'vote for the lovely people...'

Okay, so who hasn't at least once while watching the Oscars mentally composed an acceptance speech?

Of course, when I take the podium at posh hotel in LA I'll recite the words "Thanks Mom, thanks Dad. Thanks, family. Thank you, God. Gee, I feel so humble..." and then I'll burst into tears.

A nice thing happened the other day when were were short listed in the Digital by Default News Digital Leaders 100.

Or rather we were long listed. There's a hundred. But we're down in the new start-up category. After almost three years of doing this in our own time me and Darren Caveney my oppo set comms2point0 as a company and I'm doing it full time which means longer hours, more fish finger sandwiches but most importantly the chance to do more things with good people. 

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a health campaign for clots

Did you know? You are more at risk of a blood clot after a stay in hospital than from a long haul flight. That's a bit of a headache if you are in the NHS. Which is where this comms campaign came in handy.

by Andrew Cooper

We recently launched the Ask about Clots campaign in Wales.

It aims to increase public awareness over the risk of developing a blood clot while in hospital. The campaign’s simple message encourages individuals to ask about their personal risk so that they can be assessed and treated appropriately.

As we know, the major consideration for any campaign is what will actually engage people and motivate them to take the desired action?

In developing Ask about Clots, we focussed on three main areas which we believed were necessary to enable and encourage people to start asking!

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are you a future leader?

LGcomms is on the lookout for the next generation of people who will be shaping the profession and leading public sector communications. Is it you?

by Eleri Roberts

Five years ago I thought being a Head of Communications wasn’t something for me. In fact, the idea was completely daunting. When the opportunity came for me to take on the role at the Council I was working for I was lucky enough to have a brilliant group of peers around me to provided support and advice as I took on the challenge.

Last year I was given the chance to get involved with the LGcomms Future Leaders programme which is designed exactly to help and support people in the situation I was in five years ago.

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the growing private and public social media split

Digital channels are growing but there is a trend amongst young people for 'private' social media. And what does that mean? Especially for customer services?

by Peter Sharples

We’re told that what we thought of as social is going private. Or, if you prefer, we’re being social in private. Sharing one message with a lot of people isn’t the done thing anymore, especially among the younger set.

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up for the cup: april's most popular posts

Every month we award a plastic cup to the winner of the most read post and the competition is sublime. Forget Liverpool, Chelsea and Man City in the Premiership. This is on another level.

by Dan Slee

It was another good month for posts on comms2point0 with another clutch of case studies, how to guides and think pieces.

It was also a month where I left local government comms to spend the time exclusively on comms2point0 and met some ace people and worked on some rather good projects.

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jgafsi and why it’s all about being there

Chained to the desk? Try getting out. Yes, yes, easier than it sounds but there are rewards to be had.

by Will Mapplebeck

We’re all busy right? Well we should be. Fewer people, more work. We all know what that’s like.

More work means more desk time and then that diary alert comes up, the one you’d forgotten all about.

It’s that site visit, the meeting with residents, the trip round a building, the thing that was arranged months ago when your diary was emptier than an average political promise.

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you need to create some time to experiment

Evidence is a really useful way of looking at communications. But if we don't leave space fr creativity and experiments we risk misunderstanding how to use growing and emerging digital tools and platforms.

by Dan Slee

There's been a real drive for evidence based campaigns in the public sector just recently.

Government communicators have been asked not to do anything unless it's based on data.

The argument goes that this cuts out the vanity campaign or the SOS - the Sending Out Stuff - that sees press releases and other things shovelled out the door because some action is better than nothing.

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can you help find real people to tell the frontline local government story?

Wouldn't it be great if people who worked across local government outside of the comms office told their story in real time? Can you help Geoff make this happen?

by Geoff Coleman

You may have seen my post last week: Could Twitter be a weekly voice for local government?

Basically I asked what people thought of the idea of a Twitter account curated by a different local government voice each week - if you've seen @sweden and @FarmersOfTheUK, you'll get the idea.

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why comms people should attend bluelightcamp

Unconferences are great places to learn new things and network. There's a great event coming up aimed at people from the emergency services. It's also free.

by Sasha Taylor

Unconferences are great places to learn new things and network. There's a great event coming up where you. It's also free.

You would be forgiven for thinking that data doesn’t have much to do with communications. If you work as a communication professional in the public sector, however, it’s not such a leap.

Data drives everything we do.

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don't sweat the facebook changes

There have been some big changes to Facebook of late prompting many to ask why and if it is worth bothering with unless you have a budget to support it. Here is one take.

by Jon King

Having stepped away from local government comms for a year, I’m back in the saddle again at another authority.

Knowing a little about social media helped. And just as I was extolling the virtues of Facebook as a means of connecting with residents I had to remind myself that the game has changed a little in my absence.

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when I learned about pr from millwall fc

So what happens when your passion becomes your work? For one fan a love of a London football team helped her public relations career. 

by Karen Jeal

I have been a Millwall fan all my life, so I always jumped at the chance to include the club in everything I did. Every school project revolved around Millwall.

I redesigned match programmes and wrote reports after games. But where it all started was a project where I designed an anti-racism campaign. I got an invite to the ground to meet the press team and from there my connection with the club grew. I was very persistent and ended up working with them on a voluntary basis, until one day I got a job offer. Unfortunately due to timings I had to turn it down. But here's what I learnt:

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communicating a utility network

Some public relations is pretty straight forward. You're an airport, say, and you'd like to tell people when you are open, when you are closed and where you can go. Or a car manufacturer - that's a pretty clear offer. But how about utility networks, the people who bring you things like power?

by Jonathan Morgan

Here’s a comms challenge. Everyone in your region uses your services – about 5m people – and some people literally can’t live without it. They don’t have any choice to use another company and they also don’t have a choice as to whether or not they pay you.

Most of the time they won’t even realise you’re there – unless there’s a problem. Then they may need to contact you, and fast, but that’s rare.

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everyone wants a virgin neil

We all know that employee engagement is important and can bring multiple benefits. But how many organisations really do it well? A recent visit to Virgin Trains opened the eyes of one comms professional.

by Natalie Corney

I was lucky enough to get an invite to the opening of the new First Class Lounge at Virgin Trains, Euston. I thought it would be rude not to turn up and there were canapés and cocktails in the offing.

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budget infographics: making the figures make sense

There is nothing like an infographic to make a big pile of numbers make sense. For the public sector explaining what they do has never been more important. In this brilliant case study one authority has used the web to create something interactive.

by Sarah Lay

I admit it; I’ve never really been one for figures. At best they confuse me, at worst they scare me. So being tasked with leading a project to translate Nottinghamshire County Council’s budget book into a format people could more easily get to grips with – people like me who cringe inwardly at the thought of wading through an accounts spreadsheet – was just the sort of challenge I liked.

And today we’ve released what we’ve created; an interactive infographic taking all the Council’s budget expenditure for 2014/2015 and displaying it in a more interesting, and hopefully easier-to—understand, format.

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happy foursquare day (and what the platform is)

Foursquare is four. The geo-location check in game is often overlooked as a social media channel by comms people. But with 45 million users it's maybe time for a second look. 

by John Fox

Happy Foursquare Day 2014. “Foursquare Day? What’s that?” Today, April 16, is the sixteenth day - four squared - of the fourth month of the year.

Foursquare is a social media web and mobile phenomenon that allows registered users to post their location at a venue. Such a check-in requires active user selection and points are awarded for each check-in, and each check-in can be posted on their accounts on Twitter, Facebook, or both. 

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