comments | Amy Mengel

It doesn’t seem possible, but tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of Mengel Musings. From my first, very tentative post to my 100th post Wednesday announcing my new job at readMedia, it’s been a fantastic first year as a blogger. This space has been a way for me to explore the rapidly changing world of PR and communications, force myself to write on a somewhat regular basis, converse with smart people from across the Web and around the world, and even learn a little bit of CSS.

Here’s a retrospective:

Three most-viewed posts in the last year

These posts saw the most traffic on my site. The numbers are probably not totally accurate as some of my posts were syndicated to SocialMediaToday.com and my stats here don’t reflect those page views. But all-in-all, these were popular (in the case of the McDonald’s post it was largely due to Google searches — it still gets traffic daily):

Five reasons corporations are failing at social media
Locally targeted McDonalds ads turning heads
(tie) How I use Google Reader without going insane
(tie) Six ways to add social sizzle to internal communication

Three most-commented-on posts in the last year

I try very hard to respond to commenters and engage in dialogue, so some of these comment numbers are a bit inflated since many of the comments are my own. Still, these posts generated good discussion among readers. In second place with 48 comments was the ‘Five reasons’ post listed above, so I skipped it and moved to the next on the list:

Allan Schoenberg: My Twitter “Patient Zero” (57 comments)
“Become a fan” of Facebook brand fatigue (45 comments)
Can “sponsored journalism” really work? (33 comments)

Three posts that are my personal favorites

These are the posts that, while they may not have gotten a ton of traffic, comments or retweets, are posts that I am most proud of, enjoyed writing the most, or that I think show some of my best thinking:

Where the boys are (hint: in the business school)
Are corporate communicators hopeless in social media?
Anatomy of a social media product launch: Screenr

Year two and beyond

What’s next for Mengel Musings? Well, I may not be posting quite as frequently as I get up to speed in my new role. Secondly, the topics and focus of this blog will probably shift a little. Since I’m now out of the corporate communications world, I’ll be writing less about that. You’ll probably see more posts about how the news and media landscape is shifting and the challenges and opportunities that presents for PR professionals– especially in regards to local news content.

I’ll still write a lot about social media, but I (and many others) am ready to move on from the Shiny Object Syndrome that captivated us all in 2009 and talk more concretely about how social media participation provides value for organizations – how and why companies are using social media to generate sales leads, support integrated paid/earned media campaigns, enhance customer service and loyalty, and provide real value.

Thanks for sticking with Mengel Musings throughout the first year, and I hope you’ll hang around to see what year two has in store. Check the archives and tell me what was your favorite post of the last year. What would you like to see more or less of going forward? As Jason Falls always says, the comments are yours. Let me know.

So much of the hullabaloo about social media is focused on the way brands engage with consumers that we often forget that these new Web technologies are great for internal communication, too. Having spent a good chunk of my career in employee communications, it’s an area that I know could benefit from a little more social sizzle.

Here are 6 ways to spice up an internal program:

Video. How many employees actually read those 1,500-word missives that the CEO sends out each week or month (even if they’re craftily ghost-written by a communicator)? Probably not too many. Try recording the message with a Web cam instead. Execs will love it because it takes less time than the back-and-forth editing of a written piece, and employees will connect more with a real person talking to them than stiffly-written corporate updates. Embed the video on the company intranet and allow employees to rate or comment on it.
Wikis. Version control on a document has been the downfall of many a project. When you have a dozen people working across continents and time zones, e-mailing around a document for review can result in a mishmash of comments and input. Set up an internal wiki for a project that allows team members to edit, review, comment and approve aspects of a project so that everyone’s on the same page.
Internal networks and directories. A great feature of the Web is it’s ability to exploit the “weak ties” among people. A product developer in India may be struggling with a problem that a technologist in Brazil has expertise in. Create an employee skills database that’s internally searchable and allows them to fill out a profile with their interests, expertise and qualifications and post requests. Don’t have the resources to build out your own system? Try creating a private LinkedIn Group for your employees (just make sure they’re not sharing information that’s company-sensitive).
Gather Feedback. Think of what Ford is doing with the Fiesta Movement: allowing a select group of people the opportunity to test a product, provide feedback, and share their experiences. Why not do this with employees? If you’re thinking of implementing a new system or policy, pilot it at a single location first, but allow the employees there to publicly express their thoughts about it via an internal microsite. Most importantly, listen. Take their feedback to heart and make changes to the program before it’s rolled out company-wide.
Develop knowledge communities. Create forums for a particular function, process, location or project and allow employees to ask and asnwer questions. Incentivize them for participating — not necessarily with money or reward — it can be as simple as giving them points or a ranking based on their answers (think Yahoo! Answers). Make it easy for employees to draw on their coworkers’ knowledge and show off their own.
Mobile messaging. Create a short-code system for employees to get messages on their mobile phones. Inclement weather? Let them know the parking lot won’t be plowed and they can work from home (score!). Alert them of urgent, time-sensitive news. Use this platform sparingly (text message still cost many users money, so make sure it is opt-in). For a distributed workforce that may not be at a computer very much (like a field sales team or line manufacturers), text messaging can be a good way to reach employees with must-read news.

What else have you got? How have you seen Web 2.0 concepts used innovatively for internal communication?

Image via Flickr user ..Lodi

Amy Mengel

I used to have a blog here.

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Six ways to add social sizzle to internal communication