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by David Elks
If there’s one thing I’ve found in my career in journalism is that the conversation is king.
I’ve found my best stories, either in print or online, have been based on relationships with people - e.g. press officers - who trust the journalist to provide the inside line on stories for readers.
But how do journalists and press officers react in an age when it’s often faster to send a 140-character Tweet than wait for a couple of minutes to go through switchboard?
by Hannah Hiles
If ever there was a job that requires being all things to all people, the university communications officer must surely be high on the list.
The Vice-Chancellor wants to tell staff about changes to the University strategy. An academic wants to share her research findings with the media.
A member of the local community wants to know when the observatory is open to the public. A graduate wants to update their details on the alumni database. A current student wants to know where their exam is being held. A prospective student wants to know about sports facilities on campus.
These are all typical scenarios that come through our office, especially now that social media allows people to get answers quickly, easily and informally.
By Lindsay Green
The Holy Island of Lindisfarne, just off the North East coast is beautiful.
It has been the setting for movies, TV shows and is a major religious destination for thousands of tourists heading to Northumberland every summer.
It has also been causing the council a huge headache for some time.
Why? Well, it seems that many people don’t associate the word 'island' with a piece of land surrounded by water, and instead try to drive straight into the North Sea without thinking about the consequences.
by Phil Jewitt
About 18 months ago I was invited to a meeting (and I have a history with meeting invites!) Just a little project to replace Leeds City Council’s intranet and website! There were over 20 people sat round a conference table. We all gave our names and roles and then I thought I heard someone say “and I’m the Scrum master”
“Course you are pal” I thought, “and I’m the Gate Keeper and this is Ghostbusters 4, now let’s crack on cos I’m a busy man”.
by Dan Carins
LinkedIn is social networking with a work hat on.
Rather than sharing holiday snaps and music tips it’s about sharing landmarks in your career.
It’s also about linking with people to help open doors.
by Paul Pickard
Good quality pictures can secure amazing coverage. But let’s face it, all too often the opportunity is wasted even before the photo call takes place.
With a bit of preparation and advance planning you too can end up with good commissioned photography that does the job you want.
After years of being a freelance photographer and as a Press photographer in the West Midlands, London and Staffordshire take it from me, there’s a few things to ask yourself before you talk to a photographer.
Ever wondered why your firing squad-style picture of glum people in high-vis jackets and a cheque isn’t working?
by Hannah Rees & Matt Bond
Film can often be the forgotten tool. Considered by many as too expensive, too technical and too time consuming.
At Cornwall Council, we started to embrace the medium around five years ago and put some communications resource behind it. We were right to do so and it continues to be an integral part of our communications mix.
My role as Communications Specialist now deals with film as part of a total social media and digital communications toolset, and works in tangent with our design team.
Film is a proven medium and has seen a surge in popularity in recent times for both internal and external communications.
by Sharon TelferI’ve always had a fascination for stats, and a sadly photographic memory for stat-related trivia. This problem surfaced as a youngster. As a 10-year old I could reel off the brake horse power and top speed of pretty well any car in my Top Trumps sports cars pack.
I even began to memorise chunks of the more interesting sections of my 1977 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.
When it came to football I could bore with the best of them on stats and figures. It partly came from spending too much time staring at Ceefax on a Saturday evening following the day’s results (pages 312 through to 324, for those in the know).
And I could probably tell you the attendance, to within a couple of a hundred, at most of Birmingham City’s key home games in the past 20-odd years.
So, no surprise then, that one of my favourite quotes ever comes from Vic Reeves who once said that “88.2% of statistics are made up on the spot.”
Companies, brands and local government having a presence in the social world is, on the face of it, like inviting your Granny to a rave. It’s two separate worlds where collars meet chatters, daytime intrudes on playtime and the well-spoken face the outspoken.
We now know that, despite this apparent oxymoron, there’s room for us on Twitter, Facebook and so on – but only if we get the language just right… it needs to be personal but with a decent tinge of professional remaining.
Yammer is an internal social networking site for business. It burns silos and allows people to connect. How does it work?
Why taking in a hedgehog won’t help with having to pay the bedroom tax and how having less control over internal communications can be a good thing ...
"At Northwards Housing something very strange is happening with internal communications and it’s all thanks to the recent implementation of Yammer – a social enterprise network for businesses, sometimes referred to as the twitter or facebook of the workplace.
I’d lay a bet with you all right now: You work longer hours now that you did five and 10 years ago (and for our older followers I double guarantee than you work more hours now than you did 20 years ago)
Some of you will recall the very real process of ‘winding down’ at work before going on holiday (and I was working in the private sector at the time, before anyone pipes up about the cushy public sector)
Did you ever have to produce lengthy ‘handover’ notes for colleagues to pick up your projects whilst away?
And at the risk of sounding like a martyr, how many of you regularly take a proper lunch break? (a rushed sandwich at your PC whilst clearing your email inbox doesn’t count)
Like me, you probably spend 99% of your job communicating about really serious issues. Thinking back over the last week or so, I’ve worked on a projects on dementia, fostering and youth unemployment. But sometimes, just sometimes, I work on projects that are a bit lighter. You might even call them ‘fun’.
A case in point is the first anniversary of our Downing Street cat, Larry, arriving here to catch mice.
Now if I’ve learned anything during my communications career, it’s that celebs and pets go down well. You’ve only got to look at the popularity of Pop Bitch to know that. So I worked on a little digital communications plan for Larry’s first birthday here. There were pictures taken by a colleague, a couple of tweets and best of all, a Storify of his time with us so far.
by Phil Jewitt
Let’s face it; life in public sector comms is only going to get tougher.
Budgets are reducing, we might have less staff in future and I think it’s fair to say we have a few more lean years to come.
So we have to learn how to work smarter.
And the fine people here at Comms2point0 and friends have provided some great comms resources, advice and guidance on how we can share and adapt to do the best we can.
Last week I came across a brilliant storytelling project called Unsung New Yorkers (from the trenches to the treetops they keep the city running)
The project is a collection of amazing videos shining the light on the day-to-day workload of a range of people - from a lost property attendant to a crew keeping the city sewers clean.
In my opinion the stories are incredibly effective because they don't look like glossy promotional videos, they tell the real tale of real people doing the sort of jobs many of us simply take for granted.
Ring any bells?
by Will Mapplebeck
Remember the start of Jerry Maguire? For the few who haven't seen Cameron Crowe's much quoted 1996 rom-com, it starts with sports agent Jerry, played by Tom Cruise, frantically writing what he calls his mission statement at 1am in a Miami hotel room. He writes all night, pleading for a better more ethical sports business, hands it out and promptly gets the sack.
The memo is called 'The Things We Think But Do Not Say'.
by Kevin HughesSo, 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?
My dear old Dad used to say he was always happiest when “all of his birds were in the nest”.
His birds were, of course, his kids. He’d have done – and did – anything for those little birds. Right or wrong, he’d protect, support, help and nurture them and he’d flap and flutter whenever one of those birds left his well-kept nest.
I used to think that this was really funny, especially given he was a pretty tough cookie, unnervingly street-wise and the youngest of six kids from one of Birmingham’s harsher neighbourhoods.
Several things hung around in my head in the days after the successful ‘facebook in the public sector’ (#fbps12) event held at my beloved St. Andrews.
First, the sheer positivity with which colleagues from 40 organisations are embracing the opportunity to communicate and engage better with their customers.
Second, a reminder that all organisations have their own individual strengths and weaknesses, things they do well, and things they could improve upon.
