99 ways to improve business communication

Click here to read a very interesting article on 99 ways to improve your business communication. The tips I like most are:

Resist the temptation to finish other people's sentences.
Stand up if everyone around is standing and sit down if everyone is seated. Be on a level playing field.
Watch for cultural differences in communication styles.
Use smiles as positive reinforcements.
Understand the importance of making small talk.
Connect with human emotions by using real-life examples and sharing stories.
Stay on message.
Turn off your technology at professional business meetings and events.
Avoid criticizing, complaining, and judging.
Listen to what is not being said.
Look for similarities, not differences. This bridges communication gaps.
Ask the question. Then be quiet.
Follow the 5 Ps: Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance (public speaking).
Focus conversations on other people, not yourself

And last, the most important one: Choose your words carefully.

KLM answers every tweet and post in person

KLM launched KLM live reply; a service whereby every tweet and post will be answered within the hour, 24 hours a day. To promote this service, KLM switched for one day from normal Facebook and Twitter replies, to "living" replies with their own staff. In 12 hours over 60 questions were answered by 500 KLM employees. See the video below to get an impression!



Interested? Click here to see more.

As of the 1st of September "Schiphol Magazine" will be issued for the first time. The glossy magazine (for free and in English), will have a circulation of 100.000 issues that will be distributed monthly at the airport. Schiphol Magazine will publish articles on special and exclusive destinations, extreme sports, books, movies, fashion, gadgets and more! Also a special "behind the scene" feature will be one of the topics of the magazine. Furthermore, travel experiences and stories will be shared.

It is a great tool to reach (potential) customers, to create awareness and understanding and to improve and maintain the relationship with the public. Schiphol takes the opportunity to tell their story and to share ideas and experiences which they think are valuable for their customers/visitors. I believe the magazine can grow and expand over time, which can result in great outcomes for the Schiphol Group.

It's all about... PR in the tourism industry

Why use PR for the tourism and hotel industry? In advertising, a tour operator or hotel can publish its perfect scores on customer service or 95% occupancy rates year over year, but these messages are taken by customers these days with a proverbial grain of salt, because they know that in advertising, the hotel’s messaging is censored . PR generates stories written by trusted, third parties. Customers are more likely to trust a journalist’s integrity because they must remain unbiased.

Think about it this way: you could spend a couple of thousand euro’s for an advertisement in a newspaper or you could use PR to generate a FREE article in that same newspaper that consumers are much more likely to read, believe and act upon. Seems much better for your return on investment?

Done properly, public relations is a highly effective tool for generating awareness and visibility for a tour operator, hotel chain or brand. It can deliver a message of credibility that no advertising program comes close to. Public relations is so much more than the distribution of press releases: it’s about telling a story, an appealing story, that will generate interest and enter into the consciousness of potential customers. It’s about gaining recognition and mitigating negative attention. It’s about defining who and what a tour operator or hotel is and delivering that message to the public. Compared with advertising, PR can be a lot less expensive. Whether you choose to do PR in-house or hire a specialist agency, the cost of PR can be much lower than a traditional advertisement campaign.

Building a solid public relations strategy is important. Unlike marketing or advertising, PR is not as resource-intensive; there are no media buys or direct mail blitzes associated with it. But effective PR requires the ability to tell great stories, that come from the best aspects of a tour operator or hotel’s operations, as well as creative and strategic thinking from people who understand the tourism market and who also understand media’s needs.

Five important PR rules:
• Be newsworthy and think big
• Emphasize your best assets
• Know your audience
• No comment is no answer at all
• Understand PR and manage your expectations

To be sure, PR is labor-intensive and is not automated process like sending out a mass email to a customer database. There is a lot of writing, a lot of strategizing, a lot of communicating and a lot of relationship-building with hundreds of media outlets. But these outputs can result in great outcomes if you put in the time and effort, which can continue to grow and expand over time. And in time, media will be calling you for comment, instead of you calling to pitch stories.

PR Professional: Journalists complain about PR

I found a very interesting article about the scepticism between PR professionals and journalists:

"The companion complaint to PR people putting out too much information is that they are silent. Journalists and the public should be grateful that most PR professionals are counseling management to be transparent and accountable in their public communication. A little honesty from journalists on that point would be an improvement over perpetuating the negative stereotype of the profession."

Click here to read the whole article!