5
BEST TIPS: |
Communications
Plan
• Work with the leader and senior staff to have clear goals. Have frequent
meetings to develop and reassess them.
• Have a statement of principles and goals. Draw up a media plan on
how to reach them.
• Answer who, what, where, when, why, and how in developing a message
for the public.
• Plan how to assess the program and its success or failure.
• Work the message into everything the responsible government official
does. |
THE COMMUNICATIONS
PLAN
• The
Message Starts With
the Leader
• Creating
a Communications Plan
• Working
Out a Media Campaign
The first step in
successfully communicating
with the public is
developing a plan for
getting out your message.
Your message is your
theme with an objective,
such as to persuade
someone to do something
or to support something.
It is capturing your
ideas in a way that
can be understood and
accepted by others.
For example, if you
want citizens to pay
lower taxes, your message
might be about cutting
taxes to stimulate
the economy.
Why not just throw
out this message to
the public and let
it take its course?
Because, chances are
you won't get anywhere
if you do.
You wouldn't get into
your car and drive
without knowing where
you were going, what
roads you were going
to take, what you were
going to do when you
got there, and whom
you wanted to see when
you arrived. That would
be a waste of time,
effort, and gasoline.
You need to plan where
you are headed and
how you will get there
- and even what will
happen if you have
an accident in your
car or a mishap in
your plan.
This is also true
in developing a message,
putting it into a communications
plan, devising a media
campaign to carry it
out, and assessing
the strategy as you
implement it. If you
don't know how to get
to where you want to
go, you won't get there.
If you want to make
economic changes in
the way the government
is run, for instance,
you need to communicate
why you are proposing
what you want to do,
what effect it will
have and on whom, how
much it will cost or
how much it will save,
how you will know whether
or not the program
reaches its goals,
and how long it will
take to do so. The
communications plan
is your map to reach
your destination; the
media campaign represents
the roads to get there.
The
Message Starts
With the Leader
The government public
affairs/press office
plans and implements
a media campaign, but
that can be done only
when the government
leader is on board
and has presented clear
goals. Developing goals
and themes does not
rest with the press
office. Ideally, the
top official, working
with his press secretary
and senior staff, has
articulated three to
five objectives or
themes that he or she
would like to accomplish
long term — say,
by the end of the year
or the end of his or
her term in office.
(More than five major
themes can be too much
for the public to absorb.)
As an example, these
are five that one recently
democratized state
considered: advance
European Union reforms,
achieve military reforms
to get closer to NATO
membership, achieve
civil service reforms,
achieve privatization
goals, push through
agricultural reforms.
The themes should
be articulated repeatedly
and made a focal point
of the administration.
As much as possible,
every action the official
takes — from
delivering a speech,
to giving a television
interview, to supporting
legislation — should
center around these
long-term objectives.
Certainly, the official
will have to develop
short-term messages
to deal with immediate
crises as they crop
up, but the overall
goals should constantly
be repeated and returned
to.
A consistent message
is most useful when
a new issue requires
acceptance by the public.
Misunderstandings often
stem from a lack of
basic information and
discussion. Thus, the
government must provide
clear, repeated, and
open communication
on the issue in order
to earn public understanding
and acceptance for
its objectives.
Governmental leaders
sometimes learn this
the hard way: when
they are not re-elected
to office. Surveys
in one recently democratized
state showed that the
citizens knew they
had to suffer some
difficult economic
times to get to an
improved economy, but
they did not know that
was also the plan of
the governmental leaders.
The government articulated
no message. Government
officials had said
they wanted a stronger
economy, but they had
never spelled out what
steps were being taken
to get there, why certain
measures had to be
taken, how their plan
would work, when better
times could be expected,
who would be affected
and how, and where
the biggest impact
would be felt. Instead,
they focused their
attention on the legislature
and let the press set
the agenda. To the
public, they appeared
to be lurching from
crisis to crisis.
Creating
a Communications
Plan
Once the message is
decided upon and the
goals are identified,
the government press
office writes up a
plan to move the leader's
vision into reality.
A first step is research,
often by the long-term
communications staff,
into how the goals
can be achieved and
what it will mean in
the interim and long
terms.
With the goals and
research in hand, the
press staff can do
a public relations
audit. This is an assessment
of how the action and
goals are viewed by
those within the organization
and those outside.
It involves talking
to government executives
to gain their views
on the strengths and
weaknesses of the organization
or a specific program
or a plan, and talking
to the public to determine
their views. By evaluating
the two perceptions,
it is possible to write
up a public relations "balance
sheet" of strengths
and weaknesses and
then develop a plan
on how to capitalize
on the strengths and
deal with the weaknesses.
A communications plan
can also be written
without an audit. Begin
with themes. Decide
what you want to achieve
at the end of a year
or legislative period,
or at the end of a
term in office. Develop
a focused and clear
message. Ask yourself
these questions:
- Is there a statement
of principles?
- What goals do I
want to achieve?
Pick a realistic
number — no
more than five a
year — on which
to focus, and then
break them down into
what you would like
to achieve this year,
next year, and so
forth.
- What do I want
the media to communicate?
- What messages are
needed for women,
for students, for
the elderly, for
military personnel,
for other audiences?
- What media strategy
will communicate
each message? You
might decide to emphasize
a theme a week. You
could have sub-themes
within an overall
theme. For example,
if improving education
were a theme, subthemes
might be improving
teacher education,
involving parents
more in the educational
system, lengthening
the school day or
year, and so forth.
Beginning with this
kind of analysis, you
can formulate a media
campaign that you can
use to educate people,
influence public opinion,
persuade opinion leaders,
generate debate, and
get people to take
an action.
"To communicate
effectively, you must
identify a need; prioritize
what is most important;
decide what you want
to communicate; have
it be relevant to your
audience; and then
repeat it," says
former White House
spokesperson Dee Dee
Myers. "You can't
say everything. You
have to decide what
is most important to
say, focus on whom
you are saying it to,
and say it in terms
that make sense to
them. Then you have
to repeat the message
over and over, because
people are busy and
have a lot of information
coming at them in a
24-hour news cycle."
Working
Out a Media Campaign
In working out a media
campaign, you would:
- Devise a plan on
how to reach your
goals.
- Break the plan
down by assignments.
- Write out a schedule
of who does what
and by what date,
and update it frequently.
- Appoint a supervisor
to monitor the assignments
to ensure that work
is on schedule.
- Change goals and
deadlines as needed.
- Meet regularly
with those involved
in the plan — everyone
from press secretary
to the chief of staff,
the scheduler, the
speechwriter, and
the legislative aide.
- Approve the plan
with the group.
- Implement the plan.
- Use events to reinforce
the themes.
- Put the goals into
legislation.
- Focus on the goals
in speeches.
- Target various
subtexts of your
message to your different
audiences.
- Have surrogates
or outside experts
give the same message
on your goals as
you do.
- Answer the who,
what, when, where,
why, and how of typical
news stories to help
move your vision
into a message that
can be readily understood.
In regard to this
last point, it is important
to be prepared to tell
the public:
- What the program
is and what it is
not.
- Why it is needed.
- How it will affect
them.
- What will happen
in the short term.
- What will happen
in the long term.
- How this is different
from what is already
happening.
- What the government's
responsibility in
the new program is.
- What the timeline
is and when changes
will take effect.
- What will happen
if it doesn't work.
- How the public
will know if it has
been successful.
- What action the
public is being asked
to take.
One way to keep your
good story going, says
former White House
press secretary Marlin
Fitzwater, is to talk
about what you are
going to say, then
say it, and then talk
about what you said.