Communication can either be the death knell to accomplishing great things or the clarion call-to-action.

Those who “get” the clarion call and use clear cut and precise language are great leaders: They can marshal the great forces of their team to bring in huge new business wins and manage even the most unruly clients.

Those who assert their leadership position by being elusive and mysterious, who use their position rather than their communication skills to manage, are leaders in name only.

How do you become the first? How do you work with the second, no matter your position?

I’ve studied this dark and nefarious art form for 15 years, and I have written about it recently in a book that will help managers become effective leaders by understanding how to tune their communication to the four basic behavioral styles they encounter in the workplace.

Behavior is a type of language. Learn to speak the languages others speak.

We communicate through language. It’s easier to understand, motivate, and influence others when we speak their language.

There are other languages at work besides those we are accustomed to…the languages tied to a national or geographical area. These other languages are tied to how one prefers to get things done and think, or what we call behavioral styles. You communicate in a certain way (your tailored language) based on how you like to get things done (your behavior).

Tons of research has gone into understanding human behavior. It turns out we are not so radically different from each other. Based on this, researchers have developed frameworks that group common traits into discrete styles or behaviors. If you understand and recognize the different styles, you can understand and speak the different style languages.

One such framework is the DISC Behavioral Styles, made up of four basic styles.

1. Dominance
2. Influence
3. Steadiness
4. Conscientiousness

Behavioral attitudes for each style

• The dominance style is all about moving things forward; get to the point, give me the headline of the story.
• Those who fall within the influence style use language to make connections with others to have a powerful affect on the world, to motivate and stretch what is possible.
• The steadiness style has a focus on the team and being a valuable member, avoiding conflict and slowing down change so the team (and you) can stay productive.
• Conscientiousness is all about perfection, having high standards and finding the most effective methods for achieving those high standards.

Each of these four styles has its own “dialect” – words or expressions that accurately convey and reflect what they value. Populate these words in your communication and you are on your way to speaking their language and influencing them.

Dialects for each discrete style

• Dominance: Progress, proceed, move forward, leap ahead, push ahead, gain ground, drive, results, output, yield, decisions made, actions taken.
• Influence: Fantastic, awesome, fabulous, extraordinary, exceptional, remarkable, phenomenal, dynamic, exciting, positive, energy.
• Steadiness: Consistent, reliable, stable, steady, dependable, trusting, anticipate, think it through, plan, process.
• Conscientiousness: Standards, systematic approach, methodology, deliberate, efficient, thorough, well prepared, analyze assess.

Some of your audiences will comprise general population who will reflect a cross section of these styles – you will need to craft your message in such a way that you use all four dialects.

Other audiences will share certain commonalities which usually results in them sharing certain style preferences. For example, an audience made up of senior business leaders speaks dominance whereas an audience of engineers speaks conscientiousness.

If you want to lead and influence, you must speak the language your audience already uses.

Brian Tolle is a partner at The Re-Wired Group, a business development consultancy that uses Demand-Side Innovation to create and commercialize new products, services, brands, and businesses. His work focuses on designing strategies to secure employee buy-in to organizational change as well as influencing consumer behavior through their Jobs-to-be-Done framework. You can find him in the comments here or on his Facebook page.

So yesterday, when Shelly Kramer tagged me on Facebook to read this article and then when Troy Claus sent it to me via email, I knew the title was going to make my blood boil, but I hadn’t read it yet.

And boy did my blood boil!

PR Agencies Are Ruining Facebook.

I love sweeping generalizations like this.

Look, I know the PR industry has a terrible perception, one we’re working daily to change. But to say

PR agencies are good at distributing messages, but they aren’t known for really producing anything

is a bunch of baloney.

The article is written by an advertising agency guy. That’s pretty apparent in his message. He begins his argument by stating that PR professionals were the first in the social media space and that fact alone has made it a very boring place.

