5 Tips for Producing Digital Publications TRB-147 May Tribe Topics_05.14_v6 | Page 2

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 5 m a y 2018 EASIER THAN IT LOOKS 5 TIPS FOR PRODUCING DIGITAL PUBLICATIONS R E I N F OR C E YOUR C ULT UR E , I SS U E A F T E R I SSUE . A digital m ag a z i ne o r n ew sl etter c an h el p ach iev e s e v e r a l im p o r tan t go al s f o r y o ur in terna l co m m un ic atio n s str ategy , f r o m l e a d e r s h i p co m m un ic atio n s to p r o m o tin g s t a r t a l e nt . Yo u can use digital p ub l ic atio n s t o c r e a t e v isib il ity in to sil o s an d un ite e mpl oy e e s acr o ss th e o r gan iz atio n . Yo u c a n b r i ng th e v al ues to l if e, b y sh ar in g r e a l s t or i e s o f h o w em p l o y ees ar e ap p l y in g t h e v a l u e s in th eir jo b s. A n d y o u can sh ow h ow t h e in div idual r o l es o f em p l o y ees a nd b u s i ne s s un its sup p o r t th e success o f th e v i s i on. A t T r ib e, w e dev el o p m o n th l y or q u a r t e r l y p ub l ic atio n s f o r sev er al c l ien ts , a nd w e ’ v e dev el o p ed a p r o c ess th at str ea ml i ne s dev el o p m en t. Her e ar e f iv e tip s to cr eate a d i g i t a l p ub l ic atio n m o r e easil y an d ef f i c i e nt l y : ASSIGN A CULTURALLY RELEVANT THEME TO EACH ISSUE. Your company purpose and each of your values are obvious choices, but other themes might be company priorities like innovation, collaboration or growth, or HR initiatives like leadership development or building bench strength in the organization. CREATE AN EDITORIAL FRAMEWORK OF REGULAR ARTICLES. Structure the publication so that you’re filling the same holes every time. For instance, each issue might include an interview with someone from the C-suite, a roundtable of mid-level leaders responding to the monthly theme, and several employees scattered throughout the organization all responding to the same question. LEARN TO SAY NO. Reserve this space for content that explores cultural themes in your organization, rather than nuts and bolts communications like policy updates or open enrollment announcements. Be vigilant. When someone asks you to include information about the free flu shot, direct them to another channel. TRIBE TOPICS BE EFFICIENT WITH INTERVIEWS. A common mistake is to spend too much time interviewing — either by talking with too many people for one article, or taking too much time interviewing each person. Your articles should be short, so you shouldn’t need a ton of conversation to get the content you need. Handle interviews by phone rather than asking for an in-person meeting. For leadership articles, we will typically ask for no more than 20 minutes with the CEO or other executive. We record interviews and have them transcribed later, so we’re not wasting their time trying to write down everything they say. For employees and some managers, it’s often faster and easier for everyone to email questions and responses. USE A TEMPLATED DESIGN. It’s easier to create each issue when you’ve established a general look and feel. Once you have that formula, it saves a ton of design time. Just pop in your new content and visuals and you’re ready to go. WHAT ABOUT EMPLOYEES WITHOUT COMPUTERS? Printed versions of these publications can be an incredibly effective channel for non-desk employees, particularly if each issue devotes space to making heroes of this segment of the workforce. For some clients, we print each issue in both English and Spanish. TRIBE DOES INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS. AND THAT’S ALL WE DO. By limiting our practice to internal communications, we’ve been able to develop deep expertise in this narrow niche. The culture of every company we work with is unique; the issues they face in employee engagement and internal communications tend to be similar. The challenges listed below are just a handful of the ones we see frequently in large employers across many industries. • • • • • • • • Building an employer brand Creating acceptance of major change Reaching employees without computers Uniting business units under one brand Replacing or updating existing intranets Helping managers cascade information Making vision and values relevant HR communications If you’d like to discuss your internal communications challenges, and to see some of Tribe’s work in that area for other companies, please reach out to Steve Baskin, President and Chief Strategy Officer. We’d be happy to talk with you. PLEASE REACH OUT TO: [email protected] 404-256-5858