The Communicator

Summer is just around the corner. But if you were expecting some much needed R&R… think again. 

For professional communicators, The Dog Days of Summer represent the best (and often only) opportunity to focus on the fundamentals. As executive teams start to shift their thoughts from goals to golf, many communicators take advantage of the relative ‘down time’ of the summer to prepare for the business year ahead. 

Not sure where to start? Here are five areas that should be a priority for any communications team this summer: 

• Clean up your website: All too often throughout the year, press releases, feature stories and news items are rushed onto organizational websites in an ad-hoc fashion to meet an immediate need or crisis – sometimes with little regard to strategy or process. The quiet summer months provide an ideal opportunity to bring some much-needed focus and discipline back to your website(s).
• Update your corporate collateral: With long review and approval cycles, multiple stakeholders and complex production schedules, updating your brochures, press kits and other corporate collateral can be a time consuming business. While the summer season won’t necessarily speed up the process, you will find that key stakeholders (Finance, HR, Operations, etc.) are much more open to participating in these types of projects when their plates are less full. 
• Media train your executives: The worst time to media train an executive is in the middle of a crisis. To be effective, proper media training starts in a relaxed environment, free from distractions and competing priorities. Many executives benefit from group training sessions, which are also much easier to coordinate over the summer.
• Prepare for issues: While most issues are – by nature – unexpected, there are several ways that communicators can use the summer to prepare for the unknown. Standby statements, draft Q&As and position backgrounders are great ways to get ahead of a crisis, and the summer provides the perfect timing to conduct table-top exercises to ‘stress-test’ your crisis manuals.  
• Build/maintain relationships: Never underestimate the intrinsic value of a strong working relationship. Take some time this summer to build on your valuable relationships with your colleagues, peers and suppliers, as well as any key opinion leaders in your industry (media, bloggers, industry gurus, etc.). Besides, it’s a great time of year for a few drinks on a patio!   

Above all, take advantage of the comparative calm to take a vacation, long-weekend or afternoon off, and remember that achieving work-life balance is (or should be) just as important as achieving your business objectives. 

Looking for help to get ahead of your communications strategies this summer? Contact Peter at Peter@CommunicationsUnlimited.ca.

Communications professionals love surveys. Indeed, there’s nothing like a good round of strong statistics to prove a point or drive home a key message. 

But audience surveys carry an intrinsic risk: the data may not always say what you expect it to. Many a seasoned professional has put a survey out in the field, only to find that the results were either so bland that they were un-newsworthy, or – worse – contradictory to their company’s key messages. 

Unfortunately, surveys are notoriously difficult to kill. In part, this is because market research can be an expensive investment that is not easily written off. But most surveys also involve a fair amount of management buy-in and employee involvement (particularly in enlisting clients to participate), and so there is often a high level of expectation for communications professionals to deliver something valuable from the survey results. 

So what can communicators do to squeeze value out of bad data? Here are a few options that we offer our clients when in a similar situation: 

Chop it up and dose it out: OK, so maybe your data – in its entirety – isn’t all that compelling. But quite often there are seams of gold hidden within specific data sets that can be mined by cutting up the data in different ways. So, for example, try looking at the data in terms of age groups, industry sectors, or geographical region, and use the resulting data to target trade publications or special interest groups. In many cases, communicators can garner more media coverage using this strategy than a simple ‘newswire’ distribution and email blast.

Use case studies: Case studies are always a great way to bring data to life, and are often used by communications professionals to create a media ‘hook’ for bland data. The trick is to pick a company/group/individual that epitomizes an extreme respondent (either best or worst case) and is of interest to the general public. It would make sense, for example, to use Obama’s Presidential campaign to demonstrate the benefits of grassroots social media campaigns; or BP’s past two years to reinforce data on the value of a strong crisis communications capacity. 

Rethink the deliverable: When handed lemons, you don’t have to make lemonade; pies, cakes and cookies can be even better. In the same way, communicators should consider repurposing parts of the data to support other vehicles such as employee newsletters, sales sheets or websites. Communicators will find that this can be a great way to give their data some legs, while also demonstrating its value internally. 

But no matter how bad the data is, always remember that the worst thing you can do is ‘stretch’ the findings to suit your purpose. This is tantamount to lying and is an unnecessary risk for the project, the organization, and a communications professional’s career.

Need help turning your market research into something of value? Contact Peter at Peter@CommunicationsUnlimited.ca.

Is your communications department environmentally friendly? It should be. 

Around the world, businesses, consumers and governments are keenly focused on reducing their environmental footprint. And communicators must be at the forefront of this movement: we must work with our companies to drive sustainable solutions; we must strive to effectively communicate our environmental credentials to our customers and regulators; and we must engage and motivate our employees to do their part. 

