How I Used Message Architecture in the Classroom

This semester I’m teaching Writing for PR to undergrad students. Before we actually started writing, I spent the first few weeks talking about content strategy. After all, you can’t ensure every piece of content you create supports your business objectives and your PR goals without first establishing your content strategy. For week 3, I divided students into 3 groups and for the semester I assigned them a fictional organization — the DragonFly Inn (small business), Stark Industries (large brand, b2b) and Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital (Non-profit). Before they could begin developing content for these organizations, they needed to establish the message architecture to decide on their communication goals.

I rarely do anything content strategy-related without the aide of Margot Bloomstein’s amazing book, Content Strategy at Work, which outlines how to conduct a brand-sorting message architecture exercise. Thankfully, she also offers Brand Sort cards, which my students used to better understand for their organization: who they are, who they want to be and who they are not.

It was so much fun! After each group completed their brand sort, they outlined and prioritized their communication goals to create their brand promise. For the rest of the semester, as we explore all the different types of content that PR content professionals will need to create for their organization, they’ll rely on the brand values and communication goals established during the message architecture exercise to help support their content so it remains consistent and focused.

It’s one thing to learn about message architecture — it’s another to gain hands-on experience by actually getting to do it. And the conversations were fascinating to observe. My students had much more involved discussions about word-choices (“can we be both timeless and innovative?” or “Is it better to be cutting edge or leading edge?”) than many professionals I’d worked with. They were deliberate and thoughtful. I wanted to show them that as future PR professionals (and anyone who plays a role in communicating messages) they are content marketers, content strategists and need to be involved with the development of communication goals. It’s not a siloed operation. We know that when individuals within a company know and understand the organization’s goals and objectives, they are more effective at working together by knowledge sharing, collaborating and innovating which makes everyone more productive and successful.

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