As much as we’re good at things individually, we can be even better working as a team! I read somewhere that teamwork is good because there are always those that like to do something you don’t, but don’t like to do what YOU are good at. That’s synergy.

A good team is created gradually, it develops and grows with time. Even though that every member is an important link – the team leader (The Boss) is still the one with the most responsibilities. So what makes a good boss?

Things have changed to the better, even for us back home. The dialogue within social media is lead by us – the individual users amongst ourselves, although we have been joined by large companies as well. Why is this important? 

I know that many of you reading this blog are involved in different social media projects, as well as online presentation strategies for various organizations. In this post I have summed up some important personal experiences that I acquired while working for certain companies, as well as experiences of some colleagues that I respect within this line of business. I believe you will find them useful.

It’s not what people say, it’s what people hear – Frank Luntz

Business/personal assistant or secretary; wife or spouse/partner; investment or expense; worker or associate.

The choice of words with synonymous or similar meaning can greatly affect the message we send out. Regardless of the fact whether we competently choose words for business purposes while preparing a speech for a public figure or for personal use, their choice, rhythm and combination can even be of greater significance than the actual message in case our goal is to leave a certain impression.

Here are 10 rules of successful communication from the book Words that Work by Frank Luntz that came to mind the other day while drafting a communicational concept of a turn-over strategy for a former minister. The advice Luntz gave is more than useful:

#trends #PR_techniques #online_conference #infographics

Do you remember Belgrade, Ljubljana, Zagreb or Vienna 20 years ago? 30 years ago?

There’s a certain difference when you compare them today. Just imagine the difference between the same cities today and a century ago?! Yes, there is a difference. Now visualize a press release. Some of those that you’ve written, received or read somewhere these days… It’s the same. It’s absolutely the same as it was one hundred years ago!

The world is turning. Industries are adapting. Communication techniques are advancing. Daily. A dominant communicational tool of PR: a press release is the same and as consistent as it was a century ago!

The history of the famous “Inverted Pyramid” model is the foundation of most news, relating back to the 19th century and since then has become the dominant model of release writing.

Take a look at the example below:

A long time ago, Miloš told me: “You have potential! But you know what kiddo, out of the 100% of people with potential, 80% do absolutely nothing with it!”

This sentence was engraved in my memory.

When you’re good – built of good material, and you get a chance but don’t use it – then that’s bad. It’s so bad it doesn’t get any worse, even compared to those who have potential but never got a chance to show it!

So what’s the catch?

Do you remember the post The Wor(l)d is not for sale? Well, there was a sequel. These posts were written with the goal to enlighten active online users that managed to build significant social media capital and explain what it means to be working for an agency or a brand as a community manager, as well as what expectations both side have to fulfill and assess whether every chance is indeed a good chance.

Hana [Cyber Bosanka] bravely shared her experience in a recent post. She was commissioned online by Jasno & Glasno to manage a FB page of a certain brand. Due to her trust in Borja and his personal social media capital/legitimacy she was less careful. In addition, this was surely due to the lack of experience. The terms weren’t precisely defined, same as payment deadlines, and I’m not quite sure how it was in relation to the expectations and measurability of her work.

Either way, I don’t doubt Borja’s good intentions either, I know him and I consider him a great guy. The same applies to Hana, where with her post she only wanted to help others, the agency that hired her, and ultimately – herself. I’m writing this because I think it’s important to stress how much we can LEARN from such a public case study!

If we’re the employer, we have to focus on themes such as overall management, people and time management, analytics, negotiating skills, leadership abilities in general.

Suggested literature: Managing virtual teams -> Leading Virtual Teams, Harvard Business Press + How to lead or manage virtual teams + Fostering Creativity, Harvard Business Press

There are (at least) two main preconditions:

Do you need a corporate blog?

There practically doesn’t exist an organization that doesn’t have an explicit interest of involving itself in the social web dialogue using the blog as a platform. Small or large, for profit or NGO oriented, private or state-owned, local or international, educational or political – every organization can gain something by using this medium.

What do we get from a corporate blog – outside-in:

The other day I spoke to Marija Dragić, a reporter from Tanjug, on the topic of on-line activities of domestic political parties.

I  would have a couple of remarks in the part of interpretation, but given that I was talking too fast, being focused on some other topics as well, I do consider the interview below authentic enough. As far as I heard, this interview was also published in the daily newspapers Večernje novosti and Blic.

