2024-01-22 22:58:28
By Fatou Tandjan Ndiaye*, communications expert.
Explain, inform and engage: communication is a powerful tool for mobilizing African public opinion around the issues facing our institutions.
African Union, African Development Bank (AfDB), Bank of Central African States (BEAC) or ECOWAS are some of the institutions that we encounter daily in the media to which we are exposed. They structure certain sectors of activity, direct certain public policies and govern the functioning of our States. They therefore have a direct impact on our lives as citizens, from our management of money, to our ability to cross borders, including the preservation of certain public goods.
And yet, regularly, public opinion claims not to know or understand the functioning of these decision-making centers which seem far from their realities. At a time when citizens want to be more involved in the development of their countries, it is high time to breathe new life into institutional communication.
Institutional communication essentially aims to implement actions to promote an institution or a company. We are familiar with brand communication which seeks to promote a product or service.
Institutional communication is a means, a tool that allows an organization to make itself known and share the impact of its actions with its various targets. It allows you to sell ideas, support opinions and share objectives with the public. It is the vehicle for advocacy by institutions and thus makes it possible to raise public awareness of their issues. At a time when values have a crucial importance in the choices of individuals, institutional communication allows institutions to communicate their reasons for existing and their commitments. Long sacred, placed at the rank of a communication made by and for the elites, more than ever, the word of institutions, often rare, on African markets, must today begin its transformation to get closer to its beneficiaries. Democratizing information makes it possible to promote the work of these actors who often work to preserve common goods, defend interests or enable populations to improve their daily lives. Communicating better by diversifying the tools, times and form of messages makes it possible to adapt to public opinion profiles for better transparency in the monitoring of major structuring projects.
The primary objective here is therefore to share useful information to inform as many people as possible.
Communicating also allows you to engage. The proliferation of communication and information media over many years with the contribution of the Internet shows to what extent populations are in search of information. Individuals want to be
aware of what’s happening around the world but also right next to them. We can see this with the COVID-19 pandemic. Information circulates at high speed. This ability to circulate information must serve as much to inform as to entertain.
Man has a need for representation. It is important for individuals to recognize themselves in the people who seek to communicate with them. This is why brands have always sought to have ambassadors who convey their values to the general public. Now imagine if the ambassador was you? You who are the target of the information. The goal that an institution must seek is to know its target well enough, inform them via the channels that are most relevant to them, and use the verbatim language that is most suited to them. It is necessary to understand by this that the institution must create an information-communication vehicle duo having the best fit to reach its target which, because it will be convinced, will become the vehicle which will transport the information. This is how you will make your target citizen the ambassador of your communication.
When you aim to communicate with your population and make them an ambassador, it is important to know them. It is necessary to interact with your community. We can see this for example at the time of elections and more particularly municipal elections. It is difficult for an opponent to beat an outgoing mayor who is close to his constituents. The reason is simple, this outgoing mayor knows their needs, their concerns and communicates with them in order to address them. Interacting with your company is a way to take the pulse in order to plan for future trends. Institutional communication must allow you to reach out to your society, collect your feelings so that they can be transformed into proposals. It is difficult to sell ideas and even more so when these ideas do not come close to the realities of society. An idea in Rabat in Morocco will not have the same impact in Dakar in Senegal or in San Pedro in Ivory Coast. Institutional communication close to its population creates a society that is an ambassador of the values of a group and this builds the promotion of the nation at the national level but even more internationally.
Institutional communication ultimately only finds its meaning if it allows public opinion to be brought together around achievements and values. It helps create a feeling of belonging in everyone’s heart. Belonging to a group allows for a virtuous circle that gives more confidence. This confidence will also be reflected in the ability of decision-makers to get citizens to support their various projects.
An institution that has good communication is an institution that society trusts. A society that has confidence in its institution becomes its ambassador. An ambassador company communicates internationally. A company whose voice reaches internationally pushes the virtual limits of its borders and gains exposure. This exhibition will bring strategic benefits to the development of the country.
Perhaps one of the most notable examples in recent years is Rwanda’s Kwita Izina: an annual ceremony in which newborn mountain gorillas are given names. The scope of this ceremony is such that it brings together
international personalities who carry Rwanda beyond its borders. This ceremony highlights Rwanda and its traditions.
To unite and obtain everyone’s support, communication is therefore positioned as a real glue.
About the Author
At the head of the communications consultancy firm, Ladili Consulting, which she founded in 2018, Fatou Tandjan Ndiaye is a specialist in African markets. A communications professional for more than 10 years, she advises and supports companies, pan-African and international institutions, as well as public figures in their communication strategies in Ivory Coast and West Africa. Since 2020, she has also founded Yira Média, an agency for LED screens in the Ivorian capital.
Fatou is a graduate of EFAP Paris (School of New Communication Professions) and has built her expertise during several experiences in leading companies, recognized for their know-how. She began her career at M&CSAATCHI.GAD and Publicis Consultants, two international communications agencies. Fatou quickly stood out and joined Jeune Afrique Media Group in 2010, as Country Manager for around ten countries, including the most strategic for the group: Ivory Coast, Senegal and Burkina Faso. Franco-Malian, Fatou has been able, throughout her life and career, to navigate between Europe and Africa, which gives her a major advantage in understanding the political, social and economic issues of these two regions of the world. In addition, she contributed to commercial development and the promotion of the Africa CEO Forum, the annual meeting of leaders of the African private sector. In 2017, she was promoted to West Africa Director, in charge of steering and leading all of the group’s activities in West Africa from Abidjan.
In 2018, Fatou Tandjan Ndiaye created Ladili Consulting, which she has since managed, then Yira Media in 2020, in order to meet a growing demand from institutions and companies: promote their activities and commitments to their target audiences and build their brand image . Convinced that it is essential to take into account the specificities of each market in her profession, Fatou Tandjan Ndiaye offers tailor-made support for each of her clients.
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