Strategic communication means different things to different people. For the sake of this blog post, we shall employ the following two definitions:
According to the Miami University website, strategic communication involves how individuals and organizations use communication and media to negotiate their role in highly mediated societies. Another definition is by Emily Tynes, Director of Communications for ACLU, and coauthor of a guidebook for nonprofits, “In the world of nonprofits, strategic communications is an orchestrated use of channels of communication to move and influence public policy or to promote an agenda.
When it comes to communications, to have impact, you must move from just being tactical to strategic when communicating. Below are several points to take into consideration:
- who should you target? Yous should target the key decision makers pulling the shots in your respective mediated society.
- What kind of messages are influential?
- What kind of data would these influencers be looking for or at?
- What is the existing environment around them like?
- What assets do you posses?
- Why isn’t what you are proposing already happening?
