For companies to be successful, an effective communication strategy is imperative. Without a clear communication strategy, money is being wasted and it’s impossible to be consistent and efficient. That’s why managing organizational communication should be at the core of a business as it allows the smooth flow of information across all levels in a hierarchy.
An ineffective communication strategy shows up in many ways within a Company. It may look like employees not engaging with the Company’s social media, inconsistent messages across teams or locations or even just sales not coming in as expected.
So, how do you create an effective communication strategy in Organizations? One way I often use is the following:
- Identify hurdles
Before you start developing a strategy, understand your organization. It is important to identify the challenges that might affect communication. Factors can include company size, locations, resources, and cultural differences.
2. Understand the people
The communication strategy should be built around employee personas. This will allow you to categorize employees based on their preferred mode of communication. For instance, some employees might not have access to a company email. Why don’t you simply ask the employees to take a survey with questions relevant to communication methods? That makes them feel involved and you’re gaining insight into your audience.
3. Set goals
When developing a communication strategy, ensure that you set goals that can measure the success of the strategy. Setting realistic goals at the beginning of the process will help you to track the progress of your communication plan. You even are able to make small adjustments during execution.
4. Digitalisation is key
Information is easily accessible through hand-held devices. Hence, mobile communications are becoming increasingly popular and are often the preferred method of communication. Using a mobile app to communicate important information can be a great way to keep employees informed.
5. Content is king
Creating engaging content for your employees is also important. To ensure that the content is compelling, it should be short, precise, and varied. The content can be in the form of the written word, pictures, videos, statistics, and more. What you use will be dependent on the context. While creating content, ensure that it is optimized for viewing on mobile devices.
6. Measure all
Analyzing data can help you understand what kind of communication is performing well and which communication methods have a higher rate of success. Using the right metric is key here.
These six points are of course all a topic in itself but by implementing and reviewing them you are already on the way to success. Everyone can communicate, but only strategic communication is successful in the end.
Image credit – unsplash David Zawilla
