shifty shellshock

by Carolyne Mitchell

When I started out working on council web content eight years ago I didn’t realise that making our content and processes as easy-to-use as possible to tempt people onto the web would be called channel shift.
 
Five years ago I attended the National Digital Inclusion Conference and alarm bells started ringing. It was the first time anyone had pointed out to me that 1/3 three people in the UK didn’t have a computer (at that time).

It was also the first time I heard about the broadband lottery. Maybe I was naïve but I’d just assumed everyone was like me and my family and friends.

Read more
Print Friendly and PDF
In Tags , ,

a recipe for comms success?

by Rachel Miller

This week I came across the phrase ‘corporate blancmange’ and it got me thinking. It was used by the Head of the BBC’s Olympic coverage, Roger Mosey, who was quoted in The Sun as saying he wanted to “try things” rather than let the opening ceremony “become some corporate blancmange that no one likes at all.”

That phrase set my mind whirring about the language we use within organisations and its effect on our audiences. I’m sure at some point we’ve all continued with something e.g. a newsletter or employee event simply because ‘it’s the way it’s always been.’

But when did you last stop to consider if it’s still adding value and is distinctly un-blancmange-like? Be honest. When did you last ask your audience what they think of what the Comms team is producing, and not just through the annual employee survey?

Read more
Print Friendly and PDF
In Tags , , ,

on taking the plunge with twitter

You don't have to have been on Twitter for years to get something out of it. As this comms officer says, once you take the plunge you'll find unexpected rewards and an ability to connect over comms ideas... and moon walking.

by Lisa Green

There's an art to being interesting in 140 characters - I'm still trying to master it. 33 days and 232 tweets, I am a twitter newbie.

I first heard of twitter way back in 2009 when Stephen Fry tweeted about being stuck in a lift at centre point. A friend was involved in the PR for the day and was excited that lots of people were instantly talking about centre point.

Three years on and I've finally set up my own twitter account. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no technophobe, I have Facebook, I Skype my husband when he's away and I tweet for work.

Read more
Print Friendly and PDF

pr is the engine of content marketing

As the idea of content marketing grows so must understanding. Never come across it? You will and here's a starting point.

by Bill Penn

Everybody is talking about content marketing.

According to a new survey by Econsultancy, 90 per cent of B2B marketing professionals say they are aware of it. But how many really understand what it’s all about?

Another quick look at the statistics tells you that only around a quarter of them are actually implementing content marketing programmes. Draw your own conclusions. The blaggers still rule OK would be mine. 

Read more
Print Friendly and PDF
In Tags ,

using linkedin to super-connect

Think LinkedIn is just social networking for grey people or just a glorified address book? Think again.

By Dan Carins

I bought my brother a CD for his birthday this week, King released in 1995 by Belly, featuring Tanya Donelly of The Breeders and Throwing Muses fame.  After a sneaky nostalgia-inducing listen, I came across a song featuring the lyric “are you super-connected?” 

Maybe Ms Donelly was talking about the new economy, about how networking looks remarkably similar to the way the brain works as it sparks new ideas and potential, and about LinkedIn – but equally this might be far fetched given that the internet in 1995 was pretty much information on clunky websites and a few people using email. 

How the world of work and of local government has changed – but thankfully not the voice of Tanya, who's still rocking on.

Read more
Print Friendly and PDF

putting your ear in

by Phil Jewitt

One of my early posts suggested that to be truly influential, you need to be effective, in both word and deed. I suggested that merely being popular doesn’t necessarily mean you are effective or influential.

I’d also suggest that to be constructively influential you need to have the respect of and respect for others and be trusted to say and do the right thing. On occasions, and as recently highlighted, this also means to not do or say things that don’t help. And we‘ve all done that and regretted it to some extent, haven’t we?

Read more
Print Friendly and PDF
In Tags , , ,

traditional comms? digital comms? or both?

Civil servant Ann Kempster cuts to the heart of a dilemma. Should we keep traditional comms and digital comms separate? Or united? You can also read the original - and the comments - here 

By Ann Kempster

I attended a fab off-grid get-together this afternoon of a mix of digital and press folk in government today. I was very honoured to have been included.