The problem is that in social media, as in life, a conversation isn’t engaging unless there is something interesting to talk about. No one wants to listen to an endless, aimless stream of dialog about a brand or a company, which is what you get from a strategy that focuses on news, offers and the occasional contest. That’s where PR-led social strategies wind up because those are pretty much the only arrows in PR’s quiver.

I’m the first to admit there are plenty of PR professionals who are consulting companies or working inside businesses to use the social platforms solely as news filters…one more place to distribute your news releases. And I also talk a lot about the type OO (output only) person you avoid at cocktail receptions and networking events.

No one wants to hear someone talk about only themselves. No one.

The best way to add and engage fans, as the article’s author states, is to grow your existing customer base.

But it isn’t left just to the advertising guys, or the creative, to do this. And it’s not just about social. It’s about the tools that fit best into the overall strategy.

There are plenty of companies, and agencies, that are doing it wrong. We hear about them day in and day out. It’s getting exhausting.

We all agree the social tools are just that: Social.

So let’s talk about the companies that are being social. That are engaging. That are growing their fan bases and, through that, are driving sales (not just more followers or fans).

Have an example you can share or are you fond of a case study? Leave it in the comments!

As a side note: His article states, “Even the most articulate strategies, built by the best  social media gurus, tend to focus on developing a presence on Facebook or Twitter, rather than developing a brand’s purpose.” And then I noticed in his tweet stream that he’s going to be in Chicago next week and has asked David Armano to drinks. Better be careful. Armano is one of those “best social media gurus,” who works at one of the largest agencies in the world.

This first ran on Shonali Burke’s blog, Waxing Unlyrical. If you read it there, there is nothing new to see here. If you don’t know Shonali or her blog, I suggest high-tailing it over there. After you’ve read and commented on this piece first. Of course. Oh. And read the comments here. They’re new, too.

Week before last, TechCrunch took a stab at PR professional Timothy Johnson.

Actually, a stab is putting it mildly.

They called him a PR disaster and printed his emails to  Leena Rao, the “extremely sweet and mild-mannered colleague” of author  Robin Wauters.

Before you jump to a conclusion, let’s examine this from both sides: The side of reporter and writer Leena, and the side of PR pro Timothy.

Leena’s side:

• She responded to his email (which doesn’t always happen) with a note asking for more information to make it more a story.
• She asked him to circle back when he had something more newsworthy.
• TechCrunch was left out of the initial announcement of Timothy’s client because they don’t honor embargoes.
• A competitor to Timothy’s client sells double virtual gifts in a day that his client does in a year.
• He wrote things such as “Seriously?” and “Really? Wait for a product announcement? Is that a joke, Leena?” which are full of conflict and could make one defensive.

Timothy’s side:

• He was honest and upfront about why TechCrunch wasn’t included in the initial news last fall.
• He doesn’t bury the news and is brief and to the point.
• Only his emails were included in the TechCrunch “story;” Leena’s were not (minus her initial response).
• What kind of publication, public or private, goes around bad-mouthing the people who help them get their content?
• Who goes around telling a PR pro’s client they should fire that person and not sound like a complete jerk by doing so?

When I first saw the story, I tweeted it with a “whoa.” Then, last Sunday, Jeremy Pepper, Shannon Paul, Mack Collier, and I debated its “merits” on Beth Harte’s Facebook wall.

I’m sure Timothy, Leena, and Robin are all very nice people (which came up during our debate on Beth’s wall).

That’s not the debate here.

The debate is:

a) whether or not a PR professional should ever write such an email to a reporter or blogger (if there are questions about the decision, a phone call ALWAYS works better), and

b) whether or not a publication or blog should print an email exchange and suggest the PR pro be fired.

My reaction?

They’re both in the wrong.

Timothy should never have written such a conflict-filled, defensive response. And TechCrunch should never have published it.

What do you think?

I am very flattered and humbled to be asked to write here… especially about privacy, the grand-prize winning idea I submitted for the Spin Sucks 9 Marketing Trends webinar contest.

