Using Social Media to Engage Employees
A Dummy's Puppet's Ramblings - from Chip Martin
Mannequin American views and guidelines on marketing/PR trends, news from the world of puppets and ventriloquism, bits of humor and other interesting but useless information. I post every Tuesday and Friday.
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About Brown & Martin, Inc.
No Hangover Wine Available ... Some of Us Can Celebrate
Ever since Managing Editor, Cullen Murphy, interviewed Dale for a 10 page article on ventriloquists in 1989, I've enjoyed reading The Atlantic. (Trivia note: Mr. Cullen is also the author of the "Prince Valiant" comic strips.) In The Atlantic's latest edition I ran across an intriguing story about Dr. Hennie van Vuuren, of the University of British Columbia's Wine Research Center. After 16 years of research the good Dr. has figured out how to genetically alter yeast to remove the headache-inducing properties of red wine and many white wines. (This man should obviously be canonized and receive a Nobel prize of some sort.)
If you're a wine lover who's prone to headaches but you oppose genetically-modified crops, you now have a dilemma.
The yeast in question, called ML01, became commercially available in 2006. Consumers of U.S. wine, however, have no way of knowing when it's used--unless they buy organic wine, in which case it's not. U.S. labeling laws do not require producers to reveal the presence of GM ingredients. (There's a big controversy there that I won't get into.)
The Wine Institute, which represents many California wineries, decreed that "no genetically-modified organisms be used in the production of California wine." At the same time, California's sole distributor of ML01, American Tartaric Products, Inc., said that it was doing an active business with several vineyards. (Those two sentences combined gave me a headache. Pass the ML01.)
Beginning this year though, American Tartaric no longer distributes ML01. In fact, Dr. van Vuuren is currently the sole distributor "at this stage," serving 40 clients in the United States and Canada, the only other nation where GM yeast is currently not banned.
To see the complete article from The Atlantic, click here.
A Sip of the Past
Speaking of hangovers, according to Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails (LUPEC) ... (I need to meet some members of this organization...) the American cocktail scene which has been infatuated with newer, faster and sweeter drinks, is now giving way to older, slower and pre-prohibition era cocktails.
For instance, Rye whiskey, a key ingredient in many old-fangled cocktails, hasn't been popular since the Great Depression. But last year the liquor saw sales jump over 30%. The entire spirits industry on average sees an increase of only 6% per year.
"It's worth bringing these drinks back because they're about balance and flavor," said Alyssa Shepherd, a member of the Boston chapter of LUPEC, which was founded in Pittsburgh in 2007 and now has branches around the country. Shepherd's group describes itself as "a classic cocktail society dedicated to breeding, raising and releasing nearly extinct drinks into the wild." (Last night I caught a few of those drinks that they released and today I feel like I'm nearly extinct.)
"Classics" are drinks whose formulas were concocted before or just after prohibition. Famous ones include Manhattans, Tom Collins, Old Fashioneds and Juleps. Back then drinks were formulated so that imbibers actually tasted the alcohol. For instance, a simple bourbon Old-fashioned is advertised as "Nothing more than a slug of good whiskey on the rocks, with a couple of dashes of bitters, a little sugar, and a twist of lemon peel to take the edge off." (I think I took so much "edge off" last night that I nearly hit center.)
According to LUPEC, more and more bars are going back to listing drinks under headings such as "Sours & Daisies," "Collins & Fizzes," "Old Fashioneds, Flips & Sangarees" and "Royales." For the uninitiated, flips are made with a whole egg and royales are doused with Champagne or sparkling wine.
Now I'm going out to find a member of that association ... even if it means having to stop in every bar in town. I'm nothing if not a tenacious researcher.
Why This Blog Lost ... a Commentary
Brown & Martin, Inc. recently entered this blog and the B&M newsletter in the Paragon Awards of the Southeastern Wisconsin Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. Our informative and entertaining bi-monthly newsletter has been continuously published for the past 17 years and has earned a wall full of awards. This year was no exception as B&M brought home a plaque or a trophy or something else that says we're doing an adequate job of producing a newsletter for our clients. I don't know what we received because no one saw fit to take me along to the banquet which was held at the Metavante Club inside Miller Park. I really wanted to go because my Uncle is a bat and I thought there would be a chance of seeing him at Miller Park.
This blog was also entered in the competition. I didn't win. If it was possible to wripe this smile off my face, I'd do it.
Two professional communicators judged the quality of my work. One judge raved about my blog's "cheeky" style and engaging content. She gave me an "Excellent" in almost every judging category. Based on her score, I should have easily won top honors.
However, there was a second judge. The second judge started out by writing, "Posts to blog are engaging and made me want to read more." She gave me an "Excellent" for "Creativity: Originality of design, scripting, or execution." So far, so good. Unfortunately that was the high watermark.
Here's her next comment. "Didn't understand why "Dummy" has a line through it on the blog." Huh? She's kidding right? The last person who called me a "Dummy" got a kick to the groin. I'm a Mannequin American. It says so at the top of each blog post. I think anyone who doesn't understand the joke should disqualify themself as a judge of my blog.
The rest of her comments were thoroughly contrary to what the first judge had to say. And while the first judge's scores were all "Excellent" and "Above Average" the second judge saw fit to give me mostly "Average" or "Below Average" marks. I don't mind the "Below Average" because this blog isn't meant to appeal to the lowest common denominator. It has a specific audience. So some will like it and some will not. (Apparently the second judge falls into the latter category.) What really irks me is being labeled "Average." How many other Mannequin Americans do you know who have their own blogs? "Average?" I think not. "Sucky" maybe. But not "Average."
So I didn't win. Disappointing? Sure. Everyone likes to win. Bewildering? Somewhat. How can two "qualified judges" have such opposing views of the same material? And if they have opposite opinions, which one is right?
I'll probably give the competition another shot next year in hopes of learning through constructive analysis ... which is something that I really didn't get this year. But maybe I'm expecting too much. After all, I'm just a Dummy Mannequin American. Get it?
More Companies Using Social Media to Engage Employees?
According to a survey by the Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Research Foundation, employers faced with reduced communication budgets are turning to social media to keep their workforces engaged.
Almost four-fifths (79%) of the respondents reported they use social media frequently to engage employees and foster productivity, outranking even e-mail. (I find that hard to believe because the same study says 56% percent of top executives are not using social media at this time. If top management isn't engaging employees with social media, who is?)
According to the survey company blogs are the most popular social media tool currently in use (47%), with discussion boards ranking the highest for future planned use (33%). (That means almost 1 out of 2 readers of this blog should also have access to blogs from their employers. Again, I find that hard to believe.)
The IABC says, "Companies are moving away from one-way communication models where they send out information hoping people will read it. Using various social media tools, companies can now engage employees in discussions and foster conversations between teams across geographic and other boundaries."
In our firm's experience, larger companies block employee access social media venues like Facebook and MySpace. So I'm not sure how these types of outlets could be used effectively to engage employees. And what about employees who work out in the factory or at construction sites or anywhere else where they don't have easy access to computers? But what do I know ... I'm just a Mannequin American.
Find out for yourself. For more info on the study go to: http://www.iabc.com/rf
Dale wrote an article for Biz Times about his take on employee engagement during the recession. Read it here.
Gas-X Relieves Embarrassment
I enjoy a good "fart" reference as much as the next Mannequin American, but a new series of print ads for Gas-X seem so basic that they may only be entertaining to fourth-grade boys. Copy in the lower right says, "Gas-X Relieves Embarrassment.
What do you think?
There will be no blog on Friday, July 3rd. I'm going fishing with a relative ... which means I'm going to be using a bamboo pole.