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Same Name, Different Game

March 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Recently, I’ve been getting the occasional message from people having problems playing the Facebook-based game Ravenwood Fair. Seems just because I have RavenWood in the name of my firm, I must be the expert on how to get off level 24 or have all the secrets behind the game. Unfortunately, RavenWood Creative is a marketing and communication firm for businesses and organizations and has no ties whatsoever to the game.

So if you need help with marketing and taking your business to the next level or need graphic or web design services, we’re your firm.

If you need help getting to the next level of a fair game … look elsewhere …

Has your business ever been mistaken for something or someone it’s not, let me know?

Thanks, Tim

Filed Under: marketing, Services, Web Design Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

RavenWood Creative Published in the Library of Congress

April 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Yes, with the acquisition of the Twitter archives by The Library of Congress, where every public tweet ever “SENT” is now archived with the Library, everyone who uses Twitter publicly is now published in the Library of Congress’ vast archives. So such great tweets from @TimErnst and @RavenWoodCreate as the following:

@TimErnst Lots of little projects filling my day, today. But’s it’s these types of days that keep me busy and projects moving. Bouncing 1 to another.

Or my personal favorite, my first tweet: @TimErnst blogging and surfing the web

Or @RavenWoodCreate Just completed the 2009 State of the Market Report for a client, just under 700 pages of Adobe InDesign Layout and… http://bit.ly/djE9Jj

… are all now a part of American history.

As you can see its stunning insights into the human condition that I’m contributing on Twitter. But it is interesting and historic that the LoC has deemed this relatively new form of communication (started in 2006) worthy of archiving. Our President used it to thank supporters when he was elected, and the Miracle on the Hudson was broadcast first on Twitter by rescuers and folks standing on the wings in the chilly river. So it looks like Twitter will be around for a while and it’s archives even longer. Can you imagine a student researching our history in years to come trying to write a report citing their facts in 140 character snippets?

Until next time, Tim

Filed Under: Blogging, Historical, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

RavenWood Creative’s Tim Ernst Featured in Communication World Bulletin

July 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment

CW Bulletin | Combat Information Overload with Visuals – July 2009

 

The July 2009 Communication World Bulletin from IABC features a piece I wrote on using visuals in online communication. Visuals are more that photos on the screen – as websites on their own are a visual media, just like TV and film. Check out my column Using Visuals in Web Communications.

 

Let me know your thoughts on the piece.

 

Until next time, Tim

Filed Under: Design, Technology, Web Design Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Failure of Bailout = Failure to Communicate

October 1, 2008 By 2 Comments

As Congress wrestles with what to do to save it’s rescue plan for the economy, more and more people are agreeing with me that the plan (even as apparently flawed as it seems) was more a victim of poor communication than one of poor execution. Much like I said earlier this week, in my Financial Crisis post bad communication doomed the plan.

ABCNews has now joined the chorus in stating the growing sentiment that the perception of Paulson as a Wall Street Insider (he’s the former head of Goldman Sachs) means people think he wasn’t thinking of main street in constructing his plan. This perception gave way to constituents calling or emailing their congressman or woman and expressing their opinions and urging them to VOTE NO!

What are your thoughts on how the communication of the bailout/rescue plan took place? Let me know.

Until next time, Tim

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Filed Under: Communication Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Do we really need to use jargon?

May 21, 2008 By Leave a Comment

My wife, Eileen, works in marketing for a manufacturing company. Lately, she’s been venting at home about all the jargon in the corporate world. Recently she’s taken up collecting the jargon terms that she feels are being overused. Her goal to fill a “buzzword bingo card.” So far here’s her list:

pushback
escalate
value add
talent management
intuitive
robust
enroll
leverage
gap-closing
showcase
point of pain

To which I would like to add, synergy, maturity, and driven. My wife is not alone, recently I found two sources debating all the jargon used in business. The first is at myragan where communicators and PR executives are discussing the need to use jargon for their clients, “internal” and “external” and among themselves. The second comes from one of my favorite resources on networking and brings up a great point, that with all this jargon in use, your “audience” or even your coworkers might not understand what you’re talking about. It comes from Steve Smolinsky and Kay Keenan at Conversation on Networking and their free email newsletter.

“Jargon Addendum: We are always so happy when readers take something we say and try it out, add to it, and, most importantly, send us the results. This story seems to be a great way to end this month’s issue so read on to the fine thoughts and great information from Jeanne Best:

“Jargon seems to be generational. I am working w/2 twentysomethings and managing them through the planning/execution of a convention of 400+ people. So the other day I was explaining the detailed spreadsheet one of them needed to set up to track materials and I said I know this is a lot of detail but we really need to have a major CYA – you know, cover your a__. The young man said yes to the assignment w/no expression so I asked him do you know what CYA is? He said no. So I explained it. The young woman in our office stopped in and I explained we have to keep this detailed info and that is was an exercise in CYA and I said do you know what it is? Her guess was Catholic Youth Association – made me feel bad to explain reality after all we had all just gone to see the Pope in D.C. but I said no cover your a__. So I learned a new lesson in communication.”

