As an internal communication professional nothing can come close to working for an internal client who just ‘gets’ it!
I wanted to write this post to share insights from an ongoing partnership that I am beginning to enjoy. Also, share some ideas to make your internal leader’s blog leap ahead.
Two reasons that make it a pleasure to work with such a leader:
- This leader owns his communication. He thinks about what is relevant to his blog every day, learns how the technology works, asks the right questions, seeks data to know how the blog is faring and is open to suggestions.
- He knows what his blog can achieve. Before he began blogging he listed out his expectations and how it corresponded with the vision of the organization. Also, given his position in the organization the blog was a double-edged sword; while he had a point of view it could always be mistaken of that of the organization.
Smiling ice-cream
This means as an internal communicator I get to focus on what’s important – strategically positioning the blog in various forums, thinking of ideas that will improve reach, and identifying themes that will resonate with disparate audiences. With a young workforce distributed across three locations in India the blog is a great way to connect on a personal level.
In just about a month his blog ranks among the most read in the company and the readership is growing leaps and bounds.
What makes his blog tick?
- His ability to decode what employees want to hear
- The focus on generating a dialogue
- His fluid style of writing
- His promptness in appreciating feedback
- His ability to convert a chance corridor conversation into a discussion on hot topics that is on everyone’s mind
- His sense of humor
- The clarity on how often he can blog and calling it out upfront
- His willingness to listen
A couple of days ago I walked him through ideas to promote his blog and what struck me most is his focus on what he believes will make his channel credible, believable and relevant.
For instance, he insisted that his blog would remain focused at a high level while seeding current themes to help employees change their mind-sets and not a channel to ‘push’ communication.
That made a whole lot of sense.
Here are other ideas that I shared and you may find useful to initiative a conversation with your leader.
- Crowd source ideas from your employees on company-wide initiatives. Ask them for example, to complete a sentence with words they felt most suited the response.
- Interview employees on current topics and use extracts in the blog
- Feature a team that is delivering great work. Nothing has more impact that storytelling from the trenches.
- Include a ‘day in the life’ of the leader that shows what goes on behind the scenes. Everyone loves to know what a leader is going through and what it takes to be one.
Have other suggestions to get your internal leader blogger in the sweet spot? Share them here.
