three comms challenges that small charities face

Every sector communications face a challenge. But what about when that challenge could be to raise the profile of a charity that struggles to get its voice heard? Who is depending on you and you need to perform for?

by Kirsty Marrins

There are over 150,000 small charities in the UK, according to the Charity Commission. A small charity is defined as having an income under £1 million.

However there are many charities with an income over £1 million which could be described as 'small' in terms of their staff numbers and available resources. In fact, there are almost 9,000 charities which (unhelpfully) fall in the £500,000 to £5 million income category. There are less than 2,000 charities with an income of over £5 million, so it's fair to say that small charities play a vital role in the sector.

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tell a story for a chance to reach new york

Here's a competition you may want to get involved with if you fancy a trip to New York. Fancy giving a behind-the-scenes glimpse?

by Sarah Kemp

“How many are we on now?” I hear from across the way. This is a question I’m fast becoming used to hearing. You see, excitement is high as we have just launched our very first social engagement campaign where we are offering a grand prize of a three night trip to New York and we’re keeping our beady eyes on the number of registrations received since the launch. And we’re not doing too badly. Within a few days we have broken the 100 mark and the number keeps rising.

As an international media intelligence company, we are constantly connecting PR and Marketing professionals with the people they need across social and mainstream media. We wanted to create a fun and exciting campaign, which will allow contestants to show themselves as thought leaders within the industry, whilst showing everyone a bit of behind the scenes action along the way.

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can you help tell #ourday this year?

Twitter can lift the lid of what an organisation does. But how about a sector? Last year local government in the UK used a hashtag #ourday to give an insight into what they did. This year, they're at it again from library events and drain inspections to stray dogs and school dinners. Can you help?

by Sarah Jennings

Cllr David Harrington tweeted me late one night back in July: ‘How about it @LadyLeoLion?’ Turned out he was concocting ideas to celebrate local government and needed some collaborators.

One thing led to another and #OurDay 2013 was booked in for 17 October.

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engagement and abseiling – just another day in the office.

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. 

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practitioners are from venus, academics are from mars?

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?

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brand management and online engagement

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?”

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some learning for comms people from scotgovcamp

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

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up for the cup: september's top posts

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

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are we seeing a social switch in communications?

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. 

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how to broaden participation in your unconference

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.

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how regional media companies brought themselves down

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.

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nudge nudge, think think

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.

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have you shared your best ideas? you should

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. 

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.

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up for the cup: august's top posts

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...

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5 unexpected benefits of being a social organisation

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.

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