Stakeholder management is a crucial component of any long-term project, essential to understanding and engaging your stakeholders. But even with a solid foundation of information and a customized engagement plan, it can be difficult to keep the target audience engaged and in sync. Inevitably, you ask them for a lot: for input, for attention, for time, and a host of other things. All of this asking can lead to fatigue on both ends. The million dollar question for stakeholder management, then, is, “How can you keep stakeholders interested and responsive during long projects?” The answer lies in establishing the right kind of relationship: a reciprocal one.

Instead of approaching your stakeholders with a one-sided, “I ask, you give” mentality, first establish your flexibility and generosity; in a word, your humanity. Few behaviors set a more positive tone than giving. While it may sound paradoxical at first, you can greatly boost your chances of receiving ongoing cooperation from your stakeholders by establishing yourself as a ‘giver’.

Use the following principles to get the most out of your interactions with project stakeholders:

1) You always have something to give
It is impossible to come to a negotiating table empty-handed: we all bring a wealth of experiences and skills with us everywhere we go, meaning we always have something to offer. Think about your stakeholders’ needs and the language they use to frame them, then search your toolkit for a skill or experience that can address that need, taking care to present it in the language they introduced.

2) Your pattern of giving is not a transaction string
Our goal is to show shareholders that you are a person (and, of course, the kind of person they want to work with!), not to establish a tit-for-tat transaction string. To pull from the philosopher Martin Buber, the goal is to establish an I-thou relationship: one marked by the encounter of a person rather than the encounter of a concept. In an I-thou relationship, your stakeholders aren’t encountering a manager or a professional (both concepts), but are encountering you. The relationship we want to avoid is the I-it relationship, the relationship of objectification. Your stakeholders can feel empathy with a person, but not an object or concept.

3) Proportionality is not important
Building on principle #2, your giving does not need to be proportional to the asks you make of stakeholders. Again, because establishing a relationship is the goal, we’re not trying to match (and especially not bribe or indebt) our stakeholders; we’re simply making small gestures that establish us as real persons with whom they can work.

Devote time to understanding what your stakeholders find meaningful, and then reach into your skills and experiences to see what you can offer them. As the project progresses, they’ll be much more inclined to give when you ask, not because they “owe you”, but because of an established relationship built on authentic reciprocity.

Originally published in Midlands Biz on January 15, 2019.

Your dinner, your stitched up surgery site, your haircut.
Or…
A gracious waitress, a skilled physician, a dependable barber.

The only difference here is a matter of perspective.  As we begin a new year filled with new challenges and opportunities, it’s a good time to ask ourselves, “Are our eyes focused inward, or outward?” Whether it’s in business or in the home, our focus will set the course for our future. In a world of too many selfies and too much screen time, it’s important we maintain perspective.

I’m definitely not here to judge, for I’m guilty of checking my phone and thinking too much about “me” – my wants, my needs, MYself.  Instead, I’m here to challenge all of us to strive for a better, more externally focused year in 2019.  It won’t happen overnight, but if we want to have real, lasting impact, we need to make a conscious effort to take time to invest in the world around us.

What would this look like?

• In the rush of an overbooked schedule, can we give up 10 seconds to make eye contact with the cashier and ask about his or her day?
• Can we thank one more person – whether your spouse, the mail carrier or a teacher?
• Could we – and I’m really speaking to myself here – give space to the rushed driver and just allow him or her to merge instead of riding the bumper of the person in front of you? (It MAY be possible that by providing a little extra space on the roadway you won’t need the space on social media to vent about rude drivers…  Ahem, Heather!)

The logic applies to our professional world and businesses as well. Challenge yourself to put others first, and consider every client or customer worthy of extra care and investment. If you’re an overachiever, keep track of your progress and reflect on the impact you had when you offered a kind word or a few more minutes of help. I suspect you’ll deem the time well spent, and worth repeating. Human connection is, after all, at the heart of every business.

Our lives move so fast.  We face so many options. The world seems to point increasingly toward watching out for “#1,” but that narrow view can keep us from noticing a lot more: from the needs of our friends or family at home, to a new opportunity or new approach to an old problem at work.

A New Year can mean more than just the passage of time – depending on our perspective.  At this time next year, when you look back at your photos from 2019, what will you see?

The traditional definition of community engagement is “the facilitation of communication and exchange between an organization and community.” While that’s certainly true, that doesn’t really capture what community engagement can do for your organization.

To maximize impact, think of community engagement as a specialized form of messaging.

