http://higheditcomms.wordpress.com/ Higher ed IT Communications is a tough task. Audiences, channels, and content all need to be taken into account when planning your communications for outages, upgrades, and so on. As it turns out, IT comms officers have a lot in common with rockstars! In this presentation, you'll find 5 key steps that are essential for effective communication that rockstars also follow. Following the guidelines of this slideshow will make your communications more successful and help channel your inner rockstar!

1. 5 Things You Need
To Know to
Become an
IT Communications
Rockstar
@carleton_IT | #ITcommstar

2. 2
Hi, I’m MK.
And I am not a rockstar.

3. 3
I’m the Communications
Advisor in the IT
department at Carleton
University.

4. As the IT Communications Advisor, 60% of
my time is spent on:
1. CCS Website
2. IT Projects
3. Service Promotion
4. Strategy / Organizational
changes
5. Big Outages – planned
and unplanned
4
The 5 things that are super important in IT communications
are actually…

5. THE SAME
AS A
ROCKSTA
R
PRACTICE = PLAN
FANS = AUDIENCE
TOUR = CHANNELS
MUSIC = CONTENT
REMINISCE = EVALUATE

6. 6
Practice = Plan
1. Start Planning Early
2. Create Clear Goals and Objectives
3. Gather Resources

7. If possible, determines: Point
of contact, Services impacted,
Time to resolve
Performs initial scope
assessment, Posts to generic
channels
Prepares message for
broadcast, Tweets outage
Contacts include: Department
of Communications, Student
Services, Registrar’s Office
7
Issue Discovered
Outage Reported
for 1st Phase
Communications
Big Issues
Escalated for
Broadcast
Communications
Issue is Broadcast
to Community as
Necessary

8. 8
“The secret is to
gang up on the
problem, rather
than each other.”
- Thomas Stallkamp

9. Fans = Audience
1. Note Characteristics
2. Work with Timing/Schedules
3. Address Potential Questions and Issues

10. 1010
Are busy.
Are not
listening
during breaks.
Are on social
media.
Are stressed.
Don’t like
getting a lot of
email.
May need to
hear your
message more
than once.
Like to get info
from ONE
spot.
Are tech
savvy.
Do take pride
in the
University
name.
Are interested
in news that
affects their
day to day
work.
Relate better
to
conversational
messages
Are very
resourceful.
Are not
listening to
you during
exams.

11. 11
“How does this
impact me?”
- Your audience.

12. Tour = Channels
1. Contact Person for Each Available Channel
2. Use your Website to its Full Potential
3. Leverage Existing Social Media Channels

13. 13

14. 14
Twitter “Rules”:
• Be polite
• Be useful.
• Be interesting.
• Be social.
• Be consistent.
• Be a person.
Twitter Plan:
• What to tweet.
• What hashtags to use.
• How to measure.

15. 15
Audience
Content Strategy
Resources
Measurement

16. 16
“Every time you add
something you take
something away.”
- 37signals.com

17. 17
Music = Content
1. Keep it Simple
2. Use Pyramid Writing
3. Use Lists (Top 5’s)

18. 18
Source: the Pyramid Principle by Linda Huysmans

19. 19
When, What, Who
From Friday June 7 to Monday June 10, Microsoft will be upgrading all Carleton student email accounts.
Why, How (does this affect you)
This upgrade will result in a significant storage increase, from 10 GB to 25 GB.
During the upgrade, students will experience a few minutes of service interruption.
Access via the Portal and via smartphones will be unavailable during this time.
Details
To access your account during the upgrade, (details)
Background Info
Learn more about the upgrade at this website.

20. 20
“The ability to simplify
means to eliminate
the unnecessary so
that the necessary
may speak.” -Hans Hofman

21. Reminisce = Evaluate
1. Know what you’re evaluating
2. Set SMART objectives to measure against
3. Share your lessons learned / success

22. 22
Quantitative Data
• Conversions
• Google Analytics – hits + time spent on page, new vs return visitors
• Surveys
• Subscribers/Followers/Likes
• Facebook stats
• Youtube stats
• Hashtags/MTs/RTs (via HootSuite)
• Bitly
• Klout/Peerindex/Kred
Qualitative Data
• Interviews
• Surveys
• Focus Groups
• Social media feedback campaign

23. 23
Mid-Stage
• Is my audience more informed about /
engaged with X? What evidence do I have?
• Are there changes that I need to make?
• Are there ideas I need to abandon?
• Has anything happened that may affect my
progress?
• Can I make a valid claim of having
contributed to change? How?
Nearing the finish line
• Have I achieved my objectives and goals?
• What lessons have I learned?
• With whom should I share my lessons
learned? Other comms officers within my
organization? The team in CCS?

24. 24
“Experience is what you
get when you didn’t get
what you wanted.”
- Randy Pausch

25. 1. Plan. Have one. Involve people early.
2. Audience – Address potential prejudices. Potential
issues. IT knowledge. Be aware of schedule
conflicts.
3. Channels - Know what channels work best for each
audience and tailor content accordingly. Use RSS.
Get social – but keep in mind your resources.
4. Content - Content needs to be tailored to both the
audience and to the channel. Use pyramid writing.
Simple, clear, concise.
5. Evaluation – Include in the plan. Get feedback.
Report. Be even better next time.
25

26. 26
Questions?
Mary Kathryn Roberts
CCS Communications Advisor, Carleton University
marykathryn.roberts@carleton.ca
@carleton_it