Miri McDonald

What's your score on the smile index?

I'm one of those annoying people that smiles a lot. Sometimes I don't even know I'm doing it. The vice principal of my middle school even called me Sunshine (yes, you can make fun of me for it - it's dorky, I know). Once, it backfired on me in the office setting. In a meeting someone asked me, "why are smiling so much at me?" You can imagine how hard it became NOT to smile in that meeting!

So why am I blogging about smiling? And is there really a smile index? No. Not that I know of. Although I think there should be. We are so distracted by social media these days and how our klout scores show our influence power but what about the power of a smile?

I know many people more famous than me have been lamenting the loss of human connection. This NY Times article got a lot of retweets and facebook posts. So, this is not a new revelation. However, I think it bears repeating. We don't realize the impact a simple smile can have on another person.

And, I want to be clear that I am not saying we all need to be happy 24/7. That is not realistic or genuine. At times, when I smile at someone, I'm not that happy myself. But, when I see the other person's face transform because of my smile, it makes me feel better!

Here's a little story about the power of smile that inspired me to write this posting in the first place.

Those of you that know me know I have a black labrador named Madeline. I walk and/or run with her every morning. We see a lot of people in our neighborhood. Some with dogs, some just out for a morning run or walk, some gardening or getting the paper. Because I am one of those annoying smilers, I smile at everyone and sometimes say, "hi!" or "how are you?" I've noticed that some people look surprised when I do this, which kind of makes me sad. One time I had a little contest with myself (yes, I'm a dork like that) and I said I was going to say hi to every single person I passed that morning. Again, I got some pretty surprised looks for some, and a return smile or hello from most of them.

Well, the other morning a man we see often was out on his walk and crossed the street towards us. In my head I was thinking, this is weird - he never crosses over. And then, he walked right up and say, "hi - i just have to tell you that your smile always brightens my day. We're moving out of the neighborhood so I wanted to take a moment to say goodbye and tell you I'll miss seeing you in the morning." I was very struck by this. And, no - he wasn't hitting on me. It was a genuine, innocent comment by a person that I connected with and didn't even realize how much I positively influenced with my smile.

So, what I'm saying here is, in addition to all the fancy indicies and scores for social networking, let's not forget about the power of our human interactions.

Increase your score on the smile index - flash someone those pearly whites today. See how it makes you feel. And more importantly, notice their reactions.

Image Credit: © Mariaam | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

"Don't trust the cascade" - 7 internal communications challenges and trends

A few weeks ago I attended the Marcus Evans 6th Annual Employee Engagement and Internal Communications Conference in Orlando on behalf of Smartbrief. I covered many of the speakers' presentations (see below) individually but thought it might be interesting to those of you in internal communications to get my take on the issues and trends that seem to be emerging these days. 

1. Managers need more information to be effective communicators. There was a consensus that this level in the organization is a make or break to your messaging. The solutions of late seem to be moving towards tools that provide quick summaries and detailed information for managers to use with staff.
2. Don’t trust the cascade. There were a few related issues here. Leaders don't always get messages down the management chain and even when they do, they don't provide much information. Managers are not all created equal - some are good communicators and some don't at all. There is a trend moving away from the cascade all together and instead getting direct communications to managers and employees using intranet articles, videos and other vehicles like social media tools.
3. Use a conversational tone. With transparency and engagement being the all the rage, organizations are finding that employees enjoy a more informal tone in communications. It helps to cut through the jargon and get to the heart of the matter.
4. Get on the social media bandwagon. Internal social media is becoming a powerful tool for employees to feel they a voice and connect w/each other. The companies that are getting it right are not afraid of employees expressing their opinions on internal AND external social media venues (Facebook, Twitter, Yammer). They are also experimenting with engagement using videos, online employee contests, and tools like salesforce.com's ideas product.
5. Employees are customers. Branding is becoming more important as a tool for selling the company's values and vision to employees and engaging them in the mission. Internal communications  are being bundled as part of an overall brand/package versus a single email/article.
6. What? You don't use a computer? More and more companies seem challenged by employees NOT using computers (since e-communications is more the norm now). There is a trend towards finding solutions to engage with retail floor staff and factory/warehouse employees.
7. Where is the best home for internal communications? This function lives in different places in the organization (HR, Marketing, PR). However, when internal communications is part of HR, seems to easier to implement engagement programs and surveys. Seems like this is a place for further study to determine where internal communications can be most effective.

