CorpComms Magazine

'What do you mean?' is the standard reply from most companies when questioning them about their communication to the outside world. Considering that we are supposed to be living in the ‘communication age', it is astonishing at how random and ineffectual most corporate communication actually is. Never before have we had access to so many channels of communication, to so many people, at so many times - yet for most companies it seems to be a somewhat haphazard mechanism driven either by the marketing department or customer complaints.

‘Of course we communicate,' they say, ‘after all we have a marketing and sales area and even a shareholder relations department'. Well that's okay then - or is it?

Whether you like it or not, your company is communicating the entire time. There are noisy little buggers sending out all sorts of messages to sorts of people. Every time a call is made in or out, a letter sent or received, a conversation had - all of this is company communication. But there is also company communication that doesn't even involve the company. What about when others talk about you? Customers, competitors, ex-employees, regulators and industry bodies, sometimes constructively sometimes not - sometimes even by mistake!

Companies, whether private or public, all have similar issues and audiences to address and without too much effort these can be suitably ranked and rated according to their priorities.

The communication structure I have always used has been ‘doughnutting' (the ring variety that is rather than jam, as that can get really messy) whereby you identify each of your target audiences, and then surround them with all the different channels and methods of communication that are most suitable to get your message across. So the target is in the middle of the doughnut and the dough is made up of all your communication routes.

Take an example. Suppose you want to communicate to your shareholders and investors. Obviously whether as a private or public company, you have legal and regulatory obligations that ensure that you communicate with shareholders. Some companies have whole departments and agencies to help them in this, but often this is just then left with that department taking the responsibility.

But this is silly. Think of all the ways that shareholders consider their investments. They will be influenced by everything from their product knowledge through to any commentary on the radio, television and internet. Will the private shareholder be concerned that they keep hearing your competitor being talked about and not you? Are your rivals being perceived as the movers and shakers in your industry and you are just in the sleepy hollow? Access to new media has been an astonishing leveller as embedded and long-established brands can now be usurped by interlopers, camping out in the airtime that surrounds your shareholders and owners.

By being proactive in this area, companies can influence the market conversations going on, and even introduce new subjects which can be raised that can be beneficial to you (and of course equally tiresome for your rivals). A good example is chat rooms. These vary enormously but, by finding out what is being said about you and your services, you can get some fresh and remarkably cheap feedback. Now, of course, one needs to pick and choose where you operate and beware what you are being told, but you are adding another useful dimension to your communication.

I have certainly found out both competitor weaknesses that I would have never have known except through their customers directly feeding back, and equally have found views on my business and what we need to do.

The media is a ferociously hungry hydra whose various heads represent all the different channels and technologies you could use. The hydra starves without continuous feeding, so why not help feed it?

What it needs are commentators, spokespeople, opinion formers and experts - continuously. So long as you are not trying to be too clever with the hydra, you can feed it and it will help you. But pity the fool that abuses that relationship. Just by being clean, legal and decent (and if you could possibly make it interesting as well), then you are probably going to be accepted. Start treating it as a sales pitch, then pitched you will be - out of the recording studio!

Take any other target audience, both internal and external, supplier, customer, regulator and yes even competitor and you can have a communications doughnut highlighting each channel you can use to message and influence them both positive and negatively. You won't need to use all the channels all of the time, but so long as you know what is available and how to do it, then you can deploy your communications structures at the drop of a hat.

Some companies seem to actively hate any coverage, on the basis that if they say nothing then no one can criticise them. The British clearing banks are perfect examples of this especially as they employ armies to minimise exposure in many cases. Giraffes can't hide in short grass.

But I suppose the one thing worse than being talked about is - not being talked about. The question is - can you ensure that you are being talked about, and how, and by whom, and when and what they are saying? The answer, of course, is yes.

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