Conducting a Communications Audit

1
Conducting a Communications Audit

• Barbie E. Keiser
• SARC III
• September 2005
• barbieelene_at_att.net

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Our agenda

• What is a Communications Audit?
• Why today?
• What are the key elements?
• Who should be involved?
• Case study

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What is a Communications Audit?

• Definition
• Comprehensive vs. limited

4
Why today?

• Changes in technology
• Raised expectations of users
• Demands for staff time

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What are the key elements?

• Communications science today
• Integrated approach
• Options for output

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Who should be involved?

• Staff
• Users
• Management
• Vendors

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Case study North Suburban Library System (NSLS)

• Portrait of NSLS
• Statement of the problem (RFP)
• Principle NSLS communications vehicles
• Anticipated outcomes
• Budget available for project
• Time required

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Project design

• Initial orientation meeting
• Survey of members
• Focus groups
• Needs assessment and usability-lite test for the
  NSLS Website
• Audit and benchmarking
• Synthesis of data

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Survey

• Process
• Identify survey content, design survey, and
  coordinate NSLS review of draft survey
• Identify survey pretest participants, complete
  survey pretest, and revise questionnaire
• Develop and implement Web-based survey
• Attain buy-in and announce NSLS survey
• Develop professional protocols for information
  collection
• Host and monitor Web-based collection tools and
  systems
• Monitor survey completion and follow-up

• Analyze Data
• Overall
• Type of library
• Portraits of _____ Library
• Eight sections
• About your library
• About you
• NSLS communications tools
• Your interaction with NSLS
• NSLS Website areas of interest
• NSLS weekly email newsletter
• Continuing education courses (and other programs)
• Conclusions
• Pamela Stein at Clientize.com

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Respondent profile and rate of response
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Focus groups

• Obtain information and clarification on
• Issues that are a priority
• Features that are important
• Extent to which members will have influence over
  the content of the various communications
  vehicles and Website in future
• Ways to measure NSLS success
• Role of interactivity in creating a learning
  community

• Conducted exercises to discern
• Awareness of the services offered by NSLS and
  valued by the participants
• Adequacy of communication about those services
• Availability and accessibility of services
• Opportunities for improvement
• Observations
• Special libraries

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Website usability testing

• Process
• Identify content and develop script
• Conduct telephone interviews (17 questions)
• Conduct in-person (on-site) interviews
• Personae/scenarios
• Task breakdown scorecards
• Analyze data

• Observations
• Special libraries
• Recommendations

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User- and usage-centered design
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Audit and benchmarking

• Marketing collateral (print)
• 4 Ps (product, place, price, promotion)
• Pre-packaged collections of materials
• Branding efforts
• Design
• Consistency
• Amount of material
• Bookmarks
• School libraries

• Website review
• Reviewed the site in terms of stated goals and
  from a members perspective
• Analyzed extant data
• Web logfile data
• Evaluated navigation used
• Examined usability/human factors
• Assessed the calls to action and flow of copy
• Identified interactive techniques
• Provided recommendations for
• Navigation, technical, and usability functions
• Marketing copy
• Interactive techniques
• Access to other information systems and services

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Findings, conclusions, and recommendations

• Target market
• Access to technology
• Design/layout
• Orientation/navigation
• Search
• Content
• Networking
• Continuing Education
• Overall communications strategy

• Known challenges and potential solutions
• Existing technical barriers and other constraints
• Findings and conclusions
• What works
• Areas for improvement
• Opportunities for growth
• Recommendations
• Implement immediately
• Implement in the near-term
• Longer-term initiatives

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Findings, conclusions, and recommendations

• Target market
• Access to technology
• Design/layout
• Orientation/navigation
• Search
• Content
• Networking
• Continuing Education
• Overall communications strategy

• Time is the most significant barrier to
  participation in NSLS activities (work and
  personal commitments)
• Probability of messages being opened, read, and
  acted upon increases dramatically as the
  targeting of those messages becomes more precise

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Findings, conclusions, and recommendations

• Target market
• Access to technology
• Design/layout
• Orientation/navigation
• Search
• Content
• Networking
• Continuing Education
• Overall communications strategy

• Issues surrounding technology focused on
  convenience in accessing NSLS services rather
  than not having access to required technology to
  make full use of them
• Self-described as not being explorers, merely
  accepting what is on the screen in the way in
  which it appears
• Preference for accessing NSLS while working, and
  not at home (nights or weekends)

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Findings, conclusions, and recommendations

• Target market
• Access to technology
• Design/layout
• Orientation/navigation
• Search
• Content
• Networking
• Continuing Education
• Overall communications strategy

• Members normally find what they need on the NSLS
  website, but not easily, and that they often
  forget where pages they have used in the past are
  located
• Website usability and utility

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Findings, conclusions, and recommendations

• Target market
• Access to technology
• Design/layout
• Orientation/navigation
• Search
• Content
• Networking
• Continuing Education
• Overall communications strategy

• Consistency
• Clarity

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Findings, conclusions, and recommendations

• Target market
• Access to technology
• Design/layout
• Orientation/navigation
• Search
• Content
• Networking
• Continuing Education
• Overall communications strategy

• Search functionality provided by local Google
• Sitemap

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Findings, conclusions, and recommendations

• Target market
• Access to technology
• Design/layout
• Orientation/navigation
• Search
• Content
• Networking
• Continuing Education
• Overall communications strategy

• NSLS eNewsletter and Website are important tools,
  assisting members to do their jobs
• Relationships (between documents, pages, and
  sections of the website)
• Targeted content
• Sourcing of content

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Findings, conclusions, and recommendations

• Target market
• Access to technology
• Design/layout
• Orientation/navigation
• Search
• Content
• Networking
• Continuing Education
• Overall communications strategy

• Physical and virtual
• Listservs vs. Communities of Practice (CoP)

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Findings, conclusions, and recommendations

• Target market
• Access to technology
• Design/layout
• Orientation/navigation
• Search
• Content
• Networking
• Continuing Education
• Overall communications strategy

• Professional development
• Series of courses and career pathing

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Findings, conclusions, and recommendations

• Target market
• Access to technology
• Design/layout
• Orientation/navigation
• Search
• Content
• Networking
• Continuing Education
• Overall communications strategy

• NSLS has responded to calls from its members to
  be more communicative and this has not gone
  unnoticed by the membership. Staff has increased
  the variety of tools employed to get its message
  out to the members, particularly technology-based
  tools, and the frequency of contacts with its
  members. This has had some interesting effects.