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And so another good communications person leaves the public sector. But after 10 years what have they learned?
by Ian Curwen
After more than ten years in local government – the majority of those in communications – I have recently left the sector.
When I started in local government, there was no Twitter, Facebook was only for college students in America, people didn’t blog, and local newspapers were your most important stakeholder.
Communications – it’s a funny old game. Although many of us may have been playing for some time, the game itself has certainly changed. As technology continues to race ahead it seems making sure you level-up your comms is the key to staying ahead - but is gamification the path of the future, or just the latest passing fad?
Gamification – defined as introducing game-like elements into typically non-gaming tasks – is a rapidly growing trend, appearing in many facets of technology and media.
It has already been used as a tool for internal communications by Samsung, Deloitte and even the Department for Work and Pensions. The idea is that the more fun you make something, the more likely people are to be engaged by it.
We know that our online consumption has changed through our use of mobile and tablets. But what effect has this had on our TV watching habits? A new report by TV Licensing lets us in on the latest intel.
by Sam Waterton
Last week, we launched TeleScope 2014, an annual TV industry report from TV Licensing providing an insightful glimpse of nation’s changing TV viewing habits.
It finds that the living room remains, even with the rise of mobile devices, our favourite place to watch ‘must see’ programmes — naturally enough in the company of our friends and family. Not only that, despite access to a range of catch up services like, iPlayer and 4oD, the UK still loves live TV.
So, what does this mean for PR and communications?
There's often a tendancy to clam up when something bad happens in an organisation, especially when the subject matter is truly sad and disturbing. But one local authority took a braver approach.
by Amanda Rose
As a council press officer there are issues you’ll face which initially will fill you with dread.
In an increasingly automated world, we consumers are being forced to channel-shift into more and more self-service shopping. But what's the impact on customer experience and reputation?
I was reminded again recently how important customer experience is to a company’s brand and the potential impact a single transaction can have on an organisation’s reputation. This is particularly the case where brand communications aren’t joined up and both your customers’ and employees’ experience are not aligned.
It all started at one of those high street self-checkouts. You know the ones, “unexpected item in the bagging area” (we think you’re a thief) or “approval needed” (you’re how old?).
Professional versus personal profile and use. It's an on-going issue for comms folk. One of our brethren is doing more than most to vocalise and shine a light on the challenges we face.
by Phil Jewitt
The title of this post is taken from a TV series that ran for nearly 20 years. Called Stars In Their Eyes, it involved members of the public, sometimes celebrities, impersonating famous people from the music industry by singing one of their songs. At the beginning of each impersonation you got to see the person going about their own life and giving clues about who they were going to impersonate. Just before their transformation into the pop star, they would introduce themselves by saying the words, “Tonight Matthew, I’m going to be [insert pop star's name].”
Employee engagement is a strand of internal comms. Here's an inspiring story of how a housing provider engaged with more than 200 staff in difficult times.
What happens when you mix Play Your Cards Right, Blind Date, Family Fortunes and an old school headmaster?
Well at Helena Partnerships you have the recipe for a very lively (and noisy) staff event, complete with yellow brick road.
There really are some things that unite every comms person. In this post the chair of LGComms vents some spleen and raises a few things that will make more than a few nod in recognition.
by Cormac Smith
I love my work in local government. Both in my day job as a senior communications advisor and in my national role of chairman of LGcommunications I get to work with some fantastic people doing work that I hope makes a real difference.
So, you've done the Twitter event. But how do you measure what kind of impact it had? Here's what he people behind one event to look at what changed because of it. The answers are varied.
Last year #Housingday tweetathon reached a 1,000 tweets an hour. This survey looked to find out about the impact of the day. We wanted to hear from those involved, what they thought about it and what the sector could do next?
Socitm Insight’s annual snapshot of the state of development of 432 UK local council websites, Better connected 2014, is published today.
by John Fox
This year’s report includes analysis of a special survey that examined digital engagement.
Engagement is vital to help promoting channel shift, but also for securing citizen focus and encouraging citizen feedback into services. Promoting online services is just as critical as providing online services that work and are easy to use. In fact, marketing is a key component in achieving cost-saving channel shift and ensuring the success of ‘digital by default’ strategies.
