EPISODE 158 | Debbie DeWitt, marketing communications manager for Visix
As we step into 2025, internal communication professionals face new challenges and opportunities. From prioritizing manager and frontline communications to addressing information overload, the landscape continues to evolve. Join us as we break down the latest insights and strategies to help internal communicators navigate the year ahead.
We explore key trends like streamlining communication channels, embracing new mediums, and leveraging data analytics to improve effectiveness. We’ll also discuss the ongoing importance of leadership participation, the role of personalization in cutting through the noise, and how generative AI is reshaping communication strategies.
- Get tips to help you take stock of last year’s IC efforts
- Explore longtail priorities that continue to resonate and evolve
- Hear what’s top of mind for communications pros this year (lots of stats and links!)
- Understand the impact of 7 of the top internal communications trends
- Discover how to avoid common communications planning mistakes
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Transcript
Derek DeWitt: Effective internal communication is critical for productivity and engagement, and yet 60% of employees find their updates unengaging leading to misalignment. To succeed in the ever-evolving, ever-crowded messaging space, communications professionals have to rethink their strategies, and lots of articles are starting to come out with all of the new priorities and trends expected in the year 2025.
To talk with me today about that is Debbie DeWitt, marketing communications manager for Visix. Hi, Debbie. Welcome back to the podcast.
Debbie DeWitt: Thanks, Derek. Happy new year!
Derek DeWitt: Happy new year! As always, I’d like to thank all of you for listening as well. I remind you that you can subscribe and review us, and you can follow along with a transcript on the Visix website.
So, before we get into this year, 2025, can you give us some advice on how communications professionals or digital signage managers can take stock of last year?
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah. I’d take a look at a few things and definitely keep these in mind as you consider your strategy for 2025. The first is to evaluate your audience engagement from last year. I mean, obviously you need to identify who you’re reaching and more importantly, any gaps.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah, I’d say this is probably the single most important thing you should do.
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah, definitely. You also want to review your different channels, you know? Evaluate the effectiveness of different communication methods you’re using, whether it’s digital signage, intranet, social media, email, you know, what’s working, what’s not. I’d also look at internal versus external messaging. You know, you need to assess that internal alignment with what you’re telling customers on the outside.
Derek DeWitt: Right. Make sure you’re saying the same thing to your employees that you’re saying to the general public or customers or whatever.
Debbie DeWitt: Right. Everybody needs to be on the same page.
Derek DeWitt: Right.
Debbie DeWitt: You’ll want to identify key messages. You know, you probably had different goals last year than you’ll have this year. So, go back and take a look at those goals from last year when you’re prioritizing the goals for 2025.
And, I will say when you do that, both reviewing last year and looking at this year, go ahead and get lots of people involved. You know, the different departments and teams who contributed.
Derek DeWitt: Right. And whatever your overall company goals are, or maybe you have a SWOT analysis or something like that that can also help drive that effort.
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah, definitely. And that’ll also help you look at your resources and your budget, you know. You’re gonna have to look at what people do you need? Do you need software? Do you need hardware? You know, you’ve got to budget for those needs right up front. And taking a look at what you spent last year, especially when you, if you’ve got something like subscriptions or recurring, you know, fees, you’re gonna wanna look at that.
Also, we talk about measuring results a lot. So, you need to consider how you’re gonna measure success. Obviously, you’re gonna wanna look at your ROI from last year, and you can use that to define this year’s metrics of how you’ll measure success.
Derek DeWitt: Right. You might actually even need to adjust what you’re measuring or how you’re measuring it because maybe you were measuring the wrong thing.
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah. That actually happens a lot.
And looking at the last thing I’d say crisis or change readiness, you know? Were there any curveballs that happened last year that threw your whole communications game off? You know, curveballs, you know, you can’t plan for them, but you could look at how did you handle that situation? Could you do it better? You know, build in some flexibility for any unseen risks or things that might pop up this year.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah. As I like to say, agility is key in the 21st century.
Okay. So, as we move into this year, you’ve got some predictions. Where do you get them from? Are you just coming up with these from your own sage wisdom or what?
Debbie DeWitt: Yes, I am an oracle. No, there are lots and lots and lots and lots of articles out there. So, literally just Google “internal communications 2025” and you’ll get a little taste of all of this. So, what I did is, went in, kind of reviewed a bunch of things and made up my own roll. We’ll reference some specific sources, and we’ll put links in the transcript for those.
Derek DeWitt: Okay. Is there much difference between the priorities you saw last year and the ones you see this year? ‘Cause you know, we did an episode about communication trends for internal comms in 2024. Do you see a lot of changes coming? Or is it still pretty much the same old playbook but, you know, faster?
Debbie DeWitt: I think there’s a lot of crossover in the topics, and actually that’s from both 2024 and even back to 2023. So, some of the continuing themes from back two years ago that we had are the impact of hybrid workplaces. You know, that’s still resonating out there.
Leadership, communications, focus on employee wellness, which, you know, we just did an episode about wellness messaging, so that’s still top of mind.
Definitely making messages more visual continues to be a trend, and data and analytics. You know, I think that’s never going away.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah. That’s for sure. And all of those things are valid this year as well, I think. And then last year, we saw more things crop up. There was more of a focus on what’s being called the employee experience, which is a more sort of holistic way of approaching how people are responding to their communications.
Obviously, the use of AI. And we’re starting to enter this world of personalization, which is going to develop, whether you like it or not, into a world of hyper-personalization.
Obviously, making content more engaging. Building trust in leadership also really came to the forefront last year. And communications security has become a big topic because it seems like every other day things are going wonky with our online communications, and you need to be prepared for that.
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah. As technology grows and becomes more complex, so do the number of trolls and people trying to force their way and take advantage of those things.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah, that’s for sure. Now, obviously since workplaces are still undergoing significant changes due to all these digital transformations and hybrid models and this plethora of new channels and tech tools out there, it makes sense. I think that these are obviously gonna continue into the foreseeable future.
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah. I don’t see any of the things we just mentioned, or quite frankly, going back and listening to those episodes like I did, none of those things from 2023, 2024, or quite frankly, what we’re about to talk about for this year, are gonna go away.
You know, I think a lot of it’s been normalized, like hybrid work. When we first talked about it, there were about, I don’t know, 15,000 articles, what is hybrid? And we even wrote some of those, I’ll admit. But I think it’s been normalized, but a lot of these things are being finetuned. You know, they’re all still in play, but it’s, you know, now that we understand them better, how can we optimize for them?
Derek DeWitt: And we’ve seen them play out for a little while in the real world. And so, we can start to come up with reasonable adaptation scenarios.
Okay. So, what’s top of mind for internal communications professionals right now?
Debbie DeWitt: Well, a report from Workshop that I found says there are several top things that communication professionals say they’re experiencing. Manager and frontline communications are the top two priorities in 2025 for a lot of people.
We’ve talked about this before, it can’t just be the C-suite pushing things out. It can’t just be HR or marketing or the digital signage manager pushing things out. They have to be pushed all the way through and down, you know? So, your managers and those frontline communications are big priorities.
85% of internal communicators said they consider email their most effective channel.
Derek DeWitt: Really?!
Debbie DeWitt: Which is really kind of heartbreaking to me, but…
Derek DeWitt: That’s surprising.
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah, it’s true. It’s true. The good news is more teams are incorporating video and in-person events, you know, that replaces email, which yay!
As we talked about, interest in AI is at an all-time high, but people are still having some trouble figuring out how to use it best, especially for communications.
But remaining the biggest challenge for internal communications professionals – measuring results.
Derek DeWitt: That’s for sure. I am shocked that email is still… I wonder if the reason that the Workshop report got those responses is because of the age of the people that they were asking, honestly, or the age of the people who are in those managerial positions.
Debbie DeWitt: I think it could be a few things. It’s gonna depend on, obviously, the industry. It’s gonna depend on the age group demographics. It’s gonna depend on what kind of communications are we talking about. I also think it’s gonna depend on how are you measuring success? And email’s super easy because people can reply, they can put a little thumbs up on it and you know they’ve gotten it and read it. But if you’re not actually measuring some of your other channels as effectively, you actually won’t know if they’re making an impact.
Derek DeWitt: That’s all very true.
So, we’ve also got something from PR Daily called Seven Internal Communications Trends. So, let’s go through those one at a time. I’ll start off with mentioning what they are and then you can expand on that.
Debbie DeWitt: Let’s riff.
Derek DeWitt: Let’s riff.
The first one is streamlining communication channels. So, communication teams are trying to optimize and reduce communication channels, either the number of ones that they use or their kind of footprint, if you will, in order to improve efficiencies.
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah. We talked about this a lot when, you know, hybrid and agile workplaces first popped up, you know? A lot of people, especially during the pandemic, a lot of people jumped on Teams, Zoom, you know, we’re gonna have messaging apps, we’re gonna have an intranet, we’re gonna have digital signage, we’re gonna have all these things. And now people are trying to streamline that, figure out what works, what doesn’t.
You know, a lot of people still use email as their main medium, like we talked about. But I think we’re gonna see more personalization even of emails because that’ll get greater engagement. And as we talked about, putting more visual and video elements are also gonna be more common.
But I think that, as they’re using all of these messaging platforms, collaboration apps, intranets, internal newsletters, in-person events, you know, there’s a lot to coordinate. So, streamlining is gonna be critical.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah. And all that stuff takes time, people and money, you know?
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah.
Derek DeWitt: It’s also a lot of strategy planning and quite a fair amount of creative work, not to mention work on the part of the employees to actually have to read all this stuff and digest it and figure out how much of it applies to them. So yeah, I think streamlining is going to be key, and I think it’ll be appreciated by the audience.
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah. And I think people have been doing this for a couple of years, and I think we’re just gonna see people kinda finetune those tools. But also, I think we’re gonna see vendors who create those tools start to streamline, start to unify, you know, maybe add more features so you can drop that other app.
Derek DeWitt: Right, right.
Now saying all that, number two on the list is experimenting with new mediums, okay? So yeah, streamlining, absolutely. But people are also experimenting with and integrating new formats like, I don’t know, internal podcasts, not for the public, but just for employees. Or digital signage is an obvious one to reach employees in new ways.
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah. And the technology might not be new. I mean, we’ve all had podcasts forever. I mean, some of your employees are listening to podcasts right now. Why not make it yours? You know? So, both of those ideas of, you know, the podcasts and digital signs, you know, they may not be new to you, but they’re new to your employees. And I will say they both are great ideas for like a hybrid workplace because people can also tune into those things from home.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah, that’s true. Kind of at their own pace, which, I always like the buffet version of communications. Now, of course, you have to be careful with all this. And this is, I think, also one of the motivators for that streamlining initiative, the third item here is addressing information overload.
We just have a ton of stuff all the time coming at us. A lot of that stuff that we’ve chosen or that, because we can’t be bothered to fiddle with our settings on whatever platforms we’re using, we just kind of get anyway, and now here comes my company or my school or even my hospital, just throwing tons of stuff at me. This could really overwhelm people, and that could cause them to struggle to engage with things that maybe they need to engage with, updates and so on. They just can’t seem to prioritize, ’cause you just got too many messages coming at them from too many sources.
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah, and it’s interesting because in one of those surveys I read, they said that solving information overload through personalization is a key priority for 43% of communicators. So, they’re gonna personalize, whether that be through the messaging or through the medium.
So, in the messaging, it’s gonna be personalizing those emails. You know, delivering something that’s only relevant to that specific audience or individual and maybe personalizing the information within the message to them. And then the medium is basically having things available through different sources, so that people can pick and choose how they prefer to get their messages.
Derek DeWitt: I think you also have to think about quantity and frequency of messaging as well.
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah. It’s all about cutting through the noise and not adding to that noise, you know, ’cause burnout is a real risk, not just for your readers. Like you said, people who are designing, people who are scheduling, you know, your creators and communicators could burn out as well.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah, that’s for sure.
All right, number four, which ties into the thing that you said is really one of the top priorities of the year on a lot of lists, fostering leadership participation. The survey showed nearly half of all internal communicators aim to improve employee communications from executives and managers this year. From them. That’s interesting.
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah. The effectiveness of messages coming from your C-suite or upper management to employees is important because, you know, your employees take their cues from leadership. So, managers and employees have to be aligned.
Derek DeWitt: I know a report last year by Axios HQ said that data shows a strong link between the effectiveness of internal communications and employee alignment. The two things seem to be going hand in hand more. And this is, I think, a priority because very often they’re not actually aligned, the managers and the employees. What the report showed was that 44% of leaders say they think their staff are fully aligned with the organization’s goals. And then they asked the employees and only 14% of them agreed with that. That’s not alignment.
Debbie DeWitt: No, no. That’s sad. And it’s, I’m sure it’s a shock, you know, but that makes sense because as we said on some other surveys, manager and frontline communications are the top two priorities. And my guess is those kind of stats are the reason why. Because if your managers and executives aren’t using the different communication channels you’ve set up, if they’re not actively participating in supporting your messaging, quite frankly, it gives your employees permission to just ignore it too.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah, that’s true. If they can’t be bothered, why should I, right? And as we said before, leaders, I mean, they have to be active. And these days, especially, they have to be transparent, and they have to be genuine in their communication. So this is all, you know, important stuff. Basically, hey, you know what? We’re all part of the same team, so let’s stop dividing us into, you know, upper class and middle class.
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah. You know, we’ve talked about before. There’s no upstairs, downstairs, or there shouldn’t be, and there shouldn’t be a bunch of corporate silos.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah. That’s for sure.
Number five is measuring results. I’m reminded that the Workshop report that you mentioned earlier said that this is the number one challenge for internal comms – measuring results.
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah. I mean, a lot of people aren’t doing it, or they don’t want to do it, or they do want to do it, but they just don’t know how. So, I will say, we’ve got other episodes on this for digital signage managers with specific sort of how-to advice on measuring success, and we’ll put a few links here in the transcript. But the basics are simply establish goals, track your metrics, apply the two, you know?
Derek DeWitt: It’s just not that hard.
Debbie DeWitt: Well, I mean, it’s time consuming, and it can take some process, you know, but you’re, it’s important to determine how effective your messages and campaigns are. We’ve talked about having an easy to measure call to action. And again, we’ll put some links in here, ’cause I don’t want to dive too far in that.
Derek DeWitt: I know that there was a survey that showed that a third of the people who participated in it said that consistently measuring and reporting on multi-channel communication’s effectiveness was their top priority in 2025. I think consistency is the key phrase here.
Now, 71% of the people surveyed said that the amount of internal content employees read is a high-quality indicator of employee engagement. In short, if they’re reading it, then they must be engaged. Which implies that they’re measuring if people are reading it.
Debbie DeWitt: I’m not sure I agree with that. I will just say, a big flag for me is if you’re using email, you literally can tell, you can say they’ve read it, because, again, I said, especially now with tools like Outlook just letting you put a little thumbs up on things, they’ll think, oh, great, they read it. What did you want them to do? How did you want them to respond? What action did you want them to take? You know, that’s why we always preach you need a measurable call to action. ‘Cause there’s a big difference between knowing people have read something, and I would argue they might be seeing it, not necessarily….
Derek DeWitt: I was just gonna say that. Just ’cause it’s marked as read by Outlook doesn’t mean they read it.
Debbie DeWitt: Right. You know, that’s like, someone can glance at a digital sign, they saw your message, it doesn’t mean that they engaged with it. So, I think, like we’ve talked about, you need some measurable call to actions to know that people aren’t just seeing, but they’re reading it, they’re understanding it, they’re retaining that information, and then they’re acting on your messages. That means they’re engaged.
Derek DeWitt: Right. The call to action can’t be “open email”, right?
So, number six is, once you have those data analytics, leveraging those data analytics. You’ve got a bunch of information; you don’t know what to do with it. Well then, it’s kind of useless because, and I know we’ve said this a gazillion times, we’ll say it a gazillion more, but you care about what you measure.
Debbie DeWitt: Absolutely. It’s essential to analyze your data effectively, because you need to look for trends and make data-driven decisions. And we talk a lot about data-driven decisions, but it really is true. Going with your gut feeling can sometimes work, but a lot of times your gut is wrong. You know, you have to connect the data and the results to your goals because that way you can understand how to adapt or respond, based on those findings.
Derek DeWitt: And I would argue, how can you as a human being, have a gut feeling about technology that’s only been around for a handful of years? We didn’t evolve with this stuff, you know?
Debbie DeWitt: It’s not even that. I know lots of examples, and I hate to say this, a lot of times it is your executives or your C-suite who just think they know their employee base, their visitors, their students, their, you know, customer base. They know them, they know what they’ll like, they know what they’ll respond to. When you’re talking about like evaluating, I don’t know, A/B testing some different designs or even different channels to deliver things on, that just may not be the case. I’m sorry, sir.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah, I think your audience…sir or madam, yeah…I think your audience has changed over time, and they’ve changed quite quickly. And I think you will be surprised if you do things like A/B testing, the things that are in fact engaging or popular. They may not be the things that are engaging or popular to you.
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah. And I think when we’re talking about analytics, I mean, maybe your gut was right. Doesn’t mean there’s not room for improvement.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah, that’s for sure.
