Can Content Strategy Build a Stronger Company Culture?

Scott: Hello and welcome to the show. Today you will hear the advice of Kristin Quiroz Bayona, communication strategist, storyteller, and podcast host. While you've heard me talk about how internal communications impact external content, Kristen is here to explain how content can help improve the internal communications in your company.

Can't wait for this. My name is Scott Murray, and this is the Content Brief, where I bring you the key points and takeaways from conversations with today's experts in humanized and innovative content. Every time you hear this sound, that's a key takeaway from today's episode. Let's get started.

Thanks for joining me today. Kristin Quiroz Bayona is a marketing and communications leader and expert who helps people craft communication strategies for people first companies through written, audio, and visual content and storytelling. She'll tell you that her superpower is synthesizing information, meaning listening, learning, and connecting the dots to deliver high impact communication with meaningful outcomes.

Communication has been at the center of her work for over 20 years, and we both expect communication to be an increasingly relevant and key differentiator for companies going forward. I actually met Kristen a few years ago at the Podcast Movement Conference, and she spoke on how podcasters can make meaningful connections with their audience, and there are strategies behind that.

The point there is it takes more than just recording and uploading. After all, if that's all you do, then you really shouldn't be surprised if the growth and engagements aren't there. What limits the ability for our content to connect and inspire audiences is usually rooted in our unconscious tendencies to copy what we've seen other people do, or we just keep things simple or whatever we perceive to be safe.

And the internal culture at an organization can really set the tone for how that content is created. Not only in the way they obviously approach strategy, but also how they communicate internally. Because if that internal communication lacks humanization, or let's just say empathy, then that culture tends to create external communications, in this case content, that's just like that.

However, Kristen has observed how effective and connective external content can improve internal communication and content. When we think about the ways an organization communicates with their teams, for example, there are a lot of processes that get replicated year after year from one organization to another.

There are also internal communication strategies that might feel easy or safe, but then they sacrifice really any way of creating meaningful connections or responses from employees. Like some of the issues associated with content marketing, Kristen says one of the most prevalent challenges with internal communication is centered around the differences between one way and two way communication.

Kristin: Yeah, so I had the opportunity to speak with, I think it was over 25, um, internal comms leaders within the last six months. To really, you know, just ask them what's, what was working and what hasn't been working and it was really eye opening. I have my own perspective, but I love to seek out others. Um, and so one of the top things that came up was people aren't listening and I can see why the people aren't listening and why it feels like people aren't listening.

And I think one of the things that really came to the surface. People aren't listening because they're not feeling very connected to the messaging that is being put out there. Um, there's a challenge in creating that authenticity. Um, and that sort of, you know, really human connection with leaders. Uh, with messaging that they're receiving, feeling like it's personalized.

Which is a challenge because You know, you want people to feel a personal connection to something that you're sending out, but also if you're sending it out to a global company, it has to be, it has to really speak to everyone though. I get that as being a challenge. And so there was also one communication, really feeling like it was one way, like it was being distributed.

It was like someone speaking at you versus someone speaking with you. Was it really a conversation? Um, and then kind of a lack of. Really measuring, um, engagement. You know, how are people actually interacting with the content that we're putting out? There's always opportunity. You want to get quantitative data, but you want to also add in qualitative data.

That's what gives you that really rich understanding of, um, the materials that you're creating and how they're landing.

Scott: As you listen to that, You can tell that we're already beginning to see the parallels here to external content strategy, right? She's talking about data. And one of the most important insights we need to have as content marketers is people data and audience data. I feel like one of the most common themes and challenges that internal cultures have had in recent years and some of the big ones that have been identified in recent years is not knowing your employees, not getting to know them, not talking with them, not learning about them.

There's this huge emphasis now on the importance of knowing more about your employees from a neurodiversity standpoint, communication standpoint. Find out what's happening in their lives. You know, I think about like undercover boss, you know, how the CEOs would be completely disconnected from how work was impacting their lives or the lives they lived outside of work and how they could help them through some of those things just by providing better things at work.

And the only way you learn is finding ways to connect and communicate with them.

Kristin: So I actually come from an external marketing communications background. So I bring that lens probably first. Um, and then, you know, it's definitely influences how I see internal comms. And I think whether you're doing internal or external, the foundation of, you know, external is really understanding your audience, being able to create content that, you know, grabs the attention of whoever you're either selling to or communicating to.

And so I find, you know, that those external principles, like understanding your audience, doing that, you know, market research, um, and then creating content that really speaks to people's pain points that inspires them, that makes them feel like, wow, this person really sees me or gets me or understands. My problem, typically when you're selling something, it's like, okay, I'm the solution to their problem.

