Value of Employee Communication Sessions

Effective communication encourages a two-way exchange of information.

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Despite the many ways to pass information in the workplace -- email, social media, phone, text or via the company intranet -- inadequate communication between managers and employees exists. Employees need guidance from their supervisors, and management needs input from the entire team in order for the company to succeed. To help foster an open and honest culture, many companies host communication sessions that can provide measurable benefits to all employees.

An employee communication session is a give-and-take opportunity where employees can air their concerns and where management can share what's happening in the company. Hewlett Packard, for example, holds upward of 22 communication sessions with more than 10,000 employees in attendance at sites around the world. Many companies also encourage employees to complete surveys to voice their concerns regarding management or the company in general.

When a company is multifaceted, one department might not be aware of the strategic goals of another part of the business, -- or information trickles upward, but not downward. Companies such as Flextronics and Emerson Process Management use employee communication sessions. These scheduled meetings positively reinforce the objectives between management and employees, according to Alan Miu, managing director of TNT Express Worldwide. When an employee can communicate with management at its highest levels, it improves the transparency and openness in employee dialogue.

Employee communications programs help give the employees the perception that they are greatly involved in the company's objectives and goals. A 2001 study by the Hay Group revealed that employees who are engaged in the direction and decisions of the organization are more productive and will stay with the company longer. The employee communication session tells the employee at all levels: "You and your opinion matters to us." When employees take this message to heart, they tend to feel more inspired and are motivated to support company goals, according to a 2008 study published in the journal of the Public Relations Society of America.

Employee communication programs can be a tool to build a trust level that encourages employees to speak freely about their work, according to Evan Reineking of HR Tools.com. When an employee feels heard and is kept well-informed, he feels respected by his employer. While a company might not be able to disclose all the details about management decisions, keeping employees in the loop with accurate and complete information makes them more likely to trust what is shared.

Gossip is prevalent in many workplaces, especially where communication is nonexistent and where employees are left to speculate about conditions or the company's health. When employees don't receive necessary details from their supervisors, rumors are likely to be spread, which can damage morale and cause uncertainty among employees, according to Robert Hosking, executive director of OfficeTeam. Keeping employees abreast of the current climate in the workplace can alleviate the need to speculate.

Jay Delahousay has been a broadcast television advertising creative for more than 25 years. Her work for ABC, CBS and Sony Pictures Television has appeared on radio, on air, in print and outdoors. In addition, Delahousay has more than 30 years experience in marketing, graphic arts production, commercial photography and design. Delahousay attended University of California, Los Angeles and Los Angeles City College.

How to Build a Photo eCommerce Website With Individual Accounts

E-commerce photo websites offer convenience to customers.

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An e-commerce website sells products online, and many smaller sites utilize an e-commerce platform that stores their data on the network's servers. Although the data resides on the provider's network, the website owner maintains ownership of the content and can edit the information through a Web-based interface. Photo e-commerce websites with individual accounts include mini-pages within the site that deliver static and dynamic content, e-commerce widgets to facilitate ordering and payment, and applications to promote interaction with the target audience.

Navigate to the website of a photo-publishing platform that offers templates, widgets and other Web elements geared to e-commerce websites. Create a new account. Typically, this requires entering information such as your business name and tax ID number. Most photo-publishing platforms offer Flash media templates and galleries to display content.

Create mini-pages within your e-commerce site. Mini-pages divide static and dynamic content. Static content refers to media provided directly from the server, while dynamic content refers to media created “on the fly” by an application such as Flash. Use mini-pages to create dedicated pages for a gallery, a description, a title and other information relevant to your photos but separate from the static content stored in HTML pages on the server.

Add your photos. Upload images stored on your computer or media drive, or import them from your photo website using your browser. E-commerce photo sites offer several options for displaying photos, such as galleries, splash pages and clip art pages. Many of these sites also allow you to edit the photos after you've uploaded them.

Set up an e-commerce shopping widget. Shopping widgets allow you to design a virtual shopping cart and customize it with skins and other graphic overlays. Some widgets allow you to manage labels, pricing, descriptions and images displayed to the customer.

Install widgets that encourage interaction between customers and your website. Widgets commonly offered on e-commerce photo sites include RSS feeds, visitor counters, payment options and contact forms. You can also mix music players and comment boxes with your photos.

Add static and dynamic effects to photos on your e-commerce website. Static effects include color, opacity, watermarks and transparency overlays; dynamic effects include blurring, image warping and image movement, such as expansion, rotation and pixilation.

