Outline strawman – Communications plan



Draft Communications Plan

Part 1: Communications Strategy

4 April 2005

Table of Contents

1. Situation Analysis 2

2. Communications Mission 4

3. Communications Goals 5

4. Communications Strategies 6

5. Audiences 7

6. Messages 8

1. Situation Analysis

Staff dedicated to communications have been part of Institution since the 1950s, and have handled diverse roles such as media relations, fulfilling information requests from the public, and publishing Oceanus. For most of this time, communications functions were fragmented among different groups, reporting to different managers. Only in the last 18 months have all communications functions been consolidated under one manager dedicated to communications, which paves the way for more effective planning and execution.

Today, the job of communications is more complex than ever. There are more avenues for communication and a huge diversity of audiences vying for our attention. There is more demand for communicating the meaning and value of our work. Internally, the WHOI community is split between two campuses and a combination of factors—including growing use of electronic communications, and increasing pressure on everyone’s time--has reduced informal, face-to-face communications. Communications is therefore called upon assist in solving diverse problems: fragmentation and a feeling of isolation internally; greater demand on scientists to communicate their work to the public; raising the visibility of the Institution to the interested public; and engaging private donors.

Several attempts over the years have been made at developing a plan for Communications. While these efforts disclosed communications challenges, they did not result in written plan that was used in day-to-day decision-making and prioritization. There was no plan that could be used to communicate what we do--to ourselves, to the rest of WHOI, and to interested external audiences.

Several forces have converged to stimulate the development of a written communications plan for WHOI. These forces include:

Economic imperatives: With federal agency funding likely to be flat for some time, WHOI scientists are under increasing competition for federal funding and an increasing emphasis is being placed on raising private support. Effective communications about the importance of our work is a key enabler in engaging private donors and in gaining support for federal funding. The need for private funding is one of the stimuli behind the creation of the Ocean Institutes and the Access to the Sea endowment. In addition, a new capital campaign will require a significant communication effort to achieve its goals.

Related to the economic imperative is an increasing need to differentiate WHOI from a flock of large and small competitors for private support and, to some degree, for federal support. Paradoxically, increasing demands on scientists make it harder for them to find time to communicate, just when the need to communicate their work is escalating.

Agency communications imperatives: Federal agencies, also under funding pressure, are requiring their investigators to communicate with the public. As NSF, for example, strives to win budget support from Congress, it places the onus on its funded scientists to communicate the “broader impacts” of their work. With the rising importance of the World Wide Web, NSF is lobbying its funded organizations to contribute content to the NSF Web site, to better enable NSF to make the case for the relevance of its work to society. This places a demand on WHOI to supply a higher volume and flow of content.

Evolving role & expectation of WHOI trustees: Trustees are being asked to play an increasing advisory role in strategic issues. Likewise, as the demographics of the trustees shifts toward the New York City area, trustees increasingly expect greater public visibility of WHOI as a leader in the oceanographic community.

In response to these demands, Communications needs a way to focus its resources and talent on the most productive activities, and train Communications managers to think and act strategically—that is, to match tactics to goals, and to measure the effectiveness of our work. The Communications plan is a key tool to help achieve this focus and productivity.

The groundwork for this plan came from several efforts. SBI & Co was engaged to help develop key messages and a Web strategy. Its chief contribution was extensive research (survey/interview samples >500) to define our audience, messages and goals.

Building on this work in a department retreat, we defined key strategies for Communications:

• If we focus on our primary audiences (media, internal, interested public), we will help others in WHOI serve their audiences;

• Focus on key Institution initiatives: Ocean Institutes, Access to Sea, campus redevelopment, directorate outreach;

• Web first, print second;

• Enhance & build services and tools to improve our efficiency and that of others (eg, camera loan, Image Source, ConnectWHOI, homepage builder; science made public at the EC, Graphic standards & templates).

Accompanying this strategic plan will be a tactical plan. Both plans assume our current staffing level and a flat budget. More tactics, or faster turnaround, would require additional resources.

2. Communications Mission

The mission of the Communications Department is to enhance awareness and understanding of the Institution, the breadth of its ocean research, engineering, and education, and its value to society.