This is such a great example of assuming others know what you’re talking about. It’s another great reason to be clear, to keep away from jargon, to refuse to use abbreviations, to spell it out. Not only that, notice how clever Jeanne is. She actually did what we suggest: ask it they understand. And look what she found out. Thank you Jeanne. Now if you only knew about those little ¤¤ signs we like to use.”

So what jargon terms bug you the most? Let me know and help my wife fill out her bingo card.

Until next time, Tim


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Filed Under: Communication, Networking, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

If Communication Could Only Be This Much Fun

May 6, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Check out this great video from myRagan (a communication consutling firm). If only all communication could be so funny. It’s a sad topic, the recent oil tanker spill off Australia where the bow fell off a ship, when it got pounded by some rough surf, but this is hilarious.

If you know of any other great videos that take a look at the lighter side of communication, let me know.

 Until next time, Tim


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Filed Under: Blogging, Communication Tagged With: , , , , ,

Obsolete Skills and the Skills Needed for Today’s Blog Communication

March 8, 2008 By 4 Comments

The other day I heard about a neat little blog entitled Obsolete Skills. It covers the skills that all of us seem to be leaving in the dust of technical progress. I encourage you to check it out.

Today, some of the skills being used in communication are changing as rapidly as technology and the Internet flashes forward. Blogs seem to be popping up everywhere. I’ve joined at least a half a dozen site just to “socialize” this blog, a skill in itself. I’ve applied to many of them to be accepted into their site. It’s like joining a country club.

The number one parameter they examine — your topics. Blogs are becoming so omnipresent that blog directories are becoming selective in their acceptance of your blog. Find an unexploited niche (your cat’s diet or nuclear physics) and you can find room on their directories. Of late, I’ve been discussing blogs in more detail, this third in a series will examine topics. My case study has focused on “Company S” where I’ve been priviledged enough to have access to their Intranet and its associated blogs. They are top-notch and the employees are just starting to explore what can be discussed and accomplished with blogs.

Everything from wikileaks and Wired Magazine’s coverage of the whistleblower site is being discussed with a tint of how it affects Company S. Other topics include how to make the best use of cutting edge virtual worlds like Second Life in business or graphic design within the company. There is tongue-in-cheek blog that plays on the name of the company’s founder and covers everything from how the company is marketing itself to the latest news that affects the industries the company is involved in.

What blog topics do you think are the most popular? Which ones are the most popular at your company or on your blog? For me it’s about anything discussing this new corporate world that is using Web 2.0 technology. What are your interests and what do you want to hear more about?

Let me know. Until next time, Tim


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Filed Under: Blogging, Communication, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

The Corporate Blog – Tackling Topics of the Day

March 8, 2008 By 4 Comments

This is my second in a series on a company I have unique access to, I’m calling Company S. While its a global company and has a very “corporate” culture its very progressive in its acceptance of technology. They have added a blog component to their very comprehensive Intranet and are experiencing growing pains in getting acceptance and usage from their employees. But that’s what I covered in the first blog entry about Company S.

Let’s discuss some of the topics that are being tackled on their various blogs. In the last entry, I covered that they were experiencing some usage issues by the employees of their managment blog which is presented by the entire management team. After asking some questions of why a lot of employees are reading the blog, yet only a handful are actually leaving comments, the feedback was quick and powerful. They received the most comments back on this entry and the consensus was, discuss topics that affect the employees in their everyday jobs, rather than academic or generic topics pointed to not offend or stir up controversy. These were the majority of the comments. But it was interesting that the questioning-the-value-of-the-blog entry received the most comments in this blog — ever.

The follow-up entry asked more specifically about what topics employees want to hear and what obstacles are in place that hammer the employees from doing their jobs. The feedback has been honest and hopefully helpful for the management to hear. Everything from broken equipment to revising the travel planning system that the sales team uses have been brought up.

Time will tell, and time will also judge the next steps for the blog in the corporate world. But it seems Company S is getting to what truly blogs can do for your company, opening up the communication lines, getting beyond hierarchy and politically correct topics – back to honest and free flowing communication.

The next in the series will cover some of the lighter topics being discussed on Company S’s blogs.

I’m really intersted in hearing what your thoughts are on management blogs. Can they have multiple authors? What topics are most effective for corporate blogs? How is your company using blogs, or what’s preventing them?

