How does your company treat its employees? The answer matters. According to the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer, an organization’s reputation as an employer is critical to its overall trustworthiness: “Treating employees well” is the third-most important action a company can take to build public trust, behind only listening to customers and offering quality products. Indeed, a track record as a trustworthy employer bolsters a company’s broader corporate reputation with audiences beyond current and prospective employees.

To that end, companies often ask us what they should do to make any number of “best places to work” listings. The reality is that there’s no quick ticket to the top: A company’s employer brand develops over time and reflects the overall relationship employees have with your organization. If your company is serious about building its reputation as an employer, first take an honest look at your organization’s employee experience:

• Are there specific things that need to be addressed before your company deserves a spot on an employer of choice list?
• How strong are the connections you’re forging – between leaders and employees, between employees and their peers and between employees and customers?
• What data do you have, such as engagement surveys or exit interviews, that indicate areas to improve or amplify?

Once your company is confident its reputation as an employer is solid, seek out external recognition frequently and proactively. Here are six actions you can take, starting with your own employees:

1. Initiate a Conversation About What Makes Your Workplace Unique

Ask your own employees what brought them to your company – and what has kept them there. Ask managers to nominate employees who aren’t afraid to speak up– they’ll know who they are– and tap participants in leadership development programs or solicit input openly on your intranet or an internal social media platform such as Yammer. Such stories make powerful proof points when seeking external visibility. Conversely, should your company experience challenges in the future, these stories can serve as “reasons to believe,” small nuggets of evidence that the organization can stick it out and succeed. Think about interesting ways to communicate these anecdotes – what about asking employees to submit videos of their kids explaining what Mom or Dad does at work, or having employees post “why I work here” to the company’s Twitter feed in under 150 characters?

On a related note, know what people are saying about your company’s employee experience online via job-rating sites (Glassdoor, Hallway, Jobitorial, Vault, CareerBliss, Indeed) and social sites, including industry-specific forums such as CafePharma, FinBox or AbovetheLaw. You may uncover misperceptions that will shape the story you tell about your company’s work environment. And be sure to align your employer brand story with overall corporate positioning so that the face you present externally is consistent.

2. Tap Employees as Ambassadors

The Trust Barometer clearly indicates regular employees (especially those with technical expertise) are among acompany’s most trusted spokespeople. Seek out volunteers to serve as company advocates: Certify them to advocate appropriately via social media, offer them shareable, compelling content to post and feature them in your recruiting materials. Many companies make ambassadors available to chat with job candidates via the company’s recruiting Twitter feed or LinkedIn group. Others encourage employees to provide a “day in the life of” view into the company by posting photos, status updates and videos that illustrate their experience. Furthermore, from a reactive standpoint, ambassadors can step up and help defend the company from detractors.

Companies typically embark on such programs by first understanding the risks of encouraging employees to talk about the company online, then mitigating those concerns by introducing online behavior policies that ambassadors can easily comprehend and apply. Sometimes training (on company positioning, communication skills or online engagement) is helpful. From there, it’s a matter of equipping ambassadors with authentic, relatable content that they feel comfortable sharing with friends, be it on Facebook or at the store.

3. Establish Your Online Presence in the Places Job-Seekers Go

Yes, it’s important for a company to tell a compelling story on its own websites and channels. But increasingly, candidates are seeking information from a wider array of venues, including social networks, employer rating sites and the forums mentioned above. Make sure your employer brand shows up in all these places through a combination of paid advertising, employee ambassador outreach and multimedia storytelling that illustrates what working at your organization is all about. And don’t forget to reflect your brand in job descriptions, which often end up forwarded or posted on sites other than your own. Reading a position description may be the first experience a candidate has with your company, so seize the opportunity to convey your company’s employee experience, not just to list job requirements.

4. Don’t Forget About Media

New communication channels seem to emerge almost daily, yet traditional media is still highly influential. In our experience, employee of choice recognition alone is not enough to make a story outside of trade announcements. But such recognition can serve as a timely news hook to bolster an overall strategic media plan with key business media, HR trades and relevant local media.

Moreover, the employee stories you collect in pursuit of employer of choice awards or for your overall brand story can make for great local media coverage, particularly when it comes to job creation stories. What about the manager of your company’s local plant who started as a line operator and worked her way up? Or a group of young employees hired via a diversity recruiting partnership with an area university?

Similarly, if you’re prepping your CEO for a media interview, make sure he or she is equipped to at least make mention of the company’s employee experience – after all, your employer brand is inextricably linked to your organization’s overall reputation. Employer of choice positioning is also valuable when developing third-party advocates, particularly community leaders who want to know how your company is creating local jobs.

