Newsletters used to be a standard way the public sector used to let people know what was happening. But increasingly their days are starting to be numbered. But what next? As one organisation shows, the answer is likely to be digital.

by Lisa Green

The guillotine is hanging over our council magazine in circulation since 1992, and I'm waiting for it to fall.

When I heard our much treasured magazine was on the table as part of 'the spending cuts' I had two thoughts – first was a genuine concern about how we would communicate with our older residents if we didn’t have the magazine and the second was, bugger that’s part of my day job!

Our research has shown that the magazine’s readers are typically over 55 and we all know that there’s a strong relationship between how well informed residents feel about what their Council is doing, and their overall satisfaction with us. The magazine has been the principal vehicle through which we communicate with our residents for 21 years, it’ll be like saying goodbye to an old friend, but savings have to be made and if the blade falls, what then?

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?)

Unconferences are starting to become mainstream. Events where the attendees themselves shape the discussions Hyper WM in the West Midlands is in its third year. So what did one comms person learn?

by Emma Rodgers

Last week I went to the third Hyper WM in the impressive neon surroundings of the Public. For those who didn’t make it, I thought it would be useful to share what I learnt.  

Hyper WM is a West Midlands unconference that brings together people under the banner of making local government better. There is no set agenda - attendees pitch ideas for what they want to discuss and it goes from there. Ideas become workshops and if there isn’t enough interest, the idea gets shelved and the next idea gets pitched.

At this particular event topics ranged from the welfare reform to open data. I was approached to pitch an idea so put forward e-newsletters for residents, not because I am an expert but because I wanted to learn from others about how they did it. That’s one of the great things about unconferences, even if you don’t have all the knowledge someone else will or you will at least be reassured that others are struggling to find a solution too.

So in no particular order here’s my top 3 reasons for going to the next Hyper WM and why I’ll definitely be signing up.

Three years ago at the Hyper WM unconference a press officer kicked off a heated debate with bloggers by claiming that he didn't see the point in talking to them. Three years on he's just signed-up a blogger to his press release distribution list. So, has his personal views changed? Errr, not exactly...

by Mark Allen

A few years ago I went to an unconference in Walsall and was met by some very closed minded bloggers – very dismissive of traditional media.

Just lately, bloggers and other non-journalists who have been posting comments in the media spotlight.

I'm so glad that a Tory Lord is looking to prosecute some of those people. It is time social media played by the rules the rest of us have to - I thought I would put forward my point of view.

Other delegates at the unconference seemed shocked that I said I would always give print and traditional media  like radio, and TV more priority if I was on deadline for a number of outlets and had an number of enquiries to answer.

To me it is a no-brainer. In my experience bloggers are the the online version of jazz musicians.

I was struck by how many people – mostly local bloggers – seemed to write off the newspaper and local radio industries their online partners as yesterday’s news.  It is obvious they have never tried to get a message out to a large group of people.