Do these trends ring true for you? What else are you experiencing?

Other articles in the Marcus Evans 6th Annual Employee Engagement and Internal Communications Conference series:

• Discovery Communications: Lessons in Crisis Communications
• How Discovery made its 25th anniversary more than a party
• How Molson Coors brewed up stronger engagement
• How Best Buy strives for transparency
• UBS communicating during times of difficult change
• Falling in love at work: Macy’s Lisa Gick on employee engagement
• Live from Orlando: Frito lay gets creative communicating with frontline employees

 

Exceptional service = An unsolicited "do-over"

I recently had professional photos taken for this blog as well as my social media profiles by David King of King Carnahan Visuals. I found out about the photographer through my friend Laurel Cavalluzzo.  Personally, I think he did a great job with them and was very satisfied with the experience for several reasons:

• The price was very reasonable
• The photo shoot itself was a fun experience
• David has an easy way about him that allows you to be yourself in the photos
• He sent me the online proofs later that SAME DAY
• I was able to choose my photo(s) from about 50 different shots of which many were great

So, I went away from this experience very happy and I have a great photo to show for it on this blog and am using a slightly different one as my avatar for Twitter and LinkedIn.

About two weeks ago I get an email from David that basically says he was looking back at the photos he took of us (my friend Laurel and me) and he is just not 100% happy with them. He assured us that we look fabulous but that he just knows he could do better. He said he'd love the opportunity to shoot us again at no charge and provide us with other options. Then he thanked us.

Um, hello? What? I've never experienced anything like that in my life. Have you? Think about it. Have you ever received great service, even told the service provider you were happy with it, and then, completely UNSOLICITED, were contacted by the service provider asking if they could try again because they didn't think it reflected their best work?

Considering many of us are service providers, I think we can all learn some lessons from this experience. If you are a small business owner (like David) you might first wonder why someone would bother doing this. It costs money and time right? The person was happy with the service. Why bother? I think its a few things and we all need to stop and learn from them.

• Strong dedication to and love of his craft: You can tell immediately that David loves his work and it shows when you work with him. He would not offer to do a free photo shoot for a satisfied customer if he didn't love taking photographs.
• Exceptionally high standards for his work: The fact that David went back and reviewed work that was already done and paid for by a happy customer says he is constantly looking to be better. But he took it a step further, he didn't just say, "I am not happy with these. I'll do better next time." No, he said, I can still do better on THAT one and I am going to contact that person and exceed my own standards.
• Understanding the power of connectors and word of mouth marketing: This one is big, especially now with what we are learning about social media and how people strongly rely on personal recommendations. He actually has no idea I'm writing this blog entry but I'm sure he must know that an amazing move like this would cause me to recommend him to anyone that asks me about photographers in the area!

If you are a service provider, what do you think? Do you think he should have left "sleeping dogs lie" since I was satisfied with my photos? Have you done anything like this before?

What's your credo?

I love the latest trend to use funny, descriptive, and casual language on websites. I think it helps to build trust, credibility, and defines a true culture that doesn't apologize for itself. I also like how it continues the conversation if you arrive there from a social media site.

Some companies make the mistake of trying to sound important and smart with lofty ideas and complicated language. That just falls flat these days. There's also the "let's pretend we are google/zappos/apple" which smacks of "let's just copy them instead of coming up with our own way of doing things."

