Improve Your Corporate Comms with These Tips

Corporate communication. An alliteration that makes most want to close their email. However, these tips will guide you through creating a less tedious corporate comms (CC) strategy. We know there are two parts of CC: internal and external. Internal communications is the sharing of information within an organization while external is the sharing of information outside an organization for business purposes. Together these parts inform our business success, and Issuu has the tools for mastering both.

Analyze your organization’s corporate comms

First, lets look at what leading communications scholars know about successful CC. Both employee organization relations (EOR) and employee engagement are directly impacted by the quality of internal communications. All of which is a result of transformational leadership that employs symmetrical communication. So, what does this mean for us non-researchers??

Symmetrical communication is a two-way dialogue between leaders and employees, a concern for employee wellness, and opportunities for collaboration. A transformational leader is one that takes these things seriously. If employees get the feeling their bosses are as committed as they are then people do their job well. When EOR is high your people perform better, advocate for your organization, and attract quality employees. Which is why many scholars refer to your employees as your “informal PR force”[1].  The public trusts your employees about what they say about you more than your PR team. Additionally, with the increasing importance of corporate social responsibility, external communications take on a new light. Showing your audiences that you understand responsibilities outside of profit-making is central in the increasingly globalized and transparent market. People don’t just take your word– so modern technology is essential in corporate communications [2].

Ditch the flat PDFs

Many of Issuu’s publishers have seen marked improvements with simple changes in their corporate comms strategies. For example, Sun Valley Resort provides employees with an HTML5 digital display guidebook. It is uploaded on all desktops and tablets for their wide range of employees in place or on the go. Solar Reserve, respected worldwide energy and tech company focusing on renewable and solar energy, also switched to digitized newsletters for internal communications. Comms teams say the switch was “beautiful.” And, with Analytics features they found a significant increase in shares and reads of their internal comms materials.

Similarly, Olsson, a respected engineering and design firm, switched to the Issuu flip book reader for newsletter and company announcements. They saw a 30% increase in engagement, with an average of 3 minutes spent on the newsletter and even more on the announcement. Olsson also improved external comms by creating a streamlined recruitment packet that stands out in the competitive engineering field. As mentioned in previous sections, improved accessibility and transparency of information results in better employee performance. All three of these companies are on track for stellar EOR.

Where in your communication strategy can PDFs be replaced?

Update your social sharing strategy

Companies are increasingly turning to social media for both internal and external CC. Naturally, LinkedIn is often the first focus of professional organizations. However, sites like Twitter and Facebook can humanize your employees and leadership in ways that LinkedIn simply does not have the capacity for. Stories now dominate the social media scene with their multimedia interactivity.  Which is why the Issuu Story Cloud uploads content from your PDFs directly onto Instagram, Facebook, AMP, LinkedIn, and more.

Take Duke University as an example. They curate a “Working @ Duke” social media campaign for Facebook and Twitter. It increases awareness and involves their employees on their fave social platforms. Olsson also makes use of the Issuu Story Cloud for more in-depth professional articles on LinkedIn. Social media is now a classic way of increasing symmetrical communication which increases employee engagement. Creating once and sharing everywhere means more time focusing on what matters most, engaging your employees, and not whether all your PDFs are lined up.

Which social media do your employees use most? What about your audience?[2]External Communication About Sustainability: Corporate Social Responsibility Reports and Social Media Activity.

Let us help you!

Since Issuu is at the forefront of digital publishing technologies we can drive your corporate communications transformations. Experts recommend setting up “listening centers” that collect feedback across all channels, written, social media sentiment, etc integrated for all levels of the hierarchy. They also encourage celebration of model employees with Stories, or use embeddable readers for offering accessible training. Encourage transformational leadership whenever possible. In the digital age, this means that those in power should privilege upward communications from blogs, messengers, or social networking sites. Do not be afraid of taking advantage of our publication templates that scale your brand, convert content, and create your communication strategy form the ground up. Don’t waste time on designing and get right into fostering healthy corporate communications. Get started with the Issuu Story Cloud today.[1] Why leadership matters to internal communication linking transformational leadership, symmetrical communication, and employee outcomes.

Read more on the Issuu Blog and fine tune your corporate comms with guides on increasing readability and engagement.