Command Their Attention: Corporate Communications

As a PR or communications lead for your organization, it is a must that you position yourself as a trusted leader who can provide accurate and timely information to your staff. Keep these tips in mind as you support your team in this critical role.

Be Proactive, Respect Your Staff’s Time

A busy executive has a million things on their plate on any day or any time of any given week. From leading boardroom meetings, keeping the bottom line on track, dealing with employee in-fighting, and making sure salaries are paid on time, there is so much that goes into a hard day's work.

Your executives are likely to take the lead on instructing communications related to a company merger, a new product offering, or announcing a high-profile hire. However, in many other cases, it is your job to be in the know, and to determine whether it is necessary to, and how to, communicate a message to your employees or to external parties.

Know Which Communication Method to Use

Before you develop your message, consider what will be the most effective way to reach your employees, customers, or other interested parties. In most cases, your choices will include emails, press releases, staff meetings, social media, videos, infographics, or training manuals. You may even decide to use more than one of these methods to get the word out.

• Emails – Sending an email is part of the daily routine. Follow these tips to help brush up on your email etiquette.
  
  
  • Use a subject line that clearly summarizes the purpose of your email.
    
    
  • Write a clear, professional, and concise message.
    
    
  • Be mindful of your tone when sending an email. Recent studies have shown that employees find many email messages to be rude, which can lead to unnecessary on-the-job stress.
    
    
  • Promptly respond to questions posed in an email.
    
    
  • Create email lists or groups to target the correct audience within or outside of your organization. They can really save time and prevent you from having to manually enter an email address each time you send a message. Keep your lists up to date if you have a new hire, a resignation, or if an employee makes a lateral move within the company.
    
    

• Infographics – If you want and cool and fun way to organize your data and bring your content to life, try an infographic. Even if you don’t have a design budget, there are plenty of templates that can be used these days to input images, graphics, and data. You might be amazed to hear the oohs and aahs once you reveal your finished product.
  
  
• Intranet –Having an in-house repository (e.g., SharePoint) can help you manage and organize employees-only content. It can be used to both store information on processes and procedures and it can offer a safe place for employees to share comments on various topics. Keep in mind, you will need a strategy and a small team to manage it well.
  
  
• Press releases – If your goal is to get noticed by the TV, print, or online media, drafting and publishing a press release is one of your best bets. Team up with a press release distribution site (e.g., PR Newswire) and you’ll be able to grab the attention of both local and national media outlets. If they like your story, be prepared to answer the call.
  
  
• Social media – Having a social media presence can help you easily connect to the masses: your customers, the media, and even your own employees. Developing a social media calendar with the dates, messages, and the social media channels (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter), you plan to use will help you keep your feeds current.
  
  
• Staff meetings – Staff meetings are a great way to get the team together to discuss important topics or to celebrate a major accomplishment. They can also inspire creative thinking and casual chats that can help improve relationships between team members.
  
  
• Training manuals – Investing in new software for your team? Adding a new procedure for recording employee travel expenses? A training guide, whether 1-3 pages, or 50 pages long, can really help employees adopt a new process. Having a detailed guide they can use as a reference can also boost productivity and prevent you from being overwhelmed with questions down the road.
  
  
• Videos – Creating a video is a great way to promote how-to instructional training, replay a speech delivered by one of your executives at a conference, or to document an important company-wide meeting. They can also be featured on your website and social media platforms. Keep in mind that your audience generally has a very short attention span for video content unless it’s a movie or TV show. If necessary, break your videos into shorter snippets to make them more easily digestible.