5. Meet Prospective Employees Where They Congregate

Just as you should connect with employees via online destinations they’re already visiting, seek to attend the events your prospects do, irrespective of industry. For example, in an age where many employers are looking to hire talent with strong digital chops, participating in premier digital events like SXSW Interactive can be incredibly valuable. To maximize your presence at such venues, incorporate your employee experience into speaking engagements, influencer meetings and conversations with other attendees. This effort should complement your company’s executive visibility and corporate reputation strategy.

6. Selectively Seek Out Employer of Choice Recognition

Naturally, many companies covet a spot on Fortune’s annual Best Places to Work For list, the U.S.’s most prominent such honor. Yet many other recognition programs may prove more achievable and effective in connecting your organization with the kinds of employees you need most.

Go after the awards that support your company’s recruiting and retention goals: Expanding your presence in a particular market? Apply for location-based awards (such as Chicago Tribune’s Best Places to Work in Chicago.) If you’re in an industry where the war for talent is especially fierce or need to recruit employees with specific skills, seek out sector-specific programs (such as ComputerWorld’s Best Places to Work in IT.) If you’re looking to diversify your workforce, aim for awards that appeal to the type of employee you need to recruit, such as Working Mother’s Best Companies for Multicultural Women or BusinessWeek’s Best Places to Launch a Career.

About Us

Edelman’s Employee Engagement Practice helps organizations accelerate business performance, delivered by highly engaged and trusted employees. We do this by making meaningful, trust-building connections — connecting employees with the company, connecting employees with each other, and connecting employees with the outside world. We have a global network of employee engagement specialists who can develop engagement strategy; deploy the tools and processes to deliver it; create the multimedia channels and content that support it; and design the insight mechanisms to measure it.

Robyn Adelson recently talked about Edelman Toronto’s first-ever StoryLab – a day-long workshop to celebrate the art of storytelling.

Given our focus on transmedia storytelling, we wanted to inspire our employees to start telling stories differently. Here’s my take on the day and why it was so important.

Google’s getting to know you better. Rolling out a slew of social-focused capabilities over the past year, the launch of Search Plus Your World, an indexing of Facebook comments and the growing rumble surrounding Google+, Google has made its desire to find deeper roots in social well-known.

Not surprising, Google appears to be somewhat favoring its own network, Google+, in newly personalized as well as general search results. While Google+ does not quite have the adoption of Facebook, it is rapidly growing (170 MM users, up 174% since December 2011). More important than that for brands right now, however, are the huge implications with Google+ from a search rankings perspective. The opportunity that brands have with Google+, especially in the short term, to capture passionate and influential audiences through increased visibility in Google’s search results, can’t be overstated.

Optimizing Opportunity

In line with general best practices for social community management and public engagement, consistency and relevance are of greatest importance. Google’s index of Google+ content is well aligned with its crawl of any other type of content on the web- credible, relevant content is given preference.

There are four critical areas for optimizing a Google+ account, branded or otherwise, for Search:

1. Optimize your Google+ profile

Keep your profile name simple. Avoid the temptation to do any keyword stuffing in your profile name because it will appear with all of your posts. For your profile image, use a good quality version of your logo that fills as much of white space given as possible. Additionally, be sure to optimize the use of the five images at the top of your profile. Get creative with image content to encourage people to engage with your page. You could use five standalone photos, create a panoramic photo board, or even upload animated gifs.

*

When describing your business in the About section of your profile, be sure to use target keywords based on keyword research. Taking the time to do keyword research will help provide an informed optimization strategy for your profile. Simply put, if you want to be found, use keywords that will help people find you. Be sure to state keywords exactly how they appear in keyword research, even if they are not grammatically correct, to ensure that your content is reaching the greatest number of people. This includes the short, one-line description called your Tagline. The Tagline is essentially the page’s meta description and appears in the search results with your listing. It also appears in the Google+ feed when users hover over the brand name.

Internal linking within the About section is another important factor in building out an optimized profile. The Recommended Links section is the perfect area to link to your owned web properties including other social platforms and your company site. Make sure that you only include relevant links, so as not to send mixed signals to Google about the content of your page.

2. Optimizing your Circles

Creating Circles around target keywords is especially effective for driving search rankings. When creating new Circles, make sure to properly promote the Circles once they go live. As a general rule, you should publicly announce any new Circles when they are created. Again, use target keywords in all promotions to increase search rankings.

The Circle membership of those who put you in their Circles is incredibly important as well. Simply put – by capturing the attention of users with high authority, a brand can build equity and catapult engagement on their own pages. As a rule of thumb, seek to secure relationships with users of high authority and influence to build equity. Comment on, share, and interact with content on these pages to capture their followers. The more high-quality people in the brand’s Circle that link back to the profile, the better. Focus on producing engaging content as a way to grab the attention of Google+ users because a brand cannot add someone to a Circle unless that person has added the brand to their own first.

