Internal communication as a competitive edge

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Editor’s note: At #ZyncroBlog, we’ve invited Sandra Bravo to share some tips on internal communication with us. Sandra is founding partner of BraveSpinDoctors (Spanish) a strategy communication and political marketing consultancy. Words are her tools and her daily work is the best way to use them. So we’ll leave you to her thoughts that also give some tips for properly managing your enterprise social network. Thanks for sharing, Sandra!

In moments of crisis, only intelligent organizations survive. Obviously, an organization or company isn’t foolish or very clever on its own; it depends on the people that manage it. Managing a company intelligently involves communicating logically, coherently, positively and with common sense.

Good internal communication provides competitive advantages. The Internet has broken down information boundaries and more and more companies are concerned about externally managing their communication 2.0. But what many still forget is that employees can be opinion leaders in these networks.

Internal communication determines external communication now more than ever. Our public image is not just what the media say about us, our official online opinion or traditional advertising, rather it increasingly depends on the image and opinions transmitted by the members of our organization each day.

Creating image is creating power. Reducing communication to its external side is a big mistake. For this reason, we need to use all the tools available—such as enterprise social networks—to break the vertical bureaucracy and encourage horizontal dialog, in which everyone has the right to be listened to and give their opinion. We won’t waste any ideas.

We encourage the communicative skills of our spokespeople!

In other words, of those that stand up for our organization, but also those that listen carefully. A top executive needs to be persuasive and transmit the message of our organization, but the person who answers the telephone also communicates and does it with their apathy, boredom or their friendliness, education and efficiency.

Fussing over the employees or members of our organization—all, regardless of their position‏—will make them feel valued, motivated and happy. What’s more, if we come to terms that it is useless trying to stop communication, believing that we are the only source capable of transmitting our message, and start to consolidate a positive, quality image done economically and virally, starting with the employees that go home with a smile on their face or that share a positive initiative of our company on the social networks.

Efficient communication management—transparent and online—will give us a competitive edge that is extremely valuable in times of crisis like today.

Take advantage of it!