Community engagement places your company’s core values on display. The old adage “actions speak louder than words” rings true here, so before you begin a concerted community engagement initiative, it’s important to have a grip on five key components:

The end result: For what purpose are you engaging? What is the ultimate goal of your actions? Common examples include greater community visibility, improved public standing or an introduction to a new community. Establish ongoing metrics to track and determine your return on investment.

The audience: Which community are you trying to reach? With this consideration, be specific: are you trying to reach “all residents of the Southeast,” “all residents of the county in which you operate,” or perhaps an even more narrow niche? With today’s technology, your audience can be defined by much more than just location. You can select by education, income, background or other demographics.

The message: What message are you trying to send through your actions? What messages could you reasonably be interpreted to be sending? The same rule applies: be specific. When considering how other parties may interpret your message, be discerning as well: look at your proposed message from all angles, not only those angles you WANT to view.  Regardless of what you meant to say or what your intention is, if a message could be misinterpreted, it is hard to undo the damage once it is done. Looking at the language and presentation of your message from multiple personas helps create the desired result and reduce risk for your organization.

The method: What is your primary method for delivering your message? The scope of your options is vast. Are you holding town halls? Will you host charitable company outings? Identify what action or style of event suits your goal, audience and message. Sensitive consideration of each piece and every step of planning your community engagement effort pays off at the end.

The reinforcement: After your main push is complete, this last step ensures the longevity of your hard work. How are you going to reinforce the message? What communications are you going to employ, and through what channels are you going to distribute them? Options include to display these actions on your website, on social media, or working with the news media as a partner. Again, remember to look at this from multiple angles: community engagement is about your targeted audience, so don’t destroy your good work by badly publicizing your actions.

Whether a nonprofit, Fortune 500 company or family-run business – all successful organizations have strategic community engagement plans that incorporate the components above. NP Strategy works with organizations across the Carolinas and beyond to ensure their community engagement plans are effective, efficient and well executed.

Jean Cecil Frick is a veteran of the private, public and non-profit sectors driven by helping individuals and organizations achieve their goals. Prior to joining NP Strategy, Jean Cecil served as the CEO of a start-up web development firm. Under Jean Cecil’s leadership, the firm created high design, strategically planned and easily managed websites for businesses, non-profits and schools throughout the Carolinas.

A good research project is simple to describe, but difficult to implement. Most of that difficulty can be chalked up to the unprecedented speed at which information is now created, distributed, and contradicted. I conducted long-term research projects as an undergrad at the University of South Carolina, as a graduate student at Harvard, and while working at a think tank in Washington, D.C. Though the projects differed dramatically in subject and scope (from research papers on politics and religion, to finishing the second half of a book on federal spending on the arts), I encountered the same pitfall each time. This pitfall was too much information to ever sift through, yet, paradoxically, a constant temptation to expand my research scope.

We’re not built for exposure to a 24/7 rush of digital information, and constant exposure to a live screen (on a wall or in your hands) can make prolonged concentration on a single topic or question feel like an impossible task. This is particularly dangerous for researchers; for those of us accustomed to bouncing between tabs in our browsers or scrolling through feeds, it can be easy to leave questions only partially answered (we always intend to come back to them “later”). Like the heads of the hydra, every question half-answered breeds more questions; before you know it, your research project has descended into a chaotic mess.

The antidotes to chaos and complication in research are as simple as they are effective: You need 1) a clear question and 2) a willingness to adopt tunnel vision while you research. These principles allow you to make consistent progress, avoid irrelevant avenues, and ensure that your project ends with the one thing research must be able to deliver: answers.

1) Set your question

No productive research project can begin without a specific goal in mind. Research is question-driven, so before you crack a single book or consult a search engine, you must have a clear question in hand.

A clear question is written in simple language. We use jargon and lengthy responses to cover up gaps in our understanding, and simple questions expose these gaps. Exposing these gaps will keep you from wasting time on irrelevant or premature questions.  In research, a little humility goes a long way. Having the humility to separate that which you understand from that which you don’t at the outset of a project will lead to success.

2) Set your boundaries

A clear question provides clear boundaries for your project (after all, if you know where you are heading, you should also know where you shouldn’t go). You will, however, be tempted to expand your project’s scope, to move from what you need to know for the project into what you’d like to know. This temptation to expand can come about innocently enough (maybe from a conversation or a thought on a walk), but one thought leads inevitably to another, and all of the sudden, your search for an answer to a question has turned into a haphazard attempt at constructing a Theory of Everything.

Ok, so maybe it isn’t always that dramatic. But if you get off track, a harsh bit of reality can help steer you back: we research in order to generate answers, and there is no recognition of just your participation or effort. You need a question to get an answer, and you need an answer to keep your job! When your project gets lost in the weeds, rely on your simple, clear question and stick to the boundaries you set to get back on track.

