AALEP'S ROLE IN STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS

Communication is strategic when it is completely consistent with a corporation’s mission, vision, values and is able to enhance the strategic positioning and competitiveness of the organisation. The most important concept to understand in relation to communication strategy is that communication should be seen from the audience’s perspective. Strategic communication must be clear, true, repeated, consistent and delivered with passion.

Being strategic means communicating the best message, through the right channels, measured against well-considered organizational and communications-specific goals. Strategic communications is an orchestrated use of channels of communication to move and influence public policy or to promote an agenda.

It is AALEP’s view that we have walked away from the original intent of strategic communications. By organizing to it , creating whole structures around it we have allowed strategic communication to become a thing instead of a process, an abstract thought, instead of a way of thinking. Strategic communication is less about what we have to say than it is about considering how others may interpret our words and actions. Actions speak louder than words. This truism is absolutely central to an effective strategic communication construct. Strategic communication that includes only traditional communication, such as messaging, press releases, media relations and the like, or even the new social media, is all but doomed to fail.

The goal is not merely to shape the opinion, sentiment and perceptions of audiences of individuals, but to spur them to action, continuing behavior and ultimately advocacy. Those actions, when successful, give people confidence in the decisions they have made, and turn actions into ongoing behaviors.

Messaging Activities

• Identifying the messages that can or must be communicated
• Elaborating messages in the most appropriate language given the nature of the recipient
• Selecting of the recipients
• Developing of communication plans to ensure the visibility of the message
• Constructing stable relationships based on the criteria of reliability and trust with the operators of the media system
• Tuning public policy advocacy and strategic communication strategies for their best results.