What’s the hype over hyperlocal? If you’re in comms, PR, or marketing, you shouldn’t be asking that question

(I was asked to write this blog post by Cardiff University’s Centre for Community Journalism and it originally featured on their website. It was also posted on the Comms2point0 site).

Photographing the Photographer – by Naixn

The media landscape is changing. It’s something I blogged about last year in a post called ‘Regional News is Dead’.  And, as a former TV news broadcaster, turned PR pro, I find it absolutely fascinating.

Well established local newspapers, radio stations and TV newsrooms, are being axed or cut right back to the bone.

Meanwhile, 100’s of nubile little hyper-locals are springing up all over the place, eagerly plugging the gaps to give local communities the info they so desperately need and want.

It’s a riptide of cross currents that, as comms professionals, we really need to dive into.

That’s why I signed up last year to do the MOOC (short for Massive Open Online Course) in community journalism. It’s a free online course developed by Cardiff University’s School of Journalism and hosted on the ‘futurelearn’ website.

I wanted to understand more about the regional revolution that’s taking place. And, all I can say is I’m glad I did.

Not knowing what to expect, I was so impressed with the blend of academic and more journalistic approaches to learning. There were plenty of video tutorials and presentations leading you through the theory of community journalism, history of the sector and other fundamentals – such as media law (always useful to have a refresher on that!). There were also loads of links to recommended further reading, if you wanted to dig deeper into anything.

I really enjoyed the video case studies from people – at home and abroad – who have set up community journalism sites. To hear them talk about their successes, challenges, business models and how they manage their platforms day-to-day, was truly inspirational.

But, particularly useful to me, were the practical demonstrations and walk-through videos. I learnt valuable tips, for example, on how to start up a hyperlocal site – the DIY technology out there. There were also sessions on how to manipulate photos; create your own graphics; how to find people to interview using new advanced search techniques on facebook and twitter – and the pitfalls to avoid.

That, along with the fact that by completing the course I got 30 CIPR CPD points, made the effort worthwhile.

It’s the best 4 hours a week (for 5 weeks) that I could have invested last year on professional development and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

In my role as Head of Communications for the Wales Audit Office, it’s vital that I and my team engage closely with hyperlocals to get the important messages about the work we do to the people who need to know.

We connect almost daily with community channels – such as Aberdare Online, the Caerphilly Observer and Radio Cardiff. And, now more recently, we have a new hyperlocal TV station – Made in Cardiff.

As a public sector comms team, we’re riding this new media wave – and enjoying the experience.

You can’t afford to get left behind. And, if you sign up to this course – which is running again in March 2015 – you won’t!

Photo credit:

Photographing the photographer by Naixn – reproduced under creative commons license.

When digital just doesn’t cut it: Why we’re going back to offline comms

It’s all about digital these days. You can’t get away from it.

Your twitter feed is constantly bombarded with ‘top ten tips’ on great ways to engage via social media. Everyone thinks they’re comms gurus now that they can broadcast and push their own online content. Even the Government is talking about the need for staff to become ‘digital natives’ in order to flourish in the modern world.

And, much of this is right and proper….. except, it doesn’t always work.

Take one of our latest campaigns for example. We launched a public engagement exercise asking people to take part in our survey on NHS waiting times in Wales. There were only 10 short questions – easy and quick to do, so bound to yield results, or so you’d think.

We wanted as many people as possible to take part, so we could paint an accurate picture of what service users think about the issue. The findings would form part of the evidence base for a national report on waiting times in Wales – which is due to be published later this year.

As with any other campaign, we compiled a comms plan. We did it text book – adopting a ROSIE approach (research, objectives, strategy, implementation, evaluation) not an SOS (sending out stuff) one – @AlexanderAiken would be proud.

We devised innovative ways to drive traffic to a microsite we created – using online tools as well as other tactics.

But, despite this, I am now convinced that we were lured way too much by the forbidden fruit of digital.

Blinded by our successes in previous public engagement campaigns, we were seduced by the immediacy, the cost free and shareable aspects of social media.

And it wasn’t without its plus points. In terms of pure engagement, it was impressive for us locally. For example, in the first two weeks we secured a Twitter reach of almost 90,000, an exposure of nearly 400,000 and 130 retweets. Our #NHSwaiting hashtag was also trending in Wales on two occasions.

But, in terms of actual responses to the survey – responding to our call to action – the whole raison d’etre of the campaign?

Well, that was disappointing – 75 responses.

We were doing some things right. Most notably, we were evaluating the impact of our communication throughout the campaign and this gave us the opportunity to switch tactics and amend our approach before it was too late.