3. Create compelling content

Content. Content. Content. It’s the third component in the symbiotic relationship with search and social. Content is key to attracting a following and establishing a page. To create Google+ posts that attract attention, gain followers and rank in search, there are a few basic considerations:

- Continue to develop fresh content. Inactivity will lead to a drop off in search rank, despite quality content and high Circle membership. Don’t let more than 72 hours pass between posts. Creating a content schedule is helpful.

- Share engaging videos and photos.

- Post frequently. Studies have shown that even pages generating fewer +1′s per post, reshares, replies or Circle membership can find their way into the organic rankings by posting frequently, (observed in research as about three to four times as often as competitors). Brands assuming this strategy must proceed with caution, however, as Google will still look for quality and penalize content considered spam. Post as often as possible, but maintain quality.

- Avoid trademark use when possible. Google does not read trademarks or other intellectual property symbols.  In fact, using unknown symbols can push your page lower in the search rankings.

4. Share compelling content

Fostering engagement on posts is important and can aide in expanding your Circles and influence, but the end goal should be capturing +1s to influence SEO.

Find more information with step by step instructions on optimization throughout your Google+ account in the presentation below.

Measuring Success

Website analytics data can be utilized to show how content is being shared across multiple channels and where that content is driving traffic to your website. For example, should you share a full blog entry on your website, and then on Google+, at this point, if the content is “shareworthy,” it will most likely be shared across Facebook and Twitter as well. The website analytics will provide clear indicators of which channels are driving the most traffic to your website, but cross-analyzing this with Facebook Analytics and Google+ Ripples, will help a brand better understand the true viral nature of the post / content.

Your World

Finally, something to consider is an audit of the brand’s current content and strategies on websites and other social media platforms.  As we’ve seen, Google Search Plus Your World aims to direct Google search results to relevant content on Google+ when possible. In fact, when the same content is posted both on Google+ and on a company’s blog, the Google+ data has been known to rank higher in organic search due to the +1s and engagement the content has garnered in the past. Transferring website / blog content to Google+ could be an easy strategic move to optimize content and your Google+ profile.

Ongoing innovation and the launch of the Search Plus Your World personalization continues Google on a path towards better enabling the searcher to find relevant and useful information. Participating in Google+ vastly increases the opportunity for your page to appear in relevant search results. A brand’s active participation in Google+ and optimizing its profile and content is today’s best recommendation.

*PepsiCo is an Edelman client.

Image credit: west.m

Italy remains a country with a generally high level of trust in Europe. Only the Netherlands, with 61%, shows higher trust in the government, media, businesses and NGOs. Italy was 56% last year and remains at 56% this year, while France slipped to 40%, Spain 37%. Japan falls from 51% to 34% due to the nuclear disaster. The United Kingdom remains low at 41% and the United States at measures at 46%.

Political and Financial Chaos of 2011

Most of the 25 countries examined, governments collected an index of trust below 50%. In France, Spain, Brazil, China, Russia and Japan, as well as in six other countries, trust in government has fallen by over 10 percentage points. Even in Italy the fall of trust in government has been remarkable, but since the survey was conducted between October 12 and November 15, it took into consideration the Berlusconi government (disastrous score: 38%) and not the new government with Monti.

“Today, companies are more credible,” said Fiorella Passoni, CEO of Edelman Italy, “and can lead a general recovery of trust, trying to be perceived as a force for progress and a source of wealth, not for profit organizations “.

Most trust in business is without trust in the CEO. Trust in the CEO dropped by 12 percentage points in Europe on average (the largest slip in 9 years). Instead, back in vogue is the trust in “people like me”, in equals and colleagues, now preceded only by academics and experts.

Implications for Italy and Europe

But Italy is particularly significant in the new-found trust in the media, which rose from 40 to 59%, and in social media, up 19%. Today, social networking, micro-blogging, content sharing sites and information sources are equally reliable as traditional media, and certainly much more than advertising.

“The media did an outstanding job last year to explain the financial problems throughout Europe,” said Alan VanderMolen, President and CEO of Global Business Practices and Insights, Edelman Diversified. “They have been able to offer a wide range of reports and opinions.”

Academics, business experts and technicians are always at the top of the trust in Italy and around the world; they are considered the more reliable than the representatives of NGOs. This perhaps explains why the government led by Mario Monti, who is a famous “academic”, allows Italy to obtain a better level of trust.