Internally, it's maybe I'm not the solution to your problem, but I'm someone who cares about you and what your problems are. So there's a nuanced shift, but the principles I think still apply and are still very powerful when creating content.

Scott: So what are some of the ways we can learn about the people inside our company culture?

Can we take some of the strategies where we've learned about our clients, customers and content consumers to do this? Transcribed Like, can we generate a survey? I've definitely worked at companies that have used surveys. But then, there's always that question of, Alright, well they took the survey. Did it go anywhere?

Kristin: Surveys are kind of a little sticking point, right? I think they've been used a lot. But, um, I think a lot of companies have discovered, Oh, they, they, they paint a certain picture, but they don't tell you the whole picture. Surveys, they do have their place. Um, they, they just have to be implemented in the right way.

Um, and they have to have followup. And I heard someone say recently. You know, surveys can tell you what's going on, but they can't tell you why. So you kind of have to be able to have something else, another mechanism in there, a company I worked for used, I think it was called tiny pulse, which is such a strange name, but those are ways that you can, you know, do polls or seek, you know, instant feedback from team members.

I was speaking to a company recently and they were talking about, um, Oh, we're going to have our CEO or CEO really wants to do a roadshow. Share their vision with the company and and where we're going and he wanted to hit every office in the United States And I said, you know, that sounds great, you know, that he wants to be in every office and, and be there on the ground and actually meet people I said, but what if we position this as a listening roadshow, because I think it's so much more powerful for and talk about two way communication and creating opportunity to collect information and data directly from employees.

Um, you know, like let's make this less about what you can share and make it more about what you can learn. So I think there's a lot of different ways to seek that two way communication that can be really effective. It doesn't have to be a roadshow. It could just be, you know, putting on that researcher hat.

Whenever you're communicating or creating your strategy for, you know, seeking feedback from employees and, you know, think about how much you can uncover just by talking to people and learning about like, where is the innovation happening? in this company. Oh, okay. Someone's doing that. I had no idea. Where is the problem solving happening in this company?

Oh, okay. I get to learn that from that person. So it's creating those opportunities to collect those really important stories. You have to have action follow up. You can't go on a roadshow and collect people's You know, thoughts and stories and then not do anything with that. Right. Cause if that will feel really empty, I think it's the same thing with the survey, you know, you can't just send out a survey.

People do get excited about being asked to share their feedback and then not close that loop and help them understand how their participation helps inform, you know, maybe a new program or a change within the company or, you know, so that that follow up piece is so, so important.

Scott: If we're going to think about some of the parallels to content strategy here, what else does this make you think of? You know, the idea of going on a road show, and everybody listens to what you have to say, and you stand up there and just tell everybody what they need to know and call it good. Would you say you've seen social media content like that before?

We see brands putting that kind of stuff out all the time. Promoting things and telling people what they think is important that others need to know. And then when those social media posts don't get any engagement, it's like, it's okay. And maybe it's because they're not expecting social media to do much more than that anyway.

But the point that Kristen's making is, if you take a different approach to any of this, from a communication angle, there's all kinds of things that can come out of it, all kinds of benefits that come out of it. We could obviously spend an entire episode on the benefits of having engagement and conversations on social media, simply by taking a two way communication approach to it, or adding social listening to our strategy.

The same thing can happen within an internal company culture.

Kristin: Social media, what I've seen a lot in my experience is putting it out there and just not having that engagement strategy. It's like, Oh, we just want to promote ourselves. You know, a lot of times it's like, there's a, there's the idea of, Oh, we want to show our culture too.

It's not even always just about what you, um, sell or what you produce. Um, but then the follow up to that is actually how are you getting people to engage, converse, and, um, carry on a conversation. So I think that part is really important. I know when I had, uh, my own consultancy, really being able to, Craft content that spoke to people in a way that resonated and really felt personal and spoke to them was so, so important.

And those are the same, you know, principles that can be used in internal. And, and actually I think I want to say are more important because you're building community, you're building connection, you're building culture as an internal comms person, and those are very important things. They're vital to the health and the success of a business.

Um, so I think being able to truly think about how are we connecting with their audiences, whether they're external or internal, is just, uh, super important.

Scott: One of the reasons obviously so much content in marketing doesn't generate that engagement goes back to what we were alluding to earlier. About things that just feel safe.

Maybe we do that because we've seen other people use social media in a one way communication Promotional way we just have it unconsciously in our heads That that's the way it works, or we just see that as that's the way marketers make social media content. And at that point in time we're really only thinking about how we want to do things anyway.

