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.
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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