Your Custom Text Here
Wow, 20-years. 20 years working in the comms and marketing industry. That’s a good time to reflect on the best bits of work you’ve ever delivered.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to present some day job work to a panel of awards judges. And it got me thinking about what I thought had been my best work ever. The projects which I’d enjoyed most, had delivered the best results, or just given a sense of satisfaction and achievement.
A few sprang to mind...
An annual free event that has grown to be an essential event for public sector comms people who may be involved with emergencies of any description.
by Ben Proctor
comms2point0 sits at the heart of a fantastic community of people who want to make communications better, want to innovate with digital tools and want to drive change in organisations, especially public sector organisations.
We need that community to turn that energy and focus to emergency situations. Organisations are already doing great work to communicate with the public in emergencies but we can do more and one thing we know is: emergencies are always different.
The #prstack project is something we've blogged about. It's a crowdsourced review of apps and tools that are available for comms people. There has been an ebook published on it. It's worth a look. Here's how one person got involved.
by David Sawyer
I met Stephen Waddington in October last year.
He was speaking at a CIPR event in Glasgow about his 10 pledges to modernise the public relations industry in the UK.
Here was a man speaking my language. New PR.
It wasn't always the case.
Five years ago, like many senior PR pros, I had the digital fear.
But through a combination of sheer hard work and determination, I grasped the digital nettle.
I grappled with a bewildering array of online tools. Trying and testing them in a bid to make my "new PR" life easier.
Ace photographer Dave Musson looked at how to get more out of Instagram in a popular post. This time he shifts his focus to helping you make the most of the photo-sharing network as an organisation.
by Dave Musson
So, your organisation wants in on Instagram?
I’m not surprised it’s a great community to tap into and you actually still get pretty good engagement rates – at the University of Warwick our Instagram followers are by far the most likely of our social media crowds to do something with our content.
You may have heard, there's an election on. Since we're into the closing stages, comms2point0's resident political nerd Will Mapplebeck does some myth-busting and fact-finding about the big day.
by GUEST EDITOR Will Mapplebeck
What are we likely to wake up with on 8th of May?
It's probably coalition time again, but this time it may take more than two to tango. Labour and Conservatives may get between 270 and 290 seats each so it's likely to take a number of parties to get over the magic mark of around 326 which gives you a majority even though, in practice, you'll probably need fewer seats to function as a Government. Remember, just because if either Conservative or Labour get the largest number of seats, that doesn't necessarily mean that they will go on to form a Government.
Over the past five-years, through comms2point0, we’ve had a unique and rather privileged opportunity to watch the world of communications evolve.
We’ve seen first-hand how digital has become the dominant area of growth for many organisations.
We've also watched as internal comms has failed to keep pace. And for some it is languishing.
This view is backed up by our own research and anecdotally through chats with comms colleagues across the UK. Internal communications is regularly cited as the area of communications causing most concern.
Of course, this isn’t true of all organisations but it does appear to be the case for many.
How does your organisation measure up?
A few years ago it was considered revolutionary to use Facebook to tell people election results and now its expected. Now it is experimenting with messaging app WhatsApp that is the latest frontier for one intrepid council.
At the risk of incurring your wrath, can I mention the election? I know, I know... we're all probably getting a little fed-up with what feels like the longest campaign in history. Personally I'm taking the opportunity to experiment.
I work at Birmingham City Council and in recent years we've gradually built-up our election coverage and the combination of web updates, tweets, videos and more always attracts a decent audience.
My boss Janet Priestley is always encouraging us to experiment with new platforms and channels and recently challenged me to build on our previous election coverage. So this year we're sharing voter information, candidate lists results and other election news via mobile messaging service WhatsApp.
In part this was inspired by Shropshire Council's experiment with WhatsApp late last year.
We've worked with the Local Government Association to produce guidance on how to use social media more effectively. There's advice for organisations, elected members and staff. It's transferrable stuff and it's brilliant...
