using pinterest in the public sector

June 4, 2014 Darren Caveney

Pinterest? That's for weddings, isn't it? Not entirely. One bright comms person is experimenting in the public sector.

by Karen Jeal

There are more than 500,000 businesses using Pinterest. So at Lambeth Council are we behind the times or ahead of the game? Well there’s only a handful of councils using it so we’ve added ourselves to that small list and started pinning.

In the three years since Pinterest launched, there are more than 70 million people using it. Wow. That’s impressive.

In Pinterest there are boards. You pin things on the boards. People follow you or your boards. You can like things without attaching it to a board. In short it’s a virtual inspiration board. Those already ‘pinning’ will know that it's far more than that, but at Lambeth we’re just settling in.

We’ve started using it to influence outcomes, engage with our community and encourage more collaboration.

Things you can recycle is one of our boards. The idea – to create a range of things showing residents what you can be recycled and how to reuse different objects. The long-term outcome of this is to increase recycling rates and reduce waste.

We recently ran a parks challenge where residents tell us what they want to see in their parks. Pinterest is a great way of doing this too. Adding things that inspire us or to pin things others are doing to create a virtual mood board of which direction we want our parks to go in.

We’ve a board for each of our priorities to really drill down to what they mean and how we can fulfil them. We’re using it influence too – a board named ‘People of the borough’ basically showcases everyone who has an association with Lambeth.

Take a look http://www.pinterest.com/lambethcouncil/ you’ll see it’s still in its early stages but it’s going to be a great tool for taking our digital channels to the next level.

Karen Jeal is digital officer at London Borough of Lambeth.

navigating internal comms? it’s plain sailing.

June 4, 2014 Darren Caveney

Remember when you didn’t work in comms? When you didn’t have access to every possible piece of information about your organisation? When you had no idea who the chief executive was and there was more chance of winning Euromillions than you ever meeting them in the flesh?

by Jo Smith

I have to go back 20 years to my graduate days to be ‘BC’ – Before Comms. Back then people still used typewriters. Email was barely born, mobile phones were the size of suitcases and if you wanted news you read the paper. Since then I’ve watched communications techniques evolve and have done my best to keep up with every exhausting and exciting step.

the press release is dead theory...? here's the practical

June 1, 2014 Darren Caveney

Further evidence that the press release is not the first thing comms people reach for in the toolbox.

by Amanda Nash

We all know it. We’ve been told a million times. The news release is officially, well if not dead, then old news.

We’re still a bit sceptical about this though, aren’t we? Like a bad marriage, we just hang on in there, perhaps for old times’ sake.

But actions, as I always tell colleagues, do speak louder than words and our actions when we had our ‘crisis’ communication plans tested by a major incident recently, spoke volumes.

putting online advertising back on the agenda

May 28, 2014 Darren Caveney

Many a council comms officer has been given a daft income target for web advertising at some point. Few have achieved significant returns. But a new initiative might just be the answer to this oft debated issue.

by Simon Ellicott

Many local authorities have considered carrying advertising on their websites before and decided that the time wasn’t right. The most common issues have tended to be that it wouldn’t deliver enough revenue to justify, 1 – hiring staff to implement the technology and manage relationships with advertisers, and 2 – the perceived compromises in carrying advertising; and also concerns over the types of advertisers to which they want to expose their audience, and to which they want to associate with their corporate brand.

four steps to create a powerful infographic

May 18, 2014 Darren Caveney

Infographics are a growing trend and when you get them right they look brilliant and make big spreadshreets come alive. But how do you get them right?

by Caroline Beavon

Honestly, you can’t open a magazine or website nowadays without seeing an infographic. It’s the hot word of the moment and plenty of organisations are trying to introduce them into their communications channels.

If you’re in the dark a little, let me elaborate.

The term infographic is hotly debated, but I like to think of it as “information in a visual form”. The current trend is for full page, or long-images that explain a series of statistics using charts, diagrams and illustrations.

five challenges that face ambulance comms

May 15, 2014 Darren Caveney

They are there when a little boy falls out of a tree or when there is a train crash. Who? Ambulance crew. So, what does the comms look like?

by Anna MacArthur

Let’s be honest, paramedics are sexy. They wear uniforms, save lives at the scene of major incidents and race around in cars, motorbikes and other vehicles with flashing blue lights.

It’s this appeal that leads to our first challenge: staying focussed on our corporate objectives when lots of our staff and the makers of everything from Junior Paramedics, to 999 What’s Your Emergency and Soho Blues want us to be involved in their observational series?

in praise of the sausage fingered pr officer

May 15, 2014 Darren Caveney

Sometimes when things go wrong online it's best just to be honest...

I notice Wrexham Council has got online praise for holding its hands up to a mistake with humour and honesty.