And you don't just see that in social media, that's why we see blogs and videos all the time that seem to be a lot like content we've seen other places. We hear it in podcasting too. It's almost like these templates get created as far as what marketing content looks or sounds like. And we just stick with that.

Again, why? Because it feels safe. It's what everybody else is doing, or at least we've told ourselves everybody else is doing it because it's the right way to do it, without really looking at what's important and what we really need from it. If you've worked in internal communications or HR or really any role that involves sending out company wide communications, you might have your own templates that you've used to do that.

And it's possible those templates came from examples you've seen other places over the years. Maybe even at a time where this Two way communication trend, or this larger humanized approach to company culture, wasn't talked about as much. So like external communication or content marketing, maybe it's time to rethink how we approach that internal content.

Kristin: I have definitely run into It's like templated communications, and I think there is a bit of a balance, because a lot of times internal comms is informed by HR and HR initiatives. So I think there can be a tendency to play it kind of safe, um, and rely on what, what's working. So I understand that, you know, that there can be some delicate things that are being communicated.

What's a little sad to me though is I think there's an opportunity to be more authentic in the communications and I say it's kind of sad to me because I think that is innovative in internal comms at some companies and doesn't it feel like that's how it should always have been led. You kind of have to push some companies to be okay being authentic and more Genuine, I move away from the template, the more corporate speak, corporate speak is safe, but it's not connecting with people.

I think a lot more companies are realizing that, but I think some companies are still stuck in that space where like, well, but this is how we do it, this is what we know what works. And it's almost like, this isn't how, what we know is not going to get us in trouble. I think it can feel a little risky for people to just show up differently and that, you know, evolution is hard, challenging yourself to do something differently, but I think we really have to lean into our humanity ability to genuinely connect with people if we're going to be truly successful in it.

I think it's a requirement, especially as, you know, we talked a little bit about AI and, you know, my perspective is that it's really going to make the people who are really good at building those people skills that much more valuable because people have negative connotations with AI and especially with communications and thinking, Oh, I just wrote that, um, necessarily a positive attitude for a lot of people.

So I think a lot of people are craving that real connection, real human connection with others.

Scott: You know, another thing I got to thinking about when it came to templates and how to communicate with people, scripts for contact centers and how that's evolving. You know, it used to be easy just to have a script in front of somebody, they'd make all their calls and they'd read the same script.

And, of course, if you're on the other side of that call, you know they're reading a script. And sometimes it literally sounds like they're reading a script. I mean, some people can make it sound like they're talking better than others. But over time, it's become increasingly important to evolve that process, and that's why you see speech analytics and other modern technologies to really tap into ways to curate messages based on how the conversation is going.

And really, more importantly, I've been in contact centers, or I've been in places where people have to make calls, and some of what they say is naturally different every single time because They don't want to sound like the person that's interrupting the day just to push something on them on the phone.

Instead, they try to start it off like a normal conversation that anybody might have with somebody that they were calling. But the first step, obviously, is that willingness to evolve. And there's so much creativity in so many, as Kristen said, innovative ways to approach these things. But sometimes there's just this fear of risk.

And I think sometimes in company cultures, Nobody really takes the time to discuss what that risk really is.

Kristin: I like that you brought up the word risk. I should have put that in air quotes because the real risk is Um, losing your audience and people not feeling connected and not being engaged. I think there's a perception that, oh, we might be doing, you know, something that will maybe get us in trouble or maybe turn people off.

But actually I think not doing those things is the real risk, right? It is creating the real, um, potential for just people tuning out.

Scott: Another way to think about innovation is just how we're approaching the communications themselves. Just like we've done in content marketing over the years. You might have started your career at a time where print was very, very popular. And the only other way you were going to be able to create marketing content was through TV or radio.

And then video came along. When we think about why it's become so popular, there are many reasons that align with internal communication goals. Sometimes providing a video option helps people who don't want to read a bunch of stuff. Video provides a more human connection. At least with video, you have a lot more control over the tone as opposed to text.

How many times have we read about internal emails? Or internal communications that the sender thinks it's in this tone, but the reader interprets it in another tone. It's like the voice in their head read it in a completely different tone than the person whose voice was telling them what to write. So those are some of the advantages that video has over text.

So should video become maybe a bigger part of the options when it comes to internal communication?

Kristin: I think video is a must. Um, I think, oh, I want to say like five or six years ago, I was struggling with my company to do video. Now, luckily I don't think that's the case. I think more companies have embraced it.

I'd like to see more, uh, CEOs showing up on, you know, video, um, to really humanize them and help them feel more approachable to their team members. Yeah. Text heavy is just people's attention spans are just shorter and shorter. And. We're used to being engaged on social media with dynamic content, right? So we can't just do texts, but we need to do texts because some people do learn better, uh, reading and, you know, people have different learning styles.