But most of all, we must set a good example. And while communicators have never been big emitters of greenhouse gasses or huge proponents of seal-clubbing, there are still a number of ways that they can start to reduce their environmental footprint and – at the same time – set the bar for their organizations. For instance: 

• Reduce paper – while pundits have been prophesying a ‘paperless office’ for more than a decade, this utopia still seems far away. Communicators (who are often the most rampant users of paper – particularly once all the corporate collateral is taken into account) will find that by creating a ‘print-to-order’ system for brochures, factsheets and annual reports, they can not only cut down paper use, but also reduce cost and effort. For a deeper discussion on the benefits of a print-to-order system, check out this article. 
• Promote web content – while ‘print-to-order’ will help manage the supply side, communicators must also work to reduce the demand for paper products. This means migrating their (internal and external) audiences away from paper and towards the web versions. In most cases, this may require some subtle ‘incentivising’. So, for example, instead of taking 10,000 brochures to a conference, communicators should be exploring opportunities to make the web copy more relevant to the conference attendees (maybe add a coupon, a free guide or relevant links to valuable content).
• Leverage technology – given the rapid adoption of smartphones and the proliferation of social networks, communicators should be looking for ways to migrate all of their existing paper-based communications tools to new and more dynamic platforms. At the same time, the growing popularity of video applications like Apple’s Facetime are driving adoption of video conferencing and should dramatically reduce business travel and all of the greenhouse gasses that goes with it.    
• Work with responsible suppliers – an organization’s environmental footprint doesn’t stop and start at your front door: your suppliers and partners also play a part. So when selecting a supplier or a service, environmental impact should be considered as one of the key indicators along with cost and value. Some suppliers may be quite innovative (for example, at Communications Unlimited, we plant a tree every year for each client we work with in an effort to ‘pay back’ what little paper we use). 

But most importantly, professional communicators must use their considerable skills and influence within their organizations to promote and catalyze sustainability programs. There are many ways to do this, from the subtle (i.e. working with executives to build a sustainability fact sheet ‘just in case the media call’) to the blatant (i.e. forming and chairing an employee sustainability committee to explore grassroots strategies). 

Few today could argue that the environment is not a key concern for businesses and consumers. Now we just need to make sure that communications is part of the solution instead of reinforcing the problem. 

Reducing our environmental footprints was the last of our Top 11 Communications Issues for 2011. We hope you have enjoyed and/or found value in our outlook on issues facing communications professionals this year.  

To work with a communications supplier that cares about the environment, contact Peter at Peter@CommunicationsUnlimited.Ca.

Only a decade ago, professional communications was a fairly straight-forward gig.  Fax machines and phone lines were (pretty much) the only communications channels available, almost everybody read a daily newspaper, and most of us only had to worry about three main audiences: the media, the employees and the bosses.

Today, everything has changed: multi-channel communications strategies are the norm; the idea of traditional news cycles has been blown away by the instantaneousness of Twitter and YouTube; and our audiences continue to diversify exponentially.

Indeed, most communicators now find themselves catering to a bewildering array of new audiences that include traditional and non-traditional stakeholders. From social media groups to non-governmental lobbyists (such as environmental or transparency watchdogs), professional communicators are now spending more and more time establishing and maintaining their voice in new arenas and unfamiliar territory.

And as the number of new audiences grows, the challenge increasingly lies in maintaining clear and comprehensive communications across all of the various audience groups and channels. This isn’t easy. It requires robust processes to ensure that messages are delivered consistently, with the flexibility to adapt to new and unpredictable audiences, and an innate understanding of the needs and biases of each new audience group.

To achieve this, professional communicators will need to develop new skills and strategies that enable them to quickly identify and respond to new audiences as they emerge. These include:

Audience audits: Audits are a fantastic way to better understand your new audiences and their motivations. By carefully selecting and engaging a small sample group, communicators may find that they are able to not only stay on top of the key trends, but can also build equity with a more influential sub-set of the audience.

Monitor trends: Unfortunately, audience audits take time and a lot of work, and are therefore often only conducted on a limited basis. But trends can change in the course of a day, and professional communicators must be able to stay on top of the key issues within each audience group. Larger communications teams may benefit from tasking each team member with tracking specific audiences through newsfeeds and social media sites, while smaller teams (or departments of one) may have to make do with identifying the top 5 audiences (either by influence or risk) to keep a keen eye on.

Target materials: Most audiences just want to know that their concerns are being recognized and responded to. In many cases, professional communicators can take a proactive approach by targeting corporate materials that speak to these new audiences. This may mean adding a new ‘entry point’ to the corporate website that reflects the audience’s specific needs, or it may require tailoring brochures or one-pagers to demonstrate that their organization understands the key issues and is responding in a responsible and thoughtful manner.

Think long-term: Today’s audiences are not necessarily the same as tomorrow’s. Professional communicators must remember that – in the internet era – communications have a habit of becoming a ‘matter of record’, lingering around the web long after the issue or audience has disappeared or disbanded. And while increased vigilance and scrutiny will certainly be in order, many communicators will find themselves digging back into the archives to ensure that their new messages don’t contradict older ones that may be swirling around the net.

