The role of the corporate communicator has not changed. It is still his or her job to provide employees with information that supports their work and their company. How corporate communicators carry out this role has changed drastically. When it all shakes out, the options of creation and curation emerge. Here is a look at how these changes can work to your advantage.<\/p>\n
Two major things have changed in the modern enterprise environment. <\/strong><\/p>\n 1. More content is available.<\/strong> This is a good problem to have. Corporate communicators are no longer the sole creators of content. People are creating and sharing online all over the world. A recent search for \u201chealth care reform HR\u201d turned up 25.9 million results. \u201cTravel tips to China\u201d yielded 152 million results. Even the ubiquitous honey badger pulled in 8 million results. A similar sharing mentality can be found internally, where employees create content to share with each other.<\/p>\n 2. Corporate structures are more spread out.<\/strong> When you have offices in Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Topeka, getting the right information in the right hands at the right time can be tricky. The globalization of business changes how you communicate with your employees.<\/p>\n Both creation and curation are important, but we must change the way we think about both. Good creation is about knowing and feeding your community. Curation is about knowing and feeding your community. Did you get that?<\/p>\n It\u2019s<\/strong> all about knowing your audience.<\/strong><\/p>\n You as corporate communicators are fighting for attention. So much information is being thrown at your audience that you have to grab them by the collar and shake them with your information. Your messages have to be palatable and relevant in order to be heard. They must be localized for your audience. Give them what they are hungry to consume. Cater to your audience\u2019s lack of patience for inferior content by giving them great content. Reevaluate who your audience is if you haven\u2019t recently. Segment them. Determine their communication preferences. And deliver.<\/p>\n It might sound more difficult than it is. Taking advantage of curation is a key strategy, digging through and filtering information to find the most relevant kinds. You don\u2019t have to look far to deliver great content. With enterprise social media tools, you have an influx of user-generated content at your disposal. Your organization\u2019s employees are content creators living and breathing your business, so their perspective is valuable.\u00a0 Research internal blog posts and community discussions for information-rich content to be used and shared. Internally and externally, multimedia content such as videos, infographics and slideshow presentations can be valuable tools.<\/p>\n Curating these resources and presenting them to your audience can help you successfully hone in on what they want and need, but it cannot be done without content creation. You are still the storyteller, developing the context for the resources and communicating the common threads and takeaways to be seen and heard in your content.<\/p>\n