My experience has shown that it’s not enough to make a Message House. You also need to remind staff to understand it, and use it. And there needs to be an easy way of accessing access it.
Team members can pin up branded Message House reminder posters like this example (included with Stays.org or the Message House Professional Package).
The new Stays.org tool allows you to create an easy-to-remember, branded Web address where your colleagues can access the Message Houses. For instance, if your company’s name is ACME Corporation, that address could be “acme.stays.org”.
Then simply say: “Let’s make sure that Acme stays inside its Message Houses. You can always get them at acme.stays.org.”
In addition, you can give out little reminder posters that say “Let’s stay inside our Message Houses. Access them at ACME.stays.org”. Your team members can pin these up on their walls as a visual reminder (the the example to the right).
Example of ACME.Stays.org for a fictional ACME Corp.
Stays.org locations get managed via a Dropbox.com account (there is no additional cost for this; if you do not have a Dropbox account already, creating a free one will suffice).
Seven easy steps for an effective Message House rollout using Stays.org and the Message House Professional Package (the package comes included with Stays.org):
1) Create a Message House (the templates in the Professional Package allow you to customize the shape of the house to match your brand colors);
2) Create a YourCompany.Stays.org Messgage House Base;
3) Upload the Message House to your Message House Base;
4) Create and upload a branded Message House reminder poster
5) Upload a customized Message House How-To one-pager (the Professional Package contains a Word template)
6) Have a team meeting, and explain the Message House concept (talking points for this are included in the Professional Package); during the meeting, pass out the Message Houses, the one-pager and the reminder posters for your team members to pin up on their walls.
7) During your regular team meetings, always take a moment to remind everyone that they can access your Message Houses at YourCompany.Stays.org.
Create a Message House with your company’s colors using the files in the Message House Professional Package.
A branded Stays.org Web address for your company’s Message Houses costs $79 annually. This includes the Message House Professional Package. The package contains 15 Message House templates for programs such Word, Powerpoint, Adobe Indesign and Illustrator), and the Message House eBook. The templates make it easy to create compelling Message Houses that reflect your company’s look and feel (click here for an example and here for a video showing you how to customize a Message House). The package also include customizable files for creating the above-mentioned Message House reminder pin-up posters, and a one-pager you can adapt to educate your colleagues about the use of Message Houses.