After an absence of about one year, I’m firing up this blog. I’m hoping that the timing is still within spec.

When I began to post regularly on the IABC Cafe, the official blog of the International Association of Business Communicators, time became so short that something had to give. I decided to keep my wife and kids, and to stop writing this blog instead. I have never regretted that decision–until recently.

A couple of wonderful communicators recently referenced me in blog posts, and used this as the link to me. Nothing says “professional” more than having someone follow a link to a dust-covered blog, huh? In utter embarrassment, I decided to go with the flow, and add new content to CommaKazi Speek.

My intent, long-term, is to move to a more polished blog software, such as WordPress. But I have to load that software onto a server and get it up-and-running. Haven’t had time for that up to now.

At work, I’m moving forward with preparation for a presentation to my management regarding the benefits of social media (blogs, podcasts, wikis, RSS feeds, instant messaging). I thought that I was going to be able to present at a June manager meeting, but just learned today that the June meeting has been cancelled. So I am now looking at a July date.

I can’t tell you how relieved I will be if management supports my ideas for introducing social media to our employees. It will improve communication and collaboration, and will take a great amount of tactical burden off of my shoulders.

Professionally, it will allow me to roll up my shirt sleeves and make some tangible improvements. Sometimes, I feel like those people in Hollywood who are “famous for being famous.” You know, the people who always have their pictures taken with celebrities, attend the right social events, and know the right names to drop. They remain on everyone’s minds, even if they haven’t actually done anything of note.

I don’t want simply to continue to talk about the benefits of social media–even if doing so raises my visibility among communication professionals. I want to be able to share real experiences and advice based on hard work and solid planning.

Many of you may be in a similar situation. Please share your successes, challenges and thoughts, so that we all benefit from the exchange.

Who would have thought that a university professor would be the first presenter at the April 27-28, 2006 Corporate Reputation Summit to offer practical, real-world advice for showing the business value of communications? Of course, Paul Argenti is far from a stereotypical, all-theory academic.

Argenti has invested a great deal of time, energy and thought into the practical aspects of corporate reputation, and he shared many insights gained through research and interactions with top corporate leaders. He is a professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, where he prepares students to become real contributors to business. Communicators need to hear the same message, Argenti said to the reputation summit participants.

“Don’t say or imply that ‘We’re different,’ or ‘Communications is an art’ when you talk with executives,” Argenti said. “The executives will just think you’re crazy. You’re not different. You need to measure and strategize.” He showed the following quote from Bill Margaritas, senior vice president worldwide communications and IR at FedEx:

You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Everyone’s looking for a seat at the table, and they ought to be looking at measurement for getting to the table and staying there.”

Companies need to manage their reputations, Argenti said, because studies show that well-regarded organizations generally:

• Command premium prices
• Pay lower prices
• Entice top recruits
• Experience greater loyalty
• Have more stable revenues
• Face fewer risks of crisis
• Are given greater latitude by constituents
• Have higher market valuation and stock prices
• Have greater loyalty of investors and thus smaller stock price volatility

Communications professionals are under pressure from their top management to prove the value of what they do, because many are not linking what they do to the company’s bottom line, and they have not established benchmarks for the communication function, Argenti said. Senior executives want to know how best to allocate communication assets, how communications supports risk management, and how communications at the corporate level can be structured and integrated with other business functions like marketing, sales, legal affairs and corporate development, he added.

Technology allows us now to measure communication value and link it to business results through the use of sophisticated statistical analysis, he said. This statistical analysis allows companies to spot the communication activities that are contributing to business results. “Business value measures the sum of a company’s components and evaluates a company’s worth to relevant constituents” including revenue, profit, sales volume, share price, customer retention and employee retention, Argenti stated in his presentation.

“The biggest mistake many companies are making today is that they’re not paying attention to the impact of intangibles to the company reputation,” he said. “If you look at the top companies in the U.S. and all companies on our planet with strong reputations, the people in charge care a lot about their reputation, and how it gets communicated to the world.”

Anywhere from 35% to 80% of a company’s value depends on intangibles, rather than tangible assets like property, plants and equipment, Argenti said. Intangibles include:

• Brand
• Work quality
• Corporate social responsibility
• Customer loyalty
• Strategy execution
• Alliances
• Innovation/IP
• Communications

Argenti used the following quote from Pete Peterson, chairman of Blackstone Group, which captures the essence of the importance of intangibles:

What matters is what the public thinks, and the public trust is what’s really crashed.

If we searched through the school library at any Community High School District 128 facility in northern Illinois, I wonder whether we would find a copy of George Orwell’s classic, “Nineteen Eighty-Four”? If so, it would be good to offer a copy to the local school board, which on Monday night passed rules changes that will hold students accountable for what they post on blogs and social-networking Web sites. The school board’s action seems “Orwellian” to me.

Here is part of the article from the Tuesday Chicago Tribune:

Associate Supt. Prentiss Lea said the changes are part of an effort to get the district community more knowledgeable about the growing Internet blog phenomenon and more aware of the pitfalls of such sites as MySpace.com.

“By adding the blog sites [to the student codes of conduct], we wanted to raise discussions on the issue,” he said. “We have taken the first steps to starting that conversation.”

Conversation may be starting, but it includes a lot of discussion about overstepping boundaries. The Trib quoted one parent as saying, I don’t think they need to police what students are doing online. That’s my job.” The article states that school district officials will monitor student web sites if they get a tip or other indication that something inappropriate or illegal is posted there.

I have no argument against anyone guarding against illegal or libelous material being posted. In fact, one of my neighbors is an assistant state’s attorney, in charge of the computer crime unit that seeks out and prosecutes child predators. My kids must wonder why I often sound so strident about “safe computing” after I’ve come back from talking with this neighbor.

But this “Big Brother” initiative by the school board is not the way to handle it. Here is the link to the District’s Internet Safety Resource page. There, the District states that it “wants to proactively partner with parents on an education program that provides both our parents and students some basic information on how to use the Internet safely.”

That’s fine. But usurping a parent’s authority and deciding how to hold a student accountable is not the way to handle this. Call the parent(s) and discuss with them how best to deal with the situation.

Our kids will bring their viewpoints of social media into the workplace someday in the near future. I want mine to understand and respect this communication channel. I’ve been having conversations with my kids, and I will be glad to hear from their schools about any potential issues–but the schools need to leave the parenting to the parents.