Communications and PR: how well do you know your acronyms?

At a dinner party recently we got to talking about how each industry has its own acronyms and jargon which can make it difficult for newbies and outsiders to understand what you’re talking about.

I have a vivid memory of my first day working on a big-budget film set saying I couldn’t wait for the “honey wagon” to arrive only to find out that the term didn’t refer to the coffee and donut wagon but instead to portable toilets.

The communications and public relations industry has its own acronyms which can be confusing and confounding but none that I know of that can be as embarrassingly misconstrued.

As a communicator, how well do you know your industry’s acronyms and how well can you explain them to a potential client or PR intern?

Communications Audit: why and how to do it

Are your communications strategies effective and efficient? Do your desired audiences understand what you are doing, what you want them to do and why? If not, you should look at doing a strategic communications audit.

A communications audit is basically a snapshot in time of your organization’s communications programs, practices and activities. It’ll tell you what’s working, what isn’t, what could work better and what needs to be changed.

Here are twelve tips on how to conduct an audit:

1. Put together an impartial audit team
2. Identify your main concerns
3. Create a plan for conducting your audit
4. Gather recent communications and marketing materials for assessment
5. Analyze and assess the materials for overall effectiveness, consistency, clarity, accuracy and call to action
6. Review, analyze, and evaluate media coverage and social media presence

Crisis Communications: what to do now that it’s over

There comes a time in every crisis when you realize the immediate crisis is over, your daily updates are more positive and media interest is less intense.

Now you are moving from the response phase to  recovery which can last anywhere from a couple of months to years or in the case of BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico decades.

In the recovery phase you need to:

1. Determine strategies to make sure the recovery is real and solid
2. Continue to monitor the situation and media coverage
3. Tie-up any loose ends with media and stakeholders
4. Gather feedback from the frontlines to the C-suite and external communications
5. Reconvene the crisis communications team to evaluate efforts to date
6. Revise crisis communications plan to incorporate feedback and lessons learned
7. Continue to use earned and unearned media strategies to sustain recovery and rebuild your organization’s public image

Building the strategic communications plan — recap

This week I want to recap what a strategic communications plan is and how to build it. Essentially the plan is a blueprint or map of how to get from where your organization is now to where it wants to be.  

There are seven crucial elements to a strategic communications plan. We start with the context section to build a solid foundation. Here you look at what has happened, what is happening now, identify developing trends and if you are faced with a challenge or an opportunity.  Don’t do a long history here just do your research and link the past to the present so you can determine where you want to go.   

Next you want to state your desired results which will also further your organization’s goals and set audience expectations in the objectives section. You’ll want to take the time to seriously think through the results you want and if you can realistically reach and evaluate them because all objectives must be measurable.  

Building the strategic communications plan — evaluation

Over the past six weeks we have discussed the crucial elements needed to logically build a strategic communications plan.  Today we’ll complete the plan by looking at how to do the evaluation section.    

You have laid out the foundation or basis of your plan in the context, the results you want to achieve in your objectives and now you need to decide how you’ll measure if you’ve been successful in your evaluation.   

Monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of your tactics along the way can help you stay on course and ready to make revisions in response to changing situations. Remember your plan is not carved in stone it’s an evolving document.

The three important questions to ask yourself in the monitoring and evaluation phases are did you: