Blurred Lines and the Rise of Mixternal Communications
Guest essay
The following is an extract from Rachel Miller’s Internal Communication Strategy: design, develop and transform your organizational communication, published by Kogan Page.
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Mixternal Communication
The lines between internal communication and other departments have continued to blur. Some organizations combine employee communication with external communication, public affairs and investor relations, whereas others draw on disciplines such as HR.
Reporting lines vary, from internal communicators finding themselves in a separate department reporting directly to the CEO to being part of HR or a mixed team. There has been an increase in the number of teams combining their skills, knowledge and experience to benefit their organizations.
In recognition of this, the term “mixternal communication” has been growing in popularity. It was the theme for the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Employee Communications Section’s conference, PRSA Connect, in Orlando, in May 2023. For two days, 200 employee communicators met to tackle “Blurred lines: Embracing the new demands of ‘mixternal’ communications.” PRSA described how “fluid the lines have come between internal communications and everything else. In a world where mashups are expected and lines are constantly blurred, how can communications professionals bring new thinking to their roles?”
Ally Bunin is Vice President of Teammate Communications and Recognition for Advocate Health. She was Conference Chair for the Public Relations Society of America’s Connect23 event in Florida. In my book she describes mixternal communications as “a concept and a way to approach communications, understanding that all employees are consumers and are getting your organization’s messaging from both internal and external channels. It’s likely externals are even more influential than the internal messages.”
Reflecting on the rise of mixternal communications, Bunin says it’s “more critical than ever to align the brand voice—ensuring you’re practicing on the inside whatever you’re preaching on the outside. This builds cohesion and trust. It also necessitates communicators to strengthen channel strategy and understand employees’ preferences so they can reach employees where they are” and notes it’s “easier said than done!”
Mixternal comms is “a relatively new trend that has seen growing interest among internal communicators. This buzzword refers to the internal and external messaging that feeds into driving brand reputation and positioning” (Contact Monkey, 2023).
I invited Shaun to contribute an expert view for the book and he wrote, “Humans born today will never know a world without artificial intelligence (AI). The students entering university now will graduate having used AI tools as fluently as Millennials use smartphones to communicate. Therefore, before we know it, every rookie in comms will be semi-expert in using artificial intelligence to get their work done. Unless retirement is on the horizon for you, comms pros need to learn how to use AI to enhance your workflow, operations and output. If you don’t, someone who knows how to use these tools will outperform you and use less time to do so.”
Shaun is an authority on mixternal communications and says it “blurs the boundaries between internal and external communications. Internal + external = mixternal. Why mixternal? Because nothing about what the company says about itself (or what is said about the organization) remains external. Plus, everything that is said within an organization is shared externally.”
He adds “external news and information circulating internally is easy enough to grasp. Business-as-usual communications, such as press releases, earnings calls and ESG reports will be shared with employees as a matter of doing business. Media coverage the comms team has helped create or support – through earned or paid means – will be shared internally through formal and informal employee networks. A story about the company, its personnel, or products and services that appears in the Financial Times or on the BBC will be shared internally whether positive or negative, and whether management likes it or not.”
Information Finds a Way Out
Shaun reflects that internal information “always finds a way out. This goes beyond executive memos and internal research leaked to the media. The most seemingly mundane news and information—organizational changes, updates to benefits plans, promotions and demotions, employee profiles on the intranet—are shared by employees with their spouses over dinner, friends at the pub, and colleagues through LinkedIn messages.”
Since “nothing ever stays within or outside a company’s walls,” he recommends embracing blending the traditionally divided comms functions into mixternal communications.
What would that look like? “It would mean combining the internal and external comms teams into a group with a singular understanding: that what we say will always be created for both employee and external audiences and whenever appropriate, published to forums easily accessed by and promoted to both audiences.”
What about a content strategy? “Mixternal comms does not require a content strategy that is unique from internal or external editorial plans,” says Shaun. “Content should always be created under the assumption that every employee will access the material and so will anyone outside the company. The difference in content strategies comes down to measurement, specifically how one gauges the effectiveness of content for distinct audiences.
“Product announcements should be aimed at specific audiences, such as salespeople internally and trade magazines externally. Understanding whether the messaging affected salespeople (increase in signed contracts) or the media (increased web traffic to the product web page) requires different metrics, regardless of whether the content is the same. The blending of internal and external communications is teleological—a purposeful development of two functions that traditionally have worked well together, but separately. Forward-thinking comms teams would do right to combine their internal and external teams now to prepare for the inevitable mixternal communications future.”
Thank you, Shaun, for sharing your insights in my book.
Rachel is the Founder and Principal Consultant at All Things IC. She’s an internationally recognized authority on internal communication who advises professional communicators via consultancy, training, and mentoring.
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