No longer the ugly duckling

Move over, PR and marketing. Employee communications is no longer the ugly duckling of the industry, as shown by these seven takeaways from Ragan’s internal communications conference at Facebook. Why seven? As Kristin Graham of Amazon Web Services told the audience, our short-term memories can only retain seven items (give or take 2).

1. Do you want fries with that?

If you want to stop taking orders and be a communication strategist, you need to learn to say no. After all, you’re the communications expert, responsible for creating appealing content, and you have the right to determine which stories deserve to be told. As Stacie Barrett from Domino’s told the audience, “If everything is important, then nothing is important.” Work with your stakeholders to help them turn company strategy and initiatives into good storytelling. Remember, if you’re not interested in the content, chances are your audience won’t be, either.

2. The proof is in the data.