A project communication toolkit for project managers. Here we provide you with tips and links on how to communicate about your project effectively.
Why is effective project communication important?
Effective communication allows you to control what staff, funders, potential customers and other stakeholders see and hear from your project. This builds trust and expectation, which can help you when the results of the project are introduced into regular operations, sold in a market or whatever your project goal is.
One good thing about effective project communication is that it can be used for development purposes. If you use communication strategically, you need to have clear objectives, understand your target groups and be able to package your results. All this is useful in project and business development. It also helps you keep track of things like crisis management and marketing, which is also useful. Include a communication mindset from the start and you will go far!
Communication as part of the project budget
It is a good idea to think early on about what you want to communicate in a project. This will give you an idea of whether the project needs extra funds in the budget to buy in help or technical equipment. Maybe someone in the project team needs to attend a training course. A lot can be done for a minimal cost, especially if you do some planning.
Feel free to get help at this stage. Many of our projects are linked to universities or regions, and they have communication departments. They may be able to help you brainstorm ideas and provide a realistic estimate of the resources needed. Using the services of a communications agency is also possible, but it will cost you some money, so make sure you agree on a price for the consultation before you meet.
In this project communication toolkit, we assume you do much of the work yourself.
Tips. Documentation
One good thing about communicating regularly is that it becomes automatic documentation. It can be difficult to remember details as the project progresses, so posts on the Facebook page, for example, can help you remember.
Here’s what you need to know
- What is it you want to achieve? What are your objectives? The communication should support the project’s objectives. Example: Our project will develop a new, effective cough medicine.
- Who do you need to communicate with? This could be current and future collaborators, funders, partners, patients, trial subjects and many others. Think about who is most important to communicate with and when.
- Where are the people you want to communicate with? In communication language, these are called channels. A channel can be a phone call, a meeting, Facebook, a carrier pigeon, scientific posters, newsletters and much more. The important thing is that you have analysed which channels the people you want to communicate with are using. If all your potential subjects visit a particular clinic, then the clinic (or perhaps rather the clinic staff or notice board) is an appropriate channel. However, if you want to reach more people, Facebook or the regional website might be better channels.
- How many resources can you devote to your communication? It’s easy to have lots of fun communication ideas, but they also need to be implemented. Having a blog or Facebook page to publicise the project is good, but remember that you need to be able to update it regularly (or outsource the work = cost).
Tips! The communication grid
Swelife has developed a simple grid that our projects can use to organise their communication. You can sort out the communication for each activity, work package or contribution you make in the project.
Presentations
As a project, it is common to have to make presentations. That’s why we at Swelife have developed tips and good advice on presentations, especially how to make really good PowerPoint presentations. The tips are collected in two short films.
There are more films in Swedish, look here.
Website
It can be useful to have a simple website for the project. Stakeholders can easily follow the progress of the project and you can share results.
If your project belongs to a university, region or other organisation – check with the communications department if it is possible to set up a project website centrally. It will save you a lot of time and money. Many projects find it important to have their colours and fonts but wait until you are a bit bigger.
An alternative to a website is to set up a Facebook or LinkedIn page for the project. It is an easy way to maintain a dialogue with stakeholders and future customers, for example, and it is a cost-effective way to start project communication.
Here’s how to create a Facebook page.
How to create a page on LinkedIn.
On LinkedIn, there is the possibility to publish articles. It becomes like a blog and is a very good alternative to a website.
How to publish articles on LinkedIn.
Making a simple website is something most people can do themselves, with a little patience. There are guides on the web on how to go about it. Google ‘make website wordpress’.
Tips! Be lazy and smart
Think about the questions you get asked most often that don’t need much explanation. This could be the project’s invoice address, pictures of the project participants or project results, scientific articles, etc. Use the website to post this kind of info, so you can always refer to the website and save time. Publish everything in one place (and refer to it with links), so you only have one place to update.
Emails
Newsletters are a simple and cost-effective channel. Let stakeholders subscribe to the newsletter. How often you send out news is entirely up to you.
You may find it useful to use one of the many free email tools available. They can help you keep track of subscribers, comply with laws (such as the GDPR) and create a beautiful mailing. Here are some providers that have free solutions:
- Mailchimp
- Sendinblue
- Getanewsletter
Communicating with each other
It is easy to forget to communicate within the project. It may sound strange that this happens even in small project teams, but it can’t be stressed enough how important it is, regardless of the size of the organisation. Good internal communication increases job satisfaction and makes going to work more enjoyable. It can also have project and business benefits, such as increasing creativity. Things do not fall through the cracks as easily. Each project member is an ambassador for the project, and therefore a communication channel.
There are many ways to communicate internally, but here too it is important to think through the channels. When and where do you communicate what? Perhaps your project meetings should be opportunities for creativity and dialogue. Pure information can end up in a simple OneNote or Google Docs that you all share.
Remember to put extra energy into internal communication when new staff join the project.
The Swedish research project The Communicative Organisation is a useful reading for those who want to dive into this with organisational communication.