Effective Communication: A Challenge For CSR
IN the course of the last couple of months, I have had the opportunity to interact with a lot of corporate communication and PR professionals responsible for devising and executing wp communication. These interactions make me believe that most of India Inc. remains baffled when it comes to devising an effective communication strategy for their wp programmes and initiatives. Barring the few top organizations, it remains a challenge for most.
While newly-appointed wp heads are busy formulating a wp policy in accordance with the new guidelines in the Companies Act, the communication team is utterly confused on what to say, how to make it newsworthy and where to communicate. I receive at least one press release every day, and more often than not, the communication sounds more like an announcement, failing to past muster for even a simple news article. So while business channels and newspapers are more focused on financial results, business announcements, mergers and acquisitions, advertorials and paid supplements, general news mediums consider it a plug, and fight shy of giving it the space it may well deserve.
[creativ_pullright colour=”red” colour_custom=”” text=”While wp heads are busy formulating policy in accordance with the new guidelines, the communication team is utterly confused on what to say, how to make it newsworthy and where to communicate”]
With hundreds of publications churning out reams of newsprint everyday and 135 news channels beaming across the country, it is a daunting task for wp communication teams to find a desirable and impactful space to showcase their initiatives. Even the online platform is limited and mostly restricted to a cut-and-paste job for press releases. Some companies have exclusive digital platforms to highlight their wp programmes and initiatives with negligible or limited visitors on their website. So effectively it has no target audience, no focus and no communication strategy.
So the main challenges for an effective wp communication are:
1.Lack of knowledge of the subject
2. Poor and unimaginative storytelling
3. Dearth of dedicated platforms, and
4. Absence of comprehensive communication strategy for wp
Often, even top public relations and communications agencies are in a fix, so much so, that some of them have started sending their executives for crash courses on wp. This in anticipation of the increased assignments on wp communications, as India embraces the new wp regime.
A good wp communication cannot be mere information about a company’s new initiatives or its profit-and-loss statement, but should be a structured exercise undertaken to inform all stakeholders about its commitment to the overall development of the society. If done effectively and in a streamlined fashion, it can become the company’s best and most enduring branding exercise in the long run.
Here are some tips for devising an effective wp communication strategy:
- Be authentic and real in your efforts
- Assess the strength of your action of initiatives
- Identify your message and the stakeholders
- Have a team of good storytellers
- Provide faces and testimonies
- Know the target audience
- Identify the most suitable platform
- Devise an integrated and consistent strategy
In the next couple of years, wp will evolve, progress and grow like never before and so will the need for an effective communication strategy for wp. Keeping in mind the new realities of the more complex, competitive and cluttered business arena, the companies and communication agencies should now look at investing in nurturing new talents, setting up more transparent process and devising a comprehensive and consistent strategy.
