Research and Communications
Danielle Kirby
Strategic Communications Consulting
I’m an experienced strategic business and communications specialist and researcher with a long history of professional and scholarly engagement within communications, humanities, and the arts.
I offer strategic communications guidance, tying together business needs, future directions, current research, and available resources to develop the right systems to support your needs.
Needs Assessment
One of the hardest things can be working out exactly what needs to be done. Perhaps you need a new website, a cleaner internal communications approach, or a closer alignment between your values and company processes. But unless you have a clear idea of how to get there, you run the risk of recreating your current problems in a new context. This can be frustrating, expensive, and ultimately a waste of time.
I can work with you to develop a plan that adresses your needs, but also takes into account resourcing, goals, business functions, and anything else of material importance to your company. The logic is to bring as much as possible to bear in mapping how to get from where you are to where you want to be.
Research
I can offer extensive research capacity and experience. I’ve worked on a wide range of research projects, from single issue summary briefs through to multi-year collaborative projects. I’ve also produced research across a wide range of topics, covering disperate areas such as media production cultures, vocational training needs for construction, and best practice communications measurement and evaluation processes. Thematic, current, sector- or industry- based: if you need information, analysis, or synthesis, it can be done.
Integration
No matter how good a process is, if it isn’t folded into the rest of your systems, it’s not really doing its job.
I can develop and implement any processes so that they integrate into your other systems. This might mean articulating data handling processes, building specific systems, finding an automated solution, or building in intentional redundancy. Again, it depends on what you’re trying to do, but whatever the intended outcome I’ll find the best way to fit it into everything else you’ve got going on.
Research
research into current norms & best practice
in industry and academic literature, similar companies in the sector, and
similar organisations across sectors
- current research
- literature reviews
- news & current affairs
- sector & company analysis
Benchmarking
establishing benchmarks against current performance for future reference
Review
assess current company presence, activity, capacity, and potential deficiencies, with recommendations for development
- digital presence reviews
- business documents review
- stakeholder & audience review
- Discussions with key personnel
Strategy Development
assessing needs based on
research, benchmarking, and review processes, alongside assessment of capacity, needs, and platform fit
- framing principles
- policy documents
- aligning with company goals, resources, & desired impact
- tailored guides for operationalisation
- developmentb of mesurement & evaluation frameworks
Implementation
websites & information architecture
manage social media accounts
newsletter content, design & distribution
survey design and distribution
data maintenence schedules
measurement and assessment plans
manage social media accounts
newsletter content, design & distribution
survey design and distribution
data maintenence schedules
measurement and assessment plans
Communications theory & practice
Digital Engagement
Contemporary belief & ideology
New Religious Movements
Alternative culture (counterculture/cultic milieu/occulture)
Genre fiction, mythology, folklore
Experimental music
Other Skills
Academic Research in Communications, Humanities, and Arts
Collaboration & Project Management
Writing
Seminars & Lectures
Critique
Examinations
Content Design
Assessment Design