We understand by strategy the ability to project and define through a series of actions what we are going to do to reach our goal or objective. Many times we focus a lot on the route without knowing where we are going, that is, in the strategy without knowing which or what our objectives are. It is normal and has to do with the impulse of man to want to do, solve, act immediately … after a while, we notice few results and we stop, we take the time to analyze what am I doing? for what?. Therefore, it is essential (sooner rather than later) to define these objectives and make them real, something that after a while we can draw concrete conclusions and that we can assess them.
When we say a communication strategy, it seems somewhat flown and difficult to get down to concrete things but when we start asking ourselves some questions we understand that it is less abstract than we imagine: how do I want the other to define me? What do I want him to say about me? How do we want to be reminded? We all have a story, people, companies, organizations … but the big difference is whether that story that others have is what you accompanied them to build in a planned way or if it was something that happened outside of your reach.
We assume that our circumstances shape our stories, but the way we tell what we do is what shapes what happens next. That is the strength of the stories we tell (consciously or unconsciously), because they can convey something confusing or wrong but it is also their power, because we can take control of that, shape it and take advantage of its transforming force.
From the general to the particular:
– Define objectives
– What story to tell?
– Define audience: Who do I want to tell? “To all” it is almost never an acceptable answer. Unless you’re an alien who wants to talk to the entire planet earth, everyone, it’s not an answer. The more concrete we are, the better we will be able to sharpen the pencil in our narration.
– Where is my audience? In both physical and digital spaces.
– What dissemination tools do I have? Do I need new ones? The word “I need” is key, not because everyone has Twitter, I have to have it. In these cases, you have to evaluate a lot of cost/benefit. Carrying out the task of communicating, even if we do not hire an agency that does it for us, has a cost. It implies a lot of attention and creation time. We do not have open channels that we cannot handle correctly later.
– Throw! Having the blank sheet gives a lot of vertigo. But at some point you have to throw yourself and, above all, make mistakes.
– To mesure. How do we know if the objectives were met? Some parameters to measure success we have to have from the first moment. Taking the analysis time is as important as starting. This has to be a cycle, and with results in hand, start over … but this time the sheet will not be blank and that is much less scary!
How is your masterpiece going to be?
Imagen Encabezado © Andy Warhol in front of two paintings from his Marilyn series Photograph by Donald Getsug
