Event Communication Methods And When To Use Them

"Good communication is the bridge between confusion and clarity." —Nat Turner

Nowadays, it's hard to tell if you're being contacted by a human or a robot. Since we are more familiar with automated communications, we are more skeptical of the messages we receive.

It's helpful to educate employees, teammates and crew on "communication types" for your business especially in the live events industry. Setting expectations on how certain things will be communicated can lessen the depersonalization of mass communications.

Different communication types and mediums each have their place. Outlined below are a few to consider:

• Reach: mass vs. individual/personalized
• Method: manual vs. automated

Personalized manual communications

This category is the oldest (and most traditional) type of communication. It's what most people are used to. With the gig economy striving now more than ever, it's important to remember that at the end of the day, we are communicating with humans. 

When possible, add a personal touch to your communications. Send an employee crew member kudos for a job well done. Or, if they've been dinged with a bad review, reach out to have a constructive conversation with them to provide feedback in an effort to avoid negative ratings in the future.

When to use:

• Individual feedback
• Person-specific instructions
• Troubleshooting messages

Mass manual communications

When a single standard message needs to be deployed, it's important to have the means to distribute, but also the understanding from the recipients that they are subscribed to these types of messages.

It's important to share with recipients that they might receive important messages from [generic sender] so they are expecting it and don't dismiss them as junk. 

When to use:

• Employee Announcements
• General Company Comms. etc. 

Automated mass communications

When managing large teams and complex processes, it's often most efficient to let a tool communicate for you. Most mass communication tools are built to help expand one person's reach for very specific use cases.

For example, Constant Contact is a tool for marketers to reach potential prospects through email marketing. Does it make sense for a marketer to send out individual emails to thousands of recipients? No. So, marketers use the tools, and most consumers are aware that branded email marketing is not being sent one-to-one.

It's assumed (and expected) that tools are being used to help magnify one person's efforts. Automated communications can come through as texts, emails or push notifications (if they sender has a native app).

Oftentimes, labor coordinators need to make changes to event schedules so having the tools to do so with the option to release specific notifications to relevant crew is key. We all get notifications for way too much so having the ability to trigger specific notifications is a great way to minimize chaos.

When to use:

• Schedule changes
• Updated call time
• Change of crew lead
• Event cancellation

Automated personalized notifications

Personalized messages can be sent automatically... with the use of personalization tokens (or "placeholders"). Being that we are all exposed to automated messaging, most of us understand that certain communications are built with us in mind, but maybe not FOR us. Many systems offer users the option to send out bulk communications using personalization tokens, or placeholders for data that is unique to a specific recipient. 

Types of messages to send:

• Role-specific messages
• Action-triggered messages
• Payroll notifications
• Timekeeping 

Signing off 

At the end of the day, all communications originate from humans - even robotic messaging come from human programming. Let your crew know that's the case, they will appreciate your transparency and you will appreciate the ability to magnify your communications without losing that good ol' personal touch.

"The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place." —George Bernard Shaw

Discover how to streamline and create meaningful communication for your company and crew👇