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‘The parties in Serbia use the new media in the old-fashioned way and are not ready to use all the potentials the Internet carries, since almost 80% of them use Facebook the wrong way. This is not good for the on-line community who got speakers from the politics, but not the way they wanted’, says  Mrs Đermanović, the author of ‘Strategy for the use of the social media’.

‘Political parties should, with the help of the Internet and Facebook, enter an open dialogue with the interested citizens and show their readiness to hear what people have to say about their work’, she suggested. ‘This possibility of interaction’, Đermanović added, ‘is what makes the new media different from the classic ones since it gives the opportunity of more diverse and modern forms of communication.’

Although most of the pages are being regularly updated, they all look alike and contain mainly the same information about the parties and their leaders, showing them in the media, on photos from the partys’ events, actions they take… However, the sole existence of profiles and pages on Facebook is not enough for citizens who want to communicate with their representatives.

‘The new media, which implies the interaction and dynamics and quite transparent relationship with the user, is being used in a traditional, old-fashioned way by the parties. They simply ‘throw’ in the information refusing to involve themselves in the dialogue. What’s more, they do not want to hear what the users have to say to them.’, says Đermanović.

Nevertheless, she did point out that it is a good thing that politicians realized just how great a number of 2.200.000 users of Facebook in Serbia is, which was confirmed to Tanjug by the vice-president of Nova Srbija (the New Serbia), Dubravka Filipovski and the spokesman of Demokratska stranka Srbije (The Democratic Party of Serbia), Petar Petković.

‘It is normal for the politics to be represented through Facebook as the most numerous and widest social network on-line’, Petković said and added that the youth of DSS (Demokratska stranka Srbije) maintains the party‘s pages and that he himself at times uses his personal profile to show significant party activities.

Filipovski too uses her personal profile for the promotion of party’s activities and her profile is being updated by the people from the party. “I hold nothing against the use of Facebook as a contemporary means of communication with our electors and interested citizens. Let me remind you that Obama won the elections thanks to this social network and good organization.”, she concluded.

However, it is hard to determine just how much the politicians are actually present in this social community, since some of them have more than one profile, most of them, as they say, being fake. In that manner, you can find the President of Serbia, Boris Tadić, on Facebook, the leader of the Party of the United Pensioners of Serbia (PUPS), Milan Krkobabić, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader,  Čedomir Jovanović, Tomislav Nikolić from SNS (Srpska napredna stranka- Serbian Advancement Party), Vojislav Koštunica from DSS, Velimir Ilić from NS, etc.

There are also some of the ministers, like Ivica Dačić, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Dragan Šutanovac, the Minister of Defense,  Žarko Obradović- Education, Rasim Ljajić- Work and Social Politics,  Jasna Matić- Telecommunications, and so on.

As you can see, the situation is still ‘confusing’ since the pages and groups are being formed by the party members, fans, sometimes even opponents. Besides the official ones, all parties on the most visited social network have also the pages of their civil and municipal boards and their number is increasing with each day.

Our president has most ‘fans’ on Facebook- 43.775 and it is interesting to note that more likes than the president goes to the former, at his time life-long, president off the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito- 47.066.

The speakers from Tanjug believe that during the information era, the Internet represents a welcome and legitimate means in the promotion of political parties, their beliefs and actions, and that in the future parties will turn to Facebook and its potentials even more, especially when taking into account the current political situation.

‘Since we are in the year of pre-elections, it is expected that all political parties will dynamically use  the Internet for communication, and this is something that the internet community in Serbia, now counting almost half of the total number of inhabitants, expects from them.’, Đermanović concluded.

I love the Internet. The Internet is a promise of freedom and sense fulfilled. I have abandoned the classic PR and social web is my main concern now. This is because I love people.

Business…

I established ‘PRpepper’ agency less than a year ago. Throughout the year, I worked fifteen hours a day on average. I tried to implement everything I thought I knew. That was important. I have worked in politics (Slovenia, Serbia), for NGOs (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia), for companies (Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia). The names, topics and how-to’s will be used to create case studies. I reluctantly use blog for advertising. Things are as they are. That’s the spirit I like to show. Do not claim- demonstrate! Therefore, I intend to demonstrate all this at conferences, soon.