It seems lately I’ve been talking to several people about communication. One of the principles I keep coming back to is that every communication has similar pieces to it: name, date, title, and body. However, what changes for each of these is the format and the frequency.

Let me see if I can explain this a little bit. Format is how the communication goes out. For example this is in a blog post. That means to read it you are required to come to the site and read it. In this case, there are some notifications sent to those who want them via email and RSS. Some RSS readers won’t read this on the blog and will only read it in their RSS reader. However, I could take the same message and email it, send it as an IM, call people and read it to them, print and mail it, etc. Each format’s characteristics have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Frequency is how often you send a communication. You may call someone every week. You may meet with a co-worker once a day. You may send an email once a month to a particular group of people. Some communications need to be more frequent than others.

With both of these variables, at the core, these communications are all the same. So when you’re working on a communication strategy, don’t start with format and frequency. Start with what you want to communicate and to whom. From there you analyze your audience and ask yourself “how often and how would they like to receive a communication?”

Now you’re ready to pick the communication tools that will work best.