Never. In the field of human conflict. Has powerpoint. Badly deployed. Caused so much damage. Of course, Winston Churchill was a good leader. But he was never hindered by pie charts and bullet points on powerpoint. In this post look at where you need to tailor the approach.
by GUEST EDITOR Chris Bolton
Excellent News! Through extensive research* I’ve located a picture of Winston Churchill from June 1940, practicing his Powerpoint presentation of the ‘fight them on the beaches’ speech.
If you squint carefully (its an old picture) you can just make out the Pie Chart percentages of where the fighting will take place: Beaches 45%, Landing Grounds 20%, Fields 10% etc. Apparently Churchill was ready to deliver the carefully crafted presentation when, during a bombing raid the House of Commons projector bulb was shattered by some stray shrapnel. The result was the impromptu, unsupported speech to Parliament, and the rest is history.
Thunderclap? What's that? It's a social platform for making a bigger bang. Here in a case study is what it is and how it works.
by Anna Warren
I first heard of a Thunderclap when our friends at Fire and Rescue asked us to join theirs for the ‘Tick Tock Test’ campaign. Being a social media intern I felt a bit embarrassed that I had never heard of a one before. Luckily, when I looked around the team I realised no one else seemed sure either.
It was clear: we needed to get our hands on this tool and do some experimenting.
If you spend any time at all online and want to know something in a hurry, where do you go? The chances are that you'll log on to Wikipedia, even if you get there via Google, but how much do you know about this vast knowledge base?
by GUEST EDITOR Stevie Benton 
Founded in 2001, Wikipedia is the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Its mission? To share the sum total of all human knowledge with everyone on the planet, for free. That's a lofty ambition and one that can never be fulfilled. But that isn't stopping Wikipedia contributors – Wikipedians – from having a real go at making it happen.
Challenges, challenges everywhere. So what do they look like for a local government communications officer? Here's one perspective.
Like a friendly drill sergeant comms2point0 has asked me to drop and give him five challenges I face. Here they are:
Two blokes had an idea in a pub. 'Wouldn't it be great,' one said, 'if we could watch 'Withnail & I' in the cinema with some mates.' They nodded. They posted the idea to Twitter. The idea grew. It spread. Now, it's a fully blown weekend of cultural activity. All organised through social media.
by Matt Bowsher and Hugh Evans
I think of my smartphone as a giant digital octopus. It can take the most random of thoughts and reach a virtual tentacle out to connect with someone similarly afflicted.
All soc med (but for me Twitter in particular) provides immediacy; the sense of the now. The connections that we make create a sense of the active stakeholder as opposed to the passive consumer. Going to a cinema to watch a film is an act of passive consumerism. Creating the demand to tell the cinema what to screen isn't.
We've always liked the cut of the jib of those folks down in Norfolk. And this post and idea sums them up nicely.
by GUEST EDITOR Susie Lockwood 
It’s crucial to lead on things sometimes; come up with new ideas, be brave, be innovative, make stuff happen. But leaders don’t get very far without followers, people who can recognise a good idea when they see one and can make it happen much more effectively.
So it follows (sorry, couldn’t resist) that it’s important to follow as well as lead, support as well as take the starring role.
Sometimes with social media things go a bit wrong. Something happens that is unplanned and leaves you with egg on your face. So, you're in a hole. How do you get yourself out of it? Honesty and humour, it seems.
The Mission: promote the grand work of Charnwood Borough Council’s CCTV service.
The Tactic: tweet live from the camera control centre on a busy Saturday night in Loughborough.
Opening up to use social media can be tricky. Not least if you are the Ministry of Defence. Which is why this case study shows how one department of the MOD adopting social can lead to some unintended benefits.
by Tony Moran
With social media now so much a part of our everyday lives, it’s easy to forget what life was like without it.
If winter 2014 in the UK will be remembered for one thing it'll be the floods. It was the wettest January on record and not one many will forget in a hurry. But in an emergency how did local government respond? In one Southern council they were stretched to the limit.
by Louise Smith
Since Christmas, Maidstone borough has suffered its worst flooding since 2000, with significant property flooding and at least 36 families being evacuated – some up to four times in six weeks.
The three rivers in the borough have been repeatedly placed on flood warning, with more rain threatened for the coming weeks.
Sometimes, it's only when you stop and take a look back over your shoulder you realise how far you've come. In this personal blog post a Coca Cola comms person looks back to see how far forward his company has come.
by Neil Jenkins
I was chatting to some fellow internal communicators recently about our digital work at Coca-Cola Enterprises, and it wasn’t until afterwards that I realised what a frantic – and fantastic – few years it’s been.
