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.

The making of successful agents

A successful agent of change should build a facts-based case for the moves they intend to catalyze, taking into account the opinions of those it will affect and available to all who will be expected to participate.

A good agent of change should be:

• Approachable and Reliable – fostering strong relationships built on trust, so people feel changes are being made with them not for them.
• Patient and Persistent – acknowledging that change can take time and realizing that as long as people are moving in the right direction, speed is not always so important but being relentless is.
• Daring – unafraid to ask the tough questions and find solutions, they can push organizations ahead and create more leaders rather than followers.
• Understanding and Accommodating – truly knowing the culture of the organization and having a deep understanding of the challenges that people face, and being agile enough to adapt.

It’s not just those in positions of responsibility that can act as change agents; individuals throughout the ranks can do so as well. We’ve worked with quite a few agents of change over the years, such as Angus Thomson, Céline Schillinger and Pascal Barollier, who all work with Sanofi Pasteur, and our very own Helen Dunnett, who used to work with ECPA. Their ability to adapt to change along with their eclectic mix of social attributes is what makes them successful at pushing boundaries.

And for those who already have these people in their organization, keep them there. If you let them leave, your company could take a step back instead of steadily advancing forward.

Are you ready to shake things up? We’ll guide you along the way.

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.

Monitoring the social context of your campaign is particularly beneficial to stay on top of things. If there is an event, you can leverage that to create a buzz and really follow the discussions that are taking place and see the impact that your communication has. If a crisis happens, you won’t be in the dark and you’ll be able to effectively manage things.
 

Overall, online monitoring outcomes are manyfold. It allows you to:

• Measure reach and ROI (of a brand or campaign)
• Identify and explore new topics
• Understand market perceptions
• Identify key players and influencers
• Benchmark yourself against the competition
• Understand and anticipate challenges

Now for some mind reading. Your next question is: “How do I choose the best monitoring tool?” Right? It’s a perfectly valid question as there are plenty of tools out there, each one having its own methodology, algorithm, coverage, depth of analysis, reporting system, and, of course, price. (For a comprehensive comparison on a number of different tools available, check out Goldbach Interactive’s Social Media Monitoring Tool Report 2012.)

However, the market is constantly evolving so, the best advice I can give you is to stay curious and keep experimenting with different tools until you find the one that best suits your needs.

That’s why we’re not attached to any particular technology. Our approach to monitoring is to offer the most relevant solution to every client. But more importantly, to add perspective and meaning to the data we collect from these analytical tools.

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.

My ZN Journey

I have been a student for more than twenty years now, but I have to admit that I was getting tired of sitting in classrooms while listening to teachers. In order to complete my master’s degree I had to complete an internship program. I was looking forward to it since it would give me the opportunity to put some theory into practice.

Needless to say, all this was a bit scary for me as it would be a major shift in my life. I would now have a strict schedule and responsibilities. Parties till 5AM during the week would definitely be over.

When I first visited ZN’s website, I noticed that the team was incredibly international. ZN had people coming from all around the world, an English-speaking environment, and it was a communication agency focusing on digital. It felt like an almost perfect match for me and I remember checking my emails every minute to see if I had heard back from them.

I was in Château de la Hulpe and my 3G connection was very weak when I got an email asking if I was still interested to come in for an interview. I remember running around with my iPhone hoping to get a better signal in order to send my answer. That was in September.

I joined ZN in February. The first week was not really easy as everything was very new for me. But because ZN is not an agency with 1,000 people, I felt reassured after getting to know all the members of the team.

I learned a lot, met great people and worked on lots of different projects. I was always kept busy and had such great experiences that time just flew by.

The biggest and most challenging part of my internship was helping Philip Weiss and Oana-Maria Vieru organize EuroComm 2013. It took place in mid-April in Solvay Brussels School and hosted communicators from all around the world. There was a lot of coordination and organization that needed to get done. I had to touch base with our sponsors, make sure banners were published on partner websites, and newsletters were sent, among many other tasks. To be honest, I have never received so many emails in such a short span of time! But the event was a great success, and that made everything worthwhile.

