by Hel Reynolds | Jan 24, 2018 | Community Management, Facebook, PR, Social Media, Twitter
The subject of dealing with negative social media comments crops up in almost every social media training course I run, so I thought I’d share my simple dos and don’ts to make things easier.So, this is how to handle unfavourable posts people might tweet your...
by Hel Reynolds | Jun 1, 2017 | Blog post
I have written The Comms Manifesto, partly because I want something I can show people when they have the wrong end of the stick about what I do. Modern and professional communications has nothing to do with spin, lies and propaganda. This is my idea of what we do....
by Hel Reynolds | Mar 27, 2017 | Community Management, Facebook, PR, Social Media, Twitter
Communicators often confide in me that they don’t really like using Facebook (and other social media) for their organisations because people will probably post snarky things in the comments section of each post. Especially if they’re communicating potentially...
by Hel Reynolds | May 29, 2014 | Community Management, Facebook, Linkedin, Social Media, Twitter, YouTube
* 09/01/21 Social media flow chart – updated for 2021! When I first posted this chart 7 years ago (and more than 52,000 downloads ago!), I had no idea how popular it would be. People have sent me tweets showing photos of it pinned on office walls, and still...
by Hel Reynolds | Aug 21, 2021 | Blog post, Social media strategy
We all know we need a social media strategy for our organisations. But when you’re a busy communications professional juggling all the work, it’s hard to set aside time for strategising. However, investing effort now to plan your brand’s social media...
by Hel Reynolds | Aug 13, 2021 | Blog post
These three Twitter tips for comms pros may seem simple, but they make a big difference. We comms professionals are often bonkers busy, so we can be tempted to just share a link to a story with the headline as the text of the tweet. But this isn’t the best way...
by Hel Reynolds | Aug 3, 2021 | Comms Cartoons, Comms life, Social Media, Social media strategy
16 Social media interview questions: prepare to land that dream job Here are some social media interview questions – so you can prepare for before you go in and get that dream job. I asked some of my wonderful network of comms and social media professionals...
by Hel Reynolds | Jul 12, 2021 | Comms Cartoons, Comms life, creativity, PR, Productivity, Social Media
If you’ve been through the comms approval process a few times, you’ll know: the pain is real.Getting through layers of people to edit and sign-off a piece of content – whether it’s a video, a design, a press release or other copy – it...
by Hel Reynolds | Jul 8, 2021 | Comms Cartoons, Comms life, creativity, Social Media
The comms unicorn exists!This comms unicorn is often the cartoon people remember me for. I drew it because I can’t count the number of times people have said to me ‘do your comms magic on this’, or ‘sprinkle some stardust on that’. Maybe...
by Hel Reynolds | Jul 8, 2021 | Content of the week, creativity, Social media strategy, Twitter
People don’t expect funny tweets from nonprofit brands. They think serious, solemn communications is all that’s appropriate when our mission is for social good. But as I wrote a few weeks back, humour should be part of your social media strategy, no mater...
by Hel Reynolds | Jul 5, 2021 | Comms Cartoons, Comms life, Social media strategy
Building comms confidence is as important as developing skills, if you really want to get maximum impact. I can often be found researching and testing ways to build confidence in comms professionals, as part of my work delivering social media training. At a CommsHero...
by Hel Reynolds | Jul 1, 2021 | Comms Cartoons, Comms life, Social Media, Social media strategy
Going viral – it’s the dream of attention and love for our brand. But we comms pros are not miracle workers. If the content is important to your colleague/boss/client, but utterly irrelevant to the audience, it won’t fly. You can help them solve...
by Hel Reynolds | Jun 14, 2021 | Social Media, Social media strategy
People tell me that they can’t do humour on social media, or any fun content, because their comms is for an organisation that does important work. “It’s very serious indeed, the tone would be way off if we were to get all jokey” “We...
