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Tuesday, March 11, 2014 
There's often a tendancy to clam up when something bad happens in an organisation, especially when the subject matter is truly sad and disturbing. But one local authority took a braver approach.
by Amanda Rose
As a council press officer there are issues you’ll face which initially will fill you with dread.
Monday, March 10, 2014 
In an increasingly automated world, we consumers are being forced to channel-shift into more and more self-service shopping. But what's the impact on customer experience and reputation?
I was reminded again recently how important customer experience is to a company’s brand and the potential impact a single transaction can have on an organisation’s reputation. This is particularly the case where brand communications aren’t joined up and both your customers’ and employees’ experience are not aligned.
It all started at one of those high street self-checkouts. You know the ones, “unexpected item in the bagging area” (we think you’re a thief) or “approval needed” (you’re how old?).
Sunday, March 9, 2014 
Professional versus personal profile and use. It's an on-going issue for comms folk. One of our brethren is doing more than most to vocalise and shine a light on the challenges we face.
by Phil Jewitt
The title of this post is taken from a TV series that ran for nearly 20 years. Called Stars In Their Eyes, it involved members of the public, sometimes celebrities, impersonating famous people from the music industry by singing one of their songs. At the beginning of each impersonation you got to see the person going about their own life and giving clues about who they were going to impersonate. Just before their transformation into the pop star, they would introduce themselves by saying the words, “Tonight Matthew, I’m going to be [insert pop star's name].”
Thursday, March 6, 2014 
Employee engagement is a strand of internal comms. Here's an inspiring story of how a housing provider engaged with more than 200 staff in difficult times.
What happens when you mix Play Your Cards Right, Blind Date, Family Fortunes and an old school headmaster?
Well at Helena Partnerships you have the recipe for a very lively (and noisy) staff event, complete with yellow brick road.
Wednesday, March 5, 2014 
There really are some things that unite every comms person. In this post the chair of LGComms vents some spleen and raises a few things that will make more than a few nod in recognition.
by Cormac Smith
I love my work in local government. Both in my day job as a senior communications advisor and in my national role of chairman of LGcommunications I get to work with some fantastic people doing work that I hope makes a real difference.
Wednesday, March 5, 2014 
Get involved, get involved, get involved. If your organisation is planning a big change or channel shift as a comms person get involved. But don't just think of the external message. Without question think internal comms first. At channelshiftcamp in Glasgow that came across really clearly.
by Dan Slee
Once upon a time there was a project to save millions and make life easy for customers.
It was great and looked terrific. "Of course it'll work," those that worked on it assured people. "It'll save us money and make it easier for people to do business with us."
Six months later on and the project didn't do a fraction of what it was supposed to do and got quietly closed down.
Wednesday, March 5, 2014 
So, you've done the Twitter event. But how do you measure what kind of impact it had? Here's what he people behind one event to look at what changed because of it. The answers are varied.
Last year #Housingday tweetathon reached a 1,000 tweets an hour. This survey looked to find out about the impact of the day. We wanted to hear from those involved, what they thought about it and what the sector could do next?
Monday, March 3, 2014 
And the final whistle has blown and the post of the month has been declared. But which contributor is like the Arsenal-beating Stoke City with a broad smile on its face? And which other links made the charts?
by Dan Slee
There is nothing quite like a heated debate to spark a heated debate and this month certainly proved top be the case.
There was a wide spread of posts making a bid for the highly-coveted post of the month by securing the most traffic. The winner gets a silver trophy and a copy of essential social media book Share This Too thanks to the kind people at the CIPR.
1st But top of the lot was serial winner Emma Rodgers of Staffordshire County Council for her post in the wake of the LGComms Nottingham event which asked if comms people are serial blockers. Well worth reading if you've missed it. You can read it here: http://bit.ly/1bZ5mzh
2nd is a blast from LGComms Academy last year and a sure sign that things are heating up for this year's event. It's Dan Slee on the fringe event which asked if traditional comms is dead. You can read it here: http://bit.ly/1luxBOI
3rd is a debut blogger Michael Underwood whose frank assessment of the mistakes made when a Twitter hashtag backfired are essential reading. Top marks for honesty and some good lessons to share. You can read it here: http://bit.ly/1eo5JDf
4th is an excellent post on how social media can play havoc with business continuity by Northward Housing's Steve Finegan. You can read it here: http://bit.ly/1eVCAQc
5th is Tony Moran from MOD on how a long drive to open up his corner of the department to social media is paying off with a blog, Twitter and LinkedIn. You can read it here: http://bit.ly/1bcCDwj
Dan Slee is co-founder of comms2point0.
