The Communications Vault

Get an inside look at JPL’s creative internal employee initiatives in this podcast featuring Executive Chairman, Michael Horgan and Human Resources Director, Melissa Washington.

 

 Inspiring Creativity and Innovation: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You cringe as you open the company website and are greeted by a number of rapidly flashing images. You click and the page explodes into kaleidoscopic text that pulsates with different colors. The phone rings and your e-mail dings, but you already know what they are going to say: The company site has been hacked. This is a corporate nightmare and to think…it all could have been avoided.

There is no question that a hackers’ post can easily ruin a perfectly good day. And it never fails to amaze my clients that their 24-7 billboard to the world is so widely visible. The smallest company can be inundated by phone calls when a security breach takes place. SQL Injection is one of the many web attack mechanisms used by hackers to gain access to the data held within your database.

SQL Injection allows a hacker to pass SQL commands (statements) through a web application for execution by the backend database. If not setup properly, SQL Injection attacks allow hackers to view information from the database and/or even wipe it out. Older sites that take advantage of dynamic scripting languages, such as ASP, PHP, JSP, and CGI are especially vulnerable. A hacker merely needs a web browser, knowledge of SQL queries and creative guesswork to wreak havoc. Read the rest of this entry »

About a million years ago, as a college prep senior, I was required to take “Senior Comp.” This was the class that would prepare us for writing college papers. It was also the class everyone pissed and moaned about. They said things like: it was boring. You had to write too much. It was boring. There were too many assignments. It was…bor-ing. So they said. Ha! They just didn’t get it. Senior Comp was fun!

All the credit for my enjoyment of Senior Comp goes to my former teacher, Miss Heath. She gave me my first important lesson about writing: it’s all about the structure. Structure is the pre-determined organization of your content. It’s the flow or arrangement of ideas that takes your readers from Point A to Point Z. It’s the building blocks you use to tell your story or message. Here’s the one thing Miss Heath made sure we understood: Your writing will either rise or fall on its structure.

I still remember sitting in the front of the class, busily writing essay after essay. Word by word, line by line, paragraph by paragraph, I built stories, crafted persuasive articles, and wrote descriptive compositions – all with relative ease. Because I had the key – I knew about structure. High school may have been a long time ago, but the lessons Miss Heath taught us are still relevant today. Read the rest of this entry »

“Easy reading is damn hard writing.” Nathaniel Hawthorne

I posed the following question: “What is the key to good writing – in 1 word?” to fellow writers. After some grumbling about the request (“Only one word?”), they came up with some great suggestions. See if you agree.

• Structure
• Rhythm
• Ear
• Editing
• Re-writing
• Simplicity
• Economy
• Conviction
• Connect
• Compelling/Engaging
• Conviction
• Pencil

Except for “pencil,” the answers seemed to fall into one of two categories: Mechanics or Audience. The “how” and the “who.” Of course, good writing encompasses both: we have to write well to an audience we know well. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a long overdue task posting here on the Vault and I welcome the invite! I’m a geek by trade as most of you know (or are about to find out). Actually we spell it G33K - the 3’s make it geekier by nature! I’ll try to tone it down a bit, but consider this your warning prior to reading on that this is a g33ky entry.

Often in a normal work week I get asked many questions regarding web development. These questions are on a wide range of topics including Flash, Accessibility, XHTML, CSS… you get the idea. With more and more companies becoming enlightened in the ways of existing content management frameworks, a question that comes up often is: “Which is the right solution for me, a pre-built content management system like Joomla!, Drupal, WordPress (for blogging), or Ektron…or a custom tool that JPL would code specific to my needs?”

Read the rest of this entry »

The old adage “Know thyself” is not as valuable as “Know thy audience” when communicating to others. So many times we make creative or content decisions based on our own window to the world. I was at lunch with my peers last week and a fellow producer commented on a commercial that is on the air for a casino. He thought it was ridiculously bad, but his dad loved it. Guess what? Dad, a senior, is the target audience for that commercial. It doesn’t matter what we think about the message, it’s all about being effective with the audience who is receiving it.

