How can you use the power of the whole communication toolkit - also known as proper strategic communication - effectively? We talk a lot in the world of internal communication about working strategically. In fact episode one of season two of my Candid Comms podcast address this exact topic. It will be published tomorrow, Sunday 6 June 2021, via your favourite podcast player.

It was the announcement of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine being approved that really showcased the value of the company’s investment into video.

Storytelling, when done well, can help you accomplish one of the core missions of internal communications: getting your organization on the same page.

One of my favourite IC quotes in recent years comes courtesy of Comms Consultant Liam FitzPatrick: Come with data and leave with respect. In fact I mentioned it at my Strategic Internal Communication Masterclass on Tuesday as it resonates with me. Today Liam has written for the All Things IC blog to share news of […]

Use this step-by-step guide and internal communication strategy template to take the stress out of your next internal communications project.

Though it is written for a CEO, there's a lot of valuable advice in this article about internal comms. There's two ways to read it: get lots of advice on how to run your own employer brand internal comms. But also, you can read it to better understand how your leadership team has to see the world, which helps you can align to their needs and keep influencing them.

If it seems like all the emails you've been getting all seem to say the same stuff, it's not just you. Here's a poem someone based purely on the first lines of recent emails (it's a winner).

Speaking of communicating, Recruiter buried the lede over on this article on how to be a better communicator when everything is Zoom/Teams/Hangouts-based. The best part is at the bottom, where they talk about the importance of being memorable. While i'm enjoying my tour through everyone's dining rooms, it is hard to tell one conversation from the next these days. So yes, spend a few minutes thinking of (on-brand) ways you can be more memorable in your conversations.

In uncertain times, helpful content can bring companies and consumers closer together. Learn how to build a content marketing strategy to best address your audience's needs in times of crisis.

Marketing emails are on the up, but are brands making the most of the channel, and how can they ensure best practice during this time? Here’s a look at some recent email stats and examples.

Hung Lee dug up this oldish article about better job postings, but I’d never seen it and I thought it was amazing. Remember: job postings are your #1 channel for creating first impressions (and they are all but free). Doing them right really makes a difference in setting the frame on your employer brand. What’s the secret? The article suggests it’s the word “if.” I’d suggest the real change agent here is knowing what a good job posting even looks like.

So, anyone who reads my blogs or follows me on Twitter will probably know two things about me. 1). I like to be practical; Blue Sky Aspirational Thought Leadership is alright on a stage somewhere but how does it translate into day-to-day "doing it" and 2). I like to look at low cost options as a lot

Tim Sackett asks a pretty controversial question over on his blog: Should companies disclose their political leanings? Tim makes good points that just because a business might lean liberal or conservative, that doesn’t mean everyone does, or even that it’s a critical component to the employer brand. My take is simple: if it matters to leadership and staff what the political identify of an organization is, and it’s not exclusive of talent from other perspectives, there’s no reason not to talk about it. But in this day and age, where “wearing a mask” is seen as somehow “political,” the return from such a position is likely very very weak (if not completely counter-productive).

There’s no shortage of lessons communicators can extract from the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, but one really stands out. Simple communication wins the days. The underlying principles that guide effective communications in times of great urgency apply in more ordinary times as well.

Long-time readers of this newsletter will know about my love/hate relationship I have with HBR. When they aren’t mis-representing what EB is, or clinging to a fairly outmoded sense of who is in charge of an individual’s career, they occasionally drop an article like this one around how “feel good” messages don’t always motivate your employees. Personally, I would have re-written around how not all employees respond to feel-good messages (or any one kind of message, frankly), but good for them to at least consider that employees aren’t interchangeable cogs…