5 tips for getting more from your webinars

Public services constantly have to change and adapt, so it’s no surprise that the way we share learning has to too. Here’s how you can make the most of your webinars

By GUEST EDITOR Dyfrig Williams

Anyone who’s run an event will know that they’re expensive things. So to complement our shared learning seminars, the Good Practice Exchange at the Wales Audit Office have been running webinars on a range of topics that affect public services. Here’s some of what we’ve learnt so far.

Start small

Doing things differently is always nerve racking. I haven’t been as nervous as the first time I clicked the ‘begin webinar’ button for quite some time. Helen Reynolds has blogged about how she’s finding her feet with podcasting and isn’t actively promoting her efforts with Ben Proctor. Similarly, our first webinar was a pilot webinar with twenty attendees from an IT seminar.  If it went wrong, it wasn’t the end of the world, but fortunately it didn’t.

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coping with political change as a communicator

The impending election for a new leader of the Labour Party is perhaps a timely reminder that change comes in many forms.

by Andy Carter

If you’re a public sector communicator, it’s likely that your organisation is going through some kind of change right now.

I’ll hazard a guess that it’s probably because of financial pressures caused by budget cuts.

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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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what makes a great post? learning the lessons from four years of comms2point0

We know that writing for the web is different. But what helps to make a blog post fly? Here are five simple tips to help you write your next masterpiece.

by Darren Caveney

We’ve put up over 700 posts on comms2point0 over the past four years and leaned an awful lot along the way.

They cover a wealth learning, ideas, campaigns and case studies from colleagues across the communications and digital community

I have read every single one of them.

I have also monitored each one to assess what works best in terms of views, comments and shares, as well as what doesn’t work so well.

So if you’re writing with a digital audience in mind here are five simple lessons that may help you along the way to writing your next post…

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the great universal sticky 'do they get it?' problem and the three types in your team

It's a problem we all face. How do we get everyone motivated, creative and innovating? Sometimes, it's not you. Or the idea. 

by Dan Slee

Twice in the past couple of weeks I've been reminded about about the great universal sticky problem and what to do about it.

The problem that almost dare not speak it's name is how much your team are keen to change, innovate, be creative and explore new ways of communicating. Do they see an infographic or Snapchat and want to know more? Or do they roll their eyes and look at the clock?

In short, do they 'get it'?

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40 skills for a comms team: how to swim against the tide

There are a list of skills that are needed for a comms team. But how do you start the work in transforming the team, bringing people along and making the changes?

by Dan Slee

Just recently I blogged about the 40 skills a comms team needs to have but something kept on troubling me.

A few years ago, I would have sat back happy. That’s the future. Anybody in their right mind can see that makes sense. Job done. Form a line.

But, no actually. It’s one thing to have an idea of what the future looks like. It’s another thing entirely to bring others along with you. The thing is, all people aren’t keen to bin the press release and run arms out stretched to embrace the digital future. Besides, it’s not all about digital hoverboards or inky press releases. There’s somewhere in between. That’s where most teams are.

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meerkat verses periscope – what do they do and which one is best?

You may have already begun to hear the growing buzz around two relatively new mobile video apps. Well here is the brief overview of what they can do, how you can use them, and which one is best.

By Russ Gethings

What is Meerkat and Periscope?
Basically they are free live video streaming applications for your smartphone or tablet. (iOS only at the moment, although Android versions are in the works).

They allow you to instantly stream live video - of an event, or any happening, or even just yourself going about your day, and instantly notify your Twitter/Social media followers. In turn your followers can engage with each other and you during the live stream.

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into the confectionery stall and out again

Like many people I was sad to hear of the death of cricket commentator Richie Benaud on Friday.

by Darren Caveney

Richie Benaud defined cricket commentary for my generation and I’ll always remember his rich words during that iconic summer of 1981 and the greatest test series I think ever took place - Botham’s Ashes.

But it was Richie Benaud’s articulate, measured, soothing descriptions of events taking place on the pitch that elevated the games from brilliant to unforgettable.

And it spawned my favourite piece of sporting commentary ever when he described a huge six from Ian ‘Beefy’ Botham against a flagging Australian side:

“Don’t even bother looking for that, let alone chasing it. It’s gone straight into the confectionery stall – and out again.”