At JPL, “Who’s the audience?” is one of our first questions we ask our customers. When the client says the target is “everybody” or “middle-aged men,” that’s not much to go on. We dig deeper. The more accurately we define who is receiving the message, the more effective we can be in shaping the message to their needs and interests.

Read the rest of this entry »

This past weekend, I was in Atlanta meeting with a group of integrated communications and media production executives from all across the country called e-CAMP. While these companies share much in common, we also have evolved differently based on our clients, markets and the passions of the leaders.

Some of the companies have expanded into producing original programming for television, DVD and the Internet. Some have even started new divisions to focus on these types of opportunities. JPL has experience with original programming, producing Cars at Carlisle for Carlisle Productions and the Speed Channel, producing educational documentaries for the Pa Veterans Museum and recently completing a program on the Harris Cup, a renowned miniature golf tournament. Other companies in our group who have expanded into original programming include Mills - James in Columbus, OH, Interface Media Group in Washington, DC and AMS Production Group in Dallas, TX.

Read the rest of this entry »

In the first two posts in this series, I talked about developing your corporate blog strategy and defined the different types of corporate blogs. I’ll conclude this series with some tips on marketing your blog and some helpful notes before you start blogging.

Marketing Your Corporate Blog

So, you have defined your target audience. You know everything about your demo - what they like to read, watch, and eat. You have developed a strategy for your blog. Now it’s time to get your blog out to the masses. Remember that your blog is an extension of your brand and you should market this tool as you would your website. Some quick marketing tips:

• Email your customer base and inform them about the blog.
• Post a banner or link on your current site to the blog.
• Send a postcard or do an offline campaign promoting your blog.
• Submit your blog to the blog search engines and social networks such as Digg or Technorati.
• Plug your blog at presentation and trade shows.
• Encourage your employees to be enthusiasts and advocates of your blog.
• Add your blog link to your email signature.

There are some great articles on the web about marketing your blog. I recommend Googling the topic and reading some of these articles.

Read the rest of this entry »

People read blogs for multiple reasons. A recent survey by Vizu Answers and Advertising Age revealed that 65.7 % of the respondents read blogs for entertainment; 42.5 % read blogs to learn more about their personal interests/hobbies; 32.5 % for education; 13.1 % because they have a relationship with the author; and 12.3 % read them for work or business needs.

There are many different types of blogs. We can group blogs by media delivery, such as a text blog, a video blog (vlog), a mobile blog, or a photo blog. We can group blogs by subject matter or genre, such as industry, political, travel, etc. And we can group blogs as “personal” or “corporate.” In this post, I’d like to discuss the different types of corporate blogs.

Corporate Blogs

According to Wikipedia, 40 (or 8%) of the Fortune 500 companies are blogging today. JupiterResearch estimates that nearly 70% of all large companies use blogs in some way. There are three main types of corporate blogs: internal communication, external company insight and external subject matter experts. Read the rest of this entry »

Lately, I’ve been receiving a lot of inquiries about blogs. These questions are justified as blogs become more and more popular. Blogs are the place where people are getting their news, expressing their views and releasing “behind the scenes” info. But the real questions are, “Is a blog right for you and your company?” and “How do you use a blog to advance your corporate brand?”

I’m going to make an assumption that if you are reading this post you are familiar with blogs. If not, Wikipedia offers a great definition. I like to define “blogging” as:

• An e-Marketing tactic that should be used as a part of your overall e-Marketing and web site strategy in conjunction with other tactics such as SEO, PPC, e-mail, etc.
• A tactic that should be aligned to complement your traditional media program in timing and in content.
• A PR tool that serves as a voice for a subject-matter expert.
• A form of CGM (consumer-generated media) and Web 2.0.
• A viral marketing technique.
• Finally and most importantly, an extension of your corporate brand.

Read the rest of this entry »