ITEM COS09 REPORTS 17/11/14 N O R T H S Y D N E Y C O U N C I L R E P O R T S Report to General Manager Attachments: 1. North Sydney Council Draft External Communications Strategy SUBJECT: External Communications Strategy AUTHOR: Sandra Moore, Manager Communications & Events ENDORSED BY: Ross McCreanor, Director Corporate Services EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Council communicates with its residents, ratepayers and other stakeholders every day in a myriad of ways and all Council officers are part of this communications network. The draft External Communications Strategy highlights key channels of communications and proposed improvements in these areas. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS: The funding requirements for each action are included in the Strategy. Comment by Director Corporate Services: Funding for relevant projects will be provided via the annual budgeting process RECOMMENDATION: 1. THAT the draft External Communications Strategy be placed on public exhibition for 28 days.
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ITEM COS09 REPORTS 17/11/14
N O R T H S Y D N E Y C O U N C I L R E P O R T S
Report to General Manager Attachments:
1. North Sydney Council Draft External Communications Strategy SUBJECT: External Communications Strategy AUTHOR: Sandra Moore, Manager Communications & Events ENDORSED BY: Ross McCreanor, Director Corporate Services EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Council communicates with its residents, ratepayers and other stakeholders every day in a myriad of ways and all Council officers are part of this communications network. The draft External Communications Strategy highlights key channels of communications and proposed improvements in these areas. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS: The funding requirements for each action are included in the Strategy. Comment by Director Corporate Services: Funding for relevant projects will be provided via the annual budgeting process RECOMMENDATION: 1. THAT the draft External Communications Strategy be placed on public exhibition for 28 days.
LINK TO DELIVERY PROGRAM The relationship with the Delivery Program is as follows: Direction: 5. Our Civic Leadership Outcome: 5.4 Community is informed and aware BACKGROUND Communications is a core function of almost all Council projects and services and is included or implied in many directions and outcomes in the Community Strategic Plan and Delivery Program. The draft External Communications Strategy draws together some key strategies and actions under Direction 5: Our Civic Leadership which encompasses communicating projects, services and achievements for all Council divisions. CONSULTATION REQUIREMENTS Community engagement will be undertaken in accordance with Council’s Community Engagement Protocol. SUSTAINABILITY STATEMENT The sustainability and QBL implications are detailed within the draft Strategy. DETAIL Council communicates with residents, ratepayers and other stakeholders in a myriad of ways every day. Clear and responsive communication is important in all services and projects and is therefore the responsibility of all Council staff members. Communications plays a key role in many of Council’s other strategies, in particular in the Customer Service Strategy (which includes face-to-face, telephone and digital communication), the Community Engagement Strategy and the IT Strategy. However, to ensure the importance of communications is recognised, it has been included as a separate outcome under Direction 5 of the Community Strategic Plan. The draft External Communications Strategy highlights key channels of communication that are used across Council and identifies strategies to improve or extend these. While the plan has been developed for 2014 to 2017, it needs to be acknowledged that communications trends and technologies change swiftly. The Strategy outlines specific actions Council will take in the next few years, however, we will need to remain flexible, especially in the area of digital communications, and be willing to adapt to changes in community expectations, behaviours and technology as required.
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INTRODUCTIONThis Strategy outlines the proposed communications strategies and actions which will help North Sydney Council to actively engage with its stakeholders. This plan aligns with Council’s Community Strategic Plan 2013-2023 and addresses key deliverables as outlined in Council’s Delivery Program 2013/14-2016/17
GOALTo provide effective communications to the North Sydney community to ensure they are informed and aware.
CORPORATE VISION
Shaping a progressive, diverse and vibrant North Sydney community.
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North Sydney Council is committed to fostering open and timely communication with its ratepayers, residents and key stakeholders.
Council has a decentralised approach to communications, in that departments and staff members communicate directly with residents, ratepayers and other customers on issues related to them, for example planning, waste or sustainability.
Council’s Communications team promotes Council programs, new initiatives, Council events and actively works to enhance and protect Council’s reputation. The Communications team is the initial point of contact for media enquiries and also coordinates and produces communications to stakeholders through a range of channels.
Communicating with Council stakeholders is more challenging than ever. Council operates in a fast-changing communications environment where stakeholders receive information from a variety of traditional and new media sources.
Council’s audience is changing from one in which they are receivers of news from one or two traditional sources, to one in which they read and disseminate news in a variety of ways and they themselves are creators of news via blogs, social media etc. Council must therefore communicate with a broad range of stakeholders across different age groups, locations and media.
In Council’s most recent Customer Satisfaction Survey (2013) residents and businesses’ top three preferred sources of communication for Council news were Council’s website, the Mosman Daily and North Sydney News (Council’s bi-annual newsletter).
