The blog
#samaritansradar: Appealing for real in the social media apology
Samaritans have suspended their Twitter monitoring app. I initially thought it was a nice idea but I was being naive and the case for rethinking it...
Livestreaming council meetings on YouTube
Broadcasting meetings to residents live on the Internet needn’t cost the earth, as Monmouthshire County Council has demonstrated in recent weeks....
Public sector comms: how to not be evil
(Or, ‘How social media helped me get my heart back’) I’m going to keep this quite short considering this is post about obedience, public sector...
Three ways leaders can get more from social media
If you’re a chief exec or a leader, you’ve probably given Twitter, blogging or even Facebook a go. Maybe you love it. But are you getting the most...
Digital Leaders: I won! A big big enormous thank you
I promise not to harp on about this after today but I WON AN AWARD! I asked people here to vote for me in the local government official category of...
Social media flow chart for comms pros
* 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...
How to respond when rumours start to spread on Facebook
'Rumour Cascades', a joint study from Stanford University and Facebook, provides some fascinating insights that can serve as advice for public...
Digital Leaders 100: on impostor syndrome (also, vote me!)
This is a unusual post from me that: a) asks you a favour (I want your vote!); b) ponders why talented people are so modest. a) The favour I’ve...
Five interesting ways councils are using infographics
This article was first published in the Guardian, you can read the original on their website here. We are in an era where we get our news and...
IC Space: three social media ideas for internal communicators
Here's an article I wrote for the IC Space, sharing three social media tips for internal communicator. You can read the original posting over on the...
Facebook: 10 reasons why councils should embrace it as a tool
Last month, Facebook had its tenth birthday and I wrote a piece for the Guardian on council use of the platform. You can read the original article...
Five lessons social media managers can learn from the police
As a bit of a public sector social media obsessive, I've picked up lots of examples of police use of social media from twitter and the news. Police...
Isn’t it time ALL employees were encouraged to use social media?
I've been banging this drum for years now - organisations should be encouraging all employees to use social media. At a conference I spoke at...
Three ways to get cool stuff done quickly at work
Paul Taylor was kind enough to let me blog on his great site last week - he's been a real inspiration so I'm chuffed he let me post there. He was...
Stand out from the crowd: three things to do on social media
[Photo by Mavis]
Your organisation doesn’t need a social media expert, it needs its experts on social media
[Photo by Pete Prodoehl] I learned the other day that Homebase don’t refer to their employees as ‘staff members’ or ‘colleagues’. They call them...
Police in Granada have Twitter handles on their uniforms – three reasons why it’s a great idea
I noticed on Twitter last week that in Granada* the police officers have the force Twitter handle sewn into their uniforms and it's also on police...
Google Glass could make the world better – is social care going to be revolutionised?
This post will look at five ways Google Glass (and the inevitable other brands’ wearable devices) may change our understanding of how to protect...
Unrestricted staff access to social media – case studies from a local authority
Free use of social media across a whole company – it’s not a concept everybody agrees is productive. But where I work, it’s helping us to achieve...
Seven Twitter mistakes we all have to make
The brilliant Comms2point0 guys let me post on their site earlier this week about messing up on Twitter. I've republished here but if you get a...
Five reasons to like LinkedIn endorsements – why it’s good to endorse your colleagues
I was surprised by how little people think of the fairly new feature in LinkedIn - the ‘endorsement’ - when I tweeted about liking the function...
Interview: six social media ‘dos and don’ts’ and the role of the social media manager
Digital agency Coup Media asked to interview me this month for their blog - they're doing very cool things so I was honoured to chat about how I...
Twitter and Facebook to the rescue during heavy snow
Lots of councils experience just how important social media is when the weather gets extreme. A week or so ago, Monmouthshire people received and...
YouTubing a budget consultation and how a great blogger improved our work
Here's a post about using video to communicate a budget consultation. A bit of experimentation and help from all sorts of people have helped us get...
A message to the secret council officer
I just came across a great piece in the Guardian from an anonymous council officer who talks about how overly cautious social media policies do more...
