đ Trust, PR + Employee Comms, Storytelling
The authority on mixternal comms
đ đ đ Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to Mister Editorialâs readers from around the worldâ58 countries to be exact!
Start planning yesterday:
Black History Month begins Feb 1 (U.S.A.)
Valentineâs Day is Feb 14
International Womenâs Day is March 8
Broaden your horizons with these unique webinars:
The Communicatorâs Guide to NFTs, Web3, and Digital Media (free) - Feb 7 - 4:00 p.m. ET
Unlock Your Marketing Strategy With Growth Mindset and Design Thinking (free) - Feb 10 - 10:00 a.m. GMT
Trust Us
77% of respondents in the Edelman Trust Barometer survey trust their employer, more than any other leadership position in society.
Workers trust employee newsletters above all other forms of communication.
"We first saw data supporting the essential role of employer communications during the pandemic, when we found high demand for frequent communications about health-related topics," according to Edelman.
"Since then, we have asked about the relative credibility of employer communications across topics, and have found it is the most believable source â no matter which subject we ask about."
The tidbit about employees trusting the newsletter above everything else comes from Axios (here) citing the 2022 version of the Edelman report.
đ But I canât find mention of ânewsletterâ at all in Edelmanâs report, and the word ânewsâ appears just once in a footnote. So I donât know what to think about this.
Nevertheless, here are some helpful Mister Editorial resources to up your newsletter game (for paid members):
Hereâs the 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer. Itâs worth your time, butâŚ
Proceed With Caution
Take Edelmanâs work with a grain of salt, says PR expert Stephen Waddington. Edelmanâs work, while admired, is self-serving. What better way to make the case for a business consultancy than to regularly publish a report showing how important businesses are?
The public relations industry has an uneasy relationship with the Edelman Trust Barometer, launched in 2000. We use data and insights from the research as third-party evidence to demonstrate the need for public relations while at the same time criticizing the consultancy behind the longitudinal research project.
Quick Hits
đş Watch (5:27) âď¸ a conversation with W. Kamau Bellâcomedian, author, and host of the Emmy Award-winning United Shades of America docu-series on CNNâon the power of storytelling. (Bell was interviewed at VOICES 2022.)Â
Key quote: âThe biggest thing people have to learn how to do when theyâre dealing with sensitive topics and talking to people who have issues that they are sensitive about is how to shut up. First you gotta shut up and then you gotta listen.â
đ How to Produce a Best-in-Class Briefing Document. What to include, in how much detail, and in what order. (Pro Rhetoric)
đ A 2022 report from Gallup showed that people who have a best friend at work are more engaged than those who do not. They were also more likely to innovate and share ideas, get more work done in less time, and report having more fun.
âWe truly believe that great storytelling can come from anywhere and be loved everywhere.â
âBela Bajaria, Chief Content Officer for Netflix, in a recent New Yorker profile
Employee Comms Is a PR Priority
âInternal communication has risen up the PR food chain in the past three years and now comprises more than half of many CCOsâ time,â says Frank Washkuch in PRWeek.
𤯠One best practice is to treat internal comms as the first step of external comms.
Corporate Comms is a two-way street. PR should consider employees as a main audience while internal comms needs to be in lockstep with the external narrative.
This week Mister Editorialâs paid members learned six super simple ways PR can act as a proactive team player with the other side of the comms aisle...to the benefit of both teams. Pair that with an inside-out approach where employee comms helps feed PRâs insatiable need for content.
Writing pro tip: Get rid of the âIâ statements when quoting employees in your articles. I think, I believe, I feel. Itâs redundantâif they didnât think it, they wouldnât say it. And the phrasing is too soft. Be firm with a declarative statement.
Bad: I think being authentic creates a culture of transparency and integrity.
Better: Being authentic creates a culture of transparency and integrity.
Interesting Opportunities
The British Museum - Head of Comms - apply by Feb 8 (City of London)
Dept. of Education (U.K. Government) - Assistant Internal Comms Officer - apply before Feb 6 (flex, London)
IKEA - Public Relations Leader (Lisbon)
JPMorgan Chase - Executive Comms Manager - Home Lending - VP (hybrid, Columbus)
Panera - Senior Manager, Digital Comms (remote, U.S.A.)
Raytheon - Manager, Employee Communications - Engineering & Technology Communications (remote, Virginia and North Carolina)
In Case You Missed It
Herd Virality: The Power Connecting Formal and Informal Communication (free for two months Mister Editorial) - a guest essay by comms legend Mike Klein.
Herd virality? Essentially, the extent to which a small-but-sufficient number of people can drive needed information and messaging through an organization, community, or market.
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Disclaimer: Besides running Mister Editorial, I am the editor-in-chief of Digital Publications at Lam Research. The views in this newsletter are my own.