3. Communications Goals

We define goals as objectives that have a measurable effect. Often what we can measure is a proxy for the achievement of a goal—that is, perception of the effectiveness of our efforts through questions like “does (name effort) meet, exceed or fall short of your expectations?”

|Goal |How it is measured |

|1) Enable effective internal and external communications |Interviews, surveys: Does (name effort) meet, exceed or fall short of your expectations? |

| |How effectively does it help you understand (subject x): effectively/moderately/not at |

| |all. |

|2) Increase perception of WHOI as a preeminent source of information about the meaning |Interviews, surveys: Before and after—how did your perception of WHOI change as a result |

|and value of our ocean research, engineering, and education. |of effort X? |

| |Volume of media requests, volume of Web visits |

|3) Increase volume and diversity of timely, topical content about WHOI and its work. |Volume: before & after product volume |

| |Diversity: Before & after accounting: diversity of topics/investigators featured |

| |Timeliness: Before & after frequency of efforts. |

|4) Promote a positive perception of WHOI |Same metrics as goal 2 |

Timely is intended to stimulate attention to the time value of information. Some is “evergreen” and does not lose value with time. Some peaks in value in 6 to 12 hours (news releases). What is considered “timely” is therefore relative to the kind of information, how it will be used, and its audience. The timeliness of any effort will be addressed in the tactics section.

The goal of producing topical content is intended to focus content creators on the purpose of the information, as a means to prioritize potentially competing demands for time or resources. Is the content on topic or off topic? Which topic is closer to serving our goals and our audiences?

4. Communications Strategies

There are many definitions of strategy. Most simply, it is an orientation or approach to achieving a goal.

We define three strategies for the Communications Department:

1. Develop existing and innovative efforts to reach out and deliver content, focusing on the

work of WHOI staff and students, and broad Institution initiatives.

2. Develop communications standards, tools and services and educate the WHOI community in their use.

3. Assist communications efforts defined by WHOI investigators and other WHOI groups.

5. Audiences

We distinguish between audiences we serve and audiences for which we take primary responsibility. In the first category, we serve many audiences by assisting others in reaching their audiences, such as individual donors and foundations, Capitol Hill, federal agencies, policy makers and the external science community. In the second category, we take primary responsibility for communication with:

• The interested public

• Media

• WHOI internal (serve directly & support them in reaching their audiences)

The interested public comprises anyone interested in the Institution and its work. Primary responsibility to deliver messages targeted to specific public audiences rests with other groups in WHOI:

|Audience |Primary Responsibility |

|Individual donors, foundations |Development |

|Policy makers, Capitol Hill, agencies |Terry Schaff, directorate, investigators, Sea Grant |

|University students, postdocs |Academic Programs |

|K-12 teachers and information education (eg, museums)|Academic Programs, Sea Grant, COSEE, Communications |

|Scientists, program managers |Investigators |

|Industry |Investigators, Development |

|Trustees |Directorate, Board Relations |

|NGOs |Investigators |

6. Messages

Messages define the main points we want to get across. Some messages are evergreen—meaning, they will persist for years or even decades. Some are short-lived and may persist only for the duration of a project or initiative. We expect to revisit our messages annually, and expect the collection of messages to evolve more quickly than our mission, goals, or strategies.

|Message type |Interested Public |Media |WHOI internal |

|About WHOI structure & |Is independent, private, non-profit |(Same as message for interested public, |Communicating with the public and policymakers is part |

|function |WHOI is not an advocacy group |plus:) |of the Institution’s mission. |

| |Dedicated to ocean science research, engineering, and higher education |WHOI is a key source for authoritative and| |

| |We go to sea to learn how the oceans work |current knowledge about ocean sciences and|Communications helps researchers, students & staff |

| |Investigators compete for federal grants to raise the majority of their|its impact for society. |communicate by providing tools and services. |

| |salary and money to do research. | | |

| |Operate a unique set of national/regional ocean science facilities |WHOI facilitates rapid and direct access |Communications provides platforms to keep WHOI people |

| |About 20% of the institution’s support comes from private grants and |to its investigators (Journalism |up to date about activities at the Institution. |

| |donations. |Fellowship, connect to scientists quickly,| |

| |Organized into 5 science departments, which parallel traditional |etc) |The Communications department is responsible for |

| |academic disciplines (biology, chemistry, engineering, etc), 4 Ocean | |communicating the structure and function of the |

