The New rules of Corporate Communication in Digital age

 Communication is undervalued in corporations because it’s difficult to measure, According to Clark.The skill "requires a high tolerance of ambiguity, contradiction, and subtlety (i.e., softness)," communications expert Walter G. Montgomery writes on knowledge, and many senior leaders prefer to reserve that kind of thinking for strategy decisions. And it doesn't help and tends to squeeze corporate communications in among heavy-duty statistics and accounting courses, even though it encompasses everything from media and community relations to internal and investor relations as well.

The truth is that the way an organization communicates can be the different between success and failure. By now, we're already familiar with the damage on the use of the media.

"Managers need exposure to communications, especially now, “According to Tim Andree,  "The communications model changes every six to seven months. There’s media convergence, new technology, and new analysis.It affects how you need to communicate and how people get their information."

Fortunately, some companies are taking note and responding accordingly. A pilot program designed by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is now being conducted in order to educate corporate managers on the importance and use of technology in emerging in business leaders about reputation management and strategic communications.

FIVE NEW RULES OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS

In the meantime, corporate leaders can do their part to improve how their companies communicate. Here are five steps to take.

1. Recruit talented, senior-level communications executives with solid business skills and deep knowledge of the company’s products.

More broadly, companies need to give communications chiefs the titles, reporting relationships, access, and resources to be effective companywide. And that means investing in senior communications roles for the long-term. Communications professionals like to tout their ability to be quick studies. But it can take years to truly know a company's business, and a communications person without the right level of industry knowledge won't get the respect it takes to do an effective job.

2. Learn to trust and understand the communications function. Management can’t get away with listening to its communications leaders with half an ear. Companies "need to learn more about communications and the communications consequences of their actions and not treat it like a foreign language, but communication blunders can do real damage to companies' brands.

3. Let communications leaders advise and educate the Company. If corporations need to listen better to their communications leaders, then the reverse is also true. Communications need to help other leaders understand why they're important. "Good communications chiefs recognize that one leg of their job is representing communications to senior management," According to Moyer. "They can point to communication wins in that area with the same pride they do to a media relations victory outside.   

4. Eliminate command-and-control communications. "The best companies are transparent, and when they are wrong, they promptly admit it rather than hide behind 'corporate speak,'" Clark says. Closing ranks can be dangerous in the digital age, but it's a most common reaction when things go wrong. "Apologize, take responsibility, and do what's necessary to right the wrong. Companies shouldn't compound their problems by obfuscating or denying responsibility for problems.

5. Let employees be ambassadors, According to Clark advises that. Don’t gag them on social media. "Smart, far-sighted companies recognize that if employees are using social media anyway, you might as well tap that power," she says. "Give them information about the company's vision, goals, and what it's doing, and allow them to spread that positive message online. They'll have far more credibility among their friends and contacts that your official brand page ever could." 

          

                                         By Shayo Issa