Trust Abroad

Japan’s earthquake last March, and the subsequent nuclear disaster have undermined public trust. The government lost 26 points, the media 12, and the NGO’s 21 points. The energy industry has collapsed 46 points; the banks: 20. In contrast, China is now in first place in the world for overall trust (76%), and the only country to register a significant increase in trust the companies, from 61 to 71%.

Post translated by Sergio Veneziani of Edelman Milan.

Riding Hong Kong’s shiny MTR subway trains, an observer is immediately struck by the number of commuters wired into (or playing with) their mobile phones. The city’s buses are Wi-Fi-enabled, and taxi drivers often have three or more mobile phones on their dashboards.

Despite its proximity to the global manufacturing giant, Hong Kong is not China. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, banned in the communist behemoth, thrive in Hong Kong. Accordingly, Hong Kong’s 7 million citizens have their own unique cell phone culture. Here, the devices are as ubiquitous and inexpensive as dim sum dumplings, and most citizens therefore indulge in more than one. The Office of the Telecommunications Authority Hong Kong reports that the city’s mobile penetration rate is 200.6 percent.

Hong Kong: Connected

Because of its geography, population density, and unique history, Hong Kong also has a distinctive culture, one that trickles down into how locals use their mobile phones. Denizens’ twin passions, shopping and eating, also have unique mobile practices.

To better understand how people in Hong Kong use their cell phones to shop for goods and services, Edelman conducted survey that asked about smartphone use related to shopping.

Edelman Survey: Shopping via Smartphone Still Developing

Despite the high penetration in the community, 35 percent, the direct impact of smartphones on shopping is still developing. Smartphones in Hong Kong are heavily used by a younger demographic (aged 21-29) for researching and on-the-go information gathering of products and services (e.g., places to eat out, finding phone numbers, and reading movie reviews). Comparing prices and sharing pictures of intended purchases (or of meals about to be devoured) is also common.

However, on the whole, these smartphone users do not make purchases on their devices, with only a small percentage saying they had done so. Those that do confined those purchases to what they consider low-risk items (cheap and easy to obtain products, generally priced under US$20). Fear of lack of payment security, and possible fraud, increases reluctance of making purchases by smartphones.

When probed further, most respondents stated that they preferred to go to a shop and try a product themselves, even if they were relatively sure about its reliability beforehand. In fact, most stated that they find storefronts to be more convenient and fun places to shop when compared to online buying.

Shopping: A National Pastime

This brings the discussion back to environment. Hong Kong is a high-density urban city with easy and ready access to retail brick-and-mortar outlets and malls with long operating hours (10 a.m. to 10 p.m. in many cases). It’s a busy, crowded place. Physical shopping is often social and a family event – in fact some laugh that it a national pastime much like sports in other countries! As the average size of a Hong Kong home is generally small, shopping locations serve a role as places to meet, socialize, and eat meals with friends. In addition, the tactile nature of shopping at a store is still important here – people trust a product more if they can feel it in their hands, especially if the product is expensive.

Not surprisingly, Hong Kong consumers closely evaluate risks versus rewards when shopping. This, coupled with retail outlet saturation, means that local storefront shopping is convenient and reliable. Their shopping habits related to online purchases and, therefore, are culturally and environmentally informed. Given the market conditions, there is good reason to believe that opportunities to grow the mobile purchasing marketing Hong Kong exist.

Risk-aversion and a propensity to experience products firsthand before buying are obstacles, but not insurmountable ones. Building consumer trust will be a major factor in breaking through the barrier of apprehension. Companies and well-established brands, with known and reliable brick-and-mortar storefronts, are likely to be more trusted by shoppers to safely conduct mobile and online purchases. Companies without these advantages are likely to have more difficulty.

Building Brand and Consumer Trust

While having a trusted, established brand and a multitude of stores is helpful, it does not eliminate the need to motivate customers to change their well-entrenched purchasing habits. Those that make it easier to scroll through meaningful information on phones by creating comprehensive online and mobile-ready catalogues of their wares will likely fare better in Hong Kong. Further, market networking, offering discounts for online and mobile purchases, sale campaigns, and couponing also will help win early adopters. In fact, more than 75 percent of respondents to the Edelman survey answered that a mobile coupon could convince them to make purchases on their phone. Location-based deals or real-time offers during key shopping times will incentivize and sway purchases to brick-and-mortar outlets.

Mobile Payments Internationally

Mobile payment service providers, too, should be ready and willing to show their reliability to gain the trust of early adopters, and to build trust in their brands and services. Despite the fact that 75 percent of respondents in the Hong Kong mobile shopping survey said they never use their mobile phones for banking, the industry is expanding rapidly. PayPal alone projects $3 billion in transactions from its PayPal Mobile service in developed nations next year.

