Within companies, communication falls into two main areas. There is communication of information and technical knowledge needed to do the job at hand. Here, paper-based communication is being replaced by the company intranet, with internal company websites only accessible by employees. Some very large companies are appointing knowledge officers to exploit the information in a company to the full and facilitate its communication to those who need it. (But in this age of increasingly accessible information, there will no doubt always be the information hoarders, employees and managers who find power and pleasure in keeping information for themselves, even if it would be useful to their colleagues.)
There is also what might be called 'celebration-exhortation'. The internal company magazine is the classic communication channel here. It may be produced in-house by a 'communications department' or out-of-house by journalists who specialize in this area. It may try to demonstrate how the company is putting its mission statement into action: the management may try to change employee behavior by exhortation and by praising the performance of particular departments and individuals.
Externally, advertising has been the most visible form of communication with customers. Usually this is designed to increase product sales, but there is also institutional advertising designed to improve perceptions of the company as a whole. Companies naturally like to be seen as human and environmentally aware. But the communication between companies and their customers is increasingly becoming two-way, with customer-service centers designed to gather information, not just complaints, from customers about all aspects of use of a company's products. Ideally, this information feeds back into product modification and new product design. Additionally some companies are now using social software and micro-blogging sites such as Facebook and Twitter to communicate with their customers. This is directly related to customer relationship management.
Equally, a company must communicate with its investors, and investor relations are becoming an important specialized area of public relations. Investors want to know how their money is being used and what their prospects are.
Then there is the wider public audience to attend to. Press conferences may be called to announce important events such as product launches. Press releases may be issued to communicate more routine information. There is also the specialized area of crisis management and damage control.
Whatever a company does, it has an image, so it should try to influence (some would say 'manipulate') the molding of this image. This is one reason why the communications industry, in all its forms, is a multibillion-dollar business.
There is also what might be called 'celebration-exhortation'. The internal company magazine is the classic communication channel here. It may be produced in-house by a 'communications department' or out-of-house by journalists who specialize in this area. It may try to demonstrate how the company is putting its mission statement into action: the management may try to change employee behavior by exhortation and by praising the performance of particular departments and individuals.
Externally, advertising has been the most visible form of communication with customers. Usually this is designed to increase product sales, but there is also institutional advertising designed to improve perceptions of the company as a whole. Companies naturally like to be seen as human and environmentally aware. But the communication between companies and their customers is increasingly becoming two-way, with customer-service centers designed to gather information, not just complaints, from customers about all aspects of use of a company's products. Ideally, this information feeds back into product modification and new product design. Additionally some companies are now using social software and micro-blogging sites such as Facebook and Twitter to communicate with their customers. This is directly related to customer relationship management.
Equally, a company must communicate with its investors, and investor relations are becoming an important specialized area of public relations. Investors want to know how their money is being used and what their prospects are.
Then there is the wider public audience to attend to. Press conferences may be called to announce important events such as product launches. Press releases may be issued to communicate more routine information. There is also the specialized area of crisis management and damage control.
Whatever a company does, it has an image, so it should try to influence (some would say 'manipulate') the molding of this image. This is one reason why the communications industry, in all its forms, is a multibillion-dollar business.