66 nuggets I picked up at #ComsAcad

The World cup may have kicked off this week but all the talk in Manchester was about communications at the inaugural Public Sector Communications Academy.

by Darren Caveney

I’m a little biased, but I thought that this was the best Academy I’ve attended and the collaboration with central government added a welcome extra dot-joining and learning dimension.

For many communications pros it is becoming harder and harder to get to events like this one. But I believe that it’s never been more important to continue to learn, to expand and to share.

That’s what’s so great about Government Director of Communications, Alex Aiken’s drive to invest in government comms people and their development – it is setting a tone and direction which other parts of the public sector can point to in their own organisational fights for investment in up-skilling.

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what is my future of comms?

The future of comms? It's exciting but complicated as this bold manifesto shows.

by Dan Slee

Since leaving local government to launch comms2point0 as a start-up I’ve been thinking more about the future of comms.

Working at the coal face gives me a deep appreciation of the job that comms teams do and stepping back makes me appreciate the job that lies ahead of them.

But I’m optimistic. I’m excited. The train is rolling and it’s picking up steam.

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survey launch: the death of organic reach on social media

If you work in digital comms you'll be aware of a storm coming down the path. It's about Facebook. What you post may not be seen unless you have an advertising budget to help promote it. We're launching a survey with the nice people at Deeson Creative on social media and advertising. We'd love you to take part in it. But first here's a take on where we are and where we are headed.

by Emily Turner 

How many people have told you that they’ve seen a tail off of engagement on Facebook and that fail-safe images no longer bring forth the plethora of likes, shares and comments they used to?

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local government comms survey: surprising optimism amid the storm clouds

Here's a snapshot of what local government communications people feel and think in the UK and also in a shadow survey with the excellent commsgodigital blog in Australia. There are some surprising stats. Not least the amount of optimism. 

by Dan Slee and Matt Murray

There's more optimism than pessimism in local government comms people in the UK and Australia and New Zealand, a survey has revealed.

But in the UK there's two streams developing with a sizable rump of people who don't see a bight future alongside those who do. 

The positivity is most prevalent Down Under with 78 per cent of those surveyed having a positive outlook as opposed to just three per cent negative.

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a day in the life of #seewhatwedo

We first came across Caerphilly Council's innovative use of social media in 2011. And they're still going great guns with it three years on.

by Emily Worthington and Jayne Catherall

 Why do local authorities embrace social media? Because everyone is doing it? At Caerphilly County Borough Council we might use a cartoon sheep ‘Nev’ to encourage people to follow us, but don’t confuse us with the fluffy creatures.

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a #rightnotafight: how specialist colleges are campaigning

It's always fascinating seeing how comms challenges stack up for other people. Take colleges. Not just colleges but specialist colleges...

by Dan Slee

I recently found myself delivering a couple of sessions on effective use of social media for the Association of National Specialist Colleges (or Natspec).

What are specialist colleges? They're colleges across the country that help students with specific special needs. The Royal National College for the Blind - or RNC - for example, in Hereford is a residential college for young people who are visually impaired. They can get an education with far greater levels of support than they would in what's called 'mainstream' education.

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losing the reputation battle, but winning the war

Reputation. It's a key element of any communications campaign. But as an outcome, reputation enhancement alone is not going to cut the mustard with residents.

by GUEST EDITOR Julie Waddicor

As foot soldiers and officers, we stand surveying the battlefield. Through no fault of our own, we seem to have lost the fight for reputation.

Our successful campaigns lie strewn in the mud, some effective in their time but forgotten now. The war around us has moved on, focusing on changing how residents relate to us and the relationship we have with them.

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using pinterest in the public sector

Pinterest? That's for weddings, isn't it? Not entirely. One bright comms person is experimenting in the public sector.

by Karen Jeal

There are more than 500,000 businesses using Pinterest. So at Lambeth Council are we behind the times or ahead of the game? Well there’s only a handful of councils using it so we’ve added ourselves to that small list and started pinning.   

In the three years since Pinterest launched, there are more than 70 million people using it. Wow. That’s impressive.

In Pinterest there are boards. You pin things on the boards. People follow you or your boards. You can like things without attaching it to a board. In short it’s a virtual inspiration board. Those already ‘pinning’ will know that it's far more than that, but at Lambeth we’re just settling in.

