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Every so often, there are questions about how to use Google Workspace to put corporate messaging into people's faces, screens and interfaces. Those requests are well-meaning, but they lead down a dangerous path. What if there was a better way than aggressively one-upping the competition for attention - like implementing a self-service culture using Google Workspace?
How it starts
How it starts
One of my pet peeves is: "Hey Holger - there is this great feature in Google that lets me do something people would not otherwise do. And best of all, it's Google, so it's free, right?" It's usually not this blunt, but it's always about solving people problems with technology.
Even internal communications are competing for attention - and asking questions like I did above mean I have lost that competition already, probably by overdoing it in the past. To win back user attention and be on top of everyone's mind, I want to use even more technology, but that does not work that way. Much to the contrary.
When speaking about "messages" in the following paragraphs, but it could be really anything. Emails, bits of news, does not matter.
When people see my message, but are not interested...
When people see my message, but are not interested...
How can I be sure they did not receive it? Or are not reading it, or acting upon it? How do I quantify this?
Maybe my message is irrelevant to most of them. Did I make an effort to narrow my scope? Reading an email has a cost - how much is the benefit of reading my email for all the groups I send it to?
Maybe people think it is irrelevant - do I have an image problem? Maybe my past messages were irrelevant.
…technology might not be the answer
…technology might not be the answer
So I discover technology - and decide to use it for evil. Some of the more egregious requests we have seen include:
adding backgrounds to Google Calendar to force everybody see someone's messaging
adding (unremovable) calendars to Google Calendar to make people aware of corporate events
forcing people to install apps on their mobile devices to send notifications about upcoming events
pressing people into Chat spaces they cannot get out of, to control what messages appear in their news feed.
and, of course, mass mailings, mass mailings and more mass mailings.
What if this actually was possible?
What if this actually was possible?
First, let's give that most of these asks are technically impossible. Others are possible but their side effects render them unworkable. However - let's think for a moment your experience would be like if they were possible:
Someone very important (or good friends with IT) would start to use a new tool (or loophole). There is an instant cost (and annoyance) to people, who have to cope with more distractions in a place that is not meant for that.
Other stakeholders (who think of themselves and their causes as not less important) would demand access to this feature, fearing their messages would no longer get read.
As this method becomes popular, the value for the first mover wears off, but the tool cannot be shut down anymore (and need to be maintained at a cost). The search for the next tool begins.
The bad old days.
What to instead, or: Comms teams, own your tools!
What to instead, or: Comms teams, own your tools!
Communications teams wield enormous power. G Suite empowers all of us to self-organize, which gives comms teams the means to tap into these conversations as they happen. This does away with the need of blanketing organizations with yet more emails or deploying invasive tools in the user interface.
Email groups
Email groups
Your company needs to control who accesses company-wide distribution lists and establish policies for who can manage and post in the biggest and most critical ones.
Chat spaces
Chat spaces
Which team cares and feeds our social network? You cannot leave this garden to itself.
Establish policies for which content should go onto curated Chat Spaces, who looks after it, leadership posts to draw audiences into it. Spaces need tender love and caring, even more than your LinkedIn properties.
Sites
Sites
Sites complements other tools brilliantly. It is for internal, lasting content. It is fully integrated with G Suite, so you can showcase your Drive files if you like and find your Site with Cloud Search.
Sites is rapidly growing and replacing legacy systems, thanks to being free and ready to use today. Most people prefer using G Suite to other tools - if you know G Suite, you already know how to build a great Site. This blog is built on Sites.
Media strategy for groups
Media strategy for groups
You need to monitor how many emails get send on what opportunities, who gets to decide and establish criteria for what content should get send. This helps you push back against fire drills - for that, you need to have policies in place before the fire drill is called.
Successful teams have created criteria for frequency and mediums to deflect messaging away from email into more effective channels.
Media strategy for Chat
Media strategy for Chat
Chat is ideal for the self service that cannot take place when you spray the entire organization with email. People self-organize in Chat, so you can post in relevant communities. Likes and algorithms make sure that relevant posts will bubble up - and will get read.
Make sure you have policies for what goes into which of your official community, to protect the work that goes into building these communities. You will lose your hard-won trust the instant you cannot push back against somebody who needs "eyeballs" on an "important" message for eyeballs' sake.
Media strategy for Sites
Media strategy for Sites
Central teams can create authoritative landing sites (or entire intranets). For internal communications teams, this means deciding which content should go on your big Google Sites and which should go on Chat or be sent via email (or other means).
Also, those big Sites need owners, agendas and update schedules, as well as feedback channels.
Dear internal comms teams - if you thought G Suite would eat your jobs, by now it should be clear that this is not the case. Much to the contrary. It allows you to do your job smarter, with many more tools than you had before. If done right, you can push back against people who ask you to slam audiences with mass mailings. Whatever you decide to implement, G Suite has got you covered. Just be sure to know the tools before you start. Thank you for reading!
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