Creating a County
Communications Plan
Jacqueline Lambiase, Ph.D.
Director, School of Strategic Communication
TCU Schieffer College of Communication
Sponsored by NACIO, February 2015
WHO HAS A PLAN?
WHAT DO YOU NEED?
TAKING STOCK OF YOUR ASSETS
PARTS
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Vision | Mission | Values
County goals, promises, ideals
County strategic plan
Marketing initiatives or branding
(or a brand manifesto)
• This does not have to be created by an
advertising agency …
• Could be a simple communication manifesto
County comm manifesto
• The county is genuinely committed to
enhancing communication with stakeholders
and believes effective communication is a vital
part of its mission. Competent communication
benefits citizens by encouraging informed
participation, building community pride and
satisfaction, stimulating growth, strengthening
county services, and increasing public
confidence in government.
YOUR MANIFESTO CAN CONNECT
TO OVERALL COMMUNITY THEMES
A theme! (Not like A Christmas Story)
PG County
Prince George’s County: Experience. Expand.
Explore.
Wonderful attractions for tourists to Experience.
Amazing opportunities we offer for businesses
to Expand.
And incredible communities and resources for
both new and established residents to Explore.
“From reducing crime to improving schools to
building a new hospital, along with a billion
dollar destination resort, and potentially being
the new home to the FBI, Prince George’s
County has been, as the Washington Post
editorial board noted, ‘A County on the Move.’ I
believe this eye-catching and creative campaign
will truly accelerate our momentum.”
#ChicagoPassion
LET’S WRITE A SHORT MANIFESTO
MORE PARTS
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Existing plans or aging plans
Crisis communication plan
Social media policies or guidelines
Any daily interface with citizens
County Courthouse (place, people, leadership,
perception of citizens)
• Oh yeah, citizens (partners/customers)
MORE PARTS
• All other communicators within programs and
departments of your city or county
• Other city, county and regional plans
• Vagaries of elected officials and their personal
crusades for their districts
• Any other existing initiatives, listing
responsible departments or leaders
Herding Cats and Central Planning: www.globalwealthprotection.com
Many of the parts may be thought of as
ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING +
FORMATIVE RESEARCH
THE PROCESS
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Environmental scanning
Formative Research
Planning
Message design and
execution
• Evaluation
You may remember this as
the four-part process:
• Research
• Objectives
• Programming
• Evaluation
THE TOOLBOX
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Database where you gather these parts
Ears (listening tour)
Focus groups, surveys, “road show”
GANTT Chart (projects less than 30 days)
PERT Chart (complex projects)
Both use tasks, time frames, dependencies
Budget: people and hard costs
Traditional Communication Model
Lambiase New Media Communication Model
Other information gathering
• SWOT (You may be the only person who does
this for the entire organization)
• Arlington, Texas, calls some of these
“horizon issues” (a.k.a. sticky wickets)
LET’S DO A SWOT ANALYSIS
FOR YOUR COUNTY
WHY PLANNING?
STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION
Why planning?
• To keep communication in line with county’s
values, mission and goals
• To proactively manage issues rather than react
• To understand what we know & don’t know
• To build consensus
• To manage county resources
MORE REASONS
• To map territory or territories of
communication responsibilities across a
complex organization
• To show other people within the organization
what communication jobs belong to your
domain
• To stick to your organization’s strategic goals,
rather than off working on stray initiatives
CHART YOUR COMMUNICATION
• First, who are the players? Who is allowed to speak or who
has authority to speak? In other words, who serves as your
department, county, or agency’s primary
writer/spokesperson/communicator
• Who approves their messages?
• What channels do the speakers use?
• What audiences do these speakers/communicators
address?
• Do you have policies/plans that govern these interactions?
