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Monday, December 1, 2014 
It's funny what motives people. Since going freelance and setting up a company I've never worked harder but its never seemed quite like work used to. Why is that?
by Dan Slee
I’ve been thinking a bit about what makes my heart sing. Not what you are passionate about. Anyone can be ‘passionate’. It’s a word that is rapidly losing its meaning.
What I mean is what makes your heart truly sing.
Saturday, November 29, 2014 
You know that feeling... you're looking for present ideas and you just don't know what to get the comms person in your life.
by Dan Slee
Last year we came up with a range of present ideas that we thought people would like. Then we noticed Matt Murray's commsgodigital selection and were prompted to come up with a selection of our own for you to take a look at.
We've created an Amazon Associates account so if you click through this Amazon link or any on the page we get a small contribution to help pay for our hosting and our surveymonkey (thank you kindly, guvnor!)
Saturday, November 29, 2014 
Who won post of the month? Eyes down for a full house.
by Dan Slee
In all the fun of the unawards its easy to overlook the rolling chapter of democracy that is the monthly post of the month.
Ladies and gentlemen, democracy.
This is why my grandfather marched 1,000 miles reatreating through the Burmese jungle in the Second World War.
Saturday, November 29, 2014 
The world is changing and PR with it. If you work in PR or communications there is a book and set of arguments you'll be hearing more of in the New Year. It cuts to the heart of what public relations is and does.
by Dan Slee
Fueled by a bottle of red wine a frustrated journalist and blogger wrote a bold post in 2006 called ‘Die! Press Release! Die! Die! Die!’ that took an axe to one of the standard tools in the PR toolbox.
Now taught in colleges the Tom Foremski post was a battle charge against the Linus blanket of the press release and its 400 words of journalese, approved quotes and notes to editors.
Friday, November 28, 2014 
The inaugural comms2point0 UnAwards take place in December in Birmingham. Here's a quick update on the story so far, and details of how you can get involved...
First off, we wanted to repeat our huge and genuine thank you to everyone who has shown interest, entered awards, talked so positively and shared the love for the inaugural comms2point0 UnAwards.
We are very, very grateful.
As a result, it means that you have created the most popular comms industry awards in the UK this year*
Friday, November 28, 2014 
It used to be that communicating a budget for a local authority was simple. A few posters, maybe. A press release. But with budget cuts nationally every pound matters and so does how you communicate it. But in the rush to digital don't forget IRL.
Council budget-setting season is in full swing. All of us local gov people are busy promoting our budget surveys as far and wide as possible.
We’re doing the same in Buckinghamshire and I’ve just spent a morning with our Council Leader at a local train station, handing out our survey leaflets to commuters a segment of our residents who often get missed out, as they are working in London or elsewhere most of the week.
Wednesday, November 26, 2014 
This week we spoke in Scotland to an audience of public sector communications people. Here are some stats as to why it's a really good place to be working in comms and PR right now.
by Dan Slee
If you are in Scotland and working in public sector communications you are the envy if your peers from across the UK.
Why?
For a start, you stage large scale elections where large numbers of people turn out to vote without the shadow of hanging chads.
But you also have more people in Scotland consuming the media TV, radio, web, social media than anywhere else in the UK.
Thursday, November 20, 2014 
Here is an event that affects everyone that you can join in with to help with the environment.
by Sara Vogt
With a big international summit in 2015 to agree a global cut in emissions, the world is talking about climate change again. Scientists are clear, climate change is happening, it is one of the most serious threats facing the UK and we need to take action now.
PR Week has started dedicating a page each month to climate change communications. Businesses are coalescing in groups such as The Climate Group and Corporate Leaders’ Group; and, NGOs have recently launched a For The Love Of campaign, to call for climate action for the sake of all the things that matter most.
At DECC, we’re piloting campaign activity encouraging people to #BackClimateAction, starting with a Tweetathon on 25th November - timed to generate discussion on climate change the week before the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Lima.
Our campaign focuses on the relevance of climate change to our lives by linking it to issues people care about most, such as food and health. This addresses the fact that while two-thirds of the public are already ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ concerned about climate change, they don’t always make the connection between the issue and their own lives.
Why a Tweetathon? The format enables us to show collective action on an issue where no one group (whether government, business or communities) or country can solve it by acting alone. We’re delivering the Tweetathon with a broad mix of partners across the public and private sector, and international organisations, including Sky TV, Unilever, Microsoft, the British Medical Association (BMA), former UK Rear Admiral Neil Morisetti and the Indian IPL cricket team Royal Challengers Bangalore. Within government, DECC, FCO, DH, BIS, EA, Met Office and the Scottish Government are among those already involved.