With social media bringing more transparency to what businesses are really about through customer experiences and comments, companies have a real opportunity. They can harness the power of the web to talk about themselves in a way that gives customers and employees a sense of their true values and culture. Even if I'm not a potential customer or canddate for a given company, if a friend "likes" them on Facebook or tweets about them on twitter, I might go to their website for fun (I'm nerdy like that). If I like what I see, I might recommend to friends saying, "You should work here" or "Don't you need this for your business?" I won't do that if I can't get a real sense of what they are about.

Take Zero Strategist, a company in Portland, OR that provides holistic social media services. I've never met these guys but after reading their open credo, I was inspired to write this posting. One phrase that got my attention was "Don’t Suck or Do Sucky Things." I like the combination of humor and a wink to the things we all said in high school that still apply now in our work lives. The mention of passions on their bio page is makes them more human and helps the reader to connect on a personal level.

My next example is Starr Tincup Marketing out of Fort Worth, TX. Again, I have never met anyone in this company but after checking out their site, I have a very clear picture that it is a zany kind of place where people say what they think, no holds barred. I love the use of photos. One of my favorite quotes from their site has to be this gem on the About page: "Give your audience some credit, not spin and obfuscation. They see through all that jazz-hands bullshit." Starr Tincup clearly has their own brand of everything and they are comfortable in their own skin. The careers page is particularly honest (and hilarious).

The last one is my friends' company Corner Alliance in Washington, DC. Full disclosure, I wrote much of the copy but had lots of team input. Of the three examples, this one is probably the most formal but appropriate given their clients are government agencies. In that context, I think its a welcome and even gutsy departure from the jargony and boring consulting firm sites. The page Our Story really gives you a true sense of the kind of company they have tried to create and why they embarked on this journey. 

As you can see, there are so many ways to do this but I think the key to doing it successfully is to create a true portrayal of what your company is really about and who works there with words, images, and ideas that inspire you.

"Stop, Listen, Connect" and other words of wisdom by Chris Brogan

Chris Brogan, author of Social Media 101 and co-author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling book Trust Agents, spoke in Madison, WI on Monday evening 6/21.

Trust Agents has been on my "to-read" list because I feel that trust has become an even more important success factor for businesses with the globalization of the economy and the advent of social media. We are in an era where people are more often doing business without ever meeting in person. To me, trust is key for this leap of faith. Or in Chris's words, "Trust is the new currency in social media."

Chris said some things that resonated with me. For example, he asked us to "bring humanity back into what we are doing." To illustrate how we've gotten away from this, he brought up an example of someone being grateful to get an @reply* directly from Chris on Twitter. "Really?" Chris lamented. Expressing disappointment that an @reply is a surprise rather than commonplace. He suggested @replying more often to connect with people and comment on what they are saying. I used to shy away from @replies for fear I was muddying things up for my followers but now realize its importance as a way to connect my followers to other great people.

Here's my top 10 list of more great tidbits I learned from @chrisbrogan for businesses trying to build trust and use social media more effectively:

• 30/60/30 rule: Spend 30 minutes of listening, 60 minutes of connecting, 30 minutes of publishing per day.
• Ask provocative questions: Ask your customers questions that will provoke honest and useful feedback such as, "How much do you think we suck?"
• Grow bigger ears: Meaning, really LISTEN and use tools that can help you do so (examples, Radian6, SAS, Crimson Hexagon).
• Use LinkedIn: Spiff up that LinkedIn profile because, surprisingly, more people are using it than you think! Update your status but filter your twitter feed with #in so you don't muddy up the LinkedIn status with your foursquare check-ins to Walgreens!
• Connect globally: Make connections with those you are making repeat contact with outside of your industry and geography.
• Really serve your customer: Instead of shamelessly promoting your product or service, talk about the things that enhance your product for your customer.
• Do things other people are afraid to do: For example, talk about the competitor's product when its better than yours. What a way to build trust and perhaps partnerships down the road!
• Email still rules: Use email marketing tools (Blue Sky Factory, Constant Contact, My Emma) but don't just use it to sell your products. Provide useful content and stun readers with a personal style letter now and again.
• Go where your customer hangs out: Find your customers favorite social media "hangouts" to maximize your use of SM using tools like Rapleaf or create a special space and build the community.
• Let people "Like" you: Add the Facebook "Like" button to your blog and website to increase traffic.