It’s been a much repeated quote since his passing but those who were around at the time didn’t need a reminder, it was tucked away in the memory bank for life. A truly brilliant and totally unplanned line.

To me he was just an incredible communicator and storyteller.

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stop the clocks for fatherhood, hugh grant and getting stuff done

"If only I had more time..." How often do we hear that? No one is going to hand you a big wodge of it, So how do we manage our time better?

by Andrew Hadfield

It’s early in the morning. Very early. My three month old daughter does not seem to have fully grasped the clock change ­ where both her mother and I are trying (unsuccessfully) to claw back the hour we lost last night (and many more from the past week).

After several verses of ‘heads, shoulders, knees and toes’, many different ‘that’s not my..[rabbit etc]’ books and of course plenty of tickle time, she finally goes back to sleep for her morning snooze just as I have fully woken up. Wonderful timing.

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200 comms tools & platforms tried and rated on pr stack

What started as a chance conversation online has turned into a collaboration and a really useful tool.

by Dan Slee

Back in the day a bloke at the start of events used to ask two questions to a room full of people 'hands up who knows everything?' 

Of course, no-one did put their hand up which unless you are an idiot is the right answer.

The truth is that we all know a little and when we put our heads together then we all get to learn something.

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101 potential solutions in search of a problem

A couple of years ago we produced a newspaper for an event. We had an open Google doc people could contribute to. We found it again recently and were struck how this hadn't dated at all. So, here it is.

by Catherine Cuthbert, Sarah Jennings, Kate Hughes, Charlotte Stamper, Steph Gray, Dave Briggs, Nancy Corbin, Bridget Aherne, Alun Ireland, Stuart Harrison, Elaine Walton, The Current Mrs R, Andy Mabbett, Tom Phillips, Dan Slee, Stuart Williams, Si Whitehouse, Philip John, Emily Turner, Adrian Short, Steve Finegan, Paul Hayes, Carolyne Mitchell, Ben Black and Sasha Taylor.

1. Let your staff talk to each other through something like Yammer.

2. Don’t think that residents are always wrong. Sometimes they won’t be.

3. Call it a cut if its a cut. Not a weasel word like downsizing.

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how you can use pinterest and instagram for comms

So much more than places for coffee lovers and wedding planners these two picture-led platforms often fly under the radar. Try them. Do. Here's a few ideas how.

by Bethan Davies

Remember the days when we used to laboriously take photographs on our disposable cameras, take them to the shop to develop, wait a few days, go back to collect them, sigh because half your auntie’s head has been cut off, put them in a box and never look at them again?

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seven more twitter mistakes we all make

Mistakes. We all make them. But many of us shy away from talking about them. One comms pro took a different view and created a massively popular post last year about making mistakes on Twitter. And now she's gone and written the follow-up...

by GUEST EDITOR Helen Reynolds

With the 'first seven mistakes we have to make' post last year I started a club for those of us who have learned the hard way and cocked up on Twitter at some point.

Here are seven more 'mistakes': if you have done more than six of the fourteen you are a VIP member for the 'Twitter pro club'. (Rule 1: talk about Twitter pro club. We're communicators aren't we?!)

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what do hugh grant, john the welder and you have in common?

It was a regular Wednesday morning commute into Birmingham city centre and I was listening to Radio 4. Hugh Grant popped up representing the Hacked Off group in the latest debate about new press charters. He gave a quite brilliant performance as spokesperson, kicking into touch every line of press defence put up by the presenter.

by Darren Caveney

This got me thinking about transferable skills. Now Hugh’s CV would highlight skills and experience of performing in front of a camera and microphone, remembering his lines and getting into character. So, actually, he has oodles of perfect, hands-on experience for the role of a spokesperson. Of course, Hugh has the added ingredient of being pretty passionate about the Hacked Off cause.

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my social media journey – a year on

Journeys. We're all on one in some way, shape or form - work or personal, large or small. One comms person shares her year-long social media journey with us here...

by GUEST EDITOR Emma Rodgers

I recently met up with Darren Caveney for a catch up. When we were talking about communications, social media, awards and other such things, he asked me when it was I first came to Walsall to meet him and Dan Slee.

It got me thinking and I realised it’s been just over a year since I started on my social media journey.  I know that because I begrudgingly wrote about it here after Dan and Darren persuaded me to give it a go. 

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