I view social media as a revolution in interpersonal communication technology. Notice the word marketing is not in that statement. The current platforms were created to connect people to people and, based on current architecture, have enabled marketing to invade our personal space.

Note that no one ever asked us, the people, our thoughts on marketing, privacy, or control of our private communications among friends. When you call someone on the phone are you OK if others listen in? Or read your personal email? No, you would get a gun and fix that problem!

I run a Facebook page for a client. More than 75 percent of the Fans have 100 percent private profiles. The people at the forefront of social media have about the same percentage of completely private profiles. When Pete Cashmore of Mashable wrote that privacy is dead, he lost all his credibility.

Of course this benefits Facebook and Mashable. But does it benefit you? Were you asked? The people have spoken. I believe eventually we will be in complete control of how we communicate, the platforms, the privacy, everything, and it will be integrated into all sorts of devices in simple intuitive ways. And that will start with 2011.

Great new examples emerging:

Diaspora. This new network wants you to have control of all your data. You can communicate to your Twitter and Facebook friends, but all your data is yours.

Path. This new technology allows small networks of 50 people so you do not have to broadcast to the world.

Twitsper. This allows you to send group DMs. I can actually send private messages to more than one person at a time.

Imagine being able to share in all sorts of ways privately when we wish it to be. Social media marketing could become completely different. Viral will still be possible, but it will take better content and more leg work. There might be a dearth of public data, potentially ruining business models based on analytics and social media marketing. What about PR? What if the majority of social content is not public for brands to monitor sentiment?

Current business models were chosen based on exploiting our personal connections and activities for brand marketing purposes. But who wouldn’t pay a few dollars a month for great technology and control? Look for hybrid subscription models where you choose whether to pay for no ads, or use free with ads. Hootsuite just rolled out a premium account for $5.99 per month that would remove sponsored Tweets from your feed. It will be interesting to see how many sign up.

Howie Goldfarb is president and CEO of Sky Pulse Media, an agency focused on helping clients achieve outsized results in measurable bottom-line-impacting ways. He had a 14-year career in direct B2B sales before deciding to lighten up his dreary work life and move into advertising.

Editor’s note: Howie Goldfarb is the grand-prize winner of our 9 Marketing Trends for 2011 contest, in which we asked readers to submit the ninth trend for our upcoming webinar of the same name, which will be held on December 15. (It’s not too late to sign up!) The above thoughts are about his submitted trend, user control. In the webinar, we will discuss how to adjust your business to leverage all nine trends.

1. Content, content, content. Did I mention content? A lot of people will disagree with me – some think content is dead. I don’t think we’ve scratched the surface. All companies should become media companies, in that the content they provide is valuable, consistent, and non-salesy. This will be big for B2B companies while they figure out how to use, what they’ve always considered, intellectual property to attract new customers. Examples include white papers, enewsletters, podcasts, and videos.

2. FTC rulings. It may not be as early as next year, but the FTC is already looking at regulating our industry. It began with disclosure on blogs and then on paid reviews. Next will be around ethics and how we approach traditional journalists and bloggers. That’s why becoming a media company will be even more important – you’ll be able to reach your customers and prospects without relying solely on the influencers. But hire an attorney because you’ll need to really understand what you can and cannot do and say through your content.

3. Net neutrality. It makes me crazy that  no one is paying attention to net neutrality and what Google and Verizon are planning to do. If they are successful, the Internet (as early as next year) will become a paid model, just like cable television. So being able to write a blog post at 6:00 in the morning and post it two hours later and letting it reach audiences around the world FOR FREE will be gone. The playing field will no longer be level and the companies that can afford to have their content delivered more quickly will again be kings of the earth. Not because they’re better; because they have more cash. Davids truly will be fighting Goliaths in an unfair, non-level playing field.

