engagement and abseiling – just another day in the office.

October 13, 2013 Darren Caveney

How an unlikely TV filming request can help with your comms. Or in other words, can the building that you sit in, the Army and rope help you connect?

by Victoria Ford

I often get asked what the biggest challenges of my job are. I usually talk about varied audiences, digital, prioritisation, crisis communications and the like.

Then last April a very different challenge came my way in the form of a request that went something along the lines of ‘We would like to come and film at the DVLA and get the army to abseil off your sixteen storey tower block’. Okay. I wasn’t expecting that.

practitioners are from venus, academics are from mars?

October 13, 2013 Darren Caveney

Public relations doesn't just have the people in the field doing it. It has academics. But is it healthy that much of what happens in academia is impeneterable?

by GUEST EDITOR Sarah Williams

I have just returned from the Euprera Annual Congress in Barcelona, where PR academics from across Europe and beyond met to discuss current research into issues pertinent to the public relations industry today, or are they?

brand management and online engagement

October 8, 2013 Darren Caveney

How do you join the dots? How do you deliver the same message on the web and through the social web while using the comms team? Especially while talking to people. One company has some answers and has published a report too.

by Katie Bacon

A recurring theme shared with our team from local authorities, educational provisions, charities and private sector clients is:

“How do we integrate the online ‘organisational brand’ message in conjunction with the communication team while connecting online with our target audience in an transparent and inclusive manner?”

some learning for comms people from scotgovcamp

October 3, 2013 Darren Caveney

Scotgovcamp was an unconference that drew people together from in and around local government. Ideas were shared. Here's what one comms person took from it.

by Lorraine Spalding

As a traditional comms person, the pace of developments in digital and social media have at times left me playing catch up (or at least feeling as though I’m playing catch up) – an observer, rather than a participant.

I dipped a toe in the water of ScotGovCamp 2011 via Twitter and connected remotely with IslandGovCamp 2012 and so ‘in person’ participation at ScotGovCamp 2013 simply seemed right so that I could be part of the change.

The full event is summed up brilliantly by @marcommskenny here

up for the cup: september's top posts

October 1, 2013 Darren Caveney

Our specialist team of engravers here at comms2point0 HQ are about to get to work. It's that time again when we announce last month's top post...

by Darren Caveney

September can be a strange old month. It's the month that the schools go back, when the summer holidays are over, when shops begin taunting us with their Christmas tut. So it's important to read some great new posts to inspire us to get on with delivering our best work. And our marvelous contributors delivered that in spades.

But who wins the coveted 69p plastic cup...

In at number five...

Came Are we seeing a social switch in communications? by one of Cornwall's finest, Matt Bond

are we seeing a social switch in communications?

September 16, 2013 Darren Caveney

We're right at the start of learning how social media is changing organisations. But how is it changing communications?

by Matt Bond

Could the evolving relationship between digital technology and the requirement this is placing on us to become more social as organisations force a change in the way we think about communications?

That is the question I have been pondering of late as a picture emerges that increased social media use - and the fundamental shift this has caused in human behaviour - is stimulating the green shoots of a need for reflective change in how we as organisations communicate with our colleagues, customers and stakeholders.

how to broaden participation in your unconference

September 11, 2013 Darren Caveney

Maybe there's been a scramble for tickets. Maybe there's some people who just can't get there. So how do you make sure people outside the venue can take part too? Here's some ideas for remote participation.

by John Fox, Sweyn Hunter, Leah Lockhart, Lesley Thompson and James Coltham

Hosting an event? We'd like to offer some thoughts on enabling remote participation by folk who, for one reason or another, are unable to be present in person.

In May 2012 we staged Island Gov Camp (#IsleGC12) in Kirkwall, Orkney. The idea was to hold ‘an unconference for people working in and around government in islands, wherever they may be (including the big one with Cardiff, Edinburgh, and London on it); and for anyone with connections to islands, however tenuous.’

If you live or work in a remote location, or perhaps your mobility is restricted through disability, then it often isn't feasible to attend events which generally take place in centres of population such as Scotland's central belt, Birmingham or London.

how regional media companies brought themselves down

September 7, 2013 Darren Caveney

There's no question the news landscape has changed. But why have the big media companies allowed it to change? And what does the future look like? In this take the National Union of Journalists' Chris Morley poses a few awkward questions.

by Chris Morley

I first started work as a trainee on the Walsall Observer in 1983. At that time it sold about 35,000 copies per week and had an editorial staff of an editor, deputy editor, sports editor, chief reporter, four senior reporters, two photographers and three trainees.

