Why a Channel Audit Is Important
You can’t effectively manage what you haven’t measured.
6-minute read
Publishing to a platform, rather than to individual channels, is the surest way to increase the return on investment (ROI) for your time, effort, and output. A platform consists of the multitude of channels (or outlets) to which you distribute comms content.
To be successful with a multichannel publishing strategy, you must understand all the channels that are available to your team. You should also consider possible channels, so you can think creatively or anticipate resource needs for the future.
- Three obvious channels: Intranet, digital signage, break room poster
- Three not-so-obvious channels: All-hands meeting, Slack channels, YouTube
- Three possible channels: Podcast, snail mail, holograms
What is a channel audit?
Simply put, a channel audit is a reckoning of your current communications strategy. It neatly lists all the ways you share company news and information, as well as audiences, publishing and engagement frequency, ownership, and content types.
- Some channels are more popular than others. An intranet that appears by default when you open a web browser will get a lot more attention than the corporate blog buried on an external (.com) About Us page.
- Some channels are better at conveying information than others. Photo slideshows play better on digital signage and Instagram than in the daily employee newsletter.
- And some channels are outlets you didn’t even realize were channels, such as chat rooms and PC desktop displays.
A channel audit should occur each year, ideally before you set the editorial strategy for the next year.
Why Is a Channel Audit Important?
You can’t effectively manage what you haven’t measured.
A channel audit:
- Lets you see whether your team is aligned with the company’s business goals. You may discover that you’re spending too much time on a channel that doesn’t tell the company’s story very well. If too few employees can see digital signage, maybe you should find a better outlet to share important updates.
- Helps you understand the strengths of your editorial program. You may see that employees are gobbling up photo essays and the employee newsletter. Lean into the programs that are winning.
- Highlights opportunity gaps. That’s a positive way of saying “shows where you’re missing the mark.” Are you publishing too few times in the buzzing social chat rooms? Maybe take it up a notch there. If too few people are listening to the employee podcast, repackage the audio, reorganize the programming, or ditch the broadcast altogether.
- Reduces the risk of failing to deliver a message. If you know which channels are getting the most attention, you will be sure to use the outlet next time something consequential comes over the transom.
- Increases the quality of work you’re publishing. When you see what’s working well, you’ll be inspired to put more effort into the content and channel. This will lift your team to new heights in creativity and excellence.
How Do I Conduct a Channel Audit?
In a table, create columns for each of the following:
All of the channels to which you currently publish. Don’t be shy. Any channel that you outright own or send material to should be listed, including “nontraditional” channels like social media, town halls, and dedicated chat rooms.
The owner of that channel, whether it’s a person or a teammate. For example, Anish may run the digital signage platform and Recruiting may own the external careers blog. Even if it’s an organic outlet, like a wiki page or chat room that some random employee started, somebody should be monitoring or accounting for it.
The frequency by which the channel is used. For example, once a day or twice per month.
The intended audience. Some channels, like the global newsletter, will be for “all employees.” But there may be some channels that are only accessed by specific audience segments, such as engineers, pilots, new hires, managers, or immigrant workers.
The purpose of that channel. For example, executive memos probably fall into the serious news bucket, while the Instagram channel is for fun, lighthearted material.
The engagement rate or metrics for that channel. For example, average open rates, clicks, attendance numbers, streams, downloads, likes, etc.
What Comes After a Channel Audit?
With a detailed understanding of what channels exist and are in use (or disuse), as well as a sense of popularity (engagement), act on the information.
Share the information with senior leaders, including the Chief Communications Officer. Some of the information may be revealing.
- You may have a leader who insists on mobile push notifications; your audit will show whether employees engage with that channel.
- Your leaders need the audit to support putting more resources into one channel and possibly defunding another effort.
Stop doing what’s not working. The audit will immediately reveal where your time is being wasted. If nobody is engaging the channel, it’s probably better to concentrate energy elsewhere.
- But, but you could also see the failure of one channel as an “opportunity gap.” Either way, you need the audit to move forward with clear eyes.
Survey employees about their preferences. Now that you have some hard metrics about employee engagement with your channels, it’s time to gather qualitative feedback. What is it they love about the newsletter? Why don’t they regularly look at the Important Updates Yammer channel? Knowing more about employee preferences will help you tailor content to increase engagement.
Create a channel deck. This is a presentation you can use when making the rounds at the company explaining what Internal Communications does. It’s a handy tool for your team to regularly review and a great resource for new hires to your team.
Become proactive and strategic. Knowing what you do about the channels in use, you can start to think ahead in your content production and creation. For example, you may not have even considered putting your intranet headlines in rotating graphics that played before a town hall started. Now you can plan to create those images when preparing for the next all hands.
- Also, see the point above about increasing the quality of work you’re publishing.
Next Level Channel Audit
If you want to take your channel audit to the next level, take into account all the channels that are being used by all employees — not just Communications — to move information horizontally or bottom-up.
Information flows every which way in a company; most of it is not top-down. Which channels are your employees using to communicate with each other in spite of or in complement to official channels?
- Examples include organic chat rooms, wiki pages, WhatsApp, happy hours, recreational clubs (e.g., chess club), and physical whiteboards.
- Is there a way IC can co-opt a nontraditional channel to reach a specific audience? (Remember to think long and hard about whether you should interfere with a venue that is working without your participation.)
