"Think like a wise man, but communicate in the language of the people." – William Yeats (Irish Poet)

From Mark Anthony through Kipling to Yeats, there are many lessons in literature about communication and the need to keep it simple.
 

Start with your User Proposition

By this stage, you will already have developed a Strategy, Plans, Mission Statements and the like – but the chances are that the language used during that process was very much directed towards management decision-makers and strategic planners.

It would be a mistake to simply take those mantras and start peddling them with users. Instead, one needs to convert these aspirations into a simple statement of intent, as to what users can expect to see over time.  Why not be ambitious:

"All the information and tools I need to do my job, together in one place, easily accessible and ready to use"

Decompose the Proposition

The long term target is set, but now you need to break it down into chunks of time and functionality bundles. Be as specific as you dare without over-promising.
 

Three Themes for your Comms Plan

A good rule of thumb is to group your chunks and bundles under three themes (as most human beings find three things memorable but more difficult to recall):

Key Audiences

Key audiences for the Communications Plan should be built from the results of your Stakeholder Analysis, but will almost certainly include the following groups:

- Executive Directors & Key Shareholders
- Application & Content Providers
- Employees & other Platform Users
- Future & Past Employees
- Project Team
- Trade Unions & Key Suppliers
 

Your Comms Message

Whilst each audience has different needs (and may require the use of different channels), it is very important that your message is consistent across all groups.