4. Customer engagement. We talked about this a little bit yesterday, in terms of customer-centric vs. customer-focused organizations. If companies do not engage their customers, I mean really engage them as human beings and not as people who you think want to be sold, it won’t matter what kind of content you have, how you follow the FTC rules, or if you have more cash to get on the Internet more quickly. If you don’t know how to engage your customers, start by asking them simple questions when you talk to them: What is one thing we do that you wish we did better? Having Facebook communities and Twitter followers and blog readers are great, but what about those real conversations you have with your customers every day? Begin asking them questions and I think you’ll be surprised at how much you learn.

I have about 12 trends I’ve been thinking about for a while, but they’re written down on a post-it note on my desk in the office and, well, I’m not there today. So stay tuned for a second trends blog post. In the meantime, what would you add?

Guest post by Sharon Cain, managing director of Quest PR.

Compared to PR pros, are journalists quicker to adapt and embrace the wealth of opportunities that our vibrant new world of social media presents?

The dramatic evolution that journalism and PR have undergone since I was haring around the UK living on caffeine, adrenaline, and deadlines as an on-screen Sky TV reporter has been reinforced in Jeff Bullas’ brilliant blog on The 10 New Rules of PR.

As the UK’s first 24-hour station, Sky was hungry for its counterparts’ success – and its agility, tenacity, and speed (it reminded me of a voracious beast gobbling up my stories and instantly demanding more!) saw print journalists taking their lead from a channel that competitors predicted (wrongly) would go belly up.

Hunting “with the pack” was fun and furious and there was a certain snobbery (not to mention ego!) among the national media regarding their importance as the decision makers and custodians of the nation’s breaking news and ongoing content.

On becoming the “poacher turned gamekeeper” and moving into PR, my livelihood almost entirely depended on reporters – because at the time they were the only platform (with the exception of newsletters and company reports) to publish or broadcast our clients’ stories.

Fast forward to a world in which the media is no longer the “first” on many fronts. The advent of social media channels has highlighted that members of the public can circulate breaking news within minutes to news outlets and via their social media channels.

Thanks to the latter, the media is no longer the primary route for PR pros to penetrate our own and our clients’ target audiences.

Elements of the beleaguered mainstream media are under threat with falling newspaper circulations frequently in the news and compounded by TheMediaIsDying Twitter site.

Despite all this, the good news is that the media does not appear to be burying its collective head in the sand. Many journalists are looking forward, embracing social media, and appear to be pragmatic about what the future holds.

This was reflected last week when Social Times highlighted the results of a recent survey comprising more than 770 journalists from 21 countries which revealed that:

• 50 percent of those questioned predicted the eventual demise of offline publications
• 25 percent forecast that both online and offline media will shrink significantly
• More than 50 percent are skeptical as to the profitability of online media as viable business models.

However, when putting PR agencies under the spotlight, we read that 78 percent of the UK’s 100 powerful agencies are not using Twitter, and our industry watchdog is bemoaning the the fact that PR pros are failing to embrace search marketing.

Why are agencies failing to realize that potential clients who are “new media savvy” may no longer engage them on sizeable monthly retainers to battle with thousands of competing agencies and in-house teams for mainstream coverage when a social media campaign can be more effective?

I’m really interested to hear your thoughts on how fast PR pros are adapting and responding to social media in the United States?

Also, will there still be a place for lifestyle publications that people can still see, touch, feel (and sometimes smell!) – or will we all be downloading apps for our iPhones and packing kindles in our holiday hand luggage?

Guest post by Laura Scholz, president of Scholz Communications.

When you first start your solo PR practice, bartering services can seem like a win-win. You get amazing experience, exposure, and valuable services; your “clients” get your professional expertise at virtually no cost.

During the past three years, I’ve traded for web design, haircuts, Pilates and yoga classes, personal training, head shots, nutrition advice, office space, and more than the occasional meal. Having started my business with zero savings and zero capital — in the middle of a divorce, no less — these types of relationships were crucial to helping me manage my budget AND move my business forward. And I would say the same was true for those on the other end of the barter.

