When ground forces are on the move, or fighter jets take to the air, they remain in real-time contact with their direct commander and upwards through higher levels of command to produce precise results. These clear lines of communication, though they involve different people, hierarchies, and systems are the core of mission success. For businesses, when these lines of communication become disconnected, the result is improperly filled orders, missed expectations, boardroom surprises, and customer dissatisfaction.  By creating a system of clear communication tactics in your business, you can increase the number of your company’s “mission successful” operations.

The keys to a successful business communications strategy are:

Strategic Communications Plan
A comprehensive strategic communications plan is crucial in order to strengthen a company’s corporate identity and elevate awareness of diverse capabilities and services.  Develop a plan with various communications tactics that will enhance and increase positive awareness of your corporate profile. A customized corporate communications plan will increase growth and success for both current and future pursuits.  Communication tactics and strategies may include targeted advertising, public relations efforts, community outreach/donations, trade show and job fair activity, social media practices, internal communications tools and external communications projects.  Implementing these communication tactics will create a strong corporate image, expand local, national, and international awareness, and generate multiple-level media coverage. It is also important to note that your strategic communications plan should constantly evolve as to accommodate to trends in the ever-changing business market.

Message Architecture
Key messages are developed through research of company’s products/services, position, and targeted audiences. With repeated presentation, key messages ensure dissemination of clear, consistent, and compelling information through all applicable communication channels.  Your company’s leadership team should conduct “off-sites” on a regular basis in order to focus and plan on your future.  This will allow your key decision makers to strategize, brainstorm, and reflect upon the state of the company.  Developing mission, vision, and value statements are crucial and this will provide the added benefit of strengthening your image and corporate identity for business through effective key messaging.

Internal/External Communications
An organization needs to focus an extensive amount of time and effort on both internal and external communications.  For companies that have displaced employees, internal communications is a crucial and vital function.  Keeping your employees connected is very important, regardless of physical boundaries.  Develop and implement communication tools such as an employee intranet, newsletter, email marketing, and social media to stay connected with employees, customers and potential customers.

Media Relations Strategy
One of the most important needs of any organization is the ability to maintain a powerful image in the marketplace through positive channels of communication for targeted audiences.   A media relations strategy is an excellent tool to promote your company, elevate name recognition, and create “top of mind” awareness with current and potential clients. A major initiative is to secure media coverage; this adds credibility to your products, services, and capabilities.  To amplify media exposure in your key markets, try connecting current trends in your industry to your programs and services your company offers.

A communications strategy can be used as a reference for positioning activities in order to increase awareness, interest, and credibility with your targeted audiences.  This will help propel your company to the forefront of your industry and will further position your company in the public consciousness.  This in turn will provide a positive representation that is warm and receptive to embrace, rather than cold and indifferent.

Use these strategies and tactics outlined above in order to create your personal “blueprint” communications plan that clarifies and defines your company’s vision and values.  An organization will not succeed without specially crafted and well-executed communications efforts.  By defining these clear lines of communication, your business will be ready to face the battlefield of acquiring new customers, and keeping employees apprised of critical information so that your business can report “Mission Successful.”

About the Author:
Miranda Bouldin is the Founder and CEO of LogiCoreHSV, a rapidly-growing and leading technology and solutions company with worldwide technical services support capabilities and experience in defense, aerospace, and government agency support. LogiCore’s reputation for high-quality services is a direct result of our passion for achievement and focus on Schedule, Cost, Performance, and Quality.  Understanding that immediate support is vital to mission success, LogiCoreHSV delivers direct response with quality solutions to customer needs. For more information, please visit http://www.logicorehsv.com.

More and more small-business owners have their heads in the clouds these days — and that’s a good thing.

That’s because Internet-based, “cloud” computing and communications services accessible from any PC and from any location are now available at a fraction of the cost of hardware alternatives. These solutions offer small businesses tremendous flexibility and productivity advantages while eliminating the burden of managing and supporting costly, premises-based equipment.

It helps that one company known for developing innovative business communications services offers a powerful cloud communications solution that lets subscribers manage day-to-day communications online from any Web browser. This enhances business productivity while reducing overhead expense by providing integrated, one-stop access to an affordable suite of essential communications tools.

The 8×8 Virtual Office Pro cloud communications solution features an easy-to-use online dashboard that enables:

• Unlimited local and long-distance VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calling (plus advanced PBX calling features) from a PC, iPhone or desk phone;
• A visual overview and online control of business calling activity;
• One-click access to contacts and co-workers;
• Video Web conferencing with call recording and archiving;
• Unlimited faxes;
• Presence management that tells workers whether you’re logged in, logged off, on the phone, off the phone or currently unavailable;
• Comprehensive view of all voice mails, recordings, fax messages, calls and chat history.

According to Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise voice and data at Infonetics Research, “From our IP PBX survey, it appears businesses are increasingly embracing a hosted services model to more easily ramp their capacity needs up and down without a huge cash layout for equipment.”

With hosted services like 8×8 Virtual Office Pro, priced at under $50 per user, a company’s administration and use of its everyday communications tools are now as simple as sending an e-mail or clicking a contact name to place a call. This is further enhanced by the efficiency and productivity advantages associated with having supplemental communications capabilities from a single provider right at your fingertips.

For additional information, visit http://www.8×8.com.

Fidipidi is a new service that allows users to create highly customized cards online that are physically delivered to the recipient. Currently offered only through Facebook, fidipidi makes the process of creating, ordering and sending an original greeting card simple and intuitive.

Fidipidi is hassle-free thoughtfulness — no need to get in a car, find a store, shop for a card that comes close to expressing what you want to say, address it, buy a stamp, and mail it. With fidipidi, going from the thought of a person to sending a real card can be accomplished in minutes.

Fidipidi combines what’s great about buying from brick-and-mortar card retailers – a physical greeting card – with the ease of creating an e-card. Yet fidipidi is more than these two things. Fidipidi is a place where users can spontaneously create a one-of-a-kind memory in an easy, convenient and affordable way. The fidipidi app takes advantage of Facebook functionality to make these actions not only easy, but more “in the moment” and highly personal.

Fidipidi offers more than 250 exclusive greeting cards with pick-and-choose messages that speak to holidays, events and special occasions. Senders can select from the available designs and sentiments to create original cards, or they can further customize their creations by downloading photos and crafting their own more personalized messages. Fidipidi can also sync Facebook birthdays, holidays and events so users have plenty of notice on the big moments in the lives of their friends and family.

Once visitors have used fidipidi to create a customized card, it is printed on paper, sealed, stamped, and put in the mail to the recipient – usually within 24 hours.

Although fidipidi will be incredibly convenient during holidays and special occasions, it was created as a way for social users to take “just because” moments beyond a Facebook “poke” or a wall post. To include family and friends in on a thought, an idea or a funny experience – or just to let them know they are being thought of – “random acts of fidipidi™” are always encouraged.

To further encourage these spontaneous gestures, the fidipidi experience is currently being offered at no charge to the first 15,000 people to use the application and enter the special promotion code. The offer can be redeemed at http://www.facebook.com/fidipidi with the offer code “1stCardFree.” The price for an original customized fidipidi card with envelope is $3.99 plus applicable sales tax and a first class fidipidi postage stamp.

To learn more visit http://www.facebook.com/fidipidi.

There are people who keep their to-do lists in a notebook. At the end of each week, they can look at it and be pleased about their successes and aggravated by their procrastinations.

Here’s another good idea:
At the end of the week, think back on the words you have spoken to co-workers and people who work for you. You won’t have much trouble remembering various conversations.

On the plus side, you will think of your words of encouragement, those that made people feel uplifted, and words that made them be engaged and cooperative.

Your second list won’t be as nice. Stop to think of words that were harmful. What did you say about someone whose name came up at a meeting? Did you say something that made someone feel ashamed if they overheard your remarks? Did you criticize people rather than the jobs they did?

Some combinations of words are powerful in a positive way:
“I made a mistake.”
“What is your opinion?”
“We …”

There are many others. A business professor at Indiana Wesleyan University says it’s valuable to intentionally use positive expressions like these. The power of carefully chosen words can build trust and create the kind of workplace where people want to contribute their very best.

Are men more trustworthy than women or vice versa? Are older people more trustworthy than younger people? Can you trust some industries more than others? These and other trust-related questions are answered in a new study conducted by Trusted Advisor Associates, a management consultancy focused on the role of trust in business.

The data are based on 10,000 responses to the company’s online Trust Quotient™ — a proprietary self-assessment instrument that measures trustworthiness as a composite of four components (credibility, reliability, intimacy and self-orientation). The responses were scored on a scale and combined to produce an overall trust number rated on a scale of 100. The study represents the largest ever on the subject of trustworthiness, and the implications of the findings bring some much-needed definition and texture to the broader dialogue around issues of corporate ethics, integrity and trust.

For example, men and women achieve nearly equal trust ratings but they get there quite differently, the data show. Older and retired workers rate significantly higher on the trust scale than do younger workers. And despite popular stereotypes, trustworthiness varies more at the personal level than at the industry level–trust is largely a personal phenomenon.

“While there’s been a lot said recently about trust in business, much of it understates the role of personal trustworthiness,” said Charles H. Green, founder of Trusted Advisor Associates and developer of the Trust Quotient and other trust diagnostics. “Despite the attention we give issues like metrics, ethics and corporate transparency, the role of personal trustworthiness in corporate leadership remains underplayed. Trust starts and ends with people.”

Who are more trustworthy–men or women?
Overall, there is very little difference: Women rate as slightly more trustworthy, at 79.7 vs. 79.0. However, the differences are instructive: Women and men score equally on credibility, and women have a slight edge in reliability–20.6 vs. 20.4. The big difference comes in the factor of intimacy, where women are 0.5 points higher–19.8 vs. 19.3. Thus, most of the gender difference derives from higher scores at the key factor of intimacy.

