Submitted by Beth Wright & Charles King, SIPOA Communications Committee
According to Statista.com, the typical American age 50+ may be exposed to well over 100 digital communications every day—including email, text messages, app notifications, phone calls, and automated alerts. While only a fraction require action, each competes for attention, increasing the cognitive burden of deciding what deserves a response. About 86–95% of this group use email regularly. Baby Boomers check email more frequently than younger adults and are more likely to use email for bills, healthcare, banking, travel, and family communication.
Seabrookers feel the communication load as well, receiving a plethora of email and other types of communications from the main entities on the island. We wanted to understand what you are receiving, so SIPOA can better manage the communications we provide to you, our Property Owners. First, we needed to understand “who is sending what, when, and how often?”
With this in mind, the Communications Committee of SIPOA tasked us with creating a ‘communications roadmap’ to understand how communication flows, via what channels, and how often. We proceeded to have meetings with the individuals responsible for communications at these entities: SIPOA, the Town, Seabrook Island Club, Seabrook Island Real Estate, and Tidelines.
After meeting with the various communications representatives, it became very clear to us that they were passionate about keeping you well-informed, and dedicated to providing the information clearly and in as timely a manner as possible. Each of the three main entities (SIPOA, the Town, and Club) have their own areas of responsibility, but they all cross-communicate for shared events (such as July 4th festivities), urgent events (such as storms), and how these events could impact your safety and access to various amenities. And while Tidelines is an independent organization, recognized by SIPOA, they have a very loyal user base, will reinforce helpful communications from the three entities, and often provide very interesting and important information about the greater Charleston area.
Because SIPOA communications are intended for Property Owners, they provide information on all topics relevant to living on the island, such as important activities, events, Lake House news, maintenance project updates, and SIPOA Board and committee updates. The primary communication is the Currents eMagazine that is published on the first of the month. The weekly eBlast arrives in your inbox on Friday evenings weekly.
SIPOA Communications Lead, Kristen Riedmayer, and the Communications Committee are dedicated to improving our processes, efficiency and identification of our information for you. For example, you will see emails clearly listed as from “SIPOA”, so as not to be confused with another entity who’s name begins with “Seabrook Island.” Also, we are excited to announce that a revamped SIPOA.org website is in development on a new platform that will allow easier, smarter access to what you are searching for.
We will share the data collected on this project with all of the sources we interviewed. We hope it will encourage collaboration and help to avoid potential information overload for our Property Owners.
