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15 hacks for the solo internal communicator
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15 hacks for the solo internal communicator 15 hacks for the solo internal communicator
15 hacks for the solo internal communicator
The role and value of internal
communications may be rising on
the management agenda, but the
profession is still playing catch-
up when it comes to budget and
resource.
Many organizations continue to have
rather ‘lean’ internal communication
functions, as shown by responses to
this year’s State of the Sector survey:
For those in smaller sized
organizations, it’s a tougher situation
still. Just 25% of organizations with
less than 1,000 employees even have
resource for internal comms.
For those of us going it alone or being
dragged in multiple directions, it’s
a tough gig. You need more budget,
more resource; but to get that, you
need to show the Big Bosses you’re
delivering value and are worth the
investment. To do that, you’ve got to
do a good job in the first place. But
how do you do that with tight purse
strings and no help?
It’s the ultimate catch-22.
The good news is, you’re not alone:
and it really is possible to deliver
successful, strategic internal comms
with limited budget and resource.
Internal Comms is still (relatively) young as a profession and as a result, many of us are continuing to fly solo. If you’re juggling too many plates under the shadow of limited budget, resource, and support, we’ve got your back. Here’s our top hacks.
We've pulled together some tips, tools and tactics that can help you #commshack your way to great internal comms...
Just 25% of organizations with less
than 1,000 employees have resource for
internal communications.
of respondents operate as a team of
five people or less
72%
of respondents declare that IC is just part of their remit, combined with other roles and priorities
62%
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15 hacks for the solo internal communicator 15 hacks for the solo internal communicator
Identify and enlist help in the form of internal influencers
01
Get pal-y with other departments
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Build your internal network. When
you’re charged with putting together an
internal message or campaign, it’s a good
idea to tap into the expertise of those
around you.
HR will be hot on those issues facing
your staff and the official party line,
policies, procedures and more. They can
also lend some gravitas if you’re looking
to tap into line managers.
Marketing are a great resource if
you need some creative input, brand
material or potential resource; and
it never hurts to have IT on your side
when you’re juggling different digital
comms channels. Establish your go-to’s
for support and keep them close.
Use templates or forms for internal comms submissions
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How many of us have been forced to
battle the waffler, the corporate-speak
addict, the lover of the extended
metaphor?
It’s often our job as internal
communicators to gather and push
out content from across the business,
but not everyone is a natural-born
communicator. Give your colleagues a
helping hand by creating some simple
templates or a submission form that
will help hone in their messaging.
Simple tools like the journalist
inverted pyramid (see below) or clear
form fields like ‘Heading’, ‘Who is this
for?’ ‘What action do you want people
to take?’ ‘When does this need to go
out?’ can cut out many of the lengthy,
headache-inducing rewrites faced by
internal communicators. It’s a little
extra effort upfront but will save huge
amounts of time in the long run.
The Most Important Stuff
The Next Most Important Stuff
The Least Important Stuff
In practically every organization,
you’ll already have staff who are
more vocal or willing to add their
voice to internal discussion.
Identify existing champions who
can be called on to support, add to,
or distribute your comms efforts,
and give them the necessary tools
or permissions to help you out.
OK, there’s a touch of irony
that the first tip about going
solo is to, well, not go solo.
However, the mantra of ‘many
hands makes light work’ is
a cliché for a reason.
Whatever it is you have that tells the core of the story the best. It's usually the 5 Ws: Who, What, When, Where and Why.
Supporting details that help build the page's story and give it context.
Minor, nice-to-have details that add to the story but
aren't essential.Top Tip!
Build your internal network.Establish your go-to's for support and keep them close.
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15 hacks for the solo internal communicator 15 hacks for the solo internal communicator
Make it easy to add or submit user-generated content
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Risk aversion to user-generated content is
a challenge for many organizations – and
comes at a cost for the internal comms
function. Your employees are a valuable
source of content and comms. They’re your
eyes and ears on the ground, their content
is more likely to be trusted and engaged
with by their peers, they’re the living and
breathing essence of your company culture.
