death of a president

History teaches us many things. Not least how we have responded in times of crisis.

by Will Mapplebeck

"The Lincoln continues to slow down. Its interior is a place of horror. The last bullet has torn through John Kennedy's cerebellum, the lower part of his brain. 

"...at first there is no blood. And then, in the very next instant there is nothing but blood...Gobs of blood as thick as a man's hand are soaking the floor of the back seat..."

I recently read The Death of a President, William Manchester's brilliant unflinching account of the events leading up to and the aftermath of the assassination of John F Kennedy in November 1963.

You can see the Wikipedia entry about the book here.

Everything is in here, from the paintings on the wall of the hotel room where Kennedy spent his last night alive to the layout of the emergency room the president lay in at Parkland Memorial Hospital as doctors tried vainly to save his life. 

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#nhs4xmasno1: a powerful message is not just for christmas

An NHS choir are making themselves heard through song. It's a campaign to show timely support. There's plenty to learn from this.

by Sally-Anne Watts

Over recent weeks I’ve been watching as word has spread about the campaign to make ‘Bridge Over You’ sung by the choir from Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Trust the Christmas number 1. 

It’s a simple enough message – show your support for something you believe in and help others by downloading the song.  It doesn’t cost much and you will feel good afterwards.  What’s not to like?

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star wars: content, brand re-boot and how to recover $4.1 billion

It's been hard to avoid it online, on TV, on the radio or in the school yard... there's a new Star Wars film. But this buzz isn't an accident and there's a lesson to learn.

by Julie Waddicor

A word of warning before we begin: if you haven’t seen ‘The Force Awakens’ and intend to, stop reading now. I am probably going to ruin it for you. These aren’t the droids you are looking for.

If you are still with me, you’ve either already seen it or aren’t going to, either of which is fine for our purposes. I saw it recently, and enjoyed it. I wouldn’t describe myself as a Star Wars fan, but I’ve seen all of the films, appreciated the original three and hated the more recent trilogy. I have bought a range of merchandise over the last month for the man of the house who is a fan (more of his opinion later). So, I went to see ‘The Force Awakens’ with no particular axe to grind nor any desperate need for it to be brilliant.

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how shooting your own star wars video delivered a safety message

There are huge numbers of people who like Star Wars as the launch of a new film in the franchise shows. So how would they react if a fire and rescue service used the force to deliver some safety messages? Rather well, it would appear.

by Mark Roberts

Kent Fire and Rescue Service is rethinking its approach to digital communications, with a new strategy already being worked on to coincide with the launch of a new campaign calendar for 2016/17. 

As the resident sci-fi nerd in the Comms team, I managed to persuade the powers-that-be a Star Wars parody would be an interesting and fun way to do a smoke alarm safety message - which is often a hard sell due to audience complacency - capitalising on the huge exposure generated by the release of the new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens.

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united we stand

Managing a team can be a tricky business. Balancing egos, personalities, ideas, grafters, blockers and dodgers. The best teams usually boast a natural leader. Or two.

by Phil Jewitt

There’s a film called The Damned United which tells the story of the managerial partnership of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor. Together, they successfully led Derby County and Nottingham Forest to football glory in the 1970s but not so successfully* after they went their separate ways. For those too young to remember or not remotely interested in football, you can replace Brian and Peter with Ant and Dec, The Hairy Bikers or any other successful partners.  

It’s probably fair to say none of them would have achieved the success they jointly have without the relationship they created and maintained and their understanding of each other and their teams.

Recent posts by Darren, Paul and Simon explained similar experiences of being a Head of Comms. Relevantly, they all talk about relationships, supporting and being supported by their teams.

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the periodic table of internal communication

The periodic table was created in 1869 to bring together all the known chemical elements under one roof enabling them to be studied, discussed and understood. Russian chemist Dimitri Mendeleev also predicted the discovery of other elements, and he purposely left spaces open for them.

by Caroline Roodhouse

We’ve recently worked with Chuck Gose, Corporate Communications VP, speaker & host of the internal comms podcast, ICology to replicate this original idea for internal communicators. And with hundreds of downloads from comms pros worldwide, it’s already proving to be very popular…

The Idea

The idea was to create a table of terms that would bring together all the elements of internal communication under one roof. We split the table across seven categories: Strategy, Objectives, Themes, Audiences, Formats, Channels and Metrics and populated each category with a number of common comms terms. From there, we’ve built the Periodic Table of Internal Communication, which you can download here.

A cracking response

The feedback so far has been fantastic. We’ve been overwhelmed with the positive responses…

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so, what can the communications industry learn from jamie vardy?

Ah, the Premier League. It's all about the top four and the £50 million signing, isn't it? Actually, no. Unglamorous Leicester City's striker Jamie Vardy scored in 11 consecutive matches to equal a top flight record that had stood since the 1930s. And he can teach comms people lots.

 by Eva Duffy

Leicester City footballer Jamie Vardy ends 2015 having made history by becoming the first Premier League player to score in 11 consecutive games. 

The 28-year-old striker’s backstory is one of slowburning graft from non-league football to the Premier League and his first England cap at an age when most professionals in the beautiful game are planning their exit strategy via a coaching qualification, semi-retirement in America or a career in televised banter. So what can we in the communication sector learn from the Foxes’ record-breaking golden boy?

