The Consumer Electronics Association recently released a study showing that 81 percent of American households own cellphones. Information and images increasingly are being transmitted person-to-person through cellphones, rather than being “broadcast” via traditional outlets. This trend has profound implications for how CEOs communicate with their employees and their customers, and the public—and how they listen to what those constituencies are saying.
Laptops? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Laptops |
| CEOs and front-line workers alike will continue to move away from desktop and laptop computers. In their place? PDAs, cellphones, or whatever else will fit in a pants pocket. That’s the prediction of Interlinked Media Inc. Vice President Cal Morton. Morton’s Richardson-based company served as the texting conduit for Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, billing more than $135,000 in payments from the campaign. Clinton texted short messages to tens of thousands of supporters in hopes of getting the lift she needed to overcome Barack Obama’s momentum. Morton said the typical cellphone user sends 230 text messages a month. Google predicts that, within a few years, half of its revenue will come from handheld devices. We’re texting fools. CEOs like these handheld electronic devices because it releases them—and their people—from the office, Morton said. Facebook-style software is becoming increasingly popular among those carrying hand-held devices. Now, company execs are targeting individuals with the most “friends.” Coming next to a PDA near you: direct-texting to said ringleaders, in hopes that they’ll text their bajillion-person network that same message, and get them to throw money in their direction. |
Recently, “citizen” networks have been trumping the official ones. News and images of the earthquake in China’s Sichuan province poured out via cellphones. A technology blogger used a Google function to aggregate messages to estimate the number of deaths before either the Chinese government or the U.S. Geological Survey announced the scope of the disaster.
After the April 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech, schools such as The University of Mississippi required students to register their cellphones. Now alerts on dangerous weather or other potential problems are sent by text message. Many companies are rewriting their crisis communication plans accordingly.
The new uses extend far beyond crises; some manufacturing facilities have equipped employees with hands-free, Bluetooth-enabled phones and no longer page anyone.
So, such organized uses of cellphones for contacts in a business setting are roaring ahead. The downside? Once the technology and the person-to-person nature of communications are established, they don’t confine themselves to the originally envisioned usage. For example, if one of your executives routinely uses expletives or makes sexist comments internally, via cellphone, don’t be surprised to find that material “memorialized” and widely circulated. Companies have recognized the dangers of unfettered expression in e-mails, but cellphone dissemination is even more dangerous. Someone can be photographed or taped on a cellphone without knowing it.
Externally, cellphone images and information have democratized the ability to complain. If a customer spots a cockroach in your restaurant, or anything else that contradicts your marketing, expect it to be memorialized in a cellphone snapshot circulated to the customer’s friends—and posted on YouTube.
One difference between cellphones and sites like Angie’s List and craigslist—where consumers post their own reviews and comments about products and services—is that a consumer has to log on, search, and see what’s being said. These cellular networks work in the other direction, with one person sending a message to others he or she knows.
Most CEOs are just beginning to grasp the implications of YouTube—the concept that informal, frequent video communication is replacing the “letter from the chairman.” Now fast, frequent, short, authentic communication along multiple channels including cellphone text, picture, and screen need to be part of the up-to-date CEO’s communication technique as well. Employees and others want to know they have your number.
