You’ve spent countless hours developing your mission. It represents your organization and your presence among your constituencies. Maybe it’s decades old and remains tried and true. Maybe you have readjusted recently. No matter the case, it is your identity.
Now, take a look at your messaging. On your social. Your electronic newsletter. A speech. A presentation slide stack. Ask yourself. Does your message align with your mission?
Yes? Fantastic! Stop reading.
No? You’re not alone!
In our three-second click and dump atmosphere, companies and organizations are under pressure to get their messages to their audiences quickly and efficiently. It’s important to be current and value added. But oftentimes, in our need for speed, we overlook what matters most; making certain than every message, post, and business card aligns with our mission.
Oftentimes, it happens slowly. Maybe you have an in-house communications team keeping on top of your external and internal outreach. However, as individuals take on more responsibility in our workforce, we expect our employees and ourselves to assume the role of public affairs and marketing strategists. Slowly, we may move away from our mission in order to make certain we get our news about an event or activity to the public. Soon, we are so busy worrying about putting out fires or making sure we don’t let too much time pass before reaching out to our consumers, that our mission falls completely away. In our effort to regularly update our websites and Facebook posts, we decide that something fresh is most important.
I would absolutely argue that being timely and present is imperative. However, not at the cost of losing our identity. Maybe we need to slow down. Ask ourselves, “Does my message meet my mission and my goals?
It’s a fair question, and it doesn’t always have a clear cut answer. I review many types of outreach materials as a communications professional. It’s rare that a company, nonprofit, or enterprise gets it right all the time. (I know I don’t.) In fact, for most of us, it’s a bit of a “sometimes yes” and “sometimes no” situation. However, if we take an extra couple of minutes to review our messages before hitting the submit button, we just might find that with a few word changes, we are able to share our identity in our message.
Categories: Content