ANNOUNCEMENTBy now we‘ve set the stage, established our objectives and strategy andchosen our audiences. Now, at last, it‘s time to think about ourannouncements.In your written plan, the announcement itself is a pretty brief section.It‘s effectively an executive summary of the plan — what you‘re doingand why you‘re doing it.The ―announcement‖ title can be a bit misleading if your objectives andstrategy don‘t indicate the need for a proactive announcement. If you‘vechosen a low-profile, reactive strategy, you‘ll focus more on your issuesmanagement section.As such, while this is the earliest you can start to work on this part ofyour plan, you may need (or want) to get to it later. I personally find ituseful to have this as a one-pager to refer back to occasionally when I‘mthinking about messaging and tactics later on, but this really is a section you can just as easily workon last. Note: The structure of your communications plan is better if it‘s not dictated by a rigid template. A good communications plan format will let the planner use the content they need to and not make them force unnecessary sections into the plan.SUMMARIZEOutline the nature of the announcement(s) you plan to make. You‘ll flesh out your messaging andtactics later so don‘t worry about those now.You‘ve done most of the work for this section already — don‘t reinvent the wheel. Pull much of thecontent for this from your earlier analysis. Treat this as an executive summary of what you‘vealready written.KEEP IT SIMPLEWhile you‘ve waited until late in the planning process to identify the announcement you‘re making,in all likelihood this will be the first thing that executives reading and approving your plan will read.As such, you need to capture exactly what‘s going on succinctly.Try to identify the announcement you‘re making and why you‘re making it in one or two sentencesand in plain language.Remember: The executives haven‘t had the benefit of doing the background research you‘ve done.MAKE THE LINKSYou‘ve already identified the context for this initiative; use that to briefly summarize here how thisfits within your organization‘s broader activities.Strategic Communications Planning Page