| |Institutes that focus on interdisciplinary work, and 3 Centers working |Provide best-in-class graphics |Institution to external audiences. |

| |on marine policy, ocean observatories, and coastal science. | | |

| |All researchers are members of a science department, which are the |Local media: second largest employer on | |

| |physical places they work, are responsible for hiring and coordinating |Cape Cod, staff contributions to local | |

| |promotions, and comprise the community in which researchers interact |communities; collaborative with local | |

| |most closely. About a third of WHOI researches are also funded by the |authorities. | |

| |Ocean Institutes, which are virtual organizations. | | |

| |About 1,100 people work at WHOI, 350 of whom are researchers who lead | | |

| |about 1,000 projects around the world at any given time. | | |

| |The number of people who work at WHOI has been stable for the last ten | | |

| |years, and is expected to remain so for the foreseeable future. | | |

| |Science projects span a wide range, from small to big. Some involve a | | |

| |single researcher and might be funded at a few thousand dollars; others| | |

| |may involve many researchers working for 3, 5, or more years, and | | |

| |funded at several million dollars. | | |

| |Researchers raise the money to pay for their science, and on average | | |

| |about two thirds of their salaries, from grants they write mainly to | | |

| |federal agencies, such as the National Science Foundation and the | | |

| |National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The remainder of their| | |

| |salaries is paid from other sources, such as private donations and | | |

| |endowment income. | | |

| |Researchers write on average 3 to 5 grant proposals a year, and some | | |

| |write as many as ten a year. Competition for federal grant monies has | | |

| |increased in recent years, increasing the number of proposals | | |

| |scientists write, while reducing the percentage of funded proposals to | | |

| |about 50 percent. WHOI scientists, nevertheless, are successful grant | | |

| |writers, and account for the largest percentage of the federal | | |

| |investment in ocean science. | | |

| |Unique integration of science, engineering, education | | |

| |Significant strength in engineering, with more than 200 people engaged | | |

| |in engineering and instrument development. | | |

| |Widest diversity of marine facilities | | |

| |Bring together expertise in a wide range of science disciplines to | | |

| |focus on the oceans. | | |

| |A significant grantor of doctoral degrees in oceanography. | | |

| |Research projects are all over the globe. | | |

| |Our ships and vehicles work in all oceans | | |

| |WHOI is communicating its results to people that can make a difference,| | |

| |providing impartial scientific expertise to government and policy | | |

| |makers. | | |

| |Our work is communicated broadly | | |

| |Private money supporting successful “risky” ventures helps leverages | | |

| |federal funding for additional research. | | |

| |Private support allows flexibility, creativity and freedom in | | |

| |developing new research ideas and tools | | |

|Message type |Interested Public |Media |WHOI internal |

|About WHOI work—science, |Oceanography involves the excitement and challenge of exploration & |(Same as interested public plus messages |Making our research accessible & understandable to |

|education, engineering |discovery in a wide range of environmental and knowledge frontiers. |as above.) |broader audiences is increasingly required for public |

| |New discoveries add to what we know about the 70% of our planet covered| |and private support. |

| |by the oceans | | |

| |Develops state-of-the-art sea-going vehicles and instruments and | |Communications collaborates with staff & students to |

| |shore-based facilities to help answer science questions | |convey their work. |

| |Conducts a wide breadth of ocean science research & engineering | | |

| |Since 1930, has been a leader in oceanographic research, engineering & | |Communications provides tools, services and platforms |

| |education | |to communicate to the public about WHOI science, |

| |Collaborative and multidisciplinary approach | |education and engineering. |

| |Advances understanding in ocean processes and interactions with earth | | |

| |as a whole. | |Communications helps the WHOI community understand WHOI|

| |Relates scientific data to global/local questions, issues and policy. | |science, education & engineering. |

| |Through joint program with MIT, trains graduate students to assume | | |

| |leadership roles. | |(Note: efforts like D&D should come with funding) |

| |Attracts students from around the world | | |

| |World-class facilities, scientific freedom, and a community of leading | | |

| |thinkers attracts and keeps top-quality scientific an engineering | | |

| |expertise. | | |

| |Science is the foundation for providing solutions to questions | | |

| |regarding resource management, economics, conservation, and | | |

| |environmental policy | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

|Message type |Interested Public |Media |WHOI internal |

|About WHOI initiatives |Access to the Sea |(Same as interested public plus messages |A priority of the Communications Department is to |