For many social media is now an everyday part of their lives; something as natural as a phone call or a face-to-face conversation. Twitter, Facebook and the many other digital tools available are now employed to conduct a plethora of tasks: from complaining to utility companies to sharing ideas; from ordering shopping to building networks.
Just as the original Rocky film sparked multiple follow-up movies, Emma Rodgers' Comms Room 101 post continues to inspire new posts...
by Amanda Nash
When Darren asked me to create a Comms Room 101 part 3, I ducked out at first. After all, Comms Room parts 1 and 2 are hard to follow.
There’s many better minds than mine in the wonderful world of comms and surely an aggregated list of people’s asks and tips would be much better than mine alone, right?
And, believe it or not, I don’t really like taking the proverbial out of those who come with to us what we may consider ‘silly’ requests, but that’s a bit harsh. Surely it’s part of our job as communications professionals to offer advice and guidance.
But we do all have our pet hates and it is just a little a bit tempting to share them. I just couldn’t do it without adding a more positive, what to do in response, tip. So here’s five of the things that cause me a wry smile inside and what I do about them…
You may have already begun to hear the growing buzz around two relatively new mobile video apps. Well here is the brief overview of what they can do, how you can use them, and which one is best.
By Russ Gethings
What is Meerkat and Periscope?
Basically they are free live video streaming applications for your smartphone or tablet. (iOS only at the moment, although Android versions are in the works).
They allow you to instantly stream live video - of an event, or any happening, or even just yourself going about your day, and instantly notify your Twitter/Social media followers. In turn your followers can engage with each other and you during the live stream.
Social media can be great. You reach residents you don't normally connect with. Of course, the flipside of social media is that can you get shouted at in your own time as this heartfelt blog says.
by A Local Government Officer
It’s a Sunday afternoon and I’m working. It’s raining – fair enough – but I still probably shouldn’t be working. I’ve got a toddler who is demanding attention (and some housework that could do with some, too), but instead I’m at my laptop.
I’m working because I’m part of a tiny (reduced) communications team for a council. I am working on a Sunday because if I don’t, I won’t get everything done that needs to be done during a working week. I think this type of working is known as ‘doing more with less’, but I digress.
While I wait to be allowed into the IT system, I pick up my iPhone to check the council’s Twitter account We don’t officially monitor Twitter out of office hours, but in reality, we do. We all check in from home so we can stay on top of any evolving issues and keep in touch with what’s being said to us/about us, at evenings and weekends.
I am met wit
When he’s not leading on social media at the University of Warwick, Dave Musson is a photographer and an avid and active Instagramer, with over 60,000 followers. As Instagram is becoming an increasingly important tool in the 21st century comms pro’s arsenal, we asked Dave to share a few Instatips – here’s part one, which focuses on self-improvement.
By Dave Musson
Unlike pets, children or colleagues, there’s no shame to be had or relationships to destroy in declaring your favourite social network. For me, it’s Instagram and has been for a long time – it’s incredibly social, it’s made with mobile in mind and it’s a daily source of inspirational photography.
Reaching a target audience more effectively is one of the aims of the comms team. But it can be hard. But TV ads? Would they work?
We were approached by Sky TV to try their new AdSmart system to reach a specific target audience for our fostering campaign. In January this year we ran the campaign for 30 days and you can read more here.
Last week's Press Gazette claimed that 3,400 communications staff – more than double the total for central government - worked in local government. Here's a response by the Chair of LGcomms...
by Cormac Smith
In last week's Press Gazette, William Turvill wrote about local councils employing at least 3,400 communications staff – more than double the total for central government. His report went on to talk about the decline of local newspapers, implying to this reader a link - but never actually provided any evidence of one.
It is not local councils who have decided to cut back investment in local titles – it is the publishers of these titles who have done this.
He went on to talk about questionable practice in a small number of councils and quoted a regional political editor who suggested many journalists would balk at the number of communications officers employed by local government – but who did not say why.
