It’s winter: Why not get cozy with your audience?

A guide to targeting all employees for your communications

What do employees want to know? Are we communicating the right things? As an internal communicator, I ask myself these questions all the time.

Internal communications would be much easier if we could gear everything to just one type of audience and know at all times what that audience wants. But, in reality, most companies have a diverse employee population with different education, knowledge and interest levels, and employees working different shifts and often working in different buildings, states or countries.

The challenge is to develop communications that can reach and appeal to this large audience. Here are some tips:

1. First and foremost, know your audience.

Do you know what demographics make up your company, such as age, education level, gender, race/ethnicity, number of employees, years of service or number of shifts?

If your answer is “no,” then this will be the first place you will fail with your communications. Why are you still sitting there? Get up from your desk and go find out. If you are just spouting off words in your communication vehicles without knowing who you are writing them for, you are wasting your time and theirs.