Jerry McCoy, who works as a community relations project manager at the Arizona Department of Transportation in Phoenix, Arizona, brings diverse experience in branding and marketing to the one of the state's largest organizations. One key element of Mr. McCoy's work over the past two decades is tactical communications, which requires strategically identifying and then targeting specific audiences an organization wants to reach.Before doing anything else with a prospective audience, public relations and communications professionals must start with audience exploration and research. Some of these exploration and research techniques include:Researching analytics data -- whether it's looking at who already uses a product or service, or who is visiting an organization's website, this data can show where an organization or brand is surprisingly strong or starting to lose ground.Using solid empathetic reasoning -- It is important to get "into the head" of a potential target audience member or customer. Even something as simple as trying to search for information on the program or service in question, or looking at how that service is positioned on websites the target audience uses, can help.Finally, if an organization has tools to effectively segment out the performance of existing campaigns among different audiences, that data can help during audience exploration. Marketing communications professionals should look at whether an existing campaign over performs or under performs with a potential new audience, and assess reasons that might happen.
Jerry McCoy, a community relations project manager who has worked with government organizations in Glendale, Surprise and Phoenix, Arizona, considers mentoring a high priority. Professional mentoring enables experienced leaders like McCoy to equip other employees with many of the skills they've gained over their successful careers.Good mentoring requires sound listening skills and sound communication. Just sharing stories of what the mentor did in a prior situation won't be enough to encourage improvement. Mentors need to be able to invest in others, become more self-aware, and listen well.A good mentor-mentee relationship involves a clear understanding of what both parties are looking for. Both should take the time to discuss what they would like to get out of the mentorship, as both mentor and mentee will be able to guide the other to the type of performance the mentee expects to develop.Mentors need to be curious and take a keen interest in the mentee's background, career goals, and existing levels of professional competencies. Getting discouraged when a mentee can't grasp a specific idea, or judging the mentee based on something outside of the mentor-mentee relationship, can hinder the flow of communication.As listeners, mentors should look primarily for a mentee's passion. If something the mentor shares gets the mentee engaged, that's an opportunity on which the mentor can capitalize. Active listening, such as asking for clarification and summarizing, can make it easier to spot these moments.During his stellar career in public service and as a former journalist, McCoy has shared his knowledge and insights with many new and up-and-coming professionals in the communications profession.
