What is a communications strategy?
By Lauren Cook, Founder + Lead Strategist
A communications strategy guides how you share the story of your organization’s work.
On our homepage, we state, “your organization tells its story through every blog, data graphic, social media post, video, and brief it shares.” Then we list a series of questions:
Are your stories aligned with the values of your organization?
Are your organization’s key issues connected with the humanity they impact?
Do your stories originate and resonate with the people who are most affected by your work?
Is your organization’s communication strategy grounded in the head and heart of your work?
Whether you are a small nonprofit without a dedicated communications staff, a midsize organization with a few folks focused on communications, or a global organization with multiple comms teams working in different time zones, a strong communications strategy has the potential to amplify, activate, and scale the work you do.
At Connecting Our Stories, we believe impact should be measured in the ones and twos as much as in the thousands and millions. What that means is, we believe one conversation can change a life. One hug can impact how someone sees the world. One encounter can spur someone to become a champion for your cause. One view of a video online can inspire change. We’ve seen it happen, especially in the social impact sector and with mission-minded work. Single instances of connection and change happen every day.
But, as described in our Mary Oliver-inspired approach, telling about the work is essential. Because in the telling, those “ones and twos” of impact can move tens or hundreds or thousands to believe in something or someone. In the telling, we can influence local, state, or national policies that impact countless lives. In the telling, we can begin the process of educating, motivating, and activating others to join in the pursuits your organization stands for.
It is in the telling that your organization’s issues — your stories — are connected to the stories of others. That is where the magic happens. That is where change begins.
And it starts with a strategy.
Let’s get to work.