strategic communications planning for not-for-profits - jo scard

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING FOR NOT-FOR-PROFITS

CONNECTING UP 2013

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IF YOU CAN DREAM IT YOU CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN.

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WHAT’S YOUR VISION?

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WHAT CHANGE DO YOU WANT TO MAKE?

AND WHAT ARE THE STEPS INVOLVED IN MAKING THAT

CHANGE HAPPEN?

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Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

OUTLINE\ Importance of your vision

\ What’s your dream? How should the world be?\ Communications is integral to everything you do

\ How to factor it in…\ Practical steps

\ Developing a plan\ Reviewing engagement

\ Target audiences & developing key messages\ Communication channels

\ Measuring success\ Crisis planning

\ Recap and questions

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Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

Identify realistic but definite goals.

Map a path from needs to activities to outcomes and impact.

What can you achieve alone, and what will you need help with?

WHAT’S YOUR VISION?

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Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

WHAT SHOULD THE WORLD LOOK LIKE?

Let’s describe it.

Own it.

Feel passionate about it.

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COMMUNICATIONS NEEDS TO BE PART OF EVERYTHING

YOU DO.

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Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

IT’S NOT JUST A PLANStrategic planning and communications is key to success.To ensure your long term sustainability strategic thinking and communications needs buy-in. It needs to be an integral part of your day-to-day thinking.

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PRACTICAL STEPS.

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Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

DEVELOPING A PLAN.THE PROCESS.

\ Prepare an action plan.

\ Think about your timetable and what issues you need to prosecute over that period.

\ Consider what your methods of communication will be?

\ What activities and approaches will you use.

\ Give thought to ongoing engagement and what that looks like.

\ And external communications needs to be factored in.

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Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

How do you want to talk about your stakeholder engagement?

SCENARIOS

Communications needs to be part of your planning across all activities:

What opportunities might come out of events?

What sort of crisis planning have you done?

What issues need your focus?

And what is your social media strategy, because it’s important.

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Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

InteractionEnvironment Reach

What are you saying to them?What feedback have you received?

Who else would you like to reach?

Who are you engaging with at the moment?

REVIEWING ENGAGEMENT

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Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

Are you trying to…encourage, educate or inform your audience?

What expectations do they have of you?

Who are your target audiences…individuals, other cohorts, internal and external?

YOUR TARGET AUDIENCES

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Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

What are the key points that you want to say?

YOUR MESSAGES.

It’s important to consider:

Do they differ across different audiences?

How do you want people to react?

What do you want them to do?

And how will you reach them?

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Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

Target appropriate.

Understanding the different forms of stakeholder engagement.

Knowledge and research.

TACTICS TO IMPROVE ENGAGEMENT

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Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

Media

ENGAGEMENT CHANNELS.

Multi-channel:

Marketing & events

Social media

Government & influencer relations

Stakeholder meetings

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Thinking about your sustained media strategy requires planning and being clear about what you want to say, what you want to achieve and what success looks like.

THINKING ABOUT COMMUNICATIONS.

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Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

COMMUNICATIONS.MEDIA.

\ Developing a media plan, think about…\ Who are you targeting with your

communications, and what media do you need to be talking to.\ How will you communicate?

\ What’s the timing and why?\ What will you say?

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Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

Thinking about your sustained media strategy…Aims, content, a 12 month plan, your media targets.

Where have you succeeded? And where has media not worked…

Butchers paper and sticky notes.Write it down.

COMMUNICATIONS OBJECTIVES

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Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

What do you hope to achieve?

What’s the look and the tone?The budget?Small or big?

EVENT PLANNING

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Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

BEING PREPARED FOR A CRISIS.

\ Be prepared.\ How might a crisis unfold?

\ What’s the look and the tone of your possible response?\ Think about what the media, social media and

other stakeholders might want to know?

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LET’S THINK ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA...

THE FIRST IPHONE WENT ON SALE THE YEAR KEVIN RUDD

WAS ELECTED IN 2007. THAT’S 5 YEARS AGO. WHERE

WILL WE BE IN 5 YEARS TIME?

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IT’S FAST, IT’S VIRAL, IT CAN SPARK COMMUNITY

ENGAGEMENT, AND IT’S FREE.

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AND WE RUN THE RISK OF BECOMING IRRELEVANT IF WE DON’T DO IT PROPERLY AND

EMBRACE IT FULLY.

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Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

ResourceFramework Relate

Invest in the staff &budget to run a program in-line with defined goals

Have flexibility to respond & inform - shape engagement around peoples needs

Define what you want to achieve and develop strategies & protocols to guide you

GETTING STARTED

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Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

WhoAppropriate Timing

The choices you make are very important.

Consider when you engage - the timing is very important.

Engagement needs to be relevant and appropriate.

GOVERNMENT & INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT

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Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

Meetings

ENGAGEMENT CHOICES

Consider your options:

Parliamentary hearings and committees

Informal gatherings

Presentations, forums, events

Via social media

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Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

Spend time thinking about your ‘asks’How many should there be? What’s realistic?

What is the game plan, what do want to achieve?Think about your aims and objectives for the engagement.

Research, scenario plan & understand the pressures.

Preparation

STAKEHOLDER MEETINGS

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Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

STAKEHOLDER MEETINGS FOLLOW-UP & REVIEW

Stakeholder engagement is an ongoing process.

Following-up is vital for continuing the relationship.

What are the next-steps and how will you make them happen?

Staying in contact is a positive to develop trust.

Think about how you can continue to build the relationship and develop future connections.

It is important to think about what happened and review the engagement.

What could you have done better?

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Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

What happened? What did you get right?

What can we learn for next time?Where can we improve?

What forum has been the most effective for you?Why was it successful?

MEASURING SUCCESS

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Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

CHECKLIST. NEXT 12-24 MONTHS.

What will the next year or two bring?We need to plan and think, what else might happen?How will we approach media?Can we engage third-party supporters, influencers, celebrities, the public or others?How will we do it?

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Vision Stakeholders Messages Platforms

Fifty Acres – The Communications Agency

NFP PLANNING MATRIX

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REVIEW AND Q&A.WHAT HAVEN’T WE

ANSWERED?AND WHAT WILL BE YOUR

NEXT STEPS?

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FIFTY ACRES - AUSTRALIA'S LEADING NOT-FOR-PROFIT COMMUNICATIONS AGENCY

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THANK YOU

CONTACT: INFO@FIFTYACRES.COM

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