When creating a message for an internal audience, there are considerations that must be made to determine how to effectively communicate across your organization.
Step 1. Understand your organization’s internal audience typesÂ
When crafting a message for an internal audience, it’s important to understand who your audience is. This will help you determine the proper language, tone, and level of detail to get into when crafting a message for your communication campaign. It will also help you identify which pieces of information are the most important.  Â
Internal audiences can be grouped based on organizational structure, interests, technical proficiency, location, language, and more. Consider the following audience categories when determining who your audience is:Â Â
Organizational hierarchy
Consider the scope of responsibility of your audience. Some members of an organization focus on areas of a business at a higher level than others. Some members of an organization focus on things that impact their day-to-day activities at work. Â
Role
Internal audiences can also be segmented by role. For example, full-time employees may be impacted by specific internal changes that don’t affect part-time employees. Project-based employees may need messages that focus specifically on small details or address problems directly, while other employees just need general updates that don’t contain too many small details. Â
Department
It could also be beneficial to segment your audiences based on department. Members of an IT department may be impacted by a specific event that doesn’t impact members of the marketing department. Think of who your message is intended for and tailor your message accordingly.  Â
Language or location
In larger organizations, geographical location plays a large role in the type of impact your message may or may not have on different groups of people. When preparing a message that impacts the whole organization, ensure you are up to date on current events and things that may impact certain locations. This will help you avoid (sounding tone deaf) when creating a message. It will also allow you to tailor your message better when speaking only to specific audiences of different languages and locations. Â
Step 2. Understand the devices used to access internal communicationsÂ
Most organizations include a variety of audience types that consist of frontline workers, in-office workers, and remote workers. Â
Frontline workers usually work from mobile devices and tablets and do not sit in front of a computer to complete most tasks. When crafting messages for frontline workers, keep your messages concise, easy to access, and visually engaging. Â
In-office workers and remote workers, on the other hand, usually sit at a desk in a traditional office setting and use a computer or laptop to access and engage in corporate communications. This audience may also use mobile devices to access and engage in corporate communications from time to time. Messages for this group should be inclusive to accommodate a variety of work schedules, access to internet, languages, and time zones. In office workers usually engage with each other in person. When targeting in-office workers, keep messages concise, informational, and brief.Â
When communicating to frontline and remote workers, consider using more than one distribution channel to reach different employees with diverse working styles. Also create opportunities for employees to participate in conversations, share their perspective and network with others so they feel connected.Â
Step 3. Consider the size and location of your audienceÂ
Use the size and location of your audience to determine the proper methods and distribution channels to employ to reach them and encourage engagement. For example, quick announcements made to the entire IT department or your internal community of tech enthusiasts may be more suitable as a Viva Engage post, while large, multi-part messages intended for an entire organization may be more suitable to be published as a SharePoint page. Â
Large organizations must also focus on ensuring the messaging and language used across their communications campaign is inclusive and works well for multi-national considerations. Consider the location of your audience to ensure the content within your message localizes well and takes into account current events in the location the audience you’re crafting your message for is located in. Â
Step 4. Choose your distribution channels
Now that you understand your audience segments, the devices they use to access and engage in corporate communications, and the size and location of your audience, use that information to select the proper distribution channels for your communication campaign. Â
Learn more about using Microsoft Viva Amplify to communicate through different channels.
