Case study: How to define an online communications strategy

Case study: How to define an online communications strategy


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A few weeks ago, I facilitated a communications workshop for the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF), a research program from the CGIAR, the global partnership of nonprofit agricultural research centers.

CPWF’s research concentrates on “How to manage water more equitably, efficiently and sustainably”.

We locked ourselves up for a week, to realign the organisation’s key communications messages and tools, and to integrate an online communications strategy, as a key component of a strategic communication approach.

This case study summarizes the process we followed, from a redefinition of an overall communications strategy, into the online web presence, and further down to practical workplans, reach/impact measurement and risk mitigation.

Each part gives a generic summary of “the theory” with an example how we translated this “theory” in practical terms.
Step 1: Define your general communications strategy
1.1: Identify your key messages
    1.2: Identify your target groups
    1.3: Identify your communications tools
    1.4: Identify your messages and tools for each target group

Step 2: Identify and improve your core content
    2.1: Identify existing and needed core content
    2.2: Improving web usability

Step 3: The practical planning
    3.1: Define your workplans
    3.2: Measure progress, reach and impact
    3.3: Define quality control and risk mitigation

While this case study is, of course, geared to the work of CPWF, the process we followed can be used in many other cases.



The CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) kindly allowed me to use examples and extracts from our communications strategy workshop.

All examples attributed to CPWF in this case study, should be read as draft ideas. I published them in their raw format which doesn’t necessarily reflect the final and approved versions.

With a sincere thanks to the CPWF staff in the workshop: Alain Vidal, Amanda Harding, Tonya Schultz, Michael Victor and Ilse Pukinskis.
Michael and Ilse also contributed large parts to this post and were crucial in the success of the workshop.


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