ZN

Organizations most receptive to change are likely to have a competitive edge, making use of all the opportunities along their path. But who is the right person to lead the change, armed with the tools and knowledge to adapt to an ever-changing environment?

Enter the agents of change.

These individuals, with their finely tuned balance of attributes, act as catalysts for change and help their own companies adapt and survive in a transient environment. Their roles are valuable but can also be precarious, with obstacles littered along the way.

The term “agent of change” may not always have a positive connotation, particularly if change, and the important role it plays, is not yet widely understood within the organization. If a headstrong individual comes armed with a ready prepared manifesto and doesn’t take into consideration the internal hunger for transformation, things can go awry (take the story of Jack Griffin, a change agent at Time Inc., for example). But, if you have the right person with the right mindset, incredible things can happen.

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Lately, we’ve discussed the importance of understanding the online landscape prior to building an online communication strategy (see previous posts here and here). This time, let’s dive into the actual campaign, skipping past establishing your digital strategy and creating online assets.

You’re probably aware that once your campaign is in full swing, an essential part of your daily activity should be to monitor its performance and, in particular, what’s being said online. But why? Because individuals around the world are talking about brands, products and other topics of interest every day – and if your campaign is working properly, your brand should be what they are talking about!

Social listening enables you to see your campaign’s performance beyond website statistics and see the social context, so you can quickly adapt your tactics to boost performance. For those who don’t listen, chances are you are missing out on some very valuable learning opportunities. And this is a common occurence, as many organizations think they are hitting the mark on which topics/issues to address, when in fact they should make a U-turn.

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For the past few months, we were delighted to have Chloe de Hoffman join our team as an intern and we are grateful for all her hard work. In the article below, she shares her experience working at ZN. As she prepares to finish her studies and enter the working environment, we wish her all the best.

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Answering this question even a few weeks after TEDxBrusselsChange is easy.
No. It will not.

Europe is teeming with ideas and innovative solutions. There is a pervasive spirit that constantly pushes for new ways of thinking, new ways of acting, and new ways of making an impact. The video below will give you a feel of these things as experienced at TEDxBrusselsChange.

In line with this spirit, a number of great projects tackling health-related issues have been born. One of these was very much inspired by Lode Dewulf's talk on Breaking Pregnancy Taboos, which led to my involvement in setting up a coalition: http://www.pregnancytaboos.org that aims to tackle the issue of pregnancy and medication.

With events like TEDxBrussels and TEDxBrusselsChange giving rise to initiatives that can actually make a difference, who would want the positive disruption to end?

The International Association of Business Communicators’ EuroComm 2013 in Brussels drew to a close a few days ago. And, predictably enough, given all the planning and hard work that went into preparing it, the event was a resounding success. The conference slogan – Disruptive Communication for Disruptive Times – sought to convey both the inescapable uncertainties and the huge opportunities that face professional communicators who are seeking a way to convey their messages through the (dis)information blizzard.

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If I told you that with one mouse click you could impact change, would you believe me? Chances are you wouldn’t.

But Julie Dixon, Deputy Director of Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact Communication, would have you believe that you could.

Watch the full live stream video from TEDxChange 2013.

At the core of Julie’s talk at TEDxChange 2013 is the notion that in a world where everyone is interconnected by social media, personal influence is a currency that is just as valuable as money.

She asserts that by simply liking a campaign, sharing a photo or video, signing a petition, writing a blog, or supporting a crowd-funded campaign and asking people to take action, you leverage your influence and reach out to other people in your network. These people can potentially influence others; share their money, time or other resources that will enable the success of the cause.

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Over the past few months, we’ve been working with SCA, a global hygiene and forest products company, to launch Life Inspiring Careers. With a goal of increasing recruitment for their sites across the globe, Life Inspiring Careers brings to the forefront careers that have real meaning, employees who are continuously challenged and enjoy what they do, and a company that contributes to the betterment of society and the environment.

To show exactly how fun it can be to work at SCA (and to reach Gen Y), we got creative with our video shoot. Check out how we tackled the Mystery Careers shoot with cool equipment and a bit of ingenuity:

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I strongly recommend you watch Simon Sinek's How great leaders inspire action:

Particularly at the beginning of a project, the editorial team spends a lot of time working with a client to help reshape their current corporate voice and storyline to be ready for the digital age. Once done, this storytelling approach transcends the digital channels and is used in all communication activity, be it internal, external, above-the-line or offline.

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The accounts team keeps growing and we couldn’t be happier! In January, Thanh-Nhan Mai Trung joined the ZN team. Born in Belgium but with Vietnamese and Chinese origins, we’ve jokingly called Thanh a “Fasian”. Currently in her “baking period”, the entire ZN team has been feasting on the pastries she’s brought for us to try. Besides baking, she enjoys eating, cooking and experimenting.

I had a chat with Thanh to learn more about her.

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Like the universe, the Internet is continuously expanding. By the end of 2011, 2.3 billion people were connected to the Internet and 1 billion people had mobile-broadband subscriptions. We also know that they were busy writing 28,000 blogs on Tumbler, uploading 48 hours of new video, sending 100,000 tweets, and entering 2,000,000 search queries on Google – every minute. That’s a huge audience and a lot of data.

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