How to develop an effective Communications Plan Jayne Kendall Communications Manager (SCWCSU) HIT Conference, Friday 12 June

Communications Planning What do I want to achieve? Who do I want to talk to? What do I want to say? How shall I say it? How do I know if I succeed? What are my objectives? Who is my audience? What messages shall I use? What mechanisms shall I use? How will I evaluate my plan?

Be clear about your message Objective Format Be Creative What is the objective of your message? To inform or to encourage people to do something? Is this formal or informal communications? How can you ensure that your message captures your audience’s attention? Key words What key words are important to use for your audience?

Who are you trying to reach? The first thing you must think about for any piece of communication is: Who is my audience? Then consider the nature and characteristics of that audience group Useful to rank potential audiences and user groups according to interest and influence Worksheet – Stakeholder mapping exercise

West of England health networks stakeholder mapping

Bristol Health Partners Influence Engagement Local Council and Politicians Bristol 2015 NHS England Public Health England North Somerset CCG HIT Specific Patient Groups South Gloucestershire CCG NIHR Health and Wellbeing Board HIT specific charities and funders PRWE North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Local Authorities Clinical Research Networks Local Enterprise Partners Police and Justice System VOSCUR Primary Care Bristol Community Health WEAHSN APCRC AWP CLAHRC NBT UWE UH Bristol University of Bristol Bristol City Council Bristol CCG

CLAHRC West Influence Engagement Bristol CCG Departme nt of Health AHSN NIHR CCF Bath and NE Somerset CCG North Somerset CCG South Gloucester CCG Wiltshire CCG Swindon CCG Gloucester CCG NIHR Comms Public health, local authority Other acute Trusts Bristol City Council South Glos public health NBT UWE UHB UoB Media Local councillors Bath university University of Gloucester MPs

Clinical Research Network Influence Engagement Secondary Care AHSN National NIHR PRWE Wider NIHR Primary Care BHPCLAHRC Industry activity HEIs RDS

Key Messages What are we trying to say? Break down your objectives into relevant messages for each target audience What do you want people to know; what do people need to know? Your messages should be relevant and appropriate to the audience Worksheet – Identifying key messages

Communication Techniques Channels should be driven by the audience – how can you reach them? Identify appropriate channels to communicate to each target audience e.g Media relationships/PR/radio Use of photography and video Newsletters or e-newsletters Events, presentations, one to one meetings Promotional materials – leaflets/posters Digital media – website/Twitter/LinkedIn/Facebook

Channels used by Bristol Community Health Partners Website Twitter LinkedIn YouTube newsletter – monthly sent to approx 1,250 stakeholders Events - e.g. Festival of Health (aimed at well informed) newsletter (monthly / six weekly, sent to around 1,250 subscribers, mostly in Bristol health / research community) Various events, such as Festival of Health, Health Tech Meetup / Make It (aimed at health practitioners and developers), HIT conference (aimed at HITs and other key stakeholders) Need also to consider other communication channels that partner organisations have.

Social Media About an organisations wider web presence Drop in usage of by under 25s in favour of social media 59% of the UK population have active social media accounts (source #smlondon) Conversation instead of broadcasts Tailored messages, providing data (visual/textual) which can be shared, forwarded etc Low cost, but needs regular posts

Facebook Fastest growing English speaking network 30m UK users/1 billion worldwide (PR Week) NHS uses Facebook pages to stay in contact with their local population Typical content: encouraging feedback, posting photos/videos/event updates, posting news, advertising vacancies, offering information (events/reports/case studies) By clicking the ‘Like’ button on your page, someone will get your page’s updates in your newsfeed

Twitter Use hashtags # to create interest and encourage people to engage e.g #nhscomms #bedementiaaware #bristolcommhealth Follow other people/organisations that are relevant to you and your followers Include visual content when possible Followers develop a higher affinity towards your business.

LinkedIn A LinkedIn company page functions like an organisation’s online CV to promote its services, skills and achievements Work, campaigns, projects and briefings may be posted to further promote the organisations work to stakeholders Has a micro-blogging area like Twitter (share ideas/articles) LinkedIn analytics tracks the connections, page views and interactions as well as viewer demographics based on job title, level of seniority, location and so on

YouTube Cisco study said that by 2016 over half of the internet’s traffic will be video content YouTube is 2 nd most popular search after Google. Quality of the video production does not necessarily have to be perfect Getting your information across in a visual format helps many people understand it better.

Communication channels for your project – worksheet

Evaluating success What does success look like and how will you know if your objectives have been met? You should indicate the tools that you will use to evaluate your activities e.g. Number of responses to newsletters/number of new subscriptions Number of visits to your website Media coverage achieved/stakeholder feedback

Questions