by Hel Reynolds | Jun 10, 2021 | Community Management, Content of the week, Facebook
Housing associations on Facebook often have a tough time engaging residents.We work with comms pros who manage Facebook pages that are either:• A negative space where people moan about the organisation’s shortcomings• An absolute ghost town, where you struggle...
by Hel Reynolds | Jun 7, 2021 | Content of the week, Instagram
Comms professionals often ask us how to be more authentic on social media. This desire to be more human and less corporate is great, but people often don’t know where to start. Specifically how can you be authentic on social media? I’ll take you through...
by Hel Reynolds | May 11, 2021 | creativity
LIVE WORKSHOP FOR COMMS PROS: TUESDAY, 1ST JUNE AT 12.30PM Based on the science of creativity, we set you tasks to get you feeling happy, productive and inspired. After the success of our #31DaysOfCreativity challenge, we thought it’s time we run another...
by Hel Reynolds | Apr 14, 2021 | Comms Cartoons, Comms life
I’ve heard a few people say that communications is common sense. It’s not. #comms is not common sense pic.twitter.com/QRamhaW8ys — Comms Creatives (@commscreatives) February 24, 2021 It could apply to lots of jobs I suppose, but it’s...
by Hel Reynolds | Apr 8, 2021 | Comms Cartoons, Comms life
Ever wonder how to deal with procrastination? Me too. Here’s how procrastinating shows up in my work: I get stuff done. But this is the only way I know how. Just me? pic.twitter.com/ZoAsTlbpK4 — Hel Reynolds (@HelReynolds) September 25, 2020 Lots of people...
by Hel Reynolds | Feb 26, 2021 | Content of the week, Instagram
Storytelling on social media, like the kind we teach on the Social Media Expert Course,is a special secret weapon for the comms pro. Here’s a brilliant example of it in this fab Instagram post from Herts Police. Herts Police actually have amazing Instagram...
by Hel Reynolds | Feb 19, 2021 | Content of the week, Instagram, Social Media
You can learn a lots from the best church social media, no matter what kind of organisation you work for. I’ve noticed a lot of church-type content in my homefeeds lately, like this sign in a cathedral that got shared all over social media. Social Media Comms...
by Hel Reynolds | Feb 12, 2021 | Content of the week, creativity, Social Media
I expect you have seen the Weetabix and beans tweet this week, and all the brand reactions to it. And maybe you’ve guessed it: content of the week goes to all the fabulous comms pros from all sorts of brands who got stuck in with a little bit of cheeky humour...
by Hel Reynolds | Jan 21, 2021 | Content of the week, Social Media
We admire cool stuff from brands of all sorts. We’ve noticed: local government has been nailing it lately! So content of the week goes to THREE different local authorities doing COVID comms. But it’s not your ordinary safe stuff, this week, we can look at...
by Hel Reynolds | Jan 20, 2021 | creativity, Social Media
Empathy is one of the core elements to getting your social media content and tone of voice spot on. First off, knowing who your audience is: (it’s not everyone!) – then getting their attention by demonstrating that you know just how they feel. When you...
by Hel Reynolds | Jan 15, 2021 | Content of the week, Facebook
Storytelling on Facebook is one of the most effective skills you can have in your comms bag of talents. And I’m getting my best Miley Cyrus singing ready to tell you that our content of the week came in like a Wrekin ball….. Well a Telford and Wrekin...
by Hel Reynolds | Dec 10, 2020 | Content of the week, creativity, Social Media
Winner of content of the week is a Christmas message video: Our Social Media Academy members, Manchester Council, have knocked this out of the park. The Christmas message video is sweet and touching and beautifully animated. What I love most is the text that...
by Hel Reynolds | Dec 4, 2020 | Content of the week, Social Media
This week we’re celebrating a cheeky and fun Facebook post from South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue (SYFR)! If it seems familiar, but you can’t put your finger on it, it’s a parody of the Burger King tweet that went viral a few weeks ago. The Burger...
