Is your organization sending too many emails? Ever wonder who, if anyone, reads beyond their phone screen’s notification summary when you hit send?
So much of communication these days is what I would call ‘throw-away’ communication: massive amounts of information we are throwing out there out of obligation and fear that if we don’t get it out there, people are going to be upset and mad.
It is unbelievable the amount of information that we have or feel a responsibility to get out there.
Influence Impression
There is always a level of unplanned, casual day-to-day communication that isn’t actually a bad thing, and there is a lot of it.
If you are a school, communication is teachers to parents, coaches to parents, parents to parents, social networking, volunteers to staff, and so on. There is this massive undercurrent of communication going on all the time.
It is unplanned, unpredictable, and uncontrollable.
It is an integral part of your organizational culture because it contributes to the connectedness that makes people feel they are part of the community.
Rather than trying to shut that down, try to influence it in healthy ways, like how you apply your values, the types of stories you tell, and the people you hold up as examples. Try to foster a vibrant community through the volunteers that you recruit. Call on virtual ambassadors, people who love the school and are excited to communicate facts and positivity.
Remember, you can influence communication, but you cannot control it. Recognize that while it is a ton of stuff, it is just part of the community.
Audit Audience
What can you plan and what can you control?
Lots of information and communication are plannable, predictable, and controllable.
Leaders fall short because many don’t provide a full accounting of their communication.
From time to time, do a communication audit. In a room, put every piece of communication you can find that one of the people in your audience is receiving.
It is usually shocking.
How can you categorize, organize, simplify, and plan communication rather than pile it on your supporters?
Does your organization have a communications plan for the year? Most of the time, people can’t produce that. Instead, they pull a list of all the emails and text message blasts they’ve sent.
Sit down with your team. Create a communication plan for what you know is predictable and can be simplified and improved over time.
Harness Your Hub
Use your website as the hub for information.
It must be home base, where information and communication live. People need to trust your website.
If someone goes to your organization’s page to search for something, they must be able to find it.
Otherwise, the communication starts living in people’s inboxes, and that is not a good place for information to live because that is where they just go, “Oh, yes. I saw that and ignored it”.
Shift Seasons
Know, in the course of the whole year, what is really important that people see at different seasons.
If you are asking people to give, to make decisions, or take action, when do you use paper for essential things? How do you use email? How do you use follow-up?
I hear people share their ministry’s overall open rates or compare one mailer to another. It doesn’t matter what open rates are!
What matters is how many people are stopping what they are doing and considering what action to take because you’ve got their attention.
Point people to the information. Get donors’ attention via follow-up.
As leaders, we all struggle with balancing communication. We are constantly learning, failing, and tweaking.
It is part of the journey in today’s culture of figuring out what works, which is often changing.
I appreciate you spending this time with me, allowing me to share with you. Where are you currently at in this journey? Save my info to your contacts and drop me a text, I’d be honored to encourage you. Keep moving forward.
