▶ ‘ Honesty’ Can Be Such a Lonely Word: Call it the yin and yang of corporate America: The qualities workers value most in their company’s leaders—namely, communication and honesty—are the same qualities that they find most lacking, according to a recent ASQ survey conducted by Kelton Global.
The online survey, which was conducted earlier this year, took the pulse of 1,027 Americans aged 18 and older. According to the survey, 30% of workers surveyed said that honesty is the trait they value most in their company’s leaders, while 22% cited communication skills.
Depending on how much access they have toward the C-suite, PR pros can enhance their value by counseling senior managers to be more transparent when communicating to the rank-and-file as well as other stakeholders.
Here are two key stats from the survey:
• Communicating well (20%) and honesty (16%) are the qualities that respondents believe to be leaders’ biggest shortcomings.
• Critical thinking (11%) and commitment (10%) were noted as key leadership qualities.
ASQ, which focuses on quality in all fields, organizations and industries, has more than 14,000 members who are engineers.
Source: ASQ, Kelton Global
▶ Get a Better Grip on Complaints Made Via Social Media Channels: More than 50% of brands don’t have a strategy in place to manage the growing volume of negative posts on social channels created by customers, competitors and employees, according to a recent survey conducted by Social Media Marketing University (SMMU). The survey, which polled 1,036 marketers, social media strategists, C-level executives and entrepreneurs, found that 21% of the respondents rarely or never respond to customer complaints in social media.
Here are some other nuggets from the survey:
• More than half (58%) of the respondents receive customer complaints via social media “occasionally,” 11% receive them “somewhat often” while 5% receive them “very often.”
• About a quarter of the respondents’ brands reputations have been tarnished as a result of negative social media posts while 15% lost customers and 11%lost revenue.
• Nearly a quarter (23%) of the respondents said they do not have a strategy in place to manage negative social commentary, or plans to develop one. PRN
Source: Social Media Marketing University.
The Measurement Myth
By Mark Weiner is the CEO of PRIME Research-Americas; [email protected].
Myth: If my research results aren’t 100% then why do research at all?
Truth: Market research may be an “inexact science” but the process can be managed to produce very useful and highly accurate results. To quote John Maynard Keynes: “it is better to be roughly right, than precisely wrong” and market research provides useful guidance and actionable insights. Different situations require different levels of certainty, budget and timing.
For example, it may surprise readers to know that presidential polling may involve interviewing only 2,000 respondents to achieve accuracy of +/- 4%. But did you know that polling for a gubernatorial race in Rhode Island still requires 2,000 interviews to achieve the same level of accuracy? And the cost to achieve an additional 1% of certainty can be extraordinarily expensive.
When conducting or sponsoring market research, insist on transparent, meticulous and rigorous analysis of available information but don’t forget to factor in just how “accurate” you need to be (or how much accuracy you can afford). Data that is “roughly right” does indeed allow you to move forward with informed confidence.
This article originally appeared in the March 3, 2014 issue of PR News. Read more subscriber-only content by becoming a PR News subscriber today.