Add text to your Web pages to improve search engine optimization. SEO can improve your website’s visibility in search engines. Adding strategically placed keywords within your e-commerce website increases its search engine rankings, which means increased traffic to your site. Effective keywords include the terms a potential customer might type in a search query when looking for the type of photos you sell. Make sure your keywords are relevant to the content of your site. Your photo e-commerce site should have at least 400 words on the homepage, keywords integrated in the headers of each page, and links to Web pages that showcase your photos.

Jkalal Assar's work has appeared in magazines such as "Food & Wine," "Gourmet" and "Wine Spectator." He is a graduate of the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts and has cooked professionally in Paris, New York and Las Vegas. Assar also holds an Associate of Science in information technology from Marshall University.

Congratulations To Our Client QTS on Their Launch of SaaS Enablement

On September 12, 2012, our client QTS announced the launch of their new SaaS Enablement service. On behalf of everyone at Clarity Quest, we would like to congratulate the entire QTS team on this service launch!

QTS is a leading national provider of HIPAA compliant data center solutions and fully managed services for enterprise businesses. With the launch of SaaS Enablement, QTS is now offering a free 30-day Legacy-to-Cloud program that migrates existing on-premises health care applications to the Cloud. The SaaS Enablement program solves the technical and business challenges of SaaS delivery to offer medical software vendors a fast track to a software-as-a-service model.

Read the entire press release here.

Hot Tips: Be More Visible and Productive

At the Legal Marketing Association’s 2012 Technology Conference West, held last week in San Francisco, a long list of experts and exhibitors were on hand to share their top tips with lawyers. The big focus was on sharing tech tips—of course!—that can increase your visibility, your productivity and, ultimately, your revenue.

Here are five of them.

1. Add slide sharing to your online marketing. Sheenika Shah, Business Development Coordinator for Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP, suggests giving SlideShare a try. It’s a nifty online tool for sharing presentations, documents and PDFs—which you can link to your website, send individually via email, and share on your social media channels, too. SlideShare is a free service, with a fee-based Pro option that allows you to track analytics. “This method of sharing information” Shah says, “is in line with the trend toward media-rich content, which is great for SEO efforts.”

2. Use Reeder to get through your news feeds—fast. Jeff Yerkey, Web + Interactive Director for Right Hat, says, “The single biggest workflow saver I use is the ‘lash-up’ between Google Reader and an iPhone/iPad app called Reeder.” Here’s how he works it in three steps: “I configure all of my news RSS feeds into folders through Google Reader. Then, in Reeder, I scan and read all my news feeds in record time. When I find a really long article, I send [it] to Instapaper to read it later on my computer, iPad, iPhone or Android phone.”

3. Add a poll with a quick “doodle.” Jacqueline Madarang, Marketing Technology Manager at Best, Best, Krieger LLP, and Jay Walsh of Ligature legal printing, love Doodle. “Doodle is free and radically simplifies the process of scheduling meetings and events,” Madarang says. “Whether it’s a partner, client or practice group meeting—or dinner with friends—you can easily poll a number of people on different meeting time options.” Doodle is simple, quick and requires no registration. “Simply set up a poll and send a link to all those whose input is required,” adds Walsh.

4. Try e-learning for better business development skills. How about a coaching program delivered straight to your computer screen? Two options presented at the LMA conference come from Mike O’Horo of RainmakerVT and David Ackert of Practice Boomers. Both programs provide 24-7 access to business development training and deliver performance metrics to law firm marketing and development professionals. O’Horo describes his as “a game-like simulation and virtual coach that teaches you practice growth strategies from your computer.” Ackert offers a compatible program that uses a combination of video, podcast and group conference calls to ensure implementation. You can see samples of the two approaches here and here.

5. Turn online lawyer bios into mini-sites. Ready to ditch those staid old bios? Deborah McMurray, CEO and Strategy Architect for Content Pilot LLC, recommends “using your IT resources to create website bios that offer an interactive experience for your visitors. Rather than the standard bio on one long page, when a visitor clicks your name a mini-website appears with tabs to view various aspects of your skill sets, experience and personal interests, allowing you to showcase what’s best and most unique about you in a clean elegant fashion.” Check out an example here.

Bonus fun-fact: Event Co-Chair Adam Stock, of Allen Matkins, opened the conference with a humorous texting video that other meeting planners may want to borrow.