Um, so I think those are always going to be a compliment. It's something like Slack is really important for, I think, distributive teams, you know, remote teams, because. Meet them where they're at. You need to be able to give them a platform that's easy for them to access and, um, to be able to push out all of the same updates that they would get in their email, um, that they, you know, can get on the go wherever they're at, um, in the world, I think.

Those types of, um, channels are really important to develop. It's not just like scrapping everything. It's like adding in, you know, at layering in where it makes sense, understanding where your audience is at, where you are, your employees, and then layering in the right channels to.

Scott: I love that she brought up Slack as a communication tool.

Obviously, a lot of companies use Teams or Slack or some sort of channel. And really, I think that is also parallel to community marketing. Where companies are finding ways either through a social platform or maybe a discord community where their clients or customers or audience are able to have real time conversations with them, give them real time feedback, be part of the product development process or service improvement process.

When you think about all the emphasis we've put on listening and conversations today to make the culture better and the company better, I mean, you definitely could use a tool like that. Right there within your own company, you don't even have to build the audience first. You already have your employees there.

Finally, I mentioned that Kristen and I met at Podcast Movement, so we both are very passionate about this platform. And she believes that podcasting also provides a great framework to improve your internal communications. And you might go, okay, how? Well, what if you started thinking about a podcast that was created just for listeners in your company?

Kristin: I love podcasting. The opportunity for the host to actively listen, and for the guests too, and for us to really have a genuine conversation and connect and show up as ourselves. It's so, it's so powerful. Um, I launched a podcast series for a startup that I was consulting at, and it had, the company had a strong Uh, mission and strong values, but it was a remote, fully remote team.

And there was kind of like a little bit of a, you know, we're all busy. We're not quite connecting. So this podcast series was really focused on fostering employee, um, connection and engagement. And I was able to create this, you know, 10 part series. It was a tiny company, 10, 10 people bringing everyone from the company.

And interviewing them about one of the 10 companies, 10 culture codes and how they felt like they were demonstrating that culture code in their daily work. These were like five minute or less interviews with them. All the team members, and it was so impactful in terms of helping people feel not only connected to the values of the company and and seeing how it aligned with their own values.

Um, but also feeling connected to their work. I know it really inspired the team members. They were inspired by each other's stories.

It was important for me to Get everyone's perspective. So from the operations person to the marketing person, to the audio engineer, you know, if you, if you do it right, if you set it up, right. And you invite, invite in multiple perspectives, different people from different areas of the company. It's also can be a very great tool for fostering inclusivity.

Um, helping everyone to see how they contribute and then the learnings, um, knowing and not just what people's experiences are, but like what else can you discover by inviting people to share their stories? What, what things are they doing in your company? They're really awesome that maybe you wouldn't have learned about if you didn't.

Give them that platform and that opportunity and ask the questions. So I think it's really important to ask questions, invite in feedback and listen. And I don't think every company needs to have a full on series that they have to produce constantly. Um, I'm a big proponent of series that can go a long way and actually has a lot of legs and you can turn that into, you know, lots of different types of content.

You know, you could also do series with the CEOs and the founders, you know, sharing updates. Another way to like really humanize the, uh, leadership team and create more of a, like a flat feeling culture than a hierarchy. So yeah, that's where there are so many, so many, I think, advantages to, to podcasting and, um, you know, really tapping into people's stories and.

Helping people feel connected to their teammates, too, I think is really important.

Scott: So while I think it's great that we were able to talk about ways that content like social media and video and podcasts can help us create engaging, connective, Resonating two way communication focused content internally and get a lot of the same benefits.

I think one of the most important parallels to internal and external content in this context is that it's just really important to be creative, innovative, be willing to not only evolve how you do things, but Involve stakeholders and other critical, important audiences in the process.

Kristin: I think really being innovative and creative is going to be, uh, an internal comms, external comms, best bet is to really lean into your creativity and really like those human skills, the empathy, the listening, um, Seeking perspectives, um, because that's what's going to give you that rich layer into your content.

When I look at marketing, all types of, um, communications, it's like levers. It's like, what levers are we going to pull? And you can pull any different number of them, any different combination, depending on, you know, you knowing your audience, you knowing your company, and you knowing your goals. The how is like, okay, we know we have these tools we can pull when we need to.

Um, but really it's like the why, why are we doing this and how are we going to measure that impact, um, and make sure that what we're saying and how we're, um, reaching out to people is reaching them and, um, really engaging them in a meaningful way.