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Public relations emerged in Britain in the first world war. But what would the pioneer of the field make of comms today?
The media landscape of today could hardly be more different to the one Basil Clarke faced when he became the UK’s first public relations officer in 1917.
Everyone knows the DVLA. They're the Swansea-based bit of government that looks after your driving licence. A simple comms task? No, far from it...
by Victoria Ford
Here at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) we deal with over 130 million customer transactions a year, 67 million of them digitally.
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...
Hello. Can you hear us? We work in pr and we've been waiting for a decent system to evaluate. We've been waiting for some time so we've decided to come up with our own. Okay with you?
There has long been an understanding in the PR industry that we need to evaluate our achievements and impact. We get this. We know it's critical to evaluate to help us learn and improve, demonstrate our value to our internal stakeholders and report back how investment has made a difference to business objectives. We also know there isn’t one single measure that will do this for us but a balanced scorecard approach looking at our performance over a range of metrics is the way to go. (Check out the Barcelona Principles for background on this.)
After taking a toe-hold of the social market Google+ continues to grow steadily. But what is it? What can it offer?
by Phil Rumens
Around a year ago, I had a discussion about Google+ over lunch. I remember saying that I couldn’t work out what it was for. It didn’t have the simplicity of Twitter, nor did it have the sharing functionality of Facebook, so where did it fit? I didn’t really rate it and couldn’t see the point of the platform.
Since then my opinion has changed.
Google+ has evolved and added what are probably its two best features. The first is Communities, the ability to create open or closed interest groups. The latter has great potential for sharing non-sensitive information (you’d probably want something a bit more secure for personal data) over a wide network based anywhere in the world.
The second is Hangouts, which you can use as an impromptu video chat room or set up as an event and invite people to attend. I’ve done this with LocalGov Digital colleagues and it really fits in with the “Digital by Design” agenda, having a face-to-face chat with people all over the country, without leaving the room. Of course this is nothing new, but it just seems a lot easier to do than other platforms.
Oh, the withering put down and the verbal jousts over minor issues. It seems to one experienced reporter that press officers are changing. That's when he can find one...
As a junior reporter, I remember there were four words I used to dread hearing tumble down the phone line from antagonistic press officers: “That’s not a story”.
There has been a makeover for regional newspaper websites under the Local World banner. That's the part of the industry owned by an organisation formed earlier this year between Northcliffe and Iliffe Media. It's fair to say that not everyone has been bowled over. Here's one comms officer's take...
One of the first jobs of the day (after making the coffee) is to check out what’s been happening by browsing the local newspaper’s website to see what they’ve done with that press enquiry.
Now that the dust has settled on a very successful LGcomms Academy in Cardiff it's a good time to reflect on the many lessons to spin out of a packed second day.
by Emma Rodgers
DAY 2 at the LGCommunications conference brought sunshine and even more quality speakers. Some attendees argued it was even better than day 1 and with a diverse agenda ranging from measles, moving to your next comms job to a slot from the top man in government communications Alex Aiken, it was a pretty good mix.
The LGcomms Academy is the premier event for local government comms folk. This thoughtful post aims to help to make it even better in 2014, and beyond.
It's very bad manners to criticise people who invite you to their party, so I wish I'd been able to say some of this during the event, at the unconference group seeking feedback on the event, but I had to head for Hull, so I'll preface what I'm about to say with words of sincerely meant praise.
Well the weather may have been pretty ropey in May - the coldest for a million years or so - but on comms2point0 there were posts galore to warm the cockles of every comms person's heart.
As you know, we invest heavily in little plastic cups to award to the most read post each month and excitement always grows prior to the big monthly announcement.
So without any further messing or flannel from me, here's goes...
At 5 was last month's top post by Eddie Coates-Madden - PR is dead... and just for good measure newspapers are dead too.
In at 4 was Why gov.uk is the best sight on the web by debut contributor Dave Thackeray.
The best jokes are often actually great stories. A great story can stay with you forever. And a good storyteller can captivate an audience. So can we embrace storytelling in more of our own communications?
GUEST EDITOR: Helen Reynolds 
Storytelling is a skill that communications people can utilise to really boost their creativity.
