more popular than eastenders: a university graduation week

August 10, 2015 Darren Caveney

What was more popular than EastEnders? The University of Warwick’s graduation week on social media. It is a landmark week in the life of a student. It's a landmark week for a University too. Their acclaimed social media officer lifts the lid on how they did it.

by Dave Musson from University of Warwick

Working at a University, there are plenty of great things going on all year round, but arguably the best time to be on campus is during graduation week. There’s an almost magical buzz in the atmosphere, with happy graduates, proud parents and flying mortarboards in every direction you look.

But what about transposing that buzz from real life to online? Here’s how we did at the University of Warwick, armed with little more than a hashtag, some mobile phones and plenty of enthusiasm.

using buzzfeed to create a buzzing community

August 3, 2015 Darren Caveney

Buzzfeed is one of the world's largest social news websites and one of the most shared on Facebook. It's known for pioneering 'listicles' which are lists of facts more easily digested and shared on the web. However, it also allows you to create your own content. Here's what happened when one comms officer did so.

by Karen Jeal

It’s that time of year again at Gravesham where we get all green fingered and the town looks blooming marvellous as part of our efforts to scoop the top prize for Gravesham in Bloom.

Although this year is different. The stakes and stems, for that matter, are higher. We won Gold last year so expectations are at an absolute max to grow for gold once more.

the hidden secret to digital transformation

July 27, 2015 Darren Caveney

Every organisation is looking to transform what they are doing. There's a major role for good internal comms. Did you know?

by Kane Simms

There’s one thing that’ll guarantee digital transformation success… and it’s not what you think.

It’s not the:

Digital design
Integration
User centricity
UX design
Data and analysis
Agile methodology
Lean processing
And so on

Long lasting digital transformation hinges, like everything else in life, on people. It depends on your staff.

Your staff have the service area expertise needed to design epic digital services and their enthusiasm and involvement is critical to solutions being adopted. Without your staff’s investment, you’ll be short-cutting back to old habits quicker than Paul Gascoigne leaving rehab.

being the clip art and comic sans police. and why it matters.

July 25, 2015 Darren Caveney

Brand identity is hugely important and many comms folk will relate to this post on the subject. It's an instant classic. Print it out and put it on your office wall today...

by GUEST EDITOR Ben Capper

comms2point0 is one of my favourite websites.

There are loads of interesting ideas and a great community. There’s stuff on here that helps me to find solutions to issues on a daily basis.

Not very colourful though is it?

Don’t know about you, but sometimes I think it’s crying out for a bright splash of pink, maybe with some orange writing on it.

And that typeface. It’s OK for some people I guess, but surely something friendlier, some more hand-writing-ish would make it look, you know, just a bit nicer.

video for comms is now way beyond youtube

July 24, 2015 Darren Caveney

More than 70 per cent of the internet is predicted to be video by 2017. If you are a comms person it's a challenge you need toio have an answer to.

by Albert Freeman

Online video is becoming more important all the time. There are an exciting and growing number of ways that we as organisations can use it, and ways that people can use it to engage with organisations.

Video is now big news on Facebook

In no time at all video has become huge on Facebook. Organisations need to adapt and take advantage of this. It is no longer enough to simply publish your video on YouTube, and share the YouTube link on Facebook.

what has soft power taught me about campaigns?

July 19, 2015 Darren Caveney

Sometimes it's not the direct things that wins people over. It can be the BBC. Or Bollywood. As a talented comms officer from Tunisia who worked for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office reveals.

by Kacem Jlidi

Picture this: a 16 year old boy from Morocco going to the hairdresser to get a 'David Beckham' haircut or doodling all sorts of tattoo shapes on his textbook while in class.

Imagine this South African 48 year old lady spending her evenings binge-watching Bollywood movies and gasping at the sight of her favourite Indian actor’s dancing.

Wouldn’t you agree that those are basic examples of successful brand engagement – ones that went beyond geographical limits?

if staff are our greatest asset why don't we show it?

July 19, 2015 Darren Caveney

Staff: Our greatest asset? Don't tell us, show us.

By Darren Caveney

In a recent conversation about intranets and internal communications I fessed up on a theory I have developed.

Staff intranets, we know, are generally unengaging resources, crammed with slabs of info but offering very little in the way of interaction or honest, two-way conversation.

But my theory is that this has very little to do with the intranet sites themselves – they’re just a symptom of a much larger organisational and cultural problem which is that too many organisations – when push comes to shove – don’t truly value their staff. There, I've said it.

awards and that loving feeling

July 12, 2015 Darren Caveney

A smidge of recognition can spark all sorts of positive vibes into a team. So why do we so rarely do it?

By Darren Caveney

Last week I was fortunate to attend the UK Public Sector Communications Awards and together with a rather brilliant bunch of colleagues pick up an award. It was a reminder of how an award nomination or win can provide a welcome and invigorating dose of feel good factor. A little bit of that loving feeling, even to folks who have been involved in the industry for a long, long time.

