shut up about the digital divide

'The future is already here,' one commentator once said. 'It's just unevenly distributed.' But in a challenging post about the digital divide one view is that surely much of the debate is now over?

by Natalie Corney

I turn on the news this morning to hear that HMRC are going to be closing 137 offices and opening new regional centres.

How did I react to that? I said 'oh ok,' to myself and carried on eating my breakfast.

How did the BBC react? With an interview posing a number of questions, followed by the big hitter – but what about all those older people that can’t use the internet?

Seriously, can we all just get a grip?

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are emoji’s a fad or a new language?

Emoji's. Here's a very timely and helpful post on the little blighters ;-)

by Lou Invine-Rawlins

Some of you may use these friendly little icons in your messages, some of you may hate them with a passion…but as Sony announces they’re making a movie about them I decided I had to blog/acknowledge their overwhelming existence.

Whatever you think about emoji they’re growing in popularity at a rapid pace and more marketers are using them to communicate with customers and team members alike.

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my best piece of advice to someone working in digital comms in 2015

Advice. It's maybe something we should all ask for more of. So asking the comms and digital community for their best piece of digital advice seemed a good place to begin.

by Dan Slee

The best advice about falling, Chevy Chase once said, is never to land.

Wise words from the star of ‘Spies Like Us’ but does it apply to the landscape of digital comms? Maybe. Maybe not. So, we decided to ask some people we rate for their best piece of advice.

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the #prstack book: a guide to digital tools

The #prstack project is something we've blogged about. It's a crowdsourced review of apps and tools that are available for comms people. There has been an ebook published on it. It's worth a look. Here's how one person got involved.

by David Sawyer

I met Stephen Waddington in October last year.

He was speaking at a CIPR event in Glasgow about his 10 pledges to modernise the public relations industry in the UK.

Here was a man speaking my language. New PR.

It wasn't always the case.

Five years ago, like many senior PR pros, I had the digital fear.

But through a combination of sheer hard work and determination, I grasped the digital nettle. 

I grappled with a bewildering array of online tools. Trying and testing them in a bid to make my "new PR" life easier. 

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why we are adding digital to the comms team

Adding digital skills to the comms team is the long term ambition of many. But one authority is making it a reality.

by Clare Yau

Considering what digital skills and types of digital roles we needed was a key issue in both planning and delivering our ambitious Digital First project, to transform our website, online customer journeys, use of social media, staff intranet and more.

From the outset, we knew that the critical issue – after getting organisational approval and backing for the project - was ensuring we had the right people with the right mix of skills.  

So, we set about researching what types of digital expertise and roles were out there. We found some interesting results.

Our research included participating in a Digital Leaders webinar on digital talent, reading Smart Insights information on structuring a digital team and considering Government Digital Service’s range of digital job descriptions.

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the mobile opportunity for comms

Mobile, mobile, mobile. It's on all the smart people's lists of things that are getting big in 2015. But what does that mean for comms people? 

by Dave Briggs

The growth in popularity of messaging applications, such as Whatsapp, Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, Kik and others have caused a few communicators to start thinking about what the impact of these new channels might have on the way we engage with our communities.

However, it turns out that messaging is, in fact, the least interesting thing about messaging apps. You see, it’s all about the platform. To find out more, we must look east, and to the incredible rise of WeChat in China.

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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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comms as a lifesaver during the #ukstorm

Driving rain and storms have battered Britain - but how have the emergency services coped in communicating the warnings?

by Dan Slee

If ever you needed proof that sharing out access to social media was a bright idea take a look at the January storms that struck Britain.

High winds, 30-foot waves and flood warnings struck across the country.

It was imperative that messages were sent out and a network of Environment Agency, local government and central government accounts on Twitter helped spread key messages and point people towards the Environment Agency website.

Google news reveals 32,500 news items online with the terms 'Britain' and 'storm' as weather swamped the conversation and the news agenda.

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delivering a digital G8 dementia summit

On 11 December it's the first ever G8 dementia summit, in the final days of the UK's presidency. It's an event imbued with hope – the hope of anyone who has ever been affected by dementia or loved someone who has – hope of a better future.

by Anna Hepburn

For the Department of Health, the summit is just one moment in our ongoing digital engagement around dementia. But it’s a very special moment, when we expect to be able to reach more people than before. It matters to so many people what is discussed at the summit and what progress is made. Inevitably there is not enough space to accommodate all the people who would like to be there. And that's why it's especially important for the Department of Health digital team to deliver the best digital coverage we can.

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3 reasons why you can’t build a decent website without a comms expert

Next time you are building a new website, do make sure that you have a comms person on the team.

by GUEST EDITOR Helen Gill

For me, the power of social media as a PR tool is the power to publish your own content and start to influence and shape the agenda so that you don’t always have to rely so heavily on media relations any more. That’s why I don’t like the phrase ‘online PR’ or even ‘digital PR’ – it just feels like a way of doing what we’d always done but in a slightly different format.

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a digital comms libraries case study

Libraries, aren't they filled with people in buns shushing other people? No. Not in Halton in the north west. They're using technology as a way of connecting with their audience and authors.

by Mark Allen

#Haltonreads takes Halton's Libraries in 'One Direction' - forwards!

Halton Borough Council's libraries have been at the forefront of social media for some time, seeing the new methods sitting comfortable alongside the more traditional ones in attracting new readers and interacting with existing ones.

The service was early to use Facebook/Twitter as a way of engaging with its users, especially as more and more people use libraries for their IT facilities as well as to read conventional books.

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how to communicate a g8 summit

There were 8,000 police officers at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland in 2013. The world's leaders gathered and key items were discussed. But what was the role of the 10 Downing Street digital team?

by Gillian Hudson

I was in a meeting the other week when it occurred to me that the beautiful round table we were gathered at was used by leaders at this year’s G8 summit at Lough Erne, Northern Ireland.

In addition to adding a slightly absurd twist to my otherwise fairly run-of-the-mill meeting, it quickly took me back to the fantastic time I had as part of the G8 digital team.

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an app to bring police and communities closer together

Sometimes a press release or some social media just won't do. When Greater Manchester Police force were looking to register help from residents they developed a smartphone app that uses the geolocation capability of a smartphone.

by Amanda Coleman

Almost 12 months ago we were discussing how new technology identifying locations could support frontline policing. Apps are at their best when they use the mobile element to do something different to websites or social networks.

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have you overlooked visual communications tools?

As comms people we naturally favour words as our key means of getting the message across but often, and particularly when it is quite a complex of dry topic, I find it pays to be more visual.

by Michelle Evans

Until recent years I was guilty of using the tried and tested to communicate; posters, flyers, web page and video clips. Video clips are a particular bug bear of mine when used inappropriately. I’m sure we’ve all experienced that awkward moment where a service lead wants to launch a new policy or strategy and is adamant that a video is the only way to go.

You try to explain the amount of time and money it will take to produce in return for the amount of people who will watch it makes it a very costly way of communicating. Then you point out that even if staff start watching, they probably won’t make it to the end of the 20 minute epic they are planning about the new way sickness needs to be recorded.

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when geek meets journo

From time to time we have work experience students come into the office proclaiming their desire to be journalists. I have to admit that my heart slightly sinks and a desire to 'talk them out of it' kicks in. But perhaps there is hope, yet...

by GUEST EDITOR Carolyne Mitchell

Those who know me both online and in real life will have heard me bemoaning the fact that the skills taught in computing classes in schools around the country are failing to plug the skills gap in this country and failing to engage our kids.

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