Why your district needs a communications audit…now
For me, summer is a great time for rest and reflection. Personally, I’m tearing through business and personal growth books right now (highly recommend Struggle by Grace Marshall) and doing a lot of deep thinking about Forthright’s future.
For those of us in school PR, it’s a natural pause point in our year. We’re allowed to take a breath (+ hopefully a vacation), look around and hit a reset button. We also dive into professional development and getting better at our jobs (we loved seeing you at our NSPRA sessions)!
It’s also the perfect time for a Communications Audit. Here’s a brief 101 on Communications Audits to get you started…
What is the outcome of a communications audit?
To make your life easier! No, really. When done correctly, communications audits help you uncover:
what’s working well for your district’s outreach that you should keep doing,
what you can tweak to improve on, and
what you can stop doing because it’s not moving the needle.
When we complete audits for our school district clients, we want the process to be fun, easy, and eye-opening. But ultimately, the goal is for everyone involved in a district’s communications to walk away feeling great about their work and aligned on what comes next.
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What is the process for conducting a communications audit?
At Forthright, we consider audits an unbiased deep dive into the way you communicate with your stakeholders. When we do audits, we look for strengths and opportunities across all of a district’s outreach channels. We take a look at a district’s:
Website
Social media accounts (both Central Office AND individual schools)
Parent and family letters
Staff announcements
Collateral (like postcards and one-pagers)
Media coverage
We often like to conduct stakeholder interviews and talk with community members, families, students, and staff to get an idea of how your communications are being received (and perceived!) by your community.
Is an audit about external or internal communications?
Do you focus on staff or just external audiences?
Yes and yes! Depending on the size of the audit and how much time is available, we recommend doing it all. Right now, there are a lot of (very valid) trust issues at all levels, from teachers to district families. That’s why we are recommending that our clients complete a full audit of your communications with both internal and external audiences.
But sometimes one is much more pressing than the other--or you have limited time and need to focus on one or the other, so it’s okay to pick one (either internal or external audiences) for your audit and stick with it.
What questions should you ask during a communications audit?
As with all our projects, we always start our audits with strategy--your strategy, to be precise. We start by asking questions about what your district is trying to achieve. For example, we get clear on who your key audiences are, and what you want them to know, do or think differently.
Then, we look at your outreach materials with your goals as our measuring stick. Are your communications achieving what you want them to?
Some sample questions we might ask during an audit include:
What keeps you up at night about communications in your district?
Do you have a crisis communications plan developed?
Do you have a style guide or brand standards to share with us?
What kind of folders/file-sharing system do you use for materials?
How are district parents talking with one another?
What does the audit actually look like?
Well, this depends on how you like to work and how your team likes to receive information. It can take any form you think conveys the information best. At Forthright, we typically deliver our recommendations in written and/or in a presentation form.
We share:
the research behind our findings--such as social media metrics and key interview takeaways
what the data means, and
our recommendations moving forward!
Often, we also present our audit findings to a gathering of district leaders whose work is related to communications. Depending on the district, we may share the results with the School Board or, in some cases, even the community. Because we believe that this process is positive, centered in growth and equity, we say the more the merrier!
