WHAT DOES A COMMUNICATIONS ADVISOR DO?
Published: August 12, 2024 - The Communications Advisor specializes in social media writing, planning, and engagement to enhance strategic communications for CCSA. This responsibility includes developing and distributing social media materials, supporting brand positioning, and aligning strategies with government priorities. Additionally, the advisor creates and manages targeted campaigns and collaborates with subject-matter experts to identify and capitalize on opportunities to showcase CCSA's leadership.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Communications Advisor
1. Communications Advisor Details
- Communication Strategy: Lead the development and implementation of communication strategies for key projects and reputational issues.
- Project Communication: Work with project managers to ensure consistent communication delivery to affected communities during key projects.
- Media Relations: Build and maintain strong working relationships with key journalists and media to support proactive and reactive media engagement.
- Storytelling: Use initiative to identify opportunities to tell the organization’s story through appropriate channels to reach target audiences.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Deliver a stakeholder engagement communications plan.
- Environmental Monitoring: Monitor the external environment to identify challenges and issues and recommend appropriate actions.
- Strategic Communication: Use a variety of communications tools and models to help the business area think strategically.
- Senior Stakeholder Relations: Build close links with senior stakeholders across the organization and externally to support high-quality communications.
- Stakeholder Management: Advice on approaches to stakeholder engagement, including establishing trusted relationships with key professional bodies.
- Needs Analysis: Identify and analyze the needs of stakeholders to design communication strategies.
- Content Creation: Decide on the communication angles and the most effective messages for various communications and draft relevant and creative content.
- Tool Development: Develop different communication tools inherent to the strategies (writings, videos, internal social media, etc.) and support partners in managing sector knowledge.
- Strategy Evaluation: Evaluate and recommend forums and effective strategies while implementing indicators by working with project partners.
2. Communications Advisor Responsibilities
- Communication Strategy: Understand the business challenges of supported sectors by designing and executing relevant communication strategies using official and emerging communication channels and tools.
- Stakeholder Interaction: Interact with the Bank’s business sectors as well as various functions and hierarchical levels to achieve the best alignment and impact with sales force/employee communications.
- Business Partnership: Act as a business partner by providing quality service to the Financing and Personal Banking - insurance teams.
- Community Engagement: Support the implementation of community engagement, community relations, and correspondence programs.
- Stakeholder Management: Support the delivery of consistent and effective communication and stakeholder management across the region to internal and external stakeholders.
- Project Liaison: Liaise with the project team and communication and correspondence staff.
- Issues Management: Identify communication issues and develop and implement proactive measures for issues management and communication activities.
- Community Relations: Manage community engagement and stakeholder relationships across several areas of the department and external stakeholders, including the general community, industry, business communities, and local and federal government agencies.
- Content Preparation: Prepare talking points, key messages, FAQs, and briefs.
- Team Leadership: Provide leadership, coaching, and mentoring to other members of the communications team.
- Subject Matter Expertise: Act as a communications subject matter expert to internal partners.
- Strategic Alignment: Align the Insurance communication strategies with the Bank’s orientations and maintain the sector’s visibility in existing forums.
3. Senior Communications Advisor Functions
- Communication Leadership: Lead communications and outreach strategies, programs, and initiatives across all communications channels for a broad range of audiences.
- Public Affairs: Advise on public affairs, media relations, issues management, and communications strategies.
- Speech Writing: Act as a primary speechwriter for the organization and provide engaging content tailored to the speaker’s voice and style.
- Content Management: Write and manage the development and editing of corporate communications materials and content, working across all platforms and channels, including web, print, promotional, media, and social platforms.
- Communication Planning: Develop and implement communication plans.
- Strategic Advice: Provide strategic communication advice to internal stakeholders and projects.
- Channel Innovation: Utilize innovative internal and external communications channels and tools to enhance the company’s reputation.
- Manager Support: Provide support to Managers through strategic communication visions, strategies, and plans.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Plan, coordinate, and evaluate communication, consultation, and representation activities with various stakeholders (employees, communities of interest, departments, etc.).
- Employee Engagement: Design, write, and implement communication strategies to mobilize and maintain a high level of employee engagement.
- Tool Production: Produce a variety of communication tools for stakeholders, and develop and implement the communication policy.
- Policy Communication: Make communications based on communication policy (vision, values, objectives, strategies, issues, processes).
- Management Support: Advise and assist management in communications, public relations, and press relations.
4. Communications Advisor Tasks
- Communication Planning: Design, write, and implement the annual communication plan.
- Internal Communication: Recommend internal communication strategies and programs.
- Employee Culture: Contribute to the mine's vision of the employee culture.
- Partnership Negotiation: Initiate and negotiate partnership and sponsorship agreements with external partners.
- Representation: Represent the Mine with various organizations and events.
- Budget Management: Administer the budget of the communications department and manage the donation and sponsorship program.
- External Communications: Supervise the allocation and execution of various external communications mandates and negotiate agreements with different suppliers.
- Strategic Monitoring: Exercise strategic monitoring and produce the press review.
- Working Groups: Participate in the working groups required to carry out the mandates entrusted.
- Brand Protection: Protect and build the brand by helping execute the thought leadership strategy.
- Social Media: Support the company’s social media strategy.
- Behavior Change: Contribute to the development of engagement and behavior change strategies.
- Content Creation: Create and drive engaging online content for Transdev Auckland, Transdev Australasia, and Transdev Global.
- Company Updates: Develop and publish the weekly and monthly company updates and all regular communications.
5. Communications Advisor Duties
- Social Media Expertise: Be the team’s specialist in social media writing, planning, monitoring, and engagement.
- Strategic Communications: Contribute to CCSA’s overall strategic communications plan through social media, including supporting outreach strategies, specific projects, and events.
- Project Participation: Actively participate in project teams to provide social media and communications advice, including challenges and opportunities to drive forward corporate priorities.
- Material Development: Develop, implement, and distribute social media materials to support CCSA research and knowledge products.
- Opportunity Seeking: Work closely with subject-matter experts and communications advisors to proactively seek out social media opportunities to demonstrate CCSA’s knowledge and leadership.
- Brand Support: Provide support and advice to ensure that all social media activities reinforce and leverage CCSA’s positioning and brand.
- Innovation: Develop innovative new approaches to the creation and dissemination of social media.
- Government Alignment: Create social media strategies that link CCSA’s issues with government priorities at the federal, provincial, and territorial levels.
- Marketing: Use social media as a tool to market websites, reports, and events.
- Content Writing: Write for diverse audiences and social media platforms.
- Campaign Management: Create and manage social media marketing campaigns and day-to-day activities.
- Targeted Campaigns: Plan, execute, and monitor paid campaigns across social media platforms targeting specific audiences, and report on final results.