mouth era along with the advent of social media, the customer base can deplete in the blink of an eye.

Few months back, one of my seniors bought a pair of shoes on sale from a reputed store in Durbar Marg. As he reached home and found some defects, he went back and asked for a replacement. However, the shop owner didn’t listen to him. Vexed by the irresponsible behaviour, he clicked a picture of the shoes and posted it on Facebook detailing how he got cheated. Within minutes, everybody was cursing the storekeeper. The post went viral. You can imagine how many customers the store lost to that silly mistake.     

                            ****                ****                ****                ****

Now let’s again talk about the two incidents of irresponsible behaviour of the front desk staff. Replace myself with an angry customer. Then add the power of word-of-mouth and social media. With every tweet and every comment, the customers would have cursed them and asked their friends not to deal with them again.

With the popularity of social media, the power to promote and of course, to demote is controlled by the mere fingertips of customers. And believe me, most of the times, there is no involvement of the brain! It can either enthrone or dethrone you within seconds. 

Remember, customer relationship starts at your organisation’s gate itself. If you want to keep yourself ahead of the competition, make sure to train your guards and front desk staff to treat every customer with politeness. 

Who knows what tomorrow will bring. Wouldn’t you prefer a celebrity posting a selfie with your sweet and polite janitor?

The names have not been mentioned to protect the identities.        

Further reading
Protecting Your Company’s Reputation From Employee Risk

Here’s a paragraph from the above piece.

In Deloitte’s 2014 global survey on reputation risk, it was revealed that over half of the high-level executives surveyed believed that their biggest risk to company reputation came from its internal staff.

Office jargons you need to get rid of

‘Think outside the box’.

It was the most used office jargon when I was working in an advertising agency. Every time the visualiser would come and say, “Hey guys, the clients want something new, think outside the box.” “Use your brains and get me something new!”

And we would re-start the discussion, go through the old issues of creative magazines and run through the database of creative advertisements – to create something outside the box.

Then while working with a non-governmental organisation, my supervisor’s most preferred word was “synergy”. He would barge into our chamber and start advising, “Team, I want you guys to collaborate and work together.” “Synergise and deliver 2+2=5!”

Well, these are only few of the office jargons that we come across in our offices every day. Want to know more?

Here’s a list of corporate jargons that we should get rid of, compiled by Pens.com.

7 essential sourcebooks for development communications professionals

Are you into communications? To be specific, if you are into development communications and need to develop a communications strategy for your organisation or a campaign, what steps do you follow?

If you haven’t gone through my earlier post on developing a communications strategy, here’s a quick recap.

• Analyse the background
• Formulate goals and objectives
• Analyse the target audience
• Develop the key messages
• Craft the call-to-action
• Design the tools and activities
• Set a budget and timeline
• Monitor the actions and measure the impacts

For a bird’s-eye view, develop a communication matrix so that you find everything on a single page starting from the communication goals and objectives to the communication channels you will be using to meet the objectives. A communications calendar will be an added advantage.

If you want to go through the process once more, here’s a link to make your job easier.

To analyse the situation, here’s how you carry out the PEST (Political, economic, social and technological), SWOT (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) and competitor analyses. 

Now, if you want to delve much deeper into developing communication strategies, here are seven essential sourcebooks that will help you hone your skills.

Development Communication Sourcebook: Broadening the Boundaries of Communication
By Paolo Mefalopulos
The World Bank

Communication for Rural Development: Sourcebook
FAO

Writing a communication strategy for development programmes: A guideline for programme managers and communication officers
UNICEF

Strategic Communication for Sustainable Development: A conceptual overview
GIZ

Communication for Development: Strengthening the effectiveness of the United Nations
FAO, ILO, UNAIDS, UNICEF, UNDP, UNESCO, WHO

How to use communication to make aid effective: Strategies and principles for programme-based approaches
BBC World Service Trust

At the heart of change: The role of communication in sustainable development
Panos London

Visit this page to download related documents.

And here's a case for communication in sustainable development.

The case for communication in sustainable development
Panos London

If you are interested in research communication, this guidebook can be of much help.

Guidance note on research communication 
DFID

Also have a look at the below:

Toolkit on Communication for Development (C4D)
Six useful guides on communication strategy