Does trustworthiness increase or decrease with age?
One of the strongest correlations in the Trust Quotient (TQ) study is the linking of TQ and age. The older we get, the more trustworthy we are (or at least think we are).

Does trustworthiness vary by industry or job?
Overall, there are few discernible patterns at the industry level. As a broad statement, those with jobs requiring high personal interaction (general management, training, sales) tend to rate higher than those in more solitary roles (supply chain, accounting, legal). This underscores that trustworthiness is a personal attribute, distributed broadly across industries. It also suggests a large opportunity–no matter what industry you’re in–to differentiate by building businesses with higher concentrations of trustworthy people.

While most management theorists advise people and organizations to focus on strengths instead of weaknesses to improve performance, these findings clearly indicate that in the arena of trust, a different approach is necessary.

“Some business leaders make the case that to improve performance, people and businesses should leverage their strengths rather than concentrating on fixing their weaknesses,” said Green. “This makes a great deal of sense in areas of skills mastery. But when it comes to trust, the opposite is demonstrably true. By focusing on their weaknesses, individuals can make rapid improvements in their trustworthiness, and those improvements will accrue to the industries and organizations within which they work. By becoming aware of an imbalance in our trustworthiness strategies, we can improve our integrity.”

To take the Trust Quotient quiz and see how trustworthy you are, go to http://www.trustedadvisor.com/quiz.

Texting while driving has received a great deal of attention lately, and with good reason: Keeping your eyes on a tiny keyboard rather than the roadway ahead is a disaster waiting to happen. However, texting is just the latest in a long list of distractions that could have deadly consequences on America’s roadways.

“Safe driving is about focus,” said Bill Moore, president of MetLife Auto & Home®. “Many accidents could be avoided if the basic principles of defensive driving and driver attentiveness were observed.”

To stay focused on safety, drivers may want to ask themselves the following questions:

• Are you keeping your eyes on the prize? With cars more than ever resembling mobile offices and entertainment centers, it can be easy to forget you’re behind the wheel. Most accidents occur in seconds and distractions delay your reaction time.

• Are you awake enough to drive? Driver fatigue leads to inattentiveness, and according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 100,000 crashes are caused each year by drivers literally being asleep at the wheel. Recognize the signs of drowsy driving, which include difficulty focusing, frequent blinking, irritability and frequent yawning–and then, take action.

• Are you more interested in your cell phone conversation than the road ahead? Even in states where it’s permissible, talking on a cell phone increases the likelihood of getting involved in a motor vehicle accident. If you need to call, pull off the road.

• Do you have a designated deejay? Simple things like changing the radio dial or finding that “perfect song” on your MP3 player may seem harmless, but they can be a big distraction.

• Are you being lazy about changing lanes? It’s critical to look briefly over both shoulders before changing lanes. Even if you have onboard technology installed in the car, such as blind-spot and rearview indicators, the basics you learned in driver’s education will always apply: signal your intention, check your mirrors and then glance back both ways to be certain that no one–or nothing–is in your blind spot.

• Are you day driving or daydreaming? Even without external distractions, it’s easy to get caught up thinking about personal problems or work assignments. If you feel yourself losing focus, give yourself a wake-up call and set aside your problems. They can wait until the ride is over.

For the free brochures “Driving While Distracted: Be a Safer Driver” and “In the Driver’s Seat: About Driving Safely,” call (800) 608-0190.

For more information, visit http://www.metlife.com.

Fuze Box, a global provider of online meeting and mobile collaboration applications, has introduced a new, low-cost service that enables professionals to conduct and pay for online meetings on a per-day basis.

Fuze Meetings by the Day includes a full suite of teleconferencing, collaboration, and high-fidelity media and content sharing capabilities. The new service option is ideal for salespeople, training professionals, small businesses, students, or for people who want to try out the full Fuze Meeting service before signing up for a monthly plan.

“Almost all professionals need to conduct virtual meetings from time to time – whether they want to connect and collaborate with far-flung colleagues on a critical project, or deliver a remote sales presentation with high-definition video and real-time interaction to prospective clients,” said Rafael Alenda, Director of Marketing at Fuze Box. “Like the pricing plans made popular by wi-fi providers and other services, our new Meetings by the Day pricing plan gives you access to valuable services without the commitment of a monthly plan.”

Fuze Meetings by the Day features include:

• $9 for 24-hour unlimited meetings with no overage
• 15 online attendees
• 15 audio conference attendees
• Unlimited toll-free and fetch capabilities
• 1GB of storage

Fuze Meeting is designed to support the dynamic ways in which people work and communicate today, and is the first and only cloud-based collaboration
technology to combine high-fidelity video and content sharing, social contact integration and mobile functionality to deliver a real-time visual meeting experience.

Users have the ability to start and run meetings from an iPhone or Blackberry, invite contacts from popular online address books, such as Outlook, Gmail, LinkedIn, Yahoo! and share meetings via Facebook and Twitter.

For more information about Fuze Meetings by the Day, please visit http://www.fuzemeeting.com/pricing.