Originally published in Midlands Biz on November 13, 2018.

As we approach the November elections, your inbox, social media feeds and internet browser are likely filled with messages from candidates looking for your vote. And they somehow seem to speak directly to you.

How does it work?

Think back to the last time you were shopping for a pair of shoes on a website, perhaps in the morning. Then, hours later, you go to a different website to search a completely different topic… and up pops those exact shoes from your morning search. This is by design; digital targeting is a powerful tool to reach specific stakeholder groups, regardless of whether you are trying to sell shoes, win votes, grow your brand or fundraise.

Utilizing analytics and technology to engage stakeholders, or audiences, begins with segmenting each audience and then analyzing the best delivery mechanisms for action and engagement. Targets can be segmented through geographic location, demographic traits, consumer data profiles, personal electronic identifiers and even individual matches such as a donor list.

With digital targeting, still images and/or videos are placed online in a cross-device approach.  You may see an ad in the morning on a news website, hear it on SiriusXM on the way to work, catch it on your Facebook feed during your lunch break and see it one more time when you are watching your favorite program on Hulu before going to bed.

When we’ve helped our clients use digital targeting, we’ve seen how you can be innovative with the content (photos/video) used in the ad AND who actually sees it.

How does this tactic work for business?

• A real estate firm only wants homeowners in a specific neighborhood to learn more about the real estate company
• A lawyer wants to offer legal services to a very specific type of client, with a niche or complicated need
• A small business owner trying to capture a larger audience by targeting people who have searched online for the specific type of business service
• A non-profit looking to raise its profile and/or reach a fundraising goal by targeting people in a certain income bracket or who may be interested in helping the same sector of people in need

So while you may suffer from political advertisement fatigue during each election cycle know that digital targeting works.  Consider how your company or organization can leverage this approach for future success. It all starts with a simple click of the mouse.

Amanda Loveday’s passion for meeting new people and building relationships is what has made her a powerhouse in politics and communications. A decade of experience taught her the importance of getting to know the community and how to interact with people, especially those with different personalities and backgrounds. Get in touch with Amanda at (803) 540-2190 or amanda@npstrat.com.

Originally published in Midlands Biz on October 30, 2018.

From cocktail receptions to conferences, events are rarely a walk in the park. There’s a mountain of detail that goes into executing an event – and even then, something will likely go awry.

But fear not!

Here are six ways to ease your burden and anxiety.

1. Need a Starting Point? Work Backward
You’ve set an event date – congratulations! Next, grab your calendar, and start counting backward from your event date to list your to-do items. Sending a save the date? You can send as early as you’d like, or around 6 weeks in advance. Drafting a program? Allow two or three weeks for designing and editing, and a minimum of one business week for printing.

2. Communicate Early & Often
Drafting multiple event messages in advance will help get information out as quickly as possible. Having an archive of graphics and content for social media posts (always include a graphic and link!) make it easy to hit send. Likewise, if you’d like to reach your target audience through your organization’s listserv, draft e-mail blasts in advance with the information available. You can fill in holes as speakers, sponsors or featured sessions are announced.

3. Make Deadlines Your Friend (Not the Enemy)
Just like your target audience (invitees), communicate with vendors as early as possible. As you collaborate with vendors, ask about their deadlines for final information such as headcount, seat numbers, audio/visual needs, and more.  Try to set an “internal” deadline at least one week before the vendor’s requested date. Then, set calendar reminders to keep you on track! It’s easy to let those deadlines creep up – or even slip by.

4. Huddle Your Team
Planning an event should not be a one-man-show. If you overload yourself with too many responsibilities, something will fall through the cracks.. You can’t be an expert in all things venue/technology/catering – so collaborate with vendors and/or peers that you trust. Bring all hands to the table for open lines of communication, ensuring everyone is working with the latest information toward the ultimate goal. And, don’t forget that your vendors may be clients or colleagues in the future.  Invest in these relationships!

5. “Thank You, Come Again!”
The event is complete. But wait… your job isn’t over. Follow up tactics are key to success. Consider drafting these ‘takeaways’ in advance of your event (you will thank yourself later!):

• Thank you notes for speakers, attendees or sponsors
• An event survey for attendees
• A press release for media
• Wrap-up social media posts
• A follow up meeting for your planning team to fine-tune future efforts.

6. Take Care of Yourself
On event day, you are the quarterback, in control of the day’s game plan and performance. Set yourself up for success by preparing yourself personally – plenty of sleep, comfortable shoes and lots of water. You’ll be busy greeting attendees and speakers, schmoozing stakeholders, and maybe addressing the audience. Resting up for your big day will allow you to finish well and hopefully even enjoy the event you’ve worked so hard on.

