A book that maps pr the world over.
by Liz Bridgen
Read morewhy you must, must, must enter the unawards16
You owe it to yourself and your team to enter the UnAwards16, It's free and easy to do and you have plenty of time to do it. So no excuses, right?
By Darren Caveney
Read moreA snazzy checklist and six quick tips to turbo-charge your LinkedIn profile
It might not be the coolest of social networks, but there’s little doubt that LinkedIn is becoming more useful, more thoughtful and more difficult to ignore. Thanks to the power of #commscamp16 we’ve now got a fancy checklist and some top tips to get your profile flying.
By Dave Musson
Read moreit's never too late to be (even more) passionate
We all need a supportive ear from time to time, someone to chew the fat with - either informally with a friend, or more formally with a mentor or a coach. “It’s good to talk”, as Bob Hoskins once said a long, long time ago on a TV ad. And it might just provide a timely reminder of your passions, your strengths and your skills.
by PANEL WRITER Marcus Grodentz
Read morethe moral of ‘mooching’
In business we only get one chance to impress and we're nothing without a decent reputation. We all forget this at our peril.
By PANEL WRITER Marcus Grodentz
Read morecomms recruitment is just a bit rubbish, isn't it?
It can be hard to recruit and be recruited. So why do we let the opaque language of HR and personal statements get in the way?
by Louise Powney
Read morespa me a thought
Working in the communications industry can be stressful. You might not spot it at the time but it can creep up and bite any of us if we’re not careful. How we manage this, and what we plan with our future careers, is going to be tackled in a series of posts by a new Panel Writer for comms2point0. Here’s the first post…
by Panel Writer Marcus Grodentz
Read moreif working from home is a skive, working in the office is a waste of time
We ran a post on how working from home can quickly descent into time wasting and late night making up of time. You can read it here. One comms person disagrees.
by Ben Odams
Read morethe pregnant pause in public relations - how the return to work for parents has to get better
Such a large number of the PR profession are women... and yet the industry just can't deal when women have children.
by Eleanor Willock
Read morehelp st john ambulance beat starbucks and co to be brand of the year
St John Ambulance has made it through to the shortlist of Marketing Week's best brand category. Wonderful. But forget Boaty McBoatface. Wouldn't it be tremendous if they won? Here one of their comms team explains what it would mean to them.
by Emma Shepherd
Read morewhat a 16-year-old at the start of their comms career thinks
Ever wonder what you'd think if you were just starting your career? Meet Max. He's 16.
by Max Youell
Read morerotherham – a toxic brand
There’s a lot written about brands – positioning, attributes, equity. But sometimes brands are so badly damaged they need a whole extra level of expert care and attention. And when the damaged brand is a place, its people deserve better.
by our PANEL WRITER Jon Harrison
Read moreyou gotta fight….for the right – to write content
Everyone wants their website to look great, right? But we often see organisations forget about the content. Not so at one local authority which has invested in improving the content it shares with its customers.
Read morehousing magazines – do they have a future?
free images for local government
A powerful image can make a point and make you stop and look. In years gone by, image libraries were maintained by most councils. As the cuts bit they often went. Now the Local Government Association has a solution for the sector.
Read morepr people, stop talking ourselves into the next recession
A comms person who deals direct with industry has a clear message for comms people. Quit the negative talk about the economy.
Read moreyour chance to learn from the unawards winners. for free
The UnAwards15 were my highlight of 2015. Having the opportunity to see the passion, creativity and results from some of the brilliant work taking place across the UK and beyond was quite a privilege.
The UnAwards ceremony was a belter – well, I swear I heard someone say that on the day.
It was a unique event which placed an important spotlight on our industry and in a way which was accessible to everyone regardless of budget or grade.
After the event, many of you asked for the chance to see and hear more about the winning work.
So, with just one shake of a billy goat’s tail, we have organised an UnAwards Winners Masterclass.
Actually, that’s a lie. We have organised three. This gives us the chance to take the Masterclasses around the country with regional events taking place in Leeds, Birmingham and London.
Be nice: what a free calendar can teach you about community management
What a 2016 desk calendar from Instagram teaches about community management. Nb. Cute animal alert.
by Dave Musson
One of the biggest social networks in the world sent me something nice in the post and I’m instantly falling over myself to praise them to the hills. Is my loyalty really that easily bought? No, actually, there’s a lot more to it. In fact, Instagram offers a fascinating insight into good community management.
Now we’re all into the swing of things again, I can get away with asking this question…how was your first day back at work after Christmas? Good? Hard? Some other four letter word? I hear you.
After toiling through that most Monday of Mondays, I came home to a wonderful surprise; a parcel sealed by tape covered with the Instagram logo! Inside was a 2016 desk calendar, made of up of cute photos of animals published by the Instagram community last year, along with a sweet little note from ‘your friends at Instagram’ – how awesome is that??
death of a president
History teaches us many things. Not least how we have responded in times of crisis.
"The Lincoln continues to slow down. Its interior is a place of horror. The last bullet has torn through John Kennedy's cerebellum, the lower part of his brain.
"...at first there is no blood. And then, in the very next instant there is nothing but blood...Gobs of blood as thick as a man's hand are soaking the floor of the back seat..."
I recently read The Death of a President, William Manchester's brilliant unflinching account of the events leading up to and the aftermath of the assassination of John F Kennedy in November 1963.
You can see the Wikipedia entry about the book here.
Everything is in here, from the paintings on the wall of the hotel room where Kennedy spent his last night alive to the layout of the emergency room the president lay in at Parkland Memorial Hospital as doctors tried vainly to save his life.
united we stand
Managing a team can be a tricky business. Balancing egos, personalities, ideas, grafters, blockers and dodgers. The best teams usually boast a natural leader. Or two.
by Phil Jewitt
There’s a film called The Damned United which tells the story of the managerial partnership of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor. Together, they successfully led Derby County and Nottingham Forest to football glory in the 1970s but not so successfully* after they went their separate ways. For those too young to remember or not remotely interested in football, you can replace Brian and Peter with Ant and Dec, The Hairy Bikers or any other successful partners.
It’s probably fair to say none of them would have achieved the success they jointly have without the relationship they created and maintained and their understanding of each other and their teams.
Recent posts by Darren, Paul and Simon explained similar experiences of being a Head of Comms. Relevantly, they all talk about relationships, supporting and being supported by their teams.
