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Posters. The drift to digital is strong but they still have a place in the comms armoury. They can be as powerful or as weak as you design them. But what do good ones look like?
by Susan Neal
Many hours have been wasted by me and my former Council communications colleagues in trying to convince services about the best way of getting their message across.
The more you can measure the impact of your communications, the more your communications can do. There's an event for that.
by Dave Worsell
Good comms people know the challenge of measuring and placing a value on communications efforts isn’t a new phenomenon. Long before digital outlets or data analytics even existed, U.S. 'pioneer of marketing' John Wanamaker (1838 - 1922) said: 'Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, the trouble is I don’t know which half.'
The PRCA elections are upon us and one public sector communicator is asking for your support.
After hundreds of years advising politicians on reputation, I am about to put myself through an election. And I am shamelessly touting for votes.
It’s almost shockingly exciting.
Fairly recently, Staffordshire County Council’s in-house comms team joined the Public Relations Consultants’ Association. The PRCA started out to raise standards in the private sector agency world, but now represents over 150 in-house teams, including many of Europe's leading corporations and UK public sector organisations.
Russia is an enormous, continent-sized country, made up of 85 different federal parts, 22 of which are republics, in nine time zones. How does local and regional government digital engagement work?
The Open Innovations forum took place in Technopolis, a vast warehouse-size venue in one of Moscow’s regenerating old industrial areas. Amidst all the start-ups and intriguing nanotechnology companies displaying their services, I found myself drawn to the refreshingly non-austerity exhibition stands of the regional governments, or oblasts, hoping to attract tech companies and investment.
300 seconds emerged from a realisation that women were not speaking at tech conferences. So, events to give speakers 300 seconds to talk on a subject of their choice happened. Here's why it is a good thing.
by Emma Rodgers
Last week, I went to a 300 seconds event in Manchester. It’s been a long time coming – I had hoped to get to an event since I first heard about the initiative at #UKgovcamp in January.
It was there, in an unconference session led by @annkempster & @sharonodea that I first heard about 300 seconds and what it is all about. Ann and Sharon had held a couple of 300 seconds events and were keen to get ideas and thoughts on how to take them forward. All in all, I found it pretty inspirational and knew I wanted to see and hear more.
As communicators we are surrounded by learning opportunities. But can we learn about comms from a TV show? One communicator thinks so.
Now I love film and tv. I mean love. Mrs C, in our early days of ‘courting’, once made the mistake of asking me what my favourite film was. 20 minutes later I had drawn up a top 50 for her. I was pleased with my work, she should have realised right then that she was dating an anorak.
But TV can be just as special as film. By TV I don’t mean most of the dirge that gets thrown our way in the name of entertainment. No, I mean the seriously good stuff – The Wire, The West Wing, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad. I’ve seen them all.
#CommsForChange14 was created to be a leading event for communications professionals dealing with change in the public sector today. But how did it pan out as a learning experience?
We are often told that change is the new constant. But I have been communicating change ever since I entered the industry about a hundred years ago. You’ll be exactly the same. Change isn’t new and neither is communicating it.
So, we should be really good at it by now? Err, actually, not necessarily so.
Being in a band has never easier thanks to social media, right? All a band needs for success these days is a page on Facebook and a Twitter profile and they’ll be headlining Wembley in no time, right? Erm, no. One digital comms bod – and guitar playing future rock god – explains why, when it comes to social media, it’s a long way to the top…if you wanna rock and roll.
by Dave Musson
Ah, social media. The sure-fire tool for a band to go in the blink of an eye from unknown to unable to walk down the street without being mobbed. Upload a couple of songs, watch it go viral and then ditch the day job for a life of sex, drugs and rock n roll.
That’s what some people might think, but it’s really not that easy.
For many comms people, the intranet is an overlooked and unloved corner of the landscape. But there's a dedicated community who love making intranets better. They came together at the first intranetnow event in London. But things are changing. The intranet is aimed at staff. But when staff can cut and paste and make public within seconds what is their future? When supermarkets employ 200,000 across hundreds of sites is there a need for them?
On 2 September, I went to the first ever IntranetNow conference, I fantastic day, with some great speakers.
