ARTICULATED

This blog puts me in a pickle. When one publishes a blog, one wants to keep it very current. Regular and interesting updates lead to readers. As I tell my clients, if one is going to invest time in a blog, one needs to invest enough time to make that time a good investment.

Kinkennon Communications is very busy with client work lately. And I am eyeball deep in volunteer work. For instance, I recently agreed to chair the five-year strategic planning task force of a national nonprofit.

When I blog even when I’m busy, I wonder if I’m sending a signal to colleagues and clients that I have too much time on my hands. If I tell a client, “I can get that to you by next Wednesday,” can I update the blog three times between now and then?

The blog is good for my business. It shows that I’m smart, how I think, and that I may be a really good thinker on topics I care about. It attracts smart people I don’t know and shows people I’ve known forever that I’m still pretty good at what I do.  That leads to new business.

That’s all because it’s smart these days to be human and transparent in work environs. Done deftly, “personal branding” through engaged online participation can be hugely valuable to a career (or incredibly damaging, of course). The rub is when I use my time more or less “publicly,” I give professional contacts more visibility than I might prefer into how I prioritize my time.

But I like writing this blog, and I like doing so regularly. Therein lay the pickle.

Among my smart friends and former colleagues who are marketing types in the B2B sector, many struggle to even entertain the notion that investing in a social media strategy is a good use of time. For those who are intrigued, many worry that their CEO might think they’ve lost their mind.

In February Forrester Research found that buyers in the B2B sector are extraordinarily active in social media. (Read about those findings on Forrester’s Groundswell blog here.)  This week’s post by Matt Heinz on Blogging Innovation (@innovate on Twitter) – “Five Steps to a Successful B2B Social Media Strategy” — may be the best piece I’ve found on how B2B companies might successfully proceed into social media strategy.

Here’s a post I wrote on this topic last month with my B2B-marketing friendsin mind.  I think it speaks the language many former colleagues and I have shared over the years.

Want to see some brilliant thinking about how to limit the residual damage of a bad New York Times story or any unfavorable blog post? Check out this little case study featured on the Nieman Journalism Lab blog. It’s about the New Zealand Seafood Industry Council, of all things. They bought up just the right Google keywords for ads, in clever combos at just the right time — so they could funnel follow-up interest their way first. For that, they’re the smart PR people of the month.

I’m a pretty competent PR guy.  But I’m convinced that’s not really why I’ve had the good fortune of a pretty decent career in PR.

Years ago, in a performance review, I enumerated a list of PR-specific skills and competencies to my boss. His response: “Yeah, that’s great. But why you are really good is you know how to make stuff happen and get others to make stuff happen, too.”

I was a little insulted at the time.  How abstract is that?!  But by and by, I got it. What he was referring to is the same characteristic that makes people successful in any other field. It has less to do with competencies in the chosen line of work and more to do with who we are as workers and people.

So here I’ve tried to capture that “it” – that whatever-it-is thing, applicable in the PR field and every other – that makes successful people, well, successful:

1. Do what you say. This is the first piece of advice I got when I started Kinkennon Communications. Fulfill every promise you make. Meet every obligation. Have the foresight to avoid any obligation you can’t meet. If you make a risky obligation anyway, meet it, even if it kills you. It is from here that your credibility comes. That’s everything.

2. Own your mistakes. We all make mistakes. If you or your team makes one, name it and own it. If it merits a mea culpa, give it without caveat. Don’t accept responsibility for things out of your control, but know that other people perceive more within your influence than you might think. And never shirk accountability that is yours. Nothing impresses people quite like a sincere “The buck stops with me.”

3. Listen really, really well. Ask a lot of questions about what folks want and need, and listen closely to the responses you get. Pick up the signals people send about their expectations. Bring your perspectives and expertise to bear, but first and foremost, show that you really hear and really understand what is being asked of you, and prove it in your actions.

4. Stay a step ahead. If the boss or client says, “Where are we on _____________?” then you’re behind already. Predict the questions that The Man or The Woman will ask, then beat them to the punch. It’s a bit about taking initiative. But it’s more about identifying, almost intuitively, what the people signing your paycheck really care about, then proactively making that happen.

5. Build constant consensus. Never, ever tire of running your ideas and priorities past people and getting their input and buy-in. Keep every stakeholder in your work situation – boss, employee, teammate, consultant, client – clear on what you’re doing and why. If you get good input, incorporate it and let people know you did. Find those opportunities to share ownership of project and priorities, and you’ll find that your projects and priorities will become priority #1 for everyone else as well.

Is this right? Are these the magical “it”? I’d love to hear what other folks think.