I can't remember the amount of times I've made mistakes in my work. Some have been easy to shake off, some have really messed with my head at the idiocy of how they happened. I've made mistakes in my current role in communications and in my former role as a Creative Director. There are some mistakes that just happen and are no ones fault really, but so many are avoidable. Some mistakes are at a strategic level, some in the development of the work and some in the final execution.
Here is something I don't want you to miss. Some mistakes are obvious (like point no. 1) but there are some (like point 10 or 11) which really can be easily missed unless you work hard to research others are doing or set up a framework of review of the effectiveness of your communications.
The 11 killer mistakes that wIll sink your communications boat are:
1. Don't use a proof reader to check your work. (I even made a typo in a previous post about improving your writing)
2. Employ someone to do your design work because they say they can use InDesign. Just because they think they use InDesign doesn't make them Saul Bass. Ask to see their folio before you do anything.
3. Communicate with your church audience without knowing who they are demographically.
4. Copy the big church down the roads name/logo/website going through a rebranding process.
5. Say 'yes' to your direct report no matter how bad their idea is.
6. Write your own copy even if you suck at writing (see point one).
7. Don't do any research on how your church is perceived by your congregation or community.
8. Use churchy language (and acronyms for ministries) on all your collateral that can only be understood if you've been attending the church for over a year.
9. Ignore Facebook. Or if you actually make it onto Facebook don't find out how other churches are leveraging the power of social media.
10. Don't listen to experienced social media professionals who have been there and do that.
11. Don't get any feedback to find out if what you are communicating is actually working.
There are many more mistakes that I've made, but I'll save some more for another post. What mistakes, errors of judgement, or just plain ignorance would you warn others about? Or have seen? How have you fixed them?
Get commenting below and help someone else keep their communications ship afloat.
