Interview questions for recruiting a strategic communications manager
“Digital transformation means integrating digital across our organisation to deliver our vision, create value, give our audience great experience and services and develop a competitive advantage.”
“How can we use digital to create the change you want to see?”
- The Gardeners Rest Pub in Sheffield was put up for sale in September last year. The pub is a living, breathing part of the community and locals wanted to keep it as a truly local enterprise rather than it becoming part of a national chain. They launched a crowdfunding page with a short video of the different people who come to the pub. People like Andy who comes along and reads poetry in the evening every week. The stories in the video inspired donations making the campaign was a big success. They raised £237k in 49 days and unlocked a further £100k in grants and loans. It shows us that using digital technology to tell emotive stories can move people to give; enabling us to raise additional funds efficiently and cost effectively.
- The second example Zoe gave was of the National Trust’s reaction to Adam Evans’ tweet. Adam was making light of the media attention the charity had been getting for not mentioning Easter enough in its Egg Hunt promotions and he asked why the charity had not mentioned #EdBallsDay on its website. The charity responded quickly and jovially, generating over 2,000 likes, 400 retweets as well as national press coverage. As a sector, we should not be afraid to poke fun of ourselves in the way that the commercial sector has been doing for a very long time. Digital communications allow us to humanise our communications at great scale and jumping on opportunities like this can be a great way of raising awareness for your organisation.
- Work out where digital sits in your business model.
- Develop your digital fundraising model.
- Upskill your team.
- Look at how your audience is using digital – Zoe gave the example of a charity director who was obsessed with getting his charity to use Instagram but Zoe explained that this may not be the best platform for the charity’s target audience and was a far sight from digital transformation.
- Speak to charities who’ve gone digital - the great thing about our sector is that most people are happy to share what they have learnt over a coffee – we don’t need to reinvent the wheel as there are plenty of people to learn from.
- Talk to your leadership team. You might want to share the Charity Digital Skills Report, the Lloyds Bank UK Business Digital Index as well as highlights of what your competitors are doing.
- Just get started!
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