Choosing the right communication channel

Information is of no use if it does not reach its target audience. Your business can pay the highest taxes, launch the most important social project, modernize production with the latest technology. But if you do not find a way for this message to reach the audience, all your releases, interviews, and the most creative visuals in the world are a waste of time. And in the case of a crisis, it is also a risk. You can prepare your position and comments in time, but if the channel is wrong, you will not be heard and the situation may worsen.

First, we identify the stakeholders

I would separately highlight investors, business partners, and the general public. Each of them is comfortable receiving information about you from different sources, and the information they need is somewhat different. The reasons are simple, as both the nature of the interaction with your business and the degree of interest in it differ radically.

How to communicate with different target audiences?

Investors – through announcements on the stock exchange where your shares are traded and on the company’s official website. This is the most convenient and familiar way for them. Here, you can even do without social media.

Business partners – through the company’s official website and email newsletters. Some may find this conservative in the era of TikTok and AI, but in the business environment, it is the most effective.

The general public – all other tools: social media, communication with the media, Telegram channels.

This scheme works even in a crisis

The main thing to remember is that different target audiences need different information and forms of its “packaging”.

With investors, we communicate in the most convenient way for them. Usually, they are only interested in the operational and financial activities of the company – investors are concerned whether production will be halted or if they will incur financial losses. Everything else, no matter how cynical it sounds, concerns them little. Therefore, messages for investors are concise, brief, and factual. For example, “the situation is under control and the company continues to operate as usual” – this is enough for the investor. They do not pay attention to regional, and sometimes even national “information noise,” as they usually have deeper access to the internal information of the business.

If a crisis occurs and it affects the general public – we communicate on all platforms. We start with our own. We do not forget about timeliness and updates, especially if a large-scale tragedy or emergency situation occurs. We update every half hour/hour – even if there is nothing new, we write that too. A very good, almost iconic case is Kyivstar’s communication after Russian hackers damaged their IT infrastructure. The response to the crisis matched the scale of the resonance and impact on society – prompt, multi-channel, involving speakers at all levels.

About specific communication channels

I wrote a bit about this earlier, now – in a different context.

The company’s website. This is their face, a kind of virtual representation. In my opinion, it is still needed. Primarily for medium and large businesses, while small businesses may find social media sufficient at times.

The company’s own social media. If they are developed, this is the most effective and fastest channel for communication with stakeholders. Plus, here, subscribers can quickly pick up and disseminate the necessary business messages. But this is about the bubble – your subscribers already have some loyalty to you. They are mainly employees and their families, as well as clients/customers of your services.

The media. This is primarily about indexing. About the fact that if information about the business is sought, it will be through materials in the media that Google will issue, shaping opinions about your company.

Telegram. I highlight it separately because it lives its own life. It is essentially a messenger that has taken on additional functionality. Its channels operate like news resources and win in speed, with the ability to visually see reach and audience reaction.

Television (here we are talking purely about TV broadcasts). During the state of war and the “unified news” marathon, in my opinion, it is not a very appropriate tool. But for crisis situations – I will say a definite “yes.” However, one must never forget about exceptions. Every PR case is unique. And if your target audience “sits” on TV – do not ignore this channel either.

AI. This is not a communication channel, but a channel for obtaining information. Moreover, it is becoming increasingly influential. It acts as a censor, “packaging” facts to serve the user – but I am not talking about that, as we cannot influence algorithms. We can and must check whether it has access to the communication channels we have chosen – whether it “gets along” with websites and media. Because if it does not read messages from there, then a person who is used to getting information from ChatGPT instead of Google will not see it.

Of course, there is also radio, newspapers still exist. There is outdoor advertising and offline events. But they are used for very narrow tasks. And the appropriateness must be assessed separately for each case.

And I will also note – we can rarely talk about “mono-profile” communication channels now. Television can have a developed website, and the media can have a Telegram channel, even a radio station can have a video broadcast of a studio conversation. We may discuss this separately later.