It is only a matter of time before more trusted mobile payment platforms are available in Hong Kong. As they arrive, these service providers will help bring down risk associated with executing monetary transactions on mobile phones, leading to wider adoption of the trend.

Mobile and online buying has potential to be explosive, but retail will survive. They may adopt mobile purchasing platforms, but Hong Kongers will always find a thrill and sense of accomplishment from lugging multiple shopping bags home like trophies after a long Sunday shopping marathon.

Social Shopping in the US

Meanwhile, in the United States, the shopping experience starts well before you ever step foot near the local mall. And consumerism is no longer static, tethered to your house or your favorite store. It’s dynamic and constantly changing, able to go wherever you do and stay on your schedule. It’s not exclusive, but inclusive, and most of all, it’s portable.

Once upon a time, we read a magazine or the Sunday paper, and we spotted something that we absolutely had to own. So we read a little more and we discovered how we could buy this shiny new life-changing item. Then we drove to the appropriate retailer with credit card in hand. It was that simple. But too often we flew in optimistically blind. Armed with sparse legitimate information, we found ourselves at the mercy of the retailers and paid the price, quite literally.

But let’s buy something today. Where do we start? At our computer? Sure. Maybe we search Google or take a look around eBay* or Amazon. But we’re all busy. There’s no time and not a minute to waste. Most likely, we’re out the door and in our cars before the computer even turns on. Luckily, we can do all of our shopping with that little thing in our pockets.

Mobile Shopping Research: Staying Connected

And our mobile devices don’t merely provide us gateways to our favorite retailers, they allow us to interact with these venues in more efficient ways. They inform us about the products we want to own, with intelligence we wouldn’t have dreamed possible before. They connect us to communities of other shoppers, many discerning, plenty more critical. They even offer us incentives and deals for purchasing the very items we would have bought anyway.

For example, let’s say I zoom out the front door, messy hair, make-up partially applied, on the quest for the local Starbucks**, of which there are actually six. On this block. The official Starbucks app not only directs me to the closest store, it allows me to build a triple-shot Venti Latte, and then pay for it from my phone.

Now it’s off to the mall to pick up a birthday gift for my nephew, and maybe a new outfit for myself while I’m there. A quick check of the IGN app shows that the new Legend of Zelda Wii video game scored a 10 out of 10. The app also lets us know that the game is rated E for everyone, which means that it’ll pass the parent check, too. A map search of ‘videogame’ returns a nearby GameStop. That’ll do. Ten minutes later, I have the game in hand, but it’s nearly seventy bucks. Is that really the best deal available? I boot up my eBay RedLaser app to find out. It seamlessly uses my mobile’s camera to scan the Zelda package’s barcode, showing the cost of the game at eBay, Buy.com and other online retailers, as well as brick-and-mortar retailers nearby like Best Buy. A few clicks later, and the video game is purchased, and en route to my mailing address.

All of this shopping for others reminds me that I haven’t purchased anything for number one. The Gap is nearby. A half hour later, I’ve got four outfits waiting in a dressing room for my perusal. Mirrors can’t always be trusted, there are no girlfriends to accompany me on this outing and the salespeople will naturally swear that everything looks absolutely fabulous.

So, again, I turn to my smartphone and take a few snapshots of each outfit in the mirror, striking my best poses in the process. The Go Try It On app uploads photos of my potential outfits and allows other like-minded fashionistas to instantly vote and comment on them. Within minutes, I have honest feedback, and I’m two outfits lighter. I text pictures in group chat to four of my best friends. Studies show that 10 percent in the U.S. with smartphones have texted photos or videos prior to purchase. I use my phone to quickly scan Gap.com to see if I can find the same items for less, which I do, so I negotiate with the store clerk to give me the online price. I check out, using the mobile check-out feature (and receipts emailed to me!), and am so excited about the deals I just scored that I post the sale on my Facebook page and “like” the Gap’s FB page while I’m at it.

Checking-In and Checking Out

Shopping accomplished, and best of all, I checked in via Shopkick and earned some ‘kicks’ that I can redeem for movie tickets later. Now it’s time to eat, so I load Yelp’s monocle feature, which augments retailers over my camera screen appositionally aware real-time, and choose a five-star-rated Chinese restaurant. I need some cash, so I use Google ATM Finder app to find the closest and safest ATM from my mobile.

This is a snapshot into the connected shopper not of the future, but of the present. All consumers need is a mobile phone and the ability to download some apps, which do all the heavy lifting.

