navigating internal comms? it’s plain sailing.

Remember when you didn’t work in comms? When you didn’t have access to every possible piece of information about your organisation? When you had no idea who the chief executive was and there was more chance of winning Euromillions than you ever meeting them in the flesh?

by Jo Smith

I have to go back 20 years to my graduate days to be ‘BC’ – Before Comms.  Back then people still used typewriters. Email was barely born, mobile phones were the size of suitcases and if you wanted news you read the paper.  Since then I’ve watched communications techniques evolve and have done my best to keep up with every exhausting and exciting step.

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learning to fly as a solo pr

We like Jo Smith. She's one of life's great people who really knows her stuff. So nine months into her career as a solo public relations operator in the West of Scotland here are some things that have struck her. 

by Jo Smith

It’s nine months since I put years as a full time public sector desk-jockey behind me and set up as a freelance PR consultant.

Going solo isn’t for everyone. But it seems to be working for me. Here’s what I’ve discovered so far...

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what volunteering at the olympics taught me about internal comms

One of the successes of the Olympics was the 70,000 volunteers that made the games fly. What was behind the success? Good internal comms - by as many channels as possible.

by Jo Smith

I was an Olympic volunteer – one of the poppy-and-purple Gamesmaker army who clapped and cajoled and pointed and smiled my way through shift after shift, question after question. And I loved every second.

Gamesmakers have been congratulated for their contribution to the success of the games but have you thought what kept them so chipper?

Lots of them were positioned on street corners and in railway stations, in offices or back-room locations, far from the glamour and the sporting endeavours. It wasn’t witnessing the action that kept them going, so what was it?

It’s no surprise, in my view, that keeping volunteers informed was key to keeping them motivated.

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