We looked at what is working well, what isn’t and what the perfect future might look like. A lot of interesting discussions and models for the future. Really got my brain buzzing on a Friday afternoon….

Read more
Print Friendly and PDF
Tags , , , , , , ,

in defence of sam masters - we ALL get social media wrong

by Emily Turner

Sam Masters, a Lambeth Council press officer, has left his post after posting on Twitter that he thinks Streatham, the area he looks after, should be napalmed.

He Tweeted, “Having spent a considerable amount of time in Streatham, my solutions for supporting the High Road mostly involve napalm.”

Local business leaders and MPs complained and Masters quit. But was the end result, the right result? Should Masters have felt he had no option but to leave? Was quitting an appropriate response to the Tweet content? Should it always be one strike and you are out?

What we need to consider is when are employees entitled to their own personal views and opinions, and when is it safe to express them? It is reported that he used his personal Twitter account and his bio did not mention where he worked and stated that his views were not that of his employer.

Read more
Print Friendly and PDF

25 things to learn from lgcomms academy birmingham: day three

by Dave Musson

Day three of the LGComms event in Birmingham, and there was still plenty to ponder and, even better, learn from. Whether it was starting the morning being dragged into the light with a statathon on local government reputation, through to how tweeting plastic ducks are getting young people into golf, it was quite a spread.

The theme for the day was ‘evaluation communications – understanding audiences’, which, clearly, is key if you want your hard work to serve its purpose.

It was also, sadly, the end of this year’s event, which new LGComms chair Cormac Smith claimed to be the best one yet. It’s also been the second largest.

Read more
Print Friendly and PDF

from Norwich with love

by Darren Caveney

When you turn up at a local authority headquarters and you're greeted with the sight of a Jaguar jet fighter perched on display in the grounds, then you know that something a little bit special awaits.

That place was Norfolk County Council's offices on the outskirts of beautiful Norwich. The reason for the visit was for an innovative 'ideas exchange'.

Read more
Print Friendly and PDF
In Tags , , , ,

the accidental communicator: who owns comms?

by Leah Lockhart

A few serendipitous events lately have focused my mind on issues around corporate communications and generally and in local government specifically.

Not just what it is, what it’s seen to be but who owns it. 

Some background: I’ve been fortunate enough to be at the unnerving and confusing end of local government ‘talent management’ and, while I’m paid to give housing advice and help write homeless prevention strategies, I’ve actually been doing work around increasing use of web and social media in the public services sphere for a little while now.

Read more
Print Friendly and PDF

good, bad and cake: a social media campaign to celebrate landmark birthday

by Kate Bentham

 

At the beginning of May 2012 the FIS ran a weeklong multi-platform social media campaign called #WeAre12 to commemorate 12 years since the service was first launched.

 

It was hoped that #WeAre12 would:

Read more
Print Friendly and PDF
Tags , , , , , , , , ,

a shining example – how being a case study can be better than you think

by Eleanor Willock

So, Jeff from the ICT team has just called you to admit that he promised his contact from the vendor of your new [insert baffling tech term of your choice] that he’d ‘give them a quote’ once the deployment was successful. “Jeff!” you want to screech, “what were you thinking?”

I imagine this happens to in house comms staff in the public sector quite a lot.

On the other side of the PR fence, is the supplier’s agency, who’ve just had this email:

“Great news! We’ve just won a deal at [insert authority, hospital or Trust]. Can you set up a call with Jeff from the ICT team, he’ll give you a quote”.

And more often than not, this is how we first get talking – the in house customer comms professional, and the IT company PR agency bod.

Read more
Print Friendly and PDF

learning, learning, always learning

By Darren Caveney

I was lucky enough to be asked to talk to a group of final year PR students at Manchester Metropolitan University recently about PR careers in the public sector.

I was invited by Sarah Williams, senior PR lecturer at the University, and it was great to see the excellent work she and her colleagues are delivering to prepare the next batch of comms and PR folk for the world of paid employment.

Of course, it took me straight back to starting out in my own career, full of that heady, excited anticipation of where a sparkly new career may take me – somewhere glamorous, working for an exciting brand and maybe travelling around the world and back in the process.

Read more
Print Friendly and PDF
In Tags , , ,