Consumers are already using their phones to complement or bypass traditional brick-and-mortal retailers. According to data from IBM, mobile traffic increased from 5.6 percent in 2010 to 14.3 percent in 2011 during the Black Friday shopping time frame. Meanwhile, on Cyber Monday, 10.3 percent of shoppers used a mobile device to visit a retailer’s site, which is up from 3.9 percent the year before. That survey of 1,000 consumers found that more than half (62 percent) would be willing to make a purchase on their mobile device this holiday season if prompted by coupons, discount offers, text alerts, gift cards, or loyalty points. In a similar survey conducted by Sybase 365 a year ago, only 32 percent of respondents said that mobile incentives would encourage them to make a purchase on their device.

As our mobile devices become more powerful and more capable, we turn to them again and again (and at increasing rates) to interface with our digital world. In the U.S., our phones are increasingly extensions of our selves, and we rely on them, even with their limitations. A dropped signal or slow data speeds are acceptable caveats as we browse our favorite retail store from a public park bench.

Forrester reports that by 2012, almost every mobile phone in the U.S. will, in fact, be a smartphone with an Internet connection. 3G and 4G data speeds will slow up some commerce, but perhaps not for too long. By 2020, we’ll be connecting at speeds of 1 gigabyte per second, or approximately 500 times faster than we do today, according to Google.

So, whether you are shopping in Hong Kong or Nashville, chances are your smartphone is coming with you. It is our job as marketers to understand the relationship our target audiences have with their technology and leverage that to our client’s best advantage.

Edie Kissko assisted with the composition of this article.

*eBay is an Edelman client.

**Starbucks is an Edelman client.

We’ve always lived and worked in a state of flux but one can make the argument that recent developments in technology, society and business seem to have accelerated the pace of change we have to contend with. Our mobile devices would have been considered fairly high powered computers not that long ago. We live in a hyper-connected state of existence, constantly sending out signals to friends, family, work associates, peers , etc. If this year belongs to anyone, it is the change agent.

You may be thinking—”that’s exactly what I am,” but chances are, if you aren’t frustrated or feeling like you are constantly hitting wall after wall, you may not be the change agent you think you are. It’s a thankless job, but a necessary one, now more than ever. Change agents aren’t sprinters, they run marathons—and this will be their year whether they know it or not. But in order to do the job (and really, it’s everyone’s job if you’re interested in innovation) there are a few key areas where the seeds of change will need to take root.

Thoughts

Change cannot happen without first influencing the thought process—the way we think about ourselves, our jobs our business and most importantly our missions. Change starts with the core of how we think about everything before we ever take action. It is thoughts which drives strategy and strategy which drives execution (when done right). Change can begin with a whisper—often times as a thought formed in our minds.

Behaviors

If thought is the seed then the living organism which springs from it is the behaviors which take root upon them. Without action, thoughts and ideas serve little purpose other than to inspire—which can ignite change, but not sustain it. A change in behavior can range from a shift in daily ritual, to the adoption of new technologies to reacting to environments in new and unexpected ways. When what we do is aligned with what we think, anything is possible.

Perception

When we realize that we are more in control of the way we are perceived than we think—change is possible. Sometimes altering the perception of ourselves whether we be individual or organization acts as a catalyst to influence thoughts and behaviors and other times it is a result—but either way we change when they way we are perceived is altered.

Outcome

Without a meaningful outcome which indicates the measure of change that has either occurred (or not) there cannot be change. An outcome can be an attitude—or it can be financial, but it’s tangible. Not so long ago, the world thought Apple computer was dead. Having owned my share of overpriced and underperforming beige machines—I lived through that sentiment. Then change took root—thoughts, behaviors and perception of the company shifted and one of the indisputable outcomes is reflected in valuation of the company. Ask Apple’s shareholders what they think of change.

2012 belongs to the change agents. But real change takes a complex formula of vision, perseverance and stubbornness to pull off.

Here’s to all of the above.

Image credit: David Reece

Anyone who predicted December to be a quieter month due to the winding down period before the holidays couldn’t have been more mistaken. After much anticipation and speculation, this month saw major changes rolled out across the four biggest social networking platforms: Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and YouTube. Hopefully this end-of-year timing will give users and developers some time to adjust before all launching headfirst into continuing our exciting work in the New Year.

Twitter

This month Twitter launched a big change to their user interface called the ‘Let’s Fly’ design, now readily available for the web app, mobile (Android and iPhone) and launching for iPad apps soon. This new design helps users ‘Discover’ new content and interests, and offers a shiny new lay out for brands, which is a first for Twitter. A few great add-ons included in this new layout are the ‘jump to the top’ function (no more endless scrolling!) and ‘tweet details’. Tweet details allows users to tap a tweet and immediately find out more information such as the full page, shared multimedia, linked web pages and the number of retweets and favorites the particular tweet has received.

To find out more information on the new mobile design, follow @Twittermobile with offers tips and updates from the team. To see how the button layout has changed into the five new and easy to use functions (Me, Home, Connect, Discover and Tweet) watch this video brought by Twitter here.

