Think you can communicate with your stakeholders every now and then and be good? Think again. To be effective, you need to make sure you’re engaging in ongoing communications with your customers, your boards or councils, and your employees.
The communication should be a dialogue – not just one way coming only from you. Consider how you can incorporate conversations into your communication strategy. It could be by asking questions on social media posts and then responding to the answers/comments you receive. It could mean surveys, seeking input on both big – and small – decisions. It could be holding an open house to bring the community into your facilities.
Ongoing communication doesn’t mean you should bug your audience non-stop. That isn’t effective. People get annoyed and start to tune you out. You need to find a frequency balance, but what is that? You should try to have some type of interaction at least monthly even if you don’t have big news to share. Weekly works, too. You can get away with every few days if you need to get out important, timely information or if you’re gearing up for an event where you need to remind everyone at least a few times.
And don’t forget to use multiple ways of reaching out. We may sound like a broken record on this point, but it’s so true. Find various outlets to get out the word. Media releases, social media posts, and posters throughout town all work and are easy to create. Everyone accesses information in different place these days, so be sure to cover all your bases.
If you need help with your public relations efforts, IAMU has you covered. We contract with Jen Cronin to provide PR support as a member benefit. You can reach Jen at [email protected] or on her cell phone at 616-610-2546.
The communication should be a dialogue – not just one way coming only from you. Consider how you can incorporate conversations into your communication strategy. It could be by asking questions on social media posts and then responding to the answers/comments you receive. It could mean surveys, seeking input on both big – and small – decisions. It could be holding an open house to bring the community into your facilities.
Ongoing communication doesn’t mean you should bug your audience non-stop. That isn’t effective. People get annoyed and start to tune you out. You need to find a frequency balance, but what is that? You should try to have some type of interaction at least monthly even if you don’t have big news to share. Weekly works, too. You can get away with every few days if you need to get out important, timely information or if you’re gearing up for an event where you need to remind everyone at least a few times.
And don’t forget to use multiple ways of reaching out. We may sound like a broken record on this point, but it’s so true. Find various outlets to get out the word. Media releases, social media posts, and posters throughout town all work and are easy to create. Everyone accesses information in different place these days, so be sure to cover all your bases.
If you need help with your public relations efforts, IAMU has you covered. We contract with Jen Cronin to provide PR support as a member benefit. You can reach Jen at [email protected] or on her cell phone at 616-610-2546.
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