what winning an unaward has taught me

It's good to write. It's an excellent creative outlet and can provide a real spark to the thinking process. but there are, understandably, reasons why some people feel uncomfortable in publishing their work - if that's you, then this post aims to allay your fears.

by GUEST EDITOR Emma Rodgers

Recently, I was very honoured to be shortlisted in the comms2point0 UnAwards best guest blog post category. The post was shortlisted alongside four other posts which were all there because they were the most read on comms2point0 during 2015.

All five went forward to a public vote. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think I had a hope in hell of winning but amazingly (against the odds in my opinion) win, I did. It made me very proud and extremely grateful to those people who voted for me (thanks if you did).

And it also got me thinking. Of late I haven’t been writing many blogs.

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five ways to find bloggers

There are thousands of communities dotted around the web in the UK. These can range from hyperlocal sites that focus on an area to a community of shared interest like knitting. How can you find what you are looking for?

by Dan Slee

You're looking to talk to a community but how do you do it? A range of ways and the chances are that those communities could be online too.

For a comms plan to work it needs to reach out to all communities and ways to connect online is well worth looking at.

Here's a few resources to help you:

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what’s the hype over hyperlocal?

If you’re in comms, PR, or marketing, you shouldn’t be asking that question...

By Rachel Moss

The media landscape is changing. It’s something I blogged about last year in a post called ‘Regional News is Dead’.  And, as a former TV news broadcaster, turned PR pro, I find it absolutely fascinating.

Well established local newspapers, radio stations and TV newsrooms, are being axed or cut right back to the bone.

Meanwhile, 100’s of nubile little hyper-locals are springing up all over the place, eagerly plugging the gaps to give local communities the info they so desperately need and want.

It’s a riptide of cross currents that, as comms professionals, we really need to dive into.

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5 things a management blog should do and not do

Frontline teams and officers have been using social media as a way to connect with people direct. But how about senior people? There's a growing trend that this can work too.

by Dan Slee

There's been a few reasons but of late I've been paying more attention than usual to blogs maintained by senior people.

Who are senior people? I'd say chief executives, senior officers and maybe even a serving officer in the Britrish Army.

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300

300 is a perfect score in ten pin bowling. A very rare feat. But the comms equivalent is delivered quite regularly from what we get to see through the comms2point0 lens.

by Darren Caveney

Because I am sad and I count these things, I happen to know that this is the 300^th post to appear on comms2point0.

And so it seemed a good time to reflect on the brilliant case studies and posts we’ve featured along the way and the lessons we’ve learned.

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user generated content: ask nicely

User generated content. It's the polite way of saying pictures taken by residents or readers. But should we steal? Or should we borrow?

By Dan Slee

A couple of months ago I had barbed exchange with a former colleague.

We'd talked about the old days when we were both reporters at a daily newspaper and we smiled as we reminisced at old war stories.

Then our talk turned to the future for newspapers and a dark cloud drifted over our chat.

I spoke of how newspapers needed to be digital first and think of the web ahead of print.

I spoke of how bloggers shouldn't always be seen as the enemy but people to work with when you can.

I talked of how the bright newspaper should link back, attribute and ask for permission before using content.

I mentioned how annoyed bloggers get when their content is lifted.

"But this has always happened," my former colleague angrily said.

"They should just stop being precious. Think about when you lifted a story from another newspaper."

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the 11 fundamental laws of building online communities

There's a stack of disciplines that comms people can learn from. Not least the art of online community building. It takes time. And effort. And simply building it doesn't mean they will come. But as the web increasingly becomes a channel for everything - not just comms - these are skills to look at.

by Richard Millington

1. You must have a community manager. You absolutely must have someone who wakes up worrying about your community every morning.

2. Your community must have a purpose. Your community must have a purpose that matters to the people you’re trying to reach. You shouldn’t be creating the purpose, you should find a purpose a lot of people care about and build a community around it.

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the 3 c's of business blogging

Why you should join the growing trend for business blogging and how to find your blogging rythmn.

by Carol Caveney

Across all sectors, from SMEs to newspapers, from think tanks to universities, blogging is becoming big business. 

As a result, increasing pressure is being placed on comms teams to create and deliver fresh blog content on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.  Not just any old content, but content capable of demonstrating expertise, building awareness, sharing values and, most importantly, building stronger connections with customers. 

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up for the cup

by Darren Caveney

Thank you.

Thank you for the support and encouragement that so many of you have given to comms2point0 these past six months. It makes all of those early morning, coffee-fuelled get-ups totally worthwhile.

And an extra special thank you to all those good people – over 40 of you – who have written posts, shared experiences and shaped case studies for our site.

These posts really do make the difference and add to all of our ongoing learnings, which was one of the main reason Dan and I began comms2point0, whilst sat watching a cricket match at a sun-kissed Edgbaston and talking nonsense one special Friday afternoon.

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survey: how social is local government?

by Dan Slee

This social media thing. Are we doing it too much or too little? It's an internal argument going on in the head of many comms people.

There's been some useful research done on social media take-up by Ashford Council's Dean Spurrell.

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why blogging is good for business

As a (very) small business with an even smaller marketing budget one of my main priorities - after working on my product range and branding - was to start developing a strong online business identity. 

My first step was the development of an ecommerce website.  Somewhere to showcase and sell my products.  Somewhere to act as an anchor to my social media presence and my online and offline pr activity.

Having worked on big budget corporate websites for many years, I very much wanted to create a site that communicated as much about the personality behind the brand as it did sell. 

I also wanted the site to feel as carefully handcrafted as my products.  In short, I wanted my fingerprints to be all over it!

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