In recent years Council has embraced social media, with enewsletters, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest now forming part of the communications mix. The audience for these media continues to grow organically with new followers and likers every day. We have also introduced a street banner hire program. This new media has not replaced traditional media, but simply extended the many ways in which we communicate with our stakeholders.
BACKGROUND
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COMMUNICATIONS VALUESNorth Sydney Council applies a quadruple bottom line to planning and decision making. This strategy recognises that communications materials must be sustainable and that decisions about how Council communicates should be made with consideration to our environmental, social, economic and governance frameworks. The principles outlined here apply to all communications.
Framework Where possible, our communications will:
Environmental Consider and manage the impact of printed communications materials on the environment
Use recyclable materials for printing where practicable
Social Be diverse, ensuring communication is accessible to people of all backgrounds and interests and includes community languages where appropriate
Encourage two-way communication between Council and the community
Ensure communication is clear, timely and concise (using plain English wherever possible)
Economic Promote economic development and our CBDs and village centres
Consider the best use of Council’s limited resources
Governance Use communication channels to promote open government and to help inform our community with clear, timely and concise communications
Underpinning all communications activities are Council’s broad corporate values of sustainability, community service, open government, ethical conduct, justice, quality and teamwork.
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RELATED PLANSThe North Sydney Council External Communications Strategy will be implemented in conjunction with the following plans and some of the actions in this strategy appear in these:
» The North Sydney Community Strategic Plan, in particular Direction 5: Our Civic Leadership and Delivery Program
» The North Sydney Council Customer Service Strategy (which also includes a communications section)
» The North Sydney Council Community Engagement Strategy
» The North Sydney Council Events Strategy
» The North Sydney Centre Marketing Strategy
» The North Sydney Council Information Technology Strategy
OBJECTIVES (AS LINKED TO THE NORTH SYDNEY COUNCIL DELIVERY PROGRAM)» Increase promotion of Council activities and achievements (5.4.1.1)
» Support Council’s social media and mobile communications platforms (5.4.1.2)
» Enhance existing communication methods, including diversified use of digital medi a (5.4.2)
AUDIENCES:» North Sydney residents and ratepayers
» North Sydney business community
» Local and metropolitan media
» Local MPs and key community leaders
» Precinct groups
» Community groups/NGOs
» Local schools
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STRATEGIC
Our communications activities will focus on Council’s signature projects and events to ensure that they are widely promoted to both the local and wider community. To do this, we will create innovative, clever and thoughtful communications material to actively engage and inform our community, including high-quality publications and media material. We will use plain English, visual aids in place of lengthy descriptions (where appropriate), and tailor our messages to their audience. We recognise that people receive and disseminate information in different ways and we will therefore use a range of media to engage with our community.
1 Engage and inform our community 2 Support economic development in the local business community
We will partner with the local business community, where appropriate, to promote and drive events and activities that support economic development in our CBDs and village centres. We will place increased emphasis on promoting North Sydney as a visitor destination.
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STRATEGIES
3 Digital communications
In recent years digital communications have emerged as a vital element in any communications strategy. Digital communications such as video, social media and web presence will be a key platform for our communications activities and will allow us to vary the ways in which we communicate with the community and other stakeholders. Our communications team is currently lacking a dedicated resource in this area and therefore we propose employing a staff member tasked with extending our digital activities. This will allow us to continue to build our social media and online presence and create more video/visual communications tools.
Build Council’s identity4We will continue to build and enhance Council’s reputation within the North Sydney community. To do this we will strengthen relationships with local media, promote and protect Council’s reputation by clearly communicating Council’s key projects and goals, and actively manage issues as they arise. We will protect Council’s corporate identity through the development and rollout of a corporate standards manual and appropriate communications tools to Council staff. And we will continue to provide a high-quality, in-house graphic design service.
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CURRENT COMMUNICATION CHANNELS
Channel Frequency
NSC website Daily*
North Sydney News (all residents and businesses) Biannual (March/September)
Council ad in Mosman Daily and North Shore Living Weekly
Media releases Weekly/as required
E-newsletters (10) Weekly & Monthly
Community Noticeboards Every six weeks
NSC Facebook pages Daily*
NSC and Stanton Twitter accounts Daily*
Resident mailouts (eg. NYE and special events) As required
Posters and flyers As required
Banners As required
Videos As required
Stand-alone advertising – print and online As required
Targeted newsletters eg Lap Times, Bushcare News, Educational Institutions Working Group Bulletin Periodically
Speeches and presentations As required
*Monitored only during business hours unless otherwise required.
The actions listed in this Strategy do not include the myriad of routine communications activities that are currently undertaken across Council such as:
» responding to letters, emails and phone calls,
» producing promotional material such as flyers, posters and advertisements
» posting on social media
» producing newsletters and enewsletters for communities of interest
» responding to media inquiries
» speeches and presentations
Instead, the Strategy focuses only on new directions or new activities that will be undertaken during the life of this Strategy.
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