I recently authored an article for the Canadian Forces that described the relationship between the Canadian Naval Reserve and the United States Coast Guard (USCG). The main audience for this was Canadian, by way of Canadian Forces' publications. As is customary, I sent a copy of the finished product to the USCG commander that was quoted in the article. He forwarded the article to their External Information Officer who, in turn, posted it on the USCG 9th District Blog.
In the notification that the article was posted, I noticed references to their other tools, including:
- YouTube
- Flickr
- USCG 9th District Website
This is one district. They have made a point of communicating to their audiences, I would argue both internal and external, through a number of means.
The point: public affairs, external relations, public information or public relations, whichever term you prefer, exists to serve an audience, which ultimately works toward accomplishing our communications objectives. We must remain open to new means of serving our audiences. Experimentation needs to be part of the process. Utilizing new technologies may involve some risk and it will certainly require some effort. Of the many means of communicating, some may prove ineffective. And we can choose to opt out "later" - but others will be right on target and become integral to our overall communication strategy - so, let's put the effort in "sooner".
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