In some cases local government and social media don’t mix. Many councils haven’t been actively using Facebook and Twitter and that has to change. It can be a long and complicated process. Here are some tips to get you started.

by Maria Loupa 

Plan ahead

1. It is vital to understand that SM should form part of an overall comms plan

 A comms strategy should be already in place and social media will be integrated gradually into it.

You need to comprehend the mentality behind each channel; each organisation is completely different and tools need to be customised to its needs. You need to experiment and see what works; different tools might apply to particular campaigns.

1. You need to consider your social media involvement carefully; once you decide to go for it, you have to go all the way.

Leveson has sent a siezmic shift through the media industry. But it has a message for PR and in particular places considering ditching the senior comms expert. 

by Ben Proctor

Remember the Leveson Inquiry? It was all over the broadsheets for months. Celebrities, journalists and politicians all trooped before the cameras to face the laconic counsel to the Inquiry and the owlish Lord Justice whose name was on the door. Now he’s reported and there’s a lot of stuff to wade through. Four volumes in fact.

The headlines have focused on the recommendations that there should be beefed up press regulation with a statutory underpinning. This is important stuff for democracy but perhaps isn’t of that much practical use to the public sector comms professional.

I have set aside a little time to pour over the venerable judge’s words. I do like to see the outcomes of the workings of a legal mind (actually a team of legal minds here). Like any decent lawyer he marshals facts to create a compelling and engaging argument. Even so it’s probably not worth putting Bring up the Bodies down in preference.

Campaigns. The idea is simple. You blitz people for a while and they'll change, won't they? Turns out not everyone in comms thinks that. 

by Jim Garrow

When I started this Your Audience is a Lie thing, I was hoping to parlay it into a nice little series. Unfortunately, before I could finish it with my bold prediction of what your jobs as government communicators will look like in a few years, one of the smartest and most dedicated people I know in health communications beat me to the punch. Alex Bornkessel, who runs an amazing MS charity with her family, called for death to the campaign this past weekend and I couldn’t agree more.

This idea that campaign-focused communications actively works against our goals of affecting real change (whether it be health-focused, preparedness-focused, or some other goal) in two different ways. First, it assumes that our audience is there, available, placid and interested, during the time we decide they should hear our messages. If they are otherwise ready to lose weight, or set up a communications plan, or change the batteries in their smoke detectors, except for some family crisis that happens during our predefined “campaign time,” then they don’t get the message that they need to change their behavior. (This is a HUGE reason I despise days, weeks and months that celebrate or raise awareness for something; what, tuberculosis doesn’t matter the other 364 days of the year?)