And, we went back to basics.

We didn’t ditch digital completely, but we really upped our game when it came to the tried and tested.

We put on the comfy slippers of offline again and created and distributed posters, contacted target groups and upped our press office efforts. Four days later the number of responses had gone up 26 per cent. There was clearly still a long way to go – but it showed us that our offline activities were yielding results.

By the time the 4 week survey closed, we received 225 responses to to the survey. It was an improvement, although admittedly lower than we’d hoped overall.

But here’s the real point.

What I didn’t mention until now was that a paper version of the survey had been posted to target groups at the same time as our online campaign. And, 900 questionnaires yielded 400 responses.

What does that tell you?

From our experience digital engagement works well for many topics we look into – but our engagement work in certain areas, such as in health, seems to find greater success offline.

We’re learning all the time as a team – and that’s part of the fun. We’re getting more savvy about audience insight through our failures as well as successes and through constant evaluation we’re gaining so much knowledge. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is wasted.

But one thing we have really learned from our latest campaign is that it is all too easy to get swept up in the digital euphoria and forget that some of the old school tactics are still cool – yes, really.

So, are you finding digital a bit rubbish when it comes to some of your comms efforts?

Are you falling back in love with offline?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

 

Photo credits – creative commons:

Social share icons by Jason A Howie.

Michaelangelo’s forbidden fruit was a fig by Rubber slippers in Italy

Keeping warm while relaxing by Ana C.

The comms crystal ball: What should the in-house PR team of 2020 look like?

A chap called Geoffrey Hoyle wrote a book in 1972 – predicting that, by 2010, everyone would be wearing jumpsuits, work a 3 day week and would have electric cars delivered in tubes of liquid.

He also predicted the widespread use of ‘vision phones’ and doing your grocery shopping online.

I was reading a BBC article about it the other day. Apparently, a facebook campaign managed to track Hoyle down, which led to his book – ‘2010: Living in the Future’ – being reprinted (with the year in the title changed to 2011).

I find the whole thing fascinating and I’m not alone. Futurology is big business. It even has its own twitter handle @the_future – and hashtag #futurology.

The thing that seems to excite all futurologists, more than anything else, is the changing nature of communication – with many predictions, which seemed outlandish when first made, becoming commonplace years later.

David Brin’s 1989 novel – ‘Earth’ – for example, predicted citizen reporters, personalised web interfaces and the decline of privacy. We’re not laughing now.

I do wonder whether we consider this sort of thing enough when trying to future proof our organisations. If I look back just 6 years ago, to the shape, skills and project work of my team – compared with now – it’s almost unrecognisable. What will it be like in another 6 years?

I don’t have all the answers, but I know that if my team is to work brilliantly in 2020, I need to be gearing up for it now and doing a bit of my own futurology.

‘Workforce planning’ is such a yawn phrase. But, whether we like it or not, it’s an absolutely crucial aspect of comms management and it happens to be something I’m focusing on at the moment.

There are 5 key principles I’m working to:

• Link to strategy

No workforce plan is worth the paper it’s written on if it doesn’t link to your organisation’s corporate strategy, your own comms strategy and your departmental action plans. What are you trying to achieve over the next few years? Is your team equipped to deliver? If not, how will you address it? You need evidence to back up your proposals.

• Scan the changing landscape

You need to get attuned to the latest comms trends and be aware of what’s on the horizon. Having a focus on the long term, and then planning for it, is a darn sight better than reacting to short term requirements all the time. The future of the PR industry project, run by the PRCA, explores topics such as globalisation, social changes, and new comms platforms and channels and is worth a look as there are some useful online videos available.

• Plug the gaps

Once you’re clear on your strategy, the future direction of comms and how your organisation should respond, you need to identify any gaps you have that could hamper delivery. Do you and your team need to learn new skills? Is a new post required? Are there comms activities which aren’t needed anymore? Can staff be freed up from old tasks to pursue new priorities? All of these, and more, need to be considered and built into your workforce plan.

• Consult your team

It should never be done in isolation. Workforce planning needs collective input and your team are best placed to provide feedback, ideas and offer up solutions. They know their department better than anyone.

• Evaluate as you go along

Regularly review your plan and amend and adjust as you go along. It should be a living document, not shelved away to gather dust for the next 6 years.

 

My future-proofing priorities are all about developing a team of hybrid professionals, multi-skilled communicators, with a greater emphasis on digital skills.

It’s about banishing outmoded and unnecessary activities, freeing up time to pursue more dynamic techniques. And, it’s also about building greater comms skills amongst the wider organisation and securing greater contribution from grassroots staff.

