06/15/2021

Best Practices and Strategies for Today's Communication Professionals

A newly developed toolkit can help communicators rise to current challenges

The 50 drivers of change identified as part of ASAE’s ForesightWorks research have been an important element for association communicators since they were originally published in 2017. Last year, ASAE’s Communication Professionals Advisory Council took a more strategic look at the challenges the drivers identified, using the lens of skill sets that association communicators need to address them. The result is the Competencies for Association Communication Professionals toolkit [ASAE member login required], a resource that provides best-practice strategies for communication professionals to use when developing new initiatives.

For this initial version, four drivers are filtered through the communication lens:

• shifting environment for content
• declining trust
• diversity, equity and inclusion
• next-gen professionals

The first driver—shifting environment for content—provides foundational competencies that address the expectations of personalization, developing effective content strategies when departmental priorities are siloed and differentiating content for different audiences. Communications must be proactive to meet organizational goals, and therefore it is vital that communication professionals are able to serve internally as the translators, collaborators and facilitators between departments, as well as within the C-suite.

Please select this link to read the complete article from ASAE's Center for Association Leadership.