Want a better communications strategy?
While we’ve written extensively about how to create a communications strategy, there is perhaps no better teacher than an example and no better coach than the honest feedback from friends.
So, today I’m excited to tell you that Rachel Eastvold has offered to share the Communications Strategy she has developed for Hope Evangelical Free Church in Springfield, IL where she serves part time as Director of Communications.
Rachel writes:
I took on the role of part-time director of communications here around Sept. 2012. Our church has not had a communications staff person in the past, and for several reasons it became clear that we were in need of someone to fill that role. I had previously been working at the church as a part-time administrative assistant. It has been a big learning curve for me and I’m trying to read, follow, learn from wherever I can.
The communications strategy that I have attached is a DRAFT that I have been working on, along with a sample schedule/timeline to help people know how to request to promote their events. I have to give credit where credit is due. A lot of this strategy is begged, borrowed, and stolen from a strategy that I found online, published by Worthington Christian Church.
I’d love to see all the other policies posted, so I can learn from them and the discussions around them all. J Thanks!
Would you take a few moments to read Hope Evangelical Free Church’s communications strategy and give Rachel some feedback in a comment? Praise the positive and offer suggestions where there’s room for improvement.
If you’d like to help other communicators by sharing your organization’s communications strategy and getting some valuable feedback, let me know in a comment & I’ll get in touch with you.
4 Comments
Hi Rachel, first of all way to go for creating a communications strategy. That's more than 75% of organizations can say. Second, cudos for having the courage to share your communications strategy publicly in order to help others and gain feedback to improve it.
I've got some feedback I'll share with you, but I want to give other readers the opportunity to go first. 🙂
Surprised there's no feedback yet. Maybe I need to go first….
Rachel, I think you've got a great "Communications Request Guidelines" there. This is an essential component of a church communications strategy. It defines how people/ministries interact with the communications ministry. It's part of the "how" (part 4) in the "how to create a communications strategy" post linked above. My suggestion would be to build on that by defining your communication goals, who you're target audience is, what they need, the metrics you're using to measuring success and what you're plan is to evaluate and revise your strategy.
Thank you so much for this post! My story is a lot like Rachael's, I became the Communications Director in July 2012 after working in the IT office for 10 years. I have been reading everything I can find and know that we need a written strategy but I have been overwhelmed as to where to start. I can start now because of your help!
Thanks Tami! Glad to hear that!