It used to be that Marketing and Public Relations departments were able to oversee all external communications for an organization. For better or worse, they were able to shape the message and police everything. Those days are long gone and even if they weren’t – that type of command and control leashing of staff communications would only backfire in today’s social world.
Organizations, in particular smaller companies and startups, should be encouraging their staff to discuss them online. Employees, in particular Sales and Support teams, are communicating every day with customers, leads, influencers, even vendors. You want this to occur, but you also want to keep your message consistent. The simplest way to do that is to provide a short, easy to ready Communications Guide that staff can reference.
Communications Guide Template
At the bottom of this post you’ll find a downloadable template you can use to create a communications guide for your employees. By replacing the terms in red and adding some more information about your organization, you should have something you can distribute to employees in about 30 minutes.
This document is meant to evolve organically, not be a static item that is saved once and forgotten. Consider sharing it as a Google Doc with your entire team so they can reference it and make updates as your organization evolves. If possible, include other assets (especially logos) in the same shared folder.
Items this template covers include:
- Official fonts and colors
- Writing style
- Diction
- Spelling standard
- Tone
- Abbreviations and definitions
Click here to download your copy of the Communications Guidelines for Startup Staff template
Have something else you think should be included in the template? Let me know in the comments section below or Click here to get in touch.
