Does Your Business Need a Communications Specialist?
@austindistel
It seems like every day the world gets more and more fast-paced, and the demand for information-sharing increases. The internet is built on content, so the more we make of it to stand out, the more we need to make of it to stand out. If you’re running a small business and already wearing several different hats, content creation and promotion can be exhausting.
When your company is growing and communications are becoming an issue, you might be considering hiring a full-time person to help lighten the load. If you're going back and forth, debating your options or weighing the pros and cons of having a network of freelance support vs. a dedicated full-time person, it might help to get clear on what a Communications Specialist actually does and what you hope they'll bring to your organization before you make a decision. Let's dive in below.
The Role of a Communications Specialist
In most organizations, the role of a Communications Specialist is to develop and deliver messages that promote the company's interests—whether internally or externally.
For larger companies, Internal and External Communications Specialists are often separate roles. In smaller businesses, one person can typically handle both types of communications.
Regardless, a Communications Specialist will develop and manage content to create a positive image of your company and its products or services, and manage all aspects of your business communications, including media relations, public relations, internal communications, and marketing communications. To do this successfully, a Communications Specialist must be an excellent writer and have strong interpersonal skills. They also need to understand media relations and how to use various marketing channels effectively.
Communications professionals are skilled at interpreting data, working with other team members to get the messaging right, making decisions under pressure, and multitasking. They're able to analyze data and information about your content’s performance, and provide insights into which communication channels would be the most relevant, and get you the best results.
How a Comms Specialist Can Help
Aside from taking all of the above-mentioned communications tasks off of your plate, a Communications Specialist can help you assess your businesses communications needs, come up with a strategic plan to stay consistent and relevant, and ensure that the content you put out in the world presents your brand in the best possible light.
Your Comms person will take a look at what types of content you’ve already been producing, identify areas for improvement or expansion, and oversee the planning, production and promotion of the content you and your team produce. They can also track the analytics on things like email open and click rates, social media views, and ad impressions so you can see what’s working with your audience and what’s not.
Having a dedicated person in this role can take you from intermittently producing blog posts and social media campaigns that get very few views, little traction, and that quickly gather dust—to developing a content calendar that makes you and your business look put together, in the know, and totally on top of things.
Full-time vs. Freelance Support
If you read the above and thought to yourself, that's exactly what I need. Then great!
Hiring a full, or even part-time Comms Specialist is probably a good idea. You'll finally have a dedicated person to handle all the communications your business needs, take the pressure off of you so you don’t have to wear all the hats, and a smart and savvy professional in your corner who undoubtedly has some great tricks up their sleeve when it comes to making your business look polished and professional and maintaining your online image and brand.
But, if you were thinking...that sounds like a lot, then a strong network of freelancers would probably be better suited to your needs.
Freelance writers abound, and most of them are used to working on a project basis. This is great because it means you can call on them when you need them and not worry about wasting precious resources during downtimes or when you don't have a lot of content to produce. Be honest about your expectations and how many hours of work you'll have each month—and you'll be rewarded with a reliable business partner that will take good care of you and your businesses content needs for years to come.
Whichever route you take, giving your content production process some love is well worth the investment in time and resources. Standing out in an ever-increasing sea of online content is no easy task, but it’s one of the best ways to increase your online presence, build your brand awareness, and get those new customers to surf their way right to your front step.