As an Internal Communicator by trade it was fascinating to be surrounded by people who would class themselves as Intranet Mangers (other job titles are available) but maybe not Internal Communications.
With the media landscape changing the idea that the public sector comms teams should be press release factories is changing. But how to make the shift? Think more like a media company.
by Laura McLean
To keep up with developing trends in communications and the changing media landscape, many organisations are beginning to think and act like media companies, a strategy which we at Mynewsdesk refer to as the online newsroom approach.
If you have worked in comms over the past seven years you'll enjoy this reflection on some of the changes we have all seen and experienced...
Back in 2007 we had five press officers. That’s five people who just did media enquiries and press releases.
I know this, because I was one of them. I joined Newcastle City Council as a press officer in September 2007 I'm about to leave it for Core Cities in Manchester with the far fancier title of Strategic Communications Manager.
Now is a good time to reflect on changes to a discipline that's been transformed in less than a decade. Here are the seven biggest things, one for every year I've been at Newcastle.
One of the great things abut Twitter are the tools that are created to help you carry out a specific task. Here are three.
by GUEST EDITOR Ben Matthews
I've got a strong feeling that I'm like the rest of the comms2point0 community and like to try out new tools on a regular basis.
PR and Comms is a fast-moving industry, so there’s always a new product or service to play with that may improve your comms campaigns and change the way you communicate with your audiences.
How do you share new ideas? There's a team in Wales who are finding the answers and finding ways to make them available.
by GUEST EDITORS Ena Lloyd and Dyfrig Williams
The Good Practice Team have come together over the last 18 months with a purpose of sharing new and emerging ideas to help improve Welsh public services.
We have a very tight budget, so we need to be very creative with how we make the most of our resources.
We have learnt over the last 18 months that different people take information on board in different ways.
'Comms at the top table...' It's shorthand for having comms involved with the big strategic discussions early on. If you reach this place you can help to shape and deliver with people. This example which will be presented at #commsforchange14 about changes to tax discs really shows how working together can be really powerful.
‘This just shows how important comms is! Technically the code changes are in and ready to go........without comms it's useless.'
This was a text I received from our Chief Technology Officer, Iain Patterson, earlier this week.
He was referring to media coverage of a major change for DVLA - the abolition of the Tax Disc.
Increasingly, we talk about designing and delivering services through ‘co-production’. But what does this mean in practical terms? One organisation has been working with a range of partners to develop an event to provide clear examples of good practice in ‘co-production’.
by Ena Lloyd and Dyfrig Williams
Co-production is about changing the relationship between those who deliver and those who use services. It is about re-shaping how you design, plan and deliver services, but doing this alongside members of the public.
There's scores, aren't there? Scores of people getting saying stupid things on social media, isn't there? Actually, no. And yes, there is a common sense approach to take so you don't end up in trouble.
I was interested to read the story about the number of police officers who have been disciplined in relation to the misuse of social media.
We all have them. The scars from projects that don't quite go to plan... the zombies you need to avoid.
by Jon Matthias
The life-cycle of a comms project is fairly routine.
It either stems from a good idea to try out, or a problem that needs solving.
Ideas fly around.
A plan is made.
In a short space of time the mobile phone and the apps that go with it have become essential items for communications people. Here's 11 essential apps that one PR professional who works wth many public sector clients relies on when she is out and about in the South West.
by Mandy Pearse
Despite wifi and 3G being variable across the South West the ability to use my iphone out and about has become essential to delivering my day to day work.
Some moments are truly life changing. For one PR professional it was when he had cause to thank the NHS for his own life. He is passionate about PR in the service. He also believes that good PR is made by good people trying to make things happen better.
By Alan Taman
I died 9 years ago. It changes your view on things.
Well, that certainly touched a nerve. The post the Four Stages of Comms Facepalm sparked an explosion of comments from people who have had cause to put their hand to their head and go: 'DOH!' at a request from someone. Often senior.
by Kath Hughes
OK so we have all been there, that excruciating moment when you open the ‘poster’ that a well meaning person has spent a long time creating. It can’t possibly go out – its crammed with too many complicated words, multiple clip art speech bubbles, and a number of out of proportion logos. But it needs to go out NOW and you are the one preventing it.
So, what next? Try this three step guide to cope with moments like this and let me know if it works for you.
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