Yes/no
• What was the last time these policies/plans were discussed
and reviewed among all parties?
http://www.mosaicworks.com/mosaics/depthfinder.html
Without strategic planning as a frame,
COMMUNICATION IS JUST ONE
DAMN TACTIC AFTER ANOTHER
ROBUST, FULL-BODIED PLANS NEED …
• Goals (lofty and ambiguous, but tied to
organization’s mission/vision/values)
• Objectives (measureable and specific)
• Strategies (audience, tone, channel)
• Tactics (messages, events, programs)
• Otherwise, you just have routines
Comprehensive (all communication) or Departmental (just what you do)
WHAT KIND OF PLAN
DO YOU NEED?
There are at least
TWO WAYS TO BUILD A PLAN
METHOD 1: THE “EASY” WAY
• Replicate prior plans
-or• Build from scratch, analyzing routines and using
existing tactics to build backwards toward goals
STEPS:
• Update an existing plan or old plan
• Complete an audit of all public-facing tactics (online
newsletter, YouTube videos, website, bill-paying
window, Twitter/Facebook/Instagram, Town Hall
meetings, and more) and then build your plan from the
bottom up
METHOD 2: THE HARDER WAY
• Scrap old plans or old routines to start anew
STEPS
• Learn about the culture and meet it in its best
reality or form (modeled by top-forming
departments)
• Accept input from all stakeholders
• Build cultural frameworks around existing
communication routines that you want to
preserve, or create new culture and frameworks
for this best-case culture
CASE STUDY: BRAND COLORADO
•Introduced in 2013, as part of a two-year effort that ended summer 2014.
•Focused on trade, tourism, travel.
•Unified 22 state agencies.
•Nonprofit and public-private partnership effort.
•$1.5 million in pro-bono work from Colorado-based PR & ad agencies.
•Part of governor’s overall economic development effort.
•Youth advisory board, amplified through social media.
•Listening tour across the state, with many stakeholders.
•Research showed that state flag was identified more with Chicago than
Colorado, outside the state.
•Brand saves time and money in multiple-agency communication tasks.
OTHER TASKS
• Channel Quest: Build a model of all
communication pathways inside your
organization and to the outside
• Content Quest: Complete an audit of all
public-facing tactics (online newsletter,
YouTube videos, website, bill-paying window,
Twitter/Facebook/Instagram, Town Hall
meetings, customer service, and more)
OTHER KEY QUESTIONS
• What kind of overall communication does
your org have? Centralized or decentralized?
• How many programs or departments
communicate with external stakeholders?
• How well does your internal communication
system work? Where are improvements
needed?
LET’S WRITE SOME GOALS
• Being available whenever citizens require key
interaction with or important information
from government.
DEBRIEF
j.lambiase@tcu.edu or @lambiase
MORE ABOUT THE CPC PROGRAM:
CERTIFIEDPUBLICCOMMUNICATOR.ORG
www.certifiedpubliccommunicator.org
Benefits of Program
A three-year comprehensive
communication plan built for your
organization
Extensive classroom instruction with
public relations, advertising, and
marketing professors
Latest information on metrics, social
influence, and digital media
Benefits of Program
Theoretical foundations plus
practical applications
A database of public-sector cases
Networking with public-sector
professionals in your cohort
Access to professors beyond the
classroom
Details
Summer I - 40 hours of instruction
Winter I - January Check-In (15 hours)
Summer II - 40 hours of instruction
5 nights of lodging each summer
5 breakfasts, 4 lunches, 1 dinner each summer
A typical day in the program
8:30 a.m. - Goal setting session
9 - 12: Theory Session 1
12 - 1: Lunch
1 - 3: Theory Session II or Planning Session
3 - 5: Theory Session III or Sandbox
5 - ?: Course work / Dinner / Cohort time
Fort Worth, Texas
TCU Campus
Moudy South
2014 graduating class
Graduation ceremony, 2015
TCU Robert Carr Chapel
Old and new cohorts work together
Getting real-world practice in summer II
TCU Studio C
Jessie Beyer and summer 2014-2015 cohort at Joe T. Garcia’s
j.lambiase@tcu.edu or @lambiase
MORE ABOUT THE CPC PROGRAM:
CERTIFIEDPUBLICCOMMUNICATOR.ORG