We’ve started using it to influence outcomes, engage with our community and encourage more collaboration.  

Things you can recycle is one of our boards. The idea – to create a range of things showing residents what you can be recycled and how to reuse different objects. The long-term outcome of this is to increase recycling rates and reduce waste.

We recently ran a parks challenge where residents tell us what they want to see in their parks. Pinterest is a great way of doing this too. Adding things that inspire us or to pin things others are doing to create a virtual mood board of which direction we want our parks to go in.

We’ve a board for each of our priorities to really drill down to what they mean and how we can fulfil them. We’re using it influence too – a board named ‘People of the borough’ basically showcases everyone who has an association with Lambeth.

Take a look http://www.pinterest.com/lambethcouncil/ you’ll see it’s still in its early stages but it’s going to be a great tool for taking our digital channels to the next level.

Karen Jeal is digital officer at London Borough of Lambeth.

navigating internal comms? it’s plain sailing.

Remember when you didn’t work in comms? When you didn’t have access to every possible piece of information about your organisation? When you had no idea who the chief executive was and there was more chance of winning Euromillions than you ever meeting them in the flesh?

by Jo Smith

I have to go back 20 years to my graduate days to be ‘BC’ – Before Comms.  Back then people still used typewriters. Email was barely born, mobile phones were the size of suitcases and if you wanted news you read the paper.  Since then I’ve watched communications techniques evolve and have done my best to keep up with every exhausting and exciting step.

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proposals to improve health and wellbeing board social media... what do you think?

We've been working with the Local Government Association. We're helping them to draw up some social media guidelines to help a vital body use social media better. We'd love it if you'd take a quick look at this post and tell us what you think in this survey here.

by Dan Slee

There’s a new network of key bodies across England that work to improve the health and wellbeing of their local residents and reduce health inequalities.

Known as ‘health and wellbeing boards’, they bring together the local council, clinical commissioning group, Healthwatch and other key local players in a genuine partnership and they do a really important job.

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launching the comms2point0 unawards

Alright, so the time is right for the comms2point0 unawards. It'll be a chance to celebrate good work. Are you in?

by Dan Slee and Darren Caveney 

Today we're announcing the comms2point0 unawards to help celebrate good work by comms people across the UK.

We want to hail the unsung heroes and the unpraised teams that are doing great work day in and day out often without credit.

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the press release is dead theory...? here's the practical

Further evidence that the press release is not the first thing comms people reach for in the toolbox. 

by Amanda Nash

We all know it. We’ve been told a million times. The news release is officially, well if not dead, then old news.

We’re still a bit sceptical about this though, aren’t we? Like a bad marriage, we just hang on in there, perhaps for old times’ sake.

But actions, as I always tell colleagues, do speak louder than words and our actions when we had our ‘crisis’ communication plans tested by a major incident recently, spoke volumes.

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the state of local government comms

Great work is being delivered, despite the huge challenges, but what is the state of local government comms in 2014?

by Dan Slee

Local government communications has always been a tricky gig but it's never been harder to deliver effectively than right now.

On the one hand there is £20 billion worth of cuts and on the other there is a need to explain the changes – and improvements – to residents.

We are staging a quick survey of local government comms people to find out more about the challenges they face.

We'll present the findings at the Public Sector Communications Academy taking place in Manchester from June 11 to 13.

So, if you work in the sector what are the challenges you face?

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how supermarkets are helping my council reach out

Sometimes, comms opportunities come from the most surprising sources...

by GUEST EDITOR Helen Fincher

A few months ago I had what some people might consider a mad idea, but one that to me made perfect sense: I want to send my Council Leader to a supermarket.

Not to shop, but to talk to people. I wanted the Leader, Martin Tett, to go out into communities and seek people out to hear their concerns first-hand.

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putting online advertising back on the agenda

Many a council comms officer has been given a daft income target for web advertising at some point. Few have achieved significant returns. But a new initiative might just be the answer to this oft debated issue.

by Simon Ellicott

Many local authorities have considered carrying advertising on their websites before and decided that the time wasn’t right. The most common issues have tended to be that it wouldn’t deliver enough revenue to justify, 1 – hiring staff to implement the technology and manage relationships with advertisers, and 2 – the perceived compromises in carrying advertising; and also concerns over the types of advertisers to which they want to expose their audience, and to which they want to associate with their corporate brand.

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