what’s in a MOOC?

In this exciting new development, Cardiff University tell us how they are building their brand and engaging with their audiences by sharing expertise online.

By Sara Moseley

Taking the education world by storm, there are over 5million people worldwide studying a Massive Open Online Course right now. Developed as a way of opening access, free of charge, to expertise from leading universities, MOOCs are also becoming key tools for engagement and reputation building. Still in the growth stage, this kind of on-line course is the subject of experimentation and evaluation - not least in terms of communications and relationship building benefit.

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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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best by west midlands: how a region uses social media

A new white paper, called 'Best by West Midlands', which highlights best practice use of social media across local government in the West Midlands, is being launched today.

by Darren Caveney

We’re a smidge biased but we happen to think that West Midlands’ local authorities are pretty hot when it comes to their use of social media.

So when those nice people at Improvement and Efficiency West Midlands gave us the opportunity to back that statement up with a white paper on best practice we leapt at the chance.

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in praise of the digital engagement guide

There's a repository of case studies you may have come across. It's useful if you are starting out or a hardened geek with a range of links that you'll find helpful.

by Dan Slee

One of the great things about the web is the amount of good case studies shared.

One of the worst things about the web is that it's so hard to find them.

Step forward the Digital Engagement Guide which aims to be a veritable storehouse of good examples across government and local government. Much of it is transferrable to the private sector too.

A quick disclaimer I submitted a handful of examples to Steph Gray of Helpful Technology when the idea was first mooted. Since then the site has grown into a rich seam of content. The idea is simple. A screenshot. A link, some tags to help you search and a brief summary all grouped under headers. Brilliant.

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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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building your business image through flickr

Flickr is home to over five billion of the world’s photos and is, without doubt, the most effective way to store, sort, search and share your photos online.

For business, quite aside from eliminating the need for expensive photo management software or suppliers, Flickr can also be a valuable branding tool and a great way to engage with your staff, customers and your business contacts.

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