If you have questions, or find yourself overwhelmed, don’t hesitate to call an event planner to coach you through and provide the teammates you need for success.

See also: Event Management

Stakeholder management has been touted as a “silver bullet” to achieve successful projects or implement changes in organizations. In reality, it is better described as “silver buckshot”. It takes a lot of interaction with various stakeholders to understand the needs and desires of people who have an interest in your organization or project.

Outlined below is a SILVER Approach to stakeholder engagement:

Set your engagement goals and strategy.
First, clearly define why you want to engage with stakeholders. Whatever your reason(s), stakeholder engagement should be a core component of your business process and should support your overall strategy.

Reasons for developing a stakeholder engagement plan include:

• Market development – Leverage stakeholder knowledge to reach new customers or identify new markets as opportunities.
• Risk Management – Groups and individuals may help you identify potential risks before they become threats to your project or organization.
• Innovation – Savvy businesses today encourage customers and stakeholders to share new ideas to develop new products and services.
• Sustainability – Stakeholders can become advocates for companies implementing green practices.
• Regulatory and/or permit approvals – Effective stakeholder and external relations engagement can help support key regulatory consents and approvals for projects.

Identify your stakeholders.
Next, make a list of everyone who will be involved at all the touchpoints of your project. List relevant groups, organizations and people. This may be a long list, and may include customers, community and political leaders, suppliers, employees and others. Then, identify who is important and who to spend the greatest effort to manage.

Label and categorize all your stakeholders using a mapping chart.
Prioritize your list of stakeholders by interest and influence based on your understanding of the degree of their ability to impact your desired outcomes. Keep in mind that stakeholder influence changes throughout the life of your project. Go back to your prioritized list regularly and review with whom you should spend time.

Validate relationships with stakeholders, and create a timeline for communication and reporting.
Relationships are the building blocks you rely on during stakeholder engagement. These relationships need to be cultivated appropriately with recognition of each party’s interests. Then, based on the relationships and data you’ve gathered, develop a communication and reporting plan that documents the information requirements and frequency of communication. Monitor and govern your reporting plan regularly for successful outcomes.

Engage with your stakeholders by providing efficient and effective ways they can participate.
Engaging a wide group of stakeholders helps to reduce risk and increase opportunities for success. There are many different ways for individuals and groups to engage on your behalf, including Letters to the Editor, targeted phone calls, media interviews, and strategic messages shared with customers. Don’t forget to engage your employees to allow them to be agents of change, internally and externally.

Report on the analysis of your engagement activities in context of your objectives and strategy.
Based on your findings, formulate actions and adjust your tactics and strategies to achieve your objectives.

Stakeholder engagement is not a one-time silver bullet activity. It is an ongoing silver buckshot process that can help your project or organization achieve success.

A South Carolina native, Marcia Purday, APR lives the state’s motto “Dum Spiro, Spero,” which means “While I Breathe, I Hope.” She brings an optimistic approach to the most complex communication opportunities. She serves as a Senior Communications Advisor for NP Strategy, following extensive leadership experience including her time as the Director of corporate external affairs for BellSouth, followed by serving as VP of communications and public relations for the SC Chamber of Commerce. An accredited public relations practitioner (APR), Marcia has an MBA from the Darla Moore School of Business and a BA in Journalism from the University of South Carolina. She also currently teaches Integrated Communication Campaigns and Creativity: Strategy to Execution at the USC School of Journalism.

See also: Stakeholder Management

Are you a real person?

Hang on – don’t answer quite yet.

Let me explain:
Every morning in newsrooms across the country, young reporters pitch stories to their patient and thoughtful news directors. While some ideas are better than others (my average during my TV days was never stellar, if I’m being honest), many pitches come down to a variation of the question, “Who are your real people?”

What news directors (and viewers and your target audience) can’t stand, is a story made up solely of interviews with people in some kind of official capacities. For example,  a representative sponsoring legislation, a public information officer recounting an incident in not-so-breathless words, or a business owner trumpeting the values of their company.

While all of those people are not made of wood, and presumably have personal lives, they often aren’t considered to be ‘real,’ Why? Because my bosses liked to torture me. Because a story made up of “official” sound just isn’t interesting video. You need the real people.

And no, I’m not talking about the “it sounded like a freight train” brand of interviews, but people who can thoughtfully explain the why of a story from a personal perspective. That ‘rule of the real’ is important to remember, even if you don’t plan on doing a tour of duty in broadcast journalism; it applies to your business videos too.

