Categories
Managing Director - Public Sector Mike Forsyth
How you reach them depends upon your audience
Mar 08, 2010
I love my role as a management consultant - having the opportunity to meet so many new people each year as we work to transform their organization. One thing that has become abundantly clear over the past year is the growing difference between how people access their information and prefer to be contacted. Just two years ago if you wanted to "get the word out" the rules of the day were email and websites, but today we have crossed into social media to include blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube to name a few.
What’s the right answer? It depends upon how your different audience segments prefer to receive the information and you discover that by asking them directly not guessing. Did you know that many younger folks don’t use email except to exchange information with older folks? To keep current they text and post to Facebook. They also don’t get their news from network television, but from RSS feeds tailored to their interests. Looking up information on Google is secondary to YouTube where they can watch a video versus reading. As a point of reference my youngest daughter went to YouTube to find an example of a rabbit hutch she wanted built instead of perusing text plans found on Google.
When launching any organizational initiative one of the first priorities I recommend is to conduct a Stakeholder Assessment. This assessment will determine who needs information, what information they want or need, how they prefer to receive and give information, and the frequency of contact. Once the Stakeholder Assessment is complete a Communication Plan should be built, then updated monthly to reflect feedback from the audiences and changes in the methods and frequency they prefer to be contacted.
For an example of a great Communication Plan, please contact me via your preferred method.
- Mail: 2700 Post Oak Blvd, Suite 1400, Houston, TX 77056
- Email: mforsyth@endeavormgmt.com
- Phone: +1-210-274-8015
- Fax: +1-210-247-9665
- Twitter: @ twitter.com/Mike_Forsyth