Skip to main content

The Many Avenues in A Communications Job

Organizations want their communications people to be well-versed in every possible avenue affecting communications, such as:
  • communications strategy, planning & implementation
  • writing, editing, managing written materials
  • issues management, crisis management
  • internal & intranet communications
  • public relations
  • media relations
  • promotions, publicity
  • development & production of creative materials
  • marketing
  • visual communications & graphic design
  • web development & design
  • social media
It's not until you arrive at your position and see where the organization's needs really are and what they want to emphasize in practice that you truly know what you'll spend most of your time doing. 
For example, I was hired to do a communications job where I thought I'd being doing things like: 
  • Developing strategies and plans
  • Writing key messages for senior executives and management
  • Issues management & briefings
  • Communicating with employees on behalf of management
Instead, and after a number of months, I realized it was more of a tactical marketing job where I did things like:
  • planning campaigns for promoting programs with stickers, bookmarks & postcards
  • designing posters, flyers and digital screens
  • buying advertising
  • promotion through social media
These ah-ha surprises are not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, the multiple avenues of activity in communications jobs can boost your marketability for the next job, as you learn new skills and grow in new areas.

As a communications rookie, it's important to have a jack-of-all-trades versatility in all of these areas to be able to smoothly move between platforms, disciplines and activities so employers see your value. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"We can't tell them that."

The scenario: A project is delayed. Employees haven't heard any updates in about a month and the manager realizes he's 'got to get something out soon' because his boss has been asking what's going on. Manager:  I need a draft message for the project update. How soon can you get it to me? Communications Officer:  How about tomorrow? Manager:  I kind of need it today some time. Communications Officer:  How about today? Manager:  Okay good.  Communications Officer:  So the reason for the delay is other projects took priority but now it's time to return to this one, right? Manager:  "We can't tell them that."  Communications Officer:  Why not? Manager:  Well because it looks bad. I hear those words from a senior manager or executive and sigh. There are precious few things we truly "CAN'T" tell employees: private information about other employees financially-sensitive information the CEO's kid's cellpho...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dear Executive: Say What You Mean

If you read Clare Lynch's article called: " 10 Ways to Protect Your Copy from A Verbose Exec ", you'll see the following sentence: "There's nothing worse than some verbose exec "improving" your finely crafted copy by inserting references to "delivering key learnings," "driving employee integration strategies," and "interfacing holistically with clients." If you're anything like me, you actually want to tackle rewriting those mucky terms she's highlighted. Let's start with the first one: delivering key learnings. The word 'learning' is a noun; that's not the problem. When you put an 's' on it, you are attempting to count an abstract concept like learning, and that causes confusion. Allow me to give you an example:  Merriam-Wester defines learning as: "knowledge or skill acquired by instruction or study." You do not typically count the number of knowledges you've acq...
Post a Comment
Read more

If You Clarify, There's No Need to Explain

Clarifying is not the same as explaining. Let me explain. No, wait: let me clarify that...which is it? When I hear the word 'explain', I envision multiple paragraphs of additional text that may not be necessary. Whereas the word 'clarify' evokes a beautiful landscape of writing where every word means something and no word can be left out. In the meantime, yes, 'clarify' and 'explain' are synonyms, which means they are similar, not exactly alike. In the context of writing well and writing to engage, I recommend clarity over too much explanation; perhaps that's a better way to put it. If anyone needs me to clarify that, let me know.
1 comment
Read more