Follow These Eight Steps to Develop Your Corporate Communications Plan

Your company needs a corporate communications plan to help guarantee the success of your overall business plan. And the best time to develop a communications plan is during your annual budgeting or organizational planning process.

"Communications" includes all written, spoken and electronic interactions between you and audiences inside and outside your organization.

Communications

A plan will help you to organize and prioritize the communication tools and initiatives you use to deliver the right information to the right people at the right time. It will help you to keep your stakeholders informed and maintain their buy-in and support for your communications endeavors. It will solidifyYour choice of communications methods, initiatives and materials What each communication program component must achieve Your choice of key audiences Timetables, tools and budgets How you measure and evaluate program results
From a communications executive's perspective, in addition to the peace of mind it brings, such a plan will help you toEstablish priorities, Determine day-to-day activities Achieve order and control Gain CEO and staff support Protect against last-minute demands
Follow these eight steps to develop an effective corporate communications plan:

Follow These Eight Steps to Develop Your Corporate Communications Plan

1. Define your goals and desired results.What is your strategic purpose with regard to corporate communications? What's the tie-in to your organization's business plan?
2. Conduct an audit to determine and evaluate your current communications materials and initiatives. You must determineWhat communications initiatives each department is using What each initiative is designed to achieve Each initiative's effectiveness
3. Define your overall communications objectives, such as reinforcingCustomer service Customer loyalty Increased sales Employee morale and teamwork Employee retention and recruitment Media relations A positive corporate image and reputation Crisis control
4. Determine which audiences you want to influence, such asCurrent and prospective customers Suppliers Current and prospective employees Federal, state and local legislators Wall Street The media
5. Decide which tools you can use -- and afford -- to achieve your goals and get your points across. Your tools can include: Print publications Online communications Manuals Meeting and conference materials Media and public relations materials Marketing and sales materials Legal and legislative documents Employee and customer newsletters Corporate identity materials -- logos, print and packaging, Quarterly and annual reports Signage Presentations Website content Blogs Internet initiatives
6. Estimate the cost of each initiative, then establish a budget.
7. Establish your timetable.
8. Include methods in your plan that you can use to measure and evaluate results periodically, and to evaluate the program's overall results at year's end.

A written communications plan is as much a defense against chaos, confusion and wasted energy as it is a business priority.
Once in place, your plan will establish priorities, fend off last-minute and inappropriate demands and bring a semblance of order to a hectic job.

Follow These Eight Steps to Develop Your Corporate Communications Plan

Brian R. Salisbury, a writer and a public relations and communications consultant, combines a wealth of communications know-how with an engaging writing style to help his clients shape the most effective messages and deliver them with the greatest impact where they count most. Visit Brian's website at http://www.BriansQuill.com and subscribe to his free public relations newsletter and receive his free report "Ten Key Components of a Successful Public Relations Program." Or send him an email at BrianSalisbury@BriansQuill.com.

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Understanding the Changing Role of a Corporate Communications Department

With the advent of social media, many communications departments are rethinking how they communicate with employees. During the early years of the internet, communications were driven to employees through a top-down approach. In other words, a business leader worked with the communications department to craft the message and then disseminate that message to the workforce. However, in today's environment, this top-down approach often excludes the opportunity for employees to generate and contribute content.

An example to help illustrate this point can be seen in something as simple as allowing comments for articles. Communications departments used to just post an article on the company intranet to help communicate key messages. Today, these same articles can be posted with the option to allow employees to comment on the article itself. Employees can contribute simply by expressing their opinion. Often, these comments can carry more weight than the actual article itself and the communications department has little to no control of the messaging that develops.

Communications

This perceived loss of control with Web 2.0 formats can create problems with the management team. While a communications department might support user-generated content, a business leader might find some of the information that is created to be negative or harmful in nature-even if the information adheres to company policies and guidelines regarding social media behavior. It is therefore critical for business communicators to have the full support of the executive management team before implementing social media tools.

Understanding the Changing Role of a Corporate Communications Department

With much of the content being generated outside of the communications department, many communicators are redefining their roles within the communications process. While there will always be a need for top-down communications, there in now a need for social media monitoring and participation. Business communicators should no longer solely be focused on generating messages for the management team; instead, they should also be focused on helping foster discussion amongst employees and then communicating the key points from those discussions back to the management team.

Understanding the Changing Role of a Corporate Communications Department

John is a regular contributor to the CommDiscussion [http://www.commdiscussion.com/forumdisplay.php?2-General-Discussion] communications forum and discussion board. Business and corporate communicators are welcome to join the site for free! Learn what others are doing in business communications and share your insights and best practices.

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