David King Keller is author of two books on how to grow law firm revenue, titled 100 Ways to Grow a Thriving Law Practice and the ABA book The Associate As Rainmaker: Building Your Business Brain. He is CEO of Keller Business Development Advisory Group, which provides law firm business development training, 1:1 attorney biz dev coaching and MCLE instruction on various topics. Contact him at david@kbdag.com.

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Blog Action Day 2012

Clarity Quest is proud to participate in this year’s Blog Action Day, a worldwide effort to demonstrate the “Power of We”.  The Power of We is demonstrated by communities coming together to achieve a common goal. Blog Action Day 2012 celebrates all forms of activism, from small community events to massive global movements.

Today, bloggers from around the world will dedicate their voices to spreading the word about issues big and small that deserve attention. For example, the river systems, wetlands, and vast expanses of trees in the Boreal Forests of  Alberta, Canada are in danger of destruction due to harmful tar sands.

Want to take part in Blog Action Day? Dedicate a blog post to spreading the word about a local, national, or global issue! #powerofwe #BAD12

October 17 – LA2M Hosts Speaker From Campbell Ewald

On Wednesday, October 17th, LA2M will continue its series of lunchtime marketing presentations by hosting Dave Linabury, Director of Interactive at Campbell Ewald.

Dave has built an impressive resume – including former positions with General Motors and Disney, and a helping hand in developing WordPress – before joining Campbell Ewald in 2004. In his current role, Dave provides social media strategy and innovation for the agency, is a frequent guest on social media forums, and is a nationally prominent blogger whose work has been featured on Oprah and in The New York Times.

In his presentation, Dave plans to discuss how the touch screen has shaped our culture and what businesses can do to utilize touch screen technology from a business perspective, as well as discuss the possibility of life after touch screens.

Catch this dynamic speaker and network with other local online marketing professionals on Wednesday, October 17th from 11:45am – 1:00pm at Conor O’Neill’s in downtown Ann Arbor.

For more networking opportunities and educational marketing programs, please visit a MI marketing agency. Contact Clarity Quest today at 877-887-7611. Request a quote.

How to Incorporate Interactive and Telemarketing Efforts into your Campaign

Though telemarketing and interactive marketing are often overlooked in the creation of marketing campaigns, if used correctly they can be extremely viable marketing tactics that will help your campaign become more successful. Implementing telemarketing and interactive marketing efforts into your overall campaign can engage your target market and generate new business, better conversation, and increased revenue. The following tips will help your company learn to successful utilize telemarketing and interactive marketing efforts to enhance your marketing strategy.

1. Build a valuable target market list: In order to conduct telemarketing efforts that engage and entice customers, ensure that the customers you call will be interested in your business’s services. Create a list of existing customers, as well as those whose demographics match current customers, or the current customers of similar businesses. Having a list particular to your business is an extremely valuable resource that will help ensure the success of your telemarketing campaign.

2. Coordinate Telemarketing with Online Marketing Programs: Create engaging calling programs that go hand in hand with your online marketing efforts. Create an email marketing campaign and social media campaign that parallels your telemarketing efforts. You can also use telemarketing to do some preliminary research about customer needs, wants, and pain points before launching your interactive campaigns.  This is a great way for customers to better recall your business, and have a personal, one-on-one dialogue with your company that may lead to improved attitudes and opinions about your business. By developing a more personable connection.

3. Make Interactive Marketing Fun: Rather than spamming potential clients with banner and pop up ads, create fun and unique tactics that will break through the clutter and lead to more and longer page views. For example, implement online games that will engage visitors on your site and persuade them to spend more time looking around. Create quizzes and surveys that will entertain visitors, while also helping your company learn more about its market so it can better advertise to them. Conduct contests on your website and social media pages that will give visitors a reason to come to the site, and make them feel more apart of the company.

4. Create Visually Appealing Interactive Marketing: Ensure that all of your interactive marketing efforts pull potential customers to your site, rather than pushing them away. Intrigue them with visually appealing and educational infographics to display information, rather than bombarding them with long lists of data. Create aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate graphic design for your website, mobile, and software applications that will draw in your target market. Integrate video into your interactive marketing efforts to attract more visitors and persuade them to stay on your site longer.

For telemarketing and interactive marketing advice and services, contact a Michigan marketing company. Visit our blog, or contact Clarity Quest today at 877-887-7611. Request a quote.