There’s a powerful new industry driving into Georgia: Clean Technology. In the last five years billions of dollars have been invested in clean energy projects, with billions more in the pipeline.
Chicago-based Anovion Technologies, supplier of materials for lithium-ion batteries, recently announced it will build an $800 million manufacturing facility in Bainebridge, GA. It’s the latest in a long line of U.S. and global companies staking a claim in Georgia’s clean energy industry.
Supporting this explosive development are more than 1,000 Georgia faculty members and researchers linking clean energy innovations to industrial applications and building the foundation of learning that will sustain what has become a gold rush of investment unmatched in Georgia’s economic history.
With dramatic advances in electric vehicles, battery manufacturing and solar energy, the global giants establishing a presence in Georgia and local companies expanding existing operations face communications challenges. For some, the first step is building credibility. For others, the task is adapting their international credibility in order to connect with Georgians.
How can each be heard amid the competitive noise of explosive growth? How can companies in all industries effectively communicate with important audiences within their market?
Here are three ideas that will help.
Create a communications strategy.
Like every other aspect of your business, your communication needs a strategy in order to effectively support business objectives.
To reach corporate goals, who do you need to communicate with? Those are your target audiences.
What language both represents your company and will spur action among those audiences? Those are your key messages.
Start with a strong, strategic foundation for communications and you’ll have a blueprint to guide the myriad of communications produced by your company.
Align your company’s communications.
A company’s communication is the very definition of ecosystem:
“a complex network or interconnected system.” The website. Social media. Press releases. Blogs. Marketing materials. Employee newsletters. Talking points.
All these play a role in providing the consistency and coordination required to effectively communicate. Do they all reinforce key messages? Appeal to your target audiences? Tell the same story about your company? Once you identify target audiences and create messaging that reflect your business strategy and priorities, audit your communications to ensure alignment.
Develop a media strategy.
What business objectives can be supported by media coverage? What are your company's strengths? What are its vulnerabilities?
The answers to these questions and more will be your guide to your company’s media outreach.
While you can’t control how the media will cover an issue, you can control how prepared you are for the media spotlight. Develop your talking points. Train a spokesperson. Identify key media that cover the issues relevant to your client’s priorities.
It is never time wasted. If members of the media come calling, you’ll be glad for the work done in preparation.