But as my business continues to grow and my time becomes more limited, I’m starting to question the value of trade for all involved. I think everyone enters trade with the best of intentions, but with never-ending to-do lists and nonstop schedules, you have to set priorities. And that means paying clients come first – often to the detriment of good relationships with quality people who have nothing but the best intentions. So, how do you decide if trade is right for you? And if it is, how do you make it a truly mutually beneficial relationship? Following are five tips for business bartering.

1. Be selective. Choose your trades carefully. Go with businesses and people who represent your brand and reputation. Remember  you don’t have to accept every trade opportunity that comes your way. It’s okay to say no.
2. Be realistic. We’re all busy professionals, juggling client work with personal and professional obligations. It’s easy to take on too much, and unfortunately, unpaid work can fall to the bottom of the priority list. Be selective about your clients but also realistic about what you can accomplish for them given your other responsibilities. Over-promising is the easiest way to ensure a relationship goes south.
3. Sign a formal contract. In the early stages of my business, I did entirely too much business with nothing but a virtual handshake to seal the deal. Not any more. Every one of my clients signs a contract stipulating terms, duration, and deliverables. It may seem like a formality, but it gives both parties clear boundaries and expectations.
4. Establish boundaries. Every project and every contact needs a beginning and end point, with clear goals, deadlines, and outcomes. For example, my contract with my Pilates and yoga studio is for six months at a set amount of studio credit per month and outlines specific deliverables. This ensures  I complete the work for them in the allotted amount of time, but it also means we can renegotiate terms or choose to part ways at the end of the contract. Which brings me to my next point, which is…
5. Have an out. There’s nothing worse than an open-ended “I’ll help you if you’ll help me” agreement. While entered into with the best of intentions, it breeds laziness on both sides and sets you up for an unpleasant parting. Unfortunately, I’ve been there, and it’s really not the ideal way to end a friendship or a business partnership. Be clear about the terms of your relationship, but also give yourself and your “client” an out so you can end the contract if either party is unhappy – without permanently damaging your relationship.

What are your experiences with trade? Other lessons you’ve learned or tips you’d add? Any success stories you’d like to share?

Laura Scholz is the president of Scholz Communications, a boutique firm that helps creative sector entrepreneurs brand, promote and grow their businesses. When not busy working or writing for her own blog, she enjoys running marathons with the Georgia Chapter of Team in Training, consuming massive quantities of cheese dip, and virtually celebrating wine:thirty with the Arment Dietrich team.

Picture a CEO in a suit, with a cigar in his mouth, saying to his PR team: “Our customers don’t know what they’re talking about.”

I witnessed this reaction from a CEO (ok, sans cigar and suit) when he received unfortunate news from his PR team. Word on the street about the current customer experience was, um, bad. Really bad. Some tweets had recently tied the company name and “customer service fail” together. They were editing as fast as they could on the company Facebook wall, but it was hard to keep up with the influx of tirades.

This company was excellent at selling. They sold and sold and sold some more. They were growing – fast. But the dirty underbelly of all that rapid growth was a total lack of attention to their current customers. These customers were seen as practically pests – cogs in the wheel of their marketing machine.

They were moving employees out of important roles supporting the operation of the customer experience into marketing-focused roles. The website was quickly moving from a support center to a sales center. Calls to the support center were fielded by new, inexperienced, and untrained support personnel who only cared about the $14/hour.

The PR folks were doing their best to sound the alarm, but the CEO refused to see the connection. “It’s not a PR problem unless (trade journal/industry analysts/Wall Street Journal) gets wind of it.”

This was at the dawn of the current phase of the “Power to the People” period we’re in now. But companies still aren’t paying attention. Be grateful for feedback directly from customers – even in public. Those complaints via Twitter and Facebook are the proverbial canary in the coal mine. Recognize their importance, and pay attention! Otherwise, you could have PR nightmare on your hands – just like Gini Dietrich wrote about in her post Kevin Smith and Southwest Airlines: Crisis via Twitter, “no amount of policy can quell a firestorm created on Twitter if not handled in the right way.”