Anyone can get involved by tweeting questions as well and finding out what leaders in the field are thinking and doing on climate change. The tweetathon will be broken down into hourly slots, one after another, and each themed around a different subject such as health, cities and sport. Each session will be led by a different expert who will respond to your questions about how climate change will impact the featured subject matter or the action that can be taken.
We’ve used a ten-day countdown with a focus each day on a different theme (food, health etc) which has enabled supportive partners from each sector to start to amplify campaign messages. Tweets with images are 94% more likely to be retweeted so we’ve created a series of vines. Each vine is split in two with an an image and hashtag, which we supplement with a factoid. We name check relevant partners in our tweets on specific themes, which they are then retweeting to state support, while adding additional factoids of their own.
Half way through our countdown to the big day and, in terms of outputs, according to Tweetreach #BackClimateAction has reached 2.9m accounts and 9.6m impressions. With support from BIS, the event will be closely monitored and evaluated by Ipsos Mori to track changes in the online conversation around climate change. This insight will then be used to help shape future climate change campaign activity.
You can get involved using #BackClimateAction and follow @DECCgovuk. Submit your questions to @DECCGovuk in advance of the day and on the day itself and sign up to support theThunderclap.
Sara Vogt is Head of Campaigns at the UK Government Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC.)
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 
Heard the one about the tabloid reporter who had had enough? And then quit? And then made a film doorstepping newspaper editors to give them a taste of their own medicine? Rich Peppiatt is that man and there is a special screening in Birmingham.
By Alan Taman
One Rogue Reporter is the result: a 90-minute film which mercilessly and hilariously uses that irony to raise crucial questions about the graceless fall of the Red-Tops. About press freedom, privacy, and ethics in journalism. Questions which every journalist who claims to have a conscience (ie, is human) should be asking. As should every PR, because what happens in journalism echoes for (some would say is generated because of) PR.
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 
When I left local government six months ago I said that this was to do more in local government and the public sector.
by Dan Slee
Every week being full-time on comms2point0 has been quite literally an adventure. One of the adventures was to write social media guidance for part of the public sector that is struggling with it. Health and Wellbeing Boards are where the NHS, charities and councils come together to make billions of pounds of spending decisions.
Saturday, November 15, 2014 
We thought the unawards would throw up some good stuff. We just didn't guess just how much good stuff.
by Dan Slee, Darren Caveney and Emma Rodgers
If we were American we would be saying right now that the lovely wonderful comms2point0 community are 'awesome.'
We may also be busy high fiving people and 'whooping' very loudly.
But then again the three of us have drunk an awful lot of coffee since the deadline to the comms2pint0 unawards passed on November 12.
Let's just say we were taken aback at the entries. There was the small total of 202 landing into our inboxes. That's 202. TWO HUNDRED AND TWO. We've spent around 50 hours reading, logging, grading and shortlisting.
Friday, November 14, 2014 
We use Twitter, Facebook and YouTube well. But after that it tails off. WhatsApp has 500 million users. But few people are using it as a comms channel. Not Shropshire Council who have launched a trial.
by Lorna Perry
Well, what a year it has been, and with six weeks to go before I leave Shropshire Council (to have a baby) I have been itching to try out one last thing – WhatsApp as a communications / customer service channel.
After seeing the huge success we have had on Twitter this year, really working hard on our engagement and gaining a massive 10.7k followers, I starting thinking about how people contact Elected Members and the Council in general.
Thursday, November 13, 2014 
When we dreamed-up the unawards we wanted something easy to enter, social, not in London and something that everyone could enter. The response has been truly staggering. Thank you. Sincerely. Here's the next steps.
by Emma Rodgers, Darren Caveney and Dan Slee
Wow and we mean wow. We simply have been overwhelmed with the number of award entries we've had for our unawards.
We knew it was hotting up - our twitter antenae was telling us that you were pretty keen on the idea and yesterday, in true transfer deadline day style we saw the fruits of all that discussion result in over 200 award submissions.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014 
Today we are sharing new and untold real life housing stories
by Ade Capon
Right now across the UK housing organisations and their tenants are tweeting, Face booking and You tubing their housing stories.
This is our focus for #HousingDay 2014 – promoting the creation of new and untold housing stories. To be shared and in effect crowd sourced under a hash tag campaign. Only by housing organisations ever engaging with their tenants and customers will we be able to compile a compelling housing narrative. Not from our point view but from theirs.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014 
They can be hugely popular. Whole sectors joining in a hashtag for a day to tell their individual day-to-day stories. By putting hundreds together you build a bigger picture. Here are some tips.
by Dan Slee
So, you are wondering whether or not to join in #housingday, #ourday or a similar real time Twitter event.
But I’ll bet you think that you’ve nothing to say and not many people will find what you are doing interesting, right?
