► The Power of Digital PR: How to Build and Strengthen Your Online Reputation

Digital communication or digital PR is a fundamental strategy in today's age, where it is increasingly important to have a strong and positive presence online. According to a study conducted by digital marketing company Hootsuite, 90% of online consumers trust recommendations from friends and family, while 70% trust online reviews. This shows the importance of having a good reputation online and using digital public relations to build, project, and position the brand through digital channels.

10 reasons to set up a corporate communications department in your company

Peru’s corporate communications have grown while business necessities of having a good reputation and image have grown as well, moreover those related to keep good relations with their main business stakeholders.

Conflictive sceneries create the framework to look for specialized solutions that shape the way business communicate themselves, both internally and externally.

On the other hand, study and application of corporate communications variations are not fully developed.  For example, corporate identity; both studies and application are inexistent or related to graphic identity, while its definition involve many other organizational and business insights. 

But, let’s go further: Why should we set up a corporate communications office in our organizations? I will suggest 10 reasons to do so: 

#1 Communication control

Every organization delivers messages. It’s not possible to organize without communication; because this, it’s important to optimize business communication, due to the fact that a good communication brings a good organization.

#2 Added value 

Communications managing brings another aspect related to the messages added value. There must be meaningful relations between the business and its main audiences in order to get identity and uniqueness. 

#3 Crisis managing

A corporate communications office is a crisis support for the board of managers, because they have the know-how to face a crisis situation.

#4 Improving cohesion

A communications office increase the feeling of cohesion among the different business departments. It develops or eases the cultural change if necessary. 

#5 Strengthen communication links

A communicator is a reputation specialist; someone who offer alternatives to develop image; and able to deliver solutions, even during adverse sceneries. 

#6 Technology progress

We are facing a technology chanllenge, which is re-shaping the way business get in touch with their audiences. Nowadays, corporate communications  and PR have changed the way we get close to our main stakeholders.

#7 Story telling

A corporate communicator has the skills to develop good and lasting links with the local press, so that they can tell the company’s story as long as it is necessary, and build branding.

#8 Marketing Support

Although many companies have marketing departments, uncharged of business promotion, distribution and sells; a communication department offers a strategic help in order to show the business behind the brand, which is very important when we build reputation.

#9 Develops employers branding

Every company wants to attract the best talented people. A communications office can help to develop the company’s brand as a good and respected employer, which is the key of the business success and growth. 

#10 Business trust 

Another important aspect is related to the ability to create trust among the company’s main stakeholders, in order to get lasting revenues and reducing the gap of uncertainty.

Get in touch with me:

Facebook: Durand.Comunicaciones

Twitter: @durandcom

Linkedin: Luis Durand

Skype: luis.durand1

www.durandcomunicaciones.blogspot.com

6 reasons why a communications professional should be a backpacker

A backpacker has many skills we can take advance of

One of the things I love the most is simply the fact of traveling. Traveling around different places is not just a geographical journey; but cultural, historical, social and even gastronomically. 

But traveling as a backpacker is even better (at least for me), just because you have to manage different aspects in order to get a goal, and this goal is not a matter of getting to some place, but the fact of enjoying the way that lead you to it.

Backpacking shapes some important skills that can be useful as a PR professional, just because we have to face similar problems while dealing with clients as a consultant or working in-house for a big company.

I’d like to share with you some of these skills I am talking about:

1.- Independence

Independence understood as the lack of dependency. A communications professional need a ratio of independence to air his ideas in order to land them as well as a backpacker can decide the best way to get to his destiny. Independence could be the freedom of set up a new project or idea, as if you were deciding to begin a new journey.

2. – Autonomy

Thanks to the independence factor a backpacker can move with autonomy, which means taking decisions freely. Even while working for a big company, people working in communications need to be able to choose the best options and alternatives in his work, without any other sort of intervention.

3. – Planification

Before you travel as a backpacker, you choose a goal; you choose the best way to get that goal, which means money, time, resources, etc. As a communications professional you need to make a plan according to you communications goals, and decide you strategies, audiences, messages, and media mix before you start, this is planification and this is learnt while traveling.