Monday, March 3, 2014 
Socitm Insight’s annual snapshot of the state of development of 432 UK local council websites, Better connected 2014, is published today.
by John Fox
This year’s report includes analysis of a special survey that examined digital engagement.
Engagement is vital to help promoting channel shift, but also for securing citizen focus and encouraging citizen feedback into services. Promoting online services is just as critical as providing online services that work and are easy to use. In fact, marketing is a key component in achieving cost-saving channel shift and ensuring the success of ‘digital by default’ strategies.
Sunday, March 2, 2014 
Never. In the field of human conflict. Has powerpoint. Badly deployed. Caused so much damage. Of course, Winston Churchill was a good leader. But he was never hindered by pie charts and bullet points on powerpoint. In this post look at where you need to tailor the approach.
by GUEST EDITOR Chris Bolton
Excellent News! Through extensive research* I’ve located a picture of Winston Churchill from June 1940, practicing his Powerpoint presentation of the ‘fight them on the beaches’ speech.
If you squint carefully (its an old picture) you can just make out the Pie Chart percentages of where the fighting will take place: Beaches 45%, Landing Grounds 20%, Fields 10% etc. Apparently Churchill was ready to deliver the carefully crafted presentation when, during a bombing raid the House of Commons projector bulb was shattered by some stray shrapnel. The result was the impromptu, unsupported speech to Parliament, and the rest is history.
Thursday, February 27, 2014 
Thunderclap? What's that? It's a social platform for making a bigger bang. Here in a case study is what it is and how it works.
by Anna Warren
I first heard of a Thunderclap when our friends at Fire and Rescue asked us to join theirs for the ‘Tick Tock Test’ campaign. Being a social media intern I felt a bit embarrassed that I had never heard of a one before. Luckily, when I looked around the team I realised no one else seemed sure either.
It was clear: we needed to get our hands on this tool and do some experimenting.
Monday, February 24, 2014 
If you spend any time at all online and want to know something in a hurry, where do you go? The chances are that you'll log on to Wikipedia, even if you get there via Google, but how much do you know about this vast knowledge base?
by GUEST EDITOR Stevie Benton 
Founded in 2001, Wikipedia is the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Its mission? To share the sum total of all human knowledge with everyone on the planet, for free. That's a lofty ambition and one that can never be fulfilled. But that isn't stopping Wikipedia contributors – Wikipedians – from having a real go at making it happen.
Saturday, February 22, 2014 
Challenges, challenges everywhere. So what do they look like for a local government communications officer? Here's one perspective.
Like a friendly drill sergeant comms2point0 has asked me to drop and give him five challenges I face. Here they are:
Tuesday, February 18, 2014 
Two blokes had an idea in a pub. 'Wouldn't it be great,' one said, 'if we could watch 'Withnail & I' in the cinema with some mates.' They nodded. They posted the idea to Twitter. The idea grew. It spread. Now, it's a fully blown weekend of cultural activity. All organised through social media.
by Matt Bowsher and Hugh Evans
I think of my smartphone as a giant digital octopus. It can take the most random of thoughts and reach a virtual tentacle out to connect with someone similarly afflicted.
All soc med (but for me Twitter in particular) provides immediacy; the sense of the now. The connections that we make create a sense of the active stakeholder as opposed to the passive consumer. Going to a cinema to watch a film is an act of passive consumerism. Creating the demand to tell the cinema what to screen isn't.
Sunday, February 16, 2014 
Why blog? Twenty years on from the first weblogs and the question still gets asked. Just recently it has been asked by CIPR president Stephen Waddington who asked 14 bloggers in his network the same question. The fascinating results have been turned into a download and a slideshare. This is one contribution.
by Dan Slee
Blogging. Why bother? It's a question I've asked myself before as I've reached for the laptop after a busy day when probably a bottle of wine would have been better.
As it turns out, I'm not alone. According to one estimate there are more than 200 million and that's not event counting micro-blogging platform Twitter.
For me, it's a place to think things through, bounce an idea or record something as a snapshot and it was fascinating to read through the other entries Stephen captured in 'The Business of Blogging.' You can read it here.
