As communicators, we’ve always known that communications is an essential service to the effective running of an organisation. But not everyone else has always shared that view. Maybe the times they are a changing…
by Amanda Nash
Read morebig in japan – how the land of the rising sun does local government
We often look to other countries for lessons in running better services. So a glimpse at how Japan does local government was always going to be fascinating.
by Julie Odams
Read moreseven star wars quotes to explain our campaign learning
I am like a stuck record on the importance of reporting back. It’s so important that we tell our stories and demonstrate our worth. Well, welcome to the crème de la crème of reporting back examples…
by Alex Mills
Read morefrom scotland’s mountains to malawi and back again: a communications journey for good
Now there’s getting out of the office and then there’s really getting out of the office. Here’s one comms lead’s story of an experience of something completely different, life-changing even.
by Andrew Walker
Read more3 important ‘gives’ to support a happy, healthy 2020
Boy, 2019 was some year, huh? Whilst I may be left perplexed and dismayed by the outcome of Brexit, the final post-election weeks of 2019 actually saw me switching off from the political news. Listening in to the arguments, news and – let’s face it - lies coming out of Westminster had become an unhealthy daily routine for me.
by Darren Caveney
Read morenone-work/life balance
Ever put your heart and soul into applying for a new job and into the interview process only to hear nothing back? Like ever? If you’re ever a recruiting manager don’t be that person, I’m sure you wouldn’t. Here’s how one person has been tackling rejection fatigue…
by Fran Tindall
Read morewanted: business leaders to join our after school club
It’s always a pleasure to go back to university to talk to students and share some career experiences. It’s also a great opportunity to learn from them. Here’s your chance to get involved.
by Sarah Williams
Read moreusing targeted tv advertising
Foster carers are hard to recruit. It's a demanding but rewarding job. Each one can save an authority thousands of pounds. But how to find them? One forward-thinking council has turned to targeted TV ads.
We had been looking for innovative ways to recruit more foster carers, so when Sky TV approached us to use their new targeted advertising system we had to give it a go.
Like many authorities we are struggling to recruit more carers for teenagers. We currently have around 430 children in care in Buckinghamshire, with the majority being of teenage age. Currently over 50% of our children are placed outside of the county, as we don’t have enough in-house foster carers.
#thisgirlcan: a real women campaign that helps get women into sport
When Sport England launched a campaign 'This Girl Can' aimed at women some loved it. Some hated it. But what do comms people think? We asked a volleyballing head of comms.
by Emma Rodgers
A new Sport England campaign called ‘This girl can’ was launched last week. The campaign claims to be the first of its kind to feature all shapes, sizes and sporting abilities that sweat and jiggle as they exercise.
As Sport England sets out “It seeks to tell the real story of women who exercise and play sport by using images that are the complete opposite of the idealised and stylised images of women we are now used to seeing.”
When Dan asked me if I’d write a blog post on it, I was more than happy to. As a woman who has always exercised or played sport, I was keen to really have a think about what it meant to me both as a comms professional and as an individual who is far from the stick thin woman that is often portrayed doing sport in the media. I’d also watched the video, which has had over 6 million views online already, as it had been shared by many of my female friends on social media before I even knew it was part of a specific campaign. If you haven’t seen the advert yet, you can check it out here.
why a fire service believes in social media
Social media plays a massive role in communicating major incidents. But it can also play a role by those on the frontline to tell their story as this post from a senior West Midlands Fire Service officer shows.
Thinking back to about 2007 (I really can’t even remember the year), I was a huge Facebook fan and posted almost hourly... I loved it.
Then @philliploach, who’s now our Chief Fire Officer, introduced me to Twitter. In those days, Twitter was still a small thing compared to Facebook. I can hear the “Facebookers” now: I’m never going to use Twitter… You can only type 140 characters… It’s rubbish. That was, indeed, my first impression. However, I pursued it and I found even early on it allowed you to reach different demographics to Facebook, MySpace, etc if you let it.
creativity in internal comms survey - the results have landed
What makes creativity tick in the field of internal comms? Fab agency Alive With Ideas decided to ask a few questions to see. They produced a survey and there's a stack of learning in it. The survey results have been collated and there’s a nice juicy report available for your enjoyment.
Not that many moons ago, we sent our global survey out into the stratosphere, to investigate the levels of creativity in the big wide world of internal comms. With over 160 respondents offering their unique insight into creativity in their organisation, we gathered a magnitude of constructive comments to share with you.
As well as private sector and multinational organisations, we received responses from internal communicators in local government, government departments, NHS, police, fire and housing. Seasoned comms pros, sharing their thoughts, opinions and advice about how they see creativity in the workplace and how they would like it to be encouraged.
gloves off, gloves on
PR folk and journalists often scuffle. But that's just not going to help either side.
The sound of a deep sigh and my head hitting the keyboard is all that could be heard yesterday as I read yet another tweet from a journalist having a dig at PRs.
“Why do PRs put everything three times in a release, I don’t need telling three times”. Now this was quite tame, there are some journalists, I name no names, who seem to embrace PR bashing on Twitter as a way of expelling their inner angst and frustration. Those tweets can get downright unpleasant.
Normally I will seethe quietly about these kind of tweets, too cautious to say anything back in case it sparks an unpleasant Twitter scene. This time, probably because I am a coward and I know this journalist is quite nice, I decided to reply. I tweeted back suggesting that the press release was just badly written. The journalist replied saying possibly, or just a misguided formula that PRs are taught in training. She added that is was very irritating.
keep calm and carry on
by Kevin HughesHertfordshire County Council has had an open social media policy since early 2010 – around about the same time the communications team began tentatively dipping its toes in the then unknown waters of the corporate Twitter and Facebook accounts.
communications: WD40 for organisations.
So, spring well and truly sprang over this weekend.
Temperatures soared to a balmy 17 degrees in my back garden, inspiring me to dig out the trusty old lawnmower from the back of the garden shed.
An old petrol model, battered and bruised from some less than gentle handling, it’s now rusty with age. But it can still be relied upon to tame my urban jungle of a lawn.
With the sun out, it was time for the first cut of the year. Four hours preparation, clipping hedges and edges and weeding borders then the main event. The glory job. Can you imagine the sense of anti-climax when the thing wouldn’t start?
