“Every action brings us closer to, or
further from our goals”
KEY POINTS:
1. Understand the relationship between
communications strategies and achieving
club goals
2. Be able to generate more efficient and
targeted online communication between
clubs their stakeholders
3. Recognise the circular relationship that
exists between communication, brand and
club culture.
Goals
Strategy
Key messages
Goals become key messages which are interwoven into
all club practices.
Any time you communicate, be it internally or
externally, the key messages need to come to the
fore.
outcomes, for example: “15% increase in # of
Example Goal:
female members in 2016”
Increase female club membership by 15% in 2016
Your strategy is implemented by your structure,
and structures outlast volunteer and committee
turnover
Key Messages:
Example of strategy implementation:
- Our club has both men's and women's teams
-At O Week, always having a male and female
member on the stall.
Your goals guide all of your next steps
Goals should include tangible and measurable
Less tangible outcomes such as "growing club
pride" should be included and can be measured to
some degree by post-season in member surveys
- We have a number of events throughout the year that
appeal to both men and women
Management
Preparation is key to the long term maintenance
of your communications strategy. A few things
that ensure your strategy will be effective long
term are:
Accountability
-Equal or positively skewed gender representation
on social media and on club materials
Structure
Accountability looks at the ‘who’ of your communications
strategy. A critical part of this is having clear and specific
roles for committee members, volunteers. It needs to be
clear who-does-what. This then allows the people that fill
those roles to be held accountable to them.
Structure is the “How” of your marketing strategy.
Players/members also need to be informed of your key
messages and goals to that they too can sign on to them
and be held accountable to them. Maybe this doesn't need
to be an explicit agreement, but can be something to turn
to if a dispute or incident arises.
Structure also refers to the flow of communication
throughout your club, for example:
For Example:
-Do you have committee members whose roles clearly
relate to a particular method of communication, where
is the information we are communicating coming from?
Your structure is made up of the tools you will use to
implement your strategy such as Facebook, face to face
communication at events, email newsletter etc.
-Written role descriptions
-Communications updates at committee
meetings
-Consistent monitoring
-Debriefing after events (ie did we push
our key messages hard enough?)
These can ensure that even with a turnover of
committee members, your messages will remain
consistent, and the processes in place maintained.
- A written role description for your social media man ager
that outlines their responsibilities, who they need to
communicate with and outlines of your goals and key
messages
- A player code of conduct that incorporates your goals and
key messages
-Do you have a particular person in place to recruit/
train/brief your volunteers before your events?