Speaking of new technology, number seven is embracing generative AI. Listen, if you haven’t played with it at all yet, you’re behind the times. You need to start goofing around with it. Research from Gartner estimates that “by 2029, 80% of human decisions will not be replaced but augmented by generative AI, as humans will maintain their competitive advantages in ingenuity, creativity, and knowledge.” So, we’re not talking about using AI to replace people, we’re using it to augment – make us better, smarter, faster, more agile and more adaptable.
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah. I mean, I get it. The Terminator scared us all, but the fact that…
Derek DeWitt: He’s not an AI, he’s a weapon.
Debbie DeWitt: We’ve all seen the horror stories that AI’s gonna replace us, determine that we’re a threat and wipe us off the earth. But here’s the good news…
Derek DeWitt: Skynet!
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah. Here’s the good news – right now, it’s just a tool and it’s a fantastic one. This is something you can use to enhance productivity by letting your teams work faster and smarter, like you said. And while adoption is still growing, over a quarter of people surveyed said that leveraging AI is a top objective for 2025. And that’s a big number.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah, it is. And I think leveraging is the key word here. Not using it or, you know, sticking some stuff in and copying and pasting it and just using it as is, but actually learning how to use it as it exists right now, so that you can use it to become better.
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah. Prompt writing: it’s the future.
Derek DeWitt: So, also in the survey, people who are using generative AI on the job, so when you’re looking at how many people said it enhanced team’s productivity versus people who said it had no impact, the people who said it enhanced the team’s productivity was twice as many as the naysayers. So, clearly it works.
Debbie DeWitt: Certainly, it has an impact, if that’s how they worded it. You know, I’ll just say this, we used ChatGPT to help us outline this podcast episode, so…. And it saves time. It really does.
Derek DeWitt: So, all of these things highlight a focus on efficiency, innovation, leadership alignment, and data-driven strategies to enhance internal communication effectiveness. If that’s your takeaway, put that on the t-shirt and walk around the office, right?
Any other thoughts, Deb?
Debbie DeWitt: I think we’ll see expanded focus on experience. You know, this has been talked about for a few years, but I think it’s still a big focus, whether that be employee experience, customer experience, visitor experience, student experience. There’s an experience for every market.
Derek DeWitt: Heck, even vendors, you know, B2B businesses even. If you’re dealing with resellers, that experience.
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah. And quite frankly, you know, we’re a software company, user experience is everything. So, there are a lot of experiences out there, but when it comes to communications, I think experience means making it more than just read and do. You know, this is why we’re seeing more visual things, more podcasts, different ways to communicate that might appeal to different people.
For employees, I think a lot of the employee experience focus means bringing together teams that might’ve worked separately in the past. You know, grab your HR, communications, marketing, if you’ve got a PR person; but you’re also gonna bring in the room safety managers, facility managers, maybe some C-suite folks, you know? If you get them all in the room together, it’s gonna make for a more cohesive communication strategy. You know, and like we talked about, it’s all about that alignment across the organization.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah, yeah, that’s true. I think a lot of these things – we kind of built our corporations and corporate office structures on the factory structures that were already in place, organizational structures.
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah.
Derek DeWitt: So, it made sense that, you know, this group does this, you guys do this, you guys do this, we manage, blah, blah, blah. And I think we’re starting to see more and more that we can learn from each other. I know this sounds very hippy dippy, but it’s true, you know? If I’m a communicator, it doesn’t hurt me to know how we manufacture our product or what’s going on the warehouse floor. It probably will at least give me some ideas as to how to communicate better with those particular people who are working that segment of the organization.
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah. And I think communicators are pretty well aware of what’s going on, or in some of the worst circumstances, they’re just given things to put out. And I think a lot of these ideas for getting everybody in the group, you know, people bringing together people from different teams and things, they’ve been done for years on things like brainstorming products or, you know, looking at process flows. And it’s just about moving that over to the communications process. Like you said, getting communicators involved maybe earlier, maybe at a deeper level. But I think it will help, instead of just receiving emails that say put this out on the screens.
Derek DeWitt: Right. Or if that is the organizational culture, one assumes that it comes from a comprehensive content strategy. And in order to make that comprehensive content strategy and the subsequent plan, you have to have broad and deep knowledge of all aspects of what your audience does on a day-to-day basis. Or else how can you possibly communicate with them?
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah. And I’d say if you can’t get all of those people together, you know, everybody’s busy, everybody does have their own job, so if you can’t get them all together, if nothing else, when you put your strategy together, maybe you outline some of your content ideas, throw it out to the group. It could show some gaps to them. It could inspire them of, oh, I didn’t see that the safety manager’s doing this, I could do the same thing for my team, you know? Things like that. So, there are a lot of different ways to do it, but it’s all about getting feedback from as many people as you can.