Use them.
Remove barriers to employee-generated
content. Does every piece need sign off? Do
staff have to send internal blogs or updates
via IT anytime they have something
to say on your intranet? Creating a
submission process, giving staff appropriate
permissions and being brave enough to
grant autonomy can seriously help you out.
Try Unsplash for great royalty-free images and replace your default images
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Visual content has a BIG impact on
how well audiences engage with our
comms, but getting great images
without paying top dollar can still be a
frustrating experience for many.
Unsplash is our current top-ranking
option for great photos that can lend
support to any comms piece.
One simple hack to tidy up the overall
look and feel of internal comms
efforts is to swap out the dry, old
default images that auto-slot in when
employees don’t take the time to add
a custom one. This could be on People
Directory profiles, for example; blogs,
news stories, uploaded documents and
more.
Give staff a toolkit
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It’s another one that requires a bit more
work and time upfront but can deliver
the returns in the long-run. If you’re
encouraging staff to contribute as
part of your internal communications
strategy, ensure they have all the tools
they need to do the job right. This can
include the following:
Photograph by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
Remove barriers to
employee-generated content.
Does every piece need
sign off from you or senior
management?
,,Templates
Tone of voice or language guidelines
Brand materials, such as high-res versions of your logo, fonts, and colors
Training or support material
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15 hacks for the solo internal communicator 15 hacks for the solo internal communicator
Build some audience personas
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Personas are a common tool in the
marketing industry, and no less
valuable internally.
Every organization – regardless of
size or industry – will have a diverse
demographic of employees, each with
different communication needs and
preferences. Ensure you’re getting your
message across in the most effective
way possible to build value and
credibility for those at the top.
Jazz up internal emails
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In today’s digital workplace, there is
no place for the flat text email. Zero.
Zilch. None.
Despite our best efforts and a plethora
of different internal communications
tools, the age-old email remains
a necessary evil for many. Make
sure yours don’t end up being auto-
sorted into an abandoned folder or
greeted with an automatic ‘delete’
on arrival. There are a whole host of
free templates and email builders out
there, with great banners, visuals,
layouts, clear calls-to-action and
more. Admittedly, most are designed
for external customers: but in
internal comms, your staff ARE your
customers. The same principles apply.
You can create HTML templates with
little to no experience for newsletters
and updates, whether from your
intranet, email marketing platform, or
simply with your Outlook account.
Personas typically set out
the profile of a particular
employee type with
information such as basic
demographic info, their
common challenges, issues
of interest to them, and
how they tend to receive
communication.
HubSpot has a buyer
persona building tool that
can be helpful if you’re stuck
on where to start; or see our
great blog on what, why,
and how to create internal
comms personas here.
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15 hacks for the solo internal communicator 15 hacks for the solo internal communicator
Re-purpose content
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In any business, there’s likely some
great comms work going on already
that you can nab and re- or up-cycle
for internal use. It could be a case study
compiled by Marketing that makes for
a great success story to share internally,
or perhaps your product team have
some great concepts worked up that
you can push out.
Collaboration opportunities exist all
around you – if you can build a network
and tap into them. See point 2.
Harness the power of micro-blogging, images, video, infographics and more
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Try out Canva
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Want to create visually compelling
content, but lacking a professional
diploma in how to use Photoshop or
Illustrator?
Have no fear. If you haven’t discovered
or used it yet, Canva is a handy and
free-to-use (to a level) platform for
creating great looking visuals. Add your
own brand and visuals, choose your
brand colors, browse the thousands
of templates available. Who says you
need an in-house design team to create
beautiful images?
Top Tip!
Not every internal communication needs to be a meaty 10-paragraph email or memo.