You know how when sometimes you read something. And you just have to put pen to paper...
Journalists are interesting beasts aren’t they? Most of you will know that intimately, as you are either a former journalist yourself, work closely with colleagues who were journalists in a past life, or deal with them in a daily basis through your job.
Regional journalists exist in a state of dichotomy. One hand they are generally irritated by bureaucracy, can have an outdated image of local government (as wasteful, useless and full of people who couldn’t survive in the real world), have little time for complexity (and local government is complex), may or may not believe in public service, and may or may not believe in the need to employ people to deliver it.
On the other hand they have a passion for truth and clarity, they want openness and they use great communication to tell stories.
So, just like a good comms officer really. They are also faced with a massively changing industry, with little time to adapt and little job security. Ah: so with familiarity comes contempt.
Last month we started a discussion around how comms teams often have to say no to colleagues and that this can be tricky. But the list of 'no’s' was bigger than we thought...
I agree with Darren Caveney in his post that comms teams have received disparaging looks from colleagues when we have had to say no to daft requests. It’s all too easy to forget we have been employed for some very specialist knowledge, so when we do say no, there’s a good reason for it.
So here’s part 2 of our 'cut out and keep' guide to saying no to daft requests (and, yet again - very sadly - all of these are also real.)
Like many people I was sad to hear of the death of cricket commentator Richie Benaud on Friday.
Richie Benaud defined cricket commentary for my generation and I’ll always remember his rich words during that iconic summer of 1981 and the greatest test series I think ever took place - Botham’s Ashes.
But it was Richie Benaud’s articulate, measured, soothing descriptions of events taking place on the pitch that elevated the games from brilliant to unforgettable.
And it spawned my favourite piece of sporting commentary ever when he described a huge six from Ian ‘Beefy’ Botham against a flagging Australian side:
“Don’t even bother looking for that, let alone chasing it. It’s gone straight into the confectionery stall – and out again.”
It’s been a much repeated quote since his passing but those who were around at the time didn’t need a reminder, it was tucked away in the memory bank for life. A truly brilliant and totally unplanned line.
To me he was just an incredible communicator and storyteller.
A tale of birds, worms and talking about things early on.
by Rachel Moss
“I’m not psychic!” is the clarion call of many an in-house comms pro. And, oh, if we were - wouldn’t the world be a better place?
It’s that head in your hands moment when something lands on your desk not long before it needs to go out and you’re asked to work some magic, make it look pretty – oh, and get some press coverage if you can.
If only you knew before. You could have prepared; planned a great comms approach linked to tangible objectives and done something you and your organisation would be proud of.
I hear about it so many times from PRO’s across the country – how in-house comms teams aren’t involved in projects early enough to add real value and impact.
Much of the commsforchange14 event last summer – organised jointly by the brilliant comms2point0 and the Public Sector Customer Services Forum - was built around addressing this very problem. I couldn’t go, but it looked excellent.
"If only I had more time..." How often do we hear that? No one is going to hand you a big wodge of it, So how do we manage our time better?
It’s early in the morning. Very early. My three month old daughter does not seem to have fully grasped the clock change where both her mother and I are trying (unsuccessfully) to claw back the hour we lost last night (and many more from the past week).
After several verses of ‘heads, shoulders, knees and toes’, many different ‘that’s not my..[rabbit etc]’ books and of course plenty of tickle time, she finally goes back to sleep for her morning snooze just as I have fully woken up. Wonderful timing.
There’s a certain age and point in your life when you begin to reflect on things that little bit more than you did in your care-free twenties…
I’ve reached that point.
Reflecting.
These reflections include work life and personal life and that’s a good and natural thing. Questioning what you’ve achieved and delving a little deeper into what you really want to do with the rest of your life.
And events which occur in our personal lives add to this and can't help but remind you that nothing lasts forever.