Until next time, Tim

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Filed Under: Blogging, Communication, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Corporate Blogging Experiencing Growing Pains

February 23, 2008 By 1 Comment

I’m fortunate enough to be doing some Intranet work for a large global corporation that embraces technology. There Intranet is far reaching and vastly out shines what I’ve seen from other “progressive” corporations. My work is just refined to an initiative for a division in the US, but their Intranet spans the globe and is very current. But I’m not writing about the entire Intranet here, rather one of the tools that – let’s call them “Company S” – is experimenting with and feeling some growing pains and adoption issues with - the corporate blog. Unfortunately, they are internal blogs and can’t be shared here, but we can examine their challenges and learn from them.

It’s interesting Company S has taken the blog and run with it, there must be 25-30 different blogs covering such topics as diversity, design, social media, technical or engineering to great ones on odd jobs at Company S, Second Life and management. It’s the management one in particular that is experiencing the growing pain and participation issues. Seems the blog started in the fall of 2007 and has had 15 weekly topics presented from different members of the management team. That fact alone makes me wonder, because this blog doesn’t have a single voice, does that effect employees getting involved? As for participation their are roughly 3,000 employees that have access and supposedly be interested in what management is saying, yet over the 15 weeks their have only been a total of 95 comments.

Armed with these stats, the party responsible for the blog, management but also the corporate communications team is asking for feedback through the blog. Asking about its value, the topics presented, and how to get more employees involved. So far the most comments of any topics have arrived at the blog – with an overwhelming majority finding value in the blog. Seems the employees want to make some changes to this blog to build its value. It’s the present topics that people are finding fault with. They feel that are to academic, generic or sterile. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the employees are seeing through the facade and getting a sense that nothing daring or transparent is being shared within the blog. That management might not be truly writing this blog. A blog needs to be written by its author, not a department assigned to present sales figures and company position in a sterile and formulaic fashion. It’s not the cc department’s fault, and it’s not confined to just Company S, every company wanting to take advantage of this communication tools need to be daring and get beyond the old school mentality that they control the message, but also need to convince management to author their own messages and start sharing. Once they do that, and take the celebrity bloggers and political bloggers lead they will find similar participation. As BusinessWeek pronounced if you aren’t using social media to reach and motivate employees and customers – your competition will.

Let me know your thoughts on this topic – can corporations use the blog to its fullest, or are old school mentalities dooming it?

I’m going to discuss the other blogs at Company S and some of the great discussions they create in future entries. Please let me know your thoughts, until next time, Tim

Filed Under: Blogging, Networking Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Communication – Sometimes it is Life or Death

September 19, 2007 By Leave a Comment

I was reminded the other night just how important good, clear communication is to many organizations out there. Sure, your corporation needs what I call the 7Cs to Communication.

1 be correct, 2 be consistent, 3 be clear, 4 be concise, 5 be coherent, 6 be complete, 7 be creative.

Now put yourself in the shoes (or boots) of firefighters. The 7Cs have to be present at all times as it’s a matter of life or death during a fire when all of your surroundings are in chaos. The fire company I belong to has just begun formal training in RIT (Rapid Intervention Team) or sometimes called FAST (Firefighter Assistance and Safety Team) where we are learning how to focus on just the safety and rescue of downed firefighters, that’s it, a single focus amongst a chaotic scene.

One point the instructor made perfectly clear was communication breakdowns can get you in trouble or may be dead. He cited many incidents, Worcester Cold Storage a few years ago, Charleston, SC, (2007), Hackensack, NJ (1988), or Houston, TX (2007), where poor communication got firefighters into trouble and caused many deaths. Over and over again, unclear, incoherent and incomplete communication took place, either because the radio frequencies were jammed, fireground officers were busy, or incorrect information was presented. In one instance, Hackensack, the mayday call was heard by someone listening in on a scanner at home and they had to drive to the scene to let the officer’s know firefighters were in trouble. More information on firefighter close calls can be found at  http://www.firefighterclosecalls.com/

Like I said at the beginning of this piece, your organization usually doesn’t deal with such consequences, but wouldn’t clear, communication help? We’ve all been there when a miscommunication causes worry, angst, or even someone to get reprimanded because they weren’t sure what to do. Technology is a wonderful thing, such as new radio frequencies in the fire servce which are great, but if everyone tries to talk at once on a single frequency it defeats the purpose. The same with corporate communication technologies, if all the effort is put in a podcast, then those who don’t have access to the mp3 files miss out. But targeted communication on multiple levels (frequencies) with cross-referencing (multiple radios) can help. It’s taken years for the fire service to realize this, and just as many for the corporate world. But help is available to cut through the clutter and help with the 7Cs. Just ask …

‘Til next time, Tim

Filed Under: Communication, Welcome Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,