These days, video is a ubiquitous and important component of any communications plan, and if the goal of your piece is to make an impact or drive a viewer to action, keep the following in mind as you start down the path to compelling visuals:

Turn on your heartlight – Find the passionate people in your organization. The folks who took the job because of a personal story or connection to the business. Their story, if they’re willing to share, can be an emotional access point for a viewer.

People helping people – Whether you’re a pastor ministering to those in need, or you’re making widgets, there’s an end user. Presumably, a success story. Hopefully, a person whose life has been changed by your product or service. Something like, “I cry tears of joy every time I use the [widget]. It’s saved my marriage and my life.” Personal connection is what you’re after.

The hype man (or woman) – Do you have a ‘closer’? A room winner? People who are used to recruiting new employees or speaking to crowds about your business might also be a good fit for video. This would be a final option, having exhausted efforts to find folks like those described above.

If all of this is obvious to you, you’re ahead of the curve. But while it might be easy to know this stuff, actually drumming up these interviews and getting them ‘in the can’ can sometimes be frustratingly difficult. The good news is that you’re (probably) not on the deadline of a local news reporter, and the time you invest in securing good subjects will pay off for as long as your video exists on the internet. Which is forever. For real.

Authored by: Taylor Kearns. Taylor is a filmmaker at heart and a professional communicator by trade. Ever since he got his hands on the family camcorder as a child, he’s been using video and sound to tell stories. In college, he turned that love of moving pictures into a career in broadcast journalism. He went on to earn two regional Emmy awards for his work. With seven years’ experience as a photojournalist and reporter, Taylor sought out the feature stories he knew would resonate with viewers. 

Originally published in Midlands Biz on September 17, 2018.

See also: Video Production

40 minutes a day.

In today’s fast paced world, 40 minutes is a long time. More time than it takes to eat breakfast, watch the news or possibly drive to work.

But, 40 minutes is the average amount of time Facebook’s daily users spend on the platform. Significant time each day for a consumer – or potential customer – to absorb information about your company. Twitter lags behind, but active users still average more than 40 minutes a week.

This level of social media engagement demands a proactive online monitoring strategy for Facebook, Twitter and other components of your online presence.  A bad review or negative post can quickly go viral, get picked up by traditional media, and make you known for something that might not even be true.

For example: An angry school parent alleges wrongdoing in the classroom and posts it on multiple social media platforms.  The allegations are startling and people begin to assume it’s true. They share, comment and retweet.  Once the post goes viral, the facts are hard to correct… even though the investigation into the matter reveals nothing wrong.

Or, an employee steals from your company. The story takes off in the media… and your customers are panicking, with comments filling your Facebook page.

So, how do you minimize risk and repair damage?

1) Aggressively monitor all the time to catch posts quickly.

• Begin by making sure you have a social media presence: it is hard to respond without an established page that viewers know and trust.
• Ensure your notifications are set to arrive to cellular devices for more than one member of your team. Check these regularly and often.

2) When crisis strikes, respond quickly, clearly and appropriately.

• Share your response on every digital platform: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the company website. This statement needs to be “pinned to the top” on your page.
• Resist the urge to respond to every comment on a video, news story or post. Allow the social media fire to burn out.
  • If you do choose to respond to individual comments, pick the comments strategically – posts where commentary is factually inaccurate and has a high level of engagement by others. Leave the post visible and respond by pointing the person to the pinned statement at the top of the page
• Do not delete posts, but hide any content that is hateful, abusive or derogatory (Hiding allows the post to remain on the page but it is visible only to the original person who posted and his/her friends).
• If a bad review (including very offensive commentary) is posted – and others jump on the bandwagon – consider removing the reviews feature.

3) Recover and return to normal when the time is right.

• Be patient. The news/interest cycle is fast.  People will move on to something else.  Try to respond appropriately and then give the situation time to fade.
• Depending on the severity of the crisis, temporarily de-activing a social media page AFTER a crisis (after significant lapse of public comment) may create a fresh start and help rebuild the brand.
• When posts resume, be sensitive to tone and content.

These standards can be adjusted to fit your needs, and apply across industries and different sized businesses. And when the going gets tough, it helps to know who to call for support.

Sara McCarthy is a problem solver by nature, with experience in communications, client relationship management, sponsorships, event planning and marketing. Throughout the last decade, Sara has worked primarily in the legal industry,  coordinating social media and digital content. Her multi-faceted background helps her connect with clients across numerous industries to understand and address their needs.

Originally published in Midlands Biz on September 3, 2018.

See also: Crisis Management, Digital and Social Media, Message Development