They accidentally tweeted a decision from a key meeting and predictive text said that the 'Pathetic executive' had made a decision. They then apologised straight away and went on to blame their 'sausage fingers' and predictive text.

A Wrexham Council spokesman said:

“We hold our hands (and big sausage fingers) up - we fell victim to the dreaded predictive text. We noticed our error and the tweet was removed promptly.”

using digital skills and a choir to shout about a charity

May 14, 2014 Darren Caveney

It's not writing a press release, it's creating content. And spotting stories to tell as this charity comms case study demonstrates brilliantly.

by Will Barker

Being part of a communications team for a charity in Wales can be difficult at times. Let’s be honest, being part of a communications team for any charity in the UK can be difficult.

We’ve all got great reasons to shout about the work we do and brilliant, inspiring stories to tell, but we don’t always have enough people to tell it to. More and more we are creating our own content and using our own channels as news sources to reach the people that matter to us, it’s not often that you get the opportunity to do both.

your essential facebook page survival guide

May 12, 2014 Darren Caveney

If you look after a Facebook page you'll have seen the number of people who automatically get to see your content shrink massively. So, what to do? Quit? Not necessarily. Here are some tips to fight back.

by Adam Turnbull

So, I’ve a turbulent relationship with Facebook, haven't you? Over past few years, we’ve gone from a rock steady relationship, where I post an update and it’s get delivered to those that like the page, to a relationship where such a small amount of people see the update in an organic manner. Of course, when it comes to the Facebook revenue model, it’s not a huge surprise.

wands, muggles and wizards… how housing met hogwarts

May 11, 2014 Darren Caveney

One of the ways comms teams can be most effectivce is to help the organisation move to more efficient ways that their customers can do business with them. It's often called 'channel shift' but beyond the jargon there are some simple learning points.

by Christine Howles

Channel shift? Digital by default? That’s gobbledygook to most people. So how do you encourage customers to get online and do it online? You call in the Web Wizards.

At Wolverhampton Homes we don’t have digital inclusion officers or digital champions – we have Web Wizards whose one simple catchphrase is “You can’t break the internet”.

a health campaign for clots

May 8, 2014 Darren Caveney

Did you know? You are more at risk of a blood clot after a stay in hospital than from a long haul flight. That's a bit of a headache if you are in the NHS. Which is where this comms campaign came in handy.

by Andrew Cooper

We recently launched the Ask about Clots campaign in Wales.

It aims to increase public awareness over the risk of developing a blood clot while in hospital. The campaign’s simple message encourages individuals to ask about their personal risk so that they can be assessed and treated appropriately.

As we know, the major consideration for any campaign is what will actually engage people and motivate them to take the desired action?

In developing Ask about Clots, we focussed on three main areas which we believed were necessary to enable and encourage people to start asking!

jgafsi and why it’s all about being there

April 29, 2014 Darren Caveney

Chained to the desk? Try getting out. Yes, yes, easier than it sounds but there are rewards to be had.

by Will Mapplebeck

We’re all busy right? Well we should be. Fewer people, more work. We all know what that’s like.

More work means more desk time and then that diary alert comes up, the one you’d forgotten all about.

It’s that site visit, the meeting with residents, the trip round a building, the thing that was arranged months ago when your diary was emptier than an average political promise.

can you help find real people to tell the frontline local government story?

April 28, 2014 Darren Caveney

Wouldn't it be great if people who worked across local government outside of the comms office told their story in real time? Can you help Geoff make this happen?

by Geoff Coleman

You may have seen my post last week: Could Twitter be a weekly voice for local government?

Basically I asked what people thought of the idea of a Twitter account curated by a different local government voice each week - if you've seen @sweden and @FarmersOfTheUK, you'll get the idea.

why comms people should attend bluelightcamp

April 27, 2014 Darren Caveney

Unconferences are great places to learn new things and network. There's a great event coming up aimed at people from the emergency services. It's also free.

by Sasha Taylor

Unconferences are great places to learn new things and network. There's a great event coming up where you. It's also free.

You would be forgiven for thinking that data doesn’t have much to do with communications. If you work as a communication professional in the public sector, however, it’s not such a leap.

Data drives everything we do.

when I learned about pr from millwall fc

April 23, 2014 Darren Caveney

So what happens when your passion becomes your work? For one fan a love of a London football team helped her public relations career.

by Karen Jeal

I have been a Millwall fan all my life, so I always jumped at the chance to include the club in everything I did. Every school project revolved around Millwall.

I redesigned match programmes and wrote reports after games. But where it all started was a project where I designed an anti-racism campaign. I got an invite to the ground to meet the press team and from there my connection with the club grew. I was very persistent and ended up working with them on a voluntary basis, until one day I got a job offer. Unfortunately due to timings I had to turn it down. But here's what I learnt: