The Need for Technology Etiquette Guidelines

Following a colleague on Twitter for professional reasons and yet keep reading their Tweets that they’re “at the soccer game!” or “so hungover!”? Still getting e-mails from people in all caps? How about that coworker who, in the middle of an informal business meeting, but a meeting nonetheless, is blatantly texting or checking voicemails?

With the rash of technology we follow and technological devices we use, we should develop some technology etiquette guidelines.

I read somewhere (sorry, can’t remember where) that we should employ the crossword puzzle test. If you’re somewhere where you wouldn’t pull out a crossword puzzle and start filling in the boxes, you shouldn’t be texting or answering e-mails. Some of my other personal etiquette guidelines are to remember that a real person should be put first before technology, and that we should only send relevant e-mails (especially considering that the average person receives thousands of e-mails a day).

Purchasing Decisions

Per Public Relations Tactics’ August 2009 issue, a poll by Harris Interactive shows that 55% of consumers use marketing communications as a source of information to make their purchasing decisions.

To break it down, 36% use company Web sites and 19% use print media advertising. Face-to-face meetings with company rep accounts for 22%, while 21% is input from family, friends, and peers, and 19% are consumer reviews.

Once again, the importance of marketing communications is revealed - make sure yours are top notch!

Rethink Your Approach to Employee Communications

How do you communicate to your employees? Do you post signs on the bathroom doors? Send out a mass e-mail? Hang up posters in the break rooms? Or, are you more advanced, with an employee newsletter, executive blog, and/or intranet site? Honestly, I’ve been at companies that have used all these approaches, from the bathroom signs to the dynamic intranet site.

Depending on the make up of your company, any and all of these methods can be effective. However, you should also consider utilizing social media. Develop a group for your company on LinkedIn and FaceBook, set up a Twitter feed, and even utilize YouTube and Wikis.

Hey, your employees are on these sites - rather than ignoring that fact, embrace it and use it to your advantage.

PR, Marketing, Communications - Oh My

I just spent a jam-packed weekend at the Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA) Leadership Rally in New York City, and left not only with tons of ideas for our Chapter but also with the suspicion that public relations as it has been known for the past 100+ years no longer exists.

Now, I’m more of a mind to think that public relations, marketing, and communications are blending into one field. The standard distinction has been that marketing is about sales and pr is about reputation management, but, honestly, isn’t it all the same now? We all employ the same tactics to achieve the same result - brand management to build/foster a company’s/person’s reputation to, ultimately, increase sales.