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Monday, February 20, 2012 
A Tale of Two Teams – how Norfolk County Council made Twitter a genuine customer service channel
In October last year colleagues of mine in our customer service team took over responsibility for replying to enquiries we received through Twitter. I’d like to say it was my idea but actually the desire to do this, and the foresight of how it could be developed, came from customer services.
Sunday, January 22, 2012 On Friday 20 January I woke at 4.15am – and for once, it wasn’t because of the kids - to set off for 'the smoke' to attend UKGovCamp.
A long, long day was in store, a day which helped me to crystallise some thoughts around comms approaches in 2012.
Sunday, January 15, 2012 
by Carol Grant
One of the most prized leadership attributes at the moment is resilience. In uncertain times, it can be the key survival skill. Some people assume that they just need to develop the hide of a rhinoceros and they’ll be fine.
However, a thick skin can make you insensitive to subtle changes taking place around you. To avoid extinction, it pays to know what true resilience looks like.
If you can keep your head…
As Kipling said, keep your head while all around are losing theirs. This doesn’t mean having all the answers. It does mean keeping calm in the face of uncertainty. If you can, you’re better placed to evaluate choices and options.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 
by Dan Slee
Sometimes a simple idea pings around in your head and nags away.
One such was mentioned at Shropcamp in June held at Harper Adams Agricultural College amongst the summer fields.
'How do we make it really easy for people to take part in the decisions local government make?,' the idea runs.
Don’t think for a second you needed to be a local government anorak to get this. A patchwork of small Town Hall decisions affect your everyday lives every day. Schools, roads, libraries, leisure, parks and 695 other things. They’re all local government.
Monday, January 2, 2012 
by Darren Caveney
New year’s resolutions… I’m sure that I read somewhere over Christmas that 86% of us don’t stick to them. So, the choice is pretty simple: either don’t make any, or only embrace those which are do-able and will make a real difference.
Career resolutions are just as important as the obligatory ones about health kicks, weight loss and being better with money.
But will we all stick to them? Er, well, approximately 14% of us will, then.
Monday, December 19, 2011 
do you want to create a simple, straightforward set of social media guidelines?
do you want to ensure you 'engage', 'explore', 'discover' ... and still 'conform'?
don't want to write war and peace?
how about a set of social media guidelines in less than 140 characters?
sound good?
here you go then.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 
Northumberland is the most northern of English counties. It's quietly created some of the most pioneering and widely adopted social media accounts in the country.Monday, November 28, 2011 
As with all marketing channels, your twitter activity can only build your business if you’re maximising its reach.
Who’s following you? Are they key to your business (potential customers? existing customers? suppliers? stockists? bloggers or journalists from your sector?) Are they responding to your tweets? Are you creating dialogue and interaction? Are you getting re-tweeted?
If the answer to any of these questions is ‘no’. Then it may be time to take a few minutes to rethink your strategy.
Thursday, November 24, 2011 
Successful marketing in 2011 is all about the conversation. Whether you want to shift more widgets or shift customer perception, there is no better piece of advice to take on board than to BUILD BUILD BUILD a dialogue with your customers.
Social media offers many simple, manageable - and free - ways to do this.
Twitter is one of them.
Saturday, November 12, 2011 
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!
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 
If i had a pound for every time i’ve heard that line.
Well written, well executed comms plans are an essential part of the business toolkit.
They aren't magical documents which can, purely by their existence, guarantee business success.
Whether you need to communicate good news or bad, ensuring the business is telling a consistent and well thought out story can make the difference between success and failure.
