ALIGNING COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES ACROSS YOUR INSTITUTION

UTS CASE STUDY - 15 August 2012Izanda Ford, David Phillips

Fancy intro

• Guerillas• Pirates• Inflexible culture

PIRATES

Communication is…

COMMUNICATION IS…

Communication isn’t important…

• Just ignore it

Communication is important…

• But doesn’t need to be resourced

NO RESOURCES

Communication is important…

• Too important to share with other faculties or units

TERRITORIAL

Communication is important…

• too important to be changed by the emergence of new channels

NEW CHANNELS?

Building a culture open to social media and emerging channels

PRINT MINDSET

Communication is all about saying things…

• Not about whether anyone is listening

…BUT WE SENT IT OUT!

If your communication strategy doesn't cover an end-user need…

• Then a grass-roots solution will emerge

GRASS ROOTS MOVEMENT

How do you turn the pirates into your personal navy?YOUR PERSONAL NAVY

Building a culture open to social media and emerging channels

• Ultimo Coffee Mornings• http://ucm.posterous.com/

ULTIMO COFFEE MORNINGS

http://ucm.posterous.com/

Building a culture open to social media and emerging channels

• Email marketer training

EMAIL MARKETER TRAINING

Building a culture open to social media and emerging channels

Social Media Training for Academics

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR ACADEMICS

Building a culture open to social media and emerging channels

• Social Media Training for units / faculties

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR UNITS AND FACULTIES

Tragic but familiar example

• Start with the business need• Do the communication plan• Someone reminds you of the end-user• Slight modification to the plan• Done!

PROJECT, MEET YOUR END USER

Case Study• Here’s the website we

built• Please communicate

it.• Can we look at

branding and usability?

• Oh, okay. But most of it is done, so there’s not much scope to change it.

LIPSTICK, MEET YOUR PIGS

Better: user first.- Newsroom

- Start with user profiles / stories- Build the information architecture / content with the user tasks

in mind

- Public website- Comprehensive audit of existing content - User profiles / stories (based on some of the work done on the

Newsroom)- Wireframing and user testing of wireframes- Design feedback- Currently migrating content

INCLUDE THE USER AT THE START

Getting the most out of your resources

• Raising the base level of comms skill in non-comms staff so that they can become semi-autonomous, checking in less often, but with better overall results

• Having established the benefits of comms, add dedicated comms staff to different areas (eg Master Plan, RIO, Housing)

• Demonstrating the value to the manager

SEND YOUR NAVY OUT

Finding the stakeholders

Start with the people you’ve already recruited into your navy.For a new project, you might not know anyone, but one of your ex-pirates might.Run seminars on a regular basis, promote them through every channel you can, giving people a chance to self-identify as future comms experts

USE YOUR PIRATE CONNECTIONS

Working across multiple stakeholders

• Any real project will involve not just one of your sailors, but multiple parts of the university

DELIBERATE VISUAL PUN

Getting manager buy-in

• Get something up and running• Minimum viable product• Once you have something to demonstrate, it’s

much easier for a sailor’s manager to justify the resourcing to their manager.

MANAGER BUY-IN

Opportunities

• End of project: celebrate what you’ve achieved.• Promote it via the comms channels you already

have (low cost)• Give people additional stories to include in their

workplan; help them with professional development

• Make sure you’re telling senior management about these successes. Be generous with giving credit to your navy.

OPPORTUNITIES

QuestionsQUESTIONS?