From Fluff To Tough

In many organizations, corporate communications doesn’t get a lot of respect. I’m one the fortunate few who can in all honesty say I’ve got a great job in Communications. I’ve got a supportive CEO, and an incredibly super team who are really very good at what they do. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been busy with Press pitches and the response received to the ideas proposed were very encouraging indeed. On the drive back to the office, I mulled over why are there complaints about the difficulty in getting publicity with the press.

There’s real work and then there’s communications. Actions, of course, speak louder than words. There are the people who get their hands dirty and actually deliver value to the organization, and then there’s those who are a drain on resources. Content is a form of communications, and it’s something you store as quickly and as cheaply as possible.

Content, as I have said so many times, is a hidden asset within most organizations. The corporate communications department is ideally placed to tap this hidden asset. Here’s how it can do it. This is a very different way to use content. It means going for function and becoming much more hard edged. It means avoiding big fancy images and lofty sounding words. It’s about being practical and relentlessly to the point.

You can become relentlessly focused on helping your staff complete their most important tasks as quickly as possible. You can change content from the fluffy stuff to the hard stuff.