So what if you start seeing some external indicators that something is wrong with your customer experience? Here’s a three-step battle plan.

1. Respond publicly and then try to take issues offline.

Don’t respond with a “gee, thanks for telling us” without trying to connect with a customer you can help. (I wrote about United’s failed attempt at connecting with customers as an example of this.)

2. Make sure you have a way to internally connect the appropriate people and departments.

Don’t just forward a complaint from a customer to the right department – follow up and make sure there’s action on it!

3. THANK the customer for complaining.

This might be the last thing you want to do, but truly, customer feedback is vital to NOT losing customers. Providing feedback to the customer also shows you care, you’re working on it, and you’re not sacrificing loyal customers with new, shiny ones!

If there was ever a time to overreact to the singular customer complaint, it’s now. Who do you admire in this arena? Who’s doing it well?

Jeannie Walters has been focused on the customer experience for more than 15 years, consulting to companies big and small on their retention strategies. She is currently principal at 360Connext, speaker, and mom to two young boys. You can find Jeannie on Twitter (@jeanniecw) discussing the important and the mundane.

Guest post by Ryan Knapp, a recovering linguist

What if I told you there is an innovative communication tool that allows you to talk with millions of new people in a way you’ve never been able to before? What if I told you this new way to communicate would integrate seamlessly with all forms of social media you currently use?

What innovative tool would I be talking about?

Language.

Language is the most basic, yet forgotten, tool for communication. I’m not talking language in terms of writing copy or producing press releases. I’m talking about English, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, French, Arabic, and the other 6,909 languages spoken in the world today.

In a time where everyone is clamoring to figure out the newest technology to help increase their network and get the word out, most completely ignore the opportunity to learn how to communicate in more than one language.

Monolingualism – the ability to speak only one language – is extremely common in countries where English is the native language, especially in the United States where only 17% of people are bilingual.

Why is this important?

Social media has broken down the initial contact wall on a global scale. We now can connect with a buyer in China or a CFO in Norway with a click of the mouse. Making the initial contact has never been easier.

Instead of the initial contact wall, the language wall is built when we tap that company president from Brazil on the shoulder and lack the ability and linguistic tools to understand him or her when they turn around.

You may never be a polyglot – someone who uses many languages fluently – but learning how to say hello and a few words in multiple languages will extend your network further than Twitter, Facebook, and any other social network combined. In fact, it will open you up to different social networks you didn’t even know existed.

You want to talk about standing out in the job market? Minor in a language in college or take a class now. You want to find new clients? Learn (or find someone who speaks) the language in a new target market. Looking to increase your media coverage? Hit up some non-English magazines, blogs, and websites.

My self-taught native fluency in Spanish allows me to communicate with around 500 million Spanish speakers, effectively covering the Western Hemisphere. In Polish I can open up a conversation with another 40 million and in Catalan I can make 6 million people in Barcelona smile. Without my ability to speak Spanish, roughly 35% of my leads and contacts in soccer would be gone.

My advice? Don’t fear language. Go find a local continuing ed Japanese class, or reach out to a local college and take that French class you’ve been thinking about. Open your mind and ears.

So why not learn a second language yourself or use one in your company? There’s no better time than now.

It’s easier said than done, right? Or is it del dicho al hecho hay mucho trecho?

Editor’s note: HUGE congrats to Ryan on his new job and a BIG move from Buffalo to Kansas City. All you KC peeps look out for him! He’s going to need some local friends!

Ryan Knapp is a recovering linguist who writes “my life in soccer,” a look at the (sometimes not so) beautiful game, at www.ryanjknapp.com. When he’s not working 14 hour days and teaching himself random languages, you can find him out for a swim, bike, or run as he prepares for his first 70.3-mile half-Ironman in August and a 140.6-mile full-Ironman in 2011.

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