What are you doing to build trust with your customers and followers?

* For non-twitter users, an @reply is when you tweet directly to someone's Twitter username. It's like a sending a short, public email message. However, your followers will only see it if they also follow that other person's tweets and vice versa. However, if you go to any given person's twitter page, you can see all the @reply messages they've sent.

I don't want to be the Mayor

While on a trip last week, I started using FourSquare to experiment with location-based networking. You see, I don't have an iPhone (I know, the horror!) but I do have an iPad (you all breathe a collective sigh of relief) and decided to bring it to save on space. After only two "check-ins" and an almost a 3rd, I quit. Maybe I'll go back some day but for now, it’s not for me.

It's not that I don't see the benefit to businesses and individuals. Businesses get a snapshot of their demographic for targeted marketing, reward frequent visitors, etc. Users get coupons, discounts, learning about new places, etc. I get it. I really do.

What I don't get is the need for us to be logging EVERYTHING we do online. Does this make us feel more important or validated in some way? As a yoga teacher, I think its so important to experience the now. It feels artificial to me to stop and "check in." We hardly ever see people sitting alone without a cell phone, game, or laptop. Why can’t we sit with ourselves and just be?

It also begins to feel like if we don't tell our online "friends" about something then it's not important or we aren't really doing it. It kind of reminds me of the feeling I sometimes get when I am on vacation and I am taking too many pictures. I often purposely forget my camera when going out so I can just be there having fun.

As I was walking through the Milwaukee airport. I realized I hadn't "checked in" yet. I stopped walking, took out my iPad and then looked at myself. I felt a bit pathetic. I thought, “Why should check in? Do I care that I'm here?” Then FourSquare asks, "Do you want to share this with your friends?” This was the clincher for me. Definitely not. I put the iPad back in my purse and never looked back.

I once had a Facebook “friend” (this person friended me through someone else so I hardly knew him) write on my wall saying “are you a real person or a made up by Facebook?”  He was knocking me for not being more mundane, telling the world about what I ate for breakfast or that I broke a nail. It made me laugh and I realized I am just not that kind of social media user and never will be. I replied saying that we all use social media for different purposes. I think it’s important to stop and think about what kind of user you are and stay true to that.

So, when you read my Twitter feed or Facebook page, you won’t see me checked in at the Middleton Barriques. But if you walk through the doors and see me sitting there, please join me for some great java and conversation.

What do carrots and whistles have to do with HR?

I have a guest blog posting on Smartblog on Workforce about yesterday's Greater Madison Area (GMA) Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) HR Next Conference.

Check out the posting here: http://ow.ly/1KfiM

Read. Vote. Win an ipad!

I'm attending the TruUSA unconference today and tomorrow here in Madison WI. This event is geared towards recruiters first and foremost but I am getting a lot out of it from a few different perspectives. I'm learning about how social media can be maximized from a candidate perspective. I'm thinking about how we can transform the state of conferences so people have real conversations and engage in new ways.

I promise a longer post on the unconference experience, the nuggets I am learning from the tracks I attend, and my overall musings but for now, here's a mini-post on the TRU Conferences blog. They are running a contest. Two lucky winners get an ipad! One winner is the blog with the most votes (no pressure now!) and the other winner will be randomly chosen from the comments section on the various blogs. So, what are you waiting for? Go vote and post a comment! You could help me (or one of the other bloggers..I am trying to be impartial here... is it working?) win an ipad and possibly win one for yourself!

Here's the link to read and comment for your chance win: http://wp.me/pJ0We-nf

Vote here for my blog and enter me to win: http://twtpoll.com/pbpjgl