What does your comms crystal ball reveal for the future?

And, do you have a workforce plan to deliver?

Photo credits:

Crystal Ball by Mark Skipper (creative commons)

Fancy a comms cocktail? I’m a trained mixologist don’t you know!

Fluorescent cocktail by Gabriel Millos (creative commons)

When I started out in the brave new world of communications I didn’t realise that cocktail making would be one of the necessary skills I’d need to acquire. But it is – really, it is.

These days, you need to shake, mix, and muddle a whole load of new comms elements if you want your message to compete in a crowded market and get through to people.

A simple Gin and Tonic just won’t cut it anymore – what you really need to be able to do these days is to produce the PR equivalent of the Woo Woo or, dare I say it, Sex on the Beach?!

But while it might sound daunting, actually the secret to any good cocktail rests with some basic key ingredients. And, if you can master these, it’s really easy to mix up something special for your organisation.

Creating Useable Content event workbook by @cooperaj

That’s why the great people behind the 1000 lives campaign hosted the ‘Creating Useable Content’ event this week.

Run by Public Health Wales, it was designed to help public sector communicators learn some of the new skills needed to become great ‘content producers’.

This excellent conference focused on the 5 key elements that all PR professionals need to get to grips with in order to succeed.

 

I’ll share them with you now, in suitable cocktail style:

1) The Blog Bomb:
The influential Dan Slee from comms2point0 encouraged everyone to start blogging – for themselves and their organisations. He talked us through the benefits, explained how to bust the barriers and introduced us to the technology out there to make blogging easy.

2) Video Fizz:
Steve Davies, creative Director of filmcafe, demonstrated how to create videos using the technology we already have – smartphones and tablets. He ran through the essentials for making video content ‘useable’– framing, exposure and sound.

3) Totally Tropical Infographics:
Data expert, Caroline Beavon, showed us how to create infographics. They’re an effective way of sharing complex reports and ideas and she highlighted some excellent design tools (Piktochart, Infogr.am and Raw) where you can produce them yourselves without needing to know about techy stuff like coding. Caroline showed us the various stages you need to go through, including how to order your data.

4) The Photo Royale:
Photographer and artist, Pete Ashton, taught us how to take great photos that get widely shared – explaining composition tricks, such as the rule of two thirds and sight lines.

5) The Social Media Smoothie:
And, social media consultant, Miranda Bishop, gave some excellent advice on planning your social media activity, what content you should post, how often, the scheduling tools out there such as Hootsuite and Buffer and how to make them work for you.

 

photo from @fran_ohara

The conference team said they’d consider the event a success if each delegate came away with 5 ideas they can implement.

So, here are my top takeaways and, in the interests of mixology, I’m going to stick with the cocktail theme – and notice below, my very first ever DIY Infographic to illustrate:

 

The Commsbird Cocktail

My DIY Infographic

Ingredients:

• 2 oz/ 56 ml of Smartphone filming: A smartphone is all you need. Forget the expensive equipment, just use your mobile, a cheap ‘Smartlav’ plug-in microphone and you’re good to go. It’s more spontaneous than large camera kits and easy to use once you get going. Just shoot it, cut it and share it. Simples!

 

• 1 oz / 28 ml of DIY infographics: You can create them yourself with some fab free tools. Don’t use too many colours though and keep the design clutter free. And remember, creating Infographics is not the job of the design team. It’s a content editor’s responsibility to do the thinking, then brief the designers. Don’t throw them a 200 page report and ask them to create one from scratch.

 

• 2 ox / 56 ml of YouTube: YouTube is the second biggest search engine. I didn’t realise that. It’s really important to have a presence on this platform if you are to increase your audience reach.

 

• 1 tbsp of tweeting: Make sure you tweet about your blog or campaign at least 5 times. The average life of a tweet is just 18 minutes, so you need to repeat your messages. Don’t worry about annoying your followers with too many tweets – they made an investment in you when they decided to click the follow button.

 

• A dash of creative juice: Confidence is key and experimentation is the pathway to success. Keep trying new things to stay ahead of the game and practice, practice, practice.

And, finally, to decorate your cocktail add some fab visual minutes from Fran O’Hara, with a sprinkle of some #content14.

Visual minutes

I have to say, as a delegate, I really enjoyed the day. It was great to meet new people, learn new tips and tricks and build on the knowledge I’ve already gained.

Do you have some cool ingredients in your cocktail shaker?

(If you’re interested in finding out more about the event – there’s a great Storify of the day).

 

This blog post first appeared on the brilliant comms2point0 website. A big thankyou to @danslee for including it and I hope it puts me in touch with even more fab comms people as a result.