Communicators, Step Up and Be Counted

On January 29, 2015 communicators from different industries converged for NASSCOM’s first ever Marketing & Communications Forum at Bangalore to exchange ideas and discuss key issues concerning the fraternity.

A keynote by Santhosh Kumar –President & Managing Director, Texas Instruments followed opening remarks by the forum chair. The day had three broad topics – a) the strategic role of communicators b) social media and myths surrounding it – which I addressed c) a panel on the talent expectations in communication.  The panel had marketing and HR experts who shared their viewpoints on the importance and implications of managing talent and gain newer skills.

The group also launched a mentorship initiative for communicators, mapping seasoned leaders with those who need mentoring – probably a first attempt in the country to raise the standards among professionals.

In my session I shared three stories from recent experiences and then a series of social media myths that communicators encounter.   It was heartening to see the interest and passion among the 70 odd communicators to learn and immerse themselves in this growing field of work. Many felt that social media needed to be demystified and were keen to get ahead of the curve with involving their employees and leaders be more familiar with the nuances.

The other topics were hugely relevant to the audience – evident from the excellent questions asked and the engagement I observed.

Here are my key take-aways from the interactions.

1. The event seemed to have filled an unmet gap in the minds of corporate communicators and marketing professionals. While there are a dime a dozen forums on communications in the region not many have attempted at bridging the skills or the mentoring gaps. This forum seems to have found the sweet spot by ‘talking to’ communicators in ways they ‘get’ it.
2. Social media is an area that many find daunting. Most have some idea about what covers social media but very few know how to engage stakeholders using the media. When I asked the audience one of them felt social media is like ‘magic’!
3. Communicators struggle to get buy-in from stakeholders and there seems to be uncertainty about how they can become more relevant in their roles. I heard an interesting point of view from a seasoned communicator – he mentioned two key measures to know if a communicator is making progress; a) if the person can work unsupervised b) and be able to validate his or her own work.
4. Writing is a big skill gap and the group spent a fair amount of time discussing ways to address this crying need. As one participant put it – ‘everyone wants to edit – no one wants to write or craft content!’ – a concern considering a lot of what communicators manage is related to content and messaging.
5. Listening is as important a skill for communicators and the conversations alluded to how they must be tuned to the expectations from stakeholders
6. Communication isn’t yet viewed as a strategic function based on what I heard and understood. Inability to coherently present ideas, get a seat at the table, manage expectations, establish credibility and measure the value and impact are key reasons for the function not getting the respect it merits.

Overall, communicators need to step up, take ownership of their functions and careers. Kudos to NASSCOM (@nasscom) for providing the platform and the resources to launch this forum!