Tips
"The communications audit Gonder & Associates conducted for Making Connections-Denver gave us important insights and guidance on how we could improve our communications with our grassroots constituents, our partners and funders. They helped us transform our web site and produced annual reports that achieved our strategic objectives."
Susan Motika
Former Site Coordinator
Making Connections-Denver
Marketing Your Business Online
Is your company web site bringing in new customers? Be sure your site offers useful, free information, not just promotion of your products or services. You can start a tips section or just include helpful information on the home page. Even small changes will be picked up organically by search engines.
Content should focus on helping your customers solve business problems. Non-profits can profile success stories of persons they’ve helped, which increases confidence among donors that their gift is making a difference. Consumer products and health-related sites can offer tips for improving appearance and well being. We can help you evaluate your web site and add content that can bring more people to your site. Contact us here.
Productivity Tips
A cost-effective solution for bringing together people from multiple locations is www.freeconference.com. Up to 150 people can call into your dedicated number and access code at no cost other than the long distance charges. Organizations can use an 800 number to call in for a nominal amount per caller.
Browsers that are slow to open may be weighed down with temporary files. The website, www.ccleaner.com, offers a free download of software than deletes temporary files.
When you want to share something on social media, www.Addthis.com offers a free download that is easy to use.
Communicating Strategically in Tough Times
With news of unemployment and layoffs filling the airwaves, don’t forget that your employees are an important audience. Communication is especially vital if you operate in a vulnerable industry. It is important to reassure employees what your organization is doing to stay strong economically. If funding is uncertain, as with governmental organizations and non-profits, let your employees know a timetable when the economic picture will be clearer. Show appreciation for employees who have taken on more duties with downsizing. Low morale and fear of losing your job definitely affect productivity. Employees are also your ambassadors to the community. Make sure you are giving them messages to reinforce your brand and reputation.
Protecting a Valuable Asset: Your Reputation
A company’s reputation is part of its brand – a precious asset that is strongly linked to its success. Research has shown that customers prefer to shop and invest in organizations that operate in socially responsible ways – towards their employees, the environment and their neighbors. All organizations have a vested interest in knowing how they are perceived by their “stakeholders” – those key audiences that have a relationship with them.
The way to plumb these perceptions and develop strategic responses is through a reputation audit.
There are five basic steps in the audit:
-
Determine the objectives to be fulfilled by the research
-
Identify the audiences to be surveyed
-
Collect the data
-
Analyze gaps in reputation or problems to be addressed
-
Create a strategic plan to better manage the organization’s reputation
A variety of tools can be used, depending on an organization’s size, its resources, the objectives and the way results will be used. Tools can include quantitative surveys, individual interviews, a review of communications materials and an analysis of media coverage. The individual interviews can provide valuable feedback when the objective is to identify general areas of concern and strengths that can be addressed. A quantitative survey is desirable if the goal is to establish benchmarks with which to measure progress over time.
Depending on the goals of the audit, a survey of employees provides valuable feedback on information gaps and issues to be addressed. The focus group is a tool that can probe more deeply into the attitudes of customers, employees, volunteers and community residents.
Media coverage of the organization can be analyzed in terms of positive and negative content and the degree to which its strategic messages are being communicated. The organization’s marketing materials and communications vehicles, such as Web sites and newsletters, can be analyzed to see that important issues are being addressed.
A company’s reputation is built over many years but can be destroyed in days. Companies and non-profits should safeguard this asset by periodically assessing the perceptions of various stakeholders. With this information, they can act strategically to correct misperceptions or change practices that are damaging the group’s relationships with its publics.
|
