Social Media has made communicating layoffs a top priority

As I flipped through the papers today, it’s almost always guaranteed to have layoff news on it. It’s never easy to communicate something like this, especially in such terrible times.(The company will always be the bad guy!) However, it’s interesting to note how companies are going about announcing the lay-offs. (This is purely from an external perspective and I have no idea how the internal comms are handled)

Let’s start with DBS. I did a post on them a few weeks back and the people’s bank really went through a terrible time with the High notes issue being linked with Lehman brothers. To compound their problems even further, DBS was going though layoffs for some of it’s senior staff. How did they go about handling 2 problems? Focus on the layoffs to appease the shareholders that costs are being cut and use lousy customer service to answer the investors who invested in the high notes.

Then there’s Yahoo! who had the recent layoffs of 1500 staff. Every knows Yahoo! has been going through a horrible time because of declining profits and the whole Yahoo-Microsoft saga. I interned at Yahoo! and i know they’ve got excellent internal communications. I’m sure those that were being laid-off would have known well before hand and would have been properly compensated. It doesn’t help that with Yahoo!’s current situation that the economic crisis had to occur leading to cost cutting via layoffs.  The communications to the media and online blogosphere was open and honest.

As i read about the lay-offs, i was wondering why the comms folks in Sunnyvale didn’t try to steer the media towards their new product launches. I mean you have an article from Mashable that says Yahoo! might be the next great app platform and an article from ReadWriteWeb which says Gmail struggling with Email wants to be your task manager too. Both articles came out on the same day. So why focus so much on the layoff news when it might be possible to push out other news which can enhance your reputation at a time like this? In fact, why not keep quiet about it?

I point the finger to social media but more importantly micro-blogging and citizen journalism. This article from MarketingVox, Yahoo layoffs draw more blog coverage than ad campaigns, nicely sums up why today’s companies should be tackling layoffs more seriously. However, it was also nice to know that showing your pink slip online allows others to know that you’re ready for your next job! Tokbox showed how it was able to leverage from Yahoo!’s layoffs.

So it’s inevitable to make a layoff private. It’s also not very smart to focus on something other than your layoff. It should be a top priority because you’re now the Lich King. (WOW analogy for being a bad guy). You can check out this post here, You’re Fired: 7 Public Relations Tips for HR managers in an age of layoffs. on how to communicate a layoff

Sponsorships the way to go in these hard times?

I saw 2 articles today which got me wondering if this sponsorship is a trend PR ppl are picking up? First it was the Yahoo! Small Business and fwm’s “Seeds for Success” grant program and Microsoft wooing small businesses.

It makes a great story doesn’t it? Here’s a few reasons why.

1)  Big giant helping small guy

2) It’s the holiday season

3) Makes businesses sense to help smaller companies who might be using ur product (for advertising or for office use)

4) It garners attention in times like these when u’re willing to spend and help someone out with no direct benefits to urself

5) It makes a compelling story

So while citi is begging for a bailout, I think companies who are willing to create a story in these hard times will be remembered more than those who are busy announcing lay-offs.

Oh, i’ll be blogging more about my HK experience (and win) asap, it’s exam week! Will be doing a slight redesign as well to this blog. See ya on JUST FOR FUN TUESDAY tmr!

Asian CEOs and Online Videos

I’m sure many of you have seen the video with Jerry and Bill, if you haven’t you can watch it below. And while many critics are wondering what the hell is Microsoft trying to do with this campaign, I’m not gonna go there. You can read the TechCrunch post on their tots (which i fully agree on) on what a bad ad this is and how its not positioning the brand where the ppl want it to be positioned.

While I think its great companies are using their CEOs as an icon, another medium, it only appears that the wetern companies have done it. Check out my earlier post on Yahoo!’s videos…

Are our Asian companies to shy to do it? Seeing an Asian CEO in an online video is like finding a bull mastiff in my neighborhood. You see Steve Jobs doing it, so why not others? With online video being touted as the next biggest online medium, should Asian companies start embracing it?

I would like to see MS Ho Ching (CEO of Temasek) come and do a video like those above.I wouldn’t be surpirsed if our PM does it soon. But why the hesitation? The cultural differences? What happened to the shrinking world?

