Communications Processes 2008
THE COMMUNICATIONS PROCESSES INTRODUCTION Communications always were in AIESEC an area without a clear structure of work, once it was created more from one demand for support activities than from one planned process. Year by year the area work is getting bigger and its relevance inside LC work also. Today is easy to see the difference in the performance of the LCs who has a communication responsible and the ones who didn’t. This guide is a debriefing with short descriptions of the Spanish Communication Processes Structure. The intention of it is just to present the Processes and let it open for discussions what kind of activities an Ideal Communication area should delivery.
THE LOGIC OF THE FLOW
Communication Plan
Communication Analyses
COMMUNICATIONS PROCESSES Internal Communication Promotional Communication Media Communication
Brand Management
This flow is a graphic representation of how the processes could be delivered. It doesn’t mean that you need to have the first activity in place in order to work in the next one, of course that if, aligned with your LC demand, you can deliver the processes in their order it would be better, but in the end, once you have made an accurate job, it will not affect the quality of your activities at all.
UNDERSTANDING EACH PROCESS The description below gets the core activities of each process. Of course that there’s a deep amount o activities that could be explored in each one of them and as communications responsible its your responsibility to do this in the best way to support your LC performance.
Communication Analyses Before start to do anything you need to know what is your current situation. This is why communication Analyses is a process so relevant. Of course that this analyses is related to the level of resources you have available and the focus that you have in your LC in this moment. If your demand for results is too urgent you can’t invest time on deep communication analyses once it take too long time from your activities. Thinking in a simple way Communication Analyses could be from one simple EB discussion about the points below until a deep research with some consultancy support and Inputs of SGs. The main Communications Analyses activities are: Stakeholder* Analyses: Here you have to evaluate your relationship with each stakeholder and take into consideration the changes each one of them had (or might have) in order to capitalize it as an opportunity to become this relationship more valid for both sides. Example: One current LC TN taker is implementing a CSR philosophy in its departments and your LC issue is CSR, so you can start to plan PBoX with some external events and other activities to sell to them. Self Analyses: You have to evaluate yourself, what kind of activity you’re good at, what is your main weakness and strength, which risks you may pass by because of internal problems. All this processes evaluation must have an impact direct (or if it is indirect, the connection must be really clear) with internal or external communication. A point really relevant to be evaluated is the internal communication flow and the knowledge management in the office. Other thing to take into consideration is the national and the international initiatives that may appear.
Competitors Analyses: Here you need to identify your main competitors. In AIESEC is a little bit hard to identify these competitors once our product is really unique. A good way to identify them is by stakeholders focus. Example: for our relationship with students other organizations that offer exchange opportunities could be seen as competitors, for our relationship with organizations, HR Consultancy companies may be seen as competitors once it helps companies to recruit talented people. The main point to be evaluated here is the Competitors positioning, their clear strengths and weakness and their possible next steps. It is good also to evaluate their products in comparison with ours. Environment Analyses: In this point you have to research for any kind of opportunity in the Environment that could leverage your communications efforts, and also the threats that may cause a problem for them. Example: The government of your city decides to work with some theme as Local focus which AIESEC is related, maybe with relationship with other key countries which AIESEC is in. Or for example a new Dean in the University was elected and he don’t believe that student organizations are good. In these point is also good to analyze the Local Media and the
Communication Plan If you want to go somewhere in an effective way the best way to not start to running around like a random cockroach is to plan what you going to do. A little bit obvious no? So this is the Idea of building a communication Plan. All you have to do is get the inputs of the Communication Analyses, define clear goals, have a lot of ideas of how you going to reach it and organize it in a timeline. A Communication Plan could also be something really complex or really simple, depend of your demand and which level your activities are. The three main components of the plan are: Stakeholders Communication Plan: The Stakeholders Communication Plan could be integrated or divide by each stakeholder. Here you have to plan how to approach your stakeholders in the better way and how to keep continuously communication with them in order to don’t be forgotten. Example: Events for Companies, Newsletter for Alumni, evolve students in other AIESEC activities such as internal trainings, global villages, or make a special AIESEC presentation for the teachers. Media Communication Plan: The LC could plan all the “mediable” activities during the year and prepare releases, or start to have contact with the media before the process in order to delivery better news in the better places and to make more people aware of AIESEC activities. It is really simple once you have goals, contacts (that must be constantly updated) and a timeline.
The Internal Communication Plan: The same way you have to worry about your external public you have to do the same with the internal one. Members need to know what happens in the organization. Plan this process is really simple, all you need to do is see the tools you already have and make it become efficient and the ones that you don’t have implement. After that define what kind of information will be communicated and if it will be trough campaigns or the tools your LC have.
