Never assume anything when you communicate:
- Never assume any communications task is easy. Invariably it won't be.
- Never assume those you work with know what you are doing. They don't. Unless you specifically tell them.
- Never assume those beyond your organisation have received your information and understood it. Chances are they haven't.
Recently I had a humbling experience.
At the end of a meeting with two key supporters of a particular program, they asked where this program fitted "in the grand scheme of things" and requested simpler explanations of the program that could be passed on to their members. Simple requests but startling statements. I had been dealing with these organisations since 2003. For six years I assumed because I knew, they knew.
PR-wise it was embarrassing. In building our relationships with these key groups, it seems we overlooked three fundamental PR tenets.
At the end of a meeting with two key supporters of a particular program, they asked where this program fitted "in the grand scheme of things" and requested simpler explanations of the program that could be passed on to their members. Simple requests but startling statements. I had been dealing with these organisations since 2003. For six years I assumed because I knew, they knew.
PR-wise it was embarrassing. In building our relationships with these key groups, it seems we overlooked three fundamental PR tenets.
- Always keep key people in organisations that support your program fully informed. In particular make special efforts to let them what is happening in times of significant change. Even if you can't reveal the full story tell them as much as you can.
- Write your publications and produce your multimedia for others ... not for yourself. Sometimes we becomes so obsessed with how we want our information presented and what senior management will finally approve, we forget to ask if our intended audiences will actually understand our material.
- And always follow up to see if your material hits the mark. I have worked with organisations where the energy involved in just getting "things out of the door" (often because of cumbersome approval processes) leaves the communications team too exhausted to check their information is received, understood and acted upon.
For organisations with a monopoly on services, funding or information, push down communications might still work. But even then I think those days are numbered.
If like most of us, your organisation competes for the limited time and attention of citizens, consumers or communities, you need to continually engage your audiences with easy to understand and updated information. Or run the real risk of being among the thousands of PR and marketing messages people discard each day.
Is this basic? Yes it is? And I can see some communicators thinking these observations are wasting valuable blog space. But no matter how good we think our PR is, from time to time it's good to challenge ourselves to never assume anything when you communicate with others.
If like most of us, your organisation competes for the limited time and attention of citizens, consumers or communities, you need to continually engage your audiences with easy to understand and updated information. Or run the real risk of being among the thousands of PR and marketing messages people discard each day.
Is this basic? Yes it is? And I can see some communicators thinking these observations are wasting valuable blog space. But no matter how good we think our PR is, from time to time it's good to challenge ourselves to never assume anything when you communicate with others.
1 comment:
Bob, as usual, you are right on the money here. We too often forget to think like our target markets and ask the questions that are running through their minds. Thanks for reminding us of the importance of communicating WITH our audiences, and not just AT them.
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