December Updates:

• 8^th December: Twitter Launches Brand Pages; The ‘Fly’ Design
• 16^th December: Twitter Launches TweetDeck as Web App
• 21^st December: Twitter available in four new languages: Finnish, Danish, Norwegian and Polish

Facebook

The much anticipated Facebook Timeline was rolled out to users this month. This big change was first rolled out New Zealand and is now available for users across the globe. Currently, users must opt-in via the official Facebook link to swap their layout from the old version. The biggest addition is of course the cover photo which is the most eye-catching feature of the page and thus important for users to choose wisely – especially once it is rolled out to brands.

Posts made by you are now called Your Stories this is because the content you share on your page now comes in different formats. You might share what you are currently listening to on Spotify which groups together, the Places, Events’ and Pages you like/attend/visit will also be grouped together, making your profile easier to manage and control. One of the biggest changes I noticed is that there is a distinct lack of the ‘Wall’ which used to be the biggest feature for many users. Posts are dotted around the Timeline which make up a week based on time, rather than just one wall than you continuously scroll through. It’s kind of like a very personal RSS feed.

Once you have Timeline, you have seven days in which you are able to check it out, move things around and test your preferences before you click Publish. Once published,  your Timeline is live to all your friends and you cannot go back to the old version. You are able to delete, hide or add anything you wish to your Timeline. The Timeline homepage you can see how many of your friends have currently implemented Timeline, and check out their pages for inspiration!

December Updates:

• 6^th December – Timeline is rolled out in New Zealand
• 15^th December – Timeline rolled out Worldwide

Timeline rolled out for brand pages yet to be determined

Google+

It’s a month on from the launch of Google+ brand pages (November 7) and a lot has happened since then. Notable events include Britney Spears becoming the first Google+ page to top 1 million users and the release of the 2011 Google Zeitgeist list (of which the elusive iPhone 5 is listed). On December 19, Google+ added three new improvements to its platform to primarily aid the management of brand pages. The finer detail of publishing content has been improved dramatically in which page admins are able to ‘graphic-equalize’ the publisher stream. This means that you can manage your streams down to the minute detail (in order to create the most optimized stream for your brand and its audience). A slider tool allows you to choose how you wish to filter you posts into the main content stream to increase visibility/impressions.

The next update is the improvement made to page management. Along with Buddy Media who was been selected last month as official launch partner, it looks like Google+ pages are finally taking off in terms of content management. You can now have up to 50 admins on your brand page by ‘Adding a Manager’ via the page settings. This new feature also allows you to ‘Transfer Ownership’ which you can pass on admin rights from yourself to a new user. This is useful for when a community manager is stepping down from the page and needs to pass on all relevant information. The limitation of 50 admins per page also means more security control over the page. The other feature that makes the page management easier is the new notification flow that allows managers to communicate and keep abreast of all page activity at all times.

December Updates:

• 12^th December – Further integration between Gmail and Google+
• 14^th December – Google+ expands ‘on-air’ Hangouts
• 19^th December – Multi-admin control
• 19^th December – Adjustments for Volume Control to ‘Circle’s feature
• 21^st December – Google+ Pages showing as primary search result

YouTube

For a big part of this year the questions on many people’s lips has been what the heck is Cosmic Panda? This month, it appears that YouTube has now unveiled this radical new look this month for its more than 800 billion users worldwide. Shishir Mehotra, the VP of product development for YouTube, highlighted the reasons for these changes:

“We’re trying to take what we see as the best of TV and the best of online and bring it together”.  This makes sense considering the way in which users are now consuming videos online more than ever and the ever rising social integration with TV.”

The first thing I noticed when logging on is the stream in the middle of my homepage. I can now ‘subscribe’ to other channels which will feature in my feed as well as already getting updates from my Google+ circles. My YouTube and Gmail account are also even more closely aligned.

Channel pages have also changed and are now much slicker, with the addition of larger video screens, several new layout templates (creator, blogger, broadcaster, everything – screenshot below) and customization options. The ‘Video Manager’ allows you to edit your videos with text, audio, transitions, annotations and a cutting tool. You can also personalize your homepage with the video suggestions with the ‘Recommended For You’ lists. It seems that this updated focus on social integration might be YouTube’s aim to make the website a place users spend longer periods of time by networking rather than a short-lived hotspot for watching a five minute videos.

There are also new additions to the Analytics toolkit, where the reporting facility has been made easier for users. YouTube have now included a ‘data filter’ in which you can now categorize by content, location and time. The graph facility has also improved, the data granularity is more focused; you can now pin point data daily, weekly or monthly in a specific date range. You can also compare your data by charting Viewers directly next to Unique Viewers. For even more information on ‘What’s new’ in YouTube Analytics click here.

