Strategic Communications Start With Your Stakeholders

Strategic communications begin and end with understanding your stakeholders.

At its core, it's the intentional use of targeted communication to achieve specific outcomes. That means engaging, advocating to, and influencing the people who matter most in your audience—not talking at everyone and hoping something lands.

Start by Identifying the Audience

Sometimes we already know exactly who they are. Other times, we have to define them: demographics, geography, role, influence, and the pressures shaping their decisions. The goal isn't only to know who they are. It's to understand what motivates them.

In the labor world, that audience is rarely just one group. It's rank-and-file members who need to know where contract talks stand. It's the undecided worker deciding whether to sign a card. It's the reporter covering the strike, the community ally deciding whether to show up, and the elected official deciding whether to speak.

Every Message is an Ask

Once the audience is clear, the focus shifts to the message and the ask — because every message is an ask. Whether you're asking someone to vote, show up to the rally, support an initiative, or simply reconsider a perspective, clarity matters. Timing matters. Sequencing matters.

We build rapid feedback loops so we can adjust in real time and stay aligned with the objective, rather than finding out after the fact that the message missed.

If You're New to This, Keep It Simple

Especially in political and advocacy environments, simplicity is critical. Before you ask anything of your audience, they need to know who you are. If you haven't introduced yourself, you're already behind.

Words matter. And you should never be learning how to speak to your audience for the first time under pressure.

Preparation Is the Difference

Preparation is what separates effective communication from chaos. That means:

• Clear guidance for everyone who speaks
• Preapproved language
• Prepared answers to the hard questions
• Defined escalation paths

When pressure hits — a strike deadline, a hostile news cycle, an employer counter-campaign — preparation carries the message.

What This Looks Like in Practice for a Union

Coordinated messaging, media channels, and campaigns that build worker solidarity, influence public opinion, and win at the bargaining table. In practice, that's four things working together:

1) Internal member engagement: Regular updates on contract talks, grievances, and workplace safety that keep members informed and unified

2) Narrative control: Shaping the public story and countering employer messaging during organizing drives and strikes

3) Multi-channel outreach: Digital tools — social, texting, messaging apps — paired with leaflets and face-to-face worker conversations

4) External advocacy: Press events, op-eds, and community alliances that build political and public pressure

And the goals behind it are straightforward:

• Build solidarity. Trust and active participation among rank-and-file members.
• Leverage bargaining power. A stronger position in collective bargaining and labor disputes.
• Grow the movement. Attract new workers by showing the tangible value of a union career.

The Bottom Line

Strategic communications is not about broadcasting messages. It's about building relationships, creating dialogue, and earning trust over time.

And that's what gets results.

Ready to put this to work for your members? Learn more about practical member outreach at www.nepservices.com.

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Josh Friedrich is a Firefighter/Paramedic with the Lewisville Fire Department in Lewisville, Texas, and the former Treasurer of the Lewisville Fire Fighters Association, IAFF Local 3606. With nearly two decades in the fire service, he brings a practical leadership perspective to both emergency response and organizational service.He serves as the Director of Digital Advocacy at NEP Services, where he supports labor organizations and nonprofit groups nationwide through strategic advocacy, digital infrastructure, public messaging, and member engagement initiatives.