I believe that we can all be better communications professionals by sharing our knowledge and resources. Here are some free templates I have created and some resources that I use on a regular basis.
Templates
- Employee engagement plan. We are in a challenging time in internal communications where we need to support our organisation to communicate to the workforce that is all (or mostly) working from home. Here is a short template to get your engagement plan started.
- Need help getting started on a communications strategy here is a template so you don’t miss any of the basics
Communication strategy template
- One of the hardest things to do is to keep on top of your website or intranet content. Here is a templates that will help you record, analyse and assess your pages.
- One of the most overlooked elements of strategic communications is environmental scanning. I love the PESTLE framework as I find it easy but comprehensive so I created a template with some questions to help get to your answers.
- Many of us still struggle with how to manage social media. I believe part of the answer is in using communication strategy fundamentals so here is a plan to help get you back on track
- A great way to get started on strategic engagement is to understand your audience. This is a simple tool, but it will require some time to complete it. You will need to do some desktop research and probably talk to some other people in your organisation about each group. I know, I know, you don’t have time but trust me it’s worth the effort!
- Creating a team leader toolkit can help you to efficiently and effectively engage with managers to ensure they are able to cascade corporate messages to their staff. It needs to be simple and easy to follow to ensure the best results.
Resources
Facilitation
- Love them or hate them team building activities do work! They help to increase communication and connection in a team. Here is a Team building activities guide with activities that I use regularly in my team planning days.
- Whether you are a seasoned-pro or a novice its always good to remember the basics of great facilitation. Here is a quick cheatsheet of the traits you need to be a great Facilitator.
Writing
- Whether you hate it or love it, writing is part of most peoples jobs. To help ensure you’re on the right track download my quick checklist.
- Grammarly – great to check your work for all things spelling and grammar.
Evaluation
- If you are looking to evaluate your communication activities you can’t go past the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communications (AEMC) interactive framework.
Graphic design
- If you haven’t used Canva before you are missing out! Use the free version to create your own social media posts, posters, brochures. It is a simple and easy way to make your content look great.
Social media
There are sooooo many social media analytics tools that are free or free trial. Just a few that I like.
- Hashtagify – find related hashtags to extend your reach.
- Bluenod – understand your online network.
- Postify – schedule your posts to multiple channels for free.