Got an update to deliver from the
boss? Why not ask to capture it on
video instead? With the quality of
today’s average smartphone, we no
longer need to worry about wrestling
with the company camera and tripod.
Let go of the need to edit or overlay
videos with company branding: keep it
simple, and you’ll generate a whole lot
more content and engagement.
With the correct internal comms
platform and a touch of creativity, it’s
easy to get your message across – even
in 280 characters or less.
There's likely some great comms work going on already that you can nab and re-cycle or up-cycle for internal use.
In our social media-driven world, it can
be surprisingly effective and efficient
to go for the minimalist approach and
give comms to your audience in easy
to digest, bite-sized chunks or with an
eye-capturing image.
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15 hacks for the solo internal communicator 15 hacks for the solo internal communicator
Create easy (free) videos with Lumen5
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This is one we've used more than once
and definitely recommend. The free
version has some restrictions, but
can still be used to create some great
content.
It’s designed for social media video
creation, but with video now ranking
as the preferred medium of choice for
consumers, it’s a powerful tool and
trend we need to be embedding more
into our internal communications.
Pick from a library of clips or images,
overlay with text and boom! Simple
video comms in 10 minutes or less.
‘How to’ comms? Loom it.
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Another free tool tip – especially handy if, like many internal communicators,
you get charged with informing or upskilling staff on new tools, processes,
products, platforms and more.
Learn how to (politely) say ‘NO’
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If you’re manning the internal comms
ship one-handed, your time and
resource is both limited and precious.
It can take some learning to
master being your own gatekeeper,
particularly in the face of senior
stakeholders who passionately believe
their message is a top priority and
MUST be heard by all. But it’s a must.
When declining, give a valid reason:
is the message specific to a particular
department, rather than company-
wide? Are there more pressing
communications that need to go out
as a priority? Offer alternatives where
possible and do your best to stay on
the good side (you might need their
support, one day) – but if you need to
say no, say it.
We learn better by watching than
reading or hearing, and one of the
best ways to engage staff is through
a demo. Loom is a great browser
extension and tool that lets you
record a video of your screen, add
annotations, and share away.
So next time you’re asked to explain
how something works, don’t write it
up – video it.
Be your own gatekeeper. If you're managing internal comms one-handed, your time and resource is precious!
With video ranking as the medium of choice for consumers, it's a trend we need to be embedding more into internal comms.
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15 hacks for the solo internal communicator 15 hacks for the solo internal communicator
It can be isolating at times when
you’re flying solo on delivering a
company-wide strategy with limited
support or buy-in. However, you’re not
alone. The internal communications
community is growing and upskilling
all the time, especially as the need to
engage employees continues to rise as
a priority on the management agenda.
Learn to lean on the IC network:
there are some incredible individuals
out there to learn from and endless
resources to help you make a
real impact in your organization.
Professional bodies range from the
IABC, IoIC, CIPR and more; a simple
search on the #InternalComms
tag and you’ll be a part of the
conversation.
Got a top tip for the internal
communications community? Let us
know and we’ll add it to the list. Tweet
us @intranetexperts!
You got this!Measure as you go
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Don’t wait until the threat of the
annual budget and performance
review is hanging over you to start
crawling through your internal
communications efforts in a bid to
validate your role. For every internal
communications campaign you’re
charged with delivering – whether
that’s a one-off effort to educate staff
on a business change, or ongoing
communication to raise awareness
of this year’s charitable cause – set
yourself a clear objective upfront and
determine how you’ll measure success.
Will it be through quantitative data,
such as opens, clicks, visits, responses
or comments generated? Or perhaps
more qualitative feedback from staff
focus groups, questions and surveys?
Taking a few minutes to decide what
success looks like and then gathering
the data on conclusion will not only
save valuable time (and headaches)
come budget-bid time, but it can
help you evolve and improve on
your internal comms efforts as you
go: learning from each effort and
continually improving. @IntranetExperts
Interact Software
@IntranetExperts
interactsoftware.com
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