Internal communications is a key factor in the health of any enterprise. Ensuring that your employees are engaged, in loop, and on the same page is critical. In today’s world, our focus tends to be on external communications, but how well is your company communicating internally? Do you tend to get lost in a sea of emails unable to reach to the top of your inbox?
When it comes to internal communications and implementing the right tool – how do you know which channels will serve your company the best? At South Florida-based PR agency, Durée & Company, we have put together these top five recommendations that will help improve how your team communicates.
Here are the most popular channels being used for internal communications:
This may just be another five-letter word to you but to our D&Co Dynamos it has helped streamline the way we communicate. Slack is a cloud-based internal tool that allows for instant messaging to be organized by comment. The name is an acronym for “Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge”.
Slack is a place where your team comes to together to collaborate, important information can be found by the right people, and your tools pipe in information when and where you need it. The channels we created help our team members stay up-to-date on client news and flag important announcements in real-time.
Have you ever found yourself in impromptu meeting without a pen and paper? If your answer is – yes – look no further than the Evernote app that can be downloaded straight to your smartphone or tablet device. Evernote helps you capture and prioritize ideas, projects, and to-do list, so nothing falls through the cracks. With Evernote, you have the ability to share your notes with other team members and allow them to collaborate within your notebook. This tool also has the ability to sync automatically between devices, meaning you can access your notes even when you are offline.
As an early adopter to Google Drive, we’ve found it to be one of the best ways to synchronize files across devices and to share files wherever we may be. Google Drive helps safely store photos, videos, files and more in its version of the “cloud”. In case you didn’t know, the first 15 GB of storage is free with a Google account. Whether you are in the middle of the ocean or stuck in traffic, there will never be an excuse for being unable to locate an important file and send it along to your team.
A lover of all Apple products, we’ve found the iCloud feature to come in handy when we are at client events. With the push of a button, our team is able to upload images and videos into a cloud storage for easy accessibility. During our busiest days, iCloud comes to the rescue when we need to send b-roll and images to our clients or media contacts. Best of all – iCloud can sync instantly to all of your devices (iPhone, iPad, Laptop or desktop).
Face-to-Face Meetings
While we know people often hide behind a screen – it’s critical to have meetings to verbally communicate messages to your team effectively. These meetings can also be motivational and can clarify information that might be miscommunicated via email. We suggest to limit them so they are most effective and keep them organized by developing an agenda to guide the conversation. Assign a note taker during the meeting and make sure that they share a recap following each conversation. It’s important to leave every meeting with a takeaway so each team member can be accountable.
We’d love to hear what works best for your team. Reply below in the comments and share what tools your company uses to communicate more effectively in a group setting. Don’t forget to take a look at our other blog posts for more tips on public relations, marketing and events.
About Durée & Company
Durée & Company, Inc. is an award-winning full-service public relations, marketing and special events firm with offices in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Aspen, Colorado. The firm serves the corporate, agency and non-profit arenas for local, national and international clients focusing on public relations for real estate, public relations for restaurants, public relations for law firms, public relations for charities, public relations for healthcare, and many more. Durée & Company services include Public Relations, Social Media, Marketing, Advertising, Special Events, and Radio Promotions and Outreach.