Internal Communication Sometimes we are just so worried about the message we want to communicate to the external environment that we forget the role that the members have in this process. They are the ones who will communicate, so its relevant that they know what is happening inside the organization. Because if you know the information, you know better about the organization, and you know better how to pass it. The communication is a potent tool also to motivate the membership, sometimes people doesn’t know the opportunities that they have access, or is not aware of how good his LC is or the results it have achieved. There are two main ways to work in this. Endomarketing: The endomarketing is the marketing that you generally have to the external public, but for the internal one, is like advertise but inside. The main tool used is the internal campaigns. Once you have a clear message that you want to communicate during a specific period you can use a campaign as tool to promote intensively an idea, opportunity or information. For Example, the LC election process will start and you want to stimulate people to apply to EB position. You can develop a campaign sharing the Experience of the members of the EB, or showing all the learning points the person will have as an EB Member, and this campaign will be run during the applications period. Internal Communication Flow: This one is more related with the efficiency which you use the communication tools. And how you manage the information inside of your LC, the accountability system is related to that and also the knowledge management process. Members generally fell really motivated once they know what happens in the LC, it’s related to the idea of empowerment and participation, the ownership grows once you have more info.
Media Communication Work with media is something basic for any Communication department. In an organization which the institutional promotion is so relevant, the media process is mandatory, once it is the best way to pass an idea more complete, without a costs and that look more trustable and relevant. Although it always seemed extremely complicated,
actually it is really simple to contact the media, because they are constantly looking for news and the try to let the communication channels with then as open as possible. To work with media are two main activities you must run. Press Process: For work with media there’s a basic routine which every LC must have related to that. It’s really simple once you start to doing, and the results come really fast. All you have to do is, based on your media plan, and with a list of contacts of the media chosen as more efficient to communicate the info you want to communicate start to build a release, send it to the media, call and give all the follow up process. After that you need to track were you appear and make the clipping process. Relationship with Media: Keep a good relationship with a journalist is as relevant as keep with a company, and the process is not that different. First you can use tools such as press kits to approach them, is important that once you have the first contact with some relevant media you keep that constantly. For example one column responsible that always talk about themes related to AIESEC is someone that could also open other doors for other medias.
Promotional Communication From all the Communications process the promotional one is the more explicit and the one who have most different activities. Promotion is the way work to sell your products. Once AIESEC product is really complex sometimes it’s really hard to communicate it in the normal promotional channels. AIESEC also generally don´t have too much money to use all the promotional tools so creativity is a fundamental weapon to be used in promotional activities. Campaigns: The campaigns are the main tools to promote something, understand the campaign basic flow, how to define goals, targets, select the best tools and put into practice. The external campaigns have the same principle of the internal ones. The only difference is that the communication channels are not so available, so the planning process must be really accurate. Continuous Promotion: The Continuous Promotion is directly related to put into practice the Stakeholder communication plan. There is no mystery once you had planned it well. The secret is to use a lot of different promotion tools to your stakeholder not to forget about you, or even to notice you. The only thing to take care is to not become inconvenient or boring. Events: The events are the most known and frequent used way to promote AIESEC. Basically you have to take care about the logistical part, the content, the promotion of the event (and it must be done really carefully once you have some events for some specific targets) and the follow up. Events are a good way to run learning activities, promotion, media appearance and relationship build together in the same pack. Promotional Material: The most “touchable” way to promote, the promotional material is the most used, and unfortunately the one with the worst relative return when its bad used. Basic step of any promotion, It is the one who officially announce “hey! We are here!!!”. The most common ones are
Poster, Flyers, Folders, Letters, Reports, Outdoors and any other printed material that abuses of visual resources (or not). Web Promotion: On these days internet is a basic resource for promotion. A lot of alternative tools can be used such as videos, banners, spams, network websites, groups, research tools, blogs, and your own website. Is the first place where people search for information, and were you can put the information more complete. But, also, internet is a way to risk, once any kind of information is available, and bad promotion also can help. Example: Type in you tube AIESEC, you will see the worst videos ever, such as parties, rollcalls and totally random stuff.
Brand Management
Our Brand is the main way of how we show us for the external environment. The Brand is much more than a logo is a philosophy that the entire organization must be aware to deliver an only message independent of where it came from. In AIESEC for the brand be well managed everybody must be aware of it. So there’s some basic process that must be delivered related to the brand promise. Brand Education: All members must understand how AIESEC must be positioning. So it’s critical to educate them since they joined AIESEC, and with different tools. Sessions, dynamics, sales training, everything could be used as efficient ways to promote inside the membership the consciousness related to our Brand. Have these knowledge is something that must be required for go on in any AIESEC Stage. Brand Implementation: This is directly related to the idea of being a Brand Guardian. The implementation of the brand is the work done by the entire LC to have all its activities brand aligned. This means that for example, an LCP must take into consideration in all his decision if its brand aligned. Once the Brand XP is directly related to the AIESEC Way be brand aligned means be Overall
AIESEC aligned. Example: ER must take care about the kind of company which they are related, and the products they develop. The Brand implementation is also the activities that the LC develop that could leverage the Brand awareness inside or outside the LC. Brand Audit: Once your brand implementation Process have started you must seen the efficiency of this process. So the audit is away to evaluated how your implementation is evolving. The main tools used for it is researches, application of questionnaires and other alternative evaluation tools.