Derek DeWitt: Absolutely.
So, let’s end with this. When developing your 2025 communication strategy, what are some common mistakes to avoid?
Debbie DeWitt: I think having vague goals is a really bad one. You need to make those goals specific and time bound. You know, one of the worst goals I’ve ever heard for a company is “we need more business”. You know, what you need…
Derek DeWitt: Oh, really? Don’t we all?
Debbie DeWitt: Right. What you need to say is, we want to increase education market share by 3% by the end of the second quarter of this year, you know?
Derek DeWitt: Right. Real specific with a deadline.
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah, yeah. I think at the same time, setting overly ambitious targets can be bad. And this is for communicators, too. When you’re looking at that data and analytics and those success measures, you need to set realistic goals that match your capacity. We talked about resources and budget. They’re gonna determine what you can do, and you’re gonna need to guide those into the most effective channels.
We talked about audience alignment. So, I think having a misguided focus is another sort of pitfall you wanna avoid. You need to ensure that those goals align with where your audience consumes information. You know, we talked a lot about different channels and different apps and different platforms and different, you know, mediums and methods. You need to know how are people using things, how are people getting your communications and reacting to them? And, you know, don’t put all of your efforts into your intranet if no one’s looking at it.
Derek DeWitt: Right!
Debbie DeWitt: We’ve talked about budget and resources several times, but I will say that if you’re working with inadequate capacity, you know, that’s a bomb right there. You gotta have the right team, and you have to have the right skillset, you know? When we talked about those kind of things, also consider training. I forgot to mention that before.
Also, the sort of flip side to setting overly ambitious targets is not being ambitious enough.
Derek DeWitt: Right.
Debbie DeWitt: I know! I’m like…
Derek DeWitt: No, but it’s true. I think it’s right.
Debbie DeWitt: There’s no winning!
Derek DeWitt: No, there is winning, and the winning is the middle way. Buddhists take note.
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah. I think you have to stretch your goals to drive innovation and growth. You know, the last thing you want to do is be like, well, we managed to do this last year; let’s just match that. Always be winning. Always be advancing.
Derek DeWitt: Right.
Debbie DeWitt: And I think the last one, again, continuing a lot of the themes we’ve talked about, is if you’re disconnected from leadership, and this is for the internal communications person or the digital signage manager. You can’t be disconnected from leadership because you have to align your goals with their expectations. Otherwise, you’re gonna get a lot of internal friction or just a bunch of, I hate to say it, sort of fluffy communications that aren’t actually supporting the strategy.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah, that’s true. What we don’t want is the digital signage or email equivalent of, you know, the cat hanging in the tree, “Hang in there!” That’s just a waste of everybody’s time. That’s not specific; t’s certainly not time bound. Hang in there, till the end of the week, or you know?
Debbie DeWitt: Right. Go ahead and just put that strength poster on the wall with the iceberg photo.
Derek DeWitt: Right!
Debbie DeWitt: That’ll take care of that. Then use your digital signs….
Derek DeWitt: My employees are so engaged. Look at that!
Debbie DeWitt: Yeah. Use your digital signs to actually put out things that matter.
Derek DeWitt: Right. Exactly so.
So, in conclusion, let me say go out there and do some of your own poking around. You know your specific industry or sector better than we do. We’re talking pretty generally here, top of funnel stuff. So go out there and see what communication pros in your field are focused on, and what they’re planning for the year. See how what they’re talking about doing might apply to your organization and your strategies. And then once you’ve done that and, of course taken all the advice in this episode, then you go ahead and create a clear, achievable goal list, and communication strategy and plan, so that you can achieve those goals.
Debbie DeWitt: I could not have said it better myself. We can just scrap everything prior to that sentence.
Derek DeWitt: The episode is 38 seconds long!
Well, as always, super interesting. I love future-casting stuff, and I like seeing where things are going. So, again, thank you very much Deb for talking to me today on the podcast. I’ve been talking to Debbie DeWitt, marketing communications manager for Visix, about internal communications trends for the upcoming year, 2025.
Debbie DeWitt: Thanks, Derek. It’s always fun to be here. I am also a total stats and survey nerd, so you know I enjoyed it.
Derek DeWitt: That’s right. And again, I remind you that you can follow along with a transcript of the conversation we just had on the Visix website, where a lot of those promised links will also be found.