by Hel Reynolds | Nov 26, 2020 | Content of the week, creativity
I want to talk about social media illustration and cartoons in your comms. It seems relatively rare! We see so many social media graphics that are kind of like mini-posters. Designed in something like Canva, or as requested of your fab graphic design team if...
by Hel Reynolds | Nov 23, 2020 | Comms Cartoons, Comms life, PR, Social Media
I made up a word: “commsplanation’. Have you ever been commsplained? It’s where someone who is less qualified than you, or less experienced, explains something to you. They get hold of the tiniest amount of knowledge, and suddenly they’re...
by Hel Reynolds | Nov 19, 2020 | creativity, Facebook, Social Media
Getting a celebrity to promote your brand has long been a desirable but costly way to get your audience’s attention. Some charities could rely on a patron who believed in their cause, but often celebrities have wanted tens of thousands of pounds for an...
by Hel Reynolds | Oct 29, 2020 | creativity
Creative thinking is not just something we do at work when we’re designing campaigns. We can apply creative thinking to all parts of life and work. I encourage our students in comms teams to spend ten minutes every now and then practicing creative thinking, to...
by Hel Reynolds | Sep 17, 2020 | Social Media
You might imagine that the phrases social media managers hate to hear would be “we’re out of coffee”, or “there’s nowhere to charge your phone”. But there are phrases that strike even more fear into social media managers. To...
by Hel Reynolds | Sep 10, 2020 | Comms Cartoons, Social Media, strategy
I hope you know that you’re not alone if you find your comms strategy dream does not always match the reality. I drew a doodle to illustrate this. If you’re a comms pro, social media manager, or marketing person, you might think, ‘How do other...
by Hel Reynolds | Jun 16, 2020 | Social Media
A day in the life of a social media...
by Hel Reynolds | Mar 25, 2020 | creativity, crisis comms, Social Media
This is a practical guide to maintaining creative social media during the coronavirus crisis. Actually, all of the advice here is relevant at any time, but it’s pretty vital now. There’s loads more I want to tell you, but I’ve brutally edited it down to 5 areas...
by Hel Reynolds | Dec 31, 2019 | creativity, PR, Social media strategy, strategy
As a creative PR and comms trainer, I’m often asked, ‘What is the future of PR and communications?’ It’s a fun and daunting topic to explore. Will tech advances change the industry completely? Will robots steal our jobs? How can we change to future-proof our careers...
by Hel Reynolds | Dec 19, 2019 | Social Media
Developing an interesting and engaging social media tone of voice is a hot topic for lots of us who look after social media for brands. It’s all very well saying we should be less corporate and more human – but what kind of human do we want to be? Because...
by Hel Reynolds | Dec 17, 2019 | Comms life
If you’re anything like me, you do your shopping at the very last minute. And maybe you save time by wrapping your gifts in scrunched tinfoil… just me?!Anyway, if you want to get a little something for your comms colleagues, here are are a few ideas.Make creative...
by Hel Reynolds | Dec 17, 2019 | creativity
Take The 31 Days Of Creativity Challenge Unleash your creative side in under 15 minutes a day Our gift to you: an easy programme with 31 quick tasks that will boost your creativity. A lot of people think creativity is just for people like artists, graphic designers...
by Hel Reynolds | Dec 10, 2019 | Comms life
Lately I’m lucky enough to have got some help with responding to email enquiries and such like. What a luxury. When I was an in-house communications professional, I was awful, rubbish, utterly useless at: Getting back to everyone who emailed me Keeping my inbox tidy...
by Hel Reynolds | Nov 27, 2019 | Comms life
Being a creative comms person is not the easy option. You create something a little different that you think is pretty good – but you don’t know how it will be received by your audiences, & colleagues It’s emotional. Nerve-wracking. Ever since I...
by Hel Reynolds | Nov 6, 2019 | Comms life
I am seriously concerned about the stress faced by the hundreds of comms and PR professionals took part in a survey, and the hundreds of people I train every year. Results of a survey of 442 people working in the industry have revealed this: We are suffering a PR and...
