Many communications offices are so busy working on external communications that they tend to neglect their internal audiences. But the reality is that in higher education, communicating effectively with students, faculty, and staff is critical to achieving an institution's overall communications goals. Having realized that reaching internal audiences was an important part of an institution's work, Northwestern University in Illinois revamped its internal communications in 2004 based on research and feedback. In 2008, Northwestern's Department of University Relations developed a survey that was posted on its Web site for two weeks. The survey showed that using e-mail is the most effective way to communicate with internal audiences. By comparison, relying on traditional media such as the student newspaper and faculty-staff newspaper to convey important information is likely to fall short of reaching intended audiences. To be effective, information needs to be in a digital format and needs to be pushed to its intended audience. At Northwestern, letting internal audiences know what's going on means pushing the information to them regularly via e-mail; however, the university is also using social media tools when appropriate.