Author: Ross

Six ‘award winning’ tips

There’s a great awards acceptance speech by comedian Jerry Seinfeld where he ruthlessly berates the whole idea of awards ceremonies, before ending by saying how proud he is to have won and can they do it all again next year.

You can see it here.

The comedy aside it strikes a note with people because we’re all nervous about putting our own work out there so publically.

With the awards season now in full swing just what is it that makes so many organisations put themselves in the spotlight and what exactly makes the winning ones so successful? And, more importantly why bother? Continue reading →

What they don’t tell you on father’s day

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Just over a year ago I wrote a blog with some tongue in cheek advice on what to expect when you become a parent for the first time.

While I’m no expert (far from it) having two young children at the moment means that all the privations, humiliations and exhaustions are still very fresh in the mind. Continue reading →

Guest post: Local market lovin’

Here’s a guest post by one of our PR interns Maria (@mpfalangi) who has spent the last year working with our team. I blogged about our interns ages ago (see here) and they’ve proved a real breath of fresh air. Now that they’re about to leave we’re really going to miss them. Here, Maria talks about one of the projects she’d been working on.

Who doesn’t love a good local market? This fortnight is an opportunity for both traders and shoppers to be part of something bigger.

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Continue reading →

Costume drama

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A guest post from Liz Ritson this week looking at one of Northumberland’s latest exhibitions. Be quick though, it ends on 9 June.

A historic colliery site might not be the most obvious place to find stunning movie costumes worn by stars including Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, Sir Laurence Olivier and Cate Blanchett, but here at Woodhorn we like to offer something a little different. Continue reading →

Travelling in your own back yard (and getting a social buzz for your event)

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This time seven years ago I was sitting at an airport with no job, no responsibilities and a round the world flight ticket burning a hole in my pocket.

The only thought on my mind was which fruit would be going into my Daiquiri and how many countries I could fit into my carefully planned flight schedule.

How times have changed and although I wasn’t getting on a flight this week, my thoughts have been closely focused on tourism and how we use social media to inspire our locals to live like a tourist in their own backyard.
Continue reading →

The thick of it – 10 tips for engaging with Parliament

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As a local government communicator I often have to spend quite a bit of time convincing friends that my job is nothing like that of Malcolm Tucker, the fictional anti-hero of the BBC comedy series, despite a similar job title and natural swearing pattern.

So it was fairly amusing to find myself hosting a CIPR North East event called: The thick of It – a practical introduction to Parliament. Continue reading →

Power to the people

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‘People power’ is probably an overused phrase but in this increasingly crowd sourced, community-led, two way street online world it’s one that’s at the very top of the PR agenda.

There’s seemingly a new example every month and this week it was the turn of 17-year-old Paris Brown to act as a case study on the shifting sands of modern news, PR and social media.

So now would seem as good a time as any to help push an excellent event taking place for communications professionals that will look to try and make sense of this rapidly changing environment. Continue reading →

Happy blog day

A year ago today I started writing on the this blog.

Variously egged on and inspired by @comms2point0 @danslee @darrencaveney @wadds and @weeklyblogclub 12 months has gone by in the blink of an eye.

5,400 views and 161 comments later I’ve got know to many new faces through blogging and hopefully shared some useful information too.

Having said that, it seems you’re mostly interested in irreverant parenting chat, rather than my in-depth anaysis of the changing communications landscape.

The two most viewed posts (by miles) were:

Despite these laughs at my expense I hope that I’ve also provided some useful professional discussion that adds to the vibrant debate around PR and social media.

A few of my favourites from the past 12 monts were:

Thanks again for readig, commenting, liking and sharing.

The changing way we get online (and what it means for public services)

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The idea that mobile web browsing is transforming the way we consume content should be perfectly obvious when my 5 year old hacks the ipad code and downloads a new version of plants vs zombies in the time it takes to go to the toilet.

A few things I’ve read this week coupled with our own experience online has convinced me of a major shift in the way people are using and accessing the web. Continue reading →