I stopped entering awards a few years back for a number of reasons. You don’t need award judges to tell you when you’ve delivered good work, in the same way that you don’t always need a kick up the backside when you know you’ve made a mistake at work. You instinctively know these things and learn from them. But sometimes you work on a project that you know is so good it needs to be shouted about so that your colleagues can receive 15 deserved minutes in the spotlight.

branding: a simple truth

June 30, 2015 Darren Caveney

There are professional lessons all around us, literally on tap every day if you look hard enough - even on a trip to the seaside.

By Darren Caveney

I love ice cream. I’ve tried them all. Compared and contrasted and, in my own head at least, decided which are the best.

The Italians are masters of ice cream. But the best of the lot is a British brand.

What adds to their appeal is the masterly way in which this product is branded. So simple, so clean, so stylish and with echoes of its past. It perfectly complements the product. And that’s the trick with branding.

The company is called Hockings, and it you’re a visitor to North Devon you may have sampled their fine good. That’s not a typo either – it's ‘good’, singular. Because this product is so good it comes in only one flavour – vanilla.

It’s been made in Appledore by the same family since 1936 and their small fleet of branded vans has been travelling the North Devonian coastline selling their vanilla-only product to locals and visitors alike for nearly 80 years.

video tells the story of drama at sea

June 29, 2015 Darren Caveney

Video footage of good work far out at sea is helping to tell the story of the RNLI.

by Mike Rawlins

I volunteer as a Lifeboat Press Officer (LPO) for the RNLI at Macduff in Aberdeenshire where we have the only lifeboat in the RNLI that comes with its own truck and crane for launching, if that ever comes up in a pub quiz, you’ll ace it.

I have to say I have no affinity with the sea or seafaring blood in me, as far as I am aware. I’m from Manchester so the closest we ever got to the sea was the Manchester Ship Canal or Blackpool beach in summer. There was an incident with the pedalos at Weston Super-Mare in 1974 but that’s best forgotten.

dealing with the death of a colleague - help is at hand

June 16, 2015 Darren Caveney

Kathy Stacey is Head of Corporate Communications at Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service and Bridget Aherne is Head of Corporate Communications and Admin at Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service. They are Chair and Vice Chair of FirePRO and here they tell us about how they developed a toolkit for fire and rescue communicators in case the worst should happen…

by Bridget Aherne and Kathy Stacey

The death of a colleague is unthinkable and the idea that someone we work with could lose their life at work is just awful – but that terrible possibility is one that we in the emergency services must face.

Deaths in the line of duty are, thankfully, rare but each and every single one is a devastating event that has an enormous impact on family, colleagues, organisations and all those connected to the person or people involved.

“i want a simpler life. so what i need is… a new intranet”

June 14, 2015 Darren Caveney

You’ve heard about the internet of things. Well how about the intranet of things?

by Darren Caveney

Since returning from a week’s holiday, most of which was spent offline, I have developed a strong urge to declutter and strip back life as much as possible. As with everyone else who has ever had a break from the laptops, tablets and the plethora of online distractions that can over-fill our lives, I felt very slightly liberated by the experience.

This ‘lighter’, simpler way to live then expanded into other areas of my life. Clothes not worn for six-months have been sent off to the charity shop, the garage has been cleared, rubbish has been emptied from drawers, paper sent off to be recycled. It feels good.

So now I am turning my attentions to work.

How and where could I simplify, reduce, and better organise with slicker thinking and fewer distractions? Apps, platforms, sites, tools. On and on and on it goes and in truth I’m not sure how much all of it is really necessary and enriching my life or my professional time. So I am stripping back.

can britain's best kept secret teach us about open collaboration?

June 10, 2015 Darren Caveney

Knowledge Hub is the leading public sector forum to discuss and share ideas.
But what can they learn from the Second World War codebreaking operation at
Bletchley Park? Quite a bit it seems.

by Liz Copeland

During the Second World War Bletchley Park was Britain’s best kept secret and home to an incredible list of codebreaking and game-changing
achievements that, it is said, shortened the length of the war by two years.

why knowing your people pays off

June 9, 2015 Darren Caveney

Continuing our spotlight on internal communications, one senior communications professional shares six key tips aimed at better knowing your colleagues...

by Emma Rodgers

The tide is turning and communicating with employees is now being placed more front and centre than ever before. And while in my view, we’re still not able to shed that perception of internal communications as the Cinderella service, the case continues to be proven for why it’s critical that everyone who works in your organisation is clear on how they contribute (see here and here).

As comms2point recently launched their dedicated internal comms resource, I thought it would be timely to contribute some thoughts, particularly on one of the areas which I think can so often be underrated, yet can prove so important for successful internal communications.