Help Me Help You: Building Communications Advocates

If you work on a small communications team—or a team of one—that means you’re wearing multiple hats and juggling competing priorities. You’re managing brand, PR, media relations, internal communications, digital strategy, event planning, and design—all at once. There’s simply no time to juggle it all on your own.

But there’s good news: you don’t have to do it all alone! By strategically empowering your non-communications department colleagues to contribute, you can create even better content and lighten your load. Here’s how to build a culture of collaboration that benefits everyone.

Build Communications into Your Culture

First, for this effort to thrive, communications needs to be integrated into your organization’s processes and mindset. Establish the idea that clear communication is everyone’s responsibility – whether informally or formally. Creating and growing this culture is the hardest part, but the most critical for success.

Embed communications in planning. When teams are organizing events or launching projects, ensure they inform the communications team as a step in the planning checklist. Formalize this as a process within your organization.

Don’t Have a Team? Make Your Own!

Create an informal (or formal) council of contributors. Designate a point person in each department to share updates, photos, and ideas with you. Make sure to work closely with a scheduler or assistant in the office that may have wider insight into activities in the organization that need promotion.

Encourage Content Contributions

One of the easiest ways your colleagues can support you is by 1) recognizing the event/meeting/conference they are attending has value to the organization and 2) snapping photos or shooting quick videos and sending them your way with details (context, location, names, tags etc). Instill the idea within your organization that these images don’t need to be professional-grade – in fact, authentic, candid shots often perform better on social media.

Another way to gather content is to leverage the expertise of your staff. Ask them to write a blog post as a subject matter expert or do a video interview that can be used across your channels.

Turn Them into Digital Brand Champions

Your colleagues can be some of your most powerful advocates online. Encourage them to engage with your organization’s social channels in meaningful ways.

Ask team members to follow your accounts, like posts, and share content with their networks. Even a small boost can significantly increase your reach.

Highlight team contributions in your posts. When colleagues see their work featured, they’re more likely to support your efforts. (Important decision point: do you tag your colleagues on social media channels, other than LinkedIn, where their content may be more personal?)

Simplify the Process

Make it as easy as possible for your colleagues to contribute. The more friction there is to help, the less likely people will be to take the time to follow through.

If you come from an organization used to forms and more formal processes, create a simple one to submit ideas or content to. If that’s a barrier to participation within your organization, be open to receiving a quick email. Whatever your method, be sure to acknowledge you’ve received the information/content, and provide feedback on how it will be used (and if not, why).

Provide Templates

If you’re in a position where you can’t fulfill every request that comes in, create a library of branded templates that allows your team to self-serve. Have clear expectations for what projects should use the templates, and what types of content will be prioritized by the communications team for a more custom treatment.

Get on the Staff Meeting Agenda or Offer Trainings

Maybe the thing holding someone back from sharing your posts on social is a lack of know-how. Perhaps taking even a “good enough” photo is daunting. Identify opportunities for training and support and offer group or one-on-one opportunities for learning.  

Remind Regularly

Remind colleagues that you’re there to amplify their work and that timely information helps you do your job better. Use any opportunity to reiterate this – staff meetings, unit meetings, and internal newsletters are great places for a little nudge.

The key here is follow-through. Consistently and quickly responding to requests for help builds trust in the process and establishes it as a cultural norm within your organization.

Recognize Contributions

Positive reinforcement goes a long way in fostering a culture of collaboration. Publicly thank team members who contribute great content, whether it’s during a meeting, in an email, or on social media.

You don’t have to do it alone. The more you empower your team, the more they’ll want to help you succeed.