External communication helps improve relationships with clients.
External communication is the process carried out by an organization to provide information to other entities and people who are not part of it . The concept covers all the communication processes that the company or institution establishes with the outside world.
It should be noted that communication is understood as the sending and/or receiving of signals between a sender and a receiver that use a common code. The external , meanwhile, manifests itself outside or is concretized in it, in opposition to the internal.
Main characteristics of external communication
External communication is what a company expresses to the outside . These are the communicative actions that you direct towards clients or users, suppliers and the community in general. On the other hand, the messages that circulate within the corporation (from managers to employees, among workers, etc.) are part of internal communication .
It must be taken into account that external communication is closely linked to public relations . All tasks that aim to enhance the corporate image or disseminate products and services, whether through advertising or marketing , are framed in these notions.
Experts maintain that external communication has to respect certain criteria to be successful. It is key that it generates uniform messages , with a style, tone and language that must be in tune and that must be maintained over time to reinforce the identity.
The speech, likewise, must be clear . The information provided must be understood and assimilated by its target audience.
External communication, on the other hand, must be developed through multiple channels . Nowadays, people generally do not go out in search of information, but instead expect to receive it on the devices and platforms they use on a daily basis.
In this sense, those in charge of a firm's external communication must manage the adaptation of messages to multiple supports and formats. For this and other reasons, it is essential to have a communication plan where strategies are established.
Social media can be functional to the external communication of an entity.
Media and social networks
For a long time, large-scale external communication was almost exclusively associated with mass media such as television , radio and the written press . The information was sent from the company and the media were in charge of disseminating it.
Today the reality is different. A press release or press release can be disseminated in the company's own spaces, such as its website and its profiles on social networks ( Facebook , Instagram , Twitter , TikTok and LinkedIn , among others).
The Internet even offers the possibility of having other communication resources such as a YouTube channel, a podcast or a newsletter, increasing the possibilities. Digital media, in general, require less investment than printing catalogs or brochures, to mention some of the most common corporate publications until a few years ago.
The relationship between companies and journalism carried out through traditional media, however, continues to be important. To have a greater impact on public opinion and work on brand positioning, the communication strategy can include press conferences or corporate events that are announced on TV, for example. Managers, in turn, can give radio interviews to announce launches and disseminate corporate news.
Managing a company's reputation requires successful external communication measures.
External communication strategies
External communication strategies must set out the objectives to be achieved. In this way, the steps to follow in action planning can be established.
The communication plan must contemplate audience segmentation so that the corporate message reaches the desired sector. Sometimes it may be preferable to run an advertising campaign on television, while in other contexts it may be advisable to hire influencers and aim for virality on the Web. The choice of communication channel, therefore, is an important aspect of the strategy.
Once the message and the channel have been defined, and after the communication itself, it is necessary to develop an audience measurement . At this point, the scope of what was communicated is known and it can be determined if the planned goal was achieved.
Frequent errors
Based on the aforementioned guidelines, it is possible to recognize frequent errors that companies make in their public relations actions and in their management of external communication.
When a communications team does not maintain a coherent line in its messages, it incurs a failure. Contradictions are not well received by the public, which causes damage to the corporate image .
Not choosing the channel properly is another common mistake. Twitter 's tone is not the same as Instagram 's; a video that works on TikTok can fail on YouTube ; A statement suitable for a newspaper may be incomplete or imprecise in a specialized magazine. Along the same lines, trying to reach many social sectors through a single medium or channel is an unfortunate practice since a message broadcast on a morning program on AM radio may not reach those who usually get information with Facebook Stories . .