|(Access to the Sea, Ocean|WHOI leadership in ships, observing system, vehicles, sensors (marine |as above.) |support the Institution’s major initiatives. |

|Institutes, campus |facilities; NDSF). | | |

|redevelopment, |WHOI develops, builds and operates cutting-edge underwater vehicles, | |(Public messages, plus: ) |

|directorate support) |sensors and observatories. | |Collaborate with VP Marine Ops and Development to |

| |Importance of ship replacement (UNOLS) | |create an Access to Sea communications plan. |

| |A growing emphasis on long-term observational (observatories) science. | |Voice your needs for WHOI ship replacement |

| |Advances in technology are changing the kinds of questions scientists | |COSMOS is a new organizational structure for WHOI’s |

| |can address and how they work | |observatory science (p42-44) |

| |WHOI generates and shares a huge volume of observations and findings. | |Today’s problems in data management may hold back our |

| |Operate ships and vehicles for national and international | |science. Improvements in it may make us more |

| |investigators. | |competitive. |

| |Private funding supports new marine facilities, instrumentation and | |Potential changes in NDSF |

| |stimulates sea-going research. | |Observatories offer great opportunities for WHOI |

| |Private support allows flexibility, creativity and freedom in | |scientists and engineers |

| |developing new research ideas and tools | | |

| | | | |

| | | |Collaborate with Ocean Institute directors and |

| | | |Development to create an OI communications plan. |

| |Ocean Institutes | |Conducts theme-based research. |

| |Private funding allows for high-risk, high-reward and rapid-response | | |

| |science. | | |

| |Funds interdisciplinary research and education to better advance | | |

| |scientific discovery and learning. | | |

| |Catalytic leadership role in identifying new research directions | | |

|Message Type |Fosters dialog public - scientific community dialog. | | |

| |Pioneers new technologies and techniques to advance science | | |

| |Leverage federal support with private money | | |

| |Convey the impact and relevance of new scientific findings | | |

| |Interested Public | | |

| | | |WHOI Internal |

| | | | |

| |Campus Redevelopment | | |

| |Why build new labs: alleviate crowding for existing staff, accommodate | |(Same as public messages, plus: ) |

| |new equipment & new techniques (3 mass spec 1980; now ~40) [see Luyten | |Communications seeks opportunities to highlight |

| |letter AR] |Media |biogeochemistry and marine mammal research, and |

| |No intentions to significantly increase staff | |seafloor sampling to support the Institution’s |

| |Upgrading sewage treatment |(other messages to come from OI comm. |investment in new laboratories. |

| |Create campus environment on Quissett; enhance collaboration & |Plans) | |

| |interaction |WHOI provides authoritative and current |Provide platforms & services for those overseeing the |

| |Alleviate crowding in Village |information in key theme areas: |project to communicate progress. |

| |Blake message: consolidate Deep Submergence groups to improve |1 | |

| |efficiency; reduce crowding; upgrade labs. |2 | |

| |Redfield: consolidate and modernize labs |3 | |

| |MRF: Integrate marine mammal research & facilities. Put all under one |4 | |

| |roof. |12 | |

| |Leadership in marine mammal research. | | |

| |BGC: Biogeochemistry is a new frontier in ocean science. Foster work at| | |

| |frontier of new Integration multidisciplinary work…integrating and | | |

| |combining investigators from across disciplinary boundaries. Building | | |

| |combines staff to advance science. Continuing trend of | | |

| |cross-disciplinary science. | | |

| |McLean: Expanding national repository for seafloor samples. | | |

| |Extend capabilities at national radiocarbon-dating lab facility | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| |Interested Public | | |

| | | | |

| |Directorate outreach | | |

| |WHOI directorate advocates for the importance of ocean sciences to | | |

| |national and international audiences. | | |

| |WHOI directorate are leaders in the oceanographic community. | |WHOI Internal |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | |Media |WHOI directorate advocates for the importance of ocean |

| | | |sciences to national and international audiences. |

| | | | |

| | |Same as message to interested public. |The directorate advocates for WHOI within the ocean |

| | | |science community. |

| | | | |

| | | |They help raise money in the private sector. |

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download