It was the pre-eminent of three weekly newspapers in the borough, holding its own against the mighty dailies of the Wolverhampton Express and Star that had a team of 10 reporters and photographers and the Birmingham Mail that had two reporters.

nudge nudge, think think

September 4, 2013 Darren Caveney

You've heard bits and pieces about nudge but what is it really all about and can it be a part of your communications solutions?

by GUEST EDITOR Carolyne Mitchell

Last month I was lucky enough to host a behavioural economics workshop for Scottish public sector comms teams. The day was run by Stephen Young, senior lecturer in Economics at Brighton University Business School and Viv Caisey a social marketer who's done fab stuff with health and food standards around the country.

Behavioural economics, better known as nudge is one of those tricky concepts that is just emerging from academia into the world for people to apply to their own causes.

have you shared your best ideas? you should

September 3, 2013 Darren Caveney

Here's an idea that will spin your thinking upside down. Give your ideas away? For free? But what happens? You build a reputation. That's what.

by Dave Thackeray

Have you read my book, Sharing Superheroes, yet? If you’re among the 8 who have, move on. You already know the one thing that’s holding many businesses back. And I trust you’ve used it to your advantage.

However I’m going to assume you’re one of the 6.9999999992 billion unfortunates who haven’t had their desks graced by that marketing playbook. Instead of chucking a copy at your face, I’ll give you what you came here for. I save postage, you save face.

up for the cup: august's top posts

August 31, 2013 Darren Caveney

Well August is historically a quieter month for the old web traffic, with you good people disappearing to every corner of the globe, and Weston-Super-Mare. But actually last month was really busy. And we had a surprise number one in the comms2point0 hit parade.

by Darren Caveney

We like to think that we have a little something for everyone on the site these days. Last month's most read posts underlined that range of tidy little case studies and learning.

And competition for one of our prestigious little plastic cups remains high. You simply cannot buy one from eBay. No way. You have to write a belting little post which lots of folk read. Easy peasy.

So, the top five, in our usual reverse order...

5 unexpected benefits of being a social organisation

August 28, 2013 Darren Caveney

Bromford Housing in Wolverhampton. If only every employer was like them. Why? Because they've embraced this digital stuff. And their world didn't end. It actually got better. Here's what they learned.

by GUEST EDITOR Paul Taylor

It’s little over two years since Bromford lifted any restrictions on social media and offered complete freedom to every single colleague.

And it’s almost impossible to remember what life was like before the wall came down.

Hundreds of Bromford people have online profiles and blogs and membership of our internal Yammer covers almost all colleagues.

Truth be told we didn’t really know what we were unleashing. We didn’t know how it would change us or the organisation.

a campaign to tweet realtime murders

August 20, 2013 Darren Caveney

The image of Victorian London is a strong one. Pea soupers, Dickens and Jack the Ripper. As part of a campaign to promote a book one publisher is using Twitter to post realtime updates.

by Jamie Wolfendale

It’s been 125 years since Jack the Ripper stalked the streets of Whitechapel, but his bloody legacy still looms large. This year The History Press is proud to announce its follow-up to the award-winning 2012 Titanic Real Time campaign with another social media campaign, Whitechapel Real Time – a digital exploration of Victorian London at the time of the Jack the Ripper murders.

Join The History Press on a historical journey through London in 1888’s ‘Autumn of Terror’, where the Jack the Ripper story will be told through Twitter using real-time tweets from characters both real and fictional.

on measuring... and measuring profile

August 18, 2013 Darren Caveney

Sometimes experimenting without measuring is okay. But there's a school of thought that as comms is science you need to measure. Here's one thought on what we should be measuring: profile.

by Gavin Loader

I’m a measurement addict; there I said it, phew. I’m addicted to the iPhone/web app called Strava that turned me from a friendly runner and cyclist into a distance and speed enthusiast. I can recite every PB at every distance I’ve ever achieved, and the challenges and goals that left me a lactic acid induced mess.