Seven social media headlines of 2012 and what they teach us
Last week when the awesome Nick Atkin of Halton Housing and I talked to some clued-up housing sector professionals* we looked at social media in...
All Wales public services internet and social media survey 2012
ParticipationCymru do great work to achieve better public engagement in Wales and I was fascinated to read the latest results on how public sector...
Five things that good bloggers do
Blogging can sometimes be a bit of a daunting task. Sometimes it’s helpful to think of some the things good bloggers do so our posts are read a bit...
Organisations need to learn how to party: why digital engagement needs to be more social
I work in digital communications. In the public sector. If there’s one obsession both disciplines share, it’s the quest for ‘engagement’. It’s often...
Lessons in democracy and social media from 112 fifteen-year-olds
This month, our elections team in Monmouthshire Council asked me along to Chepstow Comprehensive to talk to students about how people can get...
How to do Facebook REALLY well in local government (part two)
A year ago in 2011, I blogged about an inspiring guy I work with, 20 year-old youth worker Dan Davies, and how he uses Facebook for young people in...
The future of Klout: how can we use online influence scorers like Klout and Kred?
I’m just going to come straight out with it: I’m pretty interested in online influence scoring tools like Klout and Peerindex. I think they might be...
Finding my voice – why I blog
This month I was honoured to be interviewed for a new book on blogging available now on Kindle. Author of 'Your Blog Voice' the fabulous Philippa...
Influence, not ROI, matters for local government social media
On the whole, UK councils are doing a nice job of using social media - possibly we caught on early because we're used to making the most of tools...
Making mistakes and giving staff access to social media
Some very clever people I've learned lots from over the past few years have let me publish guest posts on their blogs. They are all about social...
Beginners’ tips for the new public sector tweeter
For public sector types starting to tweet, it can be a bit daunting making a start. So here are some basic tips for getting started - these are just...
ROI of social media in public service
I've noticed a bit of Twitter debate on what the return on investment (ROI) is for social media in the public sector. Unfortunately this isn't a...
How to do Facebook REALLY well in local government (part one)
[Photo by Andalib.] Here's a case study from 2011 about how Monmouthshire County Council's youth service has used Facebook to revitalise the way it...
Sometimes we fluff up
Today one of our council twitter accounts made the news for tweeting an inappropriate comment on a serious incident in one of our Monmouthshire...
Social media for social care: Monmouthshire foster carers support each other with Yammer
Our foster care team is always looking at ways to give foster carers information to support them and here’s summary of what we’ve done to shake up...
Social care recruiting using social media – how a council recruited a senior leader using YouTube
Today's the deadline for social care professionals interested in the vacant post of Head of Children’s Services to apply for the post - hopefully...
Thoughts on productivity and being boring
In my work as a communicator I’m always looking for examples of good practice and tips on how to be more effective at work. I’ve been thinking...
‘A Guide to Boring’ by Hilaire Belloc
Below is an essay from collected stories, essays and poems of Hilaire Belloc. I can't find it anywhere else on the internet so I thought I'd type it...
Twitter: more than talking about your breakfast
There are still a load of people out there who dismiss social media sites like Twitter as being where young people LOL and ROFL and talk about their...
Public sector people – do you want a place to talk social media?
Anyone who works in PR has probably come across unflattering assumptions that our job is to cover up bad stuff and pump out good news. We know...
Live Q&As – getting people talking to their council on Twitter
Here’s a summary of how/why we do our live Q&A Twitter session with cabinet members. I would love any suggestions on how we can improve or...
To follow or not to follow on Twitter? Are you part of a community or are you aloof?
One of the hundreds of things that are great about using social media is the capacity to build communities – it’s one of the useful elements I’ve...
Someone’s talking to my organisation using social media – what do I say back?
Here's a guide to responding to customers or stakeholders in social media for corporate use. Essentially, these are just principles that make good...
‘Go away’ and social media
I’m aware this might make me sound like a very grumpy woman, but is there any need for anyone to tell someone to ‘go away’? I heard somebody...
My waffly first blog about Opentech 2010 & being a PR amid techies
As a public relations officer for a Welsh council my role is about, of course promoting and maintaining the reputation of the authority, but our...