Finally, communicators should understand that they can’t always please all of their audiences all of the time. And that’s OK. But by following these four simple strategies, at least they’ll know which audiences will react positively and which will react poorly, and – hopefully – be able to plan their strategy accordingly.

Working with new audiences is one of our Top 11 Communications Issues for 2011. Next week, we’ll look at ways to get more value from your communications suppliers.

Looking for help communicating with new audiences? Contact Peter at Peter@CommunicationsUnlimited.ca.

Summer has finally arrived. But if you were expecting some much needed R&R… think again. 

For professional communicators, The Dog Days of Summer represent the best (and often only) opportunity to focus on the fundamentals. As executive teams start to shift their thoughts from goals to golf, many communicators take advantage of the relative ‘down time’ of the summer to prepare for the business year ahead. 

Not sure where to start? Here are five areas that should be a priority for any communications team this summer: 

1. Clean up your website: All too often throughout the year, press releases, feature stories and news items are rushed onto organizational websites in an ad-hock fashion to meet an immediate need or crisis – sometimes with little regard to strategy or process. The quiet summer months provide an ideal opportunity to bring some much-needed focus and discipline back to your website(s).
2. Update your brochures: With long review and approval cycles, multiple stakeholders and complex production schedules, updating your corporate collateral can be a time consuming business. While the summer season won’t necessarily speed up the process, you will find that key stakeholders (Finance, HR, Operations, etc.) are much more open to participating in these types of projects when their plates are less full. 
3. Media train your executives: The worst time to media train an executive is in the middle of a crisis. To be effective, proper media training starts in a relaxed environment, free from distractions and competing priorities. Many executives benefit from group training sessions, which are also much easier to coordinate over the summer.
4. Prepare for issues: While most issues are – by nature – unexpected, there are several ways that communicators can use the summer to prepare for the unknown. Standby statements, draft Q&As and position backgrounders are great ways to get ahead of a crisis, and the summer provides the perfect timing to conduct table-top exercises to ‘stress-test’ your crisis manuals.  
5. Build relationships: Never underestimate the intrinsic value of a strong working relationship. Take some time this summer to build valuable relationships with your colleagues, peers and suppliers, as well as any key opinion leaders in your industry (media, bloggers, industry gurus, etc.). Besides, it’s a great time of year for a few drinks on a patio! 

Above all, take advantage of the comparative calm to take a vacation, long-weekend or afternoon off, and remember that achieving work-life balance is (or should be) just as important as achieving your business objectives. 

Looking to get ahead of your communications strategies this summer? Contact Peter at Peter@CommunicationsUnlimited.ca  to see how we can help you make the most of the summer months. 

If I had to bet, I’d say that you probably have a few boxes of old brochures and media kits collecting dust in your office right now. Take a look – they usually hide under your desk or on top of your filing cabinets. Some organizations even have closets and rooms dedicated to housing outdated marketing materials.

Thankfully, recent improvements in technology and record-low printing costs offer today’s organizational communicator an innovative solution to reduce cost and waste: Order-to-print materials.

In practice, an ‘order-to-print’ system acts as an online portal, enabling employees to order a variety of collateral material directly from an approved print vendor. An organization can negotiate rather competitive prices with vendors based on expected demand and guaranteed quantities.

There are a number of easy ways to sell this idea up the food chain. Order-to-print systems can:

• Reduce cost: Many communications departments spend a large portion of their annual budgets producing brochures that will eventually be used by other departments. By creating an order-to-print system, production costs for materials are charged directly to the user (say Business Development or HR). This not only shifts expenses off of your departmental budget, it also creates an inherent value to the end-user, which will likely result in more thoughtful use.  
• Reduce waste: Using the traditional method, most communications professionals tend to be optimists and order more brochures than they could ever possibly use. Every year, I’d lament the excess as we recycled boxes and boxes of out-of-date material. Using an order-to-print system, materials are produced on an as-needed basis, thereby reducing waste and budget, while saving trees at the same time.
• Maintain version control: Do you update your brochures annually? Given the pace of change, is that often enough? A big problem with traditional brochure production is that by the time they are printed, they are often out of date. By utilizing an order-to-print system, you can update your content at any time, and be certain that the updates will take effect immediately.  
• Reclaim time: It may not seem like much, but every week my team would spend thirty minutes or more fielding and filling orders for corporate materials. Colleagues could order logoed hats online, but they couldn’t order brochures. An order-to-print system removes the administrative burden on your department, allowing your team to focus on the real goal of achieving their communications objectives.

So take back your office space, and get rid of those boxes once and for all, because this one’s got all the hallmarks of a great win-win: fiscal accountability for the bean-counters, environmental responsibility for the greens and more office space for you.

Need help with your corporate collateral? Contact me at Peter@CommunicationsUnlimited.ca.