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02.07.06
Internal Open Source Marketing
 By
Shel Holtz
Open
source marketing is a great notion, but it's slow to catch on.
Eventually it will become common, but it's a dramatic a shift from an approach
to advertising and marketing that has become entrenched over 50 years. Few high-powered
Madison Avenue execs would be excited about the idea of turning their creative
over to the person on the street. So while open source marketing has persuasive
evangeilists who can point to some brilliant case studies that make us hopeful,
we have to realize that these are, for the time being, exceptions and not the
rule.
Inside our organizations is another matter altogether.
Internal communicators have been practicing forms of open source marketing for
years. In an effort to involve employees, we have solicited their contributions
to our communication programs in an amazing variety of ways.
I've heard that the benefits videos produced for employee consumption at Southwest
Airlines use employees as performers, even in singing-and-dancing bits. I've seen
more than one internal publication that featured a photo of the month selected
from among several submitted by employees. More than one intranet was named in
a "name the intranet" contest. Some progressive companies have been known to turn
to their employees to craft their vision, mission, and values statements. The
list goes on.
These examples of internal open source marketing were not undertaken with open
source marketing in mind. Internal communicators always seek to get employees
more engaged in the process. After all, employee communication staffs tend to
be small and getting employees to contribute helps to stretch the budget. I never
held an employee communications position where I didn't try to cajole employees
at non-headquarters locations to write an article for us now and then. If employee
communicators DID approach their work with open source marketing in mind, the
possibilities for engaging employees in the communication process expand considerably.
Unlike simple contests and solicitation of employee contributions, open source
marketing sets the parameters for a communication campaign and turns the creative
over to employees. It's a small but significant step away from what most employee
communicators are already doing. Here's an example:
It's benefits enrollment season. Your primary challenge for the current year's
campaign: Convince employees enrolled in an expensive medical plan to switch to
a cheaper managed care program. These employees perceive that managed care is
inferior care. You turn to employees who are already enrolled in the
managed care program, and you turn them loose. "Tell us a story about an experience
with your healthcare provider," you ask them. "Any story. Using any medium. Write
an article, produce a video, record an audio file, draw a comic strip, we really
don't care HOW you tell the story. Just tell it." Why would an employee take the
time to produce and submit such content? A prize for the best submission as voted
by other employees, of course. Or a banquet dinner for all employees who submit
an entry. Or some other incentive.
You cull from among the submissions and pick those that best convey the quality
of the plan's managed care provider and turn this into your communication. Written
recollections go into your newsletter or onto your intranet (or both). Videos
go up on the intranet as a special feature. You can turn some of the submissions
into posters, incorporate some into other benefits communication vehicles. The
employees' positive stories about their managed care healthcare experiences becomes
the consistent theme of your communications.
That's just one idea, off the top of my head. Give it some thought and you can
probably come up with a half-dozen more uses for open source marketing that your
organization could benefit from right now. And unlike the external world, you're
not introducing a true paradigm shift. (Yes, I know, paradigm is a hackneyed word,
but its overuse began with a legitimate definition, and a transition from inside-out
marketing to outside-out fits the definition.) Internally, everybody's already
positioned to contribute to an open source effort. Internal communicators simply
need to build the concept into their communication plans and programs to get the
most out of it.
About
the Author:
Shel Holtz is principal
of Holtz Communication + Technology which
focuses on helping organizations apply online communication capabilities to their
strategic organizational communications.
As a professional communicator, Shel also writes the blog a
shel of my former self. |
