Creating a Communication Plan

The Five Ws and How

The Beginning of a Communications Plan for Sigma Xi Chapters
In journalism, the common rule for a good news story lead is that it must answer the following questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? Journalism students sometimes refer to these the "Five Ws and How."

In thinking about how to increase the visibility of programs or activities sponsored by your chapter the first thing to remember is that it rarely just happens. It usually requires a plan.

The start of a good communications plan also requires asking some of these same questions covered in the "Five Ws and How." Let's start with the general questions of the "Five Ws."

Who?

Who are you trying to reach? Who is your audience? Are you trying to increase awareness of your chapter's programs and activities among scientists and engineers on your campus or are you trying reach your entire campus community, for example? Do you want to reach the general public in your geographic area or, even, increase your visibility in the larger Sigma Xi network? Are you clear who you are trying to reach? The answer will help shape your strategy, which will be different according to your target audience or audiences. Ideally, understanding your target audience will shape the plans you make in planning not only the communications about your program, but the program itself.

What?

What is the nature of your program or activity that you have planned or are planning? Does it meet a need or interest of your target audience? Can you clearly articulate what is important or unique or noteworthy in the program or activity you are planning? Do you know what event or programs are of interest to your target audience? Have you considered ways of asking this question?

When?

When will your program or activity happen? Has your planning included a close look at the dates and times of other events that might be scheduled that would compete with reaching your target audience? Do you know how to access an event calendar for your target community—such as calendars for science departments or the institution's calendar or a community-wide calendar?

Where?

Have you scheduled an event or activity in a place that can be easily located and accessed by your target audience? If this is not possible, have you included information that will help your target audience reach this destination—for example, a map of location, parking suggestions or public transit information. Again, the level of detail will vary according to your target audience.

Why?

Can you articulate why the program or event you have planned or are planning is important or should be important to your target audience? Do not assume that everyone will have the same information in assessing why a planned program matters.

For example, if a noted biologist is speaking on your campus or at your lab, the name alone may be enough to draw interest from the biology department, but your colleagues in physics may need a bit more context to appreciate the significance of the opportunity to hear this speaker. If your target audience is the general public in your geographic area, then the context that needs to be provided may be broader. You need to be able to tell how the work of this biologist impacts daily lives or is changing the way we think or will have applications for public policy decisions.

Once you have answered these questions, you can ask the final one:

How?

The "Five Ws" are pretty basic. It is the basic thought process for planning and shaping your programs. The answers to these questions produce the information you want to communicate. How you communicate this information will vary widely according to your environment—is your chapter located in a small teaching college or a major research university or in a laboratory. If your chapter is trying to reach the general public, your approach will be impacted by the size of your media market.

Make It Someone's Job

Your chapter may already have a clearly assigned role for coordinating and implementing a plan to increase awareness of your programs. If not, be sure this role is assigned. Perhaps this would be a good role for the president-elect or immediate past president. Much of the information gathered can be a starting point in succeeding years, but it is best if it is clearly understood who is coordinating the efforts.

Assess Your Resources

Is there a public information officer at the institution or one of the institutions associated with your chapter who can assist you in reaching your target audience? If you are planning programs to reach a general local audience or a campus- or organization-wide audience, a public information officer might be able to provide some basic information about deadlines and format that would be helpful. This will vary from institution to institution, but asking for general help well in advance of your event or activity is generally preferable. If your programs are developed in spring for the following year, then the summer might be a good time to approach the public information office, for example.

If you are new at writing a news release, you might ask if the public information officer or someone on the staff would edit your release to make it more effective. It is a general courtesy to let your public information office know when you are inviting members of the media to an event on campus. On many campuses, the public information staff would prefer to coordinate calendar information or releases going to off-site media. You will not know what resources might be available to you in promoting your program or activity unless you ask.

Identify the Media That Reach Your Target Audience

If you determine that there will be little help available through a public information officer, then you may need to do a bit of research in identifying which publications or communications are most effective in reaching them. Is it the campus newspaper or the department newsletter? Is it the local newspaper? Is it a community calendar published by a newspaper or news magazine? Look at a copy of the newspaper or newsletter and determine if there is contact information for submitting a news or calendar item. Inquire about deadlines and to whom information about your program should be submitted and how. Most newspapers now accept—and even prefer—e-mail messages to printed news releases or calendar items. Check this out in advance and keep notes. It will help with the distribution of information later. You may even be able to create your distribution list before you write a news or calendar announcement.

Tell Your Story Simply and Concisely

If you followed the "Five Ws" in planning your program, you already have all of the information for your lead. This information may be submitted to your public information officer, or if you're on your own, used to draft a simple telling of the Five Ws: Who? What? When? Where? Why?

As with all good communication, place yourself in the position of the audience. What questions do you have that are not answered? Then, redraft the release and answer them—and if possible, add contact information of your own, just in case you did not think of all the questions.