However, there was one thing that I did not like about my internship – having to take the bus every morning! I would have preferred to bike to work each day, but unfortunately Brussels is way too hilly.

In the end, I’m glad that I will be graduating soon. What this training period made me realize is that growing up and having a job isn’t that bad (I’m more than happy to start working!), and that internships are not always about bringing coffees and making copies.

Thank you, ZN team. It has been a pleasure to work with every one of you!

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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?

ZN has been involved with IABC for many years, and this year the team was heavily involved in actually convening and organizing EuroComm. An extraordinarily varied program filled with some big hitters (and the odd maverick) proved to be an irresistible draw to hundreds of participants from business, finance, marketing, and – this being Brussels – the European Commission and Parliament.

Post-conference discussion revealed how personal highlights varied, but from the plenary sessions, Jaume Duch Guillot – on the need for the European Parliament to reconnect with its electorate – was particularly compelling, while many felt that a workshop from author and businessman John Smythe on The Rise of Employee Engagement may have pointed the way to the future. And, needless to say, there were plenty of chances for audience members to tell their own stories of communicative disruption and reinvention, provided they could do it in five minutes flat!

“TED”-style plenary presentations by the speakers – short, sharp, no time for messing about – proved to be an innovative hit, and these were followed by Q&A sessions and panel discussions in which insight, debate and disagreement flowed back and forth. Some might shy away from disagreement for fear of negative consequences, but I believe that these should be welcomed.

Read more of Phil’s thought-provoking ideas here: http://www.hyperthinker.eu/2013/freedom-fighters-and-ceos/

*Photo courtesy of salvophoto.com

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.

While her talk doesn’t go into the host of other variables that make campaigns successful, she does offer a number of interesting insights in The Permanent Disruption of Social Media, a paper co-written with Denise Keyes. And although the piece is geared towards non-profits, corporate players would benefit from reading it as well.

“Because there are so many different activities that people can be involved with, organizations need to be strategic about what they ask supporters to participate in,” they write. They found that if you ask people to donate money, that is exactly what they will do; if you ask them to forward emails, they will; if you ask for time, they’ll give it – the level of commitment, involvement and influence varies depending on the audience that is reached. This is why it is important to know your audience and have varying yet targeted calls to action.

Source: http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_permanent_disruption_of_social_media

But getting the ball rolling takes a lot of work and spreading the word on social media can lead to “external ambassadors” (people who don’t work for the organization) spreading the message in their own way. “There’s a certain amount of the ‘they’re not going to say it the way we’re going to say it’ mentality,” says Mark Rovner, founder and principal at Sea Change Strategies, “but the cost-benefit ratio is still going to be positive.”

Loss of control is something that many companies struggle with when delving into social media. But, as Julie Dixon and Denise Keyes state, “…perhaps with the loss of control comes an increase in authenticity and transparency, both qualities that can greatly enhance an organization’s overall communications.”

So, are you ready to lose a bit of control and impact change?

Find out more about great initiatives and ideas stemming from TEDxChange by visiting TEDxBrusssels and be inspired to take action by reading about some great causes that can truly make a difference.

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:

and this is what the final video looks like:

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.

Inspired by Simon Sinek, we now start our projects by asking our clients one simple question: “Why do you do what you do?” Surprisingly, the answer doesn't always come immediately. However, it's fantastic to watch the faces in the room when it does. In one moment, there arrives a clear sense of purpose mixed with admiration for their own industry, which was previously buried in the usual pressures of the day job.

Asking this one question gives birth to a storyline and content that is focused, fresh, genuine and compelling. The why represents the whole organisation, and it begs to be told by many people within the organisation, which fits perfectly within ZN's “show me, don't expect me to trust you” content approach.

So, have you asked yourself why recently?

Your turn: at the very core, why do you (or your organisation) do what you do? I hope you enjoy Simon's video and I'd love to hear what struck you most about his model.

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

Angelica: Before joining ZN, what you were doing? And how did you join ZN?