December Updates:

• December 1^st – YouTube takes web remake live

A Focus on Integration

In conclusion, it appears that these huge networks are looking for ways to improve user-friendliness and add integration options. Twitter’s focal points are on shareability (with newly embeddable Tweets), extending their focus to brands and also strengthening their ‘discover’ functionality, continuing to cement Twitter as the ‘news source’ in the social media landscape. Facebook is focusing more on the visual nature of pages, shareability, third-party integration and the bringing together of old and new data. Facebook is also concentrating on making the platform all-inclusive. Google and YouTube are further integrating their services and will continue, it appears, to incorporating the results in enhanced search functions more than anything else.

Image credit: Luxuryluke

Kred is the latest tool designed to measure your Twitter influence, built by the good folks at Peoplebrowsr.

The Good Stuff

In the version I’ve had a play with, there are several sections choc-full of data to play with.

Overview: This is your dashboard that gives you the headline, ie, your score and recent activity; who you’ve retweeted, conversations you’ve had, who has mentioned you etc.

Activity: This is where it starts to get very cool. One of the best things about Peoplebrowsr is the ability to segregate by community – Kred has taken this technology too. This means that when you’re looking at influence, it can be broken down by interest area, such as social media, or sport.

What’s really interesting here is that you can not only see your communities, but click through to see what other communities people you’re engaging with are a part of. Neat.

Friends Activity: This outlines who has been mentioning your friends. This is incredibly useful if you’re trying to understand who potentially you should be looking to reach as a second or third contact point.

Get More Kred: This is a feature that I’m yet to see any of the influence analysts include within their offering: a solid offline meaure of influence. You can include all those speaker slots you get, your level of education (and therefore connections you might have), memberships to clubs and organisation, charity and sport involvement and how often you travel (the unspoken metric for importance is of course frequent flyer miles…).

There is also a little more analysis on your online profile too and a sample of people to consider following.

Community Kred: This section looks at the sphere of the different communities Kred is analysing, who is influential in them and where you rank (if you rank at all). This again is incredibly helpful if you’re deciphering who you need to try and engage with to raise your profile.

Analyse: “Coming Soon” is filed under this section, I wait with held breath!

How It Works

Each community is relative to itself – this, for me, is key.

Kred have have put together a Rules section, outlining how your score is calculated:

• Kred Influence is the measure of what others do because of you. Influence increases when others take action because of your content. Your Influence score increases when someone retweets, @replies or follows you.
• Scores range from 1 to 1,000 with higher scores representing greater influence. The score of the person with the most Influence is set at 1,000 and all others are normalized relative to it. Kred Influence is normalized for the Twitter universe and within communities, which means that someone in every community has a score of 1,000.
• You receive Influence Points every time others interact with you or your content. 10 Points are assigned for the most common actions like replying to people and retweeting content. You receive more Points if someone with a large following does something for you, like having a message retweeted by someone with more than 10,000 followers.
• Influence Points are then translated to your Kred Influence Score. Since Kred Influence is normalized on a scale with a maximum score of 1,000, the rate at which Influence Points convert to Kred Influence constantly changes as everyone in the social universe accrues Points. The ‘Points To Score Conversion’ curve also grows steeper as Kred Influence Score grows. The higher your Kred Influence, the more points it takes to move up.

In Summary

Whilst acknowledging that influence is extremely difficult to measure, Kred is offering a different perspective to the other tools that exist.

I must admit I am a fan and I’ve been pretty excited in the build up to it going live – I’ve not been let down, it is very promising indeed and I look forward to the next iteration being rolled out.

In a December 19 Twitter conversation with Helen Tobin, a public relations student from the University of Southern California, David shared the motto of his alma mater, Pratt Institute, as the best career advice he ever received. He also answered Helen’s questions about maintaining online privacy, the impact of Klout scores, job searching in a challenging market, and the future of social media and digital integration.

Helen won the opportunity to chat with David through a recent sweepstakes hosted by the Los Angeles office via their Twitter channel, @EdelmanLA. Over the last several months, the LA office hosted three sweepstakes where entrants could win a chat with an influential Edelman employee. In the third installment, Helen tweeted with the hashtag #EdelLASweeps and won the chance to ask David Armano about the latest news and trends in social media during a 30-minute Twitter chat.

Here is a snippet from their conversation:

Read the full transcript here.

Be sure to follow @EdelmanLA on Twitter for the latest LA office updates, and keep up with social media news and trends by following @armano.

If you could ask David Armano any question, what would it be? Tell us in the comments below!

Image credit: JoelAZ