So now ‘Rotherham’ is doomed to enter the lexican of towns long shadowed by failure. It is a town where 1,400 girls were abused between 1997 and 2013 and where a report pointed the finger of blame for failing to do enough to stop the attacks at Rotherham Borough Council and South Yorkshire Police. TimesRead… Read more »
We’ve all been there working in comms, marketing, web and PR… the ridiculous request that gets made of you that is dafter than a box of frogs. A request or a comment so ludicrous, so inane and so lacking in common sense that it takes all your considerable being to stop yourself from tipping overRead… Read more »
I’ve blogged about the need to be the grit in the oyster in comms and PR and to the need challenge. That scheme the chief executive has? It’s going to fail and you need to diplomatically warn them. That elected member who demands a press release? It’s down to you to tell them that won’tRead… Read more »
With social media dedicated frontline people can brilliantly provide a human face to champion the work an organisation is doing. Morgan Bowers, Walsall Council’s senior countryside ranger, is a pioneer of this approach and has worked to innovate around how people outside the comms team in the public sector can do to really connect withRead… Read more »
If there is one piece of advice I came to late in my career that I value in my career it is this… the role of comms is sometimes to be the bit of grit in the oyster. It was Paul Willis of Leeds Metropolitan University who I first hear use the phrase. Really? WhatRead… Read more »
There’s a thing about people who put their heart and soul into making a social media account work. They go the extra mile, they’re pushing at the margins and they take a real sense of pride about what they are doing. But there’s also something that connects them whether profile they are running whether that’sRead… Read more »
You’re a public sector PR person and you’ve got to answer a question from the media about cuts, what do you do? Forecasts say there will be 40 per cent job losses in some areas of the public sector with £3.3 billion being taken from the voluntary sector over a five year period and £20Read… Read more »
It’s such a damning word isn’t it, failure? It’s the bowler hatted man falling on a banana skin or the wrongly sent tweet that leaves us falling about LOL-ing. But the truth is, failure is beautiful. From failure we learn and we can do a better job. We shouldn’t fear failure. We should leave spaceRead… Read more »
There’s been a real drive for evidence based campaigns in the public sector just recently. Government communicators have been asked not to do anything unless it’s based on data. The argument goes that this cuts out the vanity campaign or the SOS – the Sending Out Stuff – that sees press releases and other thingsRead… Read more »
It’s always good to see slow burning success… and even more so when it comes for people who has worked hard on it. John Fox spent a fair chunk of time at Sheffield City Council on a range of projects and working to get customer services engaged with the social web was one. I helpedRead… Read more »