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it’s the most wonderful time of the year: unawards 2015

There was real celebratory feel about the UnAwards15, which we’re pretty pleased about because that’s exactly what we hoped to achieve.

By Darren Caveney

The UnAwards15 saw 140 colleagues from across the industry descend on the very cool Everyman Cinema in Birmingham last Thursday. The mood was one of big event excitement - Christmas party meets trip to a posh cinema mixed with lashing of great communicators celebrating one another’s work.

Holding the UnAwards at Christmas is deliberate too – we wanted to add a little festive sparkle to the proceedings.

We’re a tad biased but we felt the whole day was a little bit special.

Sitting watching the fabulous Planes, Trains and Automobiles with what felt like a great big group of pals was pretty amazing. The film had a whole bunch of relevant messages and takeaways (and if you have ever watched the movie remember – ‘never assume you are cuddling a pillow’)

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it's time to talk about email: great new guidance launched

If email isn’t part of your communications strategy then now is the time to factor it in. The Local Government Association have drawn-up some excellent guidance right here - and we've contributed.

by David Holdstock

Emails may have been around for a long time but this technology is seeing a revival among council communicators across the country. And it’s easy to see why. With budget pressures and demands on local services continuing to rise, communications budgets are being stretched – so savvy comms professionals are turning their hands to this cost-effective tool.

There’s a strong business case for using email: research from GovDelivery shows that email is a useful way to increase your online audience, reduce call volumes and increase online transactions. So if email isn’t currently part of your wider communications strategy, then it is definitely time to re-think this.

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crisis comms: it's about people not processes

People often argue about the definition of what's a crisis and what's an emergency. That's maybe missing the point. This post highlights the really important thing - how it affects people.

by Christine Townsend

Having been asked to be part of the judging panel for the UnAwards is a real honour for me. Seeing colleagues and fellow comms people work hard in the public sector is always heartening and I'm proud to count myself amongst their number.

The crisis comms category sits comfortably with me as it's where my experiences lie. For once, I want to be comfortable and not challenged - this is something I'm enjoying doing without running on adrenalin, squinting at a screen, getting wet whilst plastic tape flickers in the background and I'm trying desperately to get reception on my mobile. I've had sleep, I've eaten a meal that consists more of a soggy sandwich and countless donuts and I'm ready to go. 

However, this made me wonder what a crisis really is and seeing the entrants has done exactly the opposite of what I was looking forward to - challenge me. Or rather, challenge my perceptions of what a crisis is. 

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let them tweet cake: why its not ict's job to police social media

It's still a problem. Still. Blocking social media for staff. Sometimes there's good reason for some departments. Often, there's not. This post by an experienced head of ICT and consultant will help you knock the false arguments out of the park. 

by Martin Sadler

I presented an ICT strategy report to a local government Cabinet about 5 years ago but before I was allowed to start, one of the cabinet members began with a news update;

“It said on the news this morning that YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are merging” she said. “It’s going to be called YouTwitFace”.

Now it was not a new joke even then, and as true words are often spoken in jest it signaled the presence of social media and almost it’s arrival in the public sector as a “thing”.

 A call to action for ICT managers to embrace and love social media.

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#unawards15 – the shortlist

Well that was fun.

Yesterday saw the end of our public vote and the announcement of the #UnAwards15 shortlist. I went slightly bog-eyed watching it all unfold but we now know the runners and riders in all 15 categories.

By Darren Caveney

Over 140 entries poured into the UnAwards15 from across the UK and from as far afield as Norway.

Central government, local government, NHS, Police, Housing, Fire, Higher Education, third sector and the agency world all took part and our 14 external judges have had quite a task in getting down to our final shortlist.

The standard of your entries this year has been high. We know this because some of our judges are hard to impress, But impressed they were.

Our love and respect for this fabulous comms, PR, marketing and digital community, which we all exist in, just grows and grows and thank you so much for supporting the #UnAwards15.

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internal communicators: here’s your guide to employee engagement, zombie style

BEAT THE ZOMBIES is back!

by Caroline Roodhouse

There’s been some spine tingly spooky goings-on down at Alive HQ as we’ve gathered together the latest stats, advice and best practice on all things employee engagement, and put it all together in this up-to-the-minute zombie tribute.

Peculiar irregularities…

According to widespread survey results across a stack of organisations, employee engagement rates are regularly coming in at 70% and above. That’s not to be sniffed at. BUT, the CIPD 2015 Employee Outlook Survey indicated that the employee engagement index within the UK is at just 39%. That’s quite a disparity. So what’s the score? Can we rely on survey results alone? The smart organisations are exploring alternative metrics, examining other areas of the business and considering the potential pitfalls when it comes to engagement surveys. And they’re well aware of what’s causing the problems too.

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the role of mobile user experience in the digital communications plan

Here’s a quantitative look at how user experience and usability can influence user conversion on an organisation’s own website.

by Sarah Gill

The experience of your target audience when interacting with your app or website on a mobile device should be an essential consideration in every digital communications plan.

Users form their emotional reaction to your organisation very quickly and if their information needs aren’t met swiftly, abandonment will surely follow.

Not to be confused with usability, the consideration of the user experience represents a holistic approach to all aspects of a user’s interaction with a business, it’s service and products. User experience and usability are terms often used interchangeably but there are key differences...

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