What is the Practice of Strategic Communication?

Firstly, it should be clear that strategic communications practice is not public relations (PR). According to Sola Abulu, PR focuses on stakeholders, relationships, perceptions and actions.

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations provides the definition below:
Public Relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics.

Public relations is useful for media relations, government relations, event planning, stakeholder management and engagement. It is typically an outward-facing, external and relationship-based practice. Many business leaders, hiring managers and even those in the practice have often mixed up the communications practice with public relations. This has given rise to how organizations and businesses mis-hire today. Professionals with an understanding of public relations alone, in many cases, cannot practice strategic communications.

A strategic communications professional must have beyond a flair for communication but an understanding of the frameworks that will be applied to specific business or organizational needs. Is there a difference between communications and public relations? This video answers that question. Strategic communications practice is effective when it relies on the understanding of strategic communications theory and frameworks.

The Practice of Strategic Communications

• Strategic communications practice requires skills like problem-solving and critical thinking

One thing that differentiates strategic communications from public relations is the need for critical and creative thinking on the job. Communication roles require people who understand strategy and have very high problem-solving skills. It also involves crafting tailored messaging that meets the needs of the target audience.

• It requires the ability to analyze data

In practicing strategic communications, data-driven decision-making and planning are very key. A strategic communications expert is someone who can utilize insights from data and use them to plan an effective communications strategy that supports the needs of the organization or business involved. An understanding of data helps to improve future communications plans. When data insights expose the setbacks of a communications activity, the professionals involved then utilize this information to improve the strategy of subsequent activities to achieve desired outcomes.

• It is research-based

The practice of strategic communications has a lot to do with carrying out research. Before creating and implementing any communications strategy at all, a strategic communications professional knows the importance of understanding the business or organization (their specific need, their track record and reason for being), knowing the different audiences they serve, etc. This demands some research into the business. Just like in problem-solving, an understanding of the scenario is helpful to proffer solutions. Research is also needed in situations like media monitoring. In building a crisis communication plan or generating messaging to de-escalate a crisis, media monitoring is important to know the sentiment in the media and craft a message that shows care, concern and a willingness to improve upon whatever led to the crisis. This is made possible when strategic communications professionals understand the theoretical frameworks and are trained to develop the skills that aid the practice.

Practicing Strategic Internal Communications

While strategic communications is focused on both internal and external communications, it has a lot more to do with internal communications. In internal communications, strategic communications practice focuses on the following:

• Leadership communications
• Organizational change
• Business communication
• Productivity and Compliance
• Culture communications.

Click here to learn the basic definitions of different communications expertise areas.

Therefore, in the practice of strategic communications, those involved must have a proper understanding of the theoretical frameworks that guide the practice and be able to apply them. People who have beyond a “flair for communications” but are trained and know the skills are those with results in the practice.

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Sola Abulu & Associates is a strategy and communications consulting and training firm committed to enabling businesses, brands and organizations to achieve their objectives through strategic communications, organizational effectiveness and reputation risk management

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