Multichannel Communication

Companies have stories to tell, pitches to make and information to be shared. Using a “multichannel communication” program sounds pretty cool, but what is it? Is this new? And what channels are available?

To understand multichannel communication, it is important to appreciate that there are different ways of sharing information – push, passive and interactive. Email and social are great ways to push content, whereas as passive methods such as an intranet or posters require people have to seek your content. In person, either through meetings or tools such as YouTube Live, allow for interaction which generally offer the most meaningful results. The more channels you use the better likelihood that your message is received.

The intended audience and the significance of the message is key to understanding which channels to use. For example, internal messages relating to a change in a corporate policy or strategy are different than an announcement about someone doing an industry presentation. It is not that the presentation is not important, but the other changes will come with more questions, concerns and potentially stress for staff thus requiring a different approach. Simply put, the more significant the communication, the more channels that should be used.

So, multichannel communication is not new. You have likely been doing it without even realizing you were for years. What is new is placing more emphasis on the audience and understanding that sending an email once is unlikely to get the result you want.