I’ve gathered some links in one place to give us a boost – they inspired me and so thought I’d share them in this post. But first…
It seems a pretty easy thing to do, huh, writing and sending an email. We’ve all done it thousands of times, maybe tens of thousands of times. We receive a growing number of them with every passing day. Love them or loathe them, emails are important and they here to stay.
Email? Send them an email? But, hasn’t the world all shifted across to social media, I hear you cry?
The gov.uk website has been hailed for its design, simplicity and effectiveness. With good websites becoming more vital it has attracted praise. If you are part of an organisation you need to know how it works.
About a month ago I pinged an email (see how I’ve grasped the corporate babble nettle already?) to @danslee, one of the founders of the comms2point0 blog influential, among its local government readership, explaining why I thought GOV.UK would soon be regarded as one of the most important web creations of the year, if not the decade.
We know the landscape is changing. In this bold discussion paper one senior fire communications sets out his personal thoughts over how comms people in the sector should lead a revolution. First published here in it there is food for thought for the rest of the public sector.
Today I’m publishing a discussion paper on the future of corporate communications in the English Fire and Rescue Service (FRS). I’m saying we need to achieve more with less. I’m saying that we need to find a more efficient model than the historic structure of over 40 press offices at individual FRS level. I’m saying that, as communicators, we need to prove our worth to the FRS beyond doubt. I’m saying that we, and the Service need to clearly set out what we should be aiming to achieve, and how that should be evaluated.
Ever thought of using a focus group? Neither had this comms officer. The results were surprising...
I must admit that I’ve always been a bit sceptical about focus groups. Yes, they might give an indication of public opinion and yes, they give your work some ‘real life’ legitimacy but look at the downsides: they are bound to be a self-selecting, self-opinionated group of busybodies. At best, they will give you opinions that don’t really match the way you want to take your work forward and, at worst, they’ll tell you how to do your job.
So, it was with some trepidation that I approached my boss’ ‘suggestion’ that I run some focus groups to help the development of our residents’ magazine.
by James Baker
"Have you ever done a search on CEO in Google images? (I got inspired after a recent social media training session I organised with the lovely Caz Yetman, and after reading this recent article on ditching the civil service tie.)
Go on, have a go - search, and see what comes up. How many people across the globe do you think might feel an affinity with the people in the results shown?
They don't really capture any expertise do they (despite the screaming suits and ties). Can you relate to them? Do they look like you? Your friends? Do you think they'd represent your best interests? Hmmmm not so sure now hey??
I think this also goes for the way in which CEOs, directors and politicians, have been positioned as some kind of other worldly creature, historically disconnected from the wider organization, industry or stakeholders.
It's a measure of a person and an organisation when they are happy to so freely flag up mistakes. Most would run a mile from doing so but being brave, and human, will pay off in the longer run, especially on social media.
Of all the experiences we have when using Twitter for our work, blunders, cock-ups and errors of every kind are the stories people seem to want to hear.
You could cut the atmosphere with a knife. Our specialist team of engravers are about to get to work. It's that time again when we announce last month's top post...
Well April has seen a record number of visitors to our little old site. We thanks each and every one of you. And an even bigger thank you goes to last month's contributers - there genuinely were some absolutely brilliant posts and case studies, which meant competition to win the coveted £1 plastic cup was tougher than ever.
So, here goes.
In at number five...
I always feel very slightly fraud-ish when one of ours appears in the list. After all, we could completely cheat and award ourselves all sorts. But fifth was Head of Comms JD2.0 by me.
Tough economic times on our high streets are providing huge problems for independent retailers. Local authorities are doing what they can to help but could take advantage of digital opportunities. A new event aims to show them how.
If local government leaders want thriving town centres they must bridge the growing digital divide between retail chains and their town’s independents.
Do you have a battered copy of McNae's Essential Law for Journalists on your desk? Many public relations people do. Thing is after a busy few weeks much of it is obsolete. In this post a media law expert runs comms people through some of the key headlines they need to know.
By David Banks
During the past week a significant shift happened in the lives of journalists in the UK.
The Defamation Bill finally passed, and when give the Royal Assent and fully implemented it will make a huge difference to anyone publishing here because of one key clause.
