Page updated:
Wednesday, 12 September 2007

SPECIAL REPORT...

Getting your message across

DEVELOPING a communications strategy...

A communications strategy provides a cohesive framework for presenting the organisation to the public.

The strategy:

• serves as a guide to organisational communications
• identifies how the organisation prefers to be perceived
• defines the most effective way to get the organisation's message across, the types of media used to propagate the message, the themes that run through the message, how to respond to negative publicity, who is responsible for formulating and conveying the message
• is available to all involved in communications
• is periodically revisited and amended, if needed.

Backing form with substance

Whatever image the organisation wants to propagate, it must be a real one. Statements that are not backed by reality, for which evidence cannot be produced or that the organisation's behaviour contradicts, will quickly be seen to lack credibility. This will result in a lack of confidence in information coming from the organisation and media coverage may decline or become more critical.

Content of the strategy

The communications strategy defines the following elements.

Purpose

This explains why the strategy was developed.

The purposes of a strategy may be to:

• provide adequate and accurate information
• promote the organisation and its role among stakeholders, others in the same field of activity and the public.

Audience

Defining the preferred audiences identifies the groups that the organisation will direct its communcations to.

For example:

• an overseas aid organisation might identify its preferred audiences as: the interested public in Australia and other countries, NGO (non-government organisation) staff, public and institutional donors and potential donors, beneficiaries, government agencies
• a small business may direct its communications at: potential customers, repeat customers, the business press.

The message

The message describes the types of information produced and the content of communicatons. There may be specific messages for specific audiences.

It is useful to develop a small number of core messages that can be used. They:

• are of a general rather than specific nature
• can be backed up with evidence
• can be used in a number of circumstances such as presentations, press releases and articles for publication.

For example, the core messages of a non-government aid organisation may include claims that the organisation:

• is successful in moving towards its objectives (evidence: from evaluation and monitoring)
• the organisation has developed replicable models of development (evidence: projects based on the models are working elsewhere)
• the organisation makes responsible use of donor funds (evidence: financial statements, monitoring reports).

When producing core messages, identify sources of evidence that can be disclosed to back up the claims in the messages.

Develop a short statement

A short statement summarises the organisation's activities in a general, concise and accurate way. It is used to describe the focus of the organisation to the media and other enquirers.

A short statement describing an overseas aid organisation might state: ‘The (organisation) operates a program of agricultural and primary health training to assist partner communities to improve the health of families’.

Short statements should not be vague or too general but should state specifics, broad though they might be.

Produce a series of message points

Message points are brief, fact-filled statements that are used as a prompt by spokespeople talking to the media or the public. They are distributed to members of the organisation who may have to address the public, the media or other audiences.

For example, message points for an overseas aid organisation involved in agricultural training may include:

• the organisation focuses on nutritional health, food security and ecologically sustainable methods of village agriculture (evidence: project planning documents, montoring; external and media reports)
• the organisation's projects are examples of the type of initiatives that benefit communities in the region (evidence: montoring, supporting media coverage, testimonials from other development agencies)
• nutritional health and food security are prerequisites to any further development a community may decide to take (evidence: documented evidence that communities that have improved their health have gone on to other areas of community development)
• recent security emergencies prove that village food security provides a social ‘safety net’ in times of crisis (evidence: that communities in conflict situations have been at least partially self-reliant in food).

These points can be used as foci for discussion.

Assess the capacity of the organisation to make use of communications

Assessing the ability of an organisation, particularly those that are small and poorly-resourced, to make use of communictaion opportunities ensures that they will not over-reach themselves.

Larger organisations may appoint a media liaison or communciations manager. For most small organisations, especially those in the community sector, the role or media spokerperson will be part-time or will be part of a more comprehensive position.

In assessing organisational capacity, consider:

• funding available to support a communications position, whether salaried, part-time or voluntary (volunteers will initially consume staff time in their training and support)
• the availabiliy of media skills in the organisation - is there someone who is articulate, clear thinking, calm under the pressure of questioning, who can give presentations, write press releases, is available when needed and who has a knowledge of the media?
• the capacity to develop and maintain communications channels - can the organisation set up and regularly update a website or produce a regular newsletter, for instance.

Media

Having worked out why the organisation wants to communicate (purpose), to whom (audiences), what it wants to communicate (messages) and whether it has the skills and resources to communicate (capacity), it is time to work out the means by which it will communicate (media).

There are quite a few options available when it comes to selecting appropriate media. Those selected will be within the capacity of the organisation to produce itself or to do so with outside help. Options include:

• print - brochures, fact sheets, reports, newsletter, magazine
• electronic - website, eZine, email distribution list, weblog, video productions
• other - presentations.

Crisis communication

When something goes wrong, crisis communication has two aspects:

• communicating with staff, stakeholders and clients to reassure them that remedial action is being taken
• communicating with the public, via the media, to inform them about a situation and tell them what the organisation is doing about it.

Avoid giving misleading information or issuing false assurances when something goes wrong. Crisis situations may bring attention from government agencies, lobby groups and the media and increase public interest in the organisation. It is important to reassure the public, staff and clients that the organisation will take action to prevent a recurrence and, after the crisis has passed, to move on this.

If people have been disadvantaged, embarrased, sidelined or humiliated they may disclose information of a critical and damaging nature to the media, contradicting statements from the organisation and reducing the esteem with which the organisation is held by the public and its clients. This indicates a management problem within the organisation.

Even if aggrieved people cannot directly disclose information because they have signed a secrecy agreement they can still leak information to the media. Such allegations might be denied by the organisation, however doubt has been sown in the minds of the public and the organisation's supporters, and doubt lingers. Openess in a crisis helps prevent trial by media.

The best strategy in crisis communiation is honesty and demonstrating that the organisation is taking action to remedy a situation and prevent its recurrence.