Send key messages to users | best practices – Google Apps for Work User Manual
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Phase 1: Core IT
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Send key messages to users | Best practices
Communication Don’ts:
•
Don’t send off messages without a thorough review. Run your
communications drafts by a few people who are unfamiliar with the
project. A simple user test can validate the content before you send
your emails to hundreds of users. Also, consider having your
messages copy edited by people in your company who specialize in
communications—technical writers, marketing specialists—or simply
someone with writing expertise. A few minutes of their time could
spare you from typos, formatting errors, and other communication
hiccups.
•
Don’t exclusively use email for communications. Using multiple
communications channels increases the chances that your messages
will be read and understood. Consider using meetings, videos, flyers,
posters, websites, or event t-shirts to get your message out.
•
Don’t use too much IT jargon in your messages. You might be
excited about the multi-tenant shared infrastructure you’re gaining in
the cloud. Unfortunately, the average user doesn’t care about that.
•
Don’t be afraid to repeat yourself. People need to hear messages
an average of 5–7 times before they stick.
“My colleagues and I are transforming
data collection at NOAA by improving
data quality and sharing the data
more openly, while saving ourselves
valuable time that can be spent on
other projects.”
—Sandra Giger, IT Specialist,
Office of the Chief Information
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
NOAA is a federal government agency based
in the United States. It has 25,000 Google
Use as many communications channels as you can
Learning from Solarmora, a fictionalized company
Andy’s team had their communications in place for
Core IT. Andy figured all they had to do was hit
“Send” to get the messages out. The team planned
to use the IT systems email account to send all of
their message to their users. After all, they had
control of that email account and the IT team used
it regularly to tell users about systems outages.
Oops! Andy wasn’t choosy about communication
channels and senders. His team was
communicating with Core IT users, but no one
was reading their messages. The project team
received many questions about Google Apps that
were answered in the email messages they
already distributed.
Lesson: Use multiple communications channels
instead of relying on a single communications
channel like email. When you communicate, use a
sender that your users view as important—like your
project sponsor—to increase the likelihood that
your messages will be read.
Andy worked with the other members of his team
to revise their communications plan. The team
incorporated other communications channels like
videos, posters, and sites. They also asked their
project sponsor to send some of the most
important email messages about the project.