Communicators Expert Voices Dinner

Communication leaders convened on Dec. 14 for an end-of-year Expert Voices dinner to discuss how companies can navigate building trust and brand awareness and making an impact in 2024.

Why it matters: Mis-and-disinformation are becoming more prevalent as technologies like AI advance, making it harder – and equally more vital – for companies to be able to communicate with the public to raise brand awareness and enhance reputation.

Kayla Conti, head of Black Media Communications at Google, discussed how using influencers and journalists to get messages out to the public is like using two sides of the same coin.

• "You have to think about it in a multi-dimensional way. And you also have to understand that your audiences are probably consuming news in more than one place. You're not just going to one source for your news anymore. You might get…morning newsletters from eight different publications, but then you're making a choice on your morning commute to maybe read one great story that you're seeing go viral on social media."

Megan DiSciullo, U.S. and Mexico communications leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers, also said how employees can be influencers for the company.

• "They can be our best ambassador. They can also be our biggest detractor if not engaged properly."

Steven Restivo, VP, global communications at United Airlines highlighted the importance of putting employees first.

• "...We are making employees that most important audience, and viewing press and social and advertising as opportunities for like surround sound, … [it's about] merchandising good news stories and social content and pushing it under the noses of our employees. Don't leave it to them so sort of go find it on their own…Your employees are your best ambassadors and when they feel proud about where they work…And so with a lot of return on investment by us, like really focusing on employee comms."

Sponsored Content:

Sabastian Niles, president and chief legal officer at Salesforce shared how vital trust is for communication.

• "...Trust has been our number one value since we were founded…I think that decision to have trust be our number one value has only proven to be increasingly critical in this complex world that we're all navigating this uncertain world right, that we're all navigating."

Thank you to Salesforce for sponsoring the event.