A couple of weeks ago, I published a post about six considerations for communications specialists when working with researchers. Today, I wanted to turn that relationship around and provide some tips to researchers working with communications specialists. Over the last several years, I’ve seen many researchers not appreciate the value, time, and expertise communications specialists bring to the table. Obviously, these recommendations are biased by my experiences at the Urban Institute and working with similar organizations, but I hope it will be helpful for people trying to build strong research-communications teams.
- Identify shared goals for the work from the beginning. Who are you hoping will engage with your research and what are you hoping it will accomplish? Your communications colleagues can help refine your goals and create reasonable expectations, making funding proposals stronger and helping you tailor research output to surface the most relevant findings for target audiences. The communications team can also help researchers better target their work to reach the most relevant and useful audiences. Early on in my tenure at Urban, it seemed like every researcher wanted to get their work in front of federal policymakers (i.e., members of the House and Senate). But a lot of our work is better aimed at state and local officials, nonprofit service providers, philanthropic leaders, or advocates.
- Respect their expertise. This revelation may come as a surprise to many researchers, but, in fact, you do not know everything. You know plenty about your subject area, your data, and your methodology, but you may not know what type of communications tools are most appropriate for reaching certain audiences, or how to connect with journalists or policymakers, or plan the most effective event. For all of those capacities, your communications colleagues can help strategize and lead effective production. Recognize that they have skills and experience that can help you achieve your goals.
- Treat your communications colleagues like partners, not service providers. Too often, researchers assume their communications colleagues are contractors, a group for hire that you can use, pay, and forget. But these are colleagues with relevant and useful expertise—you should treat them with the same level of respect as you would want. Especially in the world of policy research, you are all working to achieve the same goals, so approaching communications efforts as a partnership will lead to the biggest impact.
- Be open to different approaches and perspectives. Not everyone reads 30-page PDF reports, and even fewer people read peer-reviewed journal articles. If you’re trying to reach an audience outside academic or research areas, rely on your communications colleagues to help you identify—and connect with—those people and communities. Also, recognize that different audiences consume content differently—sure, some want PDF reports, but others want interactive data visualizations, data tools, webpages, blog posts, or something else.
- Understand complementary roles in the research process. To avoid misunderstandings and streamline the collaboration, be sure to define clear roles and responsibilities for researchers and communications specialists. Researchers should partner with communications colleagues to determine the most appropriate communications activities, such as media outreach, press releases, social media promotion, or public engagement events – and who will be in the lead. By establishing a shared understanding of responsibilities based on expertise, the parties can optimize the workflow and avoid potential conflicts.
- They are not trying to ‘dumb-down’ your work. One of the most common complaints I hear from researchers about their communications teams is they are trying to “simplify,” “dumb-down,” or rewrite their research for a “lay audience.” But the goal is not to simplify your work—it’s to make it accessible to targeted audiences. At Urban, we use a pyramid to help researchers understand that different mediums require different levels of complexity and will reach different audience types and sizes. Communications is about recognizing what medium is best for the audience to use the information while having each of those communication pieces refer back to the in-depth research that has all the data, math, complexity, nuance, and subtlety. If you trust your communications colleagues to help you pick the right medium, your message will shine.
I’ve been on both sides of the researcher-communicator table and know well the reasonable concerns and apprehensions each has about the other. By opening lanes of communication and recognizing that everyone is striving toward the same goal, the work can make use of the complementary expertise of both groups. As you seek to get your work out into the broader world, recognize the skills, efforts, and expertise of your communications colleagues because they will help you get it in the hands of people who can use your ideas and recommendations.
