This dry January thing is dragging on a bit isn’t it?

After living like Oliver Reed since the back of December, two full days of total sobriety is breeding a cumulative hangover so devastating that it’s threatening my sanity. That aside there’s plenty to look forward in 2015 (like the last series of Mad Men).

A brief look back at my blog stats from 2014 shows that the most popular posts align unerringly with some of the biggest themes for me in the last 12 months.

These were six the most popular posts and hopefully they say something more about the current PR economy and landscape.

 #1 Reading

This time last year I blogged about my eight must-reads for the year.

This proved to me the most popular post of the whole year so I suppose it goes to show that you don’t need to bother reading anything else I write from January onwards – it’s all downhill from here. I think the list of suggested reading in here still stands up,  although one more to add would be Influence, the power of persuasion by Robert B Cialdini. Anything else that you think should be on there?

#2 Moving on

So, 2014 was the year I finally left local government after nearly seven years at Gateshead & Northumberland.

These were my seven highlights.

#3 Nostrodamus

Back at the turn of the year I made seven predictions for PR in the coming months. Okay, so they were more like blindingly obvious trends but I think I was fairly near the mark. You can be the judge of how well I did with the crystal ball and if things have moved on much in 12 months.

Seven thoughts on communications for 2014

#4 New beginnings and the NHS

So, I started a totally new job in a completely new sector and this is what I discovered: The NHS new starter pack 

#5 Mr President

Again, another post from January. This was a write up of an event where the incoming CIPR President Stephen Waddington (@wadds) came to Newcastle to set out his plans and look to the future of  the industry. It was really interesting to read this again after Stephen’s transformative time at the top: Future skills, influence, Romans and cement

#6 The North East comms conversation

This was the favourite thing I worked on last year and if you count all the individual posts cumulatively, easily the most popular piece on the blog. What started out as a germ of an idea with a couple of my contacts on Twitter grew into a series of 15 blog posts about the North East PR and communications scene from some of the best people working in it.

Some funny, clever and dedicated people took the time to share their thoughts and for that I’m really grateful. Read it here

Hope you’ve enjoyed some of my ramblings in 2014 – here’s wishing you all a great 2015.