4. – Energy

I understand energy as the passion to do the work. Even when you are tired, energy is what makes us move. This energy is necessary to get our goals, even when there are lots of troubles we have to cope with. Energy is the fuel of our communications engine.

5. – Creativity

While energy is fuel, creativity is magic. While traveling we often have to wonder how to solve daily problems on the road; and the heavy rain of new experiences recreate our ideas that feed our creativity.

6. - Uncertainty management 

When you are in the middle of a journey, moreover when you are backpacking around, you frequently have to face with the unknown, the uncertainty. In the same way, working in the dynamic world of communications means to face different scenarios.

Finally, a social communicator could improve his abilities to interact with different cultures and ways of living by going backpacking and bring these skills to the daily work as a communications and PR professional.

How to develop a successful internal communications plan to improve corporate reputation?

Internal communications is probably one of the less explored fields in the world of corporate communications but it is one of the most important elements in the process of building a strong reputation and corporate image.

From my personal experience, I had the opportunity to know some companies keen on improve their image without working in important aspects of their corporate identity which means an effective process of internal communications.

But, what is internal communications?

Internal communications is the process of generation of messages throughout the whole company as an holistic perspective, and it is always present in every human actavity.

There is always internal communications from the beginning of the company, and it is shaped according to the business culture and its core values.

These insights are very important for us to understand the necessity to manage the flow of messages around the organization as a way to develop a strong identity that will be later the base of a successful reputation.

Why is important internal communications to build a strong reputation?

Workers and employees of the company are the most important ambassadors of the company. They know the business, the good points and their dirty little secrets. People outside will tend to believe what they say about the brand, the company and its leaders, no matter how millionaire our advertising campaign is; workers build the business reputation from inside the organization.

If you people are not happy, believe me, there is no way to develop a good reputation among you key stakeholders.

How to develop a successful internal communications plan?

• Where are you?

To develop an Internal Communications plan, first of all you have understand what is your position inside the company organization. It look pretty obvious, but it is extremely important to identify your possibilities and future resources in terms influence among the leaders of the organization, as well as the board of managers.

• Looking for key information

At this point you need information about the company operations, history and important milestones in the past. You also need information about its present activities and a prospective vision about the future. You also need information about your managers board: who could be you ally when you “sell” your ideas, who could buy your projects easily.

• Analize the business corporate culture

How is your corporate culture? What are their main core of values? Not only the written ones, but those which are put on practice every single day. Look carefully how is the company behaviour facing internal and external troubles. To do that, you need to develop your observation skills, this is a must.

• You need a strategy

I mean, you need a strategy about the strategy. What are you going to to first and how it is going to be presented. You are already supposed to know your allies and main listeners. You are also supposed to know the best moment to attack. So, it is important to design a little strategy to present you communication strategy.

• Tools of investigation.

Now you have the manager's approval to start working, what kind of formal investigation you need? Primary information? Secondary information? According to that you will choose the appropriate kind of tools of investigation: Focus groups, interviews, surveys, direct observation, etc.

• Identification of main audiences.

You have to determine who are you primary and secondary audiences. Remember, in the frame of an Internal Communications project, your primary audiences are those who you want to influence in order to change, or even maintain, a behaviour. Your secondary audience are those who can help you to do it: managers, middle managers, supervisors, team leaders, etc.

• Identification of communications problems

You need to identify your problematic frame. What are the elements that are part of you communications problems inside the company: motivation, values, rules, organization, lack of identity, etc.

• Setting communications goals.

Communications goals are about change of behaviour, and include the wished behaviour, the time it will be reach, and the way you will measure it. Remember, communications is about influence, and change of attitudes and behaviour.

• Setting messages

Communications messages are one of the most important part of your strategy, and they have to reach to your primary and secondary audiences. Communications messages are composed by:
A promise.
An evidence.
A tone of communication.