The CEO shouldn’t just be coming to do an online video when a crisis happens or when shit hits the ceiling. I think giving the head a more human approach should be encouraged. An annual report with the CEO statement in the form of a video would be interesting. I’m sure there’re more applications other than a crisis that a CEO should appear…

Of course all this is subjected to how comfortable the CEO is in front of a screen. If the CEO looks like an undertaker, plz dun put him on, unless u own a morgue business… But generally, i think a human face to the company is always something ppl like. It makes the corporation more sociable, makes it easier to use web2.0, makes communications easier. It is after all people talking to each other, its just how many ppl one person is talking to…

So what do u think? Should CEOs (who have the capability to appear on screen), especially Asians come out and do online videos? Whats ya take?

I’m Talkathon Campaign, Thumbs up or down?

Microsoft’s I’m campaign has always intrigued me. The purpose of the campaign is to increase the usage and uptake of Microsoft’s 2 strongest online products. It’s IM (MSN Messanger) and it’s email (hotmail).

The basic idea of the campaign is that every time you use the IM or the hotmail, then a portion of advertising revenue is being shared with 10 social causes.In my opinion, a campaign that uses CSR efforts to push its products is smart, that’s why I love the Adidas Dream Big campaign. You can read more about the campaign here. As you can see, I’ve put the I’m badge on my blog. (Talk about sleeping with the enemy!! I intern at Yahoo! now)

What’s interesting about the campaign now is its newest extension, the I’m talkathon. the use of a “fake” blog to post the happenings of Parker. Parker is this dude who vows not to sleep for 30 days to do his bid for the “I’m Initiative”. The blog will showcase videos, postings and other cool stuff of him and the social causes involved.

Those worried about another “walmart” incident need not worry as they have this huge disclaimer!

Disclaimer:

If you’re reading this, your BS detector is chirping like a smoke detector with a dicey 9-volt. As you’ve probably guessed, this blog is fictional, but the causes, and the i’m Initiative most certainly are not. The purpose of this blog is to raise awareness of the i’m Initiative and the worthy causes it helps. If we rubbed you the wrong way in the process that wasn’t our intention, so “sorry, our bad.” The alternate was something called an “e-mail blast.” But, believe us that’s not nearly as exciting as it sounds. A herd of well-compensated legal professionals in Redmond, Washington, says we also need to tell you something:

The Parker Whittle character depicted herein is fictitious and his activities are described for illustrative purposes only.

Personally, I think this extension of the campaign is a pretty neat. It has a blend of CSR marketing while utilizing social media in an unconventional way. Plus (and a big plus), it’s pretty funny too! Some of the comments made was that the idea was “lame” or ‘dumb’, but all didn;t mind if such efforts benefited the social causes. (See the forgiveness of the harshest critics in the face of CSR?)

This is clearly a separate case from the ‘walmart’ one a few yrs back, with them stating clearly that it’s a fake blog. They’ve also used other micro tools such as Twitter, Digg, Del.lico.us and Facebook for this campaign.

What i wonder however is the response and the hit rate of this blog. Firstly, the posts don’t have as many comments as i expect such a campaign would draw (Would it mean it hasn’t attracted the kind of attention it should? and secondly, they aren’t responding to negative comments. Should they be doing so or just ignoring the people dropping by. After all, it’s using a social media tool, it’s gotta have a personal approach right?

You can check out the blog here.

So what do you think? Thumbs up or down for this campaign and why you think so? Please share with me, I’ll love to hear your thoughts!!

JUST FOR FUN TUESDAY!!!

Wohooo!!! Tuesday is over and its one of my fav things to do on my blog, its JUST FOR FUN TUESDAY!!!

This week will be a little short cause it took me a while to figure out to upload an embedded code video to my blog (I know, i’m a little slow….) So do check out Vodpod for these kindda videos… Just paste the damn bunch of gibberish or HTML code into the box.. simple huh? lol….

Before i begin, those who have been faithfully keeping up with this particular post every Tuesday, guess what? It’s on the top of Google search!! Check out the pic below… haha…

So today i’ll just be showing two great videos of 2 technology companies who have been in the news lately… We have Yahoo! first with Jerry and Sue, it’s an awesome video…

Then we have Microsoft with Bill retiring….Great video too!

What do I think of these? Its great for internal comms and for external comms… Doesn’t cost much and it really gives it such a fun and human touch… Pulling all the big guns in for these videos was awesome… I’m a sucker for the human side of a big corporation face…

Anybody have other videos from other companies to share?? I wonder if Nike or Apple have any like these…

Tuesday is over! I’m gonna blog about the iPhone tmr!! Stayed tuned and have a good laugh