Holtz Communications + Technology

The skepticism, risk-aversion and ignorance that held companies back from embracing digital and social media is fading. Senior leaders are taking responsibility for their companies’ digital strategies, according to a McKinsey & Company report. That’s good news, since leadership’s failure to pay attention to digital is most often cited as the reason initiatives fail.

The C-suite’s discovery that digital pays is producing some great…

The activity stream displaying what employees have been doing is one of the keysections of the Fehr & Peers intranet home page. It can be filtered to display just thoseemployees with whom you have connected, along with other views.

After FIR co-host Shel Holtz posted an item to his blog about the future role of activity streams on intranets, Corey Connors got in…

(c) Can Stock PhotoNot too long ago, if you read a post on this blog, odds were you found it in an RSS reader. Subscribing to RSS feeds was a great way to stay current on what people were writing about. Companies like Siemens USA encouraged employees to subscribe to internal feeds. Whole business models emerged around using RSS readers…

While between 30 and 42 percent of companies (depending on which research you cite) still block employee access to social media, research increasingly suggests that training employees is more effective than trying to keep them from engaging. The Filene Research Institute—which conducts research for credit unions—wanted to offer training to credit union employees, and asked QUEsocial to modify their off-the-shelf product (one…

(c) Can Stock PhotoHardly a week goes by without some big news dominating our attention, making it harder to catch some of the lesser-reported stories that still could be of value for communication professionals. This week, the sacking of the entire Chicago Sun-Times photo desk was at the top of the heap, and the implications of that decision will reverberate…

Let’s start with a basic premise: Most employees want to do a good job. They want raises, bonuses, promotions and recognition. They take pride in their work. Obstacles to doing well frustrate them. And they’ll use whatever tools are available to reduce hassle and improve their ability to succeed.

I have seen this first-hand conducting audits for clients whose employees—embracing the BYOD (Bring Your Own…