Category Archives: Communication Strategy

Netflix’s Communication Style: A Study in What NOT to Do

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I must confess that I have a soft spot for Netflix. I worked there briefly eons ago when the company was in its infancy and I had briefly toyed with joining the dark side and leaving consulting. 😉 Back then, Marc Randolph was CEO. I liked Marc. I liked the product. And I just knew the company would do well, and it did—something my husband likes to remind me of from time to time, since I didn’t stay long enough to vest.

So, given this fondness, I was sad to see Netflix make such a muck of things these past few months. Some say its arrogance. Some say its greed. Some say Netflix is just moving too fast. The latter is not new.

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Communication Strategy: “A” Is for Audience

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Whenever I hear “social media should be real, transparent, and audience focused,” I find myself nodding and wondering at the same time. I agree. It should. But why stop there? All communication should be that way. If it were, it would be way more successful.

Fresh from graduate school, where all I studied was communication—how we humans communicated, what worked, what didn’t—I approached every marcom project as a communication vehicle. My view: it didn’t matter how snappy the writing was or how cool the design looked, if it didn’t resonate with audience—if it didn’t communicate—the chances of success were slim.

Fast forward 15 years, and the mantra of “real, transparent, and audience focused” is heard everywhere—but only for social media. It’s a start, and I love it. But let’s make it the mantra for all communication.

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Effective Customer Communication: Three Key Factors

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A while back, I answered a question posted on LinkedIn. The original question related to whether the person should use first person or third person for team bios. However, the advice I offered applies to any customer-facing communication, be it your website, marketing collateral, or social media tool. Just substitute your 100 percent genuineparticular activity for “bios/site” and what I wrote still applies.

No matter what customer-facing communication you’re developing, be it your website, marketing collateral, or social media tool, there are three factors you should consider when making decisions: your audience, your company’s personality, and best practices – with audience being the absolute most important one. That may seem obvious, and most people would nod their heads in agreement, however, it’s often not what companies do. Continue reading →

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