All Content is Local

Description

Communication in an enterprise-wide road show is no different than a political campaign, and the idea of creating local content to support global messaging & marketing is nothing new. But as the pace of life increases, companies spend more time and money on global strategy and phone-in the local rollout.  We’ve all been to meetings and conferences with disengaged audiences when the opportunity to share the new strategy in a live setting is most crucial -- when connecting with local leaders and employees. Nothing sucks more than hearing your boss say - Well, I guess this is the new direction, so let’s just all do it and get it done -  which is a perception easily avoidable with a few additional steps to connect with local audiences and fold-in their specific points of view.

So how do you make content more relevant on a local level?

• Know your audience’s reference point.   Start with the location.  Get underneath the real challenges at hand.  Adopting a strategy might be easy as pie on the east coast but a painful new set of processes out west.  Sure, sweeping your agendas to weave-in local content takes more time, but what’s more important -- clocking hours on the whistle stop tour or truly connecting with your constituents?

• Stay on message by staying one step ahead.  A core tenet of improvisation is to always play at the top of your intelligence . . . in other words, audiences are always, always, always one step ahead of you . . . especially if you’re making a visit from the head office.  Consider: “Who’s in the audience?”  It’s important that a new strategy be adopted across all lines of a business . . . what do you need to ask local constituents to ensure that their issues are addressed in conjunction with your new strategy and tactics?
• Call it out.  Everyone at meetings is multitasking, sneaking emails, and checking messages.  If you’re like me, you might be reading this blog on one screen and scanning email on the other.  Welcome to the world.  Keep people off their phones and engaged in your presentation by understanding your audience’s specific point of view in a relevant and authentic way.

Create empathy, ask questions, and take local points of view into account.  After all, audiences in Dallas and Minneapolis need you to go beyond swapping out that clever football metaphor from the Cowboys to the Vikings.  You’ll be surprised at how the simple act of listening leads to collaboration.

Sandy Marshall (@MarshallSandy) is the Vice President of Second City Communications (@SecondCityBiz).

Tags

• Branded Content
• Meetings