Thanh: I finished my Masters in Business Engineering (Major in Finance) at Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management in September 2011 (after enjoying a semester in Singapore in 2009). After that, I went to San Francisco for a 1-year master’s degree in International Business at Hult International Business School, where I got to enjoy the company of people from over 50 different countries. During that year, I also spent two month in Shanghai and had an internship at SurveyMonkey in Palo Alto, California.

In September 2012, I decided to come back to Brussels to find my first “real” job. While job hunting, I spent two months working on an SEO project for Microsoft. Then, during a family dinner, my cousin asked me, “Have you tried applying to ZN?” And I said, “ZN?” Because I did some volunteering for TEDx in San Francisco and attended TEDxShanghai, and since ZN was part of TEDxBrussels, she suggested that I have a look at ZN. So I started doing some research on ZN and got an interview in December. While waiting at the entrance to the office, I saw a writable wall where people could leave comments or share their thoughts. From that moment, I knew that I wanted to work for this creative company.

After a couple of interviews, I joined ZN in January 2013.

Angelica:  What’s your work at ZN like? What do you do? What are your main responsibilities/clients?

Thanh: I am starting as a project coordinator. So I try to facilitate projects. At the moment, I am mainly helping with budgeting, planning and coordinating projects, which is pretty exciting, to be honest. What I really like about what I do is that I handle a bit of everything. I am in contact with the client, I crunch numbers, I use my creativity, and I discover something interesting each day because the world of communication is always evolving and our clients’ projects are so diverse.

Angelica: What do you like most of working at ZN? What makes the work at ZN different from other companies doing something similar?

Thanh: What I really like about ZN is the mingling of cultures/international environment. Next to me I have a Singaporean, a Filipino, a Flemish Belgian, a French Belgian, a Colombian and a Mexican. For me, it is like a mini-Hult. I believe that this mingling of cultures is one of the things that makes the creative work at ZN different. Divergent thinking generates much more creativity than convergent thinking.

Angelica: Are you a Hyperthinker? Why?

Thanh: Not yet 100% hyperthinker, but the transition is in progress… I would say that at the moment I am at 50%. I have a lot of fun learning new things and each time I learn something I am “Woah, they can do that?” or “Woah, that is how it works!” I am also very adaptive to changing environments and/or situations, and I always try to see others’ perspectives. What I definitely need to work on is my hyperlinking side J

Angelica: Could you suggest a movie or a travel destination?

Thanh: I really like Woody Allen’s movies. They always make me laugh. As for travel destinations, if you find yourself in North America, I’d totally recommend San Francisco! It’s a great place to have fun and there are so many great people, great places and great food! If you go to Asia, Thailand is amazing! They have very welcoming people, amazing landscape, great diversity and exquisite food! As for Europe, Brussels in the summer!

Find out more about Thanh by checking out her profile.

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The problem is making sense of it all when you are crafting your communication strategy. In this fast-paced world of information, where countless competing entities try to capture the public’s attention, you need powerful insights that help you grab awareness and engage your audience. This is where a digital mapping comes in.

A digital mapping is an analysis of the relevant digital landscape tailored for your campaign needs. At ZN, we look at an array of factors, including audience behaviour, media activity, social media activity, information availability, and digital trends. We also look at the level and performance of your communication activities, and those of key players in the digital environment you want to enter. All these findings are then analysed and turned into a set of informed communication tactics that help you build a strong and informed communication strategy.

Content Marketing – This year’s trend

Many marketers are saying content marketing is going to be their top priority for 2013. This means they will need to personalise content for their audiences. However, to do this effectively, they will also need analytical skills – which many marketers say they lack.

It is true that the essence of content marketing is simple and the first advice you will often see is a variation of: “providing relevant, high quality content for your audience”. However, the key to success in that advice is the word relevant. Relevant content delivers what the audience wants, which requires marketeers to understand the behaviour and interests of their audience. This is only acquired by collecting, sorting and analysing data.

That’s why, at the core of the editorial team’s consulting advice, there is an audience profile – mapping behaviour and interests. ZN has preached the benefits of content marketing for a long time, and it is one of the editorial department’s specialties. So, if you want to understand your digital landscape, want insights about your audience, or question the performance of your content marketing, put our digital mapping and expertise to the test.