DOs of Effective Communication contd.,
6. Always pre-test: Ensure that the target group understands the messages and detect
unexpected interpretations of your message by pre-testing it. If there is no time,
personnel or budget available for a pre-test, conduct at least a ‘disaster-check’:
confronting a small number of people who were not involved in the development of the
communication plan.
7. Evaluate results: Evaluation is aimed at assessing the effects of your
communication efforts. Furthermore, evaluation can also be aimed at judging the
processes during the preparation and execution phase. After evaluation it becomes
clear which methods are most effective and most efficient. Furthermore, you learn how
you can organize and manage the communication process more effectively in the future.
Justification of communication efforts for the leaders of your organization and its’
stakeholders is another reason to evaluate. The results of an evaluation will point out
which future steps are necessary to be initiated.
8. Define the medium for the message: Since each medium has its own advantages
and disadvantages, one should define which medium can most effectively relay
messages. For example, the Internet may reach a worldwide audience and therefore
may seem to be the perfect medium to reach audience around the world, but the Internet
penetration in some countries is low. People who do not have access to the Internet
will not be able to receive the message. TV has a higher degree of household
penetration, but most TV broadcasts are local; in this case, TV may be a good medium
to reach a wide range of audience within a country, but not worldwide.
9. Establish a budget: Almost everything takes money or staff or support resources.
10. Think creatively: It is a sad truth that while conservation is important, it isn’t always
interesting. Communicators need to add sparkle dust to bring issues alive.
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