by Hel Reynolds | Oct 24, 2019 | Comms Cartoons, Comms life
Stress is often seen as part of the job of being a communications, PR and marketing professional. But I don’t think the pressure we face is healthy, or even necessary. Sometimes, the people who love their jobs most, are the most stressed out.My focus is on...
by Hel Reynolds | Sep 24, 2019 | Comms life
It’s National Punctuation Day! So I thought I’d share five more-interesting-than-it-sounds trivia about punctuation. Because I KNOW you comms creatives have a sneaky obsession with punctuation. 1. Do you correctly use hyphens and dashes?I have discovered...
by Hel Reynolds | Sep 18, 2019 | Comms life
How much do you let your inner critic hold you back? Maybe it’s a comms and marketing thing, but we seem to be quite hard on ourselves. We view our own work and ideas as harshly as would a sworn enemy. We let the occasional mistake or sloppy piece of work linger...
by Hel Reynolds | Jul 18, 2019 | Blog post
Hey! I have taken on my first permanent member of staff, and guess what? She’s my big sister! Introducing Lel Reynolds: bringing order, ideas and loveliness to The Comms Creative College! I couldn’t think of anyone better to help me grow my business than Lesley (or...
by Hel Reynolds | Mar 11, 2019 | Blog post
I’ve mentioned before on this blog that great comms takes courage – but this is a really quick post to say well done to creative comms professionals out there.Because, our job isn’t as easy as it looks to others. No matter what we say in interviews, doing...
by Hel Reynolds | Dec 12, 2018 | Blog post
I want to share some podcasts to inspire comms, PR and marketing pros, because it’s often hard for us to slot in learning, or CPD of any kind, into our schedules. I listen to about 5 hours of podcasts every week, I learn SO MUCH from them while I get ready to go...
by Hel Reynolds | Nov 2, 2018 | Blog post
On Monday, I won Freelance Social Media Marketer Of The Year at the Social Media Marketing Awards! I’m super chuffed, especially since I was up against some incredibly talented social media professionals. ‘But, hang on’, you might be thinking, ‘You’re a social media...
by Hel Reynolds | Oct 2, 2018 | Social Media, strategy
These days during huge news events, we are all scrolling through social media to find out the latest updates and see photos of what’s going on. As Princess Eugenie’s upcoming wedding is fast-approaching, I think about the local council’s communications team. What a...
by Hel Reynolds | Sep 25, 2018 | strategy
The first time I was asked to get creating a communications strategy, I was super intimidated by the task. It seemed so important and I had no idea what to include until I’d spent about four hours Googling the topic! I don’t see much written about the experience of...
by Hel Reynolds | Sep 4, 2018 | Blog post, creativity, Facebook, PR, Productivity, Social Media
I’m sharing some advice for a career in communications as part of the second #CommsCreative challenge: to blog useful tips for other communicators (read more about the challenge here). I’m now old enough to have enough bags of experience to fill all of...
by Hel Reynolds | Aug 30, 2018 | creativity, Social Media, strategy
We can make a real difference to the impact of our comms by working to a creative communications strategy.The thing about being involved in your organisation’s strategy is, it’s all so serious, and the results can often feel conventional and just STANDARD.But we are...
by Hel Reynolds | Aug 20, 2018 | Blog post, creativity, Innovation, PR
Ever have that feeling when you see something so nifty, and simple that you wish you’d thought of it? That was me when I saw this very creative communications strategy template from Sarah Yates, Broxtowe Borough Council’s brilliant Corporate Communications...
by Hel Reynolds | Jul 25, 2018 | Blog post, creativity, Innovation, Social Media
Have you signed up to the The Creativity Coffee Break newsletter? Sign up now! Every week, I send an email newsletter with comms stories, ideas and tips. It can be easy to get snowed under with work and get into a a habit of doing things the same way. The...
