8 Game-Changing Hacks For every Communications Professional

8 Game-Changing Hacks For every Corporate Communications Professional

If you are working in a Corporate Communications role, there are some things you need to know to make your work easier.

This is our list of them.

1. Create space and support for your role.

This is something that many communications professionals do not understand. Creating space and support for your role is important to ensuring that you get the support you need to get your job done. For many communications teams, this support is  not automatic. Once you start a new role in corporate communications, you must start of by building support internally by having a conversation with the business leaders and finding out what the expectations are from your role; how you can help to support and amplify communications in support of the business and opportunities for collaboration either from a PR, internal communications, branding or reputation management perspective. Building this internal support and collaboration mechanism is very important, otherwise you will struggle in your role

2. The spectrum of PR and Communications

Knowing the spectrum of public relations and communications is critical for every communications professional. Public Relations and Communications is a broad field.

It is important to know when PR ends and Communications begins.

If you do not understand the differences between the 2 areas and the specialisms within each field, you are likely to overlook a number of important things e.g. not recognizing the need for marketing PR as well as marketing communications when running a campaign. The former is more targeted, specific, personal, experiential and immersive – while the latter is more about messaging, brand awareness, broad audience targeting etc.

3.  How to write a press release

Every communications professional must know how to write a press statement, whether their job expressly says so or not. This is because there will most certainly be a moment in time when there will be a requirement to draw up a few lines for a statement and it would be unacceptable to disclose at that point that you have never written one before. Begin to research on how to write a press release and study how your organization has issued press releases in the past. Study their tone of voice and the way the brand communicates. Also pay attention to press statements issued by other organizations or companies in your sector. Note the difference between how big announcements are made; issues are responded to and the reactions and responses from members of the public. Also try to think about whether the press statements have achieved their desired objective. Every press statement should have an opening a body and a closing. It should contain what you need the audience to Know, feel and do. Statements issued during crisis are more sensitive than those issues for campaigns, events and sponsorships or marketing and the tone and language should be adjusted accordingly.

4. The 4Cs of Crisis Communications Response

Every Communications Professional Should Know the 4 Cs of Crisis Communications Response. This involves ensuring that any communications released in response to an issue or crisis in the public domain must feature all or one of the following as appropriate.

1. Context – Open with a short and clear explanation of what has occurred, where and when. Use the opportunity to clarify and misinformation in this opening paragraph
2. Care – Ensure your tone and choice of words communicates care and concern for the impact of the situation on people, the environment or assets. Communicating care is not the same as accepting liability. It is a simple way of showing empathy and human concern for a situation that is less than ideal.
3. Control – State what is being done by the business or organization to restore, repair, make amends or clarify any misconception or misinformation that may have resulted or occured as a fall-out of the situation.
4. Commitment – Close the statement with an official confirmation of what the business or organization is committing to do to bring things back to a state of normalcy as appropriate (either in collaboration or consultation with relevant authorities or with impacted persons as the case maybe)

5. The link between Brand Strategy and Reputation Management

This is what differentiates the mid career practitioner from the early stage. Understanding the link between the Brand and Reputation is at the core of growing in the understanding of the value and impact of Strategic Communications. Effective communications starts and ends with building and promoting a powerful and positively impactful Brand and ensuring that reputation is managed through a purposeful use of communication to create strong brand equity; enhance societal goodwill and create opportunities for new business.

The core message here is that your brand is only as powerful as its reputation and the role of communications is to ensure that the narrative around the brand is as positive, impactful as it needs to be to enable the brand and the business to survive and thrive.

6. How to develop a communications strategy from scratch

One of the first things to know is how to develop a communications strategy from scratch  to delivery, implemtation, feedback and reporting. As simple as it sounds, this is a learned skill and not something you would naturally know. Understanding how to build a strategy and plan from business objectives to outcomes and working through tailored communications to achieve desired results, requires skill, knowledge and practise. At learn.solaabuluassociates.com our course on Strategic Communications shows you how to do this in a step by step approach. This video on our youtube channel is also useful.

7. The difference between a PR or Communications generalist or specialist

In addition to knowing the spectrum of the communications profession, it is very important to understand the difference between being a communications generalist or a specialist. This is important because knowing the boundaries of your expertise will save you a lot of pain. It is important to know when you need a specialist to come and assist with a PR or Communications strategy or a Rebranding or Media Strategy or Crisis Communications response. It is impossible to be a Jack of all trades in communications and master of everything.

And some challenges require mastery in communications. In those situations, ask for help and know where to get the help you need to achieve the outcomes that are expected of you by your leaders. This is the easiest way to earn respect in your role as plugged in professional.

8. How a PR agency, a communications consultant and a communications team work together

Finally, it is also important to know the difference between a PR agency and a communications consultant and when you need one or the other. PR agencies are good for media and PR activations; immersive in person experiences. campaigns and events; conferences and exhibitions etc while Communications Consultants excel with strategy development, problem-solving; internal communications, change management and helping the organization think through long-standing problems and come up with tailor-made solutions. Communications Consultants work with the organization from inside out on a wide range of solutions ranging from communications strategy, to change management communications; brand and reputation management etc But PR agencies tend to focus more on the tactical delivery of impact and activations to the end-user. Consultants are better for high-level strategy and problem-solving at management level; while PR agencies tend to excel with the tactical implementation of agreed strategy.

Example: A Communications Consultant can help you set up a communications team; develop standards, processes and procedures, help craft internal communications and media relations policies but a PR agency cannot help with any of the above. A Communications Consultant helps you work as an external advisory to the Corporate Communications Team. Helping the organization get its act together is the first goal on the agenda. The PR agency has very little business with working within the boundaries of the organization. it takes directives and translates them into external activation. Both roles are important. But knowing when to call one rather than the other – and the points at which you need both to collaborate with the team for a comprehensive strategic and tactical agenda.

Sola Abulu & Associates (SA&A) is a strategy and communications training and consulting firm dedicated to enabling businesses, brands and organizations to achieve their desired objectives through strategic communications, organizational effectiveness and reputation management. Learn with us from anywhere in the world on learn.solaabuluassociates.com

Our courses are accredited by the CPD Standards Office in the UK. We have 4 courses available on our e-learning platform available 24/7 from anywhere in the world

• • SA&A Strategic Communications Course
  • SA&A Brand Strategy & Marketing Communications Course
  • SA&A Issues, Crisis & Reputation Management Course
  • SA&A Public Sector, Policy & Political Communications Course