Monday, January 28, 2013

Strategic communication by any other name...please!

We had to laugh yesterday when we read Rosa Brooks' guest piece -- "Confessions of a strategic communicator" --  in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Brooks worked at the Pentagon. Strategic communication was her job.

The Pentagon recently stopped using the term "strategic communication" because, well, no one seemed to get it.

That's what made us laugh. You see,  First Class Communication offers communication strategy as one of our services. For over a year now, we've been trying to come up with a better moniker for the exact same reason. It's confusing and sounds like communicator jargon.

We agree with Brooks that, though we'd love a spiffier term, communication strategy "has nonetheless come to stand for something complex and important, something that has more to do with 'strategy' than with 'communications.' "

Good communication efforts start with a plan. That plan -- or strategy -- has to address such things as identifying the best and most appropriate message, knowing who needs to hear those messages, determining how best to deliver those messages, when to deliver them, and how to test that your plan worked. In other words, communication strategy.

But if you have a better, catchier term for it...please share! We can't copy the Pentagon's new term because it's even worse -- communication synchronization. Yikes!

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