• Media selection

What is the best way to reach your audiences? Workshops, Social Media, TV, Radio, Emailing, Face2Face, etc. There are lots of options, but you have to choose the most effective according to your goals.

Once you have these elements clear, you can develop your internal communication plan, according to the established time that you have scheduled previously. Remember, the core of you communications plan is to get coherence, motivation and identification; without this you can't improve your external communication and corporate reputation.

5 essential insights to build a strong corporate reputation

In the last days I have had the opportunity to talk to some colleagues about the importance of corporate communications and the best way to build a strong reputation among our main stakeholders. I would say that there is not a unique recipe to do it; there are many factors that we have to take account when we face a communications project dealing with corporate reputation.

Since every company is a different world and has its own triggers, they have to create their own way that lead them to a good reputation strategy, nevertheless, there are some standard keys that can be applied to almost every company.

1. - An organization depends on other organizations to survive. Personally, I believe that managers have to understand that they are not alone as a company sailing in a quiet blue sea. It is indispensable to develop a good and strong relationship between them, looking after them and identifying the key players for the business.

2. - It is also important to generate corporate coherence. Maybe it is the hardest thing to get because not always our messages are related to our corporate behaviour. The lack of coherence generates lack of credibility and respect among our audiences.

3. - Internal Communications are essential. To create a powerful reputation it is necessary to begin with a good internal communications program. This program has to generate communications skills among managers, supervisors and workers. A good internal communications program has to create a sense of belonging among people so that they can tell the story as well.

4. - PR as an important part of our communications plan. Public Relations has the responsibility to support the management board in order to identify the main external audiences, choose the correct media, and publish the best messages to tell the story of the company. PR is more important than ever because of the Social Media growing, and this means that there are new challenges to deal with.

5. - Planification is the keyword of the reputation building. Every single step in communications must be previously planned, this means investigation and research, setting communications goals and implementations from the basis of the company to the top. Without planification we cannot create a solid and powerful corporate identity and reputation.

Finally, reputation is a matter of decision, a management decision in which the communications strategy is a indispensable key of success.

Keys of corporate communications in Andean Communities in Peru

Cosmovisión Andina by Alberto Miranda

One of the most complicated things to apply is a communications program in a different cultural environment, where there are other sort of values and beliefs, and the impact of our strategies could be less effective.

In the case of Andean cultures living in the Peruvian Highlands, we have to study carefully their most important values according to the way they understand the world in which rivers, hills, the sun, the moon and the rest of natural elements has a special place in their cosmovision.

Extractive industries and Andean communities

It is not an easy relation. Extractive industry such as mining sector comes up with occidental procedures and ways of working that are distant to the Andean working style and the way they “feel” the nature.

Andean people understand the world as a whole; this means that elements are closely related so if we produce a change in one of those elements, the whole environment can be altered as well.

Another important characteristic of this world, is that those elements are not only related but living. Elements, like the earth itself, are living entities able to feel and ready to react as a puma living in the mountains.

People who live in communities are part of the same family, but they are part of the nature too; I mean, part of the rivers, vegetation, mountains, etc.

Since nature elements are living, they have their own feelings and necessities; they dance, dream, suffer, and have human experiences.

Keys of communication

• Extractive companies must understand that they are making changes in a living world, so they need a “social permission” to work, which means being a member fully integrated of the Andean society.

• Communications must be face to face. Communities has their own social  structure and leadership. So the communications should maintain the same level, in which the most important managers can participate of the social meetings.

• Managers “must” participate in traditional celebrations and community parties. People living in Andean communities would love see the CEO of a mining company drinking some beer along to the leaders of the community.

• Collaboration and participation are important part of Andean structure. Extractive companies must understand they cannot be seen as powerful multinationals operating in this place, but as another member of this world, ready to collaborate with people.

• As good communication strategy must to take account that Andean audiences are orally developed, since that have to choose the correct media to transmit messages, and this, have to get the main characteristics of the Andean culture.

This is the only way to get an effective communication between people and nature, in which open communications is essential, as well as corporate coherence.