June was one of those months.
Events. Social media campaigns. Award entries (and wins!). Media stories. Visual storytelling. Website updates. Conference presentations. Stakeholder communications. Strategic planning sessions. Content creation. It covered the lot.
The days were very full, the weeks moved quickly, and more than once we found ourselves thinking, "That was a busy day."
It's a thought lots of us have at the end of the day, and there's a second question that sometimes follows... "What did I actually achieve?"
Being busy and being effective aren't the same thing.
In our busy day-to-day professional lives, we can spend an entire day answering emails, attending meetings and working through a long to-do list, only to reach the end of the day feeling like we've been active without making meaningful progress.
The same principle applies to the role of communications.
It's relatively easy to be busy in comms. For instance, I like to stay in the loop about what's happening in the Waikato, so I subscribe to several local media release distribution lists. Every other day, I receive media releases that will, without a doubt, never be picked up by a journalist or read on a website's news page, yet would've taken a substantial amount of time for some well-intentioned comms professional to write. At the same time, I've found myself raising my brows at content posted on social media by businesses that have zero relevance to their brand, their culture, and most importantly, their audience!
You can schedule social media posts, launch digital advertising campaigns, refresh a website, organise an event, write a newsletter or send beautifully crafted stakeholder updates. All of those activities can be valuable. But before any of them begin, there is one question worth asking:
Why are you doing that?
I always ask my clients, 'Before we start anything, what outcome are you trying to achieve? What will success look like from your perspective?'
The internal or contracted communications service should never exist simply to fill channels, tick 'informed', 'consulted' or 'engaged' boxes or create the appearance of activity. It should help move an organisation towards a defined goal.
One of the biggest misconceptions about communications is that success is measured by outputs.
How many media releases were sent.
How many social media posts were published.
How many people attended an event.
How many newsletters were distributed.
These are useful measures of activity, but they don't necessarily tell us whether communications were successful.
The real question is whether those activities achieved the outcome they were designed to deliver.
Did trust increase?
Has awareness improved?
Has stakeholder understanding changed?
Do people feel more confident in your organisation?
Has your reputation been strengthened?
At Belle PR, we often start in a different place. Before discussing channels, campaigns or content, we spend time understanding what success looks like.
What are we trying to achieve?
Who needs to hear it, and how?
What behaviour, perception or outcome are we hoping to influence?
Only then do we determine the activities that will help get us there. That's because communication is not about generating noise. It's about creating movement.
The most effective communication isn't always the most visible communication. Often, it's the communication that steadily builds trust, credibility and reputation over time. That's where long-term value is created.
So before you commit to launching the next campaign, planning an event or getting that important piece of information out to your distribution list, pause for a moment and ask:
What outcome am I trying to achieve?
When you start there, every communication activity has a purpose, and purpose turns into impact.
