Apart from sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, public health and social media what have the Romans ever done for us?
PR
CIPR Trends 2014
As we near the end of the year the temptation is always to look backwards at the last 12 months, so it was nice to be asked to look forward and write something on the trends in PR for 2014.
When it comes to making predictions I’m basically in the Paul Gascoigne school of thought – “I don’t make predictions and I never will” – but the CIPR asked for my views and I gave it my best shot. Continue reading
The art of communications: fighting talk
War. What is it good for ? Absolutely nothing, right? WRONG. Not if the ancient text I’ve just finished reading is anything to go by.
But what can we in PR learn from the seminal and oft-quoted military text from ancient china the Art of War by Sun Tzu? Continue reading
Strategy – like a punch in the teeth
“Everyone has a plan ’til they get punched in the mouth.” ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson
Strategy, vision, mission, master-plan, principles, approach – all words that modern organisations bombard us with every day.
On websites, in the media, on corporate material and in meetings, the one thing a business or organisation has to have is a strategy right?
But what exactly does this mean and how can we translate this into a useful process for communications? Continue reading
Northumberland fun: a social summer
A guest post from our new comms intern Jenn & her perspective on our latest social media campaign (@msjennjennPR)
For those of you who see‘#’ and are looking at the text abbreviation of Northumberland, please don’t judge me and think I’m one of these young ones who can’t spell and write everything like I tweet it!
It’s actually the brand of a great campaign I am currently involved in, Northumberland Fun. Continue reading
You are the message
I’ve just finished reading a book that was written in the 1980s and like big hair or grindingly depressing economic news much of the advice contained in its yellowing pages seems to be back in vogue.
Roger Ailes wrote You are the message in 1989 and although it’s primarily about speaking in front of an audience, there’s a wealth of communications & PR advice that’s still relevant today.
In fact, Ailes himself defines an ‘audience’ as anyone more than yourself. It could be two colleagues in a meeting or a million people watching on TV.
My year as a PR intern
This week I’ve turned the blog over to Hanif Laylabi (@hanifleylabi) our comms intern who leaves us at the end of the month. A year ago – inspired by the new CIPR intern guidelines – I decided to take the plunge and hire a university graduate for the first time.
I wrote about the start of the scheme here and everyone on it has been brilliant. The standard of graduates in the marcomms space in the North East is truly first class. Over to you Hanif.
Back in spring 2012, I was completing the taught part of my MA in Public Relations at the University of Sunderland and was looking forward to a long summer of dissertation writing.
One of my tutors had begun to email the class job and work experience opportunities, but I was set on finishing my dissertation first before I took on the job of finding work. Continue reading
Creative.Digital.Likeable
In Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1987 film Full Metal Jacket the irascible old drill sergeant looks down the long line of new recruits and barks:
“From now on you will speak only when spoken to, and the first and last words out of your filthy sewers will be ‘Sir’. Do you maggots understand that? You will not laugh, you will not cry, you will learn by the numbers and I will teach you.”
Yes, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman was happy to give out some pretty clear instructions and he certainly knew exactly what he wanted from his new starters.
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) it’s rarely so clear cut for most of us when we’re looking to break into the sector or find that new role in PR.
I asked some of the communications people who’ve influenced me the most what key skills and attributes you need to stand out from the crowd and get hired.
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
Make your CIPR vote count
Low turnouts and a general apathy have been the hallmarks of local elections so far this year, so it’s even more important that we make sure we get the right person to lead our professional organisation the CIPR election. Continue reading
a day without OJ - A comms, digital & PR blog by Ross Wigham 
